HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS By J K Rowling

Published : 2007
Pages : 607
Overall Mark : 8/10

Harry Potter finds himself on the run from the Ministry Of Magic and the evil Death Eater’s of Lord Voldemort. Along with his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, they go in search of the horcruxes which Voldemort has used to store pieces of his soul in the vain hope of destroying him once and for all, but when they discover along the way that some of the horcruxes are far more than they first appear to be.

This is the last Harry Potter novel, apparently, and I’m actually quite glad it’s finally come to an end. Some series of books outstay their welcome, but thankfully this has ended on a high, following a rather poor fifth instalment, and a very good sixth! JK Rowling will no doubt either come up with a new character who will in no way be as good as Potter and his friends, but she won’t care because she’s made more than enough money already. Overall this book was a little too slow paced for my liking, with the ending feeling a bit too rushed for my liking, but it’s still one of the best children’s books out there at the moment, and has managed to achieve the unthinkable; crossing over into adult fiction.

CELL By Stephen King

Published : 2006
Pages : 473
Overall Mark : 7/10

While in Boston on a business trip to try and sell his new comic book, Clayton Riddell finds himself one of the few people in the USA not to be affected by a telephone pulse which has been sent through the phone networks, transforming anyone who used the phone into a seemingly mindless zombie. Realising that his family might be at risk, Clay decides to try to make the journey home, little realising that his home state of Maine could well be where the pulse originated from.

This novel was extremely similar to King’s earlier novel, The Stand, which in turn takes a lot from Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend. King’s usual originality is missing here, instead he seems to be taking elements from his other works and mixing them around in the hope that he’ll come up with something new. Despite the feeling of being there before when I read this, I still found it to be an enjoyable read, and hope that King can keep up the good, though now not that original, work.

I AM LEGEND By Richard Matheson

Published : 1954
Pages : 160
Overall Mark : 9/10

Robert Neville is the last human alive on Earth. The rest of humanity, and indeed the animal kingdom, has succumbed to a terrible disease which transforms them into vampire-like creatures of the night. Finding himself scared and alone, Neville barricades himself in his house and prepares for an inevitable future of non-stop terror and alertness, trying to protect himself from the creatures who were once his friends and neighbours. But when he meets a young woman who appears, like himself, to be free of the illness, things start to look up for Robert Neville.

I was surprised at how modern this book felt. Richard Matheson manages to make this book feel contemporary even by today’s standards and, as this is supposed to be set in the late 70s, that’s not an easy task! This novel has been imitated by many, most recently in Stephen King’s Cell, but will always remain one of the original and the best of the modern vampire novels, up there with the likes of Dracula!