Reviews

Comments from reviewers, proof readers, copy editors and readers of Farperoo...

“The two volumes of Farperoo released so far comprise one of the most imaginative and fulfilling works of fiction of recent years. Whilst the setup incorporates several of the staples of the genre, it treats them in a thoroughly original way; its uniqueness shining through like a breath of fresh air once you scratch below the surface, and I’m not just talking about the vagaries of the spelling! From the dreary Grimston to the strange Assiah, the richness and diversity of the different worlds – and there are several – is refreshing. They are of sufficient depth and detail to give the reader a distinct mental picture of each. However, there is still plenty to explore: several intriguing locations are hinted at, leaving the reader longing to know more. The heroine of the piece, Lucy Blake, is full of invention, both as a character and in herself. In less auspicious company, she could well be described as a naughty little fibber. It is lucky then, that her step mother is not here to malign her, because in inventing Lucy, Mark Lamb is thoroughly deserving of praise. She is believable, likeable, humorous, mischievous, and sufficiently mysterious to easily hold your attention for sustained periods, whilst managing to remain grounded in her environment even as the magick flows from her. Her companion Toby Lindstrom is equally balanced, with flaws and virtues in equal measure. The other characters range from unexpected allies to the most horrific villainy. Several successfully poke fun at the usual clichéd stereotypes to great effect, without becoming caricatures of those they are sending up; the pick of bunch being Zenda Freggley, a loveably loathsome journalist, who could mix it with the worst of Fleet Street. Only being two-thirds through, the plot is still fully to unravel. Without giving anything away, it progresses at sufficient pace that you will never bore, effortlessly combining its many stands into a coherent narrative. There are plenty of twists and turns along the way to keep you guessing as to the outcome, but enough hints to suggest that the resolution will be something special indeed. There are also some truly brilliant touches, such as how the Ornithopter came into being, whilst almost any of the little asides about Assiah or Grimston are enough to make you chuckle. However, it is not only the ideas which impress. The realisation too is particularly noteworthy. For a first published novel, it is remarkably accomplished. The prose flows throughout, with the excitement-filled action scenes, interspersed with laugh-out-loud humour and gut-wrenching high tension in equal measure. Overall, the book is a treat. The presentation maintains the standards set with the content and is produced to a high standard. It is clear from picking it up that considerable effort has gone into the design, whilst inside, the text is clear and easily readable. The illustrations deserve additional praise, providing a fittingly companion to the prose. As for Volume 3, it cannot come too soon.”

James Kopka

Warning: possible spoilers

First thing to note about this book is that it is not a stand-alone novel. If you haven't read Volume One, then this wont make much sense. Second, this is not the final part of the story either. It is concluded in Volume Three. This Volume is the "middle" of the story, and as such, difficult to write a complete review of. The story carries on directly from from the end of Volume One (V1), with Lucy teleporting back to Assiah. It starts off running and gathers momentum with each chapter, until all-to-soon it ends. No cliff-hanger ending this time, just an overwhelming sense of needing to know what happens next. Instead of dissecting the plot, I want to focus on one part. Near the beginning, Lucy befriends an Ornithopter, a giant magical (or is it magickal?) bird. It flies her and her friend away from Braneskule to Dr Dee's house. The ornithopter doesn't take them all the way, and has to drop them off, before it disappears forever. The sense of loss that Lucy feels is almost tangible. It's more than just reading the words, imagining what she must be feeling. For me, I felt it, the anguish of a lost friend, the knowledge that it'll never come back, the overwhelming sense of wanting to run away and hide, so you don't have to face a world without it. But just like Lucy, you have to pick yourself up, and get on with it. Rarely have I found anything that is as emotive as that. To me, this is one of the greatest achievements any work of fiction in any type of media, can reach. As for the characters, on her travels through Assiah Lucy meets and befriends many new people, from the powerful Dr Dee, to the always hungry Pixy, to the dangerous Henbeg to a few unlikely companions. Chief among these is Zenda, the journalist from the V1, and she comes close to stealing the whole show. She starts by declaring that Assiah is now owned by The Daily Phibber, then moves to trying to take over from Lucy as leader, and then spends most of her time being mean and sarcastic to everyone all the while looking for new and better stories. She truly is a character that just infuriates you. Zenda stands out for this reason alone. It's easy to see that she could take over the whole series, if Mark Lamb isn't careful to keep her in check. Finally, the book itself is made to the same high standards of the first - a quality finish hardback, well-bound and featuring illustrations at the beginning of each chapter. The downside? I can only think of three annoyances in this Volume. The first and third are the same; I read V1 in August and V2 in December, which is too much of a gap. It took me a chapter or two to get back into the story and I can see this being a problem when V3 is released in the Spring. The solution is easy enough though, wait until V3 is either out, or nearly out, and reread V1 and V2, then go straight into V3. The other annoyance is that the story feels a little "young" to me, but then it is a children's book. Complaining about that is like complaining that a football game features people playing football and not some other sport. Although there are many references and other comments that are aimed at older readers. I do intend to research the angels, the Book, and the Enochian alphabet soon. Overall, if you have read and enjoyed the first Volume then you will enjoy this. It has a better feel to it, in that it seems tighter, and flows better. If you haven't read V1, then read that first. Starting here will probably put you off. If you didn't like V1, then why are reading this review? Anyway, that's my opinion on this exceptional book.

Phil Edwards

I thought that I would take this opportunity to share a few thoughts on what I think about Farperoo and the Dark Invention series in General. Personally I think that Farperoo is a wonderful book. Firstly we get a great story, the reader is taken on an adventure, that leaves one hocked on the world of Lucy Blake and friends, and a story that leaves one
itching to get their hands on the next part of the book. In Farperoo we have a book this fresh and original. In Farperoo we also get a book that I'm Sure to you has been a labour of love! Just by looking at it one can tell that a lot of time and effort has gone in to making sure the book is perfect, in making sure that the layout design and production are right. There is the great full colour cover, the pages themselves, and the illustrations by Mathew Armstrong that appear at the start of each chapter. All these ingredients added together go on to make Farperoo, for me personally, one of the finest debut novels I have had pleasure of reading in a long while. If you were to ask me whether I think that Farperoo and the Dark Inventions series will go on to become a great success the answer would have to be a resounding yes. For surely it is only a matter of time before
the Dark Inventions series goes on to become one of the great series of Children's books published in the early part of the 21st Century. Once it is widely available on the high street then I'm sure kids up and down the country will be talking about Lucy Blake. If the other books in the series turn out to be as good as Farperoo then book lovers like myself are in for a real treat over the next few years. Me, how did I first come across Farperoo? Well I'll set the scene. It is early summer 2005 and I'm browsing the books on display at Hatchards in London. Being someone with a keen interest in signed first edition books, this is something that I often do when I take a day trip to London from my home in Salisbury. This particular day I happened to be browsing the books up in the children's department when I happened to come across this book with a green cover which I hadn't seen before. I picked it up flicked through and read a few of the pages, and decided there and then that I had to have a copy for my collection. As the copies in Hatchards were second impressions, I didn't buy a copy there and then. So I got home that night and decided to treat myself and purchased one of the elements bi-graph copies. If I hadn't been in Hatchards that day, the chances are that I may never have discovered the wonderful world of Mark Lamb, Farperoo and the Dark Inventions series. Now that volume 2 had landed on my doormat today, (which on first impressions I think is equally as fine as volume 1), I have another great book to read to keep me occupied in the weeks leading up to Christmas...

Richard Hayward

I would quickly run out of descriptions to tell you how much I enjoyed the amazing journey with Lucy Blake. What a fabulous story, and again, what a beautiful book. Everything about it is outstanding. You were right to make this how you wanted it, how it should be, because it will be treasured. Magical books are very hard to come by, and a pleasure to find. When everything feels picked over and pared down by Publishers, homogenised, reduced, mass produced and pre-packaged, Farperoo is exceptional. It feels written from the heart, complete and real, and it plays beautifully on the Mind Movie. And don't worry about it being heavy for small hands! I solved that one by resting it on a huge cushion on my lap, and joy of joys, the pages stay open like all the very best and most precious books do! Perfect! Detailed, fascinating and perfect.

This book is great, Lucy and Toby are like brother and sister and they have a step mother (the lamp-stand) and a step step father who I think is nice really. I only got this book for my birthday so I haven't read it all yet, but it's cool, I try to read a bit each day at night and in the morning before I go to school. I like Lucy's lies and the way that Toby doesn't understand them. I'm up to the bit with the doctor and hope she escapes. Toby is always trying to get her into trouble but he is a good friend and makes her laugh sometimes.I also like the pictures then are good as you can tell what the people look like. I looked at the pictures for the other chapters and am thinking about the story
and what will happen. It looks very interesting. Does it take a long time to write this book. My dad say there are another two books to Farperoo, does all the
writing make your hand hurt like mine does after school. My uncle says I should read Harry Potter but that's just old stuff, it's everywhere now and I think it's boring and for younger children. Farperoo is a heavy book and difficult to take in my bag. Why isn't there a paper back version so I take it around with me?

Sam Jackson (12) (Review Competition Entry)

This book is brilliantly written and illustrated, with just the right amount of humour entwined within the more dark plot. Mark Lamb has written a book that is right up there with J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter, and that's something I don't usually say, since before this book came along, Harry Potter was my favorite. Farperoo starts with an angel (Raziel) descending to the town where a girl he seeks lives. He is also after 'the light'. He finds a girl, but finds out it isn't the girl he came for. Instead, he uses this girl (Fenny), as bait to lure the girl he really wants (Lucy Blake) right to him. Lucy Blake has a way of telling lies that somehow come true. Her friend, Toby, I think also has something to do with the weather. Lucy's step mom wishes to have her committed to a mental hospital. She escapes the doctor's clutches (for now), and begins her quest. Throughout her journey in different worlds, she meets characters like Gusset (I think he's up to something.) Exotica Pubrane (my favourite character for some reason) and her handbag Henbeg (whom Lucy entrusts with the light for a while), the Vooghul, mentions of 'The Sisters', Zenda Freggley, a nosy reporter, Bentley Priory, a detective who helps Lucy out at the end of the book, Morana Fay (whose life in the book is short-lived), and Genjamin, a talking puppet with an obsession for chocolate biscuits, are just a few of the many characters in this book. Along the way, Lucy comes in possession of 'the light', the only written thing from heaven. The light cannot be stolen, it must be lost or given away freely. The light is very important to Raziel. Lucy manages to escape him more than once, though very narrowly. At the end of the book, Lucy 'teleports' to her other world to escape Zenda, and leaves Bentley Priory with her mother's will, which Zenda takes. There are two ladies there, waiting for a bus, named Ethel and Gladys. What just happened "got them thinking", and that's where the author left off. It's quite a cliffhanger! There are plenty of questions that are left unanswered; Will Raziel ever get the light? Can Exotica and Henbeg be trusted? Will Lucy ever find Fenny (and Toby for that matter)? Who exactly are 'The Sisters'? These are just some of the questions unanswered in this one volume. This book is very interesting, and held my attention all the way through it. I can't wait for the next volume to be released so I can find out what happens next. Overall, I give this book a 15/10. Brilliant. Great. Words can't describe how great this book really is.

Justin Hostutler (Review Competition Entry)

There are few things more intriguing than getting a new book to read, having absolutely no idea what to expect, and ploughing into the first chapter regardless. One such thing however is knowing snippets of information but not if the story involved will live up to the expectations these snippets engender. This was the case with Farperoo. I had seen the Dark Inventions website, with the author's history in real magic, the illustrator's wonderfully accomplished drawings, showing atmospheric scenes from various chapters, and the numerous volumes the book was due to ultimately have, and yes, my interest was extremely piqued. The cover illustrations are obviously the first things to register and they are superb, as is the overall quality of the book itself. My personal preference would have been to use a dust jacket that matched the cover underneath, but as I handled my copy with kid gloves as I read it, I suppose its own beauty acts as a de facto protective wrap. The story begins in a rainy windswept seaside town, bleak and blustery, as all British coastal resorts seem to be, especially in winter. With their blue rinsed tea shops, penny amusement arcades and shuttered up fairgrounds, its hardly surprising that Lucy, the story's heroine needs to make the dreariness of daily life in such a place, a bit more exciting. This she does by lying, exaggerating and embellishing. Reality in such a town is often mundane and so it's more fun to manipulate the truth. And this, is her gift. Her "Inventions" have a habit of coming to pass. This power, coveted by the angels themselves leads her and close friend Toby on an adventure, and what an adventure it could turn out to be. In this first episode of what will hopefully be many more, we travel to deserted
parallel worlds and beyond, to worlds within worlds. We encounter the weird and the wonderful, the strange and eerie, giant insects and crocodile handbags. The combination of children's adventure, 1950s detectives, mad scientists and their even madder machines, wicked stepmothers, world domination and the ongoing fight between Good and Evil, to name but a few of the subplots, works. It works amazingly well in fact. Mark Lamb's vivid imagination has woven a subtle tapestry of intrigue and possibility that leaves just enough loose threads, which I'm sure will themselves be intertwined with the even more fantastic in future books. I can't wait.

Jeff Midghall (Review Competition Entry)

Farperoo: Volume 1 is by far one of the best and most original books ever written and would make a fantastic film. From the first glance at the cover I fell in love with it. When I opened the book and looked through the pages and saw all of the pictures and the amount of writing I was amazed at how much effort, care and love had been put into this one book. Not only is it the beauty of the sight of the book, it’s the sheer brilliance of the story that makes it so readable and unable to put it down. I can sit for hours and hours at a time just reading it and I know that as soon as I finish Volume 1 I’ll be begging for Volume 2. The story of Lucy Blake and her best friend Toby Lindstrom is full of originality and humour and the transition between imaginary worlds (that are wonderfully believable) to reality that suggest the strangest thing about this book is that this unusual combination seems completely natural to the progression of the plot, which is fast paced and exciting. Starting from the beginning with the accident with the weather and Fenny’s encounter with Raziel, to Tarquin’s hanging, to the discovery of Nether Grimston and the Braneskule, to the mysterious kiosk and being followed by the Vooghul I was completely gripped by the brilliant story telling. It was immediately obvious that the Empire and Nether Grimston will become important, yet I still can’t work out how or why and as for The Braneskule I’m very glad that I never had to attend a school like that. The people there (apart from the children and Gusset, although I’m not quite sure about him yet) were horrible, particularly when Niblock ate the escaping Loppit. But I quite like the idea of the Shew Stone, if they existed then they’d be really handy. I also quite liked the Mappa Mundi. I think that the Vooghul are scary and I guess that they’ll play a bigger part later, another character that I don’t like (meaning that even if he was real I’d hate him because he’s such a horrible person) is Doctor Veraciter, from his very first sentence I hated him more than I ever hated Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter and I also think that Lily the lamp-stand and worst cook in the world has built a friendship with Doctor Veraciter for something even more sinister than just locking Lucy up in Saint Mallydick’s in order to take over the house. Toby is one of the best characters, just because if his constant competing with Lucy to make up stories and his constant jokes and complaining that he can’t have a bacon buttie. But my most favourite character overall is Raziel (probably something to do with me being a Goth) because he’s so cool, he’s creepy and he’s evil and there’s just so much about him that makes you not want to like him but just because he’s evil doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have good in him and I think that Lucy’s attitude when he was getting electrocuted in Byron’s lab might bring an important point across into the future books when she says “I’m not going to take the life of another creature, even if it is dangerous – not if there’s another way.” Overall Farperoo is an enchanting tale, which has lots of themes, as do most books nowadays. Some of the themes include good and evil, friendship, adventure, fear and excitement and all fit together to make one long but excellent story that is full of imagination and suspense from the first page. This is certainly one MUST READ book, even if it is really heavy it’s worth it, as when I got into it, I didn’t realize the weight of the book on my knee because I was concentrating on reading so much. This is one of the best books written, I would say its level with Harry Potter so read it!

A wonderful invention that is elementally weaved into a magical realm by the ingenious hands of Mark Lamb. As you follow Lucy on her life path through the good and the evil, the light and the dark, the reality and the fantasy, you are enchanted by her world of humour, deceit, adventure and an emotional teaching of morals, self, faith and magic. On what can only be described as a balanced dark epic tale of many levels that will have you hooked within the intricate journey which branches from the central character Lucy Blake, to form and reveal the magical world of Farperoo. I have entered the world of Farperoo to begin what is looking like the literary journey of a lifetime. It’s here. It’s brilliant, and this is just the beginning. Dare to see where it will take you!

There’s an aura of mystery wrapped up with an indefinable comedy element, but the reader is also aware of a river of tragedy running just below the surface. This is a novel of real depth. I love the way the story builds one aspect of itself on another. For instance, a throwaway remark by a character in one part of the novel becomes a hurriedly constructed lie in another and later on becomes an entire region of a fictitious world. Brilliant!

I've been telling everyone who'll listen, and even those who won't! I finished your book this morning and thought it was wonderful. It certainly lived up to my expectations (which were high after seeing the quality of the outside, the inside, which is what counts, was of the same quality). I would go as far to say that I couldn't put it down (except for one chapter, sorry, early on in "Flaming Panties" - it was still good though). An amazing story!!! I hope the second volume isn't too far away so that I can continue the story, the first book has answers to be had, it seems to have set the stage (if you pardon the pun) for the following volumes, which could go in lots of directions! The book has a lot going on, it's well weaved, there are a lot of ties throughout the chapters that set you on your own wee detective trail. One minute it has you thinking that you know what it's all about, the next you're not so sure, brilliant! I'm sure it will do well, I loved it (I even dreamt about Farperoo last night!!).

Nicole Morrison (Reader)

The first time I heard of Farperoo was when Mark sent me an email asking if I would be so kind as to link to his website, as he had written a book called Farperoo and he thought it might appeal to fans of Philip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials’. I replied that I would indeed link his website as soon as I had read the book, as for all I knew Farperoo might be a book that wasn’t suitable for non-adults. Another factor was that I had heard quite a few books claim that they would appeal to ‘His Dark Materials’ fans, and most of them were obviously badly written bundles of paper intent on boring the reader to death, so I was a bit sceptical. Still, after browsing through the artwork and reviews on Mark’s website I have to admit that I was looking forward to reading the book. A month or so later I came home to find a heavy package lying on my desk. I quickly took a pair of scissors and cut it open to find a big brown book, titled ‘Farperoo Volume 1’. The first thing I noticed was the book’s cover art: it was really impressive, and immediately gave me the impression that the book would make for quite a dark read. On a side note, all the artwork in the book is stunning. This is really an example of a book that’s worth buying for the art. The book itself is divided into three parts. In ‘Arcanum the First’ we are introduced to the protagonists: Lucy Blake, a socially isolated semi-compulsive liar with a taste for adventure and her ever-loyal friend Toby Lindstrom. They live in a depressing sea-side town called Grimston-on-Sea where it (nearly) always rains. Lucy lives with her step-mother and <snip>... Usually writing a brief summary is a trivial task. However this time it’s a gruesome one. There is no way that I could write a summary of Farperoo that wouldn’t span many, many pages, or consists of text as simple and non-descriptive as I would have written, had I continued the previous paragraph. This is due to the fact that the book is like a box of … boxes. Normally when you read a book you expect to ‘open the box’ and encounter one plot. Farperoo contains boxes of boxes within boxes of plots. There are at least a hundred events or mysteries that the reader encounters in the book that are left completely unanswered, undoubtedly to be clarified in Volume 2? Don’t get me wrong and interpret this as meaning that the book is badly written. Another metaphor: some books have storylines like badly built roads; they take the reader everywhere and nowhere and confuse the hell out of them. Farperoo is like a well built road but with hundreds of side roads. The fact that the storyline is so well constructed is something that I find something of a miracle, as Mark has definitely embarked on an incredibly ambitious journey writing the ‘Dark Inventions’ series. The book is more than 500 pages long and at the end the reader has still no clearer an idea of who the ‘good guys’ and the ‘bad guys’ are, or what the exact nature and destination of the quest is that the protagonists have set off on. This book really feels like a kind of introduction, a prologue to a truly epic story. Some people might find this a bit frightening, but personally I marvel at the sheer scale of this literary undertaking. The more you read the book the more questions you encounter, and the deeper you are immersed into this fantasy world. The world of ‘Dark Inventions’ is best described as a mix of ‘Discworld’, ‘His Dark Materials’, ‘Lord of the Rings’ and a splash of ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’. This doesn’t really do this unique story justice, but it’s the best description for someone who hasn’t read it yet. In short I would say that this is a book definitely worth buying. It’s intriguing, captivating, and well written. The characters are so believable that at times you actually find yourself cursing their stupidity. Finally you really should read this book because of the ending. Finishing a book with a cliff-hanger might be a cliché, but for once it’s brilliantly implemented. I for one am definitely looking forward to Volume 2 of Farperoo.

Farperoo is one of the most spectacular books I have ever come across - I have been a fan of Mark Lamb for the last five years and his writing goes from strength to strength.

These are not just books but investments - mine is a prized possession and not to be parted with.

This is a unique and ultimately very dark tale. The characters are totally convincing and the worlds, both the 'real' world and the fantastical, are highly detailed and completely believable. There is a sense of 'back story' here that's absent from most books of this type, and where provided this background information suggests a tale of incredible richness and depth. If the author manages to finish all twelve books then I believe it will rival 'The Lord of the Rings' as the finest fantasy book of all time.

Lucy Blake is an amazing character. She reminds me of Hermione in the Harry Potter books. She's very switched on, and totally street-wise...

The characters are unique and very humorous, also the storyline has some amazing potential. I am really looking forward to the release of this book so all my friends can get it. I can see the book being a great hit if enough people discover it...

This is an incredibly dark tale, but at the same time it's also very humorous which is an unusual combination. Lucy's 'normal' world and the world she visits are both incredible places, and I felt fascinated and horrified by them both in equal measure. I can't wait to read the next book.

I really enjoyed it – the characters are nicely developed, there's plenty of action and dramatic moments, it's well paced, you use
some wonderfully descriptive language and it has an impressive ending – smashing...

Lucy is a strong character and the recognition in her of evil creates plenty of tension...

Awesome - if you've ever read 'Vox' or 'Harry Potter' or 'His Dark Materials' you'll love this...

I read the book in one sitting - I didn't want to put it down. It reminded me a little of Philip Pullman, because of the 'dark inventions'...

You can really get under the skin of the characters and live their adventure...

One thing that bothered me, even more than Tarquin's near hanging, was the incredibly compelling account of Raziel's abduction of Fenny.

It is incredibly well written, which is why I found it particularly disturbing. It's good, Mark. I'm full of admiration...

This is what you'd get if Terry Pratchett re-wrote Lord of the Rings and took out all the boring bits...

Lucy is awesome - but her future path seems very dark indeed - I only hope she's strong enough to withstand it...

Unputdownable - this was the first time I have ever read such a long book all in one go. And when I got to the end I wanted to start all over again. There's so much in there, it's a very finely observed world, and full of very believable and sometimes very frightening characters. I felt excited, terrified and amused all at the same time. I'd love to see this made into a film, and can't wait for the next book in the series...