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markyon's review
2.0
This is a book I picked up almost immediately after reading the first book in the series, The Suicide Exhibition
In Book 1 I said that we were just beginning to see the opening moves of the alien Vril against the human race in 1941.
Here in The Blood Red City, the focus widens to encompass war-torn Crete, winter-locked Russia, Hollywood-America and good ol’ England, now at the mid-point of WW2, not that our protagonists know that.
The central characters are again our brave troupe of heroes and heroines from the first novel: Major Guy Pentecross, his boss Colonel Oliver Brinkman, undercover film star (now Special Operations Executive) Leo Davenport, David Alban at MI5, Elizabeth Archer, curator of very strange objects at the British Museum and American Sarah Diamond, Air Traffic Auxiliary pilot (and love interest.)
In this second book the plot continues pretty much where we ended in The Suicide Exhibition, in that having added new staff to Station Z and uncovered the dastardly alien Vril, our heroes are trying to discover more about the purpose of the Vril and simultaneously stop them from taking over the world.
As before, much of this plot is centred, in an Indiana Jones style, on the collection of artifacts and relics, which the Vril are doing for reasons still unknown. In The Blood Red City it is four ancient axe-heads that seem to be important. Our intrepid group from Station Z travel around trying to obtain the objects before the aliens do, which involves travel to the USA, Crete, Germany and Russia.
There are new elements brought to the story this time around, that I enjoyed. After experiencing the London Blitz in 1940 through Book 1, seeing the German army invade Russia in 1941 from the perspective of a Russian character undercover as a German soldier was an interesting viewpoint. There are places where the novel goes all ‘Dennis Wheatley’ in its use of occult practices to enable communication, which were nicely creepy. The zombie-like Ubermensch, encountered before, are still quite impressive in their alien nature and sense of unstoppable purpose.
This all sounds like great entertainment, which it often is. However, as fun as it was, there were times where I felt The Blood Red City had ‘jumped the shark’. Not enough to make me put it down, nor stop reading, but places where I felt the author was trying too hard to mix in old ideas of ancient forces and legends with new. Whilst the book brings with it an understanding that things may be beyond the normal, and the reader rather expects it, some of the jumps of logic were disconcerting.*
There were also occasionally sloppy writing and inconsistencies which felt to be there more for the purpose of the plot rather than for any logical reason. The journey to Russia, although explained in the novel, seemed to be there for rather spurious reasons in the end – a means of showing a different locale rather than to develop the plot. And the ease with which global travel is managed in wartime is still rather incredible.
At the same time there were ideas mentioned that were not developed as much as I would have liked. We do see more of the Vril, and they are quite appropriately revolting (think BIG squidgy spiders.) Whilst their appearance on the page is more pronounced this time around, in the end I felt they need more of a showing if their other-worldly prowess is to be maintained. I liked the elements of the story in the USA, but this seemed to start and then stop. I would have expected the American entry into the Second World War to have more of an impact here than it seemed to.
The Blood Red City is still entertaining, a fast-paced, easy read. But as much as I enjoyed it, I found I didn’t quite enjoy it quite as much as the first book. What started as a bunch of cool ideas and entertaining characters in The Suicide Exhibition seems to stall a little here. As the perspective becomes wider, the plot becomes duller. Clearly there is more of a tale here to tell, but I suspect that not everyone will go further. There is potential here, but The Blood Red City doesn’t always take advantage of the gains it made in the first book.
*One example of wonky thinking, with slight spoilers to illustrate as an example. Our heroes travel all over the globe to obtain an artifact in Europe. They obtain it, with one group having travelled for days to get it covertly by submarine, and the other, in hours, by secret spy plane. Once they have got the item, they need to return it to London for examination.
Which way do they choose to return it to London? Answer: by submarine, which is being shot at as they try to board for the return. This journey takes longer and despite the reasoning that ‘the plane might get shot down’, is inherently just as dangerous, if not more so bearing in mind that the submarine has been spotted. This also leaves some of our merry band cooling their heels in London waiting for the item to get back to the British Museum, which seems rather illogical.
In Book 1 I said that we were just beginning to see the opening moves of the alien Vril against the human race in 1941.
Here in The Blood Red City, the focus widens to encompass war-torn Crete, winter-locked Russia, Hollywood-America and good ol’ England, now at the mid-point of WW2, not that our protagonists know that.
The central characters are again our brave troupe of heroes and heroines from the first novel: Major Guy Pentecross, his boss Colonel Oliver Brinkman, undercover film star (now Special Operations Executive) Leo Davenport, David Alban at MI5, Elizabeth Archer, curator of very strange objects at the British Museum and American Sarah Diamond, Air Traffic Auxiliary pilot (and love interest.)
In this second book the plot continues pretty much where we ended in The Suicide Exhibition, in that having added new staff to Station Z and uncovered the dastardly alien Vril, our heroes are trying to discover more about the purpose of the Vril and simultaneously stop them from taking over the world.
As before, much of this plot is centred, in an Indiana Jones style, on the collection of artifacts and relics, which the Vril are doing for reasons still unknown. In The Blood Red City it is four ancient axe-heads that seem to be important. Our intrepid group from Station Z travel around trying to obtain the objects before the aliens do, which involves travel to the USA, Crete, Germany and Russia.
There are new elements brought to the story this time around, that I enjoyed. After experiencing the London Blitz in 1940 through Book 1, seeing the German army invade Russia in 1941 from the perspective of a Russian character undercover as a German soldier was an interesting viewpoint. There are places where the novel goes all ‘Dennis Wheatley’ in its use of occult practices to enable communication, which were nicely creepy. The zombie-like Ubermensch, encountered before, are still quite impressive in their alien nature and sense of unstoppable purpose.
This all sounds like great entertainment, which it often is. However, as fun as it was, there were times where I felt The Blood Red City had ‘jumped the shark’. Not enough to make me put it down, nor stop reading, but places where I felt the author was trying too hard to mix in old ideas of ancient forces and legends with new. Whilst the book brings with it an understanding that things may be beyond the normal, and the reader rather expects it, some of the jumps of logic were disconcerting.*
There were also occasionally sloppy writing and inconsistencies which felt to be there more for the purpose of the plot rather than for any logical reason. The journey to Russia, although explained in the novel, seemed to be there for rather spurious reasons in the end – a means of showing a different locale rather than to develop the plot. And the ease with which global travel is managed in wartime is still rather incredible.
At the same time there were ideas mentioned that were not developed as much as I would have liked. We do see more of the Vril, and they are quite appropriately revolting (think BIG squidgy spiders.) Whilst their appearance on the page is more pronounced this time around, in the end I felt they need more of a showing if their other-worldly prowess is to be maintained. I liked the elements of the story in the USA, but this seemed to start and then stop. I would have expected the American entry into the Second World War to have more of an impact here than it seemed to.
The Blood Red City is still entertaining, a fast-paced, easy read. But as much as I enjoyed it, I found I didn’t quite enjoy it quite as much as the first book. What started as a bunch of cool ideas and entertaining characters in The Suicide Exhibition seems to stall a little here. As the perspective becomes wider, the plot becomes duller. Clearly there is more of a tale here to tell, but I suspect that not everyone will go further. There is potential here, but The Blood Red City doesn’t always take advantage of the gains it made in the first book.
*One example of wonky thinking, with slight spoilers to illustrate as an example. Our heroes travel all over the globe to obtain an artifact in Europe. They obtain it, with one group having travelled for days to get it covertly by submarine, and the other, in hours, by secret spy plane. Once they have got the item, they need to return it to London for examination.
Which way do they choose to return it to London? Answer: by submarine, which is being shot at as they try to board for the return. This journey takes longer and despite the reasoning that ‘the plane might get shot down’, is inherently just as dangerous, if not more so bearing in mind that the submarine has been spotted. This also leaves some of our merry band cooling their heels in London waiting for the item to get back to the British Museum, which seems rather illogical.
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