The Cyber Puppets

The Cyber Puppets is a science fiction novel from author Angus McAllister.

Scott Maxwell's life is strange. Weird, even. His wife is unfaithful, multiple times, his brother-in-law William seems to take scheming and plotting to almost ridiculous extremes, and his other brother-in-law Roddy, let's just say that his alcohol consumption is stupendous.

However, perhaps that is because Scott has married into the Laird family, one of the biggest distiller of Scotch in the entire world?

But things are starting to get even stranger. How come Scott is the only one who notices that his father-in-law has been replaced by a totally different person?

And why does Scott seem unaffected by his wife's cheating and her pregnancy? How come he has no free will? What is the cause of his memory lapses?

And what, exactly, is Mr Ramanuki up to? And Bruckner. Where does he fit in?

With all the machinations, the plotting, the twists and the outrageous behaviour, the miraculous recoveries of various family members, you'd almost think that it was a soap opera, rather than real life!

Wait a moment... what if? What if Scott really was a character in a soap opera?

(NOTE: The appearance of Professor Chandler in chapter 18 and his lecture on 20th century television programmes and especially soap opera was very well realised and took me back to media and cultural studies lectures that I have attended. This means either that Angus McAllister has a very vivid imagination or has sat through more than his fair share of such lectures!)

Scott must come to terms with the fact that not only has he being living the life of a man trapped in a false reality, that he is, in reality, living in a time 100 years beyond where he thought he was, a time when the environment had become devastated by man's stupidity.

And then Scott discovers a cataclysmic secret that really blows his mind.

But what would happen in a soap opera if the characters began to go off script? And just who, exactly, is writing the script?

In truth this plot is not unique, it has been done several times before, but not always with the panache and wit of Angus McAllister, who really is a great find as an author.

It's published by Matador at a very reasonable £8.99 in paperback and is also available as an e book.

I have to confess that I am a fan of retired professor Angus McAllister's works, including his novel Close Quarters.

Both of which are available from the That's Books book shop https://amzn.to/2kB1tO7.

Clarice

Clarice is a debut novel from Welsh-born author Imogen Radwan.

It's the summer of 1969 and Clarice is taking a look back at her life up until then. It's been a tumultuous life with political assassinations, the Merseybeat sound, all culminating in that year which became known as the Summer of Love.

From a conventional childhood including being sent away to boarding school, at age 15 Clarice falls for Jim and knows of love for the very first time.

Her life is drama free and stable, so the appearance of a spirit entity who introduces herself as Amelia and brings Clarice urgent news that a young girl's life is at risk, Clarice realises that matters need ot be investigated further.

There then befall a series of tragic events and Clarice's life is turned inside out.

Now it is the Summer of Love and Clarice is living the dream life in the hippy haven known as San Francisco. She's gone the whole nine yards, as they say, drugs, long, meaningful debates throughout the warm Californian nights whilst wearing flowers in her hair.

She is enjoying life with her live in lover, Clint. It's a long term yet hectic relationship and all seems fairly good. Except for the fact that Amelia starts to appear and with her come questions that start ot haunt Clarice, questions that go to the very heart of who or what the reality of Clarice's life really is.

But would accepting that reality shatter everything?

This is a compelling first novel, published by The Book Guild at £8.99 it can be bought from

https://goo.gl/wdCFDG

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Cream of Plankton Soup

Cream of Plankton Soup is a collection of short stories that is, and this is no tired, old cliche, but a genuinely fresh, new cliche, like no other collection of short stories that I have ever read.

In fact I think I can say that this collection of stories by Grant Sutton is possibly like no other collection of short stories in the history of short stories. Ever.

When I began to read it I felt something akin to an electric (or was that an eclectic?) current jolting its way through my mind and my body.

On the first page of the first story the reader meets Pipa, a young woman who has given birth to twins. Fathered by a vegetable of some kind, though she declines to say which type of vegetable.

The twins are called Pierre and Melone.

When the twins -who are being wheeled around by Pippa in a misappropriated supermarket trolley- begin to cry, Pippa has to soothe them by unhooking a stepladder from the trolley and playing a rather unwieldy piano accordion whilst sat atop the stepladder. For about an hour, during which time she plays random notes.

The protagonist then begins to offer Pippa a wide range of tendentious advice before he is subjected to a foul mouthed tirade about the suitability of vegetables and, indeed, all men to be good parents.

Another story touches on the problems faced by cliff faces and the attentions of confused woodpeckers, and is a fairly ordinary, yet well-paced and well told tale of regal woes as a King awaits an assassin on the top of a cliff, when the story takes a sudden and unexpected change in direction that is a genuinely WTF?? moment. Well, at least for the reader, the King -presumably- knew what was happening all along, even though it had cost him 100 brave warriors.

The remainder of the stories consists of an absolutely delicious gallimaufry of brobdingnagian proportions, including 43 bags of frozen peas, the fact that, after all, gravity does not exist, what not to do with a photocopier during a board meeting, the concepts of natural and supernatural selection and the sudden appearance of a kidnap ensemble made up of militant clowns. And then it gets really weird!

The book is enlivened, and genuinely so, by reader's comments. How could there be reader's comments in a printed book? That's an interesting question which will be answered by visiting www.planktonsoup.co.uk, after you purchase and read the book, of course.

There are also some wonderfully evocative illustrations by Ayesha Drew.

The book is published by Matador at £7.99 and can be ordered here https://goo.gl/wdCFDG.

 

Now read That's Books and Entertainment in your own language!

With the help of Google's excellent Google Translate service, you can now view and read the That's Books and Entertainment blog site in your own language.

You will find the language translate switch at the top of the blog page, just to the left.

Over the next several days there will more style changes to the blog which, it is to be hoped, help give the That's Books and Entertainment blog a bit of a makeover. In fact, it's probably the first makeover this blog has ever had!

And thanks to Louise for making these suggestions. And no, that is not Louise in the photograph!

Living With a Jude

Living With a Jude is a remarkable book by Alice Soule.

The book describes how it is for a family that is living with a child who has severe learning disabilities.

Jude was born with Microcephaly which brought about Global Development Delay and autism which was not, immediately, diagnosed.

In her book Alice discusses, in a light and heartwarmily honest and humorous way, how Jude's issues impacted not only on Jude but also on the rest of his family, Alice included.

It deals, in a sensitive fashion, with a range of vitally important topics such as the impact of his disabilities including health and diet, social isolation, education and socialisation.

It also looks at the problems and challenges of post-16 life options and further education for children such as Jude.

The book is also very well illustrated with family photographs and will be of great benefit to people who are involved in the care, education, healthcare and treatment of people like Jude or who provide support and assistance to their families as well as to the families themselves.

It's a remarkable book and comes highly recommended by this reviewer.

The book is published by The Book Guild at £9.99 and can be obtained here https://goo.gl/wdCFDG.