I am  a little embarrassed at how long it has been since I’ve done a “What I’m Reading” post. If you’re wondering whether that means I haven’t been reading much then you’re quite right—I haven’t. In fact you might say my recreational reading has almost ground to a complete halt. Obviously I hope this trend will reverse again soon, because one of the reasons I’m a writer (I believe) is because I was an avid reader first—and there is never enough time to read all the wonderful books that are out there.

But when Steve Minchin of Steam Press sent me Swedish-New Zealand author Fredrik Brounéous’s The Prince of Soul And the Lighthouse I felt I wanted to make a special effort—because not only is it speculative fiction written in NZ, but it’s been published by an emerging New Zealand speculative fiction publisher. That’s a lot to want to support already, but as I said in my Just Arrived post on 24 February, The Prince of Soul And the Lighthouse has received some terrific cover quotes from authors such as Fleur Beale, Mandy Hagar and Tim Jones, as well as an enthusiastic early review from the Sunday Star Times—so of course I was keen to read it for myself.

In terms of “what it’s all about”, I set out the backcover text on February 24 as well, again here, but to summarise—our hero, George Larson, 18, of Dunedin (Macandrew Bay, in fact, if I read the story correctly) finds out that he has to ‘save the world’ (well, sort of) by switching off a very important lighthouse. In order to fulfil this mission he is propelled into a hair-raising road trip around most of Otago and Southland (there and back again in some cases) accompanied by Tenzin (a Tibetan monk), Kaisa (a beautiful Finnish exchange student), and his coffee-and-cigarette addicted revenant grandfather, all the while being pursued by parties with nefarious intentions in respect of the said lighthouse. Got all that? Yes? Then to quote Tenzin: “Awesome. High Five!” And moving right along—having read The Prince of Soul And the Lighthouse for myself, what do I think of it?

Well, in summary, I enjoyed the book a lot. It’s a fun, quirky and well-paced YA read that I believe will also be enjoyed by older readers.

Aspects of the story that I particularly enjoyed include: the way the Otago/Southland backdrop–and foreground too!— is integral to the storytelling, but not in a heavy-handed, “worthy” way. I also very much enjoyed the first person “voice” of George as the likeable, believable teen protagonist and his juxtaposition with his ‘guide’ (well, sort of) Tenzin, as well as the inclusion of  a light-hearted parallel road trip through Buddhism 101—not to mention the footnotes (I don’t normally like footnotes as a literary device but these definitely enhanced the story) and the whole array of humorous and zany encounters built into the plot. Possibly my favorite  of these was the “spook” unit using social media and the internet as a kind of giant prayer wheel to harness the creative reality power of a vast array of the world’s deities, past and present. Did I say this was a fun book? To expand on that remark then, I laughed out loud in several places and grinned in many others.

Did I have any quibbles? Those of you who know me will know that I always have quibbles, not least with my own work as I go along and always in retrospect! But I certainly don’t have any major quibbles with The Prince of Soul & The Lighthouse. In fact, if I have any at all it would be that perhaps George didn’t have quite enough agency in the final denouement. There is a reason for that though, one that makes sense in the context of the action, so I may be stretching my ‘perhaps’ a bit too far—and as I don’t feel it spoiled my overall enjoyment of the book, I think we may safely put it in the ‘very minor’ category of quibble!

To conclude, I really enjoyed this book. I definitely recommend it to anyone who likes a humorous, well-paced read with fun characters. And if asked to give a response in a nutshell I don’t think I could do better than quote Tenzin again: “Awesome. High Five!”

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And to see the billboard: go here. Pretty sure that sucker’s by da ‘Cake Tin’, in downtown ‘Wellywood’!