Nov-dec reads 2019

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been catching up again with my reading and these are the most recent titles I have read. 

Book 41 for this year is Gypsy Jem Mace, a book about one of the early pioneers of boxing who was born in the village of Beeston where I work.

The Beeston Ploughshare is a community run pub that was recently saved by the locals and now has become a thriving hub of the community. The pub actually has a whole wall devoted to the life of Jem Mace, so naturally when I saw this book on our shelves I decided to pick it up and find about the man given such pride of place in the pub in which I work.

Unfortunately however, this book pretty much only skims over his life and only really gives you the bare bones of what is a fascinating story. 

Over the course of his life, Mace meets such famous people as Charles Dickens and a young Wyatt Earp, but this book glosses over those moments and instead, is as much if not more about the author’s journey researching his family’s ancestor as it is about the man himself, which really is a bit of a shame.

The book is good as an overview, but it left me wanting more and overall was something of a disappointment.

2 stars

Likewise Stephen King’s Outsider promises much, but delivers something slightly less. 

When a prominent local baseball coach who trains young teens is arrested in connection with the grisly murder of one of his players, it seems like an open and shut case.

Except the coach has a watertight alibi, and allegedly was on the other side of the country when the murder happened.

As one Detective investigates further, he finds himself drawn into a curious mystery where all is not as it seems...

This was okay, but really not much more than that.

One of the weakest moments comes when a character from King’s own Bill Hodges trilogy turns up in a surprising cameo and overall I wasn’t really impressed.

I didn’t hate the book, but neither did I love it. 

3 stars.

Finally for books 43, 44, and 45, we come to Chuck Wendig’s Star Wars:Aftermath trilogy.

Set after Return of the Jedi, these books bridge the gap between the original trilogy and The Force Awakens and deal with the creation of The First Order in the wake of The Empire’s defeat.

Using established characters such as Han Solo, Leia, and Wedge Antilles as side characters, the books introduce a new cast hunting down ex Imperials as the remnants of The Empire try to deal with and fill the void following the twin deaths of The Emperor and Darth Vader.

Though these books have got a lot of stick from Star Wars fans, who it seems are almost near impossible to please - worse than Doctor Who fans if that’s possible - I really enjoyed these books.

They really do help address how The First Order came to be and do a good job of filling in the gaps between films.

One of the first sets of books to be included as part of Disney’s new canon, replacing all those books written before that now have been resigned to no more than fan fiction much to the chagrin of fans, these three interlinked stories do exactly what they say on the tin with lots of subtle and not so subtle nods to all three trilogies - the original, the prequels, and now J.J. Abrams conclusion to the Skywalker story.

A very strong 4/5 stars