Monday, 16 June 2014

The Forty-First Wink by James Walley




Poor Marty he is awoken by a bunch of monkeys drumming on his head and stealing his pocket change, or maybe it was just a night on the Tequila! And so starts this trip through Marty’s hangover morning. However, when the cupboard starts to speak to him I knew that something else was a foot!

Awake in his own dream Marty starts his morning off by losing his Mirror Iimage and re-friending his old pirate toy named Timbers by splatting him with a slipper!

With an invite to the Giggletastic Carnival Sideshow Spectacular tucked in hand and a quest to find his lost Mirror Image and a way out of the DreamWorld, Marty and his new found pirate friend go off to catch the bus, as you do! Sounds like they were driving through Croydon for most of it!

As they reach dock, just go with it here, Timbers proudly shows off his pirate ship The Flying Fathom and I was so wrapped up in the mayhem I wanted to be on the deck with Oaf and the motley gang; its unique locomotion just another mad moment exploding from inside JW head.
Finally making it to Stellar Island where Marty spends his (awake) day job dressed as Harvey the Space Beagle, he comes across another random ally and soon the whole gang finds themselves in the Hall of Paranormal Mirrors. It is here that things start to get a little spooky as He is talked about.  

The “He” is a certain Mr Peepers a freakish, demonic clown with a truly skin crawling aura that JW manages to portray even amongst all this daft jolliness.

When dastardly plot twists start to unfold we are treated to a variety of characters, unforgettable for me are the Jamaican, French and German canaries that are in a desperate search for worms and cheese; I do hope they found some and the superhero “Locust” with his spangly lycra leggings and unending history lesson of fascinating facts.

The funniest part of the book for me was the daring ice cream truck escape, complete with choc ice weaponry and pogoing clowns!

As they continue on their hunt/escape/quest Marty and his gang may have found his route “home”. I was pleased to see that JW did not skimp or wuss out on the ending, holding fast to a theme and giving a brilliant ending, whilst leaving it wide open for more fun.

This book was a total riot, I kept finding myself guffawing and snorting at all the odd, random moments and exceptionally clever word play one liners.  I’m pretty sure the image of a whale on a pogo stick will stay with me for awhile. As for the Great Badger Invasion and cheeseburger trees, well, just well!

The mental visuals given are a whirlwind of colours and images, it would be amazing to see what Hollywood CGI could do with this mayhem.

Reading the bio’ on JW I understand that this is to be a serious of books, personally I think it could be extended into a massive series, the imagination and writing skill of JW seems endless is this short (a good two hours!) read is anything to judge him buy.

Fantastic attention to detail in every moment of madness, the writing style is an easy read but also complex as so much is packed into each sentence, paragraph and chapter.


All the characters whether human or critter are fleshed out and have unique personalities. I could not spot a single typo or editing error which is outstanding for a first book, but then The Ragnarok team are amazing.



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