reviewed – Page 19 – What Cathy Read Next…

Love, war and duty across the reach of time

About 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: 13^th 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 20^th 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).

TheTimeMachine TheTimeMachine3 TheTimeMachine2

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

Steven 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.

Ken 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

New arrivals

A very restrained week on the purchase, review request and ARC front (pats self on back)…….

Jack Dawkins by Charlton Daines (ebook, 99p)

Jack Dawkins, once known as the Artful Dodger in the streets of London, was sent to Australia on a prison ship when he was little more than a boy. Now he has returned to find that London has changed while the boy has turned into a man. With few prospects provided by his criminal past and having developed mannerisms that allow him to move amongst a higher strata of society, Jack turns his back on the streets that would have primed him as a successor to the murderer, Bill Sykes, and quickly remodels himself as a gentleman thief. New acquaintances and a series of chance encounters, including one with his old friend Oliver, create complications as remnants of his past come back to plague him. Jack is forced to struggle for a balance between his new life and memories that haunt him with visions of the derelict tavern where Nancy used to sing.

The Floating Theatre by Martha Conway (ARC, NetGalley)

In a nation divided by prejudice, everyone must take a side. When young seamstress May Bedloe is left alone and penniless on the shore of the Ohio, she finds work on the famous floating theatre that plies its trade along the river. Her creativity and needlework skills quickly become invaluable and she settles in to life among the colourful troupe of actors. She finds friends, and possibly the promise of more… But cruising the border between the Confederate South and the ‘free’ North is fraught with danger. For the sake of a debt that must be repaid, May is compelled to transport secret passengers, under cover of darkness, across the river and on, along the underground railroad. But as May’s secrets become harder to keep, she learns she must endanger those now dear to her. And to save the lives of others, she must risk her own…

Exquisite by Sarah Stovell (ebook, review copy)

Bo Luxton has it all—a loving family, a beautiful home in the Lake District, and a clutch of bestselling books to her name. Enter Alice Dark, an aspiring writer who is drifting through life, with a series of dead-end jobs and a freeloading boyfriend. When they meet at a writers’ retreat, the chemistry is instant, and a sinister relationship develops. Or does it? Breathlessly pacey, taut and terrifying, Exquisite is a startlingly original and unbalancing psychological thriller that will keep you guessing until the very last page.

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Book Reviews

On Monday I published reviews of Gravel Heart by Abdulrazak Gurnah and The 7^th Function of Language by Laurent Binet. Tuesday saw the publication of my review of Crystal King’s debut novel set in Ancient Rome, Feast of Sorrow.

Other posts

On Monday, I let my imagination run riot by conjuring up what would be my dream book conference panel. It featured two characters interviewing their authors in not altogether serious vein. On Wednesday and Thursday, I put the spotlight on Jeff Russell’s book The Dream Shelf with an excerpt followed by a Q&A. Friday saw an author Q&A with Caro Fraser as part of the blog tour for her historical fiction novel, The Summer House Party. Finally, yesterday I participated in the book blitz & giveaway for Debutante, a prequel to Marie Silk’s popular Davenport House series.

Challenge updates

Goodreads 2017 Reading Challenge – 51 out of 78 books read (2 more than last week)
Classics Club – 2 out of 50 books reviewed (same as last week)
NetGalley and Edelweiss Reading Challenge 2017 – 25 ARCs reviewed out of 25 (1 more than last week) Challenge Achieved!
From Page to Screen – 6 book/film comparisons completed (same as last week)
The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction Shortlist 2017 – 3 out of 7 read (1 more than last week)