‘New stage, new Theodora mask, same old strength required. Theodora was 19 years old, sick to death of carrying on, and she carried on…”
It’s hard to go wrong with a lead who’s a kickass acrobat-dancer-spy. When her animal-trainer father dies right in front of her, ‘killed by the body-ripping claws of his own bear’, Theo and her sisters are put to work to replace his income. Trained for the stage from the tender age of five, Theodora’s been pushed to the limits of physical and mental endurance and she’s tough enough now to give Nikita a run for her money. She is a different but believable heroine, mouthy and brilliant – a modern girl in the sixth century A.D.
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Fresh from Salt Publishing’s new genre imprint, Proxima, this is a tentacle-heavy Austen homage for fans of Blackadder-style innuendo and puns that would make the Pope groan. The truth is out there, though it is not yet universally acknowledged.
It’s always interesting when writers write about writers, and that memory of Misery you just had isn’t out of place here. We’re not talking Sarah-Jessica adverts for laptops, or Bukowski’s bourbon product-placement. No, Lee’s author protagonist is not an advert for the literary profession. A few chapters into Roy’s life, and the formulaic thriller hack is not an advert for anything at all.
