Tag: historical fiction

Book Review: Fata Morgana by Steven R Boyett & Ken Mitchroney

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Love, war and duty across the reach of time

FataMorganaAbout the Book

At the height of the air war in Europe, Captain Joe Farley and the baseball-loving, wisecracking crew of the B-17 Flying Fortress Fata Morgana are in the middle of a harrowing bombing mission over East Germany when everything goes sideways. The bombs are still falling and flak is still exploding all around the 20-ton bomber as it is knocked like a bathtub duck into another world. Suddenly stranded with the final outcasts of a desolated world, Captain Farley navigates a maze of treachery and wonder – and finds a love seemingly decreed by fate – as his bomber becomes a pawn in a centuries-old conflict between remnants of advanced but decaying civilizations. Caught among these bitter enemies, a vast power that has brought them here for its own purposes, and a terrifying living weapon bent on their destruction, the crew must use every bit of their formidable inventiveness and courage to survive.

Book Facts

  • Format: Hardback
  • Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
  • Publication date: 13th June 2017
  • Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Historical Fiction

To purchase Fata Morgana from Amazon.co.uk, click here (link provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme)

Find Fata Morgana on Goodreads

My Review

The first section of the book is a terrifically exciting account of a B17 bomber raid over Germany in World War 2 that has a real sense of authenticity. It’s here we are first introduced to the wise-cracking but close-knit crew of the Fata Morgana, led by Captain Joe Farley. Suddenly, however, from WW2 historical fiction, the book mutates into science fiction as the aircraft and its crew is transported through some kind of vortex into a seemingly alien world.

Bomber

They find themselves and their stricken plane in a bleak, desolate landscape where two competing cities are all that remains after a global apocalypse. Given shelter by one of the cities, the crew are introduced to the inhabitants’ advanced technology but, in a nice twist, they are still able to use their 20th century skills to solve some problems. The world they encounter has an unfamiliar social structure where, from necessity, both sexes perform equal roles, including combat.  This is just one of the nods (sometimes rather signposted) to the changes brought about by WW2 in the real world.

Conveniently the inhabitants of the new world speak English although there are some amusing exchanges as they are introduced to the crew’s American idioms. For example this conversation between Farley and Wennda, the woman he finds himself attracted to and senses some strange connection with.

Farley scratched beneath his crush cap. “Look, I’ll level with you, okay?”
“Okay”, she said. “Whatever levelling with me means.”
“It means I’ll be honest.”
“Have you not been?”
“No, I’ve been straight with you.”
“Is that the same as being level?”
“You’re making my head hurt.”

I won’t spoil it by explaining much more of what happens but the whole thing is a glorious mash-up of The Twilight Zone, The Flight of the Phoenix and The Time Machine (not so much the H G Wells book as the 1960 film starring Rod Taylor).

TheTimeMachineTheTimeMachine3TheTimeMachine2

It’s well-written, funny, with plenty of action and I really enjoyed it. I found the ending quite touching.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers, Blackstone Publishing, in return for an honest review.

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In three words: Exciting, original, entertaining

Try something similar…The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

About the Authors

StevenRBoyettSteven R. Boyett is the author of Ariel, Elegy Beach, Mortality Bridge, Fata Morgana (with Ken Mitchroney) & numerous stories, articles, comic books and screenplays. As a DJ he’s played clubs, conventions, parties, Burning Man, and sporting events, and produces two of the world’s most popular music podcasts: Podrunner & Groovelectric. Steve’s also been a martial arts instructor, professional paper marbler, advertising copywriter, proofreader, typesetter, writing teacher and Website designer and editor. He also plays the didgeridoo and composes electronic music.

KenMitchroneyKen Mitchroney’s film and television credits include director, head of story, director of photography, and storyboard artist on Storks, The Lego Movie, The Ant Bully, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., The Annoying Orange Show, Mighty Magiswords, and more. His comic illustration includes Ren & Stimpy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Myth Conceptions, and creating the influential Space Ark.  He is an official artist for the Ed “Big Daddy” Roth estate, and official illustrator for the Oakland Athletics and at one time the Baltimore Orioles. He is currently involved with the restoration of the Ward Kimball collection at the Southern California Railway Museum in Perris, California.  Mitchroney has been a professional race-car driver and pinstriper, and restores and runs vintage locomotives. He lives and works in the San Francisco Bay area and Los Angeles.

Connect with Steven & Ken

Steven’s website http://www.steveboy.com/
Ken’s Goodreads author page https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/301072.Ken_Mitchroney

Book Review: Widdershins by Helen Steadman

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Did all women have something of the witch about them?

WiddershinsAbout the Book

Publisher’s description: Jane Chandler is an apprentice healer. From childhood, she and her mother have used herbs to cure the sick. But Jane will soon learn that her sheltered life in a small village is not safe from the troubles of the wider world. From his father’s beatings to his uncle’s raging sermons, John Sharpe is beset by bad fortune. Fighting through personal tragedy, he finds his purpose: to become a witch-finder and save innocents from the scourge of witchcraft.

Book Facts

  • Format: Paperback
  • Publisher: Impress Books
  • No. of pages: 250
  • Publication date: 1st July 2017
  • Genre: Historical Fiction

To pre-order/purchase Widdershins from Amazon.co.uk, click here (link provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme)

Find Widdershins on Goodreads

My Review

Inspired by true events, this is a fantastically atmospheric book that immerses the reader vividly in seventeenth century north east England and Scotland. The narrative alternates between two main characters: Jane, whose mother is teaching her the skills of midwifery and herbal medicine; and John, a young man brutalised by his mother’s death and violent father. How their two stories will converge and at what point provides the narrative hook to the book.

I loved the period detail and depictions of everyday life such as the evocative description of the Newcastle fair.

‘The craftsmen were there to show off their skills and market their wares. Smiths, tanners, dyers, fullers, weavers and tailors galore. And farmers’ wives and girls sold their produce. Warm cider, weak ale and spiced mead sloshed from jugs. Hogs roasted over fires, filling the air with savoury smells and the crackle of fat melting onto flame. And above it all was the sweet smell of singing hinnies and gingerbread.’

The author does a good job of depicting a time when ignorance, intolerance, fear of change and superstition drove acts of great cruelty, in a lot of cases fuelled by misguided religious belief or a very fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible.   Women – especially midwives and herbalists – were a particular target for this and the author depicts in shocking and chilling detail the horrific examinations they were subjected to in order to ‘prove’ their innocence or guilt of the charge of witchcraft. These seem to have been driven by a kind of depraved, sexual hypocrisy.

Jane comes across as very much an innocent, not necessarily understanding all that she sees of her mother’s work and with an open, trusting nature. It’s not difficult to feel empathy with her, especially during the tragic events that lie in wait for her.  The author has a more challenging task to provide convincing motivation for the actions of John, who is a monster really.   His transformation from abused child to abuser is vividly described but whether it can completely explain his subsequent actions is open to question. There is such a thing as pure evil and it seems to me John is the incarnation of this.

I thought this was an impressive debut and the author succeeded in conjuring up a believable sense of time and place. Because of the subject matter, an uncomfortable read at times, but a really compelling story.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of publishers, Impress Books, in return for an honest review.

WiddershinsCoverReveal

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In three words: Evocative, chilling, compelling

Try something similar…Witchwood by John Buchan, The Vanishing Witch by Karen Maitland

HelenSteadmanAbout the Author

Helen Steadman lives in the foothills of the North Pennines, and she particularly enjoys researching and writing about the history of the north east of England. Following her MA in creative writing at Manchester Met, Helen is now completing a PhD in English at the University of Aberdeen. When she s not studying or writing, Helen critiques, edits and proofreads other writers work, and she is a professional member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders.

Connect with Helen

Website: http://helensteadman.com/
Twitter
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2297484.Helen_Steadman