The Book Zone: mythology

Showing posts with label mythology. Show all posts

Sunday, 5 July 2015

Review: The D'Evil Diaries by Tatum Flyyn

Twelve-year-old Jinx is hopeless at being evil. Which is a bit of a problem when you're Lucifer's youngest son. But when Jinx runs away from Pandemonium, the walled city he's lived in all his life, he bumps into dead girl Tommy - who's been sent to Hell for accidentally feeding her nasty uncle to a circus lion - and unearths a conspiracy that could up-end the entire underworld.

Cue shenanigans involving carnivorous carousel horses, death-trap-riddled libraries and hungry quicksand. Now the fate of the realm rests in the hands of its most unlikely demon and a girl who shouldn't be in Hell at all...

The concept of Satan having a hapless son is not a particularly new one, but never has it been as funny as it is in Tatum Flynn's The D'Evil Diaries. In fact, Adam Sandler would have been much better off handing over the co-writing duties on the truly dire Little Nicky to Tatum Flynn - it would have been a hell of a lot funnier if he had (pun intended)!

Jinx D'Evil, the main character of this book, is the son of Lucifer, but he is a pretty poor excuse for a demon. Only he could make the monstrous Nemesis Tree in The Poison Gardens blossom with beautiful pink (and totally harmless) flowers. And the less said about his flying abilities the better. His poor father has tried everything he can think of to make his son a better demon, including sending to various points in Earth's history to learn from some of the planets most despicable villains. But all Jinx seems to do is make them good. With his self-esteem at an all-time low, and before he gets sent to a military academy, Jinx does what many other children his age have thought about doing - he runs away from home, and stumbles straight into a conspiracy that threatens the whole of hell, and possibly heaven as well.

Jinx is aided and abetted in his adventures by Tommy, a young girl who has somehow ended up in hell by mistake (even Lucifer has morals - he doesn't accept children into his realm). Tommy is everything that Jinx isn't - kick-ass brave, clever, resourceful - and the relationship that develops between them as the learn to trust each other (or not, as the case may be at times) is both hilarious and heartwarming.

The D'Evil Diaries is comedy adventure at its best, and it will have children giggling all the way from page one to the final chapter. It is great to see that the author does not patronise her readers - she has obviously done her research and/or knows her mythology and classical depictions of hell very well, and she uses these to great effect without ever dumbing things down for her young audience. Where some funny books for this age group can fall foul of too much emphasis on laughs and not enough on plot, The D'Evil Diaries strikes that perfect balance between the two.

The hilarious and irreverent manner with which the author treats her theology-inspired subject will no doubt have those 'good'(?) people of the Westboro Baptist Church rattling off fire-and-brimstone hate emails by their hundreds, but I'm sure that Ms Flynn can give as good as she gets if she so chooses. She should team up with the brilliant Barry Hutchison, and other authors who have received such missives and find someone to publish an anthology of them. I think it would make a great Christmas stocking filler!

My thanks go to the fab people at Orchard Books for sending me a copy of the book to read.

Wednesday, 29 April 2015

Countdown To 7th May: What I Learned Writing for Comics by Jason Rohan

I am really excited to be taking part in this year's Countdown to 7th May blog tour, doing my bit to celebrate all the fab YA and middle grade books that are scheduled to be published on 7th May. Today it is an absolute pleasure to welcome Jason Rohan, the author of the totally brilliant The Sword of Kuromori, and its sequel The Shield of Kuromori (due out on 7th May).

What I learned writing for comics by Jason Rohan

When I first tried out for a career in publishing, after finishing university with an English degree, the fact that I had prior experience working at Marvel Comics went against me. This is 25 years ago when comics were still seen as a juvenile art form unworthy of serious consideration - in the English-speaking world, at least. Nowadays, however, with the massive success of super-heroes on the big screen, the opposite has occurred and comics writers are suddenly a hot property. My timing has never been great!

For almost all of us, our first experiences of reading - and of being read to - came via picture books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Gruffalo or The Tiger Who Came To Tea, so the idea of marrying words with pictures is deeply held. Later, readers move on to full text novels but still turn to film and television to get their fix of entertainment in the form of words and pictures.

If you've never seen a comic book script before, here's an example:

And here's a screenplay extract:

Could you spot the difference? Exactly. Words and pictures: one script for an artist and one script for a film crew but essentially the same. Both are visual storytelling media, only in one the pictures move and in the other they don't.

When I worked at Marvel, back in the 80's, I was lucky enough to be assigned to legendary editor Mark Gruenwald who taught me so much about writing in general and comics in particular. The parallels with film writing were driven home to me when he recommended a book called Screenplay by Syd Field. At first, I didn't understand why a comic writer would need to know about screenwriting but I did as I was told, read it, and it all fell into place. To this day, even as a novelist, I still write with a visual, comic-book style and film remains an important reference.

As you can imagine, my time at Marvel was a fantastic apprenticeship and I came away with many valuable lessons and insights into the writing process, both for comics and for novels, some of which I would like to share here.

The first thing I learned was the importance of the splash page. The first script I turned in had an establishing shot of London as the opening scene and Mark said to me, "Why do you think it's called a splash page?" Duh. I knew enough to know that the splash page is page one of the comic, traditionally a full page, single panel spread, which holds the title and credit box. As Mark explained, it's also supposed to sell the story. A kid picks a comic off the rack, intrigued by the cover. She turns to page one and expects to be wowed. No wow, no sale. Hence, the splash page has to sell the comic.

When it comes to writing novels, the lesson is still valid in that a reader will look at a cover, read the blurb and maybe turn to the first page. That's the bait. You now have one line to dangle the hook, one paragraph to set that hook and, if you're lucky, one page to start reeling in. I also recall the words of famed movie producer Samuel Goldwyn who said, "We want a story that starts out with an earthquake and works its way up to a climax." Since I write action-adventure stories, my approach is to start with the literary equivalent of a pre-credit sequence to set the stage and introduce the characters, before settling in to the main plot.

The second thing I learned is to always know your ending and where you're going next. Comic books were typically 23 pages of story, with soap opera style series continuity. A writer would usually write four series simultaneously so that's 48 issues a year, or one script per week. In that environment, multi-episode story arcs had to be mapped out well in advance and different editors would co-ordinate different titles months ahead to ensure that crossover stories and tie-ins happened at the right time and that the repercussions were felt across the title range. You see this happening with the current slate of Marvel movies and this concept of a shared universe was one of the ideas that historically set Marvel apart.

Another key lesson for me was dealing with the flabby middle. I tend to think in terms of three act structures and I always know my ending and my beginning. In comic book terms, this is the equivalent of a five page set up, a twelve page middle, and a six page finish. Film-wise, it's 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 30 minutes, for a two hour film. However, when writing a book, I find it a lot easier to come up with a strong hook and a climactic ending than to sustain the mid-section that bridges the two and I used to really struggle with this, getting bogged down and giving up. I finally cracked this particular nut by falling back on my comics and script training and I started to brainstorm dialogue, scribbling down the key character interactions which drive the story from inciting incident to pivot point two. By charting the journey via discourse alone, I was able to hack a path through the jungle and it was much easier to then go back and add in the narrative, a bit like listening to a TV show from another room - you can follow the story well enough even though you can't see the action.

The final thing I learned was the importance of delivering to deadlines and the need for discipline, organisation and professionalism. There is no allowance for Writer's Block when you're scripting four titles a month. While I understand the romantic appeal of waiting for the Muse to visit and sprinkle magical inspiration upon the writer's brow, the reality is that writers write. You plan ahead and hone your creative muscles. Yes, it isn't glamorous but journalists have to write to order daily, and if it was good enough for Shakespeare and Dickens, then I figure it's the least I can do.

As a closing thought, a novelist has to paint pictures with words, to bring images to life in the mind’s eye of the reader. However, a comic book writer can do the opposite and direct the artist to tell a story solely with illustrations - the literary equivalent of a silent movie - which isn’t that far removed from our ancestors daubing paint on walls.

Words and pictures: the oldest storytelling technique in the world.

Wednesday, 23 July 2014

Review: Shadow of the Wolf by Tim Hall

A world of gods and monsters. An elemental power, rising. This is Robin Hood, reborn, as he has never been seen before…

Robin Loxley is seven years old when his parents disappear without trace. Years later the great love of his life, Marian, is also taken from him. Driven by these mysteries, and this anguish, Robin follows a darkening path into the ancient heart of Sherwood Forest. What he encounters there will leave him transformed, and will alter forever the legend of Robin Hood.

I look back at the 1980s and there were so many TV shows that at the time I thought were brilliant. Some of them are still nostalgia-fuelled favourites, whilst others I now see as pretty dire. One of the former is Robin of Sherwood, which between 1984 and 1986 was essential viewing in our household (although not so much once Michael Praed's Robin died, and was resurrected as Jason Connery). Robin of Sherwood was everything the Middle Ages was (and everything Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves wasn't) - dirty, gritty, and laced with the pagan superstition and folklore that would have been a huge part of English culture in those days. It brought us the legend of Robin Hood in a way that no one had before, and as far as I am aware no one has since. Until now that is.

When I first read the publisher's blurb for Tim Hall's Shadow of the Wolf my interested was immediately piqued. It promised a completely new and original take on the Robin Hood legend and I couldn't wait to read it. However, for the first 200 pages or so I found myself feeling a little short changed. Other than the first chapter, which hints at an element of the supernatural, there was little that made it stand out from all that had come before it. Admittedly, it starts off at a much earlier point in Robin's life than most previous stories have, and Marian is a very different character to the way she has been portrayed by most in the past, but other than that there was little that could justify this so called different take.

And then boom! About halfway in the unspeakable happens - Robin is completely and utterly defeated, his body brutalised in an horrendous manner, and he ends up broken and near dead in Sherwood Forest, a place that is as far as you can get from the cheerful, leafy glades of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. But just as it looks as if a premature end has come for our hero, nature and mythology intervene and all of a sudden we find ourselves in the middle of a revenge story that has more in common with Swamp Thing than it does with Kevin Costner's outing. All of a sudden the time spent reading those initial two hundred pages of character building and scene setting become worth every single minute spent on them, and as a reader I was gripped until the very final page, and even then I wanted more.

This is a challenging read that you need time to luxuriate in if you want to get the most out of it. It's not a book that is a light read for the beach as it craves for your full attention; it is atmospheric and rich in detail and if you give it the time and attention it deserves it will draw you in completely. It's not perfect: the first 200 pages could have been edited down a bit in my opinion, and after a while Marian's unpredictable and at times brattish temperament can become a little grating, but as far as epic YA fantasy goes it is certainly an excellent and welcome addition to the fold.

I believe Shadow of the Wolf is the first book in a trilogy, and I'm certainly keen to re-enter the dark and brutal world that Tim Hall has created for the legendary Robin and Marian. Shadow of the Wolf was published by the brilliant David Fickling Books at the beginning of July, in a hardcover edition with a stunning cover (one of my favourites of the year so far). My thanks go to the fab people at Riot Communications for my copy of the book.

Monday, 30 June 2014

Review: The Sword of Kuromori by Jason Rohan

Kenny Blackwood arrives in Tokyo to spend the summer with his father and is stunned to discover a destiny he had never dreamed of when he finds himself in the middle of a hidden war that is about to explode. Racing against an impossible deadline, Kenny must find the fabled Sword of Heaven and use it to prevent the disaster. But a host of terrifying monsters is out to destroy him, and success will come at a price. With clever, fearless, sarcastic Kiyomi at his side, Kenny must negotiate the worlds of modern and mythic Japan to find the lost sword, before it's too late.

The story opens with Kenny Blackwood on a flight across the Pacific, on his way to spend the summer with his father in Japan. It is a prospect that he is less than happy about, as his relationship with his father is strained to say the least, but Kenny's grandfather has arranged the trip and paid for the flight so he has little choice in the matter. As the plane is nearing Japan a flight attendant delivers an envelope to Kenny, containing a letter written by his grandfather and a small wooden whistle. As if this wasn't odd enough, there is also a separate piece of paper that instructs Kenny to make a copy of the letter, eat the piece of paper, and top only blow the whistle in an emergency. Of course, Kenny being a young teen, he can't help but give a whistle a quick blow, but it makes no noise at all. However, for Kenny it is the moment when the strangeness starts and his life will never be the same again.

Kenny soon discovers that he has magical gifts, inherited from his grandfather who received them in thanks for a noble deed he did following the Second World War. One of these gifts is the ability to see the many monsters and spirits that still exist in modern day Japan. He also finds out, from kick-ass, motorbike-riding Kiyomi and her father, that he is destined to continue the good deed of his grandfather and save the West Coast of the USA from a supernatural act of vengeance that will cause millions to suffer and die. To do this all he will have to do is survive attacks from numerous creatures from Japanese mythology, beat Hachiman, the God of War and destroy a monstrous, earthquake-causing dragon.

Rick Riordan has done Greek, Roman and Egyptian mythology, and is currently writing the first book in a series that will feature the gods of Norse mythology. Francesca Simon has also covered Norse mythology in The Sleeping Army and The Lost Gods. Sarwat Chadda brought the gods and creatures of Indian mythology to us in his brilliant Ash Mistry series. And now writer Jason Rohan enters the fray with The Sword of Kuromori, the first in a series set in Japan, with a heavy focus on the various monsters, spirits and Gods of Japanese mythology.

Other than in Manga, Japan is a country that has so far featured little in books for young people. Of course, there is Chris Bradford's brilliant Young Samurai series and Nick Lake's Blood Ninja trilogy, but neither of these are set in modern day Japan, nor do they focus on Japanese mythology. Most stories for children and teens published in the UK that use a culture's mythology as their foundation focus on western mythologies. Sarwat Chadda started to address this imbalance with Ash Mistry and it is great to see Jason Rohan following on with this.

I am guessing that young Manga/anime aficionados may recognise some of the creatures and Gods in this book, but the mythology of Japan, like India, is a subject I know very little about. However, this did not affect my enjoyment of The Sword of Kuromori at all. In fact, it was exactly the opposite. I was entranced by the various creatures and spirits that Kenny encounters in the course of his quest, and spent a fair amount of time looking them up online to see if they were actual creatures from Japanese mythology or constructs of the author's imagination. And every single one of them exists as a part of Japanese culture. Oni (demons), Kappa (truly bizarre creature), Kitsune (fox spirits), Tanuki (Japanese raccoon dog), the filth-licking Akaname... every single one of them will be as well known in Japan as the likes of Medusa and Pegasus are to British kids. Jason Rohan certainly knows his Japanese culture (hardly surprising as he lived there for five years) and he really makes these ancient creatures come alive for his readers.

If you're looking for a new book that will grab a 9+ reader and not let them go until the the final page this summer then The Sword of Kuromori should be high up on your list. It is a very fast-paced adventure story, with plenty of humour, especially in the interaction and dialogue between the confused and out-of-his-depth Kenny, and his new Japanese friend (and potential love interest), Kiyomi who is proficient with a host of weapons normally found in then possession of ninjas, and with an extensive knowledge of the monsters that are hidden from all but the handful of people with the gift. I believe this is the first book in a trilogy and I'm definitely signing on for the ride. I do not have a release date for it, but I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens to Kenny next in the sequel, The Shield of Kuromori. In the meantime, it's well worth your time making a visit to The Sword of Kuromori Facebook page over at https://www.facebook.com/swordofkuromori where Jason Rohan gives readers more details about some of the weird and wonderful creatures from Japanese mythology.

Friday, 9 August 2013

Review: Ash Mistry and the World of Darkness by Sarwat Chadda

Ash Mistry is in a world of pain. A parallel world in fact, where another version of him seems to be living his life, and the evil Lord Savage – now all-powerful and adored by the nation – is about to carry out a terrible plan.

Worse still, Ash’s superpowers, invested in him by the Death Goddess Kali, seem no longer to be working.

Without Kali, can Ash defeat Savage and save the world?

*** Warning: contains spoilers for book 2 (Ash Mistry and the City of Death)

After that jaw dropping cliffhanger at the end of Ash Mistry and the City of Death, Ash and Parvati now find themselves trapped in an alternate timeline caused when Lord Savage used his newly gained magical powers to travel back in time and change the past. This parallel universe is not hugely different from his own, but the differences are significant as far as Ash is concerned. In this world, Savage is seen as a generous and benevolent figure who has used his fortunes to help solve some of the world's problems. However, Ash is convinced that this Savage is just as evil and egotistical as the one he thought he had defeated.

More bizarre for Ash though is the fact that there is another version of himself in this alternate timeline. Ashoka is like Ash before the events of The Savage Fortress, i.e. geeky, awkward, unfit, overweight and with very few skills that could be of any use in the battle that is sure to come. However, it is down to Ashoka, Ash and Parvati to discover Savage's diabolical plans and, if at all possible, defeat him once and for all. Oh and did I mention that Ash's awesome, superhero, Kali-bestowed powers have disappeared?

It's no secret that I am a huge fan of Sarwat's writing, and I have loved every book he has written so far, from the brilliant pair of book featuring the young Templar, Billi SanGreal, to the first two books in the Ash Mistry trilogy. This third book, The World of Darkness, is no exception to this rule, and yet again Sarwat has delivered a fast-paced action-fest that will delight fans of his Indian mythology themed series.

I have to admit that the way Sarwat ended the second book left me with a few niggling doubts as to how much I would enjoy this finale to the trilogy. The sudden creation of an alternate timeline made me nervous as I have read a number of books where plot elements such as this were not at all handled well. Oh me of little faith! This is the mind of Sarwat Chadda we are talking about here, and those doubts were completely unfounded. Sarwat manages this jump and the action that unfolds in this alternate timeline with consummate ease, and it very quickly becomes a way of showing how much Ash has developed since he first encountered Savage.

Every now and again throughout the story the author inserts a small chapter or a handful of paragraphs where Ash is in dreamsleep, 'remembering' some of his past lives, and using these to try to come to a solution to his current worries. These also show how the eons long love affair between Parvati and his past selves developed, and at times seemed so doomed and tragic. This complements the continuing development of their relationship in the current timeline, as the two grow closer and closer, and possibly even start to admit their feelings for each other.

This series is aimed at the 9+ age group, with both Sarwat Chadda and publisher HarperCollins understanding that kids do love (and can easily handle) darkness, violence, blood and horror in their stories. This book in particular does contain some pretty scary moments, and Savage's plans for the human race are especially gruesome. There will be a small handful of kids who might be frightened by some of the scenes in the book, but then again most of these will already know that they aren't comfortable with horror stories and will probably not pick the books up in the first place. However, those who take delight in a moderate dose of blood splatter and fantasy violence with love this end to the trilogy.

If you have not yet tried Sarwat's Ash Mistry books then you are seriously missing out on a great trilogy that is easily as good as any of the mythology based stories that Rick Riordan has written (in my opinion, Sarwat's books are even better). If my opinion isn't good enough for you then only recently Riordan himself tweeted that he had just read Ask Mistry and the Savage Fortress and thought it was great.

My thanks go to HarperCollins for sending me a copy of the book to read.

Wednesday, 13 March 2013

Review: Ash Mistry and the City of Death by Sarwat Chadda

Ash Mistry is leading a pretty complicated life. There’s school, his unrequited crush on girl-next-door Gemma… and then there’s the fact that he’s the reincarnation of the great Indian hero Ashoka, not to mention the small detail that he died last year, and came back as an agent of the goddess of death.

So when the demon servants of the evil Lord Savage come after Gemma in order to get to Ash, you’d think he’d be ready to take them on.

But Lord Savage still has some tricks up his sleeve. And with Gemma out of the picture, the English villain is closer than ever to finding a magical aastra of his own, and the power to rule the world. It’s time for Ash to go up against his enemy once again. Luckily, as the human embodiment of the Kali-aastra, Ash can find the weak points in any living thing and kill it. But the key word there is ‘living’. And little does Ash know that Lord Savage has mastered another branch of magic – one which allows him to create whole armies out of un-living stone…

Here starts the campaign to persuade Goodreads to have a six star rating system. Looking back over the year so far, and bearing in mind that we are not even a quarter of the way through 2013, I have already given fourteen five star reviews to books with a 2013 release date. This is not me being overly generous - there are simply that many great books being released this year. However, to hijack Orwell's famous Animal Farm quote: All five star reviews are equal, but some five star reviews are more equal that others. Thus the need for that extra star, perhaps only awardable after a month has passed since first rating a book. Does it still stick in the mind? Do you find yourself looking longingly at it on your shelf, wishing you had the time to re-read it? I am finding this with a small number of those five star 2013 reads, and Ash Mistry and the City of Death is one of them.

Long time readers of The Book Zone will know that I have been a fan of Sarwat's writing ever since I first read Devil's Kiss, and his second book, Dark Goddess, was my Book Zone Book of the Year in 2010 (trophy finally made a ready to be delivered). I also loved Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress, and it was one of my favourite books of 2012, so I have been waiting impatiently for the sequel to be published, and it was well worth that wait. This book is blinkin' brilliant from beginning to end!

My thoughts about the importance of Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress as a book are unchanged a year on from when I read it and there's not a great deal I can add to that, so please head on over to my review here to find out why I feel this way. However, for those of you who have arrived here looking for more information about the sequel then please read on.

The story has moved on a few months and Ash is living back in London with his family, trying to return to life as a normal school boy, with normal school boy problems, whilst also coming to terms with the fact that he is now the reincarnation of an ancient Indian hero. Ash has fallen badly for Gemma, one of the cool, popular crowd at school, and hearing she has split up with her boyfriend spurs him to make a move. Unfortunately, just as he seems to be making some headway, Parvati (demon daughter of Ravana) arrives on the scene with a favour to ask of Ash, and then soon after everything hits the fan, in the shape of Jackie, Lord Savage's right-hand she-demon. Nasty things happen, and instead of being seen as a hero, Ash sees fear in his friends' eyes when they look at him.

With persona non grata status now firmly established and life in London totally unbearable Ash decides there is only one course of action for him to take: join up with Parvati, go back to India, kill Savage, get his revenge and save the world (again). After all, he is the Kali-aastra, master of Marma Adi and able to kill any living creature with the slightest touch of his little finger. Little does he know that his mission will not be quite so straightforward as Savage has managed to master a little more magic since their last meeting, and suddenly Ash is not as invincible as he thought. He also finds himself coming face-to-face with another old adversary, this time in the shape of Ujba, who now wants to continue the training that Rishi began with Ash. Add these woes to the fact that Ash still does not know what Parvati's true motives are, and whether he should trust her or not, and the stage is set for one hell of a second half to the book.

The climax to the book is typical of Sarwat Chadda - full of action, fights to the death, and more twists and turns than a Chubby Checker dance marathon, and you're left feeling pretty breathless come the end of the penultimate chapter. However, just as you thought you could relax Chadda plays the ace that he has kept hidden up his sleeve and leaves you with a jaw-to-the-ground-OMG-can't-believe-it final chapter that had me rushing to get online to check when the third book in the series is due to be released. Fortunately for Sarwat we only have to wait until July for this one - if we had had to wait a whole year then I may have been going fully tooled to his book launch to get all Ash Mistry on him until he revealed what happens next.

If you have/are a 9+ boy who loves Rick Riordan but has not yet discovered Ash Mistry then I simply cannot recommend the books enough. They are quite dark in places, and also occasionally gory (perfect for boys then), but also come laced with humour. The plot is super-fast paced, and I raced through the book, reading into the night as I couldn't put it down. Ash is a superb main character - even though he has muscled up since we first met him at the beginning of Savage Fortress, inside he is still a geeky, RPG playing kid from London, with all the insecurities that come with being that age, and I think kids will find it easy to relate to him, and also wonder how they would cope if suddenly they found themselves to be masters of ancient magics.

Ash Mistry and the City of Death was published on the 28 Feburary and my thanks go to HarperCollins for sending me a copy to review.

Tuesday, 28 February 2012

Review: Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress by Sarwat Chadda

Varanasi: holy city of the Ganges.
In this land of ancient temples, incense and snake charmers…

Where the monsters and heroes of the past come to life…

One slightly geeky boy from our time…

IS GOING TO KICK SOME DEMON ASS.

Ash Mistry hates India. Which is a problem since his uncle has brought him and his annoying younger sister Lucky there to take up a dream job with the mysterious Lord Savage. But Ash immediately suspects something is very wrong with the eccentric millionaire. Soon, Ash finds himself in a desperate battle to stop Savage's masterplan – the opening of the Iron Gates that have kept Ravana, the demon king, at bay for four millennia…

One of my faults as a reviewer is that I can occasionally be prone to exaggeration. I can't help myself - if I have loved a book so much I want to shout about it and try to get everyone else just as excited about reading it. However, in my long list of reviews there are some statements that some may feel are exaggerations, but I still stand by them. These include:

Department 19 by Will Hill is the best action horror book I have ever read (well it was until I read its sequel).

Any new release by Sarwat Chadda is cause for celebratory street parties and church bells to be rung across the land.

And now I am about to add another one to this list:

Sarwat's new book, Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress, could possibly be one of the most important children's books published in 2012.

How's that for a sweeping statement? Let me explain why I believe this to be so. Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress is a fantasy story in the tradition of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson stories, but set in India and focusing on Indian mythology. So far so good, but the really important bit is that Ash Mistry, the hero of the story, is a British Asian. What, I hear you cry in disbelief? And no wonder you are surprised - I have been trying to think of an action hero in a popular modern children's book that isn't white and it is difficult. Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Valkyrie Cain, Jamie Carpenter, Alex Rider - all white. Where is the literary role model for the significant number of South Asian children that live in Britain? I feel that the world of children's books has been crying out for a non-white hero and now Sarwat Chadda has delivered him in the form of Ash Mistry.

Let me tell you a little more about Ash. He's 13, mad about history, pretty geeky and a little chubby (and certainly not athletic). He is also totally fed up with holidaying in Varanasi, India - the heat, the flies, the cobras... despite his initial excitement about visiting his archaeologist uncle, now all he wants to do is go home to cool, fly-and-cobra-free West Dulwich where he can eat MacDonalds with his mates and spend hours playing Assassin's Creed.

As the story opens Ash, along with his 10 year old sister Lucky, is being dragged along to what he feels will be a boring party organised by his uncle's patron, the wealthy English aristocrat, Lord Savage. With boredom turning to despair Ash asks himself how he is going to survive another four weeks in India? The events of the next few hours have us wondering just how Ash and Lucky might expect to survive the next four days, let alone four weeks, as an overheard conversation and a near-fatal accident lead to Ash's aunt and uncle being murdered and he and his sister on the run from the demonic forces controlled by Lord Savage.

This is mythology, but not as the majority of children in the Western world know it. British kids are brought up with a fairly good knowledge of the Ancient Greek myths, and perhaps a smattering of the legends of Ancient Egypt. But Hindu mythology? These truly fascinating Indian legends go back much further than the Greek, Roman or Egyptian mythology and are littered with all of the things that kids love in books - great heroes, nasty villains, more demons than a whole series of Buffy, death, destruction, war, action, adventure. Sarwat Chadda has now taken these as his building blocks and created a fantastic story to rival any of Rick Riordan's.

I am a huge fan of Sarwat's Billi SanGreal books, and I guess I had expected something similar to them, but set in India. I couldn't have been more wrong. There is the same sublime quality of prose and the perfectly paced plotting, and the same array of great characters and extreme action scenes, but also a previously unrevealed talent for writing comedy. Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress is aimed at a younger audience (9+) than Sarwat's previous stories, and has given him the chance to inject his sparkling (and wonderfully geeky) sense of humour into his writing. I have met Sarwat on a number of occasions and he has always come across as a (occasionally mischievously) funny guy, and this is now reflected in his written work.

Despite this being written for a younger audience than Devil's Kiss and Dark Goddess were, this book is still chock full of nasty moments that will have children wanting to hide behind cushions. Lord Savage and his demons are very nasty, and there are some moments (spiders!!!) that made my skin crawl. Again, kids will love it!

I remember talking with Sarwat over a beer and food following the Crystal Palace Children's Book Festival back in 2010. Sarwat told me about his labour of love, a story based on Indian mythology that many of his friends claimed he was mad for writing. Who is going to buy that? they asked him. That labour of love is now called Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress and full credit goes to Sarwat for persevering with it and HarperCollins for publishing it. This could finally be the book that puts Sarwat on the hot list of children's authors, where he so deserves to be. I have done a little research in writing this review and come up with the following (some of it is from wikipedia and therefore obviously accurate):

"According to the 2001 UK Census, there were approximately 2,331,423 South Asians, constituting 4.0% of the population of the UK. Those who of Indian origin numbered 1,053,411."That's a lot of British kids who have been waiting patiently for a British Asian hero.

And there's more. There was also a recent article on The Bookseller daily newsletter about the Indian book market that stated:

"The Children's, Young Adult and Educational sector has also shown growth, up 27% in volume and 38% in value over the first half of 2011. The number one slot for the bestselling title was taken by Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney (Puffin) which sold more than 17,000 copies, followed in second position by Inheritance: Book Four: Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini (Doubleday Children's) which sold more than 16,000 copies. The third, fourth and fifth positions in the chart were also taken by Wimpy Kid titles."

I do not know if Sarwat has an Indian publishing deal yet but it can surely only be a matter of time?

I predict big things for Sarwat Chadda over the next few years. in the UK Puffin Books christened Rick Riordan The Myth Master. Rick had better watch out as there is a new master of myth in town and he fully deserves that crown. Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress is published in the UK by HarperCollins on 1st March. My thanks go to the publisher for sending me a copy to review. Keep watching this space as Sarwat will be joining us in a few weeks for a special guest post.

Wednesday, 18 January 2012

Coming Up In 2012 #8: Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress by Sarwat Chadda

Any new release by Sarwat Chadda is cause for celebratory street parties and church bells to be rung across the land. His Dark Goddess was a truly worthy winner of The Book Zone Book of the Year 2010, and I have been waiting very excitedly ever since to read whatever Sarwat wrote next. In March that next book will hit the book shops and libraries of Britain (start ringing them bells!), and it is a corker. I consider myself very privileged to have read it already, and Rick Riordan had better watch out - there is a new 'myth master' in town and he means business. Here's Sarwat to tell us a little more about Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress:

Holidays in Hell by Sarwat Chadda

My new book, ‘Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress’ is your average tale about a boy during his summer holidays. You know, the type of holiday where the boy meet an evil sorcerer planning to raise an ancient demon king and his army of demons and it’s totally down to the boy to save the day and kick everyone in the arse, pretty damn hard.

I’m sure you’ve had summer breaks just like it.

The book’s set in India and is all about Indian mythology and history. We all know and love the Greek myths, our days are named after the Norse gods so I though it about time we brought in some eastern deities, they’re quite unlike anything you’d have come across before.

Take Kali, the goddess of death and destruction. The hero, Ash, finds something very valuable of hers, a divine superweapon that was lost on a battlefield thousands of years ago. This weapon is the only thing that can stop the demon king but Ash is not your usual hero. He’s not a hero at all. He’s 13 but the kind of boy who still might sleep with the light on. Fortunately he teams up with Parvati, a half-human half-demon girl who’s the world’s greatest assassin. Ash must learn the ways of Kali if he’s going to stand a snowball’s chance in Hell of surviving the rebirth of the demon king and beating Lord Savage, the sorcerer behind the resurrection.

It’s not a story for those with tender hearts. It’s a story about blood, sacrifice and death. You see how far Ash is willing to go to do what’s right, even if he’s terrified almost every step of the way. A true hero is not the one who’s unafraid. He’s the one who, though filled with fear, conquers it and acts in spite of it. Ash Mistry takes the darkest path, the path of Kali, and I hope you’ll come along for the journey. It’ll be like no other.

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