I picked up this novel in an airport after having seen on TV during the 1970s the movie adaptation of "The Blue Max", which impressed me a lot.

The novel is centered on Bruno Stachel, a young man of humble origins (his father worked in a modest hotel in the Black Forest), who had transferred from the infantry to the Imperial German Air Service. As a newly minted fighter pilot, he arrives at a Jasta (fighter squadron) situated not far from the Front. It is early 1918, several weeks before Germany would embark on a series of offensives to win the war before the Americans could arrive in strength and help ensure an Allied victory. Stachel is a bit ill-at-ease for he is the new guy at the Jasta, the greenhorn. So he puts up a brave front with his comrades. He wants so much to be the hero and join the pantheon of the great German aces (e.g., Boelcke, Immelmann, and Manfred von Richthofen aka The Red Baron) by earning Imperial Germany's highest award for bravery: the Order Pour le Mérite. Better known as the Blue Max.

But in order to earn the Blue Max -- not an easy feat --- a fighter pilot has to earn his mettle through the crucible of air combat by shooting down a significant number of enemy aircraft. Stachel is on a steep learning curve and has to prove himself. So, his commander, Hauptmann Heidemann (himself a holder of the Blue Max) assigns him a Pfalz DIII, which though graceful in appearance, is one of the unit's cast offs, a marked contrast to the standard Albatros and Fokker Triplane fighters with which the majority of the Jasta is equipped.

As the novel progresses, the reader experiences the ups and downs of life at the Front (with some views of life back in Germany), as well as Stachel's burning ambition to be the best fighter pilot in the Jasta. It is an ambition that alienates Stachel from many of his comrades, who resent his growing arrogance as he grows in experience and skill as a combat pilot.

This is a novel that I -- as a student of World War I air combat -- thoroughly enjoyed reading. It's packed with adventure, excitement, raw human emotions, and tragedy. And it's well-written. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Jack Smith, who will be 14 tomorrow, is headed off to school for another boring, mundane day. Or perhaps not. He’s feeling stronger, faster, more agile than ever before. And strange things keep happening – like the creepy dude of pale skin on the way to school who wished him an early happy birthday. Then there was challenging the school bully while protecting his friend, and winning. But things got really weird with the principle, who seems to be more monster than school matron. Pretty soon, Jack is caught up in battling monsters left and right, his aunt is more than she seems, and the Monster Hunters (a secret society) need Jack because he may be the ‘One’.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a quick read filled with plenty of action and monsters out of myths and legends. While it has a definite Young Adult genre feel to it, we also had some darker issues in the background which gave it a touch of seriousness that pulled it all together for me. Jack is a fun kid who has a secret identity that even he isn’t aware of at the start of the story. He has a crush on a girl at school, but is too shy to do anything about it. He has 2 friends in the school who are both outcasts (each for different reasons). And his parents died when he was kid, leaving him to be raised by his Aunt Sophie (who has secrets of her own).

Then in steps Eva and she is an awesome one-handed (the other being whatever weapon she needs at the time that can screw on to her stump cover) Monster Hunter. She shows up and starts explaining the rules of the whole Creach society (the monsters – creatures) and what the Black Guard (Monster Hunters) are all about. However, she keeps getting interrupted by this flow of monsters who want Jack either dead or captured. This creates a great pacing of the story, where we get these little tidbits of background in between action scenes. No big info dumps here!

But if you are concerned that this is just one big monster slayer fest, don’t worry! Some of these ‘monsters’ have more going on for them. Of course, this leads to grief and consternation for some of the Monster Hunters. That was quite OK with me, as it added another layer to the story and left plenty for the author to explore in future installments of the series.

The book does break the fourth wall and speak directly to the reader several times through out the tale. Mostly, this is Jack telling us (the readers) to beware! Horrid monsters will hunt us if we read this book! While I didn’t exactly dislike these sections, I felt that they were so much younger than the tale itself and the break in narration always took me out of the story. I think I would have preferred to just let the story speak for itself.

What I Liked: The cover art; Jack is easy to get attached to; monsters galore!; not all the characters (including the monsters) are what they seem at first glance; loyalty of friends; Jack’s secret past.

What I Disliked: The narration breaks at several points so that Jack can speak directly to the readers, and this kept taking out of the story when I just wanted to stay in the story.

Mit eigenen Worten
Edward, Jodie und Sam sind eine glückliche Familie, es ist kurz vor Weihnachten und alles scheint gut zu sein. Bis Edward und Jodie sich entscheiden zum falschen Zeitpunkt am falschen Ort zu sein.
Edwards Vater sitzt derweil im Gefängnis von Christchurch, weil er vor 20 Jahren hat er mindestens 11 Prostituierte ermordet. Die Leute glauben, dass Jack the Hunter seine Gene an Edward vermacht hat .. und vielleicht haben sie damit gar nicht so unrecht.

 

Wirkung
Das Buch hat wirklich die perfekten Farben für mich. Ich finde Thriller sollten dunkel gehalten sein und wenn sie nicht dunkel gehalten sind, dann sollten sie ein schauriges Motiv drauf haben. Bei diesem Buch ist das meiner Meinung nach sehr gut gelöst, weil einfach nur ein dunkler Hintergrund gewählt wurde und ein Grabkreuz in den Titel mit eingebaut wurde. Wirklich gut gemacht. Der Titel passt inhaltlich sehr gut zum Buch. Ich finde: super Covergestaltung.

 

Positives
Der Einstieg in die Geschichte ist sehr angenehm. Man lernt als erstes Edward und seine Familie kennen. Man begleitet sie durch ihren Alltag und ich muss sagen, dass ich Edward, Sam und Jodie gleich in mein Herz geschlossen habe. Und dann auf einmal nimmt die Geschichte ihren Lauf und ich man wird einfach in sie eingesogen. Der Autor hat einen Schreibstil, der den Leser voll und ganz vereinnahmt und ihn nicht wieder frei gibt. Mir hat am Schreibstil besonders gut gefallen, dass trotz des Mord und Totschlag Themas besondere Stellen mit sehr viel Emotionen geschrieben wurden. Manchmal sogar mit so viel, dass ich weinen musste. Die Charaktere waren für mich als Leser greifbar und vollkommen nachvollziehbar. Ich habe so sehr mit Edward gelitten in jeder einzelnen Sekunde. Das kam dadurch zustande, dass die Kapitel von Edward in der Ich-Erzähler Perspektive geschrieben waren und somit seine Gefühle und Gedanken frei gelegt hat. Aber auch Schroder konnte ich mir sehr gut vorstellen, seine Kapitel waren im auktorialen Erzählstil geschrieben. Ich habe Schroders innerliche Zerrissenheit sehr gut verstanden, einerseits mochte er Edward und andererseits konnte er ihm nicht helfen. Er tat mir irgendwie leid. Die Randpersonen der Geschichte waren ebenfalls gut beschrieben, wie zB Edwards Vater (Jack the Hunter). Er hat eine tragende Rolle im Buch gespielt, trat jedoch nicht so häufig auf, deswegen ist er für mich eine Randperson. Der Verlauf der Geschichte konnte mich absolut fesseln, auch wenn es mal eine Stelle gab, die mir ein wenig zu lang war, danach ging es aber wieder heiß her und ich konnte das Buch gar nicht aus der Hand legen. Es hat mir besonders gefallen, dass der Verlauf immer wieder für eine Überraschung gut war. Ich hab immer gedacht "Jetzt aber." und dann war es doch nicht so wie ich es mir gedacht hatte. Vor allem das Ende hat mich überrascht und auch emotional sehr berührt. Ich fand das es ein gutes und logisches Ende war und ich konnte damit das Buch gut abschließend, aber loslassen wird mich das Buch wahrscheinlich länger nicht.
Es ist ein wenig schaurig, die Entwicklung zu verfolgen, die Edward durchmacht. Er ist anfangs ein ganz normaler Mensch mit einem ganz normalen Leben und durch einen einzigen Moment wird alles auf den Kopf gestellt. Es ist dieses "das könnte jedem von uns passieren Gefühl" was mich nicht mehr loslässt. Ehrlich gesagt, weiß ich nicht, wie ich reagieren würde, wenn es mir passiert wäre.

 

Negatives
Kein Kommentar.

 

Zitat
"Du hast gesagt, dass du das umsonst machst." "Das war vor dem ganzen ... Blut." [...] "Fünftausend", sagt sie. "Weißt du, wer ich bin?", frage ich sie. "Was? Ja, glaub schon. Aus den Nachrichten." "Dann weißt du ja, was mein Vater getan hat, oder?" Sie nickt. "Die Leute glauben, das liegt in den Genen. Willst du rausfinden, ob sie Recht haben?" "Vielleicht hab ich doch gesagt, dass ich es umsonst tue."

 

Bewertung
Note 1 {sehr gut}
Ein wahnsinns Buch. Wirklich wahr. Die Note eins hat dieses Buch auf jeden Fall verdient. Das Buch ist gekennzeichnet durch einen leichten Einstieg, einen emotionalen und spannenden Schreibstil, transparente Charaktere, einen spannenden Verlauf und ein wahnsinns Ende. Die Idee zum Buch finde ich wirklich genial und die Umsetzung konnte mich mehr als überzeugen.
Ich bin froh, dass ich dieses Buch endlich gelesen habe und kann es jedem Thrillerfan wärmstens empfehlen!

Demons from the Haunted World: Supernatural Art by Yoshitoshi is part of an ongoing series of ukiyo-e art print books, compiled and edited by Jack Hunter. Ukiyo-e is an art style that flourished during the Edo Period, from the 17th to 19th centuries, in Japan. It's rough translation is "pictures from the floating world", and most often depicts romanticized versions of samurai, kabuki (male theatre) actors, gorgeous women, and even erotica.

This particular set of collections zeroes in on the violence and horror avenues of ukiyo-e, gathering paintings and prints from the eras most well-known artists. Demons from the Haunted World showcases art by ukiyo-e master, Yoshitoshi, who lived from 1839 to 1892. Yoshitoshi was a prolific painter, and is considered one of the last masters of this art form. He lived through the beginnings of the Meiji era, and in a time where Japan was rapidly adopting Western technology (like photography) he fought to keep old traditions alive. Unfortunately, his struggle was futile, and the art is said to have effectively died with him in 1892.

He became well-known for a set of prints called "The Bloody Prints" (not included in this collection). The series depicted horrible and ultra-violent scenes of mayhem and death (such as this print--warning, graphic content). Later, he would go on to paint many more series. This book focuses purely on his demon and ghost paintings, from several different collections, including "100 Ghosts from China and Japan", "Heroic Beauty from the Suikoden", "New Forms of 36 Ghosts", and a smattering of other collections.

The art itself is gorgeous: terribly detailed, imaginative, and indicative of the period. For those that aren't familiar with demon renditions in Japan, most do take human form, so I wasn't overly surprised by the great number of portraits which depict mostly human subjects. However, the actual prints (in this case, the photography used in the book) is quite muddy, and in many cases "bleeds out" the color. These publisher defects, when printed on ultra-glossy paper, detracts from the overall quality of the book, which has nothing more than an introduction and catalog for words. I enjoyed the concept of the layout, with large, full-page, color illustrations, but the quality of the reproductions was poor, often given the images the appearance of a low-quality camera image that had been blown up to grainy quality.

There were also some images in the back that I would have really loved to see much larger, but overall, Demons from the Haunted World showcases an incredible and diverse collection of prints, and I am pleased to have it on my shelf for reference. If you'd like to see images of the book to better understand my meaning, you can visit my blog here: http://alex-hurst.com/2014/01/01/demons-from-the-haunted-world-a-review/

What were the main themes of the book? I would like to say monster hunting ... after all that's what the book was about, but there's more to it. Jack grows up and I think this was the most important part of the book. The story focused on learning about family and dealing with the past. Although not all issues are dealt with in this book and I expect there will be a continuation in the second book.

Which did you find more appealing, the introduction or the conclusion? The conclusion was a slight turn off for me. A lot of us were expecting a huge, "aha" moment through the book. We got to the end and nothing came. So either our perceptions were off or the author was building up emotions for the second book. In other words, I preferred the introduction.

Why would you recommend or not recommend this book? I would recommend this book to anyone who doesn't mind a series and who enjoys fantasy adventure books.


Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the author.