My Top Five Books at the Moment by Nicholas Lovelock

Title: Gemenicia
Author: Nicholas Lovelock
Publisher: Clink Street Publishing
Published: 30th May 2019
Pages: 410
Format: Paperback
Source:: N/A
Add It: Amazon UK Goodreads.
Summary:The second part of Arthur and Jo’s strange adventures throughout the land of Discoucia, and a time when Archie the Water Goddess has made the ultimate sacrifice to rid the world of her nemesis, Cordelia Paradise, the Fire Goddess.

However, things rarely go to plan and Arthur finds himself at war with Archie’s hidden agenda rather than the insane task that he has to help Archie complete.

Hidden around Discoucia in its sixteen major cities are sixteen gems that Archie must collect before a year is up. If she wins then Cordelia will disappear to another dimension and not return until she agrees to stop causing forest fires, volcanic eruptions and droughts.

Team Archie has Arthur and Jo, who both have the understanding that by collecting these gems a natural order can be brought back and maybe Jo’s father will get well again. Team Cordelia has Alicia May, who has a talent for becoming anyone and a deep malicious streak; and Iren, who has a fanatical hatred for Archie, which Archie herself doesn’t like to talk about.

Along the way they meet old friends and old enemies, as well as Archie having to perform miracles without the use of divine power. From the murky ruins of Tanalos to the haunted corridors of Ashin Dance Academy, the frozen caverns of Icester and the verdant streets of Proceur, the adventure will take them around Discoucia and beyond, unless Cordelia and Alicia May can stop them first…

My first favourite book would be and always will be Redwall by Brian Jacques. His was the first book that I read that was longer than 100 pages, and I loved the descriptive language the author used when describing food as well as the setting. The book reminded me of old England, and the use of animals all native to the country I live in was a particular draw, especially as I had a phase when I was very interested in snakes. Asmodeus the giant adder who lived in an old quarry was my favourite character, strange as most people would follow the hero rather than one of the antagonists. There is a theory that when writing a book one should always make something attractive about the villain, they should have a spark that makes them not a complete evil, and the character of Asmodeus isn’t trying to kill all the animals as given time he could, he is merely following his animalistic tendencies.

The second book I would nominate is The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R.Tolkien, a book that I first read while on holiday on the island of Rhodes while sitting by the pool in the sunshine. It was a bit of a juxtapose to read about damp forests while being sat in the boiling sun getting a tan, but it’s Tolkien’s style of writing that I really like. He has a way to make a person see what is in his mind, and to bring the beauty of the countryside to a place hundreds of miles away. I moved on to the rest of the books but didn’t find them as appealing as the first; also I am not a lover of great battles. The immense underground kingdoms of Elowe and Yande that feature in Gemenicia were clearly inspired by Moria and Erebor, they were homage’s to a man who brought the mining dwarves of Snow White into a proud race that built incredible halls and corridors beneath the mountains.

The third is more of a collection of stories and are those of H.P. Lovecraft, the master of space horror that did more to influence the genre than any other before or after him. I remember reading At The Mountains of Madness while doing some heavy gardening for my sister, something about the far off place that was nearly impossible to explore back in the 20s and isn’t much easier now. Lovecraft has the ability to pick on the deepest fear of people, fear of the unknown and fill it with all kinds of strange and nightmarish creatures, or eldritch abominations as he refers them to. He has a habit of using locations that are in New England, which I warmed to as they represent my idea of an American sized Britain, with places like Arkham and Innsmouth.

One of my favourite authors is Stephen King, and I recently finished a short story by him called The Long Walk, which I found positively terrifying. The idea that it is legal for young men to enter a contest where they must walk four miles an hour until none of the one hundred are left is dystopian to say the least. The way that King writes each individual character that we get to know, but are invariably shot for lagging behind or breaking rules is a skill that I believe is essential. You feel for this characters when they die in a way that you feel for real people, and that is something that all authors try to do but most fail on, in this short story I had to know who survived and how they would cope with the emotional burden of being responsible for the others death by proxy. For them to survive and to claim the prize the others must die, a heavy price for a young man to carry for the rest of his life, unlimited everything or not.

My fifth and final book is a bit of an unorthodox one, it is The Art of Ian Miller. Gemenicia contains something that the previous book didn’t; illustrations. I have always wanted to include illustrations but in all honesty my drawings were cartoonish at best when I wrote Discoucia. My very learned Philosophy and Guitar teacher once told me that nobody is truly gifted and talented, they just practice and practice until they get on top of their art. This artist is amazing, the illustrations that he creates transport you to another world. He makes the world of Middle Earth look real along with that of Warhammer, using mainly black and white along with a collection of lines to create natural scenes. He was one of my major influences when doing the illustrations for book two and will be an inspiration for many books to come.

Nicholas Lovelock lives in a small village in Oxfordshire and has already published Discoucia, the first part of the Alavonia Series which spans multiple novels set to be released in the future. He enjoys riding around the countryside as well as illustrating his own works, as can be seen in his second novel Gemenicia. These Illustrations in stark black and white provide a glimpse into the world of Alavonia and how he sees it, as well as showcasing the different locations and characters that make up the Alavonia series universe.

He is a keen musician capable of playing the electric guitar as well as the acoustic and the piano, often trying to play like his musical heroes David Gilmour, Jimmy Page and Jeff Lynne. His coin collection has transformed from a hobby to a passion and obsession as he attempts to collect one of every issued coin in Great Britain. He is over halfway in that respect collecting such treasures as a 1675 Charles the Second Crown and an extremely rare Edward the Seventh Half Crown of 1905, and has begun metal detecting in an effort to tick some boxes in the Hammered Coinage section.

His love of Steampunk literature and cinema has been with him from a young age when he first saw the film ‘Wild Wild West’, sought out the original series and discovered a world of fantasy that he has painstakingly tried to pay homage to in his novels, to bring the wild west to an English setting and to create something that has never been done before.

History has always been a major passion of his as he makes many references in his literature, from characters whose personalities resemble those of eccentric historical characters or monarchs. The ability to change history through literature was one of the things that attracted him to become an author in the first place, to create similar timelines and put a unique spin on the mundane.