More of wot I have read…

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

I heard the author interviewed on the radio and liked the sound of this story. It was an easy read and tripped along quickly with a nice pace and gentle humour. I found the historical references and description of places had resonance with me as I found links with the themes in other books I had read recently and with a RGP we are playing that is based in an alternative Victorian world. What would have happened if Harry Potter grew up and joined the fuzz?

My name is Peter Grant and until January I was just probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service (as the Filth to everybody else). My only concerns in life were how to avoid a transfer to the Case Progression Unit - we do paperwork so real coppers don't have to - and finding a way to climb into the panties of the outrageously perky WPC Leslie May. Then one night, in pursuance of a murder inquiry, I tried to take a witness statement from someone who was dead but disturbingly voluable, and that brought me to the attention of Inspector Nightingale, the last wizard in England.


Now I'm a Detective Constable and a trainee wizard, the first apprentice in fifty years, and my world has become somewhat more complicated: nests of vampires in Purley, negotiating a truce between the warring god and goddess of the Thames, and digging up graves in Covent Garden . . . and there's something festering at the heart of the city I love, a malicious vengeful spirit that takes ordinary Londoners and twists them into grotesque mannequins to act out its drama of violence and despair.


The spirit of riot and rebellion has awakened in the city, and it's falling to me to bring order out of chaos - or die trying.


Bravo Two Zero by Andy McNab

Not the sort of book I would normally read, but I was leant this and the sniper book by a friend, so I gave them I go, and I was pleasantly surprised. I think the most interesting part of it was the view into a world of the soldier and how his mind works, the culture and beliefs and seeing how they might react under extreme circumstances. I understand there has been some artistic license taken with the facts and concerns have been expressed about actions attributed to those who cannot confirm or deny them, nevertheless it is quite a good boys-own tale.

In January 1991, eight members of the SAS regiment embarked upon a top secret mission that was to infiltrate them deep behind enemy lines. Under the command of Sergeant Andy McNab, they were to sever the underground communication link between Baghdad and north-west Iraq, and to seek and destroy mobile Scud launchers. Their call sign: BRAVO TWO ZERO.


Each man laden with 15 stone of equipment, they patrolled 20km across flat desert to reach their objective. Within days, their location was compromised. After a fierce fire fight, they were forced to escape and evade on foot to the Syrian border. In the desperate action that followed, though stricken by hypothermia and other injuries, the patrol 'went ballistic'. Four men were captured. Three died. Only one escaped. For the survivors, however, the worst ordeals were to come. Delivered to Baghdad, they were tortured with a savagery for which not even their intensive SAS training had prepared them.


Sniper One by Sgt Dan Mills

This is the second war story I read, and I found this was even more interesting than the first. Perhaps this is because it was more successful and showed more of the battle conditions.

April 7th 2004: a year to the day since the city had fallen. Saddam had been deposed. The Marines and the Para's were long gone and rarely made it into the news. When Sgt Dan Mills and the rest of the 1st Batallion, The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment flew in, they were supposed to be winning hearts and minds. They were soon fighting for their lives.


Within hours of arriving in Iraq a grenade bounced off one of the battalion's landrovers, rolled underneath and detonated. The ambush marked the beginning of a full-scale firefight during which Mill's killed a man with a round that removed his assailant's head. It was going to be a long tour.


Like some post-apocalyptic Mad Max nightmare, the place had gone to hell in a handcart. Temperatures on the ground often topped 50c, sewage systems that had long since packed up, the stench of cooking waste and piles of festering rubbish that grew wherever you looked. Throat-burning winds, blast bombs and well-trained, well-organised militias armed with AKs and RPGs and a limitless supply of mortar rounds were the icing on the cake.


If any of Mills's 18 man sniper platoon had thought that the people of Al Amarah were going to welcome them with open arms, they were forced to rapidly reconsider. For the next six months, isolated, besieged and under constant fire the battalion refused to give an inch. Cimic House, their HQ, may have been shit, but it was home. And its defence, the most intense the British army fought in 50 years, was a modern day Rorke's Drift.


The comical tragedy or tragical comedy of Mr. Punch by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean

This is a grown up comic (graphic novel) with a dark tale and spooky imagery.

A dark and frightening fully painted novella, MR. PUNCH tells the tale of a young boy's loss of innocence results from a horrific confrontation with his past. Spending a summer at his grandfather's seaside arcade, a troubled adolescent harmlessly becomes involved with a mysterious Punch and Judy Man and a mermaid-portraying woman. But when the violent puppet show triggers buried memories of the boy's family, the lives of all become feverishly intertwined. With disturbing mysteries and half-truths uncontrollably unraveling, the young boy is forced to deal with his family's dark secrets of violence, betrayal, and guilt.


War Horse by Michael Morpurgo

War Horse is a children’s book but it has a lovely written style and the themes are weighty and moving. Not only has it been turned into a successful stage play it is now a film due out this year. I think though a lot of its power lies in the imagination of the reader, and I would urge all parents to give it to their kids.

This book recounts the adventures of a horse as he moves from life on a farm into the battles of World War I, the story of a friendship lasting through the toughest of tests.


Through the eyes of the war horse, Joey, Michael Morpurgo tells this moving and powerful story of survival on the Western Front.