FBI agent, Chevie Savano, is not feeling like herself. The world she knows has been eradicated replaced by the Box Empire following its overthrow of the Victoria world. Split between two realities Savano’s only chance of returning history back to its original path is to travel back in time and stop Box...

W.A.R.P: The Hangman’s Revolution (2014. 360 pages) is the second title in the new series from Irish author, Eoin Colfer, whose works include both his own successful Artemis Fowl series as well as penning, And Another Thing… the sixth book for The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. The book follows on from the first book in the series, W.A.R.P. The Reluctant Assassin (2009).

Getting to the nub of the matter, the novel was a great read, possibly one of Colfer’s best. Of course, if you have not read the first novel the beginning of the book may seem a little disconcerting as we meet Savano who is in modern day England, in a world where apart from France and parts of South America, the Boxite Empire rules, crushing any who stand against it.

Savano finds herself with a whole new set of memories, her own unchanged memories exist and their intrusion makes Savano think that she is somehow going mad. Not to worry, the plot kicks in early so it’s not strictly necessary to have read the first novel.

When her latest unusual outburst, driven by her subsumed memories, get her into trouble with the authorities she is sent with two companions to assassinate this realities version of Professor Charles Smart. But before this can happen Smart triggers his time machine throwing Savano back to Victoria London. Through the transfer her original memories reassert themselves and with the help of a gangland overlord and a stage magician Savona sets out to stop Box before he can change history.

Colfer’s writing has a permanent cheeky twinkle in its eye and although Savano is the titular heroine she is not the most fun character in the book. These laurels go to the King of the Rams/Commodore Otto Malarkey whose help Savano enlists. Although head of the Rams, a criminal gang, Otto’s attempt to cut an imposing figure only end in buffoonery. Obsessed with his own hair, he is nevertheless a physically powerful figure and his knowledge of London’s underworld becomes essential to stopping Box.

As well as making new friends, Savano is reunited with Riley, who at the beginning of the story is hoping to make his theatre successful and himself a noted stage magician until the hangman’s revolution rears its ugly head.

I’m not sure if this was written as a young adult’s book, being published by Puffin would suggest this, if so it doesn’t show as readers of all ages will enjoy the full-on adventure. Colfer having changed history, for the worst already, does not allow the end of the story to be a foregone conclusion. Whilst there is a good chance that Savano would survive, there is not guarantee that, having found herself already once in an alternative future, that she will survive as herself or that all her companions will make it to the end of the book, especially as they have a couple of deranged Box devotees hot on their trail.

The book is well worth picking up of your looking for an amusing science fiction novel to while away those summer days in the garden.

9

Charles Packer