In the same week that I'm citing Rudyard Kipling and George Orwell, I'd like to give a bit of a puff to a new book by a new author Tom Kelly: Danny Battle and the Book of Shangri-La. I was out talent-spotting last year and tribbed brilliant games designers, and musicians who come from Planet Zorg. Tom Kelly doesn't come from off-planet but he's written a great global adventure (think Raiders of the Lost Ark) for the yoof market. It's got a bit of a treasure hunt in it and I love treasure hunts. But that's not the only reason. I was given the ms to read a few months ago and noted that the protagonist Danny at one point is reading Skullduggery Pleasant a book I had to cast aside in disgust after the 3rd gross illiteracy in the first 4 pages. Danny Battle is not going to annoy you in that way and I thought that, while it was fantasy, it was internally consistent and didn't jerk the reader around by pulling a deus (or a butler) ex machina to paste over a hole in the plot. It reads a little like Eoin Colfer if you follow Artemis Fowl.
I recommend it, particularly if you know a reading teenager of either sex. I suspect that Danny at ?14? is rather fanciable to young gells - he's funny, sassy, adventurous and clever with his hands (no I didn't mean that way). There are enough fast cars and other kit to amuse the chaps.
You can download the kindle edition (all that's available at the moment) from Amazon for the ludicrously low price of £3.00 and pennies: here's the buy-it link http://url.ie/l6dm
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