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Book Review: TRAITOR'S GATE & LONDON STONE

Written by Ed Fortune Thursday, 02 August 2012

Reviews - Books

Traitor's Gate & London Stone Review

Book Review: Traitor's Gate & London Stone / Author: Sarah Silverwood / Publisher: Indigo / Release Date: Out Now

Traitor’s Gate & London Stone are parts two and three of the Nowhere Chronicles, and as you may recall, we rather liked part one, The Double Edged Sword. This modern fantasy series, aimed at a younger readership, is a reality hopping adventure filled with secret orders and strange conspiracies.

Traitor’s Gate suffers from being the middle book in a trilogy; on the one hand, it’s perhaps the best book of the three, but on the other hand, it’s incomplete, being very much the middle story. Still, it is an action packed roller-coaster ride, filled with heroism and strangeness. The three main characters (who between them encompass every possible interpretation of the term “English Schoolboy”) continue to evolve and grow, developing interesting quirks along the way. The heroes have to deal with the elemental force of anger itself, and Silverwood pulls few punches here. (Which will come as no surprise to horror fans; Sarah Silverwood is a pen-name for horror novelist Sarah Pinborough.) It’s a well pitched tale filled with chills and revelations with a powerful cliff hanger at the end, and if you have the third book to hand, be prepared to start reading it as soon as you’ve finished this one.

London Stone is the darkest of the three; Silverwood captures the joys and the terrors of the capital city very well. There is, however, an awful lot of loose ends to tie up here, and it does feel very compressed at places, with a shopping list of conclusions appearing at points. This is not a book you can just dip into, but has such a compelling style that if you’ve enjoyed the previous two, you’ll simply tear through this. Silverwood writes novels that you’ll want to devour in one sitting, and I can’t wait to see what she does next.