One Word Kill
Ratings82
Average rating3.7
In January 1986, fifteen-year-old boy-genius Nick Hayes discovers he’s dying. And it isn’t even the strangest thing to happen to him that week.
Nick and his Dungeons & Dragons-playing friends are used to living in their imaginations. But when a new girl, Mia, joins the group and reality becomes weirder than the fantasy world they visit in their weekly games, none of them are prepared for what comes next. A strange—yet curiously familiar—man is following Nick, with abilities that just shouldn’t exist. And this man bears a cryptic message: Mia’s in grave danger, though she doesn’t know it yet. She needs Nick’s help—now.
He finds himself in a race against time to unravel an impossible mystery and save the girl. And all that stands in his way is a probably terminal disease, a knife-wielding maniac and the laws of physics.
Challenge accepted.
Series
Featured Series
3 primary books#1 in Impossible Times
Impossible Times is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2019 with contributions by Mark Lawrence.
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
I'm impressed. This is quite a different style of book to the usual fair that is associated with Mark Lawrence, but he carries it off with distinctive flair. The 80s geek culture vibe is strong and echos closely with some of my current interests (board games etc). I can definitely see the Stranger Things vibes running strongly through it and the time travel aspect is intelligently plotted taking into account the necessary paradoxes.
Underlying this is the story of a young man with cancer, which is very poignantly done. I lost my mother to cancer less than a year ago and can recognize some of the descriptions of the cancer wards and the numbness with which the disease gets to you and the people around you. The coming of age tale which accompanies it is nicely done. All in all Mark Lawrence takes his engaging style of prose and crafts a wonderful tale with tense drama, wit and a strong underlying sadness. I look forward to continuing the series!
So, this is one of those books that did something quite rare - it surprised me.
I did not know much about this book. I had obviously seen countless reviews as I follow Mark Lawrence on this site and thought I must get around to reading that.
I totally agree with Robin Hobbs, this is a six star book. I loved it. I think especially because I was sixteen in 1986, I was a goth, not the updated type, but the proper 80's Sisters of Mercy type and I was right into fantasy stuff (and in later years, played D & D). So, Mark, you got me covered. And on top of that it has my son's name in it. He only appears for a minute (and just for clarity, The author does not know my son and any representation to people living or dead is purely coincidence, which this is).
You can tell it is a good book, when you find yourself with a spare five minutes, the book suddenly (as if by magic) appears in your hands, demanding you to find out what happens next. Except that the five minutes turns into an hour, tea is burning and you are quite blissfuly unaware that you have reached the end of the book in two days.
I loved this book and if the rest of it is like this, then I think that this will be the best trilogy I have read all year.
One small niggle and this is the smallest hill that I am willing to die on is that I am sure that in 1986 it would have been Beadle's about - not Candid Camera. Teeny weeny hill!
Oh and the bit about the nurses is hilarious. On two counts really, I was in and out of hospital when I was a kid and I am a nurse now, so that bit about nurses is definately true. I could go on and on, so I have to stop now.
