Andrew Hammond
Autor de The Gallows Curse (CRYPT)
Sobre El Autor
Andrew Hammond is a senior correspondent for a global news agency, currently based in Dubai. He is the author of What The Arabs Think of America (2008) and Popular Culture in the Arab World (2007), and was the agency bureau chief in Saudi Arabia for several years.
Obras de Andrew Hammond
Late Ottoman Origins of Modern Islamic Thought: Turkish and Egyptian Thinkers on the Disruption of Islamic Knowledge… (2022) 5 copias
Cold War Literature: Writing the Global Conflict (Routledge Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature) (2009) 2 copias
Mind's Eye Speaking and Listening Year 5: Delivering Creative Speaking and Listening Activities (2009) 1 copia
Global Cold War Literature: Western, Eastern and Postcolonial Perspectives (Routledge Studies in Twentieth-Century… (2011) 1 copia
Pop culture in North Africa and the Middle East : entertainment and society around the world (2017) 1 copia
The Look of the Elephant: The Westering Experience in the Words of Those Who Lived It, 1841-1861 (2009) 1 copia
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Conocimiento común
- Biografía breve
- Andrew joined ECFR's Middle East and North Africa Programme as a policy fellow in October 2013. His research covers Islamist movements, human rights issues, Arab media, and cultural affairs in Egypt and the Gulf.
Andrew previously worked as a journalist with BBC Arabic radio, was a founding member of the Cairo Times news magazine, and worked as a correspondent for ten years with Reuters, where he was bureau chief in Riyadh from 2006-2009. He has covered the Arab Spring uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Yemen, and Morocco and reported from Iraq before and after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
Andrew has authored three books: Popular Culture in the Arab World (2004), What the Arabs Think of America (2007), and The Islamic Utopia: The Illusion of Reform in Saudi Arabia (2012). He also authored “Liberal enclaves: A royal attempt to bypass clerical power”, in the Middle East Institute’s The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 1979-2009: Evolution of a Pivotal State (2009), and a chapter on Saudi Arabia's pan-Arab media policies in Kingdom Without Borders, Madawi al-Rasheed (ed.) (2008).
Andrew has a BA in Arabic and Islamic History from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. He blogs at hammonda.net.
Areas of expertise: Islamist movements, human rights issues, Arab media, and cultural affairs in Egypt and the Gulf
Languages: Arabic, Farsi, French, English
http://ecfr.eu/content/profile/C278
Miembros
Reseñas
This review first appeared on The Book Zone(For Boys) blog
Andrew Hammond is back with the third book in his CRYPT series, and yet again it does not disappoint. Main characters, Jud Lester and Bex De Verre, have been fully established in the previous two books and so Andrew Hammond is able to spend a little more of this story developing the supporting cast. And he doesn't just concentrate on other teen members of the CRYPT team - in fact most of these remain in the background as somewhat two dimensional bit players. Instead, the author has chosen to flesh out some of the adults in the cast, and we begin to find out more about what drives Bonati and Vorzek. Khan also makes a welcome return, almost as if he is now a fully fledged member of the team rather than a DCI in the Met.
Andrew Hammond has shown in the previous two books that he is not afraid of including more than a little gore in his writing. Mask of Death is no exception, and with a plot that revolves around the Great Plague of 1665 he relishes in the opportunity this gives him to make your stomach turn. It also allows him to take his young heroes further out of their comfort zone by jetting them off to Venice in search of clues as to why plague doctors are rising from the dead and attacking modern day Londoners. Venice is always a great setting for a horror story and the author makes good use of the super spooky setting.
My one criticism of the previous book in this series, Traitor's Revenge, was that it lacked the explosive climax of its predecessor. I am happy to report that the action and suspense in Mask of Death builds gradually to a cracking ending, with Jud and Bex risking their lives in the line of duty yet again.… (más)
Andrew Hammond is back with the third book in his CRYPT series, and yet again it does not disappoint. Main characters, Jud Lester and Bex De Verre, have been fully established in the previous two books and so Andrew Hammond is able to spend a little more of this story developing the supporting cast. And he doesn't just concentrate on other teen members of the CRYPT team - in fact most of these remain in the background as somewhat two dimensional bit players. Instead, the author has chosen to flesh out some of the adults in the cast, and we begin to find out more about what drives Bonati and Vorzek. Khan also makes a welcome return, almost as if he is now a fully fledged member of the team rather than a DCI in the Met.
Andrew Hammond has shown in the previous two books that he is not afraid of including more than a little gore in his writing. Mask of Death is no exception, and with a plot that revolves around the Great Plague of 1665 he relishes in the opportunity this gives him to make your stomach turn. It also allows him to take his young heroes further out of their comfort zone by jetting them off to Venice in search of clues as to why plague doctors are rising from the dead and attacking modern day Londoners. Venice is always a great setting for a horror story and the author makes good use of the super spooky setting.
My one criticism of the previous book in this series, Traitor's Revenge, was that it lacked the explosive climax of its predecessor. I am happy to report that the action and suspense in Mask of Death builds gradually to a cracking ending, with Jud and Bex risking their lives in the line of duty yet again.… (más)
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Estadísticas
- Obras
- 35
- También por
- 1
- Miembros
- 149
- Popularidad
- #139,413
- Valoración
- 3.0
- Reseñas
- 2
- ISBNs
- 68
The publisher blurb describes Andrew Hammond's debut as "A fantastic blend of teenage spies, horror and ghost-busting for fans of Cherub and Young Bond" and I have been trying to put it better myself but I have given up as it sums the story up perfectly. I remember going to see Ghostbusters back in 1984, and loving it so much that I went again a few days later. There are continuing rumours that the original cast may get back together to make a new Ghostbusters film, but I personally feel that they shouldn't bother as CRYPT is the only ghostbusting story we need for this (now not so) new millennium. OK, so it doesn't have the comedy of the 80s movie, but it is a hell of a lot more scary, and far more in keeping with the kind of horror that young people love these days.
They say that writers for children need to grab the attention of their audience within the first few pages or they may as well give up; Andrew Hammond certainly manages this is this first book in his CRYPT series. The first few pages give us a very brief prologue, giving us a quick briefing as to what CRYPT is and how it came into being, as well as some pretty nasty details about how main character Jud Lester was found guilty of killing his mother, despite his claims that "the ghosts did it". This was more than enough to get me interested, but then we are straight into the first chapter which contains a thoroughly nasty supernatural attack on a Central Line tube train during rush hour. You may never want to travel on the Tube again after reading this - it is nightmare inducing writing, and we aren't even ten pages into the story!
CRYPT: The Gallows curse consists of 50 chapters over 330 pages, so you don't need me to tell you that the chapters are short, and with the fast paced action scenes you can't help but want to keep on turning the pages. This is perfect for teen readers, especially those of the reluctant reader variety, but for me it was awful as I was pretty tired on the night I read this book, but I kept on saying to myself "Just one more chapter and then turn the light out". Curse you Hammond! It may have been a Friday night but I had a lot to do the next morning and I was shattered! The plot is fast-paced with some cracking action set-pieces, including a number of battles with some of the nastiest ghosts you are likely to find in modern YA literature and a motorbike chase scene that may have your heart trying to pound its way through your ribcage. And then if you still have a breath left in your lungs you have to face the totally brilliant, cardiac arrest-inducing climax! In fact, the more I think about this book as I write this review, the more I feel that this would make a great movie, although to do the horror scenes justice the certificate may have to be higher than the age of the main target audience of the book.
I would be lying if I said the book was perfect though. The horror scenes are all brilliantly written, and Andrew Hammond really knows how to scare his audience. However, these scenes sometimes tend to overshadow some of the other quieter moments in the story, those all important scenes between perils that allow us to take a breath and see the characters develop further as they interact with each other. For me, some of these quieter scenes needed to be more punchy, and a few times I felt there was a little too much telling going on and not enough showing. This was particularly the case whenever there was mention of Jud's past, and this seemed to happen a little more than was necessary. As this is the first in a series we probably did not need to know everything that is revealed about Jud's past in this first outing, although with the backstory now established I would guess that the sequel, CRYPT: Traitor's Revenge, will be better as far as this is concerned.
CRYPT: The Gallows Curse really is Ghostbusters for the Alex Rider generation and is the perfect springboard for teens who are wondering whether to take the plunge into the vast pool of adult horror fiction. I for one can't wait for the sequel, especially as the blurb suggests that it is set in York as well as in London. With so many great historical cities in the UK, each with a multitude of their own ghost stories, this is a series that could run and run, and based on this first instalment I would like to sign up for the duration please.… (más)