BOOKSHELF

ADVENTURELAND

Steve Harris

One meeting I was outside the hall talking to Luka and the subject of books we had read came up. Luka saying that back in the nineties she had read a book in which the action revolved around Basingstoke. Intrigued I asked the question “Authors name and title?” and Luka replied that she thought it was called Adventureland and believed the author was someone called Stephen Harrison, a local writer. Now this tweaked a memory because many years ago when Rita and I were courting we vaguely knew a guy (he used the same pub as us) called Steve Harris who had written a book called Wulf, yes with a u and Luka thought that sounded like the same guy. So a trip to the library was arranged to see if the book was available. Rita was struggling to remember Steve’s face but like me could remember when Wulf was first published and Steve hawking copies around the pub. Eventually a copy of Wulf was found and as soon as we’d looked at the photo and biography the penny dropped and we had a whispered reminiscence about the good old days. A quick scan of the "Also by" page showed me he had also written a book called Adventurland and enquiries showed that they also had a copy in store so I booked it out; - (actually I did Paul does not have a library card ! R)

Advetureland is a gothic horror book mostly set in the Advetureland fairground in War memorial park in Basingstoke. The heroes are Davy and his girlfriend Sally, both in their early 20’s. After the Adventurland moves into town people start to go missing and it is down to Davy and Sally to solve the mystery and save the day. Fighting against them are demons, the fairground teamsters, and the local hard case that doesn’t like Davy and fancies Sally quite a lot.  The story moves around the town in both this and a demon dimension with many recognisable features of the town.  Sadly some have now gone with the Town’s redevelopment but it still felt strange reading about so many familiar places. For instance Davy watches the arrival of Adventurland while sitting by the Black Dam roundabout, Sally worked at the perfume counter at Owen Owen’s , later to become Allders, and now that’s gone. But the strangest of all was that The Dragon pub featuring in several scenes is in fact The George, now an Italian restaurant, only moved to the west by one street. I say strange as The George, or The Hole in the Wall as it was known to its regulars was the pub that Rita and I met in and from where we knew Steve. Strangest of all was a fight described in the book was so familiar I am sure that Rita and I were in the pub when it really took place; just the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

This is a good book with the action set at a good steady pace and the feelings of nostalgia it generated were excellent. I would highly recommend it to anyone who remembers the Basingstoke of the late 20th Century and to anyone else who enjoys reading light horror. This book will help anyone interested in finding out who I am and why the everyday strains just flow by. It also describes the town of my youth, (poor old bugger. R) and the lifestyles of its provincial townies in a bygone age.

Paul Russell

PANDORA’S STAR

Peter F. Hamilton

As a huge fan of Peter F. Hamilton’s Night’s Dawn trilogy, I was looking forward to his new series. This one turns out to be a two-parter, and it really is a single story split into two; it even ends on a cliffhanger.

Wilson Kime is the pilot on the first manned Mars mission. But by the time they reach Mars, his job is obsolete.

Three hundred years later, Wilson Kime is on his fifth rejuvenation when event is witnessed which leads humanity to build its first ever starship - and suddenly the last of the old NASA flyboys is back in demand.

As always with Hamilton, while he might veer towards fantasy, he does think through the consequences and social impact of his technology. His wormholes are not the traditional wormholes of written SF, created in inconvenient places at the edge of solar systems, and requiring spaceships to navigate. No, these are more like Stargates - walk or drive straight through from one world to the other - and as a result, the most common means of interstellar travel is by train!

There’s a fascinating look at the impact of FTL travel on astronomy. The event which sets off the main action in the book is so unexpected that its observer (who wasn’t recording at the time) knows he won’t be believed without proof. So he travels through a wormhole to a system further away, so that he can watch the same event again and record it this time.

There are various alien races, including the Silfen, who suspiciously resemble elves and whose ‘wormholes’ consist of walking certain paths in a forest and suddenly finding yourself in a different forest on a different world. And then there are the Primes, the main bad guys, a race whose leaders are intelligent and immobile, and whose warriors are almost mindless drones, programmed by an organ which makes direct contact between neural cells. Reading accounts of battles between Primes will seem awfully familiar to anyone who has played Civilisation or similar games.

The cliffhanger at the end is a classic, and I can’t wait for the second part to come out in paperback.

 Ross McNaughton

REVELATION SPACE

Alastair Reynolds

This is, sort of, also part of a series - there have been two sequels and one prequel that I know of - but it stands alone just fine as a self-contained novel.

Mankind is expanding out into a lonely universe. It’s not that we’re the only intelligent life - plenty of artefacts have been discovered, some working, and some even intelligent in their own right - but not a single living alien race has been contacted.

The Amarantin are no exception. Nine hundred years ago, something wiped them out. Either a natural cosmic event, or they did it themselves - but the Amarantin were at a barely industrial level, and their star seems stable now. And when archaeologist Dan Sylveste discovers a buried Amarantin city which suggests that maybe they did have high technology after all, the mystery deepens.

What’s great about this novel is that, although there is a lot of advanced technology, it’s mostly stuff we’ll probably get to eventually - advanced biotech and nanotech. The two that really look unlikely, but that most authors put in anyway for convenience - FTL travel and artificial gravity - just don’t exist in this universe. Interstellar travel is instead the province of Lightjammers - ships that can reach relativistic speeds (and as a result, have gone back to being sleek and streamlined - the density of interstellar space starts to become significant at those speeds). All of this is achieved with a drive system which allows them to accelerate at 1G for long periods of time, neatly avoiding the need for artificial gravity or rotation, Such a drive is in itself unlikely, but a quick estimate of the maths comes out to a figure of approximately 1 year at 1G to get close to light speed - not unreasonable for interstellar travel, and if we can ever do it, we might not be quite so desperate to hang on to the idea of FTL.

Of course, while time is passing quickly for those aboard the lightjammers, the same is not true fpr the destination - and arriving at a planet with no idea of what’s happened there in the last ten or twenty years is a common theme through all the books.

If you’re interested, the sequels are Redemption Ark and Absolution Gap, and the prequel is Chasm City, but as I say, the book works fine as a stand-alone.

Ross McNaughton

GREEN RIDER
Kristen Britain

This is an exciting fantasy epic from a new writer.  It is a very enjoyable read, you want to know what is going to happen next.

The first novel by this writer, is a story in its own right, but I will be buying the next volume (currently don’t know how many volumes are going to make the series). In all a wonderful fantasy story and from a first time writer an exhilarating epic.

Karigan G’ladheon as per many other books accidentally becomes the heroine, being in the wrong place at the right time.  After being kicked out of school and on her way home, she comes across a dying messenger

“I’m a messenger … Green Rider.” The young man’s body spasmed with pain, and blood dribbled over his lip and down his chin.  “ the satchel on the saddle … important message …king, Life or death.  If you love Scor.. Sacordia and its king take it.  Take it to him.”

This is how the adventure beings and from their you learn part of the history of Sacordia and what the Green Riders (Messengers for the King) do and the special powers that they have. Also don’t forget the horse, who knows where evil and dangerous places are. She finds a journal in a place of safety and finds out about some of the riders and the perils that went through to get to the safe haven.  Also places she shouldn’t go, but of course she needs to go through them to get to the king.  A side story is her father who goes looking for her, and starts to believe she is dead.

Well of course everything eventually turns out for the good, but will Karigan become a fully fledge Green Rider, to know this you will need to read “First Rider” which is now out.

Ruth Kerry