THE SECOND SON - Book review

THE SECOND SON

Charles Sailor

Published in 1979, it has taken me forty years to get round to reading this challenging and excellent novel on my bookshelf.

Friendly, helpful charitable construction worker Joseph Turner is working on a 24-storey skyscraper when he saves the life of a friend, but in so doing falls to certain death. Miraculously, he survives the fall and thereafter he has to come to terms with his new-found powers, including his ability to heal. Within a short while he has an immense following. Joe realises that he cannot single-handedly help everyone. He asks people to find their own inner strength and to help themselves. A mixed message, at best.

The Pope seems to accept the possibility that Joe might be a – or the – Messiah, but others in Rome are not so sure. Powers in Rome and in Washington DC see Joe as a threat and a hired killer is despatched to deal with Joe.

A riveting story (no pun intended) that poses the question: What would we do if a new Messiah did walk among us? There are several poignant moments and heartfelt grief. Joe made a difference. Maybe that is all any of us can ask.

It was optioned as a movie but it was never made.

LAST LIGHT - Book review

 LAST LIGHT

Alex Scarrow

A disaster novel published in 2007. It begins with a mystery in a New York hotel in 1999 and then moves to ‘the present’ where within the space of a week modern life as we know it crumbles. 

Andy Sutherland is a civilian engineer in Iraq when the oil wells in the Middle East are destroyed. Virtually simultaneously, others round the world are hit. Back in London, Andy’s wife Jenny is in Manchester for a job interview while their daughter Leona is at university and their young son Jacob is at boarding school. Andy swiftly realises that the concerted attacks on the oil supply are the beginning of a massive global disaster He warns his family to get together and stockpile food and water before people realise what is about to hit them.

Scarrow manages to keep the pages turning, also introducing an added threat: his email to Leona was intercepted and links back to that time in the NY hotel… Leona had recognised someone then which now makes her a high risk for some very powerful people.

The chapters are short – all ninety of them – and inject pace and anticipation as law and order dissolves and society disintegrates. Pitched against rebel forces, Andy and his small contingent have to fight their way out of Iraq. He desperately needs to get to his family, while his family are left to contend with looters and rioters. There are many tense moments for all involved.

There’s a lot of swearing, probably appropriate, considering the individuals and the dilemma they face: a global oil shortage. There’s also a conspiracy involved, similar to that posited in the film Batman Begins (2005). Since the book was written, the UK’s reliance on imported oil has diminished slightly; wind turbine power is proving a good alternative and at least the US has since become self-sufficient with its massive shale oil business…

There is a sequel, After Light (2011).

THE LAST DAY - Book review

THE LAST DAY

Andrew Hunter Murray

 

Published in 2020, this is labelled as ‘fiction’ rather than ‘science fiction’.

It’s 2059 and the earth has stopped rotating. The Slow began some thirty years earlier. So a good half of the planet is in perpetual night, like the dark side of the moon, with all that that entails. One half an endless frozen night, the other unabated burning sun. Crop failures and mass emigration are just two issues. Britain was fortunate to be in the constant sunlight and was apparently undergoing the Great British Resurgence, according to the authorities. 

The heroine, Ellen Hopper is a scientist who is called back to London by a dying associate, Thorne. Here, she learns that everything is not what it seems; there are secrets that people are willing to kill over. She enlists the help of her ex, David, a journalist.

The story moves along at a fair pace as they track and trace clues to the Big Revelation.  I don’t know why the author persisted in referring to her as Hopper rather than Ellen when he refers to David by his name, but it grated for me.

The conclusion suggests the possibility of a sequel to further explore Murray’s changed world.

It was okay, but don’t believe the hype.

LOCKDOWN - Book review

LOCKDOWN

Peter May

 

Originally written in 2005 but only published in 2020, this is a crime novel set during a virus pandemic, when the streets of London are in Lockdown under martial law.

Detective Inspector Jack MacNeil has only a day to go in the job, then he retires. He is sent to investigate the death of a child whose bones are discovered during the building of a temporary hospital.

Someone is trying to hamper his investigations, however, and more people are needlessly dying.

Jack’s helper is wheelchair bound Amy, who works on the facial reconstruction of the dead child; she’s a formidable character, someone to root for. She did bring to mind the Silent Witness character Clarissa, who also happens to be a forensic specialist in a wheelchair. 

Grim in parts, as you’d expect.

DRIFTER'S REVENGE - Book review

DRIFTER’S VENGEANCE

Max Brand

 

Originally published 1932, this edition 1974. A slightly off-beat melodrama with humour about the likeable character of Speedy, a drifter who becomes the deputy sheriff of lawless Sunday Slough.

Speedy lives up to his name and uses unarmed combat to good effect against the bad guys, in effect kung fu many years before the TV series popularised that martial art.

The usual tale about claim jumping, robbery and crooked lawmen, enlivened by the unique character, Speedy. Nobody proves a match for him.

A fast-paced yarn from a bygone era.

THE FAR ARENA - Book review

THE FAR ARENA

Richard ben Sapir

 

Published in 1979. An oil drill strikes into human flesh eight metres down in the Arctic ice. Against all the odds, a naked man  is dug out, completely preserved. The Texan Dr Lewellyn McCardle shipped the block of ice to Soviet Dr Semyon Fyodor Petrovitch, an expert in cryogenics. Petrovitch begins to thaw out the human specimen and discovers signs of EEG activity…

Interspersed with the medical aspects we delve into the mind of a renowned gladiator, Lucius Aurelius Eugenianus, who realises he has cheated death.

Eventually, the gladiator is brought to full recovery, but nobody can understand his ancient speech. They go to a convent and seek the help of Sister Olav, an expert.  They go to great lengths to ease the gladiator into the twentieth century and while they do so the relationship dynamic between this foursome is fraught, especially since the gladiator’s scruples are two thousand years old…

Without any friends or family, with the world so drastically changed, where can the Roman go? To Rome, perhaps, his old home. Where fresh torment awaits him.

Plenty of research is evident, plus a Roman glossary, and a lot of ethical questions are raised. Impressive.