To The Last Page

In The Last Child, we have some pretty straightforward bestseller blockbuster thriller material, competently done, but with little flair or originality. The story is well-written, but there’s nothing new in the missing child storyline that shows up the fractures in family relationships and in the wider community. Family situations and characterisation are standard issue, broken families, abusive partners, a police officer who lets personal issues get in the way of duty, and duty in the way of his own family problems. No-one could complain however that it’s not readable or that there are not enough incidents, personal conflicts and rolling developments (and a few too many coincidences for it to be totally credible), and it will certainly hold you through to the end. A good, exciting, thrilling read, but we’ve seen it all before.

The third collection of Trondheim’s mini-autobiographical Petit Riens sketches from life strips sees the series continuing to dip, the observations becoming more matter-of-fact than outright funny-absurd. It’s not that Trondheim’s life has become less interesting – the rightful acclaim of his work, his Grand Prize success at Angoulême a few years back and presidency at the festival the following year, all seeing Lewis propelled into recognition as a cartoonist of worldwide fame, leading to invitations to events all over the world. This provides plenty of opportunity for new and bizarre observations in the one-page strips in this latest collection, as do his characteristic lack of nerve in dealing with new situations and his funny observations about his growing up children. There’s no softening of his self-critical or observation facilities then and the artwork is as strong and evocative as ever with excellent colouration, but something is missing. The series lacks the rough fluidity an...

Even as someone who considers J.G. Ballard as one of my favourite authors, and having over the years read all his works of fiction and short story collections, I didn’t think I would enjoy Miracles of Life quite so much as Ballard’s semi-fictional autobiographies Empire of the Sun and The Kindness of Women. Indeed the author’s depictions of his early life in Shanghai and his imprisonment in a Japanese prison camp followed by his attempts to comprehend the experience for the rest of his life through his fiction is rather more straightforward and less novelistically written in this autobiography. However, there are still extraordinary revelations and moments of brilliance and poignancy in Miracles of Life , the kind of insightfulness that made Ballard perhaps the greatest chronicler of the neuroses of the 20th century, and as this work shows, perhaps even a personification of them in himself.

Alan's War is something pretty unique in the world of comics or autobiography and something very special indeed. Emmanuel Guibert illustrates the memoirs of a regular American soldier, Alan Cope, recounting in his own words his ordinary experiences during the Second World War while shipped off to Europe, where he would eventually settle down to live. It's very much the perspective of an ordinary soldier, just doing his duty, but in the process learning a lot about himself. The graphic autobiography continues after the war, the friendships he makes, and the friends he loses on the way extending a learning experience across a whole lifetime.  The overall impact of this reflection and relating of an ordinary life becomes something extraordinary, Guibert's expressive and beautiful artwork, drawn from references and from imagination, bringing it all together and making it come alive. FirstSecond deserve credit for making great work like this available to English readers. Publis...

The first book of a lengthy trilogy that promises to be an imaginative, entertaining, educational and thorough retelling of the Arthurian legend covers the origins of Artorex from the age of 14, brought up at the Villa Poppinidii in Aquae Sulis (Bath) by Roman foster parents up to his first encounter with the High King Uther Pendragon, his battles with the barbarian Saxon hordes, his ascension to the throne and his coming to an awareness of the destiny that has to some extent already been mapped-out for him. I'm in no position to question the historical accuracy of the novel - the work has clearly been thoroughly and academically researched - but it as a work of imaginative fiction, the first part of the Dragon's Child Trilogy is tremendously stirring stuff and rather well-written, taking time to establish the historical context of the period, considering the backgrounds of the personalities and making those characters come vividly to life through a number of personal challenge...

A young man of a less than solid background is dismissed as a pretender for the hand of a rich young lady, Yolande. Balthazar, a teacher of “practical philosophy” for young ladies, dabbling also in wine tasting and dance lessons, has no money, no title, no respectable profession, no home worthy of the name, and his lineage is somewhat vague. Determined to meet the demands of his beloved’s father, Balthazar no sooner returns home than he finds a letter indicating not only that he has come into the inheritance of a small fortune, but also a grand and noble title from an unknown father. But, it transpires that there is not one, but two letters and not one or even two fathers claiming parentage, but no less than four! For a young man believing wholeheartedly in the down-to-earth doctrine of “practical philosophy” that he teaches, such an adventurous background doesn’t sit comfortably with Balthazar, and blinds him also to the loving devotion of his young secretary Coloquinte. Leblanc plays...

In the first book of a proposed Strange Trilogy, Elliott Hall creates a dystopian vision of the USA under the watchful eye of a Christian fundamentalist authority, while at the same time presenting an intriguing and genuinely scary look into the mindset of contemporary America. It’s also a cracking neo-noir P.I. novel. In this alternate/near-future vision of America, the nuclear destruction of the city of Houston and, in retaliation, an obliterated Tehran has pushed America over the edge into the abyss. The President has created a Council of Elders, a committee of 24 leaders from the religious right with the power and legislative weight to guide the morale and the morals of the American nation through these difficult times. America has become a terrifying place for anyone who doesn’t adhere to traditional Christian values, but things are about to get much worse. Felix Strange has had first-hand experience of a newfound American spirit that has taken God’s message to a disastrous Crusad...