Entertainment – DaneCobain.com

Title: Dead Tomorrow

Author: Peter James

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 664

Rating: 4*/5

Peter James – Dead Tomorrow

Dead Tomorrow is one of Peter James’ Roy Grace crime novels, and so if you’ve read one of them before then you should know roughly what to expect. This book in particular follows Grace and his team of Brighton policemen as they investigate a series of crimes that appear to be related to human trafficking for the purpose of killing kids and harvesting their organs to sell them on the black market. Grace and his team get involved after a body is discovered by a dredging boat and the autopsy reveals that their organs have been removed with some serious surgical skill.

Meanwhile, a mother is nursing her daughter through a tough time. Her liver is failing and while she is on the waiting list for a new one, she’s been let down a couple of times and hope is starting to run out. I think you can see where this is going.

I’m not going to tell you any more than that because I’m already at risk of revealing spoilers, but I will say is that it’s interesting because it gives the reader a unique insight into the story. There’s a real sense of dramatic irony, because none of the characters is able to see the full picture, but it works well here and it even helps to heighten the tension at times. It’s also interesting because the lack of available organs – and the black market trade – are both real world problems, and James does a great job of highlighting the issues through the medium of entertainment. I have a lot of respect for anyone who can make learning things fun, as well as for anyone who can use fiction to hold a mirror up to the world and make their readers ask questions. James does a great job of both of them.

Peter James

This isn’t my favourite of Peter James’ Roy Grace novels, but it’s definitely in the top half of them. At times, the plot seems a little predictable, but crime novels need to fit a formula to a certain extent and it’s also a byproduct of the way in which the story is revealed to the reader. Here, it works well, and while I’d already progressed further into the series before I got to this book, there were plenty of little gems that taught me more about the world that Roy Grace and his team live in. One thing that James does well is to show the backgrounds and the personal lives of each of his characters, and it’s not just the main ones that get the treatment. Even the most minor characters have a fully-fleshed backstory behind them.

The book is also made a little more interesting by the fact that the action takes place in multiple countries. Grace himself is forced to fly to Germany in the middle of the investigation, and Romania is also featured as a key aspect to the story line. But as usual, the majority of the action takes place in Brighton – that’s Grace’s beat, and it’s also where James lives and works. That helps him to write convincingly about the area, and his high level of research – which includes the author working with real life policemen – helps to mark his work apart from that of his contemporaries.

Overall, this is a decent crime thriller with a lot going for it, but it’s not necessarily one you should go out of your way for if you’re new to Peter James’ work. It would make more sense to start at the beginning, but if you see a copy of this going spare then get your hands on it and, if not, work your way through to it. It’s a rewarding little read, and even though it’s long, it’s pretty easy to whizz through it. James’ clear and concise writing style allows you to fall into the story.

Peter James – You Are Dead

Click here to buy Dead Tomorrow.

George R. R. Martin – A Feast for Crows | Review

Title: A Feast for Crows

Author: George R. R. Martin

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 852

Rating: 8/10

George R. R. Martin – A Feast for Crows

A Feast for Crows is the fourth book in George R. R. Martin’s epic A Song of Ice and Fire series, the series which was adapted for television as Game of Thrones. I’ve powered through the first four books in a couple of months, and I’m really enjoying them so far, although A Feast for Crows is arguably my least favourite one so far. That said, there’s still a lot of cool stuff to talk about.

I think the main reason that I didn’t enjoy this book as much as any of the other ones is that it doesn’t feature much about Daenerys Stormborn or Jon Snow. I find it pretty difficult to choose a favourite character from the books, but those two are two of my favourites, and they’re barely even mentioned here. Still, I’m of the understanding that they’ll be back in force in the next book, which is winging its way to me as we speak.

In this book, Tommen Baratheon is on the iron throne, but Joffrey’s little brother isn’t really old enough to know much about kinging. That said, he does learn a lot from his new wife, Margaery Tyrell – I don’t like her, but I don’t like Cersei Lannister either, and in this book the two of them start to engage in a polite form of warfare. There’s a twist towards the end of the book, but I’m not going to tell you what that is.

George R.R. Martin

You also learn a little more of Samwell Tarly, who’s an underrated character in my opinion. He’s one of my favourites of the men of the Night’s Watch, mainly because he’s a cowardly hero, an antihero of sorts – he wants to be like Jon Snow, and he can’t be. But that doesn’t stop him from being awesome, especially when it comes to him protecting Gilly (Craster’s daughter) and the infant that she’s suckling.

I could go on and on about the people of the books, and the relationships that link them all together, but I’m not going to – I don’t want to spoil it for you when you read it, like I’m sure you’re going to. The thing about the Game of Thrones books is that they really need to be read in chronological order for their maximum effect to be felt, and so I’d encourage you not to make a start on this one until you’ve read the others. That said, once you read the first one, it’s pretty hard for you to put the books down, and you’ll find yourself ploughing through them in no time.

As always, George R. R. Martin’s characterisation is top notch, and so is his world-building – Westeros feels like a real place, but whereas Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings books tend to feel like a history textbook, Martin’s books feel much more like a piece of entertainment. That can only be a good thing – it makes it easy to read, even though it’s over eight hundred pages long, and I’m a particular fan of how Martin tees himself up in one book to knock it out of the park in a later one.

George R. R. Martin and Peter Dinklage

Here, we see a whole bunch of loose ends being tied up, but we’re also given a glimpse of all sorts of possibilities and potential story lines. I’m even half-interested in Sansa Stark, for the first time since I started reading the books – she’s posing as Littlefinger’s bastard daughter, and the two of them make for an interesting combination of characters.

Now, we’re getting to the point where new characters are a necessity, because half of the original characters are dead, dying or missing. Martin introduces us to a few new major characters in this book, but none of them were particularly memorable for me – I’m mainly interested in what’s happening in the north, and so as soon as we go anywhere else, I feel my interest starting to wane. I’m also impatient for Daenerys to meet up with the rest of the characters, and to see what they make of her.

Still, you do get some interesting cross-pollination here, and one of the things that’s always interested me about these books is that the characters cross over and meet each other from time to time, like Littlefinger and Sansa, or like Arya and Samwell Tarly, who meet, briefly, here. One of Martin’s strengths is how strong his characters are, and so when two interesting characters come into contact, you never know what to expect.

Overall, then, I gave A Feast for Crows the lowest score I’ve given to any of George R. R. Martin’s books, but I’ve still given it an 8/10. I can’t get enough of the epic fantasy series, and I’ve already ordered the next book, which is his most recent at the time of publication. I’m not sure what I’m going to do after I finish reading it – I guess I’ll watch the TV series, which I’ve already made start on.