Travels In Xanadu-du by Keef Williamson

Right then, this morning I finished reading Travels in Xanadu-du by Keef Williamson. Not bad considering the last book took me two and a half months to read - this one only took me a week.

So what can I say about it? Well, when I first started it I was put off because I know the author personally and have done for many years - so whilst I was reading, I could hear Keef's turn of phrase all the time - now I've never known another author so obviously I always put my own interpretation on the linguistic nuances that I am reading and I wasn't able to do that this time. Eventually I got over that and got into the story - I would say that I very much enjoyed middle half of the book, I wanted to know what was going to happen to Abimbola and the rest of the gang next and didn't want to put it down. Towards the end though, I got the impression that Keef just wanted it to end. A pity really because it could have ended a lot more strongly than it did

Great literature this isn't, but then it never has any pretensions to be... it is an easy story that doesn't take any effort on the part of the reader (except for the need to refer to the map now and again when you get lost in the geography). I would recommend it for a read on the plane or on the beach, but if your taste in books is Charles Dickens, forget it!

All in all I think it is a good first effort by Keef and I believe that he is currently writing a follow up. I think this is good because it will give him a chance to work on some much needed character development for some of the leading characters who will be travelling in the future of Xanadu-du.

You can buy the book here and personally I think you could very definitely do worse than give it a go.