Ancient Appetites by Oisin McGann
Rate and review Ancient Appetites! | What does everyone else think?
I can honestly say this book is unlike any I’ve ever read before. The plot is so bizarre and there is so much that writer Oisìn McGann packs into its 440 pages that it just shouldn’t work but it so does at such break neck speed that you’ll finish reading it long before you’re ready for the story to end.
Set in the 1900’s the story centres on Nate Wildenstern, a privileged teenager born into the wealthiest and biggest land owning Irish family. Unfortunately they are also reviled by their tenants, the British government and most importantly each other; the Wildenstern tradition being that the murder of the family patriarch or heir is perfectly acceptable but only when it is to further your own position within the family, and although this hasn’t happened for sometime when Nate’s eldest brother, and current heir, dies in a convenient mountaineering accident Nate returns from his travels in Africa to find out the truth about his brother’s death. Nate soon becomes suspect No.1 although running the family business is the last thing Nate wants to spend his life doing. His passion lies in the study and occasional trapping of Engimals a curious race of living engine powered machines; from lawn mowers to juggernaughts, these creatures defy all the laws of nature as they are composed of metal and al the usual components but are indeed living, if not breathing in the conventional sense of the word. If that wasn’t enough material to fill a story of exciting adventure there is also an attempt to rob the family that gets mistaken as a terrorist plot and three bodies that are accidentally exhumed from the bog land that has preserved them for some 600 years. Did I mention the family also have a peculiar ability to heal otherwise lethal injuries with gold and are immune to most poisons due to their unique physiology? Oh and the 600 year old bodies aren’t quite as dead as they appear?
What do you mean is that all?!!
There is also a curious sub-plot regarding Nate’s older brother Roberto , which if I’m honest does nothing for the story as a whole and is left without conclusion in the end anyway so I’m a little puzzled as to it’s inclusion, which I think is a shame because it relates, albeit briefly, to the subject of homosexuality and how it was viewed in the 1900’s, but this may make some parents may feel that book may not be suitable for their younger teens.
Very funny in places and good and gory in others I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it to any mature teenager who like’s their books to offer more than the usual formulaic fodder out there.
Oisin McGann obviously has the gift of the gab for telling a tale or two, lets just hope he gets to reach as wide an audience as he deserves.
Ancient Appetites (Amazon.co.uk)
Author: Oisin McGann
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 448
Publication date: 2008-01-17
Publisher: Corgi Childrens
RRP: £5.99
Lowest new price: £0.82
Lowest used price: £0.01
Ancient Appetites (Amazon.com)
Author: Oisin McGann
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 448
Publication date: 2008-01-17
Publisher: Corgi Childrens
RRP:
Lowest new price:
Lowest used price: $0.29
Submit your own mini-review
Let people know what you think about Ancient Appetites. You can write your own mini-review and give the book the rating that you think it deserves. Your reviews will go towards giving Ancient Appetites its overall rating that will decide where Ancient Appetites finishes in the top 100 fantasy books of all time.
Books you may also enjoy...
The Enemy’s Son by James Johnson
The Enemy’s Son is the debut novel of Derby-born author James Johnson and was first published in 2008 by Man Tor Publishing Ltd. ... read the full review
Summary: The Enemy’s Son offers a complete fantasy experience.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars by Karen Traviss
The raging Clone Wars illuminate dark motives and darker destinies until one question must be answered: Does the end ever justify the means? It’s time the Jedi found out. ... read the full review
Summary: An action-packed, character-driven adventure.
Small-Minded Giants by Oisin McGann
Small-Minded Giants is set in a not too distant future when Earth has entered another ice age and small pockets of survivors take to living in artificial environments. Ash Harbour is such a place, a city built under a vast glass dome to keep out the elements and powered by the machine, which runs on the continual motion of Ash Harbours residents, but things are starting to breakdown, more accidents are starting to happen and people are going missing. ... read the full review
Summary: A cracking paced read from first to last page.
Also in this sub-genre...
Book of the Month
Apartment 16 by Adam Nevill
Some doors are better left closed . . . In Barrington House, an upmarket block in London, there is an empty apartment. No one goes in, no one comes out. And it’s been that way for fifty years. Until the night watchman hears a disturbance after midnight and investigates. What he experiences is enough to change his life forever.
Latest interviews
Interviews plus question and answer sessions with authors, narrators and publishers.
Must-reads
The following reviews are of books that begin the very best fantasy series available.
Special Feature: Fantasy Book Review talks to the Book View Cafe
Book View Cafe is a cooperative site created by a group of writers - including internationally renowned authors Katharine Kerr, Ursula Le Guin and Vonda N. McIntyre - who want to take advantage of the internet's possibilities for reaching a wider audience and to distribute their work directly to their readers. The Book View Cafe is a place where you can find free, original fiction plus the authors' best and out-of-print work for a fee. Fantasy Book Review spoke to Book View Cafe member, science fiction author and memoirist Chris Dolley in February 2010.
Special Feature: Understanding the author of Alice in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll, the elusive author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, has been the subject of enduring fascination for the past hundred years. The destruction of many major documents about his personal life by his descendants has only magnified the mystery. Jenny Woolf's biography, published to coincide with the release of the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland film, lays waste to the myths and suspicions that have obscured Carroll's reputation by placing him firmly in the context of his own time.
