The Spook's Curse ~ Joseph Delaney
Book #12: 12 March, 2009 to 15 March, 2009
The Spook's Curse ~ Joseph Delaney
This is the second book in the Wardstone Chronicles series which started with The Spook's Apprentice. The book continues the story of Thomas J. Ward's apprenticeship under the Spook and what experiences he has. In this book, the Spook and Tom travel to Priesttown to attend a funeral and end up fighting an evil force there called the Bane with the help of Alice.
As before, the locations in the book are based on actual locations from Lancashire. Here, Priesttown is based on Preston and uses its previous name. There are several locations from the town which are mentioned, such as streets and some of the pubs which I found quite amusing as I know Preston reasonably well. Again, it's obvious that the author knows the area and is able to drop in street names and describe them in such a way as to make them recognisable. It's almost like being privy to an inside joke or secret which is quite nice. There are other places such as Heysham which are mentioned without having their names changed and I'm not sure why this is, unless it's because some places names have changed and so the author is using the name appropriate for the time period.
I found this book much more enjoyable than the previous one and read it in a matter of hours. It's nowhere near as gruesome as the previous book which may have been one reason why I enjoyed it so much. The characters are pretty similar to the first book, the Spook is as crotchety as ever and Alice as annoying though Tom maybe getting a little better as he doesn't seem to be quite as stupid as before which is a nice improvement. Tom's mother becomes more of an important character in this book and there is some mystery surrounding her and her abilities. I'm pretty sure that there are also lots of clues as to her origins which aren't that difficult to work out but I get the feeling that this will be revealed at a later date when it is more pertinent to the plot. I think she is the one sympathetic character and possibly one of the more intriguing ones so I hope that the plot does her justice. There are also several mentions of the increasing dark which I'm guessing means that the series will climax in a final big showdown between Tom and whatever form the dark takes.
All in all, a good book which is possibly unusual in being better than the first. Hopefully the series will continue in this manner!
The Spook's Curse ~ Joseph Delaney
This is the second book in the Wardstone Chronicles series which started with The Spook's Apprentice. The book continues the story of Thomas J. Ward's apprenticeship under the Spook and what experiences he has. In this book, the Spook and Tom travel to Priesttown to attend a funeral and end up fighting an evil force there called the Bane with the help of Alice.
As before, the locations in the book are based on actual locations from Lancashire. Here, Priesttown is based on Preston and uses its previous name. There are several locations from the town which are mentioned, such as streets and some of the pubs which I found quite amusing as I know Preston reasonably well. Again, it's obvious that the author knows the area and is able to drop in street names and describe them in such a way as to make them recognisable. It's almost like being privy to an inside joke or secret which is quite nice. There are other places such as Heysham which are mentioned without having their names changed and I'm not sure why this is, unless it's because some places names have changed and so the author is using the name appropriate for the time period.
I found this book much more enjoyable than the previous one and read it in a matter of hours. It's nowhere near as gruesome as the previous book which may have been one reason why I enjoyed it so much. The characters are pretty similar to the first book, the Spook is as crotchety as ever and Alice as annoying though Tom maybe getting a little better as he doesn't seem to be quite as stupid as before which is a nice improvement. Tom's mother becomes more of an important character in this book and there is some mystery surrounding her and her abilities. I'm pretty sure that there are also lots of clues as to her origins which aren't that difficult to work out but I get the feeling that this will be revealed at a later date when it is more pertinent to the plot. I think she is the one sympathetic character and possibly one of the more intriguing ones so I hope that the plot does her justice. There are also several mentions of the increasing dark which I'm guessing means that the series will climax in a final big showdown between Tom and whatever form the dark takes.
All in all, a good book which is possibly unusual in being better than the first. Hopefully the series will continue in this manner!