Wednesday 7 December 2016

Review: Evil UnLtd. Vol 2: From Evil With Love, by Simon A Forward


Evil UnLtd. Vol.2: From Evil With Love, by Simon A Forward
 

This is a solid sequel and, if I’m honest, a much better read that Volume One. Where the first book could be accused of having an over-enthusiasm of zany ideas, in places, From Evil With Love is much more tempered and restrained – and potentially funnier, where it needs to be funny; it punches where it needs to punch only, rather than constantly slapping you lightly. But also in its favour the hard work of setting up Evil Unlimited had already been done in Volume One, so the narrative is able to start off pretty much in full stride where the former book had left off. 

A note to begin with: not that I would expect anyone to start with Volume Two, but should that happen I don’t think the reader would get anything like as satisfactory an experience if they hadn’t already read volume one. So… 

This time Snide’s group are faced with a growing collection of ‘goodies’ who have decided that they need to be taken down after the culmination of events in Volume One: Salmon Templar from the Piscapalian Secret Service (*cough* Simon Templar, The Saint), Captain Semper Finion Arcoban of Sysfleet (Captain  S(weet) F.A. – look it up if you have to, don’t make me lower the tone). Unlike with Rolph Stengun in the first book, in Volume Two the author actually makes these goodie characters attractive to the reader - engaging and fun to read in themselves, be that Templar’s obvious James Bond-esque skill with women or Sysfleet’s reliance on email communication for everything (to provide an audit trail), which in the latter case creates some moments of purest comedy gold. 

The title From Evil With Love sets the tone of parody from the start; chapter headings pun further on James Bond films, and the book is merciless with the trappings of the franchise as well – natty vehicles, Miss Geldpfennig, gadgets, sexy women dancing in silhouette in the opening titles, ridiculous amounts of bullets wasted by henchmen who can’t aim for toffee…But the book is not dependent on its reader knowing or picking up on these puns and parodies, as with other victims such as The Saint, Doctor Who, Star Trek and others – they are there to raise a wry smile or even a chuckle if known, but otherwise they can be taken at face value and the story still works perfectly. 

Sysfleet, rather wonderfully, reads like The Federation from Star Trek as if it was run by the Vogons from Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy. Everything is mired in procedure and regulations, and budgets have to be accounted for – biting a thumb at Star Trek: The Next Generation’s claim that humanity by their time had risen above monetary greed in its own particular cosy futuristic utopia.

What all this Sysfleet and Piscapalian Secret Service background does, alongside providing laughs, is add a lot of depth and texture to the book. One thing flows on from the next, and at no point does the action or plot feel forced or contrived – which is very much to the book’s credit. Forward is clearly growing in confidence as a writer and storyteller; From Evil With Love contains instances of non-linear narrative, or narrative that jump cuts without apparent explanation; this toys with and challenges the audience in interesting ways, adding a lot to the ‘readerly’ experience. 

If I had a grumble it would be that the Evil UnLimited crew are rarely gathered together in this story; instead they are split into smaller groups or operating individually. I felt that this diluted the effect of the team – or rather diluted the impact of the team. Having said that, it’s a more domestic setting for them this time around, largely in or about their headquarters on the great tree. There’s plenty for them all to do though - splitting them up allows for better character interplay and development, and means that some characters are less likely to be standing around idle as the more verbose ones hog the limelight. But I still found myself missing the group scenes. You don’t necessarily need four stories all going on concurrently, for example, but if you have four strands of action feeding the main story then it makes sense to split the group’s focus accordingly, if not evenly. 

The book is again split into three episodes, however unlike the first book where the respite from the chaos and humour was a relief the split here feels much less of a necessity. There is continuity of narrative and generally continuity of setting throughout and as the narrative is much more focussed on telling a great story rather than telling it through gags I never felt as fatigued as I occasionally did whilst reading Volume One. 

I should like to remind readers that these books are all written for charity – that’s a considerable creative investment on the part of the author and they deserve to raise as much money as they can for Cancer Research. 

Find out more about the range, plus purchase copies here:  https://4devil.wordpress.com/

You can follow the author Simon A Forward on Twitter on @prefect4d
 
 
I’m looking forward to volume 3…

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