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Wanted - Tim Arnot
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You can't type today, can you Simon?Congrats Tim!
Cool :)Happy to answer any questions that don't involve future spoilers.
Is an Ignite recommandation, one where you are ordered to read rather than encouraged?Well done Tim.
Halfway through this atm. Enjoying it
David wrote: "Is an Ignite recommandation, one where you are ordered to read rather than encouraged?Well done Tim."
Cheeky young punk!
I was away yesterday so I'd better let people know why I chose this when Simon asked me for a recommendation. As you'll know if you follow my blog, I've read some fantastic books just lately but this one is one that I've followed since Tim joined the forum. He had a short story featuring some of its characters in our anthology A Splendid Salmagundi and thus started his author page.
A number of people from this forum were early readers of the book, including me, and I've seen the idea develop. We also had an early chance to see the choice of cover.
The story features young adults but the themes it considers take it far beyond just YA interest. The scene is post 'The Collapse' and is set far enough after those events to allow for a new and reasonably stable order to have developed, with a kind of medieval technology. Electricity is forbidden (unless you're a Kingsman).
It's remarkable how well a 'mature' gentleman has got into the mind of the 16 year old heroine Flick. He has her spot on. There's also the enigmatic Kingsman Jessica Dixon - another great character. The only one I feel to be rather distant is Shea, the young man in the story. I find him a little 'unreachable' but I wonder if (without spoilers) Tim will tell me that much more will be revealed which might throw light on his rather distant (to me) demeanour?
I think this is a really well-written and intriguing book and I now that I shall be first with my clicky finger when book 2 is released! I hope a few people give it a try.
Lol, I don't think anyone's called me mature before!The story I wrote for Salmagundi was really an exploration of an -- at the time -- very minor character that I'd just invented for a specific scene. This was Jessica Dixon, the red-haired Kingsman that appears to give Adam a fright in the museum.
Originally that was all she did. She didn't appear later or have anything else to do in the story. Then I wrote "Socko's First Day" for Salmagundi.
Socko is a wet-behind-the-ears kid who's just joined the Oxford city watch, and is sent down to Kingsman HQ on his first day as a bit of a prank. Anyhow, last summer I has a couple of days filming at the Exam Schools in the High Street (it's a gorgeous old building, where the Oxford studes go to sit their exams) and got to have a good poke around in the nooks and crannies, and thought it would make a great HQ for the Kingsmen (with some mods here and there)
Anyhow, Jessica got some back story, and that's when I came up with "the P word" (she doesn't really like being called the P word), but that kind of gives her a dual identity, and a bit of a secret (if you've read Salmagundy, you'll already know what it is). And now I'm intrigued to find out where that can go, and this leads to her getting a much expanded role in Wanted.
Book 2 opens up a bit more to the wider world, and there's a new POV character, Paresh, who I'm quite excited about.
Ooooh, if you're excited, so am I!So - anyone else already read this? Anyone fancy it? Pushy beggar aren't I?
It's on my holiday to read list.
Already read and rated it!!! ;-PWell done, Tim!
I love the way the thread is called Wanted - Tim Arnot. I want it to say 'Dead or Alive!' I'm a meanie!
Ahhh... don't come here looking for sympathy!
I remember Tim's story from the Salmagundi so look forward to reading this one and joining in the discussion!
I won't be able to read it in time for this discussion but will read and review at some point in the not too distant future :~)
I read the Salmagundi story too and was swept away by how atmospheric it was; the settings were a delight to read, and I loved the characters.I also had a sneaky peeky at a scene from the book too, so I know it's going to be a great tale.
I have Wanted on my Kindle and is next in line.
Oh, and I'm lucky enough to have a genuine Flick Special - a flint arrowhead!
A mate, who actually works at the Exam Schools in Oxford was completely unaware that I'd used it for a location, and he said to me after reading Salmagundy, "Kingsman HQ... I know that place: I work there!" :)
I'm not surprised, Tim. The descriptive pieces were stunning, especially so after I'd seen some of the pics you'd taken.That seems like decades ago doesn't it.
Lucky monkey - a flint arrowhead. One of our archaeology group found one with a broken tip at a site where they were made. Heartbreaking, to break it at that stage. The lecturer swooped on it like a crow on roadkill though, and he never saw it again.
Absolutely authentic. Hand knapped from genuine stone by Flick herself. Finest chert. Cut me own throat with it. Possibly. ;)
I did a flint knapping course last year. A strangely satisfying activity. Probably the thing that has surprised me most is the smell of burning produced.
Get some good sparks of a bit of flint... :)
I suppose so, yes. Sitting knapping in bright sunshine I only notice the burning smell, but in the dark I'd probably be seeing a shower of sparks.
Terrific book Tim!When will the discussion start?
Thank you Sarah, that's very kind of you to say so. :)Discussion: fire away...
Are we okay to start talking about it yet???Who was your favourite character???
Mine was Adam Carter.
Interesting thing about Adam: people have been saying either that he was their favourite character, or that they just didn't get him at all. Nothing in between...
My favourite was Flick, I loved that she hunted and made arrows and was never scared to take a risk yet she also had a feminine side.I think what has remained with me about the book was that although I was reading about the future I got a sense of history, place and atmosphere that I could lose myself in. I often feel this when I read Victorian novels but don't recall ever having felt this when reading about the future before.
Not sure I should say who my favourite is... the others might sulk!
Oh, they would. I love Flick - I think she's the girl we all wanted to be when we were younger - but I think Jessica, first met in the Salmagundi story, is my favourite. She's interesting, powerful, enigmatic and I really want to know what happens to her!
I haven't read the latest version yet, but from the Beta read, I really looked forward to getting back to Flick when she wasn't in the present chapter. I really enjoyed the dynamic of the caravan family though. Are they still in the final version?
(blows dust off)I'm sure this is all about to get consigned to the bin of antiquity, but there are two special incentives to buy and read Wanted. Firstly of course is the smashing new cover, and secondly, for the *whole month* of August, it's on special offer, priced at just £1.99, that's less than a cup of coffee, and I'm cutting my own throat...
Can I be so bold as to add a third reason?It's brilliant!
And intriguingly leads you to demanding the next in the series! That's 4 reasons!
ooooh! this looks great am of to make use of my new ebook reading freedom by buying this book!
Got another wonderful 4* review here on Goodreads:To me, the best part of this book was definitely the world-building, into which Tim has put a lot of thought and detail, and which was very engaging to explore. I'm looking forward to discovering more about it in the next in the series. The setting of a real, future, Oxfordshire, is also great, letting the imagination run riot by superimposing this bleak future onto a well-known landscape, rather than setting it on an entirely fictional Earth, or other world.
read the full review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
just realised i never came back to this thread. I loved this book. wonderful characters a fast paced plot set in a wonderfully realised setting. have reviewed this on Amazon.
I agree much of its appeal was in the believable non technological world Tim created. His characters are fantastic too. The only one I couldn't get a handle on was Shea. I kept wondering what a fantastic lass like Flick saw in him. She's probably more perspicacious than I am!
An Ignite recommandation so it must be good
Wanted - Tim Arnot