Book Review : Pulp sci-fi fun with added monkeys
In an alternative future where England and France joined to form a union in the 1950s, a journalist seeks to track down whoever murdered her husband, the young heir to the throne is on the run after discovering a dark secret. Throw into the mix a cigar smoking, swearing, monkey with a penchant for banana daiquiris (who would surely be voiced by Ron Perlman in any film adaptation) who flies a Spitfire and battles Nazi ninjas and a conspiracy theory that threatens the future of humanity and you have quite a heady brew.
Alternative realities! Virtual worlds! Airships! Explosions! Talking monkeys! Ack-Ack Macaque crams so many pulp elements together that at times it feels like its about to burst at the seams.
Luckily the book just about holds itself together. Throwing so many ideas around with reckless abandon, it sometimes feels like the narrative is moving too fast, and ideas or concepts that I would quite happily have spent more time finding out about speed past in a blur. With a structure built around a series of cliffhangers, occasionally plot points seem to pop up from nowhere, or end abruptly.
The joy end exuberance of the writing, characters and story swept me along until the end and helped gloss over most of the shortcomings of the novel, but it did leave me with the lingering suspicion that Ack-Ack Macaque was slightly less than the sum of its parts. Like an action movie that is more style than substance, it might be best not to think too hard about, but just sit back and enjoy the ride.
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