brief summary
After receiving a terminal diagnosis fifteen year old Nick also begins receiving visitations from the future urging him and his friends to undertake a quest to the future loss of someone dear to them.

full review
Author Mark Lawrence takes us back to England in 1986, to the day a young man named Nicholas receives the news he has leukemia, and not long to live. What follows is far from the typical "teen with cancer" story, although it does hit some of the expected points: the moment when he reveals his soon-to-be-dead status to his friends, the introduction of a girl with whom he cannot possibly have enough time, the quest he has to complete before it's too late. Time is an ever-present element in this story, as one might expect, but not for the reason one might think, and that is what takes this from being a British Lurlene McDaniel story to an intriguing science fiction adventure.

Not long after Nick receives his diagnosis and his future love interest (this is not a spoiler, it is too obvious to be a spoiler) joins his D&D group, a man begins appearing around Nick, at first creeping him out, and finally stepping in to help, and then ask Nick and his friends to commit a felony in order to save Mia (the newest D&D player and Nick's eventual love interest) from a future of brain damage. The young men are convinced, eventually, that the man is a version of Nick from a version of the future, and things proceed. There are a number of interesting and clever things about this quest the group embarks on, including the way it echoes the campaign they are following in D&D, but at the risk of being called a spoiler I won't go into them any further here.

Instead I will say that I delighted in the unabashed nerdery of the characters, and the idea that their parents and siblings actually had lives and personalities of their own, rather than existing simply to spawn the main characters and then bugger off. Truly, I enjoyed this group of kids, and found myself forming actual attachments to them, despite the book's brevity. They reminded me pleasantly of Real Genius, although that might've just been the 1980s setting.

I also appreciated Lawrence's ability to integrate different elements of being a British teenager in the '80s into the background. (Although, now that I think about it, that might be because he's approximately of an age to have been a teenager in the '80s himself.) At any rate, the '80s culture the book includes is more than just flavor text, as it is also key to the group's quest. A part which particularly tickled me was the idea that future-Nicholas is hindered in his designs by being stuck with '80s-level computer technology when he needs to perform futuristic feats that we still have not achieved in 2019.

It is worth mentioning that this story's antagonist, other than leukemia and time, is a genuine psychopath of the sort that seem to occur with disproportionate frequency in stories of British teens. This fellow is astonishingly awful, and there is no real explanation ever offered as to how he became that way, only that he knows he's dreadful and seems wholly unbothered by that fact. In fact, he seems to revel in it in a way that makes me wonder if he ever had parents, or if he did and then killed them.

This was a promising start to Mark Lawrence's newest series, and I eagerly await the next installment.

I was drawn to this book by a blurb that called it "Ready Player One meets Stranger Things" - which turned out not to be accurate. I don't see the connection to Ready Player One at all - maybe Stranger Things in that it is set in the 1980s and involves a group of teenagers who play D&D and get involved in a real life adventure - though in this book it has to do with time travel rather than a monster. I'm not sure the book made sense at all, but I did enjoy reading it. 3.75 stars rounded up to 4.

This is the first book by Mark Lawrence that I have read but it will not be the last.

I don't often read young adult Sci-fi/ fantasy but this book sounded interesting.

I am so happy I got the chance to read and review this book. It is very well written and it is very well written. I was hooked onto the story pretty much right away.

I can't wait to read more in the series and I already have the second book to read and review so you will be seeing that review close to release day.

"One Word Kill" is an interesting take on the time travel trope. I liked the premise of the story and the main characters had some fun character dynamics. Unfortunately, the time travel stuff is rather confusing and the ending felt rather rushed.

I was really interested to see how Mark Lawrence would operate in our own world and I was not disappointed. Pitched as Ready Player One meets Stranger Things, this tells the story of Nick, a 15 year old boy recently diagnosed with Leukemia. When tasked with saving a future version of one of his friends, Nick enlists the help of his D & D group and hijinks ensue. Jumping firmly onto the 80s nostalgia bandwagon, this book does everything it promises. We love Nick and his friends and we want him to succeed and get the girl. I also thought the addition of genuine, real world stakes in terms of the psychopath, Rust lent an air of fear and consequences that I appreciated, although I do think that the character himself was a little cartoonish in his villainy. I think what most people, myself included, will latch on to here is the core friendship of Nick, Simon, Elton, John and Mia and I thought that these characters were very well drawn, albeit a little archetypal - I think this was somewhat intentional however, given the D & D aspect to the narrative. All in all, Mark Lawrence has managed to pack an awful lot into a book that is less than 200 pages long and I am very much looking forward to seeing where things will go in the next instalment.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Basic plot: Nick is a teen genius recently diagnosed with leukemia. Aside from going to a posh school and roaming the streets of 1980’s London, most of his time is spent playing D&D with his group of friends. And then a man claiming to be from the future saves him from a local psychopath, and Nick’s whole universe(s) turns upside down.

As soon as I read that this was set in the 80’s, I was ALL-IN! There were plenty of references to that wild-haired, synthesizer-heavy, glammed-out bygone era; enough to keep me grounded in the pop culture nostalgia of the story. The mainstay was the game. I’ve always been mystified and hugely curious of D&D (Dungeons & Dragons)— never had the opportunity to play it, myself, but would jump at any given chance should it ever arise. The way it takes center stage, and at times intertwines analogously with Nick’s cancer treatment, was pretty clever. The fantasy quests in-game often reflected the real-world trials of someone living with leukemia, and I thought that was done well. It started losing me a bit once the whole ‘time travel-y, Back to the Future’ storyline was introduced, but whatever. I was still engrossed, though, if only because the characters were so likable and multi-faceted (which is impressive for such a short book). Even amidst all the sci-fi jargon, the plot felt so human and real: living with an illness, coming of age, friendships... metaphysical questions of fixing the past or changing the future.

This was simply a really fun read! (One irrational complaint: Why is his mom constantly referred to as “Mother”? Like, she has no given name in the story. It’s simply, “Mother has said”, “My mother blah blah blah”, “Mother was wearing”... and every damn time it made me think of the movie Psycho).

Seriously, though, I cannot wait for the next installment!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book, in exchange for an honest review.

I truly amazing and remarkable story needs some fundamental ingredients...
...like characters you an relate to. Why I start with that? Because in the long run the characters are the reason why I stay with the book and return for next. I need at least one I can relate to. One Word Kill has 5. Five teenegers: Nick, our lead character, is a 15 year old who just found out he has cancer. He takes it pretty well considering he has to go through chemotherapy once a week. Elton, who is into martial arts, Simon the computer geek, John the rich boy who is into D&D and the latest addition to their group, Mia. They play D&D every week and that gives them something solid, something constant. Their relationship reminded me of Stranger Things, of what those boys have, something akin to brotherhood. Oh and there is Demus. Interesting fella, that one.

...and any real good stories have villains too. Now this is a fairly short book and the villain in this case is a total nutjob called Ian Rust. There is not much that can be said about him except that he deserves what he gets.

The other most important ingredient is the plot. The stranger the better. The more impossible it seems the better. And this one has some crazy ideas which are even crazier because they might become real some day.

Highly recommended.

I haven’t read anything else by Mark Lawrence yet but I will and I sure will read the next book in the series too and I’m going to start reading it immediately.

Thanks to NetGalley, 47North and Mark Lawrence for my copy.

I've read Mark Lawrence's other books, and didn't know how his writing style would work in a story that isn't "grimdark"... I was surprised how well his story reads and loved this story.



A great story about what someone can do without limits... the main character's cancer removes his self-imposed limits and learns more about himself than he knew.  The nerd references helped set the scene without distracting from the characters, something I think Ready Player One struggled with.

As much as I liked Ready Player One, this story seems more personal, with more attention and energy spent on the characters instead of 80's references, which I appreciate.

Unlike Lawrence's other books, I would recommend this to a younger audience than his other series (serieses?).  The convolutedness of the main character meeting himself is interesting to a nerd like me, but probably isn't enough to distract from the story if your nerdiness goes in a different direction.

Highly recommend.

** I received a copy of this book from NetGalley AFTER reading and reviewing it.

One Word Kill *SLAYED ME*

*Received from Netgalley in exchange for review, but the limitless gushing is all me*

Me a month ago: “wow, the book of the ancestor was probably Lawrence’s best series.”

Mark Lawrence: HOLD MY BEER!

This is one of those pieces you just have to stand back and marvel at. All the exquisite intricacies, the intriguing ideas and the time-bending concepts come into view. And even with the full picture you are blown away.

Let’s back up a minute. This is a book where dungeons and dragons playing teens get embroiled in mystery and high stakes drama. It’s a book so deliciously dorky and endlessly entertaining- plus it made me want to plan more D&D I enjoyed every second, from beginning to end- not least the heartstoppingly cute last line!
But, if you think it’s just fun and games, don’t be fooled! This is Lawrence’s most sophisticated work.

Something about this book switched the lights on in my brain and wouldn’t let me switch them off again. For all its seeming simplicity, there are resonant messages beneath the surface and an abundance of genius to keep a reader preoccupied. Forgive me, I am lost for words: this book was simply brilliant, beautiful and meaningful.

And that’s to say nothing of the writing. It was sharper than ever and witty to boot. The descriptions were incredible and the thoughts insightful. It was so gorgeous that I highlighted way too much and consequently had a difficult time going through my notes.

While there is a sense of pervasive sadness to the mood, given that the main character is deathly ill, I was amazed at how often there is light to offset the darkness. The atmosphere is ever-present and yet not overwhelming. Thanks to the distinctive voice, the reader can see both the beauty and the humour, even when all seems lost.

Personally, it was this main character that drew me into the story. Unlike so many figures in fiction, he has a toughness that is all the more admirable, because it doesn’t form in his fists. Not that I don’t appreciate that- but is characterisation hit me hard, because it rests on mind over matter. This protagonist, together with an incredible cast, makes it impossible to not to get heavily invested.

Ultimately, if I could give more than 5 bananas I would… *hang on a minute*… Let me work some magic…
Ok I called over some more monkey mes from a parallel universe so we could pool our resources- this should do the trick…

https://lynns-books.com/2019/04/19/one-word-kill-impossible-times-1-by-mark-lawrence/
If you visit my blog you’ll know that Mark Lawrence is one of my favourite authors and so I’m very happy today to be reviewing One Word Kill as part of the tour organised by 47North. Further details are below.

One Word Kill is a slight change of tack and see’s this author taking a sidestep into the world of science fiction. This is a story involving time travel and friendship and is also something of a shout out to the 80s.

I will confess straight out that I know next to nothing about Dungeons & Dragons, I know – break out the pitchforks and roast me over a hot flame already. I also admit that science fiction is not my ‘go to’ genre and on top of that, time travel can be a little bit hit or miss for me. Basically, I guess this book had its work cut out and so I’m relieved to say that this was a very enjoyable read.

As the story sets out we meet Nick Hayes just as he discovers he has cancer. Nick is a fairly regular fifteen year old, a little bit awkward, doesn’t know how to relate to his mum, thinks girls are from a different planet, has a small group of close friends, doesn’t really fall into the ‘in’ crowd but has no real grumbles as such. He gets together with his friends at weekends to thrash out the latest stage of their D&D game and the biggest change to his world was the recent inclusion of a girl into their small circle – and then of course the shocking news of his illness.

Then other things start to happen. Events in Nick’s everyday life seem to be mimicking things that occur within the D&D game he plays with his friends and on top of that a stranger seems to be stalking him. Not to elaborate on the plot it seems that this stalker needs Nick and his friend’s help for a most unlikely rescue situation. And, as if you needed more, at the same time it seems that Mia, the recent female addition to the crew, has caught the attention of, in my gran’s words, ‘a thoroughly bad sort’!

So this all comes together in a roiling mess of events that escalate into something crazy before eventually untangling themselves and rushing headlong at a conclusion.

What I thought was really good here – the friendships and banter were very well done. Basically these are a bunch of nerdy teenagers who get together to geek out. The language of games overcomes everything after all and the interactions and dialogue flow really well – for me, these characters felt real and behaved the way I would expect.

If you love the 80s you’ll love all the little shout outs and whilst I admit that I probably missed a few along the way part of the fun is spotting those things that resonate personally. I enjoyed that this story had a familiar feel, think Stranger Things and Back to the Future but also imagine hints of The Goonies and Stand By Me, yet,in spite of that, it was different from the norm in that, as you would imagine with the inclusion of a seriously ill main character, the story has a serious feel. There is still that sense of camaraderie that you would anticipate but there’s also an element of sadness that you would expect to accompany such a serious issue. But, before you become all doom and gloom – there is also hope thrown into the mix so bear that in mind too.

The science fiction elements – well, this is time travel, and I can go round and round in circles with the whys and wherefores. I think the explanations here are done well, probably a little bit over my head in some respects – all the split, multiple timelines and quantum physics (yeah, straight over the top of this one’s noggin) but to be fair I don’t think there’s too much convoluted E=MC2 going on here so I’m sure most people will find this a fairly easy, maybe even ‘soft’ sci fi read.

In terms of criticisms. The only thing I would mention, and I do tend to bang on about shorter stories – this feels like it could have used a little more padding. This is a very quick page count and I appreciate that the brevity gives the story a snappy feel but at the same time it also left me feeling that the ending was a little bit rushed, there was a sense that some things slotted very conveniently into place at various points and also, occasionally a feeling of being ‘told’ rather than ‘shown’.

On the whole One Word Kill is a fast paced adventure, it is a story that compels you to turn the pages quickly to see what will happen next and put bluntly there’s never a dull moment.

I received a copy courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

Firstly, I’d like to thank Mark Lawrence for gifting me an e-copy of the proof for One Word Kill through Netgalley.

IMG_20190429_092030_447

Mark Lawrence is a power-house in the world of fantasy and One Word Kill is his first foray into science fiction. He takes us back to 80’s London, in what’s being described as Ready Player One meets Stranger Things.

It’s been a couple of days now since I finished One Word Kill, and despite feeling that it probably wasn’t the best book I’d ever read, I’m still thinking about it. I keep forgetting that I’m not still reading it – I keep trying to pick it back up again and continue the story. Despite any reservations I may have, you can’t deny this is the mark of a good book.

So, why is it on my mind?

Because Lawrence is a compelling storyteller. So much so, you don’t want his stories to end. It’s something I always say about his writing, but it is so easy to read and I was relieved to discover this was still the case despite the switch in genres. I’d burn through the pages in each sitting (although this year opportunities to just sit and read have been rarer than I’d like). In the past, I’ve always loved how rich Lawrence’s prose was; the richness was absent from One Word Kill but this only served to cement it in “the real world.” This book isn’t Lawrence being Lawrence just in a different setting; this book is very much independent from those gone before it.

And yet having said that, Lawrence’s stamp is firmly on this book. He has a way with words that resonate with you, moments that make you pause and give you food for thought:

“On the day he died he told me: ‘The equations that govern the universe don’t care “now”. You can ask them questions about this time or that time, but nowhere in the elegance of their mathematics is there any such things as “now”. The idea of one specific moment, one universal “now” racing along at sixty minutes an hour, slicing through the seconds, spitting the past out behind it and throwing itself into the future… that’s just an artefact of consciousness, something entirely of our own making that the cosmos has no use for.’
We spoke like that.”

Along with the flow of the narrative, something else Lawrence did bring to this D&D table was his ability to create complex and relatable characters. Regular readers of my reviews will know this is always an important factor for me and it’s no less true in One Word Kill. These characters have fears and motivations, but they have ticks and quirks too that lift them from merely being characters on a page and into people you feel you’re getting to know. Lawrence has a way of describing characters that make them so easy to visualise, they jump from the page:

“Michael Devis had a broad face, dark flinty eyes, and a remarkably clear complexion for a fifteen-year-old boy. He deserved acne. You want people’s badness to show. The poison inside him should be bursting out.”

Lawrence has always been skilled at conveying the various dynamics within friendships groups – in both Prince of Thorns and Red Sister for example – and again it really came into play here. The interactions between these characters were a joy, their friendships felt inherently real, human, and… Well, normal. There’s the friend who always gets way too into the game, the friend who always gets to go on amazing holidays with their parents, the friend who feels more like a family member than your actual family members.

What about those pesky reservations I had?

Despite the fact it was so easy to read, and it still played on my mind after, it just didn’t seem to light a spark in me. There are so many people who seem to have fallen head-over-heels for this book, so I feel this just boils down to my own personal taste. I certainly cared a great deal more about the characters than what was happening to them; I guess the general plot of the story didn’t grip me as much.

The selling point of One Word Kill for me had been “Stranger Things set in London.” I was looking forward to being immersed in 1980’s London and awash in nostalgia for Britain at that time; although there were references (Club bars–which I think you can still get but seemed a big thing when I was a child, including Wagonwheels– having to memorise people’s phone numbers, the Tottenham riots, going down the shop with a note from your Mam for her ciggies)… But I’d have loved more. I had the sense that maybe someone in the process wanted to keep this book accessible for audiences outside of Britain – and I understand – but it would have been amazing to have had something that was so unabashedly British. Skipping over references in books and TV shows because you didn’t grow up in America is somewhat of a given for many Brits, I feel. I’d have loved to see that lack of reserve in One Word Kill. My copy was pre-proof, so I’m not sure if these were picked up in the final proof, but there was the odd Americanism… I’m the first to hold up my hand and confess to being a pedant, but these moments just served to lift me out of the book’s specific setting (e.g. commercial instead of advert, referring to someone’s mother as ma’am, takeout instead of take-away – yes I know, I have a problem)

In summary, I would recommend One Word Kill, as I would recommend any of Mark Lawrence’s writing; but as far as personal preference goes I still love his fantasy. Speaking of which, his short story Bound is next on my reading list, followed by the highly-anticipated Holy Sister!

Content warning: Cancer, Drugs

I started this a little tentative, I'm not what I would call an aficionado of this kind of genre. You add together time travel, male protagonists, 'nerd culture' and you have a lot of things that I have seen done terribly in the recent past. I was burned by how annoying Ready Player One was and now anything that has a teenage boy and the 80s I get a little antsy. But this review isn't an RP1 comparison post (though I've done that before). This story does some cool and interesting things and a few things that I thought were less successful - so let's dive in. 

I thought that setting the story in the 1980s was very cleverly done. It managed to not fall into most of the 80s traps, either feeling like an author has done this solely to make it so that characters don't have mobile phones, otherwise, the setting is the same, or it feels like someone smacking you about the face with obscure 80s trivia to no end. This managed to include a good amount of detail, I enjoyed references to Back to the Future having only just released - that raised a smile - but I also liked the references to particular current events in this time - without feeling like a history textbook. This book was drawing on the perspective of a teenage boy who, at least in his opinion, has bigger things to worry about than geopolitical relations and current affairs - he has his interests and that's what comes through in the book. 

I'll be honest, the way I read any book with time travel in it is usually to take the words at face value and just accept what I'm told characters know and when they travelled where. I cannot, therefore, tell you how 'plausible' the time travel is, though I'm sure even a hardcore science fiction reader enjoys working out the ins and outs of plotholes and paradoxes? So, sorry I can't comment on the accuracy of the science but that's not how I read this particular genre - doubtless, there will be other reviewers who will be able to fill that gap for me! 

I would say I had a bit of a problem with the 'nerd culture' at the start of the book. You can see that Lawrence is trying to write a loving homage to D&D but at times it walked that line of fulfilling a stereotype that you're trying to tear down. Obviously, I can't speak to the culture of the 80s and it's entirely plausible that the whole thing was much more 'four teenagers shocked at the presence of a girl in their midst' but...I don't know it sat just at the edge of that 'is this gatekeeping?' feeling for me. That feeling had lessened a lot by the end of the book, but I'd say you have to push those feelings aside.

Overall, I thought this was a good read, it has that brevity and 'to the point' feeling that a lot of 47North titles have, a good read for travelling or even if you're just in the mood for something a little shorter. I'm pleased to have read a book with a pretty non-annoying male protagonist. I'm still far more of a fantasy gal but I'd say this is worth a read! 

My rating: 4/5 stars

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own. 

One Word Kill is available March 1st!

I fell in love with Mark Lawrence's writing after reading Red Sister. The Book of the Ancestor series is one of my favorites! I can't wait to read Holy Sister, which was just released 2 weeks ago!

At first, I didn't think this book could be written by the same author as Red Sister. I was wondering why he would write a book about a kid getting cancer.

It turned out AWESOME, though! Once come of the other aspects started to fall into place, I started to understand how the same author that wrote The Book of the Ancestor series could write this.

The character development was amazing! I fell in love with Nick and his friends (esp Mia!)!

I have been reading way less than usual (not by choice), because I have been super busy with school and work and internship for school. This was the first book that I sped through in a while. I read it in like 2 days. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), I was sick one day and stuck in bed with nothing else to do but read...

The next book, titled Limited Wish, comes out in a month! I 💓💓💓when authors do that!!! Instead of having to wait at least a year to read the sequel, we can read it on June 6! How awesome is that?!

For now, check out the rest of the blog tour for this book, then pick up your copy so that you can read it in time for Limited Wish to be released in June.

Thank you, Random Things Tours, for giving me a copy of this book and allowing me to be a part of this blog tour!

Friendship as only teens can have. First love. Coming of Age. A bit of Mystery and Thriller. All wrapped up in a Science Fiction Time Travel story. And did I mention it is fun! What more do you need?

Mark Lawrence has once again made me completely fall in love with a wonderful cast of characters and an intensely gripping story. One Word Kill follows Nick – a mathematical genius who learns he’s dying of cancer. Nick and his friends play Dungeons and Dragons to escape this harsh reality but when a strange man begins following Nick and brings him some dire warnings, the gang’s real life becomes crazier than they ever thought possible.

This book is a wild ride. From the very first chapter I could feel myself getting absorbed in this story and I really grew attached to Nick, Mia and the gang. The characters are so well described and I loved watching the different dynamics as they interacted with each other and I really liked seeing how things changed with the introduction of Mia to the group. Lawrence seamlessly weaves science fiction elements with worries about being able to dance at parties and it made for a really fascinating story.

The story is full of plot twists and I definitely didn’t see some of them coming. One Word Kill is multi-layered, dealing not only with Nick’s cancer treatment and the mysterious stranger, but also a dash of romance and the secrets of Mia’s past. I felt like each part of the story blended incredibly well making for a fast paced and incredibly gripping plot.

Mark Lawrence is one of my favourite authors and One Word Kill definitely wasn’t a disappointment. The story flows so well that I found myself sitting down to read a few pages and still sitting a long time later because I just had to find out what was going to happen next. Compared with some of Lawrence’s other books this one is on the shorter side and it has definitely left me itching for more in this series. If you’re a fan of Stranger Things, time travel and a rag tag bunch of kids trying to save the world, One Word Kill should definitely be next on your purchase list.

“We might live in a multiverse of infinite wonder, but we are what we are, and can only care about what falls into our own orbit.”

If I'm being honest, I spent a great deal of time just staring at a blank page thinking, where to start from. There were so many platinum points in One Word Kill that I was left trapped in a loop, with so much to say and not enough words...

“Of all the worlds, in all the universes, he walks into mine.”

I mean, talk about making a famous quote better! The original Casablanca quote was, of course: Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine.
But I know that Mark Lawrence's version will probably be my new favourite quote...
And this book was simultaneously mind-blowing, level one sci-fi, beautiful, and heartbreaking. In truth, Mark Lawrence and Sci-Fi are one of those old couples that just belong together. Seriously. From his fantasy world of Broken Empire I knew the world needed a sci-fi book from him! I was sucked into the time loop and time traveling paradox, fell in love with the characters' friendships, cheered them on when they came out, adored them when they supported eachother, and grieved their losses.


Storyline

You hold the twenty-sided die. Weigh it. Seventeen, you think, it'll roll seventeen. Four pairs of eyes are glued to your hand, fingers playing with the nearly ball-shaped object. You throw it.
It's in the air.
Seventeen, it has to be seventeen.
If it rolls seventeen, you survive. Any other chance ... you die.
Let it be seventeen.
The die hits the ground. It's rolled seventeen.
But you die anyway.

“That sounds a lot like cheating ... Like cheating the universe!”

In London, January 1986, fifteen-year-old boy-genius Nick Hayes discovers he has cancer. He's dying, and it's not even the strangest thing to happen to him that week. Because there's a stranger stranger following him. Knowing things he shouldn't.

“We were all of us consumed by our own imagination, victims of it, haunted by impossibles, set alight by our own visions, and by other people’s. We weren’t the flamboyant artsy creatives, the darlings who would walk the boards beneath the hot eye of the spotlight, or dance, or paint, or even write novels. We were a tribe who had always felt as if we were locked into box that we couldn’t see. And when D&D came along, suddenly we saw both the box and the key.”

Nick and his Dungeons & Dragons-playing friends are used to living in their imaginations. But when a new girl, Mia, joins the group and reality becomes weirder than the fantasy world they visit in their weekly games, none of them are prepared for what comes next.
With a time traveler whispering in his ears, he finds himself in a race against time to unravel an impossible mystery and save the girl. And all that stands in his way is a probably terminal disease, a knife-wielding maniac and the laws of physics


Storytelling

“In hospital they ask you to rate your discomfort on a scale of ten. I guess it’s the best they can come up with, but it fails to capture the nature of the beast. Pain can stay the same while you change around it. And like a thumb of constant size, what it blocks out depends on how close it gets to you. At arm’s length a thumb obscures a small fragment of the day. Held close enough to your eye, and it can blind you to everything that matters, relegating the world to a periphery.”

Mark Lawrence is a master storyteller, a weaver of tales, the man who I'd huddle around the fire in the coldest of nights to listen to, until dawn breaks and the blessed darkness flees. He can make you feel a thousand things after another, he can make you care with one sentence and break you with one word—one word kill indeed.
And never forget his wit or hilarious writing! I would laugh and laugh until the occupants of the house and even the neighbours considered taking me to a mental asylum 😂
He'd sneak little lessons of friendship and living into his story, and he'd raise tropes to break them apart, tear them into pieces:

“They’ll talk about this as ‘saving Mia’.” He shrugged. “Let them. But you, you need to remember this: she saves you. In the end, she saves you. You’re not rescuing a damsel in distress here. You’re returning a favour in advance.”


Characterization

Meet the 5 main aka the gang ⤵

• Nick: aka the smart kid; has a deceased relatively famous mathematician father—or as famous as any mathematician not named Einstein can get—who died of cancer, no, died with cancer but of being crushed by a train. Not pleasant, you might say, but he at least got “cured” of his cancer *shrugs*
With him, Mark Lawrence perfectly captures the feeling of invincibility in the young (myself included). He's a genius who tries not to declare that he's a genius. Is scared of dancing.

• Mia: aka the cool kid; has escaped a church school pursued by nuns, got a brother in jail, is deep in contact with the London criminal underworld. Absolutely amazing. You don't wanna get on her bad side, cause while she might get punched in the eye, she'll leave you bloodied on the ground. Warned ya!

• Elton: aka the ninja kid; has too many brothers and an amazing and inspiring dad. A family of martial arts masters. Coloured. Hilarious and one of a kind. Unmatched actor and storyteller. The game master. Very not up to doing criminal related stuff, doesn't believe in time travel.

• Simon: aka the calc kid; not wired like regular people, emotions go above his head, not great with change. Very precious. Adorable. Petrified of dancing and parties. A human calculator that could come up with a number like four million one hundred and forty-seven thousand two hundred, not even considering the calculations and speed! Sure peace of cake, right?

• John: aka the rich kid; very charming, supposedly confident but also very self-conscious, takes centuries to get ready for a party and dances terribly (but don't tell him that) 😂 in summary, he's more than he seems at first glance, so no judging! Specially not for having a racist mother!
This never fails to make me howl with laughter 😂 ⤵

The last call came when he was half an hour late.
“I’m leaving! I’m leaving!”
“You’re back at your house?”
“No, I’m leaving. Pay attention.”
“Leaving your house?”
“I'm heading for the door. The phone cord won’t stretch much further! Cover your ears. When it pings back it’s going to make a hell of a—”


Relationships

Complicated friendships have always been something I've considered to be one of Mark Lawrence's specialities and strongest points.
He has a way of subtly building a strong bond and making you feel it in your bones. I have felt and seen that in every single one of his books—between murderers and honourable men alike. Now trying his hand with teenagers of the 1980s, Mark has done it again! One of the reasons this review was so hard for me to write was exactly that. Suffice it to say, Mark made me care so deeply about their friendship in such few words that I felt any small crack in their bonds in my heart. I call that a masterpiece of relationship building.

Now what I didn't expect was the brewing romance—and oh did I love it ... To be honest, in both The Broken Empire or Red Queen's War series, the romance was always a subtle background presence that was felt in different ways and on different levels by the characters; and while I loved it and treasured it in those books, this was just next level!

“I don’t know what love is. I think that’s something I’ve just started learning about. I know how it starts though. It seems that it grows and changes, and changes you, too. I hope it makes us better. I ... I’m not saying this very well ... but I think I’m going to grow into a man who could love the woman you’re going to grow into...”

*grabs a tissue, turns away, sniffles, loudly, cleans tears, sniffles a little more, turns back* where was I?? Oh, I was talking about how rare it is to find a romance so well written, unpretentious, and real in a book, YA or Adult.

So pick up this book because this is a must read!

My one line review:

"I clapped after reading the last line. Don’t know if that’s ever happened before."

I'm content to leave this review as simple as that, but I owe it to NetGalley and other potential readers to provide a bit more information. I do think it's best that you go into this story completely blind -- Mark Lawrence has earned enough trust where I don't have to read an advance blurb to know that his stories are'worth reading. That being said, I'll provide a few minor plot spoilers below, and try to only touch on overall themes, instead of major plot points.

The story is set in London during the 1980's, and focuses on unpopular teenager Nick who was just diagonsed with leukemia. Nick has a small group of friends that meet on weekends for Dungeons and Dragons, and we get to experience some wonderful role-playing sessions with some talented players. (I was especially nostalgic during these scenes, as I spent many a weekend in a similar position.). Nick and some other members of his group have exceptionally brilliant minds -- one has a brain that can solve computations in seconds, while Nick himself is a student of advanced quantum theory. Somehow, Lawrence combines cancer, D&D, and quantum mechanics into a complex story that highlights the bonds of friendship, pushes the boundaries of physics, and is also somehow a sweet and heart-wrenching love story. (Go ahead and pre-order now, I'll wait.)

Lawrence has some wondeful tricks up his sleeve that underlines his exceptional writing talent. There's a jaw-dropping reveal on page one that stuck in the back of my mind throughout the entire book, and how that revelation comes to fruition is as sneaky and unexpected as it is brilliant. The book isn't that long, and its pace invites the reader to fly through it in very few reading sessions. I encourage you to try and savor it for as long as possible, as it is over much too soon. Although it is the start of a trilogy, there is a definitive and wondefully satisfying ending. (It also offers some sound and applicable life advice, which has had me smiling ever since.)

Great characters. Unique story. A setting that takes full advantage of what it has to offer, and a memorable ending that left me waiting impatiently for the next entry. This story is (quite literally) filled with infinite possibilities, and I'm damn excited to see what else Lawrence has in store.

"Ugliness multiplies, and hurt spills over into hurt, and sometimes good things are just the fuel for evil's fire"

I received an uncorrected proof copy of One Word Kill in exchange for an honest review. I would like to thank Mark Lawrence and 47North for approaching me to read this early. This is a provisional cover and I will update the page when the official cover reveal has been made.

On the 8th January 1986, Nick a gangly 15-year-old who is extremely intelligent is diagnosed with leukaemia. The doctors advise that he may only have up to 5 years to live. In the local hospital, he goes through Chemotherapy and shares a children's ward with many other suffering youths as they weaken and essentially fade from health and normality. He has to visit the hospital weekly yet when he is not there he is living the life of a normalish geeky teenager. Going to school, dealing with bullies, scared to talk to girls but what he looks forward to the most is the weekly D&D meet-ups he has with his best friends. They can forget about the monotony and hardships real-life presents and lose themselves in a fantastical adventure where their imagination is the only limitation. When he is playing, even Nick forgets about what ails him. It all seems pretty straightforward until intense deja-vu affects the protagonist, a shadowy stranger starts stalking him, certain events that happen in their sessions are scarily close to some real-life events and what's even scarier than all is that a young goth lady has joined the group's D&D party!

It's no secret that in my humble opinion Mark Lawrence is one of the finest and most consistent fantasy authors currently writing. By profession, Lawrence is actually a scientist so it seemed like only a matter of time before he made the foray into the science fiction genre. This is completely unlike anything Lawrence has published before. This isn't like any science fiction stories I've read previously and for all the elements of time travel, parallel universes, complex mathematics and quantum mechanics, it features drug dealers, local psychopaths and the D&D group trying to learn how to dance to impress the ladies. It's a peculiar mix but I'm happy to say it works expertly.

The story is presented through Nick's first-person perspective and he is a very likeable character who is a joy to follow. The accompanying cast is surprisingly deep and well fleshed out to say that this is quite a short book. I'd estimate it's approximately 90,000 words. In addition to Nick, My favourite characters were Mia, the goth girl who joins the boy's games, Elton, who adores his kung-fu practising, and John, the cool dude who loves D&D but doesn't mention it to any of his school friends. Also, a character called Demus who I will say nothing about but who is hugely important and influential to the overall narrative and progression of the tale.

It is difficult to summarise and this probably won't be accurate enough but this is the best I can come up with. This seemed like a mix of Stranger Things, Donnie Darko, the Xbox game Alan Wake mixed with the youthful antics and awkwardness seen in comedy shows The Inbetweeners and The Big Bang Theory. Some of the scientific language written does come across occasionally as confusing and very hi-tech and knowing Mark's profession I imagine it's all legit and accurate. Although the story is complex, multi-layered, unpredictable and ultimately enduring it wasn't too difficult for me to follow as Lawrence is an excellent writer. The writing is sometimes intoxicating and addictive however surreal and bizarre certain events may be and I loved the humourous flow and banter between the friends. Mark's prose is poetic and sometimes, in a good way, hypnotising. I read One Word Kill within 24 hours and it was all I could think about to the extent where I dreamt about the shadowy character who stalks Nick!

The world building is admirable whether describing the suburbs in London, a friend's council flat or describing the London underground service. There are lots of brilliant references to the mid-80's such as the fact Back to the Future had just been released, kids play on their Commodore 64's and that everyone believes Hoverboards will be the obvious invention that the future will present. I really enjoyed, and I bet Mark enjoyed writing the descriptions of the D&D ventures. These sections are closer to what he has written before but with more humour, teenagers innocence and tropes including typical creatures like orcs, vampires, mages, clerics, warriors that will probably prompt a sense of nostalgia for his readers and the target audience. I regret that I've never played D&D. :(

This is not released until April 2019 but already in August 2018, this is one of the finest uncorrected proofs I have ever read. I did not notice a single error which is exceptional and shows the hard work Mark, Agnes and 47North have put into this tale. This works perfectly as a standalone. The ending is absolutely spectacular and wraps everything up perfectly. I loved the setting, the protagonist, the characters including the supporting and very minor players, the thrills and spills and emotions. To be honest, the very minor and possible negative that I have is that some of the terminologies threw me off balance very occasionally. 47North enjoyed this book so much they asked Lawrence to turn it into a trilogy of which all the books will be released in 2019. A note to his current fans, although a few scenes are dark and gruesome this is very different to his previous works. An exceptional adventure featuring time travel, a gang of geeks that's cleverly composed, thrilling and will hopefully aid Lawrence's to rise to the top of the game in another genre. I loved it.