Ingrid Hall's Blog, page 31
March 6, 2014
A Gordian Web by Guy Butler
A Book Review by Lenora
Guy Butler is a writer, architect and footie fanatic. Born in Blackpool, he later spent much of his youth in Belfast, where his family had long-established roots. He now lives in Florida and is currently working on the third book in the Spider Trilogy.
A Gordian Web by Guy Butler
Set at the end of the war, during the death throes of the Nazi regime, the book finds the hero of the Polish resistance Czeslaw Orlowski – aka The Spider – hiding out with his wife and family in a farm in West Silesia. With the post-war carving up of Europe already begun, The Spider finds that he will soon be living in Russian Territory and in grave danger. With Stalin’s NKGB hard on his heels he must turn to his old friend Malcolm McClain, star footballer from Blackpool FC, for help. Soon a crack team of SAS operatives are put together and a daring rescue set in motion, a mission that will bring The Spider face to face with his mortal enemy and the living symbol of Nazi evil, Hitler, himself.
I have to say that I am a big fan of historical fiction but I have not read a lot of novels set in World War II. I tend to prefer my historical novels replete with ruffs and corsets and skulduggery in ye old manor house. I was therefore, intrigued to see how I would find this much more contemporary novel, and whether the fact that I had not read the first novel in the series would make a difference.
A Gordian Web is broken up into two sections, the ‘hot extraction’ of The Spider, and then the mission. Butler negotiates the intricacies of end of war/pre Iron-Curtain political manoeuvring well. Espionage and covert operations are the name of the game and there is even a tip of the hat to Ian Fleming/James Bond in the character of Commander James Flemming.
The novel places strong emphasis on the importance of the work of resistance groups, particularly the Polish resistance, in the allies eventual success. Growing up, I always remember a mysterious family friend, an elderly lady, who worked for the Polish Resistance against the Nazi’s. She had been forced to flee to the UK to escape Russian persecution, I found it fascinating to read a book on this subject (coincidentally her daughter was called Jadwiga!)
Another intriguing aspect of the novel is the use of conspiracy theories surrounding Hitler’s last days in the bunker but I will say no more for fear of spoilers.
This is undoubtedly a very ‘blokey’ novel, filled with strapping fellows packing heavy-duty weaponry, rushing all over the place efficiently dispatching evil Nazi’s and dodgy Ruski’s as their patriotic duty in a war-ravaged Europe. There are a few female characters, Jadwiga, Czeslaw‘s wife, but she didn’t seem to have a role other than as a cipher of the Spider’s love of home-life/symbol of what he was fighting for etc. There are a couple of more martial females – sniper Sigler and the Nazi female pilot – but they had quite minor roles. Despite this definite preponderance of testosterone fuelled males (or maybe because of it???) I found myself really enjoying the story.
The narrative is fast paced, dramatic, with lots of close shaves and daring rescues. The characters are clearly drawn, but their psychological motives are not overly explored – the author has created a cast of ‘manly types’ who hold to simple truths such as patriotism (as opposed to the Nazi’s nationalism), honour, and courage; Butlers band of brothers fight for their wives and families and for a peaceful Europe. They hail from all corners of the British Isles: Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and represent all classes in society. At times some of the characters are close to caricatures – Billy Fagin the RAF flying ace with his handlebar moustache – for one, and yet it worked. Perhaps this is because in some ways a novel like this sets clearly defined boundaries – you know who the heroes are and who the bad guys are.
It would definitely help to read the novels in sequence, however there was enough of a recap at the beginning of this novel to allow it to stand alone. So, if you are looking for an action packed war novel, brimming with covert ops and dramatic escapes – where men are men and the Nazi’s are going to get what is coming to them, then I think that you will really enjoy this book – I did.
A Gordian Web by Guy Butler is available on Amazon:
Visit Lenora at www.hauntedpalace.co.uk
March 5, 2014
Poetry Competition…It’s not too late!
Hey!
Just a reminder that the closing date for submitting your poems into my Poetry competition, is tomorrow 06th March 2014. I am happy to accept entries up until 22:00 hours (London time)
The winner will be announced on 24th March 2014. In the meantime here is another great entry. This one is by Timothy Rodriguez. To find out more information click here.
Fey face
Blink, and dread and dead
appear the same.
Know the difference by heart
and you recognize why
the Halloween skeleton stands
hourglass still
in his vegetable patch.
Please, for land sake, tend to one
and admit the other;
tend as to a wild vine
admit to your father’s death
as an earth claim,
the surety of his deeds.
Do this and you won’t wait
on wings
as starlings do for that skeleton
to uproot the post.
Leave him to his end,
not your bidden time.
You can no more stop course
than that fey face
its black stare.
Your father will come upon
a silence heard.
The land will call him
as a guest
to rest under his Carolina.
Then time will spread
graybelly clouds
as a comforter.
For now leave him
to his hummingbirds.
The breezeway is best
to watch them sip
the bloodsugar
he hung under the water oak.
Copyright Timothy Rodriguez.
March 3, 2014
Review of Oblivion by Francois Soriano
I have taken the author’s own bio as there is very little information about him online. He describes himself as follows: Artist, writer, traveler (and unrepentant misanthrope, womanizer, hypocrite) Francois Soriano is suffering from creator’s block. Disillusioned with the modern world and unable to create (also possibly bored), Francois begins a series of journal entries, chronicling his thoughts as he wades through a world he feels increasingly disconnected from. What begins as a darkly comic and off the cuff commentary becomes an uncensored confession and self-analysis as Francois explores the relationship between the artist and his creations.
REVIEW OF OBLIVION BY FRANCOIS SORIANO – REVIEWED BY INGRID HALL
This is probably one of the most audacious books that I have read and reviewed so far! First of all the author Francois Soriano does not exist. It is a pen name of an anonymous author and in spite of searching the internet, I haven’t been able to find any clues to their actual identity…
The book is short (Novella length) and is written loosely in diary form. It is an easy read and reasonably well written although I did find several typos and spelling mistakes. The author states very early on that they had no intention of editing this book as they couldn’t be bothered. (Other than whatever errors their Ipad picked up) GRRRRRRRRR. This is such a blatant slap in the face to every single author that has slaved their guts out editing and re-editing that I couldn’t help but howl in a combination of despair and manic laughter!
The story starts in Paris, only it turns out very quickly that it is not really set in Paris, the author is actually writing from America, but thought that it would be quite nice to pretend to be writing from Paris (WTF?)
The author then launches into a rambling, stream of consciousness narrative for the rest of the book. Effectively vomiting his/her thoughts onto a blank page. The reader is treated to everything from the author masturbating (because they can) to a discussion about taking a crap in a toilet in Japan. The concept of just spewing your thoughts as they come out onto a page and then publishing without taking the time to filter with a cursory edit is an intriguing and somewhat tempting one. Oh what fun I could have if I went down that road…I am sure most authors have contemplated doing this but not had the guts to do it. ANYONE in the world could do this…Imagine if everyone did LOL. Indie authors get a rough ride as it is…Imagine if we all just started venting our spleen…Maybe, we should! Maybe I should launch a competition. Anyone up for it???
Anyway, back to the review. Does this really work? Yes because in spite of the fact that it is total self indulgent bollocks, I am still sat here at 06:40 a.m rattling on about it! Did I give a toss about what the author had to say and would I read anymore of their work, No! But then I guess they could just pick another anonymous name, publish the first thoughts that came into their head, and submit it for review….
Oblivion is available from Amazon.
February 28, 2014
Review of Lady Danger – The Warrior Maids of Rivenloch Book One
Hey, just a quickie!
Luna has been very quiet recently as she has been working on her novel, however check out her fab review of Lady Danger – The Warrior Maids of Rivenloch Book One
http://lunaballantyne.wordpress.com
February 27, 2014
Review of Memoirs of a Starving Artist by Kenneth Rosenberg
Kenneth Rosenberg is a Californian writer. He attended UCLA where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature.
After eking out a living for two decades working at a wide variety of jobs, including stints as a journalist, merchant seaman, photographer, diving guide and snowboarding instructor among others. He is also the author of several novels including No Cure for the Broken Hearted, and Natalia.
I don’t know quite where to start with this review because Memoirs of a Starving Artist An Itinerant Writer’s Journey through an Unconventional Life has generated a whole gamut of emotions in me, everything from mild amusement, to enjoyment to consternation to irritation. I suppose the fact that it has provoked such an extreme reaction from me could be construed as an indication of the author’s skill and abilities and although I seriously wanted to throw my kindle across the room at times, I was compelled to read the book through to the end.
The author’s accounts of his global travels were at times very interesting, although some of his European adventures became a little predictable and samey and I did particularly enjoy his account of his second stint as a merchant seaman laying cable in the ocean (His attitude to work annoyed me on his first stint) I was also mawkishly fascinated by his inability/refusal to commit to long term relationships. Unfortunately the author chose not to delve too deeply into personal matters…
Because we are both indie authors, I should have loved this book and maybe in a different life I would have done, however my main issue with the book is the fact that because we definitely come from different social backgrounds, I simply couldn’t identify with or relate to the author and I have serious difficulty picturing this particular man EVER starving and I found his privileged background and throwaway, crass remarks a major barrier. For example at one point he states in all seriousness “…Almost anyone can be a lawyer with enough perseverance….” Not where I come from mister! I genuinely wish I had given this book to Lenora to review as I think she would have connected more naturally with him. She would have definitely been more appreciative of his travels than I was, and I think he may have ended up with a rave review.
Enough of the negativity! Memoirs of a Starving Artist is a well written account of one man’s quest to clock up enough frequent flyer points to set the world on fire with his writing…It is amusing. It is entertaining. Just be aware that depending upon your world view it might also irritate you beyond belief!
You can find the author at:
THE HIGHS AND LOWS OF BEING AN INDIE AUTHOR…
It’s Indie and Proud time and today I am lucky enough to have a guest post over on Grey Wolf’s blog. Check out my post in which I talk about the highs and lows and lows of being an indie author…
http://www.greywolfauthor.com/blog/
I am also hoping to get a book review up later today (After I have done some writing) I don’t know about anyone else but I have been SO busy lately that I just haven’t had time to get into the creative head space that I need to write…
LOVE
INGRID XXX
February 24, 2014
Another Review of The Tunnel Betwixt…
Well, the reviews are starting to come in for The Tunnel Betwixt… and as you would expect on an issue such as Near Death Experiences, they are a little mixed. Here is one that I love from P.D Allen. You can find his review at http://www.amazon.com
REVIEW OF THE TUNNEL BETWIXT…. REVIEWED BY P.D ALLEN
A dramatic account of a near death experience (nde), The Tunnel Betwixt is narrated in first person, by the mind’s eye of the protagonist, a young woman who has suffered a near fatal accident. The novella centers around the journey through the infamous tunnel reported by many nde witnesses. The story opens as our protagonist enters the tunnel, and the action of the book takes place entirely within this realm.
This book could be classified as psychological drama, fantasy adventure, spiritual fiction, or even autobiography, as the author draws heavily on her own nde (even though she says her experience was nothing like this story). The protagonist is a thinly veiled persona of the author, and the reader is never certain if characters from the narrator’s life are drawn directly from the author’s real life family and friends, or to what degree they might be fictionalized.
Through the course of the book, we do find out much about the main character’s life and the accident that led up to the nde. All of this is woven into the fabric of the tunnel the main character traverses, as a necessary part of the journey.
There is a great deal of archetypal mythology woven in here as well, mostly drawn from the Mithraic legends. There are angels and demons, and many who could be one or the other, or neither.
There are also other characters who are sharing this experience with the narrator. Others who are accompanying her through the tunnel in their own nde, and many who traverse the entire tunnel in death, never to return to the life they left behind.
The story is woven through substantial, complex yet prosaic sentences, compiled into solid paragraphs like bricks of fired clay. These bricks are laid by the hand of an experienced mason, building the structure of the tunnel itself, producing an experience so real that the reader could almost knock upon the walls to test their solidity.
If you are curious about nde’s, or if you doubt their veracity, then you owe it to yourself to check out this novella. Whether you walk away a believer, or whether it reinforces your own doubts, it is well worth the experience. I dare say, this is the closest you will come to an nde without actually having one.
February 23, 2014
Poetry Competition…
It’s not too late to enter my poetry competition with your chance to win a CASH prize! We have had some fabulous entries so far and I am going to be publishing some of them on this blog in the run up to the closing date, which is the 06th March 2014. For further details about the competition and how you can enter click here.
First up we have TOO COOL FOR CRUSHING JELLIES by JUSTIN TEW
There is a pleasure to monotony—a comforting flow.
Especially with the inclusion of beauty and a effortless moxie.
I tally my tasks on fingers milked of all their worth.
Knowing that I’m finished, when my eyes close, my checklist is checked, and I can’t think about anything else but . . .
You are the uprising of love when these eyelids close.
My heart is all I hear, because I’m inundated pleasantly with a mirage of you.
I know you’re devising a plan to eliminate jelly beans, with strategically placed donuts.
It’s a never ending battle, that I think you may be winning.
Even though you’re down there and I’m up here, there is no love lost, because it’s your birthday.
Let those thumbs go crazy, let the light strain your eyes, and the bad gaming posture afflict you, but I know you won’t change.
You’ll always be the woman I love.
That I can count on. If I could bear it, I would slay those candies too.
Even though you’re down there and I’m up here, there is no love lost, because it’s your birthday.
Copyright Justin Tew 2013
The Tunnel Betwixt by Ingrid Hall
This is a short and very idiosyncratic novella dealing with the ‘white light at the end of the tunnel’ phenomena.
Anyone familiar with the writings of Ingrid Hall will know to expect the unexpected. The Tunnel sees Julia, the protagonist, in the cosmic waiting room in the sky following a horrific road traffic accident. She then finds herself thrust into a surreal and almost hallucinogenic afterlife scenario where she must come to terms with her own mortality, learn to forgive her reluctant Lucifer (the man who unintentionally mowed her down) and put to rights the wrongs of the past.
Told from the point of view of the main character, Julia, the book also draws on some personal experiences of the author.
At times the almost stream of consciousness style of writing falls into the trap of overlong sentences with occasionally unruly grammar. However, stick with it, this is quirky and unusual take on the subject of what happens in that unknowable gap between life and death.
If you are expecting a nice cosy afterlife, big on fluffy angels and reassurance, you will not find it here. The author portrays a far more Dada-esque, surreal, pagan, ambiguous vision of the afterlife. Hang your preconceptions at the door, sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.
The Tunnel Betwixt by Ingrid Hall is available on Amazon:
The Tunnel Betwixt…: A novella
Kill Daddy by Gerry Aldridge/Gerald Freeman
Gerry Aldridge is an artist, traveler and writer. He spent 10 years traveling the world, including two years traveling in East Africa. You can find out more about Gerry Aldridge and his work at http://geraldfreeman.blogspot.pt/ and http://www.gerryaldridgedesign.dinstudio.se/news_1.html.
Kill Daddy by Gerry Aldridge
Gerry has a lot of emotional baggage, abandoned by his natural father, physically abused by his step-father, emotionally betrayed by his mother, and sexually abused as a child. An emotional crisis as a teenager gives the book its title. Finding himself a creative but dysfunctional adult heading for destruction in a haze of drugs, Gerry decides to travel to East Africa try in a last-ditch attempt to take back his life and come to terms with his past. But will he succeed?
First off, I have to say, when I picked up this book I had no idea what to expect. I think, based on the title, I was expecting this to be a thriller, and maybe a little tongue in cheek (I might just be weird here, but ‘Kill Daddy’ seemed a slightly ‘jaunty’ title – murderous, but jaunty). Once I began reading, my next feeling was OMG, this is going to be heavy going survivor fiction/memoir (although I can see the theraputic value for a survivor to set out their memoirs, and I understand the importance of bringing such experiences out into the open, I also have some reservations as to the genre because of the potentially voyeuristic nature of some readers).
The first section, set in Europe, is quite heavy going, Gerry, the protagonist is very messed up, very angry, and at the end of his tether self medicating with a whole pharmacopeia of drugs in order to deaden the pain from his upbringing; however the book changed its tone as soon as Gerry set off for Africa, and from then on I was totally hooked. His journey through Africa looking for a remote beach hideaway in which to heal himself was utterly captivating. Far from a lone paradise, he found himself becoming part of a family and a community.
Africa, and it’s people were described so well that I felt I was along on the journey with Gerry – Freeman to his African friends Kib and Ote. The exhilaration of the first days of travel, finding ones feet, the risks that pay-off, the risks that don’t, all smacked of an authentic travel memoir. Gerry uses travel to heal himself and to learn to trust other people once again (and accept that sometimes trust can be misplaced – there are some hair raising moments of violence in the book), his experiences help him come to terms with himself and his past. Not quite forgiving his parents (why would he), but certainly accepting that what happened to him need not shape his entire life. His existential meanderings see him philosophising on the meaning of life and how interconnected things can be. The philosophy may not necessarily be ground-breaking or particularly original, but it felt authentic and heartfelt.
The travel section of the book, which is easily the bulk of the work, does not dwell on the abuse suffered by Gerry, so it never felt like a self- indulgent, misery-fest. Gerry comes across as very troubled, but also very likable and ultimately stronger for his experiences. The people he meets, the friendships he forms and the kindness he experiences from people who materially have very little, slowly work their magic on him. Having done a bit of independent travel myself (admittedly, for totally trivial self- indulgent reasons), I can completely understand why he chose this method of therapy – it might sound like a cliché, but you really can ‘find yourself’ when you travel (OK, you can also totally loose yourself when you travel – perhaps that is half of its draw). I have always felt that travel has a way of putting everything in perspective, whilst also providing time and emotional space to reflect on the things that matter.
Even though there were some aspects of the story that were not fully explored, such as the dramatic event that gave the book its title, and his relationship with Becky and Sarah, I don’t feel the book lost that much from the omission. After-all, this is a memoir, the author can include or omit whatever he wants; and after-all when you are a traveler, the nature of the beast is that you will leave some threads untied.
Overall if you are looking for survivor pity-porn you won’t find it here. What you will find is an uplifting memoir of someone who overcame some terrible experiences and took control of his life; that, and a really enjoyable travel memoir to boot! Read it!!
Kill Daddy by Gerry Aldridge/Gerald Freeman is available on Amazon:
