Zoo Station - David Downing

Dave recommended this book and is hosting one of his occasional Chewing The Fat Bookclubs today discussing this.

I'm not going to say too much because there isn't much that hasn't already been said (and said much better than I could say it) in the review over here.

I really enjoyed this book.

I think that if I hadn't wanted to take part in the CTF bookclub it's probably not one I would have spotted in Waterstones and picked up.  But when I read the reviews on Amazon I was intrigued.  The period of the Second World War has always been one that's really interested me (I'm a bit into history) and I studied it a lot doing my history GCSE.  So I know some of the educational side of it - although a lot is now lost to the vagueness of time.  And fiction set then always appeals.  I think what probably would have put me off is the fact that it has a spy element to it.

I was reading it on the trains to and from Birmingham on Saturday.  Had about sixty pages left when I got home and finished it yesterday (including the thirty minutes between trains I ended up travelling two hours each way).  It was one of those hard to put down books.  I had about forty minutes between there and the friend I was meeting getting in.  Had arranged to meet her outside boots so I was mooching in the shops near there.  One of which is Borders and I enjoyed Zoo Station so much that once in there I went straight to see if they had the sequel even though I'd read less than half of book.  They didn't so I will have to order that soon.

There is an element of eugenics in this book which I had expected to find hard to read but it was handled very matter of factly and like it mattered a lot.  So it was easy to read despite it being a tough subject matter.  The thoughts on this part of the book are what makes the review I linked to above such a good read and description.

One slight criticism I have is that the book just seems to end and it's resolved but its also not.  Some books do that in a really good way but in this one it could have been a bit better.

Still a great book and I'm hoping to read the sequel soon.