Buster Bayliss: The Big Freeze by Philip Reeve

I picked up this book from my local library. I quite liked the last Buster Bayliss book I read (Day of the Hamster), so was quite looking forward to it. This adventure begins with a parody of Time Team, which may not really work for kids or at least kids outside the UK. For those not sure, Time Team is a programme on the telly where archeologists finally get a little cool!

Buster Bayliss is a young lad who keeps landing in situations where he has to save the world from certain doom. In this adventure, a bunch of TV archeologists working on an ancient burial mound unearth the spirit of the Winter King. Buster must use all his wit and cunning to defeat the evil spirit before winter takes over the world.

The book, I thought, was a good one. It was a little slow to begin with and had a less than subtle, environmental message. Once the story got going, however, it was quite the page turner. Funny in places, laugh out loud in others. I enjoyed it.

The Buster Bayliss novels are aimed at the younger end of the market. Philip Reeve also writes the award winning "Mortal Engines" series of books.

Buster Bayliss: The Big Freeze by Philip Reeve.
ISBN: 0-439-95570-X
Published by Scholastic.
Price: £4.99.

Measle and the Slitherghoul by Ian Ogilvy

This is the fourth of the Measle books by former "The Saint", Ian Ogilvy. The other books are:

• Measle and the Wrathmonk



• Measle and the Dragodon



• Measle and the Mallockee

Measle Stubbs is a young boy who lives with his parents and little baby sister. His dad is a wizard, and Prime Magus of all magic users, his mother, whilst not magical herself, is what is known as a manafount (infinite magical power that can be drawn upon by a wizard) and his sister is a Mallockee - an extremely powerful magic user. Measle has no magical powers (none that have manifested yet, that it) but is a very resourceful youngster.

Measle also shares his life with Tinker, a brave dog, Nanny Flannel, the Stubbs' equivalent of Batman's Albert crossed with Granny Weatherwax from Pratchett books and a Wrathmonk called Iggy. Wrathmonks tend to be insane wizards who are only after world domination, but Iggy is quite harmless as Wrathmonks go.

The story begins way in the past at the beginnings of the Wizard's Guild. A young and powerful wizard known as Sheepshank created a devastating spell that turned a glob of his own snot into a dangerous, sticky monster known as the Slitherghoul. The wizards manage to imprison the Slitherghoul, but not before it has devoured Sheepshank.

In the present day the Wizard's Guild is a secret organisation. In his previous three adventures, Measle has managed to help capture four deadly Wrathmonks and a dastardly Warlock (the hierarchy - powerwise - of magical users goes Wizard - Warlock - Wrathmonk) called Toby Jugg who had been trying to take over the Wizard's Guild by killing Measle's dad, marrying his mum and controlling his baby sister.

Whilst Measle is home alone with Nanny Flannel and Iggy (his parents and baby sister are at the South Pole for a secret, and very boring, Wizard's Guild conference), the Slitherghoul escapes its cell and devours Toby Jugg and the four Wrathmonks. Inside the Slitherghoul, Jugg and the Wrathmonks are still alive and manage to influence the Slitherghoul to make its way to Merlin Manor, the home of the Stubbs family, to take their revenge.

And so begins a very exciting, and often scary story. I thoroughly enjoyed it, although I did feel that there was some padding added to make the story last longer. What I have noticed about these books is that even though most people would think that they were comedies, I would class them as almost horror. Indeed, the third book, Measle and the Mallockee could give the Point Horror books a run for their money. I felt that this book was not as scary as the third, so maybe Ian Ogilvy toned it down a little?

Overall, if you have read the other four Measle Stubbs books, then you really should read this one. It comes in at 358 pages, justifying it's £8.99 price.

Score: 4 out of 5

Measle and the Slitherghoul by Ian Ogilvy

Published: Oxford University Press

ISBN: 0-19-272615-3

Free Lance and the Lake of Skulls

Today I was making my way to the off licence to buy some crisps and copious amounts of booze, when I noticed the mobile library was parked up alongside the offy. I'm sure that this was coincidence and that librarians aren't all sloshed and bombed off their faces on cheap bottles of grog. Armed with my trusty library card, (just like the main character in The DaVinci Code - snigger) I hopped aboard.





The first book I saw, and which I am reviewing as my first post, was: Free Lance and the Lake of Skulls by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell.


Regular readers of children's fantasy fiction will know these two lads as the pair that created The Edge Chronicles, an award winning fantasy series. For my sins, I have only ever read a couple of those books, but they were excellent so I was quite looking forward to this novella.







Here's the blurb:

Free Lance is hacked off and cold. His horse is lame. Now some great oaf is trying to pick a fight. Business as usual for a knight down on his luck.

But things are about to get interesting. A scheming lord, a hideous hag, an enchanted crown and an appointment with terror at the Lake of Skulls.


Sounds ace, don't it? And it was. Free Lance and the Lake of Skulls is a very short book, but it's packed with humour, violence, gore and adventure. It also has a good looking, buxom bar wench, which is always good in my book.


Written in the first person, the tale of Free Lance the knight begins with our hero, down on his luck, entering a poor village upon his trusty, but aging, warhorse, Jed. The village oaf picks a fight with the knight, who manages to fend him off. The lord of the manor approaches the knight and offers him money to travel to a small island in the middle of a lake, where lies, upon a skull upon a mountain of skulls, a fabled crown that supposedly has the power for the wearer to rule the world.


Free Lance, not believing in such nonsense, gladly accepts the challenge, stables his horse and trundles off to retrieve said crown. And then he meets the murderous hags of doooooooooooooooooooooooooom!


My only concern with this story is that it was very short and, at £6.99, a little steep in the asking price. I think many kids will end up borrowing this from the library like I did.

Overall, a fun little read, with some excellent illustrations throughout (especially of the barmaid!)

3 out of 5.

Free Lance and the Lake of Skulls by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell.
Published by Hodder in 2003.
ISBN: 0-340-87409-0