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Faces Of Mist And Flame by Jon George check out website: www.tor.com and www.toruk.com and www.panmacmillan.com
Phoenix Lafayette is a World War II combat correspondent following the fates of a group of recruits right through to a landing on the beaches of the Pacific island, Guam. During his short time on the island, he comes to the belief that if he follows the labours of Hercules by carrying them out against the Enemy, he will live to fight another day. A female voice poses the proposition of Hercules and his labours, while he imagines the ghosts of the island that his grandfather has told him so much about. In actuality, it is Serena Freeman and she has just stepped into a labour involving a government agency who wants Odysseus at any cost. The pair in their own places within time have to face their own labours, but not alone. United by dreams and visions they have to find the strength they need, resolve the events of their pasts and secure a future to exist in. Jon George has made a crashing entrance with his debut novel, securing what I believe will be a devoted fan base and his place among great Science Fiction authors. Serena is a confused but enigmatic character. Her past as a child that grew up too quickly has overshadowed her adult life and Odysseus is her way of taking back some of that control. Her actions seem to be completely insane, but when you look at Einstein and Da Vinci, both geniuses in their own right, they were often viewed as lunatics themselves! Phoenix 'Nix' Lafayette is just as compelling in his own way. A charismatic alcoholic, sometimes detestable man, he recalls his life lessons that he learnt from his grandfather. He has relinquished his relationship with his father, who wanted him to take a role within the relative safety of politics rather than pursue a career in journalism, much less journalism in the line of fire. These dips into his own past show how he is intrinsically tied to the fate of the island from which his grandfather came and which he now stands fighting for. The whole book is an outstanding accomplishment in writing. Jon George has an almost unnerving knack of actually transporting the reader to the places he describes. He writes the noises that each type of weaponry makes and the smells that permeate Nix's senses. You can't help experience the book using all your senses. At one point, he talks about diesel fumes and rain. You can smell the diesel and feel the rain pounding your head. His prose is vivid to say the least. The scenes of war are very much under-dramatised in the sense that George tells it how it is and doesn't apply any softly-softly sensibilities to the killing. A Hollywood movie would have edited out most of his chapters on the war in Guam, his imagery far too graphic cinema-goers. That said, though, I would heartily recommend this book to men and women alike because the mood he creates is compelling and hard to pull away from. Jon George has the approach of someone who appreciates that there are no winners in war, only losers. One way that George points to this, is in a bet that the Boys have taken. They're playing a game of Dead Pool Poker, without giving too much away this element of the story perfectly demonstrates the pointlessness of one human being killing another. Intermixed within the storyline, Jon George has written the labours of Hercules as a story. These breaks in action with Nix and lunacy from Serena are very witty and always caused a welcome comic relief as I read the book. They neatly change the pace so that you aren't overwhelmed by massacre-after-massacre. One character to look out for whilst reading has to be the King Eurystheus' herald that eventually gives Hercules his challenges. The King is so yellow-bellied he has holed himself up in a jar! But continually, this herald provides hilarity and unbending stupidity. It's great slapstick. The government side of things doesn't rear its ugly head throughout the story, but George keeps them in the throes of the readers mind using government documents reproduced on the page. These snippets help the reader understand Serena's peril without bringing a new set of characters into the mix. I found the writing on the war side of things thought-provoking and challenging. It brought a new side of what I had made up in my mind as being fundamentally wrong, bringing a dimension to war I had never really explored. Jon George has a way of getting under your skin. This is a page turner in the best sense of the words and his quirky, perceptive writing style envelopes the reader in an almost virtual reality world of his creation. Serena's thoughts and reflections upon her life are deeply moving and touching in the way she actually finds herself adapting to a fact that becomes apparent by the end of the novel. I enjoyed this book in its entirety. There was nothing that I could really find fault with. It will make any reader think about the subject matter of war and how its affects change people for better or worse and I believe any book that manages to do that deserves huge recognition. Jon George will be an author to look out for in years to come, I expect this won't be his last phenomenal literary outing he has to offer. Donna Jones
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OTHER REVIEWS - June 2004
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Serena
Freeman started life as a child prodigy. Her existence geared up
for an intellectual career in mathematics, she branches out of the
normal career of University Don to build a time-machine. Odysseus,
allows the time traveller to witness and experience events in the
past through another person's eyes, as it happened. 
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