Ultimatum

Simon Kernick is without a doubt becoming one of my favourite authors. 'Ultimatum' is his latest book and the fourth one I've read of his. I've enjoyed all previous reads, so I was bound to rave about how great this one was, and it really was.

Set just over a year after the siege at the Stanhope Hotel which is the central storyline of 'Siege', 'Ultimatum' starts with a terrorist attack at a coffee shop. A man is given a rucksack containing a bomb and instructed to go to this specific coffee shop for a specific time. The bomb detonating is the beginning of a chain of complicated events.

As with all Kernick's novels, each chapter is told from a different viewpoint. We're back with police officers Tina Boyd and Mike Bolt, the mysterious Richard Burnham-Jones (the only chapters told from a first person perspective), and terrorist Fox (yes, I squealed a little when his character was introduced once more).

'Ultimatum' is told within the space of one day. A fact I temporarily forgot about halfway through. There's so much that happens in such a short space of time, you wonder how it can all happen in less than twenty four hours. The first bomb attack happens in the first chapter, followed by Tina and Mike chasing after various suspects on more than one occasion, plenty of gun fights, dodgy deals, undercover operations and near death experiences. The suspense is racked up even higher. Kernick has created a very well mapped out story, with loads of unexpected twists. That's the beauty of his novels, you never truly know how it's all going to end.

'Ultimatum' ends, I wouldn't say 'happily', but it's hopeful for Tina and Mike. There is of course a lead that could mean the story continues at some point, but it isn't left open like a gaping hole. I would like to see something continue on from this story. I think there's a lot of potential to create even more destruction in a different way.

I started reading Kernick's novels with 'Siege' at the beginning of the year. That is still probably my favourite so far. His novels make you think, and keep your attention. Reading these books has even made me want to start writing stories again myself, something I've not done for ages now.

If by any chance you are following my blog, Google Friend Connect will be a thing of the past as of tomorrow, so I've skipped over to Bloglovin.

My Festival Experience: Download 2013

I've been very bad at keeping this blog afloat, but I'm going to jump back into it and hopefully post a bit more often. Since I got back from Download, I've been wanting to post about it, but have taken to being extremely lazy.

So, here we are, two weeks after it all and I'm still wishing I was back there. Admittedly, I wasn't too keen on the thought of camping, not having a shower, not washing my hair and those toilets. It really wasn't as bad as I thought it might be.

After a bit of a sludgy start on Thursday (we had to drag our wheelie soft cases through proper sludge, not the easiest task) Friday was the day I was most excited about. We trekked to the arena to catch Architects in the early afternoon. I don't think we saw any of the bands being spectacularly awful, obviously some were better than others and quite often we found ourselves catching bits of bands we weren't that fussed about whilst waiting for someone else. On Friday, we also saw Papa Roach, We Are The Ocean's acoustic set, Bullet For My Valentine and Slipknot (in the lovely rain). We did catch bits of Asking Alexandria and Korn whilst waiting to go somewhere else. Other than the stages, there's not much for entertainment in the arena itself. There are shops and stalls to look around, and it kills a bit of time wandering around those, but once you've been around once, you don't really need to do it again. The undercover sections were swarmed when the weather was bad, so my Primark rain coat got aired out a lot! Slipknot were incredibleeee, I could ramble on about it for ages, it was just brilliant.

Saturday was a bit better, weather wise. Although the horizontal rain halfway through the day really wasn't welcomed. This was the day I was probably least excited about, but we were in the arena really early to catch Young Guns (who had some super dodgy song choices...), Escape The Fate (more than likely all pissed as a fart), endured the horizontal rain, filled a lot of time between bands by trekking around (the calories I burned that weekend, honestly...) we managed to catch some snippets of Lit and Thunder whilst waiting for other bands. Jimmy Eat World were my highlight of the day, hands down. Following on from their perfect set came Enter Shikari. I'm by far not their biggest fan, but figured we'd wait around and see what we'd eventually miss out on due to my sister wanting to catch The Hives later on. After about four songs I got very fed up and we made our way over to the Pepsi Max tent to see The Hives. They were a complete surprise and I really enjoyed their set. I knew more songs than I initially thought as well.

Sunday was a very good day indeed. Due to not wanting to see Stone Sour till 4, we wandered around The Village and had a look in a few of the shops and stalls there for a while. The Village is the bit that connects the campsites to the arenas, the general entrance to everything Download Festival. There's shops and stalls, rides and lots of food places. My kinda place really. The walk to the arena feels like it takes forever, so we set off earlier than planned and strolled along. Because it was finally decent, dry weather, we sat on the grass and basked in the screaming of Five Finger Death Punch. Then Parkway Drive. Paid £5 for some curly fries. But Stone Sour were wonderful. The Gaslight Anthem were brilliant sounding, but it wasn't showy enough for a main stage performance in my eyes. It was lacking a bit of something. They did sound really good though and I do still love them. 30 Seconds to Mars were okay... It kind of felt like the Jared Leto Show at times, all a bit self indulgent, playing vague album tracks instead of the singles everyone wants to hear. Ending on 'Kings and Queens' kept me won over enough to buy tickets for their UK tour. Unfortunately for me, there was one clash with A Day To Remember and 30 Seconds to Mars and part of me wishes I'd seen the former now. Limp Bizkit closed the weekend for us. They were surprisingly brilliant. I loved it.

Also managed to catch Rammestein setting each other on fire which freaked me out no end.

Overall, I enjoyed the whole weekend. Sunday night, we found out someone had rifled through our tent. Fortunately, we had all money and valuables with us so there wasn't anything to steal and nothing was taken. Despite that, it was really good. I was exhausted and in desperate need to wash my hair when we got back. Would I go again? Already hoping 2014 has a decent line up.