Looks like we’re stuck in this cave for the duration (sigh) so I’ve been taking the chance to check out more books by my fellow prisoners. With the recent snow and plummeting temperatures in here I needed something pretty floomin’ entertaining to take my mind off our situation, believe you me. I’m thrilled to say I found it, in the shape of HERO.COM and VILLAIN.NET, by ANDY BRIGGS.
When Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider books first came out, reviewers at the time made much of the fact that their action scenes were ‘as fast as a movie’. On the evidence of these books Andy is someone who understands that for some readers, ‘as fast’ just isn’t fast enough!
In films or games, action scenes are limited by the practical expertise – and money – that their makers can bring to bear. In books, by contrast, the special effects budget is infinite: if you can imagine it, and write about it in a way that makes readers believe in it, there are NO LIMITS to what a book could contain. If authors are going to be serious about attracting potential readers who might otherwise get their story kicks only from other, more visual media, then I believe more of them need to take advantage of the fact that books can – and should - be MORE thrilling than games or films, MORE spectacular, MORE outrageous.
Andy certainly has. You like stories with fights? chases? explosions? heroes? villains? explosions? spectacular hideouts? sinister masterplans? gadgets? missiles? awesome powers and (oh, yeah) /explosions/?? Then these books have got THE LOT. My personal preference, naturally, was for VILLAIN.NET (MOO HOO HA HA!) but if you’re partial to superhero stories, and I most certainly am, then both pack a wallop that makes the X-Men look like wimps.
Nice job, Andy! Now, um, any chance of someone else getting a turn by the fire? I’m FREEZING! ;p
08/02/2009 at 5:26 pm Permalink
I’m a big fan of these books. In fact I had a definite “Why didn’t I think of that?!” moment when I read them – not knowing I would one day be imprisoned with their author.
09/02/2009 at 6:15 pm Permalink
Funny – I kind of preferred villian.net too – BUT – the best way is to read hero.com and villian.net at the SAME TIME! YES! It can be done – for I have done it. Not with my left eye on hero and my right eye on villian (although if you’ve ever saw my face after four sessions with Year 6s on the trot you might think I could be capable of this) – NO, the best thing is three chapter chunks. Start with one and then hop across to the other. It’s so cool because Andy has cleverly put characters from hero into the backdrop of villain and the same back the other way. Brilliant! Both books work alone but so much better if you can read them at the same time. I haven’t tried it with the next two (busy on the first Jimmy Coates right now) but I will!