E G Logan
Full Member
Normally I'd hesitate to recommend to recommend one book out of a series to a new reader, but this is different. For a start, it's book 7.5 in the trilogy.
Yes, you did read that correctly. Author Caimh McDonnell explains in his Foreword how his Dublin Trilogy has 7 books and a novella: Escape from Victory. In fact, he's mulling an eighth.
(And people do write to explain to him, painstakingly simply, that a trilogy totals three. So he says. Amazing, isn't it? They must have little to do with their time, not to mention an uncomfortably pedantic turn of mind.)
Escape from Victory made me laugh out loud, several times. This was a real achievement, since I'd started out distinctly grumpy. It's sweary, witty, doesn't take itself too seriously, and I liked it a lot.
I have to say that I did know the characters well, and caution that McDonnell hits the ground running with this one, giving us next to no backstory. However, if new readers were to start with book 1, a whole new literary experience – not to mention an introduction to the cut-throat world of under 12s school hurling teams – lies ahead of them.
Yes, you did read that correctly. Author Caimh McDonnell explains in his Foreword how his Dublin Trilogy has 7 books and a novella: Escape from Victory. In fact, he's mulling an eighth.
(And people do write to explain to him, painstakingly simply, that a trilogy totals three. So he says. Amazing, isn't it? They must have little to do with their time, not to mention an uncomfortably pedantic turn of mind.)
Escape from Victory made me laugh out loud, several times. This was a real achievement, since I'd started out distinctly grumpy. It's sweary, witty, doesn't take itself too seriously, and I liked it a lot.
I have to say that I did know the characters well, and caution that McDonnell hits the ground running with this one, giving us next to no backstory. However, if new readers were to start with book 1, a whole new literary experience – not to mention an introduction to the cut-throat world of under 12s school hurling teams – lies ahead of them.
