Mr. S. Merrill

Brilliant- but not for everybody, 9 Sep 2012

300 is the `retelling' of the battle of Thermopylae: after King Leonidas refuses to bend his knee to the God-king Xerxes (ruler of the Persian Empire) and quite rashly throws his messengers into a bottomless well, the former has no choice but to muster a force of just 300 Spartans to face the infinite hordes of Persian warriors and their seven foot leader on the Greek coast. Madness? This is Sparta!
Folks expecting a complex historical drama rooted in reality- prepare to be disappointed, 300 is none of those things. On the other hand, if you enjoy stylistically violent slow motion battle scenes, packed with eighteen foot Elephants and all other fantastical creatures far more likely… Read more

Small Change For Stuart, 18 Dec 2011

Small Change for Stuart begins with a rather short boy, by the name of Stuart who moves to the unremarkable little town of Beeton. There, expecting a dreary summer, he discovers a trail of clues that leads to his remarkable great uncle Tony's- a stage magician- workshop. His great uncle disappeared sometime ago and Stuarts only just heard of him.
Older readers may be put off reading this book, partly because of its size, its simplistic style and of course the very subject matter of the book. Magic. Well, my response is- don't be. The book can hilarious, simply by capturing the funny little things that make a parent a parent, and Stuart and April's friendship grows far more naturally… Read more

Bold and Original, 16 Oct 2011

Todd Hewitt is the last boy of mad and lonely Prentisstown, the only town on a desolate planet. The colonists who first settled there were shocked to discover that they could see each other's thoughts in an Infinite, overpowering swirl of `Noise'. The women of the town were slaughtered by an alien race known as the Spackle, or so Todd is told. One fateful morning Todd sets out with his dog Manchee to pick apples by the swamp; there he discovers a patch of complete and utter silence, in terror he races home to find his life can never be the same again.
The setting of `The Knife Of Never Letting Go' would imply that it is a science fiction book although the terrifying and often gruesome… Read more