Amanda Mitchison

Trigger warnings: Death from old age

5/10, this seemed like an interesting and original yet obscure novel about some creature arising from his sleep and a bowl but it ultimately very much underwhelmed me and I found a lot of problems with this which I'll get to later on. Crog by Amanda Mitchison begins with a rather flat character Wilf making a questionable decision of stealing a bowl from a museum and he escapes, that doesn't seem that important at first but it'll play a major role in the plot soon enough. He meets back with his sister Ishbel when they meet some random creature from 3000 years ago called Crog, he's apparently the protector of the bowl for whatever reason and it has been stolen before so he plans for that to not happen again and so Wilf and Ishbel run away from their home and from the police to try and keep the bowl for themselves and I didn't like these characters because they didn't develop at all and they were quite irritating to read at times when they argued over each other. In the end, Crog comes back for the bowl and they give it back to him but he wants the last piece of the bowl and they find that and give that to him as well, afterwards, he dies for whatever reason but it's mostly likely due to old age, he's 3000 years old after all but anyways that ends in the story in a fizzling-out manner, it's such a shame that it had to end this way. If you like fantasy books try the Shadow and Bone series by Leigh Bardugo.… (altro)

Mission Telemark by Amanda Mitchison tells the story of four teenagers trained as Special Operations agents, by the British in the Second World war, for a dangerous sabotage mission in Norway. Each of the teenage characters has different strengths and all are fully described and easy to identify with. All the teenagers have Norwegian backgrounds. Jakob, is a dependable boy who is a natural leader, Ase, the only girl is small but strong, having trained as a gymnast and Fred is physically weak and clumsy but has an encyclopaedic knowledge and a photographic memory. These three are training together in Scotland when they are joined by the last member of the team, Lars, who is a solitary and silent figure but is their outdoor survival expert.
Their mission is fraught with danger, from the environment when they go back to Norway and have to survive for weeks in the freezing conditions of the Hardanger Plateau and then from the Nazis when they finally launch their sabotage attempt on the Norsk power station at Vermok, where the Germans are making heavy water. They are not expected to survive.
The story is told from two perspectives, as Jakob and Asa fill in a journal keeping track of their days in training and then on the mission. It is a great story for anyone who likes war stories, historical fiction or spy stories.
The well-researched story incorporated many fascinating real details about the Second World War, including the equipment issued to soldiers, SOE advice about survival and an accurate description of the terrain.
There is an interesting interview with the author about the book at this site http://www.thebookette.co.uk/2010/04/author-interview-amanda-mitchison.html and a video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvU--5Rloq4… (altro)