Someone has stolen Professor Weirdo’s hearse and the evidence points to Milton the Monster. But is he ghoulty, or not ghoulty? You’ve got to love the monster justice system as Professor Weirdo and Count Kook play judge, jury and … ehm … monsters!

As I have stated in a previous post, somewhere back in the mists of time, I’m a huge fan of Philip Reeve’s Mortal Engines. I would go as far as to say it is my all time favourite book for the YA market. As such, when I saw that he had written a story about dragons – even one with such an erroneous title – then I had to buy it and see if it lived up to his previous work.

No Such Thing as Dragons tells the tale of a young mute lad, Ansell, who is sold to a travelling dragon hunter named Brock. His new master is full of grand stories of his adventurous career in slaying the enormous creatures and he is also full of himself and his reputation. However, Ansell soon discovers Brock’s secret. He is a fraud. He has never really encountered a dragon and doesn’t actually believe in their existence. It comes as no great surprise to the reader when the two travellers arrive at a village who are living in fear of a dragon and discover there is more to the legends than Brock thought.

This story is written for a younger market than the Hungry Cities series. Philip’s descriptive writing is as breathtakingly brilliant as ever and I will most certainly read this book aloud to my son when he is old enough. However, for fans of the Mortal Engines series, I wouldn’t recommend this as a book to progress to because it doesn’t have the depth of his previous works. The story lacks the twists and turns that he so masterfully engineers in his other books, but makes a superb introductory book to the dragon genre for younger readers.

One bone I would have to pick with Mr Reeve is his choice of title … is he yet another author who has not heard of our plight? Of course there are such things as dragons! If I ever get the chance to meet him … and I hope to do that one day … I shall be quick to raise this issue. Maybe I’ll even introduce him to a dragon or two.

Here’s a touching Valentine’s message to show to your favourite tasty human.

And look! The dude in specs at the back looks just like me!

-Sam

Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters is the second thrilling volume in the wonderful series of heroic fantasy stories by author, Rick Riordan. In the first book, Percy discovers he is a hero. Not an everyday life, safe a dog from drowning hero, but a hero like Hercules or Achilles from the sagas of ancient Greece. You see history mistakenly records Zeus, Poseidon, Hades and company as the Greek gods, where in fact they were the gods of Western Civilization. As such, when the centre of Western Civilization shifted, so did they. It seems they have resided in Rome, France and England, but are currently living in Manhattan! Mount Olympus is now situated at the top of the Empire State Building.

As a hero, Percy is given quests and in the first installment we saw him travel to the depths of the underworld in an effort to find Zeus’s master thunderbolt before the gods descend into all out war. In book two, however, he is told that under no circumstance is he to go on a quest. Camp Half Blood is under attack by monsters. It seems the only thing that can save them is the Golden Fleece that Jason and his Argonauts searched for many centuries ago. Where is it now? On an island in the Sea of Monsters, of course! And where might that be? Well let me see … where do most boats and planes mysteriously disappear due to unknown circumstance? Ah yes, the place I’m currently writing about! The Bermuda Triangle.

Will Percy listen to the warnings and ignore the quest? Of course not! This is another mind-blowing adventure with monsters at every turn. Good monsters (yes there are some good ones in these books) bad monsters and downright evil monsters look to kill, capture or otherwise harm our worthy hero at every footstep. This is action adventure on an epic scale.

As I’ve said before, I think it is one of the best series of fantasy books around at the moment. If you’ve not tried one yet, then it’s best to start at the beginning with Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. Any book that starts with a chapter entitled: The Day I Accidently Vapourised My Maths Teacher gets my vote of confidence!

Where is Atom Ant when you need him? Perhaps we should have thought about calling him in a year ago! This cartoon is a classic spoof on some of the old monster movies. I especially love the narrator’s dramatic 1950’s advertisement style storytelling. Enjoy.

Hurrah!  It’s that time of year already, and the good folks at Amazon.co.uk have started selling HERO.COM 4: CHAOS EFFECT and VILLAIN.NET 4: COLLISION COURSE a few weeks earlier than the official launch date in March!

Needless to say, both books continue the adventures of Toby, Emily, Lorna, Pete and Jake Hunter — in an entwined plot spanning between books (although, of course, you can read them individually!).  I can honestly say I had the most fun writing these two.  The characters jump from the Hero.com series to the Villain.net anti-series with more zeal than ever before.  Figuring out the linked plots was tough enough, but trying to top the action scenes the in the previous books was even more challenging – I hope you like ‘em!

CLICK HERE TO BUY HERO.COM 4 ON AMAZON!

CLICK HERE TO BUY VILLAIN.NET 4 ON AMAZON!

And of course they will be in all good book stores soon!

This is a post for our Librarian / adult followers. If you like a story with issues, then our would-be rescuer of last year, Elizabeth Kay, is a good author to read. Her children’s Divide trilogy took a wonderful sideways poke at the pharmaceutical industry giants in a most thought-provoking way. Her new book for the adult market looks at some very different issues, and is clearly aimed at the women’s fiction market. Despite not being in the target audience for this book, I found myself surprised by how easily Elizabeth drew me into the story with her fictional reality TV show ‘The Missing Link’. I raced through the book in no time flat as I found myself more and more intrigued by the characters and the nature of the ‘Missing Link’ that the show’s researchers had found between them.

The host of the show is a particularly intriguing character for many reasons.

I don’t want to post spoilers here, but suffice it to say I felt this book would make a brilliant choice for adult book groups, as it raises lots of issues for discussion. In particular it raises some very pointed questions about how far Reality TV shows should be allowed to develop and about morality issues surrounding fertility treatments for older women. There is even a section at the back with suggested questions (I understand this is becoming more common in women’s literature, but I’d never seen it before).

If you’re stuck for a Mother’s Day present, you could do a lot worse than look out a copy of Missing Link for your Mum. You might have to make your own dinner for a couple of days, as she’ll have her nose stuck in the book, but that’s a small price to pay, isn’t it?

The title of this book was the first thing that caught my eye. They’ve finally done it, I thought to myself, the monsters in our cave have published a book revealing the dark truth of what really lurks under your beds. Thankfully, I was proved wrong.

Ben Horton’s debut novel is about Cameron Reilly – an ordinary teenage kid whose world is about to change in a horrific explosion. Waking on an operating table, under the knife of Doctor Fry, is only the beginning of Cameron’s nightmare. He has been saved from death by having almost every part of his body turned into a cybernetic machine – a cybernetic assassin to be precise. With his flesh half-ripped off, Cameron looks more like zombie than a futuristic weapon.

Springing from Fry’s lab, Cameron meets others like him – hideous teenage cyborgs, who are all rejects from Doctor fry’s nefarious experiments. They have formed the Monster Republic and offer Cameron a chance to reboot his life…

I’m a huge fan of Robocop and the Terminator movies, so it wasn’t a huge leap for me to get swept away with the story. The pace is relentless, the action is gripping and Horton’s easy style and the publisher’s choice of using a larger font ensures Monster Republic will be perfect in the hands of those reluctant readers. Monster Republic is a perfect stepping stone towards Joe Craig’s “Jimmy Coates” series.

I’m ready to join the Monster Republic – come and join us.

It’s here. I’ve bought it. It’s gone straight to the top of my reading pile. I’m dead excited about this book and I will be reviewing it very soon.

Books I’ve read in the past couple of weeks and will be reviewing soon:

Missing Link – Elizabeth Kay
Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters – Rick Riordan
No Such Thing as Dragons – Philip Reeve

Last week I slinked out of the caves for a couple of book events at the amazing “Weald School” in West Sussex (where I discovered traces of Ali Sparkes’ last visit there) and the incredibly enthusiastic Hounslow Manor School in Middlesex (with traces of Joe Craig still strewn around). Both events were great fun and the audience was particularly loud… so loud we almost blew the roof off the Hounslow Manor hall!

What is really inspirational about visiting schools, from my point of view, are the people who take the time to come and speak to you at the end of events. One such guy at The Weald School, Jordon Watson (year 8), did so, armed with a story he’d written. It took a lot of guts for him to show his work, and sometimes that kind of initiative can create its own rewards. So, with the monster’s permission, here is Jordon’s story: “The Runaway Dog”. This is Jordon’s first step in creative writing – I hope he finds this post encouraging enough to continue!

CLICK HERE FOR: The Runaway Dog (downloads as an RTF file)

If any school libraries have a section on their websites (as space is limited here) for pupils’ stories, then send us the links. It could be a new feature…