Book Review: The Last Dog on Earth by Adrian J. Walker

What the publisher says: “Every dog has its day…

And for Lineker, a happy go lucky mongrel from Peckham, the day the world ends is his: finally a chance to prove to his owner just how loyal he can be.

Reg, an agoraphobic writer with an obsession for nineties football, plans to wait out the impending doom in his second floor flat, hiding himself away from the riots outside.

But when an abandoned orphan shows up in the stairwell of their building, Reg and Lineker must brave the outside in order to save not only the child, but themselves…”

What I say: As a lover of post-apocalyptic books, I very much enjoyed this novel. The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic London, where Reg, a writer, lives with his dog. He knows there are other people in flats further away (he keeps track of them; there are ten window spread out over the city that lit up every night) but he is not interested in meeting anyone else. He likes to keep to himself. But then he finds a young girl at his door, who refuses to go away. Reg decides to bring her to wherever she’s supposed to be and, once he gets outside the familiar streets, finds the remnants of London to be very different from what he expected. He is forced to deal with other people and his quest to drop the girl off turns into something bigger.

Besides Reg, there is another narrator, who is at Reg’s side for most of the time but also has his own adventures. This is Reg’s dog Lineker. He’s very wise for a dog and he philosophizes like a real human. I loved how he interprets the smells that he comes across; these are much more important to him than sound or vision. However, while he was generally telling an entertaining story, as the story progressed, I found him less believable as a dog. He knew too much; he was too clever.

In all, this was an entertaining story about a man and his dog in a world where there are many more men and dogs than either of them knew.

I received this book as an e-book (ARC) from the publishers (Del Rey) via Netgalley.

 

Read: Armada by Ernest Cline

I loved, loved Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. If one could marry a book, this would be “the one” for me. So, when I saw Armada in the book shop (well, a department store in The Hague, to be precise), I had to buy it straight away, even though I should not buy any more books.

I read it during the Readathon (April 2016), and it was OK. It was OK. That’s it. Unbelievable and a little childish – as in, boy dreams come true – and I never really suspended disbelief. What a pity after the great, great RPO! It reminded me of Ender’s Game, which works great as a movie, and I’m sure Armada would (will!), but I wasn’t convinced this is a great book for adults.

The publisher says: “As [the novel] opens, high-school student Zack Lightman glances out his classroom window and spots a UFO. At first he thinks he’s going crazy. A minute later he’s sure of it, because the ship he’s staring at is straight out of the videogame he plays every night, a hugely popular online flight simulator called Armada,—in which gamers just happen to be protecting Earth from alien invaders.  

Zack is sure he’s lost his mind. But what he’s seeing is all too real, and his skills—as well as those of millions of gamers across the world—are going to be needed to save Earth from what’s about to befall it. Yet even as he and his new comrades scramble to prepare for the alien onslaught, Zack can’t help thinking of all the science-fiction books, TV shows, and movies he grew up reading and watching, and wonder: Doesn’t something about this scenario seem a little too… familiar? ”

Spotlight & Giveaway: Blood on Borrowed Wings by Darren Stapleton

As you may know, I am the owner of a book editing company, Book Helpline. It’s time to show off another of the books my team and I have worked on.

One of the authors we worked with a while ago was Darren Stapleton. When I read his dark fantasy manuscript, Blood on Borrowed Wings, I immediately sat up straight: Wow, great language, great story. I helped Darren to further improve the book, and the result is now published!

Here’s the description of this dark fantasy novel:

Stay low. Keep moving.
After Drake Theron ditches his wings and military brothers, he turns mercenary to forget a horrific battle where so much more than lives were lost.

When women start disappearing from the Angelbrawl Arena, Drake is hired to stop the loss of life and profit. He thinks it is just another job. Business. But it turns into something far more sinister and personal when he is abducted together with the beautiful woman he is trying to protect.
He is drawn into a conspiracy that stretches from the acrid stench of the neon Lowlands slums to Nimbus City and the very top of society. On the run, betrayed by friends, used by his enemies and hunted by black-winged assassins, Drake has to confront his past and do the worst thing imaginable to survive: ask for help.

Blood on Borrowed Wings is science fiction noir. A fast-paced original thriller full of twists, fists, and feathers. It is set on Nimbus, a future Earth, a world divided, where the powerful and evil dominate the skies…and not only birds have wings.

Darren says: “My book has fast-paced chapters, crackling dialogue, dark humour and action to keep you guessing until the final twist. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.” I say: “Editing the book was a great joy, too!”

Win a copy of this novel (e-book). Fill out this form. You can enter the giveaway until April 30th. On entry per person. No need to follow the blog (but you certainly can, if you like). Share this post of Twitter or Facebook for an extra entry. Link to @leeswammes or (Twitter) or BookHelpline (Facebook).  Let me know in the comments that you shared the post.

You can find more information about the book HERE.

If you enjoy the book, why not leave a review on Amazon? A few lines with your thoughts would be lovely! Thanks!

Book Review: The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood

The Heart Goes Last: What it is about

Doubleday (publisher) says: “Stan and Charmaine are a married couple trying to stay afloat in the midst of an economic and social collapse. Job loss has forced them to live in their car, leaving them vulnerable to roving gangs. They desperately need to turn their situation around—and fast. The Positron Project in the town of Consilience seems to be the answer to their prayers. No one is unemployed and everyone gets a comfortable, clean house to live in . . . for six months out of the year. On alternating months, residents of Consilience must leave their homes and function as inmates in the Positron prison system. Once their month of service in the prison is completed, they can return to their “civilian” homes.
At first, this doesn’t seem like too much of a sacrifice to make in order to have a roof over one’s head and food to eat. But when Charmaine becomes romantically involved with the man who lives in their house during the months when she and Stan are in the prison, a series of troubling events unfolds, putting Stan’s life in danger. With each passing day, Positron looks less like a prayer answered and more like a chilling prophecy fulfilled.”

The Heart Goes Last: What I thought

Let’s start on the outside: a beautiful cover! Do you agree? This kind of cover, simple but colorful, is so inviting!

I am not a huge Margaret Atwood fan, but I was keen to read this new novel, as it sounded very interesting. I’ve read a few of Atwood’s books, and loved them, but I also read one or two that I found impossible to get through. The science fiction ones, I love: The Handmaid’s Tale, Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood.

The Heart Goes Last reminded me to some extent of The Year of the Flood, because of the crazy things that are happening. I read the book in a weekend because it’s was near-unputdownable, but some of the crazy things were a little too crazy for my liking. Marilyn Monroe and Elvis sex dolls? And changing one’s brain for…well, I won’t spoil it for you. But this went a little too far for me. Luckily, this only appeared in the latter half of the book, and I devoured the beginning like chocolate cake.

But okay, what is the book really about? That’s a different story altogether! It’s about freedom and perceived freedom. When we first meet Stan and Charmaine, they are living in their car. They can go wherever they want, as long as they have money for petrol, but leaving their car is not advisable most of the time, because of all the violent people outside. Stan and Charmaine are extremely poor and when they get the opportunity to start a new life, they don’t hesitate and take it. However, this means being permanently locked up in a gated community, where they have to spend half of the time in prison and the other live a ‘normal’ life. Now they have all they need, in return for their freedom. Are they better off?

When they make mistakes and get in trouble, it’s time to find a way out. They discover that the system they live in is not what it seemed, and strange things are going on. In the end, Charmaine discovers that her mind sometimes limits her freedom when her circumstances don’t. That was quite an interesting discovery!

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Rating: 4 (out of 5)

Number of pages: 308

First published: 2015

I got this book: from my Penguin Random House representative for an honest review

Genre: post-apocalyptic, science fiction