One Word Kill by Mark Lawrence
Published 1st May 2019 by 47 North
Star Rating - ****
Goodreads Challenge - 19/50
I was gifted a copy of this one from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Synopsis (from Goodreads)
In January 1986, fifteen-year-old boy-genius Nick Hayes discovers he’s dying. And it isn’t even the strangest thing to happen to him that week.
Nick and his Dungeons & Dragons-playing friends are used to living in their imaginations. But when a new girl, Mia, joins the group and reality becomes weirder than the fantasy world they visit in their weekly games, none of them are prepared for what comes next. A strange—yet curiously familiar—man is following Nick, with abilities that just shouldn’t exist. And this man bears a cryptic message: Mia’s in grave danger, though she doesn’t know it yet. She needs Nick’s help—now.
He finds himself in a race against time to unravel an impossible mystery and save the girl. And all that stands in his way is a probably terminal disease, a knife-wielding maniac and the laws of physics.
Nick and his Dungeons & Dragons-playing friends are used to living in their imaginations. But when a new girl, Mia, joins the group and reality becomes weirder than the fantasy world they visit in their weekly games, none of them are prepared for what comes next. A strange—yet curiously familiar—man is following Nick, with abilities that just shouldn’t exist. And this man bears a cryptic message: Mia’s in grave danger, though she doesn’t know it yet. She needs Nick’s help—now.
He finds himself in a race against time to unravel an impossible mystery and save the girl. And all that stands in his way is a probably terminal disease, a knife-wielding maniac and the laws of physics.
My Thoughts
I was kindly sent a copy of this one by the author in exchange for review. I've heard a lot of good things about Mark Lawrence but I've never read any of his fantasy work, although I want to now. When I saw the author offering copies of this one on Twitter I read the synopsis and was quite intrigued so I thought I would give it a chance and I'm glad I did.
This is more of a science fiction story as opposed to Mark Lawrence's usual grim dark fantasy and it was a really fun read. It was quite a short book, coming in at under 200 pages which made for quite a quick read. I really enjoyed the writing style, it was quite detailed but also humorous and there were times when I laughed out loud whilst reading this. The plot is actually quite complex for such a short book. There's lots of talk about science and there were times, especially in the first half where I found myself a little bit confused but, I pushed on and managed to work out where we were going. A lot of the science references and explanations did tend to go over my head a bit but it didn't hinder the enjoyment of the story for me. I also really enjoyed that the author managed to include some fun fantasy aspects too in the form of the D&D scenes. I also enjoyed the 80s references as this book is set a little bit in the past.
I really enjoyed the characters too. Even though we were following a male main character I found I was really able to relate to him. His thoughts, feelings and worries felt really realistic and not forced or over exaggerated in any way. I also really liked all of the side characters. They all had their own personalities and individual voices and I thought that was a really clever thing to be able to portray again in such a short book. We also had some diversity included within the cast of characters which is always a nice touch.
Overall I really enjoyed this one. Although some of the more sciencey aspects went a little bit over my head it was still a super quick and fun read with a great cast of characters. I will definitely be continuing in this series and I think the other books are coming out this year which is great. I will also be looking more into Mark Lawrence's back list fantasy books and hopefully picking some of them up very soon.
This is more of a science fiction story as opposed to Mark Lawrence's usual grim dark fantasy and it was a really fun read. It was quite a short book, coming in at under 200 pages which made for quite a quick read. I really enjoyed the writing style, it was quite detailed but also humorous and there were times when I laughed out loud whilst reading this. The plot is actually quite complex for such a short book. There's lots of talk about science and there were times, especially in the first half where I found myself a little bit confused but, I pushed on and managed to work out where we were going. A lot of the science references and explanations did tend to go over my head a bit but it didn't hinder the enjoyment of the story for me. I also really enjoyed that the author managed to include some fun fantasy aspects too in the form of the D&D scenes. I also enjoyed the 80s references as this book is set a little bit in the past.
I really enjoyed the characters too. Even though we were following a male main character I found I was really able to relate to him. His thoughts, feelings and worries felt really realistic and not forced or over exaggerated in any way. I also really liked all of the side characters. They all had their own personalities and individual voices and I thought that was a really clever thing to be able to portray again in such a short book. We also had some diversity included within the cast of characters which is always a nice touch.
Overall I really enjoyed this one. Although some of the more sciencey aspects went a little bit over my head it was still a super quick and fun read with a great cast of characters. I will definitely be continuing in this series and I think the other books are coming out this year which is great. I will also be looking more into Mark Lawrence's back list fantasy books and hopefully picking some of them up very soon.
Overall Rating
Sounds like an interesting read! January 1986 is the month I was born!
ReplyDeleteLovely review, Gemma!
ReplyDeleteGreat review. Sounds like a intriguing book.
ReplyDeleteGreat review!
ReplyDelete