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Welcome to the Octagon
FIGHT CARD WELCOME TO THE OCTAGON
Belfast 2013
Mickey The Rage Rafferty has gone through some tough times, but he's not ready to tap-out just yet. The Belfast widower has to take care of his eight-year-old daughter, Lily. However, his main talent is fighting and the only way he can make enough money off it to support his girl is to take dodgy underground matches paying off in bloodstained cash. Mickey’s trainer, Eddie Smith, doesn't approve. He wants his most promising student to step into the cage as a real martial artist, not as a fool for thugs and gangsters.
With Eddie on the verge of cutting him loose, Mickey is up against the cage – crushed between fast cash and a legitimate career. Mickey has some big decisions to make and some even bigger opponents to face.
The MMA life can be harsh, and it’s never easy ... Welcome To The Octagon.
Praise for WEE ROCKETS
“Gerard Brennan stands apart from the Irish crime fiction crowd with a novel rooted in the reality of today’s Belfast. The author’s prose speaks with a rare authenticity about the pain of growing up in a fractured society, shot through with a black humour that can only come from the streets. Wee Rockets is urban crime fiction for the 21st century, and Brennan is a unique voice among contemporary Irish writers.” – Stuart Neville
“In Wee Rockets Gerard Brennan has written a fast paced, exciting story of West Belfast gang culture; brimming with violence, authentic street dialogue and surprising black humour. This is a great debut novel. Brennan takes us into the heart of Belfast’s chav underclass, in a story that lies somewhere in the intersection between The Warriors, Colin Bateman and Guy Ritchie. This is the first in what undoubtedly will be a stellar literary career.” – Adrian McKinty
"Brennan impressed me hugely with his debut novella The Point, and Wee Rockets has cemented my opinion that he belongs among the top rank of Northern Irish crime writers." – Loitering With Intent
"So assured and mature you’d think this was his eight or ninth book, not one of his first." – Spinetingler Magazine
"This is a tremendous book and I urge you to read it." – I Meant To Read That
Belfast 2013
Mickey The Rage Rafferty has gone through some tough times, but he's not ready to tap-out just yet. The Belfast widower has to take care of his eight-year-old daughter, Lily. However, his main talent is fighting and the only way he can make enough money off it to support his girl is to take dodgy underground matches paying off in bloodstained cash. Mickey’s trainer, Eddie Smith, doesn't approve. He wants his most promising student to step into the cage as a real martial artist, not as a fool for thugs and gangsters.
With Eddie on the verge of cutting him loose, Mickey is up against the cage – crushed between fast cash and a legitimate career. Mickey has some big decisions to make and some even bigger opponents to face.
The MMA life can be harsh, and it’s never easy ... Welcome To The Octagon.
Praise for WEE ROCKETS
“Gerard Brennan stands apart from the Irish crime fiction crowd with a novel rooted in the reality of today’s Belfast. The author’s prose speaks with a rare authenticity about the pain of growing up in a fractured society, shot through with a black humour that can only come from the streets. Wee Rockets is urban crime fiction for the 21st century, and Brennan is a unique voice among contemporary Irish writers.” – Stuart Neville
“In Wee Rockets Gerard Brennan has written a fast paced, exciting story of West Belfast gang culture; brimming with violence, authentic street dialogue and surprising black humour. This is a great debut novel. Brennan takes us into the heart of Belfast’s chav underclass, in a story that lies somewhere in the intersection between The Warriors, Colin Bateman and Guy Ritchie. This is the first in what undoubtedly will be a stellar literary career.” – Adrian McKinty
"Brennan impressed me hugely with his debut novella The Point, and Wee Rockets has cemented my opinion that he belongs among the top rank of Northern Irish crime writers." – Loitering With Intent
"So assured and mature you’d think this was his eight or ninth book, not one of his first." – Spinetingler Magazine
"This is a tremendous book and I urge you to read it." – I Meant To Read That
128 pages, Paperback
First published May 9, 2013
2 people want to read
About the author
Gerard Brennan
37 books44 followersGerard Brennan's latest novel is Disorder, Published by No Alibis Press. His short stories have appeared in a number of anthologies; including three volumes of The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime and Belfast Noir. He co-edited Requiems for the Departed, a collection of crime fiction based on Irish myths which won the 2011 Spinetingler Award for best anthology. His novella, The Point, was published by Pulp Press in October 2011 and won the 2012 Spinetingler Award for best novella. His novels, Wee Rockets and Fireproof, were published as ebooks by Blasted Heath in 2012. He graduated from the MA in creative writing at Queen's University Belfast in 2012 and is currently working on a PhD.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 28, 2014
Mickey ‘The Rage’ Rafferty is a bare knuckle fighter taking on unlicensed, underground fights to feed his family. However his trainer, Eddie Smith, thinks he’s better than that. Enter Swifty, a man with fantastic training facilities and money to spend on getting Mickey to the top – but at a price.
The novella opens with Mickey going toe to toe in an unlicensed bare knuckle fight in a closed down primary school in West Belfast. His opponent - Psycho Sid. Written in the first person the description of the brawl is in-your-face raw, tough and uncompromising – just what I’ve come to expect of the author’s high quality writing.
However, Welcome to the Octagon is significantly more than a book about fisticuffs. Mickey is a single father. He takes on unlicensed fights to feed his eight year old daughter, Lily. His sister-in-law, Bernadette, hates Mickey with a passion and blames him for his wife Angela’s death. To deal with his anger management issues Mickey writes poetry.
To be fair Mickey isn’t equipped to do much more than fight, but he wants a legitimate career, specifically as a cage fighter, but he’s stuck, unable to go higher, forced to go lower, not really believing in himself. When dodgy Swifty turns up Mickey knows there’s something dubious about the arrangement, that the offer is too good to true, but what choice does he have?
Brennan keeps the character list small, key in writing a strong novella. Managing the word count to tell the story in a tight fashion with a very few pages is tough, but achieved with verve. The characters are very strong, the dialogue is sharp and to the point. The first person narrative really helps.
However, the underlying aspect of this novella is, for me, the strong connections the characters have. The love interest is generated by a fiery beauty, Mona. There’s Eddie the trainer, surrogate father to Mickey, Barry Boom Boom Boyd, a surprising friend in need with a hidden side and the touching father / daughter bond where the eight year old girl looks out for Mickey as much as he does for her. The spiky hate-hate relationship with Bernadette makes sense and adds value. I also like the fact that the author doesn’t turn Mickey into some undefeatable hulk, quite the opposite as he’s riddled with doubt in his own abilities, how he’s living his life and treating his friends. His only certainty is he has to look out for his girl.
The writing is, again, very high quality. The descriptive prose is excellent, little descriptive nuggets like:
“Sid wheezed like a stabbed accordion.”
“Swifty laughed. It sounded like a chainsaw chugging to life.”
Great stuff from Gerard Brennan. Again.
**Originally reviewed for Books & Pals blog. May have received free review copy.**
The novella opens with Mickey going toe to toe in an unlicensed bare knuckle fight in a closed down primary school in West Belfast. His opponent - Psycho Sid. Written in the first person the description of the brawl is in-your-face raw, tough and uncompromising – just what I’ve come to expect of the author’s high quality writing.
However, Welcome to the Octagon is significantly more than a book about fisticuffs. Mickey is a single father. He takes on unlicensed fights to feed his eight year old daughter, Lily. His sister-in-law, Bernadette, hates Mickey with a passion and blames him for his wife Angela’s death. To deal with his anger management issues Mickey writes poetry.
To be fair Mickey isn’t equipped to do much more than fight, but he wants a legitimate career, specifically as a cage fighter, but he’s stuck, unable to go higher, forced to go lower, not really believing in himself. When dodgy Swifty turns up Mickey knows there’s something dubious about the arrangement, that the offer is too good to true, but what choice does he have?
Brennan keeps the character list small, key in writing a strong novella. Managing the word count to tell the story in a tight fashion with a very few pages is tough, but achieved with verve. The characters are very strong, the dialogue is sharp and to the point. The first person narrative really helps.
However, the underlying aspect of this novella is, for me, the strong connections the characters have. The love interest is generated by a fiery beauty, Mona. There’s Eddie the trainer, surrogate father to Mickey, Barry Boom Boom Boyd, a surprising friend in need with a hidden side and the touching father / daughter bond where the eight year old girl looks out for Mickey as much as he does for her. The spiky hate-hate relationship with Bernadette makes sense and adds value. I also like the fact that the author doesn’t turn Mickey into some undefeatable hulk, quite the opposite as he’s riddled with doubt in his own abilities, how he’s living his life and treating his friends. His only certainty is he has to look out for his girl.
The writing is, again, very high quality. The descriptive prose is excellent, little descriptive nuggets like:
“Sid wheezed like a stabbed accordion.”
“Swifty laughed. It sounded like a chainsaw chugging to life.”
Great stuff from Gerard Brennan. Again.
**Originally reviewed for Books & Pals blog. May have received free review copy.**
Displaying 1 of 1 review