Come and see Chris Yates in conversation with Unbound founder Dan Kieran (talking about Yates’s new book, Nightwalk) at the Southbank Centre on 25th May.

Click here to find out more…

The awesome YA Yeah Yeah blog has done a brilliant review of the first two books of the Hattori Hachi series by Jane Prowse. The third book in the trilogy is being crowd-funded to be published exclusively by Unbound in a volume that will contain all three books in the series. You can click here to find out how you can get involved to support it’s publication. And you can check out the review over at YA Yeah Yeah’s site, and see it below…

When Hattori Hachi’s mother disappears, she’s plunged into a whole new life. Because Hattori is the Golden Child, and suddenly the strange training rituals her mother always insisted on her taking part in without telling her dad are starting to make rather more sense… Aided by her friends Mad Dog and Neena and the laundry lady from downstairs, can Hattie overcome the feared ninja warrior Praying Mantis to rescue her mother? She’ll have to watch her back - because enemies can be found where you least expect them!

I think there are a few other YA books out there about ninjas, but this is the first I’ve read and I really enjoyed it. Prowse’s explanation of ninjutsu is clear and her crisp prose makes the action scenes really exciting, but the real strength here is the characterisation, particularly of the supporting cast. Mad Dog, a troubled boy from the Foundry care home which Hattie’s mother had been involved with, and Neena, who’s not really cut out for the ninja stuff but does her best to be a loyal helper anyway, are particularly well-drawn, while Hattie herself is a likeable heroine.

It’s also a book with a really strong message about standing up for yourself but only fighting when it’s absolutely necessary, and about the nature of friendship and trying to get along with people you don’t necessarily immediately warm to. It’s thought-provoking and a far cry from the mindless action of some similar books. Similarly, Hattie’s journey through the dans of ninjutsu is very believable, being slow enough to convey the amount of effort she’s needing to put into it - rather than the instant success you occasionally find to move the plot along in some books like this - yet never boring. It also helps that Mad Dog’s progress is in marked contrast to hers and this shows how difficult it is to achieve her goal. Oh, one last strong point - I love Camden Town, and found it a brilliant location for Hattie’s adventures, with Prowse describing it really well.

The book ends on something of a cliffhanger and I look forward to reading more about Hattie - thankfully I already have book 2, Stalking The Enemy, while book 3 is set to be released later this year. Interestingly, while the first two were released by Piccadilly Press, the third is being offered via Unbound - a relatively new company where books - and swag - can be preordered, with refunds given if a certain target isn’t met. It’s a site which is publishing Red Dwarf’s Robert Llewellyn, Labyrinth author Kate Mosse, and Monty Python’s Terry Jones, amongst others, so clearly has the potential to be a real success. Rather than just release the third book on its own, they’re bringing out the entire trilogy as a deluxe hardback - prices for pledges are £10 for an e-book version, £20 for the 1st edition hardback with your name in the back, or £50 for a signed first edition hardback (both with e-books included free). If you’ve got some cash spare, you can also get some interesting stuff for a bit more expenditure - £500 to have my name used for a character is somewhat out of my price league, but might tempt some people looking for a unique present, especially as it comes with 2 hardbacks and 2 e-books. I have to admit, £60 for a signed hardback and the ninja club kit of a Hattie hoodie, rubber throwing stars and access to a secret page on the website is probably tempting me rather more than it should for someone of my age…

A fantastic, funny review of the Unbound book Crushed Mexican Spiders, a collection of two short stories by Tibor Fischer, has been posted over at Metaliterature. Check it out:

”Just who Fischer thinks he is, first attacking Martin Amis and then telling me, his earnest reviewer, that “…most books reviews aren’t very well-written. They tend to be more about the reviewer than the book,” is an interesting question, and, frankly, one I don’t care much for. Me. I don’t care. I have other views too, which may or may not come out in the course of this review of a double-header by Fischer from the wonderful, wonderful people at Unbound. Okay, so I’m stuck in 2003, but then it was a nice place to be, with anticipation building at getting my hands on first a proof of Yellow Dog and then a pristine signed copy of Voyage To The End Of The Room. After 2003 it all felt a bit of a letdown, with the bathetic release of both to muted praise and fierce criticism.

“London has become a much more unpleasant place than it used to be. I don’t think that’s to do with any kind of recent climate of fear, it’s just that nothing works. There are just too many rats in the rat cage now.”

Read the rest of the review here…

Hattori Hachi is a  series of kick-ass action adventure books for kids and playful adults about a 15 year old Japanese girl, Hattie Jackson, from Camberwell who discovers her ninjitsu heritage after her mother goes missing.

“They are books where people have to work for success; where the heroes train hard, face their own demons and have to confront their invisible barriers to overcome their fears and phobias; characters who aspire to achieve difficult goals and learn to accept that sometimes, failure can be just as important as success…”

Written by Jane Prowse (creator of several TV dramas for the BBC and plays that have been performed in the UK, Ireland and America, including one that’s currently in the West End), the first two books of the series, The Revenge of the Praying Mantis, and Stalking The Enemy, have previously been published and are available to download online. And the third book, Curse of the Diamond Daggers, is set to be  published exclusively by Unbound, in a bound volume containing all three books in the trilogy. You can read excerpts from all 3 books here.

This is a great way to discover a superbly written series for all ages and for those who are already fans of the series, this is a great opportunity to help get the third book published, by pledging money in return for your name being printed in the back of each book plus an ebook or a first edition hardback and anything else from a whole range of gifts such as a Hattie hoodie and  ninja club membership, invites to the launch party, a writing workshop with Jane, and even getting a character in the new Hattori Hachi book named after you.
Click here to find out how you can get involved…

This week’s issue of Time Out London contains a brilliant article about Unbound author Jenny Pickup whose first novel, Unbelievable, will be out in March!

Jenny is on twitter and abctales.com. Click here to watch her pitch video for Unbelievable, read an excerpt of it, and even pre-order it for access to her shed (a behind-the-scenes area where you get an exclusive view of how the book is coming into shape).