Monthly Archives: September 2014

Wayward Pines

***DISCLAIMER***

I am no way affiliated with Blake Crouch, Fox or anyone else related to the Wayward Pines Trilogy

***DISCLAIMER***

I’m not one for reviews normally, there’s definitely a lot better people out there who are much able to sell the merits of a particular novel than I am. However this time I thought I’d make an exception.

I’ve just finished The Last Town, the final part of the Wayward Pines trilogy –  a creepy, Twin Peaks-esque thriller/horror/all round good yarn about secret service agent Ethan Burke who is sent to the idyllic town of Wayward Pines, Idaho in an attempt to uncover what has happened to his ex-partner. Without giving anything away, here’s the blurb for book one (Pines):

Secret service agent Ethan Burke arrives in Wayward Pines, Idaho, with a clear mission: locate and recover two federal agents who went missing in the bucolic town one month earlier. But within minutes of his arrival, Ethan is involved in a violent accident. He comes to in a hospital, with no ID, no cell phone, and no briefcase. The medical staff seems friendly enough, but something feels…off. As the days pass, Ethan’s investigation into the disappearance of his colleagues turns up more questions than answers. Why can’t he get any phone calls through to his wife and son in the outside world? Why doesn’t anyone believe he is who he says he is? And what is the purpose of the electrified fences surrounding the town? Are they meant to keep the residents in? Or something else out? Each step closer to the truth takes Ethan further from the world he thought he knew, from the man he thought he was, until he must face a horrifying fact—he may never get out of Wayward Pines alive.

I won’t say much more about the plot than the above, as the story itself is fascinating, and whilst the final part is almost like an episode of 24 with it’s relentless pace and action, it serves as a fitting end to an engrossing series. Blake has taken up a familiar premise but added a (to me, anyway) unique slant that made me devour each instalment within hours.

And the last scene of the last book – Wow.

I’m aware there’s a TV series from FOX coming out shortly based on the books, but as with anything like this I would recommend you sample the source material first, just to ensure you experience it from the author’s original version.

Heartily recommended. 5 Stars.

Mike

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pines-The-Wayward-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B007FG9LIE

Back, phew!

Well, this absence had been longer that I’d planned, but I’m glad to say I’m back on the writing wagon now, and it feels sooo good to say that!

The reason? Open University. I’ve been studying for an open degree for the past few years ( a combination of IT and Physics), and aside from the four year break I took for the birth of my twins, it’s been going pretty well.

Anyway, the end of the road is in site now, I’m on level 3 TMA’s (tutor marked assignments – basically the final year of uni) and this last module in particular has been a particular drain. I’ve been head down for two weeks, putting together the mother of all TMA’s it seems, ready for a deadline date of the 9th September. I completed the last question this morning and I can’t begin to describe the relief I’m feeling (maybe I should, I do make claims to be a wannabe writer after all!) at this moment.

Finally, after completing the last question, I then rattled out 700 words of my WIP, which is the first time I’ve touched it since I started the TMA with venom just after my last post on the 22nd August.

So, I’m glad to say I’m back, I’m writing, and hopefully I’m on track to complete this draft by the end of September.

Now, time to catch up on everyone else’s blogs 🙂

Take care.