Chloe reviews: first capital connect trains

Today we take an unusual step away from our regular blogging topic of books. Because at some point everything needs a review, whether it be positive or scathing. So we all can know if it's well regarded, recommended and if its succeeding at its chosen function. So with that in mind i shall now guide you through the user experience, in the hope that you can be better informed in your train travelling choices. Of course, mostly the point is to relieve me of my anger and force it upon you. Don't look at me like that,what else is the internet for? 

The topic of this review shall be, First Capital Connect(FCC) 'train services'. For those fortunate enough not to live in London/the UK let me first congratulate you for probably being richer and happier than I, and secondly explain that FCC are a commuter train service that allegedly run trains in and out of London.
I am lucky enough to take their Luton service two stops to work, and let me assure you it is a barrage on the emotions, in a most unpleasant way.

Unfortunately for FCC they fall short of the mark of 'train service' and what you are actually left with is some kind of mysterious transportation that appears whenever it pleases with any number of uncertain destinations.

If that polite description sounds like your kind of journey then FCC is for you, but before you get lured into their trap, let me assure you its not the kind of dizzying adventure that that sentence may conjure in your mind. 

An average journey upon the FCC mysteriously unpredictable transportation service.
Its 9am, Monday morning, you have begrudgingly dragged yourself out of bed and after 20 minutes of grimacing at the mirror, you look vaguely presentable. You stack your heavy bags on to your aching back and set off. Oh yes, let us not forget this is England, so its bloody freezing and most probably raining too, just to add to the current disgruntlement of Monday.

You climb the station steps, thinking about how all you want is to be sat inside anywhere with a hot drink and dry socks. Your heart sinks and you glance and the orange screen. 

9:02 service - Delayed. Expected at 9:32. 9:20 service - cancelled. All other trains - WHO KNOWS! ITS A FUN MYSTERY.
No FCC, it really is not. 

Now friends, imagine that happening almost every day, with little no explanation of the delays and sometimes no idea as to when any train will turn up. Suddenly this isn't seeming much like a transportation service at all. More of a stand still and get cold service. 

The sensible conclusion to draw from this is that, FCC is a bad train service, but wait... believe it or not, there is worse. 

"FINE" you exclaim, turning on your heals heading for the nearest coffee shop. You settle down for a hot drink to warm your bones, and as your anger and frustration is just about quelled something catches your attention out the window. 

Its 9:14 the train has arrived, without warning. It leaves. You are not on it. 

Now the only conclusion left to draw is that FCC is not just a bad train service its also a bad, bad train service. Not only are they delayed or cancelled but just turn up whenever they damn well please irregardless of the excepted time of arrival. Meaning no passenger ever has any idea when a train might arrive. This seems to me to be a complete failing of the central point of a train service. 

But then hey, i'm just one person, what do i know.. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/feb/18/first-capital-connect-worst-train-operator 

... Oh, i see.

In review, it appears i am not alone and we can only assume that FCC is not in fact a train service at all, as it might have you believe. It is something, but a reliable and remotely useful, it is not. 

The End. 

End notes:
For fans of - Being late, to everything, ever.

Shadow Of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafron

Shadow Of The Wind (Henceforth referred to as SOTW, as it really seems quite the mouthful) is the first in a trilogy centering around the same family bookshop Sempere and Sons

I have read all three, within past 4 months-ish, but as I've just started this blog i thought i'd spend some time catching up on books i have already read. Starting with this one.

I happened across this book under rather interesting circumstances given what the story turned out to be. I was browsing a local charity shop, having left my current book at home, with want of something to amuse me for an impending commute. I was about to give up, having attracted the attention of the assistant asking me if i had read the Twilight series because apparently i look like a 12 year old. When SOTW caught my eye, and a quick read of the blurb confirmed it could be an interesting one. 

When i bought this book it was actually a couple of years old. As soon as i finished it, i bought the second in the trilogy, The Angel's Game and then, as if by magic the second i finished that the much awaited third book was released. What odd timing. Odder still when i read SOTW and noted an integral part of the story is about a book young Daniel Sempere picks from a secret library because he feels drawn to it. And this trilogy turned out to be one of the best I've read, IT WAS FATE! MAGIC BOOK FATE...

Well, thats quite enough musing on that. I may have gotten carried away because i'm so desperate to have my own mysterious adventure, and with SOTW i pretty much felt like i'd had had one. This book is an essential on the shelf of anyone who revels in the power of literature. Its a celebration of books, how a writer leaves a little piece of themselves in the pages and the stories that can bring people together, for good or bad.

The book that Daniel picks to protect is written by a man whose life has been almost removed from record like he never existed, this sparks Daniels intrigue and as he learns more he finds someone is burning the books, and wants to pay Daniel great money to make sure the author is completely forgotten about.

Admittedly SOTW is a little slow to start, and usually this would be a downside but actually its important here. Zafron is building Daniels character, letting you know what makes him tick which is vital given the novel follows his character and his choices so closely. He also describes Barcelona so richly, and accurately, unsurprisingly seeing as he was born and raised in the city. In the long run, this adds greatly to the story and helps you to get caught up in it.

As the story builds and the hunt for this mysterious author lands him and others in perilous trouble, the story picks up speed and Zafron excellently weaves the main plot with added tales of romance, rivalry and friendship. It regularly takes unexpected routes and keeps you constantly on edge. By far zafron's greatest achievement here however, is how he manages to get you utterly involved with the characters without revealing to much about them, it is the perfect balance to keep a reader engaged throughout.

In review, its easy to understand why SOTW was so popular when it was first released and impossible to understand how any of us might have missed it first time around. A most captivating read.

The end

End Notes:

For fans of: I can't think of anything off the top of my head, so any suggestions, do comment.

Do keep in mind, reviews are subjective. Different opinions are cool friends, so feel free to share.

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Waiting For Sunrise By William Boyd

 I am about to confess one of the greatest literati sins, so brace yourselves friends.

I bought this book after having seen the BBC's adaptation of William Boyd's Restless.
Yes, that's right, I saw something on the telly and only then bought the book.

Feel free to stop reading now if this is too big a crime for you to forgive.

I'm sorry, but sometimes that's just the way it happens! Something catches your eye in non literary form and you like it so you explore the author. Obviously I didn't pick up Restless as I knew all the spoilers. I was tempted by Any Human Heart, Boyds best known but it was also made into a TV adaptation that I missed, but had seen trailers for - I like to be able to imagine characters from my own mind so prefer not to have seen one else's projections on screen.
Incidentally one of the only books I've ever read after having 'seen the movie' was The Hunger Games but the books are not exactly Shakespeare and I very much enjoy Jennifer Lawrence so it didn't ruin them at all. ANYWAY, I digress.

So, no matter how I got there I settled on this. A story of an actor with unexpected sexual difficulties escaping his life in Vienna and then half way through it turns into a WW2 spy drama.

This book has to be reviewed in two parts because that it what it is, its like two separate books pushed into one.

The first half, is notably not as interesting but very well written, we explore Lysander Rief's character, his troubles as his sits through therapy and a doomed from the start relationship with an unpredictable femme fetal but actually not a huge amount happens. The character of Hettie Bull, the doomed lover, is excellently played out. Its clear from the start you are not supposed to like her but you are intrigued by her.
She is not remotely likeable but Boyd captures Lysander's feelings well and even though as reader you dislike her you understand why he wants her.

The second half of this book is where all the action happens. Finding refuge back in England after a dramatic exit from Vienna Lysander becomes a soldier and the war breaks out. The book becomes a classic 'spy thriller' and is very engaging as he hunts out a mole in the war office. You find yourself second guessing all the characters you've met so far finally turning this book into the page turner it should have been from the beginning.

To add to Boyd's praises, it ends fantastically. Very dramatic and satisfying, just what is needed after a fast paced tension building hunt for an informant.
It is just such a shame the beginning half of this book is so slow. Its not that's its boring, its an interesting character development but it would have been a much better book if that part were cut in half and the second half were longer. I felt as thought I spent most of the book waiting for the big thing to happen, I knew it was coming but the story was just taking ages to get there.

In review, Waiting For Sunrise is good. Its very well written as you would expect and by the end its captivating but it falls short of great purely for frustratingly slow beginning.


The End.


End Notes:


 For fans of: William Boyd, Alan Furst.

 Do keep in mind, reviews are subjective. Different opinions are cool friends, so feel free to share. 

The Night Circus By Erin Morgenstern

I have an unwritten rule when it comes to my addiction to fiction. I'll try anything, anything at all that anyone recommends, but if the story hasn't sucked me in by 100 pages i give up.If you're not connected with a book by then, you never will be. Put that book down, it is not for you.

Sometimes they get you on the 99th page, usually its about 40 pages in. You settled into the characters and you think, yep i'm going to enjoy this, I've stepped into this world and i am invested in it, take me away. 

The Night Circus however, had me at the first sentence .."The circus arrives without warning. it is simply there, when yesterday it was not." The adventurer in me knew this was going to be quite a ride and after 20 pages i was completely hooked.Everything about this book is right up my street. I love a strong female character, a bit of magic and  mystery, a doomed love story and this book delivers on all fronts beautiful wrapped up in a world so vivid i found it hard to believe it wasn't real - which is exactly what a good book should do. 

The Night Circus is an absolute assault on the emotions and senses from start to finish. Every sight, sound and taste happens in your mind too. Morgenstern is an expert in painting the clearest of pictures and as your progress through the book you find yourself walking with the characters. I was left with an absolute longing to attend Le Cirque des Rêves  and explore. 
As a girl who grew up down the road from Glastonbury festival this kind of circus frivolity is not only close to my heart, but also very real to me and this novel captures the essence of that perfectly. An adult entering a circus should feel like a child bowled over with awe and excitement and with in the pages of the Night Circus you find that exact feeling, particularly as we follow young bailey around on his first ever trip and in the occasional pages written in a second person narrative. 

Aside from the childlike joy you can find in the imagination of this book there is also a darker story, each character essentially being used as puppets by two aged rivals who bound the two central characters together for life in a sinister game. This plot line gives the book the dramatic edge that it needs. From the start of their meeting you are aware some impending sadness and bad omens leak into the story as warnings that something terrible will happen. Rather than this making the book seem predictable it actually makes it thrilling and suspense filled as central story flits around the different characters dragging your attention away and then back again, it makes it all the more page turning. 

In my, oh so humble, opinion a great book should wash over you like a tidal wave, take a real impact on you and leave you standing on the beach stunned at what just happened. I have read a great many books like that in my life, and read them again and again because of it. But The Night Circus is more than that. Its like the deadly undercurrent that sucks you back into the swell over and over you can not escape the world Morgenstern has created whilst you are reading it and I personally loved every second of it. So, in review, in case you hadn't guessed - its utterly wonderful. 

The End. 



End notes: 

* For fans of: Audrey Niffenegger, Joanne Harris, Neil Gaimen

** Do keep in mind, if you only like sci-fi or crime novels you probably won't enjoy this. The excellence of this book is subjective, obviously.

***Different opinions are cool friends, so feel free to share.