Friday 23 September 2011

And the list goes on.....

Have thought of a few more entries to add to my 1001 List Of Books And Authors You Need To Read Before You Die.

Number (60) is The Night Pirates by Peter Harris and Deborah Allwright; a children's book all about a little boy who is taken away on a midnight adventure by rough, tough little girl Pirates! These Pirates are stealing the front of the little boy's house as a disguise for their ship when Tom asks to come along and what follows is a simple but incredibly fun tale that has quickly become one of my favourite books to read Emilie at bedtime!

Numbers (61),(62 and (63) are the novels All The Rage, Hosts and The Haunted Air all by F.Paul Wilson which form part of the Repairman Jack series that ties in with his Adversary Cycle that began with The Keep.

Repairman Jack is a man who fixes things. Not appliances, situations. Much like The A-Team, if you have a problem you need sorting and if you can find him, then Jack can deliver! He first appeared in The Tomb, the second of Wilson's Adversary novels but here returns in his own series that continues the story around the events in his other series.....

The basic premise of The Adversary Cycle is thus: there are two supreme forces at work in the universe. One is ambivalent to us and pays us scant notice, considering us as no more than pawns in a colossal game of Chess. The Other is pure Evil and sees us as a weapon to use against ourselves! It takes great pleasure in setting ourselves up against each other and watching us all die and the only reason its opposing number wants to stop this is because sentient life in the Universe is rare and that if we destroy ourselves, then its power will be weakened giving The Adversary the upper hand.

Jack became caught up in this battle when he meddled in matters in the novel, The Tomb, and now is being fronted as some kind of champion against the forces of The Adversary. Each of the successive stories after Legacies, the first independent RJ novel, follow Jack as he tries in vain to fight his destiny as events gather towards one big final battle which takes place in the last Adversary book, Nightworld. I have not read this book yet as I want to read all the Repairman Jack books first but this is a good thing because it was published previously and is now being edited to fit in better with the Repairman novels. The best way to describe these two series is to compare them to Stephen King's Dark Tower series. Although the main events occur in The Adversary Cycle, much as with King, Wilson incorporates lots of minor events into the mix that help contribute to the bigger plot and much of these take place in the Repairman Jack series.

All The Rage, Hosts and The Haunted Air are the best three of the four novels in this series I have read. To my mind, they are much better written and more enjoyable than The Adversary novels though I have only read The Keep, The Tomb, The Touch and Reborn in that series and still have Reprisal and the afore-mentioned Nightworld to read.  These, however, I am waiting to read until I have completed the Repairman books.....

Until laters, see ya

Love Sparky xxxx

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