Bricks by Leon Jenner

This is the story of a bricklayer, a practitioner of the red art of masonry, a member of an ancient line of apprentices who work with their hands to form monuments to humanity from the elements of nature.

But this is no ordinary bricklayer, and neither is his skill in the shaping and moulding of stone. This bricklayer's proficiency and dexterity in his craft was forged by his past life as a Druid priest.

Like the bricklayer in our time, the ancient Druid was also a builder of worlds. However, his building blocks were much bigger, he is a higher being who can travel through worlds and time. As our bricklayer regresses to his life as a Druid he remembers his part in thwarting the invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar and the lasting effect this chain of events had on the history of Western civilization.

I need to talk about the main positive of Bricks by Leon Jenner. It is presented beautifully. It is a lush hardback, with lovely black and white illustrations within. The paper is thick and feels delicious to turn the pages.

It is just such a shame that the interior words cannot match up to the exterior. In all honesty, I found the prose to be dry and with little flow or passion. At times it was overly pretentious - showcasing what seemed to be 101 philosophy with little relation to the overall story.

And the poetry! In a very slim novel, some of the poetry stretched to four pages worth of text, which is hard to take in what is supposed to be a story - particularly when said poetry isn't of a great quality.

I found myself both bored and confused by the plot, which is not a good mix. I struggled to the end, to be sure that there was nothing that I was missing, but I can say that this was wasted effort.

Dull, dull, dull - and definitely not worth the rather hefty price tag for the hardback.