The One Dollar Horse by Lauren St John

review by Maryom
Casey Blue lives for the time she can spend at her local riding school and has one dream in life - to win at Badminton Horse Trials. Living in a grim London tower block, there isn't really any hope of her dream coming true until the day she saves a beaten up, starving horse from the knackers' yard by buying him with a dollar bill she finds in the street. With the help of her elderly friend, Mrs Smith, a former dressage rider, she nurses Storm Warning back to health and trains him for the rigorous sport of 3-day eventing. Not everyone is helpful to a novice eventer though - there are plenty of bitchy, snobby girls and dubious characters from Casey's dad's criminal past all ready and willing to stand in the way of Casey's dream.
The One Dollar Horse is a story for every young horse-lover. To take a worn-out wreck of a horse, see that special something in him that others don't and realise your dreams is like a fairy-tale come true! Casey is still a hard-working heroine despite her lucky breaks, determined to rise above her circumstances and reach for her goal.
The author really captures the atmosphere of both stable yard and eventing and makes the reader feel that they are alongside Casey as she competes, particularly at the Badminton cross country event.
There are of course a numerous amount of lucky chances for Casey and a fairly predictable ending but this is nonetheless an excellent 'horsey' read.

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars
Publisher - Orion
Genre - 12+ Fiction

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Life in 2025 - short stories

Science Fiction or Science Fact?

Sony and The Guardian are trying to predict what life will be like in 2025 - just 13 short years ahead. The days of waiting for technology to become settled before 'buying in' are long since gone as technology leapfrogs technology at a pace of change that the consumer struggles to keep pace with. With this in mind The Guardian asked five best selling authors to write short stories to give a brief view of what they see life will be like.

The Good Listener by Michael Marshall Smith

In this story the author reflects on his fathers death and using his father's 5 year old mobile phone he retraces the holiday he never took with him and discovers that perhaps technology doesn't have all the answers. I liked this story for it's human element. But the technology?

The author predicts cars capable of driving themselves and there are already competitions for people to race cars that drive themselves where success brings two million dollar prizes. But these competitions are off-road, away from traffic and in 2007, in an urban challenge, 4 cars finished in time at an average speed of up to 14 mph. I think such cars are possible but they would require a complete redesign of the traffic system so I doubt it would happen in 13 years. These cars were based on operating systems of Linux and Windows. Reboot when you get stuck at the traffic lights? Interestingly, one of the leading contenders, is now the 'Google Driverless Car'.

The author predicts voice response commands and artificial intelligence in cars... but voice response and AI would be very expensive and I don't believe the public would pay, nor do I think it would be accurate or fast enough for safety or acceptability. I saw voice recognition technology in the early '80s and while it has improved, we are 30 years on and it's not made any serious impact yet.

The author predicts an increasing role for mobile phones... Yes, I 100% agree. It has been gradually evolving since they first came along and they have taken on roles no-one could have predicted - like identifying aircraft flying overhead... how did we cope before?

Life in 2025 by Marcus Sedgwick

A young programmer writes an app for a software corporation that enables people to select and write their own dreams. This brings him success and promotion and as the corporation seeks a bigger and bigger market it leaves the programmer wondering...

This time the author's predictions are more radical... Controlling people's dreams and nano technologies. There are some huge leaps being made in man-machine interfaces and who knows but dream control may be possible and sooner than we think. And from your mobile phone as a downloadable app! And what would people be like if this was possible? Well that is something that the author explores in a very real way. He comes to pretty much the same conclusion as Michael Marshall Smith in that technology does not answer everything but he also speculates that nano-technologies could be used to ease or even solve many of the third world issues.

My suggestions for 2025

I think that already technology is abusing people and I make no forgiveness for adding this link to my ramblingmole blog where I was infuriated by what manufacturers should consider! But apart from many more roles and much more reliance on what is laughingly called a mobile phone today, I can also predict a continuing role for larger devices for people like myself who struggle to see and read the screens without getting my reading glasses out (and also have large clumsy fingers)! But will TV sets, as tv sets, survive? I think not as they will take on a much more flexible role and 'transmission' may shift totally towards the internet.

But one major prediction I would make, and hope for, is continued reduction in power demands for the newer technologies which will help to reduce our demand for more power production and perhaps lead to a near dependence on sustainable renewable energy. This would hopefully also lead to totally viable electric cars because I do not believe a public transport system will ever have the support of individuals.

Recent breakthroughs in laser technology will bring micro-chip development of light speed chips and may mean that hardware will start to last longer while software and apps remain the focus of change (but maybe not).

A Waste Of Good Paper by Sean Taylor

Certainly Not!
Review by The Mole

Jason has been excluded from mainstream education and goes to Heronford school now. Heronford is for children with emotional and behavioural problems. As children improve they are gradually returned to mainstream education and Jason is the only one in his class without a mainstream school. Pete, one of the teachers, gives him a book in which he is to write anything he wants to and there is only Jason that will read it - Jason thinks it's a waste of good paper.

Someone asked me if something happens... but you know? Not really but yes everything. It's difficult to say but I felt like I really knew Jason and we get to understand why he has the problems he has. Pete is a very hands on sort of guy and uses physical contact to reward good behaviour... sort of a High Five but nothing like and you can believe and really feel that the kids react to his methods.

This book is so much NOT a waste of good paper and I would love to tell you why but that would involve spoilers.

If I say that I enjoyed this book then I am guilty of understatement but why I found it so good I cannot really explain - it just is. Jason is a really nice kid that has needs and the people to fulfil those needs can't see it because they have issues of their own.

Please take it from me that this is one helluva book.

Publisher - Frances Lincoln
Genre - Children 10+ Fiction



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Hit and Run by Doug Johnstone

Crime and Punishment?
review by Maryom

Billy Blackmore has been out for the night with his girlfriend Zoe and brother Charlie. Drunk and drugged up, he still decides to drive home but on the way the unthinkable happens and he hits and kills someone. Zoe and Charlie persuade him that reporting the accident won't help the man, so they hide the body and drive off.

Billy soon finds that it isn't that easy to walk away from the incident or his nagging conscience. When the body is discovered next day, he's expected, as a crime reporter, to investigate - especially when the dead man turns out to be a local crime lord with a family ready to track down the culprits and mete out their own brand of justice, and to have a grieving widow in need of consolation.

I 'discovered' Doug Johnstone last year through a Waterstones review copy of Smokeheads, a sort of Scottish island based Deliverance, and wondered what he'd come up with to follow it.

Smokeheads was a sort of action/comedy/thriller - great fun but not likely to happen . Hit and Run is different. While still fast-moving, and at times violent, it's ultimately more thought provoking and, most importantly, more believable. Billy is a good guy at heart - though I'm not too sure about his brother or girlfriend - caught in a situation that, without too big a stretch of imagination, readers can relate too. Any of us could be Billy, trying to avoid responsibility but finding that our conscience is not as malleable as we might imagine.

As in Smokeheads, there's a strong evocation of place - this time capital city, Edinburgh, and the brooding presence of Salisbury Crags, overlooking most of the action and serving as a constant reminder of what Billy has done.

Hit and Run is an unputdownable, action packed read but with plenty for those looking for something deeper to get their teeth into. If you haven't discovered Doug Johnstone, then it's time you did! I'm definitely looking forward to more from him.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Faber and Faber
Genre - adult action thriller

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Sherlock Holmes And The Dead Boer At Scotney Castle by Tim Symonds

Intriguing
Review by The Mole


In Sherlock Holmes and The Dead Boer at Scotney Castle the great consulting detective comes up against the rich and powerful Kipling League. Dr Watson recounts the extraordinary events which took place on a spacious early summer day in the Sussex and Kent countryside in 1904. None of the earlier stories chronicling the adventures of Sherlock Holmes compares to the strange circumstances which determined Watson to take up his pen to relate this extraordinary adventure against Holmes express wishes. 


This story is one that is difficult to review because spoilers would be so easy to give - but I will try not to.

I have to admit to being a little disappointed by this story because too often Holmes didn't feel like Holmes or Watson like Watson. In addition Holmes tries to win Watson round to seeing his view on the take on events and Watson cannot see it and we seem to hear the same evidence repeated several times. In fact as a reader I became convinced that Holmes was wrong until I realised that his words were ambiguous and what he should have said was not what he did say. (It would be easier to explain if I risked spoilers!). Undoubtedly though the story is an intriguing one but whether the best detective fiction has ever seen is the character who should encounter this tale is another matter - I can imagine other fictional detectives encountering this tale and it being almost in a day's work for them! (STILL avoiding spoilers!). The fact that it is intriguing is one thing but is it the best telling of such a story? Sadly I don't think it is.

Publisher - MX Publishing
Genre - Adult Crime Fiction


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My Sister Lives On The Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher

review by Maryom

5 years ago Jamie's sister Rose was blown apart by a bomb. People have said that time will make things better for her family but as far as Jamie can see, they're actually getting worse - his dad cries all the time, has all Muslims marked down as terrorists and drinks himself to sleep at night; his Mum has run off with the man from the support group; Jasmine, Rose's twin, dressed for so long in the image of her dead sister, has cut off her hair, dyed it pink and got her nose pierced in an attempt to be herself.

When someone phones Dad with an offer of work in the Lake District, he decides to go for it but a change of location doesn't magically bring things back to normal.

This is one of those books that I'd heard such a lot of hype about and wondered how it was possible for it to live up to it - but it does!! My Sister Lives On The Mantelpiece is a surprisingly funny and totally readable tale of a family trying to come to terms with the death of a child.

Told through the eyes of Jamie - who was 5 when Rose died and doesn't remember her too well - avoids too much sentimentality. He is more interested in his cat, his new school, keeping secret his friendship with Muslim girl Sunya and his desperate belief that his mother will return to them one day.

This story is both unflinchingly brutal and laugh out loud funny. Although aimed at teens, I'd recommend it for almost anyone!

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Orion Books
Genre - teen,

The Knife Of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

review by Maryom

On a world where everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts, you wouldn't think it was possible to lie or keep secrets - but the men of Prentisstown have been doing just that for years. Todd Hewitt has grown up there believing it to be the only surviving settlement on New World, that all the women and lots of the men have died of a virus deliberately spread by the native Spackles - but he's about to find out just how wrong he is! He's waiting anxiously for his 13th birthday- the day when, after an initiation test, Prentisstown boys become men - but his accidental discovery of a quiet space, a gap in the Noise that covers New World, leads to him running for his life....

I'm behind the rest of the world in discovering the Knife Of Never Letting Go - but at least that means I'm not left with the long pause while waiting for the subsequent books of the trilogy.

A thought provoking teenage read which despite its sci fi 'other world' setting deals with issues quite as likely to be encountered here in our world - knife crime, racism, sexism - particularly the important message that it's possible to become a man without having to kill to prove it.

I found the first person, stream of consciousness style a little cumbersome at times - while it captures what Todd feels, sees and does, sometimes I felt there was too much of it and it slowed down the action. A minor niggle though and maybe I was just too impatient to reach the end.

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars
Publisher - Walker Books
Genre - teen, dystopian

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