Simon Fairbanks
Autor de Circ
Obras de Simon Fairbanks
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The Summary
Razvan Popescu lives in a flat overlooking the seaside town of Skegness. He keeps himself to himself and few know the man at all. Even fewer know his past, which he has tried to leave behind in the Romanian woods. But when a tattooed man is found murdered on the beach, it is clear that some of that past has followed him to this tacky seaside town. As battle erupts within the criminal fraternity, dark forces gather around the town and Popescu’s acquaintances find themselves dragged into a world of violence, fire and fairy tales. One thing is certain: the circus has come to town. Ten To One is a novel writing project in which ten authors write a novel together, seeking the approval of a judging panel and a public vote to keep their character in the story. Circ, the first Ten To One novel, is written by Simon Fairbanks (http://www.simonfairbanks.com/, @simon_fairbanks), Maria Mankin (June 2007), Yasmin Ali, Jason Holloway (http://www.twitter.com/batlleth), Livia Akstein Vioto, Luke Beddow, Danielle Rose Bentley, William Thirsk-Gaskill (http://www.twitter.com/wthirskgaskill), Sue Barsby and Giselle Thompson. Edited by Iain Grant
The Setup
This was provided in ebook format by the publishers (Pigeon Park Press) a local Birmingham UK publisher, in exchange for a review. The novel was written in an unusual way, as explained to me by Heide Goode from Pigeon Park Press:
We ran a project to select 10 authors from around the world and then got them to write a novel in a knockout style.
It worked like a TV gameshow - each writer took control of a character and then at the end of each round of chapters there was a public (facebook) vote and a judges' vote to see who would get dropped.
What was really interesting was that the writers didn't get overly competitive, they really just wanted to make the book as good as it could be. Circ, the first Ten To One novel, is written by Simon Fairbanks, Maria Mankin, Yasmin Ali, Jason Holloway, Livia Akstein Vioto, Luke Beddow, Danielle Bentley, William Thirsk-Gaskill, Sue Barsby and Giselle Thompson.
The Review:
For a book that has been written by multiple authors, it is gratifying to find that it has come through with a consistent voice - I suspect through the hard work of the authors and editor rather than luck or fate.
It starts ordinarily enough with the body of a murder victim found on the beach in Skegness, a seaside town that has lost much of what little glamour it once had. As the book progresses, there are more murder victims, graphic violence, the small town organised crime boss that is being threatened with take over by the Romanians. In turn, the Romanians have an interesting and useful business in the meat processing plant just outside town.
Quite a few of the adults are damaged in some way. Mungo the clown has descended into drink after the circus had burnt down 10 years previous and as the book goes on, we find out more about both Mungo and the night of the fire. Popescu is now an old man and has to confront what happened when he was working as a policeman in Romania. Bobby, the local crime lord has a bodyguard who may or may not exist outside of Bobby's mind, and both of them become more dangerous as the book moves along.
Because of the way the characters were chosen there were some that inevitably got discarded along the way, some through more violent means that others. I wont say who lives, dies or disappears, because of spoilers but I think I understood why those who faded out did so. The remaining characters in the final scenes were, I think, the right ones to be there, and it was a strong, if occasionally graphic in it's violence, ending.
Ten to One is certainly an interesting way of producing a book and I think that on the whole it works. Whilst reading the book, I certainly didnt miss those characters that faded into the background, but in reading the last chapter where it referenced some of them, I thought "oh yes, them....". I dont think I would have missed them if they'd not been referenced again at the end, but since they were, I felt a little....short-changed? As Iain Grant states in his editor's notes, things had to be removed, some of it fabulous and I dont know if any of the stuff that was removed would have made me feel different. Small niggle in the grand scheme of what was ultimately a decent book produced in an interesting way.
I have recently done an interview with Simon Fairbanks, who is one of the authors, and it can be found here. Some additional information on the way the book was written can be found over on that post, as well as details of Simon's other works.… (más)
Razvan Popescu lives in a flat overlooking the seaside town of Skegness. He keeps himself to himself and few know the man at all. Even fewer know his past, which he has tried to leave behind in the Romanian woods. But when a tattooed man is found murdered on the beach, it is clear that some of that past has followed him to this tacky seaside town. As battle erupts within the criminal fraternity, dark forces gather around the town and Popescu’s acquaintances find themselves dragged into a world of violence, fire and fairy tales. One thing is certain: the circus has come to town. Ten To One is a novel writing project in which ten authors write a novel together, seeking the approval of a judging panel and a public vote to keep their character in the story. Circ, the first Ten To One novel, is written by Simon Fairbanks (http://www.simonfairbanks.com/, @simon_fairbanks), Maria Mankin (June 2007), Yasmin Ali, Jason Holloway (http://www.twitter.com/batlleth), Livia Akstein Vioto, Luke Beddow, Danielle Rose Bentley, William Thirsk-Gaskill (http://www.twitter.com/wthirskgaskill), Sue Barsby and Giselle Thompson. Edited by Iain Grant
The Setup
This was provided in ebook format by the publishers (Pigeon Park Press) a local Birmingham UK publisher, in exchange for a review. The novel was written in an unusual way, as explained to me by Heide Goode from Pigeon Park Press:
We ran a project to select 10 authors from around the world and then got them to write a novel in a knockout style.
It worked like a TV gameshow - each writer took control of a character and then at the end of each round of chapters there was a public (facebook) vote and a judges' vote to see who would get dropped.
What was really interesting was that the writers didn't get overly competitive, they really just wanted to make the book as good as it could be. Circ, the first Ten To One novel, is written by Simon Fairbanks, Maria Mankin, Yasmin Ali, Jason Holloway, Livia Akstein Vioto, Luke Beddow, Danielle Bentley, William Thirsk-Gaskill, Sue Barsby and Giselle Thompson.
The Review:
For a book that has been written by multiple authors, it is gratifying to find that it has come through with a consistent voice - I suspect through the hard work of the authors and editor rather than luck or fate.
It starts ordinarily enough with the body of a murder victim found on the beach in Skegness, a seaside town that has lost much of what little glamour it once had. As the book progresses, there are more murder victims, graphic violence, the small town organised crime boss that is being threatened with take over by the Romanians. In turn, the Romanians have an interesting and useful business in the meat processing plant just outside town.
Quite a few of the adults are damaged in some way. Mungo the clown has descended into drink after the circus had burnt down 10 years previous and as the book goes on, we find out more about both Mungo and the night of the fire. Popescu is now an old man and has to confront what happened when he was working as a policeman in Romania. Bobby, the local crime lord has a bodyguard who may or may not exist outside of Bobby's mind, and both of them become more dangerous as the book moves along.
Because of the way the characters were chosen there were some that inevitably got discarded along the way, some through more violent means that others. I wont say who lives, dies or disappears, because of spoilers but I think I understood why those who faded out did so. The remaining characters in the final scenes were, I think, the right ones to be there, and it was a strong, if occasionally graphic in it's violence, ending.
Ten to One is certainly an interesting way of producing a book and I think that on the whole it works. Whilst reading the book, I certainly didnt miss those characters that faded into the background, but in reading the last chapter where it referenced some of them, I thought "oh yes, them....". I dont think I would have missed them if they'd not been referenced again at the end, but since they were, I felt a little....short-changed? As Iain Grant states in his editor's notes, things had to be removed, some of it fabulous and I dont know if any of the stuff that was removed would have made me feel different. Small niggle in the grand scheme of what was ultimately a decent book produced in an interesting way.
I have recently done an interview with Simon Fairbanks, who is one of the authors, and it can be found here. Some additional information on the way the book was written can be found over on that post, as well as details of Simon's other works.… (más)
Esta reseña ha sido escrita por los Primeros Reseñadores de LibraryThing.I enjoyed this a fair amount. Like many people who reviewed it, I expected it to be a bit messy but things came together well. I initially reviewed it at 3 stars but it's stuck with me and I recall it fondly so I bumped it up to 4. Different and interesting.
Esta reseña ha sido escrita por los Primeros Reseñadores de LibraryThing.I've read about 40% of the book and it just hasn't grabbed me. I think it is clever in the sense that 10 authors have collaborated on the book and it is quite coherent given that. But I guess the story hasn't engaged me in the way I was hoping it would. So I'm leaving it aside for now. I may come back to it later.
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Estadísticas
- Obras
- 2
- Miembros
- 25
- Popularidad
- #508,561
- Valoración
- 3.9
- Reseñas
- 8
- ISBNs
- 3
Denebola soon finds himself caught up in a mystery where angels, demons, heroes and villains are not all that they seem.
From the Author in exchange for a review. Denebola is a Sheriff (but most definitely NOT a lion) is returning home to see The Maverick, after intervening between the humans and their noisy Witch neighbours. The latter have been keeping everyone up at night whilst they keep setting of lightening bolts and it needed a Sheriff to intervene, but it resulted in Denebola with one all mighty hangover.
He gets waylaid by Toby, one of the inhabitants of a neighbouring cloud - called Angel's Keep - with a request that he helps protect the cloud from a demon who has been causing mayhem for the last week. As a Sheriff he cant really say no, so finds the cloud has not only humans but Angels, Demons and Witches, which all make for an interesting few days.
The presence of the Angel (who Deneobla recognises as one of the more lazy and unfit members of the Featherfolk and not an Angel really), has stirred up belief in the Old Religion and caused fear in the rather small community. It also means that people are unwilling to reveal their "gifts" - that little bit of magic that meant the original people were chosen by The Clown to inhabit Nepos. I wont say more due to potential spoilers.
As you can tell from the synopsis above - this is a story about another world, which has been set up decently, with no resorting to the overwrought world building some writers adopt. The writing style has a light, humorous tone and isn't overcomplicated, which means that this book is also appropriate to younger readers, with Toby being a suitable young hero who shows bravery and nerve to become the Sheriff's Deputy. Nephos has been set up to be big and complicated enough to have more stories to be told without the fear of future stories being shoe-horned in.
About this author
Simon Fairbanks studied MA English Literature at the University of Birmingham. He has been a member of the Birmingham Writers' Group since 2011 and acts as the committee member responsible for new membership enquiries. Simon's first novel, The Sheriff, was released in March 2014. The following month, The Sheriff was chosen to participate in the One Big Book Launch organised by CompletelyNovel and Literally PR. Simon's debut short story collection, Breadcrumbs, was released in October 2014. It contains twenty-one short stories, including a new adventure starring the characters of The Sheriff. Simon was one of ten writers who participated in the Ten To One project. Their collaborative efforts resulted in the novel Circ which was launched in November 2014. Simon's character, Mungo the Clown, was voted the winner of Ten To One. Not only have I reviewed Circ previously but there is also a further author spotlight on Simon here.… (más)