Escape from Furnace 2: Solitary

Alexander Gordon Smith is the author of the terrifying Furnace series, as well as The Inventors (shortlisted for the Wow Factor competition) and The Inventors and the City of Stolen Souls. He has also written a number of non-fiction books, as well as hundreds of articles for various magazines. He is the founder of Egg Box Publishing, an independent press that promotes talented new writers and poets, and is the co-owner of Fear Driven Films. He lives in Norwich.

Smith's writing style instantly grabs you by the throat and drags you into the alternate reality where Furnace Prison exists. His well crafted writing keeps your attention and relentlessly drags you through the story regardless of whether or not you are familiar with Furnace: Lockdown, the first part of Alex Sawyer's adventures. Fast paced and punchy, Smith barely gives you time to breathe between the action sequences of the book from the moment it begins to the moment it ends. Even when you are alone with Alex in his tiny, pitch black cell, Smith refuses to let you relax and his urgent narrative keeps your mind racing, trying to figure out Alex's next move before he does it. The characters in Furnace: Solitary are as intriguing as the prison itself and the journey through Furnace is enhanced spectacularly by the teetering friendships formed between them as their sanity is stretched and tested in ways they'd never dared to imagine, not even in their darkest nightmares ... Towards the end there were moments of sheer brilliance, Alex's character developing brilliantly in a way that made the whole situation feel much more horrific than it already did. It certainly made me think about some of the darker nuances of human nature and highlights many of mankind's flaws that we so often overlook. Despite my issues with the pacing, I imagine that if I were fourteen and male I'd have lapped up every word and reached the end desperate for more. Well written, gripping and bursting with excellent characters I'd give Furnace: Solitary three and a half stars and recommend it to anyone who wants a blood-thirsty, mind-twisting romp set in a world hauntingly similar to our own." The Bookbag 20090727 The boys in Alexander Gordon Smith's relentlessly horrific and violent Furnace: Solitary (Faber, GBP6.99) are running, too, this time from a futuristic, nightmarish underground prison first described in Furnace: Lockdown. It's hideously claustrophobic as they try to escape from the "wheezers" and the very real threat of being surgically rebuilt into freaks. It ends on a cliff-hanger. Teenage readers will have to wait until October for Furnace: Death Sentence, the third part of the trilogy -- Susan Elkin Independent on Sunday 20090727 The second book in the Furnace series is gripping and engaging from the start, and is a real page turner that's full of menace. This is a dark adventure, and a must for any teenager's bookshelf - mainly the boys. -- Caroline Davidson Evening Chronicle (Regionwide) 20091027