Advantages: A great read! Disadvantages: A little short!
THE FRONT
MANDASUE HELLER
INTRODUCTION
?The Front?, was the first novel from Mandasue Heller and was published in 2002.
Ms Heller moved to Manchester in 1982. She spent ten years living in a notorious rough area of the city, working as a singer in bands playing on the local pubs and clubs circuit. After a vicious attack on her home she decided to try to fulfil her ambition of becoming a writer.
She had always enjoyed reading crime novels so she wrote about what she knew, about life on the rough estates of Manchester.
Mandasue Heller is billed as being very much like Martina Cole, and I do agree with this comment.
THE STORY
?The Front? starts with Mal, Ged, Sam and Lee, four old friends, who have decided to make some easy money by robbing their local supermarket, on a Manchester estate ...
Advantages: Sci-Fi Disadvantages: Would not bother again
Gust front.
The Posleen have invaded the Earth. They are big reptilian looking aliens and they hate humans with a ferocity.
The book is essentially a war/ resistance type novel with lots of battles and counter insurgency rear guard actions. The book follows differing teams of human fighter as they each have a story and a battle to fight. Some are successful and some disastrous slaughters. The Polseen are nasty aliens and no empathy comes across in the book, they want to totally dominate the humans and take over the Earth.
The characters draw your pity as they fight against overwhelming odds and weapons so advanced only trickery and humans sacrificing themselves can help to defeat the Polseen commandos.
There are a couple of sub plots and equally a couple of twist but they are not much to speak of and for me ...
Advantages: Perfect picture of war, deep characters, harsh lessons, undeniable realism Disadvantages: Crushingly realistic, morbid at times
All Quiet on The Western Front is a phrase synonymous with an uneventful day on the frontlines of a battlefield. however, it is a actually a crude translation of a line from this gripping, intense story of a group of young comrades trapped in the bleak, unforgiving trenches of the First World War, refreshingly, told from the perspective of a German soldier. Being British, this is an angle all too rarely explored with the German's usually portrayed as nameless, faceless, soulless, broken-german spouting targets in uniforms. However this book does the unusual task of humanising all of the unfortunate souls who fought and in many cases, perished in such a tragic conflict, regardless of birthplace.
The book is written by Erich Maria Remarque, a young man conscripted into the German forces in 1917, who fought in the war until being wounded ...
