For his entire life, Charley Sutherland has concealed a magical ability he can’t quite control: he can bring characters from books into the real world. His older brother, Rob – a young lawyer with an utterly normal life – hopes that this strange family secret will disappear with disuse, and he will be discharged from his duty of protecting Charley and the real world from each other.
But then, literary characters start causing trouble in their city, making threats about destroying the world, and for once, it isn’t Charley’s doing. There’s someone else out there who shares his powers and it’s up to Charley and a reluctant Rob to stop them – before anyone gets to The End.
The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep is hands down one of my favourite novels of the last few years – any fan of literature is going to adore this rip rollicking adventure, where the real and the fictional merge and you never know just who you might meet around the corner…
Practical, realistic Rob is a lawyer whose younger brother Charlie is somewhat the bane of his existence, having as he does the power to read characters and sometimes real items out of books into the real world. After an early hours phone call begging Rob to help Charlie catch Uriah Heep, we are off to the races – as the discovery that there may be another “summoner” out there, this one with rather more nefarious purposes, is revealed.
The plotting in this story is intricate, engaging and utterly brilliant, filled with vibrant characters you’ll know very well- from the enigmatic Dorian Gray to several versions of Mr Darcy, H G Parry brings them all to vivid reality – then pits them and our fraternal duo against a dangerously intelligent enemy who has a dastardly master plan. One of my favourite parts of this was when I said to myself OH I KNOW WHO THIS IS because after all there is one particularly definitive criminal mastermind who has been much copied but never equalled…I’ll leave that one with you…
ANYWAY, from the moment you fall into this book until the moment you reluctantly, tearfully leave it behind you will be immersed into this world, one where Excalibur is unceremoniously dumped into the boot of a car and the Hound of the Baskervilles greets you at the door, it is a sheer joy to read for anyone with a love of books – it matters not what your favourite genre is, you’ll love this.
The most compelling part was definitely the relationship between the two brothers, one of both love and exasperation, growing in the readers mind with every passing interaction. All the connections are beautifully layered quite apart from that one, in the end I was reminded that blood does not a family make but that we all in the end find our people.
I adored it from first word to last word and all the words in between. Don’t miss this one whatever you do. I really hope we’ll get more from this beautifully built world where literally anything could happen…
HIGHLY recommended.
You can purchase The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep (Orbit) Here.
Happy Reading!
