Single to Morden by Spike Evans
Posted by Paul Samael on Monday, February 27, 2017 Under: Book reviews
As regular readers of this blog would know (if only there were any), I like to maintain the pretence of being a reasonably conscientious reviewer of free fiction by self-published authors. This normally entails doing a review that consists of several paragraphs (at least). And more often than not, it affords another unmissable opportunity to give commercial publishers a bit of a kicking for not doing a better job of finding (and publishing) new fiction (happily allowing me to extend the review by another paragraph or so).
But don’t be deceived, because trapped inside this rather holier-than-thou online persona is a thoroughly lazy reviewer, who can only be bothered to write slightly clichéd one-line reviews like: “This is a very well written and consistently funny comic novel.” Normally, I would resist the urge to give in to Lazy Reviewer (who, by the way, looks a lot like me - only his penchant for hooded cloaks hints that he might just possibly be my evil twin), but in the case of “Single to Morden” by Spike Evans, it is tempting to let Lazy Reviewer win. Because frankly, what more do you want out of a comic novel? It should be entertaining, well written and funny. This one is all of those things. So what else needs to be said?
Oh I see, you want to know what it’s about and why I liked it. Well, if you insist. But since Lazy Reviewer is in charge today, don’t expect me to go into detail.
Our hapless hero, Tim, has moved to London in search of his ex-girlfriend, Sarah. All he knows of her whereabouts is that she is living somewhere on the Northern Line. So he decides to spend a day or so hanging around every single station on the Northern Line in the hope of bumping into her. Lazy Reviewer’s fingers are now getting a bit tired, so that’s all you’re getting on the plot – if you want more, click here for the novel’s full blurb. But wait – your luck is in, because Lazy Reviewer has agreed to provide another paragraph of his pithy yet profound wisdom:
You might be forgiven for thinking that the central conceit of chapters based around underground stations could become a bit tiresome and repetitive after a while. But the novel avoids this by having enough going on in terms of plot development (we gradually find out more about the mysterious Sarah), making us care what happens to the characters and providing some well observed sketches of the absurdities of life in London. As the author admits, it is somewhat Hornby-esque - and is unlikely to win many prizes for originality (although I am struggling to think of many comic novels that would). But the Nick Hornby comparison is justified and at the risk of sounding tiresome and repetitive myself, it is very, very funny. Now, Lazy Reviewer and I have had enough of you and your questions. So off you go and download it.
At the time of writing, Single to Morden was available free from Smashwords here. Spike Evans’ website is here, which features all manner of exciting things, including an interview and a downloadable file which enables you to rework the cover design to your satisfaction, should you feel a burning desire to do that. What more could you possibly want?
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In : Book reviews
Tags: "single to morden" "spike evans" "comic novels" london
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Welcome to my blog, "Publishing Waste" which will either (a) chronicle my heroic efforts to self-publish my own fiction; or (b) demonstrate beyond a scintilla of doubt the utter futility of (a). And along the way, I will also be doing some reviews of other people's books and occasionally blogging about other stuff.
