The Ninth Wave

It has been a long time since I'd read anything by this author (Surface Tension, The Eros Hunter, etc.) and so was pleased to discover in a charity shop The Ninth Wave. The Ninth Wave is part of a series commissioned by Welsh publisher Siren. Its aim is to have twelve domestic authors retell traditional Celtic myths for a contemporary audience. This work follows a classic narrative arc of quest, loss, redemption and catharsis. There is nothing medieval about Jones's story. It imagines a post-industrial dystopian Wales, a world with no oil and where armed combat takes place on horseback. Think of this more as speculative fiction. Although short (at 160 pages in large font), it is both a believable and a memorable story. Seven and a half out of ten.

By Russell Sellin Jones