Idle Hands - Tom Fletcher

Desperate to cure his son Billy of the disease Idle Hands, Wild Alan must find a way back into the Pyramid from which he was exiled. But, trapped in the barren wasteland that is the Discard - the area surrounding the Pyramid - there isn't much he can do alone.

Bloody Nora, the mapmaker, has her own reasons for wanting to get into the Pyramid; she believes that the secrets of Gleam's history can be found in the Pyramid's vaults. And she has worked with Wild Alan before.

There are more secrets there than either imagined: those vaults hold the key to destroying the Pyramid's tyranny, but saving Billy and uniting the Discard against the Pyramidders is going to be far from straightforward.

My thoughts:

I really do not know how to explain this book. Weird dystopia fantasy? I mean how to even explain where it takes place. There is this pyramid where people work work die. Then there is this swampland where people eat moss and, you know what. This is a book better read than explained. You have to see it to believe it. It really is the strangest land, and I wonder why it is like that. We get some more hints in this one. Freaky fantasy? Oh I must read my review of book 1 and see if I called it something.

Alan is trying to save his son who has a disease called Idle Hands, a freaky one for sure, but then the whole world is freaky. He has to go back to the place he escaped from to save his son. Honestly what are they doing at that place!

He has help. A gay biker who was discared for being day (told you the pyramid people are weird). Nora who makes maps and knows the Pyramid are hiding some.

I really can't say a lot about the plot, spoilers you know. There is adventure, danger and freaky stuff. At times the book might just be too weird for me.

I need to know those hidden truths! I need to know about the world and the pyramid. Oh those secrets. Secrets drives me crazy, cos I want answers at once.

And I check and I did not know how to explain the world then either. I will just call it the future? gone to hell ;)

Hardcover, 400 pages
Published July 27th 2017 by Jo Fletcher Books
Fantasy / Dystopia
For review

Gleam - Tom Fletcher

In this Gormenghastian world the Factory is the law – but that does not mean justice.

The Gargantuan factory of Gleam has seen a millennia of decreasing population. Now the central district is fully inhabited and operational; the outskirts have been left for the wilderness to reclaim. This decaying, lawless zone is the Discard; the home of Wild Alan. He’s convinced that the Gleam authorities were behind the disaster that killed his parents and his ambition is to prove it. But he’ll uncover more secrets than he bargained for.

My thoughts:

How to even explain this world. They themselves do not even know what kind of world they live in.

It's a world where there in the middle there is a big black pyramid. People live there. They eat, sleep, work. But their lives are better. They do not know what they do for a living, they just work, but it's still better. Outside is the Discards, broken buildings, broken people, weird beings and swamps. Life there is not good. They hate, or do not care about the Pyramidders. And they do not know what exactly they live in. Why does it look like this? What is this?

In this world we have wild Alan who left the Pyramid and lives in the Discard. He is not a nice man. He cares about himself and the family he left behind. In the mean time he sleeps with everyone he can find and drinks and misses his old life. Life is not white or black. It's grey, and he will do anything to be with them again. Anything.

The story is about him trying to make a living and then about a certain quest he undertakes. I liked that part, we got to see more of the Discard and meet someone with questions or was it answers. There is more to come, so we will learn more eventually.

Conclusion:

A freaky weird world. I would not want to live there, but it was interesting to read about. And what to even classify it as? Is this our world gone to hell in the future?

Cover

Cool

Hardcover, 400 pages
Published September 4th 2014 by Jo Fletcher Books
The Factory Trilogy #1
Fantasy
For review