"Falling" by T J Newman

This one is *everywhere* right now and it's easy to see why.  A compelling, simple but original premise and an equally intriguing background of a debut author.  Add a full court press of marketing and publicity and it's clear that this book is going to be HUGE.

In fact it would be tempting to dismiss this as a "manufactured" best seller, but that would be immensely unfair to the book and the author.  While there's an element of your-mileage-may-very, I've come to the realisation that whatever alchemy Newman has got going on here, it's a very special kind of book - for me at any rate.

I'm what I'd describe as a "disconnected" reader and am always conscious that I'm reading words on paper that someone has crafted.  I could never get "lost" in a book the way some people can, and my imagination isn't very visual, but this felt like a film to me.  Not like reading a screenplay, but like watching it in the cinema.  Even that doesn't quite capture how this grabbed me - it was almost close to actually being there - or at least observing events in some sort of virtual reality.  I honestly have no understanding of why that's the case, but Newman has really been able to push the right buttons for me as a reader.  

Given the focus on our pilot having to choose between his family and passengers, you would expect much of the novel's attention to be heavily concentrated on him, but this feels like an ensemble cast.  Everyone is three dimensional, including the villains of the piece.  But it's also remarkably straightforward in it's structure - no literary tricks or shifts in timeframe here.  Reading it feels like events are occurring in real time a la Jack Bauer in "24" and it serves to increase the reluctance to step away from it - this is not going to be a few-chapters-each-day book for many people.  Budget your time on the basis you're going to want to fish this in 3 sessions max!

Many of the comparisons I'm seeing in snippets of reviews filling up my social media timeline relate to films - "Speed", "Jaws" etc. (yes I know "Jaws" was a book first).  Personally, I think it's closer to Andy Weir's "The Martian" in the way that it sets up a problem to be worked through step by step in order to ensure survival.

I've only got one tiny quibble about this at all - the opening is a stone cold cheat that left me worrying about the quality of what was to follow. If it bothers you like it did me, just ignore it.  Pretend it wasn't there. Because after that, it's sensational.  

Check it out here.