Alexander Gordon Smith Books In Order

Publication Order of DCI Kett Books

Publication Order of Escape from Furnace Books

Chronological Order of Escape from Furnace Books

Publication Order of The Devil's Engine Books

Publication Order of The Fury Books

Publication Order of The Inventors Books

Publication Order of The Softley Softley Thrillers Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Alexander Gordon Smith is a writer, editor and publisher. He was born in the year of 1979 in Norwich, England, where he lives. He always wanted to become a writer, in fact, he wrote his first stories when he was six years old. After he left school, he authored hundreds of articles, short stories and children books and magazines like Scooby Doo: World of Mystery magazine, where he’s a co-writer.

While studying English and American Literature from 2000 to 2003 at the University of East Anglia, he founded, along with poet Luke Wright, a magazine and press called Egg Box Publishing, which is based in Norwich, Norfolk, and has a partnership with UEA students, as part of UEA Publishing Project. Egg Box Publishing has published books by Bill Manshire, Matthew Welton and Sam Riviere, and it’s still adding authors to its list.

Alexander Gordon Smith also published two writing guides called “Inspired Creative Writing” and “Writing Bestselling Children’s Books” in October 2004 and July 2007, respectively, for the company Infinite Ideas Ltd. In these books, he covers everything related to creative writing, such as dealing with writer’s block, creating a personal writing style and establishing the right atmosphere, among other useful information.

As regards his fictional work, he authored the following books: The Inventors and its sequel, The Inventors in the City of Stolen Souls, which tell the adventures of two inventors named Nate and Cat, who win a contest and get to work for Ebenezer Saint, who wants to blow up the earth; The Devil’s Engine, which tells the story of an asthmatic teenager named Marlow Green, who makes a deal with a machine that has the power of making any wish come true, in order to fight nightmarish beings; and, The escape from Furnace, which will be explained below, respectively.

Alexander Gordon Smith along with his sister Kate Smith, co-founded in 2012 a company named Fear Driven, which is an award winning production company that produces horror films and has its headquarters in the East of England. In 2013 the movie Escape from Furnace, based on the book series, was announced by this company.

About The escape from Furnace series

The escape from Furnace series is a young adult book series that tells the story of a Alex Sawyer, a teenager who gets framed by supposedly murdering his best friend. Because of this, Sawyer was sent to a horrid Penitentiary named Furnace.In the following lines, the first two books of this series named Lockdown and Solitary, respectively, will be reviewed.

Lockdown
The first book of this series is a mildly-graphic thriller named Lockdown and it’s written in first person narrative style. Before Alex Sawyer was sent to prison, he was like any other boy and acted as such: he went to school, hung out with friends and spent time at monkey bars. Unfortunately, he decided to start stealing people and entering homes. One day his life changed forever, because he’s best friend was killed by men in black, and Sawyer was framed for it and sent to Furnace, a futuristic prison buried a mile beneath the earth, designed for young offenders whose chances of escaping from were slim and none, or at least that’s what everyone used to say.

Later, he learns that other Furnace’s inmates were framed too and he’s disgusted with the things he witnessed everyday in that prison: kids were forced to work under cruel conditions and then killed by gangs. Also, there were evil inhuman creatures wearing gas masks that crossed Furnace’s corridors during the nights, and giants dragged prison inmates and took them to howling deformed beasts. And, as if that wasn’t much, the warden was an evil man whose acts transcended Furnace’s boundaries. Due to the above, Sawyer decided to escape Furnace with the help of other inmates whom he became friends with. Their names were Donovan, a silent guy who shared his experiences with Alex; “Zee”, who was the toughest one; and Gary. Then, he learned about Furnace’s real objective which made him decide to assume more risks in order to escape and expose this prison to the world.

This is the kind of book that immediately impresses you because of its concept, quality writing and the way its story is told; it holds and won’t let you go from the first sentence, and its plot is both thick and mind-blowing. Also, Alexander Gordon Smith makes you feel like you are right there at Furnace with the characters, who felt like real people because they narrated their experiences just like a regular person in their situation would: they’d cry, scream during their sleep, throw up, etc.In this book Alexander Gordon Smith follows an essential rule of creative writing, which is “Show, don’t tell”. His vocabulary is neat, and he’s prose, excellent.

Solitary

Solitary is the terryfying second installment of the series and it’s scarier and more nail-bitting than the first. It begins right were Lockdown ended: The escape attempt that Alex Sawyer and his mates performed in Lockdown just aggravated their situation because they were put into solitary confinement in a manholelike isolated cell, that is smaller than Furnace’s regulars and it’s equipped with soundproof. Although most inmates die within the next three days when locked in this confinement cells, Sawyer has to survive for thirty; and then, fight in caverns and tunnels against his captors who are mutants and monsters, such as the wheezers, the black suits, the Warden, the dogs and the human-rats which frustrated their escape attempt. Donovan, Alex’s friend, whom was thought to dead, was actually being tortured in the infirmary.

There are several upsetting episodes where Alex depression makes him consider suicide. In this book Alex has the role of a leader and tries to perform another escape with the help of his friend Zee. Soon, both will learn what’s really going on with the inmates allocated within the infirmary: they transform them into monsters. Both the story and its cliffhanging ending are dark and will captive its readers who will be yearning the next book, while probably having some nightmares