Apparently, Rupert is somewhat redeemed in that one. I guess I better be prepared to get out my “suspension of disbelief” for the retcon of R C-B. How disconcerting it is to find how much one's literary tastes change over the years! The term "Bonkbuster" didn't exist when this book first came out, but it is SO appropriate! I just put up a blog over on Goodreads talking about Forbidden Love - Shadow Flight's Taviano and Nicoletta We are told the bitter tale of a man called Scully and his daughter Billie. Scully is desperately in love with his wife who, seemingly out of the blue, deserts him. With that event we eventually learn Scully and his wife are different. Scully is not that attractive. Hard worker that he is, Scully, is basically rustic. Unbeknownst to himself he is not part of the intellectual expatriate art set his wife is attracted to and seemingly part of. With that we get a portrait of a man out of his depth as he chases his heart and loses his mind. All this with a wise beyond her years daughter Billie in tow. Six year old Billie is seemingly unable to tell her father what happened when the mother put her on a plane and sent her to oblivion. But she has a love for her father that allows her to be dragged into his mental carnage and take him to the bitter ending that was always the only end.

The Riders is at times dolorous, at times comic, and sometimes both simultaneously. The scene in the Amsterdam sex toy shop made me laugh so hard I had to put the book aside. "People began to scramble across a drift of plastic penises." I could just picture the whole thing so vividly. And yet, it was really sad and pathetic that Scully had sunk low enough to have created that mess. By that point in the book I felt like he deserved the beating across the face with a dildo. A fitting punishment for a bonehead! ;-)

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The content and title of The Riders by the contemporary Australian author Tim Winton refer to and build upon the European folklore tales of the Wild Hunt—see for example Wiki’s article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Hunt. Both the mythical hunters and Winton’s characters are involved in soul searching pursuits. The mythology is mirrored in Winton’s contemporary tale. The “riders” in Winton’s book correspond to the hunters in the mythical tales. When hunters or “riders” appear, danger is imminent. What do three random strangers have in common? Well imagine this, your having a normal day and then you are told by a complete stranger your about to die. You have a choice, either stay and face death or be pulled out from the situation you find yourself in and become a member of the Timeriders. Or is that Time Tunnel? To me, this does read like a lazy rip-off from the old TV series. There is even a episode similar to this novel. The prose is absolutely lovely and that is the primary strength of the novel, every paragraph is a pleasure to read due to the writing.

The prime minister’s deputy spokesperson said discussion of the novel “hadn’t come up” in any of their conversations. I enjoyed the over-the-top characterizations and the witty banter and social commentary. And I think I will try the next book in the series, Rivals The three young adults were saved for the purpose of fixing the time stream. They've been recruited by an agency that manipulates time travel. Turns out time travel fifty years in the future is illegal because of its reality altering ability. Its their job to prevent the changing of time, which can be detected as reality shifts. Of course they have the aid of a human robot built like Arnold Schwarzenegger to help them and warnings from the mysterious agency...A review in the Kirkus Review stated that, "Emotions, character, and intellect so perfectly calibrated that a modest story of love betrayed becomes, in Winton's hands, a minor masterpiece." [1] But that may not really be the case with The Riders. You feel you just want to read the next sentence, and the next. Before you know it you are drawn into its world and Scully's journey through Europe, his little daughter tagging at hand, through the extremes of anticipation, search and heartbreak. When Jake and Rupert meet again for the first time since school, old rivalries are reawakened as they fight it out to prove who is the greater horseman and, perhaps more importantly, the greater lover. Along the way, Cooper gives us a peek into the lives of this close-knit community of tops riders, their horses, grooms and families. We see the highs and lows of life in the equestrian world, but who will eventually come out on top in the final showdown at the Los Angeles Olympics. I just started writing Emme's book which will be out next year. I've decided to call the book Shadow Storm!

Just finished this and my first thought on reading the last line was: what the hell??!! What was overall a well-written and absorbing tale petered out into a total non-event, leaving me feeling a bit cheated to find there was no outcome. Yes, countries, because after the even at the airport, Scully starts roaming Europe, looking for his wife so Winton takes us to quite a few other countries. The writing stayed wonderful thought and somehow Winton manages to make Scully sympathetic and relateable even when he does quite idiotic things, things any other character doing would probably make me stop reading.... One of the best part of the books is the character development of the 7 year old daughter, Billie. She's a special little girl, and it was almost breathtaking to see how the author let this character bloom into herself naturally, and let the chips fall where they may in regards to her reaction to events she finds herself being involved in.Fred Scully is an optimistic, “uncomplicated young Australian”, terribly in love with his much more pretentious wife and with his intelligent seven year old daughter. He is a man who likes to work with his hands with no hang-ups about any type of employment as long as it provides money for his family. But while there is much to celebrate in Cooper's portrayals of sex, it wasn't always fun – or consensual. "There are rapes that happen in Jilly's books, and it is very rare that the rapist has any kind of comeuppance," says Burge. In one particularly disturbing scene in Riders, Rupert coerces his wife Helen into a sexual act. "It's a really horrible scene," says Burge. "Those aspects are difficult to read now." There was a huge appeal to try and find it but it never turned up. I had to start all over again. It took 14 years before it was published but it was a better book because of it,” she said. Football novel Thank you so much for making Shadow Flight #1 on Publisher's Weekly and #6 on the New York Times as well as other lists! I appreciate you more than you know and am so happy you enjoyed this book! Now I'm fifty-something, and I happened to come across the audiobook version of "Riders", extremely well performed by Belinda Lang. I was looking for a change from my usual thrillers and historical fiction, so I was delighted. Now, I don't consider myself to be a prude by any means (although I blush when I remember lending this book to my mother!), but all those bawdy sex scenes just bored me this time around, and the way some lascivious characters drooled over teenage girls still wet behind the ears, or jumped into bed with just about anyone without scruple tended to irritate me more than anything else… My goodness, how I must be getting old!