Earlier this year I heard, with moderate surprise, that someone I knew was writing a book. That someone was Tom Pollock and the reason for my surprise was that I’d always seen him as more of a critic than a writer. When you meet Tom, who is one of the most confident and charismatic guys I know, you can’t help but be allured by his intellect and opinions on the genre.
So, of course, knowing this, when I was informed by Jo Fletcher books that a novel The City’s Son by Tom Pollock was to be released in mid-August (now confirmed as 2 Aug 2012), I pretty much begged for an ARC. It came through my door around mid-June and I have to say that, after reading the entire novel in two days, it’s stuck with me ever since.
Tom’s novel is set within London and, yet, not a London that we are familiar with. It’s a Young Adult/Urban Fantasy novel that is unlike anything I’ve ever read; it challenges its reader and refuses to condescend them. The London you are introduced to features a cast of intriguing creatures and clever metaphors to current human existence that mean anyone, whether adult or child, is going to get something from this book. When you add that to the fact that the prose are sharp as a razor, you really begin to see something special here.
When Tom approached me a few weeks back and asked whether I’d like to host an extract, my first reaction was: “YES!” and my second reaction was: “Can I have a scene with Scaffwolves in it!?” Luckily, Tom didn’t need much convincing and he’s gifted me with a wonderful extract that really gives a good showing of the book, Tom’s creative thinking and fantastic prose. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
The file is embedded as a PDF and therefore, unless you’ve got a HUGE monitor, you will probably want to hit the ‘open in a new window’ button at the top right of your screen 🙂
[gview file=”http://fantasywritingcontest.com/Scaffwolf.pdf”]
Should you want to order the book, you can Click Here
Richard Marpole
Jennie Ivins