When a young Stone Age woman, Ria, decides to intervene in the persecution of the Uglies she sets in train events which will destroy her tribe and see her pitted against the merciless might of the invading Illmani, under their evil lord Sulpa, a powerful interdimension demon intent on destroying the Uglies. 24,000 years later Leoni is out of control leading a chaotic life which finally ends in her accidental overdose and near death, an experience which lifts her out of her own dimension to be recruited in the war against Supla. These two women, separated by time are linked in a way which may hold the salvation of all mankind...

Entangled is the first fiction book from Graham Hancock, the genesis for his latest fiction novel can be found in his previous non fiction book Supernatural: Meetings with The Ancient Teachers of Mankind (2005), which contain many of the ideas relating to shamanism which reoccur in Entangled. The book is written in a flamboyant style, which will be a matter of taste as to whether it helps or hinders the overall narrative.

When we first meet the two young women Ria is by far the more sympathetic character, a woman of principles, whereas her counterpart, Leoni, spends her time taking drugs and getting in trouble with the police, the typical rich kid syndrome. What looks to be a complex plot becomes generic fairly quickly. A young orphan, grows up in relative obscurity, until one day a powerful being sets them on the road to gaining the great power which they will need to defeat a great evil.

Having made the modern day Leoni an unsympathetic character from the start, the book struggles to redeem her. Certainly she has been the victim of sexual abuse by her father, guided by a shadowy version of Sulpa, in passages which could have been lifted straight out of Twin Peaks and the disembodied help she offers Ria gives her an outlet for her anger, but what starts as a fairly interesting narrative soon loses impetus and interest compared to Ria’s story, especially the over long passages set in the Amazon, which failed to grip me.

Ria’s part of the story, from the destruction of her tribe to the beginnings of her uniting the disparate and antagonistic tribes against the threat of the Illmani, once again owes more than a little to other stories, but it is paced well and was the more enjoyable of the two stories. The language is deliberately provocative, dragging out descriptions of violence and sexual depravity, making it unsuitable for a young audience.

Overall, the feeling of the book is that whilst it is well written it lacks enough originality of thought or structure to really stand out. Often I found myself reading passages thinking that they were too similar to other more successful fantasy novels or concepts. Still, there is enough here to warrant a look for the casual reader, who may wish to make their own mind up.

One word of warning for those who like stand alone stories, although the book fails to mention it, the story is clearly meant to be part of a larger work. Therefore don’t expect many of the story elements to be neatly resolved.

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Charles Packer