Fatherland, Robert Harris

Publishers: Arrow Books

Pages: 383 (Paperback 2009)

Main Characters:

Xavier March, Charlie Maguire

Fatherland is the brilliant historical murder mystery thriller from Robert Harris. Set in an Alternative history, Fatherland is based in Berlin 1964 which is ruled by the German Third Reich after their glorious victory over the War Time Alliance in 1945.

The story follows Xavier March, a Kriminalpolizei inspector set with the task of solving the mystery behind the murder of a high classed Nazi Party leader. During the search for the murderer, March stumbles across a conspiracy hidden from the German people. With the help of an American journalist ‘Charlie’ Maguire, March tries to bring this terrible conspiracy to the surface which could result in the end of the German Third Reich. However this all happens within one week of Adolf Hitler’s 75^th Birthday and the Gestapo are on the look for anything that may disrupt the birthday celebrations. Unfortunately for March, they are on his case.

This was a great book. Harris gave a very good account of what he thought 1960’s Berlin might have been like if Hitler had won. Harris explains how the Germans won the war in a very plausible way. It was packed full of historical detail which makes the novel seem much more believable. The story behind the conspiracy is really sinister making you want to get inter-twined with the characters and the mystery. You also really feel for March. He is stuck in a world that is totally authoritarian where not conforming to the system my lead to torture or death.

 All in all this was a great read; I would suggest it to anyone who likes Robert Harris and also to anyone how like 1984 by George Orwell. It is quite similar in the way that both the main characters live in a society which they don’t want to conform to.

Gallows Thief, Bernard Cornwell

Publishers: Harper Collins

Pages:  416 (Paperback 2002)

Main Characters:

Rider Sandman, Sir Henry Forrest, Eleanor Forrest,

 Sam Berrigan

Gallows Thief is a murder mystery novel written by my favourite author Bernard Cornwell. The novel is set in London in the 1820’s, just after the Napoleonic Wars. The story is based around a decommissioned solider, Rider Sandman, who is a young gentlemen from a rich aristocratic family. Sandman is down on his luck.

 After leaving the army at the end of the Wars, Sandman finds that his father has spent the family’s wealth and shamed them by committing suicide. It falls on Rider to find work of a gentlemen’s nature to pay for the upkeep of his Mother and Sister. Sandman hopes of marriage are also dashed by his father’s death.  His proposed marriage to Eleanor Forrest is ended by her mother, as she sees Sandman as not now been socially worthy enough for an Alderman of London’s daughter. Eleanor’s father, Sir Henry Forrest gives Sandman a chance to redeem his family honour and earn some money by gaining the confession of a convicted murderer Charles Corday. Over the next few days however, Sandman finds new evidence which shows Corday may not have been the murderer. This leaves Sandman in a rush to prove his innocence as Corday hangs in one week.

For me this was a very different book than the ones I am used to reading by Cornwell. Normally Cornwell writes historical fiction that sees the characters going through a quest or a journey which co-insides with historical events. This was the first book of Cornwell’s that I have read that is a murder mystery. I thought it made a nice change. It is very gripping, because you want to find who the murderer is and Gallows Thief is only a single novel, so it makes a good quick read because there are no sequels.

However there are still some trademark Cornwell techniques in the book that make it familiar to avid Cornwell fans.  Examples would be that the main character becomes a hero by the end of the book. Sandman starts off as a lowly character with a disgraced family but by the end he saves a man’s life and wins the respect of his peers. Like all of his books, Cornwell puts a lot of historical detail into Gallows Thief. He really shows what London was like after the Napoleonic Wars with its high unemployment rate and the effect all the decommissioned soldiers had on the city.

All in all this was a good book. I bit different to most of Cornwell’s other books, but it made a refreshing difference. I’d suggest this book to any Cornwell fan, as well as anyone who was interested in the Napoleonic Wars or capital punishment in the 19^th Century.

Link tp author's offical web-site:

http://www.bernardcornwell.net/

How To Be Good, Nick Hornby

Publishers: Penguin Books

Pages: 245 (Paperback 2001)

Main Characters:

Katie Carr, David Grant, DJ Goodnews,

How to be Good was a very funny book. Set around the character Katie Carr, a doctor, a mother of two and wife to David. It follows her through a sort of mid-life crisis that sees her having an affair. The resulting affair sees her husband David change from been a cynical, negative person to becoming a ‘do gooder’ with the help of his spiritual leader DJ Goodnews. The good deeds that David and Goodnews do see Katie’s children’s toys been given away, the whole street taking in a young homeless person and David writing a book titled ‘How to be Good’. The humour comes from the frustration Katie feels at the total change in her husband (even though she wanted a change) because of his new friend Goodnews.

This book was a good read. It was something different to what I normally read and it made a refreshing change. As I said above, it is very funny because you witness these events happen to a person that was so cynical and the local angry man. I would suggest this book to anyone who has read or is a fan of Mark Haddon and his book A Spot of bother. Like A Spot of Bother it follows a family as the patriarch goes through a mid-life crisis and it is also very funny.

Link to author’s official web-site:

http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/minisites/nickhornby/index.html

The Fear Index, Robert Harris

Publisher: Hutchinson

Pages: 223 (Hardback 2011)

Main Characters:

Alexander Hoffmann,

The Fear Index is the latest novel from the amazing thriller writer Robert Harris. The Fear Index follows a day in the life of Alexander Hoffmann, a rich, American, Physicist and owner of one of Europe’s biggest hedge fund companies. Hoffmann is a computer genius. The reason behind his company’s wealth and prestige is a financial algorithm which Hoffmann designs himself. The algorithm is known as VIXAL-4. It uses patterns and trends from previous years to guess which stock to buy and sell in the market, so far been correct giving its shareholders an 83% return on their investments.

Life seems to be going well for the American business man. Hoffmann believes himself to be worth around one billion dollars, has a $60 million dollar house in Geneva’s most wealthy area and a loving wife Gabrielle. However all of this changes after the suspicious delivery of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. The emergence of this book sets of a domino effect of events that has Hoffmann doubting his sanity. Whilst also triggering the uncontrolled destruction of his creation VIXAL-4, as it appears to be gambling all of Hoffmann’s hedge fund money on one sale of shares, risking bankruptcy.

The Fear Index was a great book. From the very first chapter it had me gripped and I managed to read the whole book in 48 hours. The mystery behind all of the events has you believe that someone very close to Hoffmann is trying to sabotage him and his business. The story follows Hoffmann over 24 hours as he tries to find who is destroying him. However, these events are been triggered by e-mails coming from Hoffmann’s computer, which makes him start to doubt his sanity as he has had previous mental breakdowns.

This book is based around the financial market. I think Harris does a great job of explaining the basics of the stock market in this book. I know nothing about economics, but Harries explains it in a simple way which makes this book much better to read. This is because you have a small understanding of how the stock market works which helps you understand the events in the book even better.

This was a great book and I would recommend it to anyone who likes any of Robert Harris’s other books, anyone who has an interest in economics or the Stock exchange, or anyone who enjoys modern thrillers.

The Children of Hurin, J. R. R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien

Publisher: HarperCollins

Pages: 336

Main Characters:

Hurin, Turin, Nienor, Morgoth,

The Children of Hurin is one of J. R. R. Tolkien’s less known works. Parts of the manuscript for the book were written in the 1910’s by Tolkien, but the story of the Children of Hurin was never published as a book in its own right before Tolkien’s death. However in 2007 his son Christopher finished the story by using Tolkien’s original notes and with illustrations by Alan Lee, the artist form  other famous Tolkien book such as The Lord of the Rings.

The novel follows the story of Turin Turamber, the heir of House Hador. Turin’s life is ruled by a curse put on his father by the evil lord Morgoth. The curse sees Turin's life change from been an heir to a noble House, to becoming an Elven Prince to finally an outlaw. It sees him change from a small boy, to a man, a murderer and a warrior, whilst seeing him love and grieve. The novel is set in Middle-Earth thousands of years before the War of the Ring. The North is ruled by Morgoth and his Orcs, whilst in the South Men and Elves alike try to stop his evil spreading.

For me this book is like Tolkien’s Romeo and Juliet.  The book is a tragedy, following two people who are deeply in love but have no right to be. It is a brilliant book to read. The story of Hurin’s family is heart wrenching. All the way through the book you see the curse becoming worse and worse for Turin, but he believes his life is getting better. The ending is also a shock, all the way through the book you know something terrible will happen, but I did not expect what happens in the end. Unlike some other Tolkien books it is also not hard to understand which I think makes it a perfect first time Tolkien read for younger people. I read it for the first time when I was fifteen and found it brilliant.

The book is also great for Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit fans. It gives a great look into the way Middle-Earth was before the War of the Ring and helps give a background and history to the Lord of the Rings. It is a great read, with brilliant illustrations by Alan Lee and would be a perfect book for any Lord of the Rings fans.

For Link to author’s web-site:

http://www.tolkien-online.com/

Azincourt, Bernard Cornwell

Publishers: HarperCollins

Pages: 542 (Paperback 2009)

Main Characters:

Nicholas Hook,

Azincourt is a one off novel from the historical author Bernard Cornwell. It tells the tale of the English invasion of France in 1415, looking through the eyes of a humble English archer Nicholas (Nick) Hook. The novel follows the English army from its departure, to the gruelling siege at Harfleur, through its march up to Calais and the final battle at Agincourt. It sees Nick turn into a hero and sees him help win the Battle of Agincourt with the help of his faith in the Saints Crispin and Crispinian.

This book was a great read and was the first book that really got me into historical fiction. It is very well written with a very accurate account of the English campaign of 1415. The part I like most about this book was that many of the characters were all real people and Cornwell uses them in the right historical context. Cornwell’s descriptions of the battles at Harfleur and Agincourt similarly make the book a brilliant read. Again keeping to the historical context, Cornwell describes the battles as if you were actually there and looking through Nick Hook’s eyes.  As well as describing how the battle happened, Cornwell’s description of how the archers are used makes this book even better to read. I think it would have been easy for him to over exaggerate the role the archers played in the Battle of Agincourt. For example, having them lead a charge for dramatic purposes or been great swordsmen who could fight the French Knights. But Cornwell doesn’t. He explains the actions of the archers correctly, (firing volleys of arrows and then finishing off the dying French Knights).  Cornwell makes this book great because he sticks to the historical evidence and context, making the book much more realistic and much better to read.

Nick Hook’s story is also a great asset to this book. Like many of Cornwell’s books, its sees unlikely people become the hero. It takes Hook from the atrocities of the siege of Soissons, to becoming an archer in Henry V’s army and finally a leader of his group of archers. Where he experiences romance, death, disease and the other factors life in a fifth-teenth century army brings. 

The book is well written and full of action and is very historically accurate. I would suggest that anyone interested in the Hundred Years War, archery or Bernard Cornwell read this book.  It certainly got me into the all of these and is a good book to start if wanting to read any of Bernard's  other novels!

Link to Bernard Cornwell’s Official site:

http://www.bernardcornwell.net/

A Dance With Dragons, George R.R. Martin

Publishers: Harper Voyager

Pages: 959 (Hardback 2011)

Main Characters:

Tyrion, Jon, Daenerys, Cersi, Araya, Jaime,

This is the fifth book of the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Many people believe that it is the last novel in the series but it isn’t, it is just the latest book published so far. The novel picks up after A Storm of Swords 2: Blood and Gold. The three main story lines in the book are that of Tyrion Lannister, Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryean. Tyrion’s story picks up after his escape from Kings Landing, follows his attempts to reach the Dragon Queen. Jon’s story sees him as Lord Commander of the Nights Watch after the defeat of the Wildings at the Wall. It sees Jon make decisions on what to do with the thousands of Wildlings left after their defeat, and the growing defence of the Wall against the Others. Daenerys story sees her becoming Queen of the ex-slave city of Meeran. Following Daenerys in her attempt to gain peace in the city, with the growing threat of war.

This book was brilliant. It was all I wanted A Feast for Crows to be. It brings us right back to the tempo at the end of Blood and Gold and keeps that tempo throughout the book. There are also so many twists to the plot in this book. As in previous books Martin makes you think the story line is going one way and then adds a character who we thought was long dead, or has a character who we thought would go on through all the books killed. It makes for brilliant reading and keeps the story fresh because we are not just reading over the same old characters all the time. Also keeping us on our toes because he keeps killing off characters who I thought would have massive story lines in the next few books. The ending is also brilliant. It left me just wanting to go on and read the next book straight away and really shows us that one story line is ending and another is just going to begin. Again I tip my hat to the detail Martin adds to the book, which makes his world that much realer. It was a brilliant book and a great way to leave the series, can’t wait for the next book ‘The Winds of Winter’.

Link to George R. R. Martin’s Official site:

http://georgerrmartin.com/