Today, a little later than my last several posts but better late than never, I have the honor of reviewing the latest release in The Banned Underground series, Bass Instinct.  The boys are back in town with a new friend in this book, and – hell’s bells! – it’s a g-g-g-girl!

Dai the drinking dragon has been kidnapped by the Dark Lord for nefarious purposes, and by his receptionist for even less reputable reasons.  Without their bass player, The Banned Underground are in deep trouble with their record label.  They have to produce the recordings for an album, and someone has stolen the tapes from the last gig.  Can they make some more recordings, or will Freya, the renegade dwarf bass player, distract the boys while the Dark Lord’s evil schemes come to fruition?

The Dark Lord has found some thugs to help him in his latest plan to invade the Dwarf Mansion, but they have other things on their minds – like looting and pillaging – and it’s all going wrong again.

Will record-producing Adam set his Ants on the Banned?  Or will it all come good in the end?  Time is Tight on this one for The Banned Underground…

With a blurb that focuses on Dai, I expected the story to focus a bit more on him.  To the extent that he had a larger role than in previous books, I guess you could say that it did, but it really did focus on him as much as I had expected.  That said, I loved the bits between Dai and Gloria, the Dark Lord’s receptionist, and I do hope that what started in this book will be continued in future installments.

The Banned are back in town and between the lack of tapes (from their last gig), the lack of gigs, and the lack of funds, trouble is the only thing they don’t lack.  They find a new friend in Freya, a renegade dwarf bass player.  But trouble seems to follow her wherever she goes, and the Banned have more than enough of that already.  She kept me guessing; I couldn’t quite tell what to make of her, except that she and Scar reminded me strongly of John and Yoko.

Ned and the Watches continued to be hilarious as they set off on a trip through Manchester with a notorious seaman in search of a certain record producer.  The satnav was equally entertaining.  I must admit the satnav is one of my favorite characters; it’s just such a character! 🙂

Will’s done it again with this book.  Tricia Drammeh wrote a wonderful review on her Authors to Watch blog the other day where she said that it seemed like “the story has really grown up in the newest book,” and I can’t help but agree.  It’s like reading the Harry Potter books all at once and watching them grow up right before your eyes, only in this case, the characters are already grown (except for the teenagers, but they weren’t in this book).  The books just keep getting better and better, and I can’t wait to see what’s next for everyone in The Satnav of Doom.

(c) 2013.  All rights reserved.

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