John Leighton

Not that funny, won't be taking Jeremy Paxmans' word again, “Very funny”, indeed. Did however find humour in some of the books surreal situations. Given it an extra star for it's unashamed none p.c.ness, was written in 1999, something which everything has to be “careful” with these days.

Was an ok read, nothing new to add to the genre (for first three quarters of book) that hasn't been been done better by Fleming etc. Enjoyed when sci-fi was thrown in with time travel elements, just brought it a little way up from average.

Good to read a proper pulpy “nature attacks” book from the 70s, especially one that is written so well (hard to believe that can be said about this genre but it is). What I especially liked was an American writers nod to James Herbert's The Rats, as if it was part of the same world inhabited by his killer spiders: “Bates paused for a moment, selected a news clipping from the pile in front of him.”Here's an item from a newspaper in England. About two years ago the poorer section of London was horribly infested with rats, definitely a threat to human life on account of spreading infection and rat bites. There was even reports of packs of these rats literally tearing small children to pieces. “
Brilliant.

The way everything came together at the end gave me the same sense of wonder as the ending of A Prayer For Owen Meany did.

If I had read Mother and Child as a standalone, I would have given it 4 stars but as a collective I can only give 3. However, if I had only read Phoenix in the Ashes and Voices From the Dust, they would have been lucky to receive 2, there was no substance or relevance to them whatsoever.