BLAZE By Stephen King

Published : 2007
Pages : 309
Overall Mark : 9/10

Clayton Blaisdell Jr, aka Blaze, is a simple man who turned to crime as something of a last resort because he wasn’t clever enough to do anything else. His best friend and partner in crime, George, had died whilst they were coming up with a plan to make one final big wad of cash, so Blaze decides to try out the plan on his own: the plan being to kidnap the child of a rich family and hold it to ransom. Unfortunately Blaze finds himself forming a bond with the baby and decided he doesn’t really want to give the child back.

This is a nice novel because it actually has the reader sympathising with someone who, in the best sense of the word, is the villain of the piece, and turns them into something of a hero. Blaze is a likeable character, and the reasons for his criminal behaviour are explained in the many flashback sequences which pepper this novel. Stephen King is back on form here, and it’s surprising that this novel got turned down for publication over thirty years ago.

BABEL-17 By Samuel R Delany

Published : 1967
Pages : 193
Overall Mark : 6/10

Rydra Wong, a famous poet and more importantly an expert in languages, is hired to investigate a language, known by the name Babel-17, which is being used by an alien race as a communication tool for a number of terrorist attacks. She puts together a crew and travels in search of more information, but as she starts to learn the language through the aid of a murder known only as The Butcher, she discovers that the language itself may be used as a weapon, as it can control people’s perceptions and thoughts by forcing parts of their brain to shut down.

I wasn’t particularly impressed with this novel, although the idea it is based around is a very interesting and original one. Some of the characters do prove to be interesting as, in her search for the key to Babel-17, Rydra Wong meets a number of people who all have drastically different perceptions of reality themselves, proving to be a nice counterpoint to the subject of the novel itself.