Not so much reading these last couple of months, been a bit otherwise occupied.
Hollow Earth
by John & Carole E. Barrowman
978-1-907-15164-4
Published by Buster, £6.99
Aimed at the slightly younger reader, this is the first
book in a series, a fact which I was not aware of when I started it but at the
end I really did want to know what was going to happen next and I'm eagerly
awaiting the next instalment. An interesting concept about a group of people
who are able to animate artwork, and the resulting notorious power struggles
which inevitably surround a group of gifted people. This shows how the politics
of a group of adults can have dire consequences for the children dragged into
their power struggles. Well worth a read.
Sherlock Holmes & The Titanic Tragedy
by William Seli
978-0-857-68710-4
Titan Books £6.99
Sherlock Holmes & The Adventure of the Perfidious Mariner
by Jonathan Barnes
Audio Book, Staring Nicholas Briggs & Richard Earl
Big Finish Productions.
http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-adventure-of-the-perfidious-mariner-693
Just when you thought there was only ever one going to be one Titanic
Holmes adventure, they arrive in pairs. My first Holmes and the
Titantic encounter came with the Big Finish audio book 'Sherlock Holmes and The
Adventure of the Perfidious Mariner', here Holmes does not actually get on
board the ship but instead the owner of the White Star line comes seeking his
help after the tragedy. This story takes the form of a suspected supernatural
entity plaguing his life, and with Holmes setting out to solve the mystery.
These stories work well for Holmes and this is a very enjoyable original
Sherlock Holmes story. 
The second encounter actually put Holmes on board to guard secret government documents, although it was entertaining it did smack too much of trying to copy previous original Holmes adventures, you'll see what I mean if you read it. I don't want to give too much plot away but there weren't really many surprises you hadn't already began to suspect just by certain players being introduced to the plot. The book also has to handle the 'how do we get Holmes off the sinking ship' scenario which in their CD extras Big Finish said they wanted to avoid because it wouldn't work satisfactorily for the Holmes and Watson characters and I think I agree with them.
The Leaping
by Tom Fletcher
978-1-84916-135-0
Quercus £7.99
I selected this as I fancied a werewolf story, but the
wolf antics didn't really occur until quite late in the book. The story is
presented from two first person scenarios, Jack and Francis, alternating
between the two. They work in a call centre and the first part of the book is
really about how crap their lives are and their jobs are. There also seems to
be some attempt at demanding pity for call centre workers - I find myself
wondering if the author ever worked in one. Although a long time is taken
setting up the characters, we can believe in them even if we are not one hundred
percent sympathetic to them.
The promise of mystery that is set around fell House only
starts to occur in the second part of the story. For me it was a bit slow to
start and the end seemed to try and pack in too much. I would have liked the
mystery to have started sooner and have interwoven a bit more into the earlier
part of the story. The title of the book 'The Leaping' again only comes into
play at the very end and felt like a bit of an anticlimax.
The Sookie Stackhouse Novels (True Blood)
Dead to the World
by Charlaine Harris
978-0-575-08942-6
Orion Books £6.99
As I've said previously I am only going to read the
Sookie books after I've seen the True Blood series that gets made based on the
book. Series 4 is based on 'Dead to the World', where Jason vanishes at the
start and returns at the end, almost as if he has been written out for the sake
of it. In the series where we follow more than just Sookie's POV we know what
has happened to him as we experience his misery and suffering.
This one introduces the witches, and we are told they are
really nasty, being shifter witches stoked up on vamp blood, intent on taking
over the businesses of the supernatural residents of Bon Temps and surrounding
areas. There is no mention of the history of witch burning, the possession and
depth that was written into the tv series. Instead these witches really seem a
pale imitation of their TV counterparts.
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Thanks DJK.