Tunnels by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams

Tunnels by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams, 2007

This book is an intriguing story which starts off with a normal family in a suburb of London. The hero of the story is a 14 year old Albino boy Will Burrows. The boy and his father share a delight in digging tunnels under London and share in the excitement of discovering archeological remains. The story though takes a dark twist as his father disappears one day and we witness the struggle of Will and his new friend from school as they dig deep under ground to find out what has happened to Dr Burrows.

This is the first book in a series and the book ends with a series of gruesome incidents which I feel will be explored in later books. I look forward to the further adventures of Will Burrows.
The book is an easy read and the style is clear and I did not get bored as I felt the story escalated with new twists and turns to keep the readers attention. I give this book an 8 out of 10.

JB


I thought this book was tremendously fun to read. The book starts off with the main character who lives with his family in London. He has a passion for digging which he shares with his dad (Doctor Burrows). When Dr Burrows suddenly goes missing then him and his best friend Chester search for clues in his dads cellar where they find a tunnel which leads them to a completely different Underworld called The Colony.

When the book eventually finished, leaving me on a cliff-hanger, I immediately wanted to read the next book in the series because this book is full of unknown surprises which creep up on you and really shock you when they do. I would give this book 8/10 because there were some bits they could improve on. Still, they had good twists and turns to keep the reader from stopping.

MB (7D)

Operation Typhoon Shore by Joshua Mowll

OPERATION: TYPHOON SHORE by Joshua Mowll

This being the second instalment of the Guild Trilogy, of which I have thoroughly enjoyed so far (in reading OPERATION: RED JERICHO) I was really looking forward to reading this book.

As with the first story it is full of action, adventure, mystery and is packed full of thrilling explosions and close encounters. TYPHOON SHORE follows on extremely well from RED JERICHO, so well it could be one book!
The vast number of pull-out sections and interactive pages makes it fun to find out more about important people and subjects.
As I said, it follows on extremely well from the previous story and it includes much of the detail explained in that book. This time a new enemy arises, Julius Pembelton-Crozier. As you delve further into the book Doug and Becca try to uncover the mystery of their parents’ disappearance and the mystery of the missing southern gyrolabe.

Overall, I enjoyed this book as much as its prequel and look forward to the final instalment of this fantastic trilogy. A read I would recommend to anyone! 10/10!!

By C.S.

Operation Typhoon Shore by Joshua Mowll

As both my son and I had thoroughly enjoyed the first book in Joshua Mowll’s Guild Trilogy, we were both eager to read Operation Typhoon Shore, the second in the series. The book starts where the first one finished and continues the exploits and adventures of brother and sister, Douglas and Rebecca Mackenzie.

The story opens in the Celebes Sea, south of the Philippines, where we find Douglas, Rebecca, their uncle Captain Fitzroy Mackenzie, the captain of the Oceanographic Research Ship Expedient, and its crew, caught up in a tropical typhoon. Damaged by the storm the Expedient is forced to find a safe harbour on one of the numerous islands in the region, in order to conduct repairs. From here the story rapidly unfolds and we again meet Julius Pembleton-Crozier, one of the villains from the first book, who, having enlisted the assistance of the fearsome Kalaxx, is now up to more evil deeds on an adjacent island. We also find out more about Douglas and Rebecca’s missing parents and more clues as to why they have embarked on an expedition to the Sinkiang region of China. Additionally the role and activities of the secretive Honourable Guide of Specialists start to become clear and we are further enlightened in the ways of the mysterious ancient fighting order of the Sujing Quantou.

The book moves at a good pace and the story kept my interest well. The characterisation is very good and there are some nice little touches of detail. As with Operation Red Jericho the book is wonderfully produced and similarly illustrated. The text is again interspersed with sketches and paintings ‘taken’ from Douglas’s sketch book. There are also photographs of places visited and some of the key characters, as well as another array of beautifully draw fold out colour illustrations.

Another excellent book that I would thoroughly recommended for fans of action and adventure. 9/10. I can’t wait for the final instalment!

I.S.

Alone on a Wide Wide Sea by Michael Morpurgo

Alone on a Wide Wide Sea - Michael Morpurgo - 2006

I enjoyed this story that Matthew chose enormously and found it to be an emotional roller coaster. The story is based on a historical fact that after the second world war an enormous number of children were transported from the UK to the colonies. This story follows a fictitious character and the pain he went through being transported to another country as a young child and the treatment he received on arrival from a variety of adults. The second part of the book follows this character's daughter and her quest to find out more about her family. The daughter also has an emotional roller coater of her own and by the end I felt exhausted.

It is an easy read and I would recommend it to young and old alike however I did at times find the writing style difficult and I wished at times for more detail as I found the character would jump through some years that had the potential to be interesting. I give this book an 8/10.

JB

I really enjoyed reading this book because it had a lot of detail and was actually made of some history. This book had two stories in it. The one where a little boy gets moved to the Australia and has to make a life there, and the second one was his daughter going on a voyage back to the UK to find her long lost Aunt. I think that this book should be given 10/10 (Ten out of ten) because I really enjoyed reading it and tried to read it at every possibility.

MB (7D)