Definitely a family favourite! It has touchy-feely bits, and a brilliant pop-up on the last page.
So... Little Piggy is convinced that Wolf is somewhereDefinitely a family favourite! It has touchy-feely bits, and a brilliant pop-up on the last page.
So... Little Piggy is convinced that Wolf is somewhere on the farm (don't ask me why, the kid had a hunch, just roll with it...) So he wanders around sticking his hand into hiding places to see if Wolf is there (surely that's just asking for Wolf to bite his hand off?) Each one is a hidden touch-panel (eg, this one is soft, this one is smooth, this one is rough, etc) and it turns out each time to be a different animal that Little Piggy is unknowingly groping - Kitten's fur, Frog's back, Chicken beaks, etc. Except for the last one, of course, which really is WOLF! AHHHH! WOLF! BIG POP-UP BITEY SNAPPY WOLF!
At which point my two year old, Fin, goes "Oh no, Wolf! Hide!" And throws the duvet over his head and sits there giggling while I wrestle the Big Bad Wolf away. Winning.
Fin gets to chose two stories for both naptime and bedtime, so he gets through (at least) four stories a day. There are some that are, quite frankly, rubbish - but he likes them. You just throw in some silly voices and try and make it fun. Then there are others, like this, which are just a pleasure to read every time.
Recommended if you know a little one in need of a present!
My son, Fin, gets two stories at nap time, and two more at bedtime, and frequently a few more scattered throughout the day. At last count he owned welMy son, Fin, gets two stories at nap time, and two more at bedtime, and frequently a few more scattered throughout the day. At last count he owned well over a hundred books of his own, plus an extra five from the library at any one time. He's 2 and 1/2 years old. This is how you raise a book addict.
If I stopped to review all of them, I wouldn't have time to read any other books. Or go to work. Or wash. So I tend to review just my favourites, or his. This is one of his favourites.
It's got a king, a knight and a dragon in it - which ticks a lot of boxes for Fin. The story is very sweet - the King blows his son a bedtime kiss, but it missed! The kiss floats away out the window and the King sends his knight to fetch it back. The knight has an adventure in the dark forest and ends up coming home with a dragon. Then the King reads them all a bedtime story.
Personally, I like it, but I don't love it.
The art is probably the best bit - the framing on the imagery is perfectly done, and the text is embedded into the imagery (which I always approve of). But even there it falls foul of one of my pet-peeves - poor contrast choice, eg black text (rather than white) on a dark green background - makes it hard to read in the low-light environment of a bed-time story.
Some of the word choices are great - alliterative and/or onomatopoeic - words the really want to be read aloud - but again, there are a few places where opportunities are missed and I find myself ad-libbing more apt phrases.
Hmmm... looking at the last couple of paragraphs I may have become quite a harsh critic for kids books...
I credit this book with introducing wolves to my son as an imaginary nemesis. More than once Fin has walked into a room and gone "Oh no, wolves with dribbly mouths!" and fled, giggling to hide under a table. Getting a little one to read a lot does great things for their vocabulary and imaginative play, but there are moments where he seems quite, quite mad...
We have four Meg & Mog books now - and the only one I don't like much.
Fin, my 2 yr old son, loves it just as much as the others but he can't write revWe have four Meg & Mog books now - and the only one I don't like much.
Fin, my 2 yr old son, loves it just as much as the others but he can't write reviews yet, so you've only got my word to go on.
Meg, Mog and Owl go to stay in a castle. Just because. They get haunted by a ghost - fair enough. Meg does a spell on the ghost and it turns into a white knight... OK, let's just roll with it. Then a green knight shows up and attacks the castle. The white knight enlists the gang to help defend the castle (bonus points for getting in the word portcullis - and Fin likes the bit where Mog's arrow goes through Meg's hat). They repel the mysterious green night, then have a feast (the white knight is called George) and then they go home.
Now... kid's books don't exactly need an ironclad plot line, but still... WTF?
They were scared of George as a ghost. They were coerced into helping him defend the castle because he had a sword. They have no understanding of the dispute between George and the green knight... old George could well be the evil conqueror who murdered all who called the castle their home, and the green knight is just trying to reclaim is rightful home... But somehow fighting alongside each other and experiencing the thrill of victory they all become buddies...
I can't help but feel there are many shades of grey beneath all this, that Nicoll's just not telling us about... Perhaps I've read too much George RR Martin recently...
We have a friend, Meg. Our toddler, Fin, is a big fan of the Meg & Mog picture books. Whenever Meg came to visit, Fin would ask where Mog was.
Meg is nowWe have a friend, Meg. Our toddler, Fin, is a big fan of the Meg & Mog picture books. Whenever Meg came to visit, Fin would ask where Mog was.
Meg is now lodging with us for a year. She has a new boyfriend. I told Fin that her new boyfriend was called Mog, and because Meg was a witch she had turned her cat into a man. Fin accepted this and calls him Mog.
Mog is a good-natured soul and accepted that in this house, he will be known as Mog.
Mog is also a sci-fi fan, and was distressed to learn than I hadn't read much Iain M. Banks - so he's given me The Algebraist, which sounds like my favourite kind of book (big, space-opera adventure!).
My baby daughter had a bad case of stage fright when she born; she was overdue, my wife was induced, and we werTwo word summary: Enormously enjoyable!
My baby daughter had a bad case of stage fright when she born; she was overdue, my wife was induced, and we were still in hospital for several days before she arrived. Over that time, we did a lot of reading to kill the time. This wasn't one of the books we took with us - this was an impromptu purchase from the hospital bookshop when our travelling library was running low.
I think my first comment was, "Django Wexler. What an awesome name for a spec-fic writer!"
Django — the D is silent as most everyone now knows — the nickname of the great Belgian-born jazz guitarist Django (originally Jean Baptiste) Reinhardt, makes a dynamic musical choice for any jazz aficionado. Reinhardt's nickname "Django" is Romani for "I awake." The name has become more familiar with the release of and acclaim for the Quentin Tarantino film Django Unchained.
So about the book?
Right, of course. Sorry, I'm suffering from new-baby sleep deprivation so my chain of thought is rather squiggly.
This is 'flintlock fantasy' - a term I've heard, but never read before. Most fantasy is set in a medieval era ('classic fantasy' - castles, knights, swordplay, etc). Some fantasy is set modern-era (urban fantasy - cars and computers, etc). Some is set in a spin-off of Victorian era (steampunk fantasy - steam power, airships and clockwork, etc). Flintlock fantasy is set in a Napoleonic equivalent era (muskets and cannons, etc) - it's a great combination, and I don't know why it's only recently coming to prominence.
As a kid, one of the TV shows I was allowed to stay-up late and watch was Sharpe. Based on Bernard Cromwell novels, the show starred a young Sean Bean (he of Lord of the Rings & Game of Thrones fame) as a British soldier in the Napoleonic wars. It was an awesome show (and one I'd love to re-watch some time). I also have a soft-spot for Wilbur Smith's Courtney series which is set in a slightly later era (but more sailor/explorer based than military). I haven't indulged either of these loves for many years, which is one reason why The Thousand Names went down quite so well with me!
You see, this isn't 'amazing' writing. There are many clichés here (more on that later), and the prose is more workmanlike than inspirational, but the experience as a whole was enormously enjoyable. I've seen other people compare it to The Black Company series as another recent flintlock fantasy work, or the Malazan Book of the Fallen series as another military-focused fantasy work. Unfortunately, I've not (yet) read either of those series, so to me the most comparable author springing to mind is Brandon Sanderson. That's a big compliment in my book, because Sanderson has become my go-to guy for reliable, fun, 'popcorn' reading.
The Thousand Names is driven by three soldiers, each of which are graduates from the Tabula Rasa school of Character Stereotypes.
- The Honourable Captain (HC) often acts cynical and resigned to the 'realities' of military life, but at heart is an idealist, a white-knight and a natural leader. He just needs a reason to believe!
- The Girl Dressed as a Boy (GDaaB) has run away to join the army and lives in fear of the other soldiers finding out her secret, while simultaneously proving that she's a better solider than any of them!
- The Enigmatic Colonel (EG) is Shelock Holmes in a uniform - a tactical genius, with razor-sharp insight into strategy and man-management, which allows him to steer his men to victory against huge odds again and again.
In an fantasy-world version of Egypt, in a Napolenoic era equivalent, HC and GDaaB are serving in an something like the French Colony forces - propping up the rule of an Egyptian Prince. An extremist religious faction whips up a rebellion, the Prince's local forces (trained by the French) defect to join the rebellion, and the wild desert raiders also throw in their lot with the uprising. Massively outnumbered, our forces retreat back along the coast to an old fortress. The rebel forces don't pursue, instead consolidating their grip on the capital. This is where the story starts, with HC nominally in charge awaiting the arrival of EG and the reinforcements. GDaaB is a lowly 'ranker'.
It's predominantly a military story, with set-piece battles providing opportunities for the Girl Dressed as a Boy to prove her mettle and work her way up the ranks, for Enigmatic Colonel to prove his genius, and for Honourable Captain to regain his belief and focus.
Despite this stereotypes and clichés... it works! There's a lot of love for good old-fashioned, character focused adventure here. I've already namechecked Sanderson, but fans of Louis McMaster Bujold, Julian May, Tad Williams and/or Peter Hamilton are likely to enjoy themselves here. There's not a great deal of 'gritty' if you prefer your fantasy with an edge, for all the guns and death this is actually a clean-cut honour and heroes sort of lark.
The fantasy element is gradual - quick spoiler tags here for a discussion of the magic system: (view spoiler)[It seems to be a 'symbiotic spirit' magic system. Each of the 'thousand names' of the title seems to refer to a different magical spirit (a naath). There are Egyptian Priestesses who work to learn the spells to bind a naath to a host. Some naath have limitations, eg 'can only be bound to women'. Different naath seem to embue their hosts with different skills, - 'ability to animate corpses', 'super strength/speed', 'ability to throw invisible walls/spears of force', 'ability to heal any wound', 'ability to absorb/devour other naath'. The scope of a thousand different naath, certainly gives the magic enough room for flexibility - it's like X-men, but you have your powers bestowed upon you, rather than being born with them. The long term effects of being naath-bound on the psyche have not yet been explored, but my hunch is 'not good'! (hide spoiler)]
Mr Django has already announced that there are 5 books planned for the series, 1 per year, so it's going to run for a while yet 2013-2017, so arguably the best time to start reading will be 2016 to blitz the four existing books just before the last one comes out. I've been foolish enough to start before book 2 is out... so I'll be waiting patiently for my yearly instalment!
As long as military books don't turn you off, this is highly recommended.
Note: Baby Tabitha was eventually born on 23rd June, and is a happy, healthy little sprog.
So my wife got called into hospital to be induced on Friday afternoon. I grabbed the book I was halfway through to take with me, Vernor Vinge's DeepneSo my wife got called into hospital to be induced on Friday afternoon. I grabbed the book I was halfway through to take with me, Vernor Vinge's Deepness In The Sky. I quickly finished that, and it was good. Then I picked-up one of my wife's books that she had bought, Mercedes Lackey's Aerie - the fourth in a kids series about dragon riders; that lasted a few hours and it was OK - better than I'd expected, to be fair. Without any more books to hand, I went down to the hospital shops and bought Django Wexler's The Thousand Names and S. E. Lister's Hideous Creatures to keep me going. Much patience is required when a baby has stage fright.
Quick aside: If anyone can find out what the S. E. initials stand for, please let me know because I haven't found out yet and it bugs me.
Of the two new books, I plumped for Hideous Creatures first because the blurb namechecked Gaimen and I thought the cover was lush. The pencil sketch style looks great - if I ever write a book, that's the kind of cover I'd want.
Well, the Gaimen namecheck is misleading. I can see what they're trying for - in terms of content/concept there's some similarities with American Gods - but in terms of style and delivery, Gaiman wouldn't be first to mind. The fine is heavily foreboding, strongly gothic 'fear of the unknown' flavour. It reminded me most of Jamrach's Menagerie. More a Booker nominee than Hugo - that kind of literary ballpark.
It's a story about secrets, revelations, dark journeys and haunting memories. The pacing is spot-on, which is refreshing as stories of this kind often bloat. The non-linear telling is never overdone or confusing. From an analytic standpoint the plotting is superbly balanced and arranged, and the final send-off got the hairs on the back if my neck standing on end beautifully.
But I didn't love it.
There are three main characters to carry the plot - Arthur, is the youngest son of a proud English line, sailing to America to run away from dark secret number one. Shelo is a native American, covered in tattoos, surrounded my dark magics and on a mission to avenge dark secret number two. And Flora is the daughter of a famed outlaw, looking to escape from dark secret number 3.
For me, Shelo and Flora work perfectly - they each carry a powerful sense of foreboding and hope, respectively. The issue for me lay with Arthur - his is a tale of redemption, but it's also the core story that binds the other two. I just didn't like Arthur. Nor did I dislike him. He's weak-willed, fatalistic, takes no responsibility for himself, anyone or anything, has nothing (in his present) that he loves, so nothing feels at stake... I just never invested enough in Arthur's plight to feel swept up in the story.
As a specific complaint, much is made of Arthur's 'odd' body, but never with enough clarity to make it seem worth all the fuss.
There's no denying the skill, artistry and vivid imagination at work here - but without that core character arc to really carry me, I felt more like a critic in a gallery than the rapt audience of a master-storyteller.
Butterworth wrote the first Q Pootle 5 book, which featured the little green man visiting Earth. He then went away andThis Q Pootle 5 book baffles me.
Butterworth wrote the first Q Pootle 5 book, which featured the little green man visiting Earth. He then went away and developed the TV series (with his son, I think?) - and the TV series is great, one of my toddler's favourite shows and something I thoroughly approve of as a young child's sci-fi primer (along with Little Robots).
Now, I met the TV show before the books, so the first book disappointed me because it's not really set in the same universe as the show, it was the inspiration but it's not tied into the same location, supporting cast, type of adventure, etc.
This second book is tied into the same universe as the show - it features Q Pootle's best friend, Oopsy, and also Planet Dave from the telly. And yet.. somehow it doesn't exhibit the same charm and gosh-darn-likeability of the show. It gets a big *shrug* from me, because it would have been so easy to lift-and-drop one of the TB episodes featuring the whole gang from Planet Okidoki, which would have been much more satisfying than this lightweight little tale.
An opportunity missed, Mr Butterworth, sir. Please try again.
Do you know that early episode of Scrubs (yes, I really am going to begin this review with a Scrubs reference) where J.D. is trying to stop his relatiDo you know that early episode of Scrubs (yes, I really am going to begin this review with a Scrubs reference) where J.D. is trying to stop his relationship with Elliot falling into the 'friend zone'? The idea is that after that first flirty moment, you've got 48 hours to seal it with a kiss, or you're stuck forever in the 'friend zone'.
I got given The Big Sleep in the omnibus collection of Marlowe books 1,2 and 6 on a long term loan/gift, from my friend Justin (the same awesome Zimbabwean spy I that mentioned in my Angelmaker review). I was all, like, "Wow, I've heard of this, this sounds amazing!" And I tried to start it and something (I forget what) interrupted me. And I tried to start it again, and something else (a Jehovah's Witness visit, maybe?) interrupted me again. And boom, we were in the friend zone. I got comfortable having this book kick around with me, forever unread. I moved house with it, more than once. I took it to work a few times, like some kind of literary take-your-child-to-work day. My baby son ripped the front cover off in his rambunctious enthusiasm for all things book. But we never took our relationship to the next level. I never slipped between the covers (what was left of them) and gave The Big Sleep that good, hard read it was clearly begging for.
So we drifted along for a couple of years. And then, recently, I opened the question up to the Goodreads feed and asked "What book, on my to-read shelf should I pick up next?" Dan Schwent (a huge Marlowe fan) encouraged me to give Chandler his well overdue chance... and here we are.
I'm clearly a moron. Why did I wait for so long? This was FANTASTIC. I read it at work, on my lunch breaks, and my breaks were never long enough.
I read Neuromancer for the first time recently, and my response was exactly the same. I love cyberpunk inspired work and - you'll never guess - I loved the book that defined cyberpunk! The Big Sleep follows that same winding path of inspiration all the way back to it's noir roots. I've heard that Hammett basically created the noir detective, and Chandler then refined it - if that's true, I should probably read some Hammett because I loved this, especially with Neuromancer still fresh in my mind.
I love noir tinted sci-fi. I love noir tinted urban fantasy. Why does it surprise me that I love straight-up noir?!?!
I think it's because I'm a bit of an era-snob. As a rough rule, I'm sceptical of anything written before 1980. Oh, sure, there are some good books from before that time - from Chandler's era I've read Tolkien, Orwell, Lewis, Peake... but that's about it. If it was written before you could buy a Casio digital watch, I'm sceptical - that's how I feel.
Also, I think my expectations were damaged by cinema. I never fell in love with the classic black and white noir movies - but I love their influence on modern cinema. So if old noir movies didn't sway me, old noir books would leave me cold too, right?
Wrong, wrong, wrong. Clouds, old chap, you've got to stop making these assumptions!
So yes. I got it very wrong.
I felt right at home from page one. I was swept away on the style, the tone, the dialogue and details. It's a book of mad rich dames giving a snappy talking private eye with ironclad morals the run-around. It's a book of dirty rackets and dirtier blackmail.
It's four cups of coffee (black), a long slug from the office bottle in the bottom drawer then a couple of French cigarettes first thing in the morning.
God DAMN it tasted good.
The omnibus I have is three books, but I'm pacing them out. I read one book at work and one at home. I'm alternating these as my work books, with another title between each one. So my at-work books were: The Big Sleep, Then Hominids (parallel worlds Neanderthal sci-fi), Then the second Marlowe, Farewell my Lovely (which was very nearly as good as this), Then Manhattan in Reverse (sci-fi short stories, which I'm reading now), And then finally I'll be onto The Long Goodbye, the last of my Marlowe omnibus within the next couple of weeks. I can't wait!
The tough call for me now is whether to put the rest of the Marlowe books straight onto my finishing-the-series list. I'm trying to clear that list down, not build it up, but these books are just so good, I don't think I have a choice...
Anyone who doesn't have a child addicted to CBeebies (the 'early years' BBC channel) may not have heard of Q Pootle 5. I've become rather fond of him.Anyone who doesn't have a child addicted to CBeebies (the 'early years' BBC channel) may not have heard of Q Pootle 5. I've become rather fond of him. He's an affable little green alien who lives on the planet Okiedokie, and potters around having gentle adventures with his alien buddies.
Having seen the show so many times, when I spotted this book amongst the large box of kids books we were given, I was rather chuffed. I'm a sci-fi geek, and there's just not enough good sci-fi for toddlers!
Unfortunately, I'm kind of disappointed with this one - and it's not really the book's fault - but it no longer sits right with the TV series.
Nick Butterworth initially wrote two Q Pootle 5 books, and then went on to develop the TV series. The TV series is massively more fleshed out and... different to the books. It's a coherent little universe - and this book now kind of jars with that.
In this book, Pootle crash lands on Earth. One of his rocket boosters is busted, so he goes looking for a replacement. He asks a frog (because the frog is green) and some birds (but they don't need rockets to fly) - and then a cat called Colin, who lets him use his empty tin of cat food as a new rocket booster. With the spaceship repaired, Pootle flies off to his friend's party and at the end we get a nice, big, fold-out pic of the party.
The pictures are crisp and lovely and my boy, Fin, loves the big swooping words that go right across the page at the start for when the spaceship crashes - he's a fan. The story/language was OK, but a bit so-so (I prefer kids books with rhyme, or at least funny words, funny voices, etc).
As far as Fin is concerned, that's all there is to it.
But I can't help doing a compare and contrast with the TV show. In the book, Pootle has gone to Earth. On TV, Earth is never mentioned. In the book, Pootle repairs his spaceship with a tin can. On TV, the components for the ships are all sensible spare parts. In the book, Pootle is going to a party for Z Pootle 6. On TV, no such character exists.
It's not a bad book, but it lacks most of what makes the TV show good, so fans are bound to be a little dissapointed. It's easy to see how the basic concept presented here helped inspire the show, but I think it's fair to say that if Nick Butterworth were to write a Q Pootle 5 book now, it would be very different. Unfortunately, that is the book I hoped to share with my son.
As far as kids picture books go, this is probably the oddest one I've met so far... but also the most beautiful.
Most kids books are light and fun - plAs far as kids picture books go, this is probably the oddest one I've met so far... but also the most beautiful.
Most kids books are light and fun - playful - which makes sense.
Rabbityness... has a very mature edge to it.
The story is about a rabbit who likes to do rabbity things (burrowing, eating, etc). He also likes doing un-rabbity things (art and music). The other rabbits love him for these unrabbity things, because he fills the woods with sound and colour.
Then one day... rabbit is gone. And the woods are dark and quiet. And all that's left is a deep, dark, hole. Down the hole the other rabbits find his art and music supplies, and they pick them up in his memory and fill the woods with sound and colour once more.
We never find out what happened to rabbit.
So basically it's a child's primer for dealing with loss - a pretty sombre message for a toddler! My son is nineteen months old, and just likes to point at all the 'babbits' and say 'bouncey-bouncey!' But the sombre message definitely influences the way I read it aloud - it's hard to do silly voices and sing-song rhythms for a story like this...
But the artwork is gorgeous! Very modern, stylised and all-round excellent. I'd very proudly put a print of rabbit playing his didgeridoo on my wall.
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So a very comfortable four-star recommendation as it's a very special little book...
But Rabbityness is never going to be my first choice when Fin asks to read a book, because it's not as fun to share as something like Room on the Broom - so no fifth star from me.
My wife and I are both massive bookworms at heart. Two small children and a puppy, and a mountain of DIY/refurbishment to do restrict our reading to aMy wife and I are both massive bookworms at heart. Two small children and a puppy, and a mountain of DIY/refurbishment to do restrict our reading to a book a week, rather than the book a day we'd prefer!
Ever since our youngest was born, my wife has felt kind of frazzled! There's just so much to do and her attention span for complex novels has deteriorated. She wants 'popcorn' reads.
I've been sitting there going, "Read Leviathan. Read Leviathan. It's exactly what you want. You'll love it. Read Leviathan!"
She was resisting because she'd never read any Westerfeld before, and if you've barely got two functioning brain cells to rub together, it's easier to re-read books you know and love, because you already know what's happening. I get it, I do.
But eventually she heeded my sage advice and read Leviathan, and she loved it. These books are light, fun, and tremendously imaginative. The plotting isn't going to spin anyone's head-out, but there's enough shimmys (I wouldn't call them twists) to avoid them ever becoming predictable. All in all, very consistent ya-steampunk-war adventures.
Of the three books, I'd say this was my favourite. The world has been set-up, the characters have met-up, and we're all set to crack straight on with some proper adventuring! The setting (Istanbul) is fabulous. The Perspicacious Loris is wonderful. The rebel walkers and Ottoman steam-elephants are all just marvellous!
The only thing that holds this series back from being 5-stars, is that the characters are all a little one-dimensional and 'good' - eg, Deryn is 100% brave, loyal and pragmatic. There's none of the shades of grey that nuance the y-a protagonists of a peer like, say, Bacigalupi, or the snark of Stroud. Probably closest in style to a blend of Pullman and Nix.
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Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of lif
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Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of life, so I’ve decided to diversify and pursue six different lists simultaneously. This book falls into my FINISHING THE SERIES! list.
I loves me a good series! But I'm terrible for starting a new series before finishing my last - so this reading list is all about trying to close out those series I've got on the go.
Summary: Butcher back to his best!
Cheesy motor racing analogy: The first few books in the Dresden Files are like the beginning of a motor race - a little congested while the cars are still bunched up, taking it a little cautiously through the first few turns. Then we hit a solid patch of great storytelling/racing, where the cars are strung out nicely and everyone's hitting their stride. Then zoom! - the run up to Changes is amazing, the home straight, top speed, overtaking manoeuvres and you can't take your eyes off the page! After that excitement, Ghost Story and Cold Days are an abrupt change of pace - slamming the brakes on and manoeuvring through a hairpin turn and chicane - these are difficult corners and Butchers steers us through them adroitly - but they don't carry the same rush as what's happened just before. Which brings us to Skin Game, which to me feels like Butcher back to his best, we've got a fresh straight in front of us and we're slamming the gas pedal down! Everyone wearing their safety belts? No? Let's go!
Butcher also mixes up his storytelling technique - (view spoiler)[for the first time in the Dresden Files, Harry is being an unreliable narrator - he's deliberately not telling us things (hide spoiler)]! It works really well because it's unexpected - we're so used to trusting Harry - and Butcher does a good job with the foreshadowing... I knew something must be coming to turn it all on it's head... but I couldn't quite put my finger on what...
I said to my wife when I finished it that I thought just one element was handled badly: (view spoiler)[The birth of baby Lash (the new Bob). The whole parasite/spirit of intellect thread is integral to the plot at key moments, and we're all braced for some awesome 'birth' scene, possibly in Harry's head, featuring his subconscious again, and maybe flashbacks to Lash... or something! Instead we get... Molly 'delivers' the baby spirit while Harry is passed out and it's all job-done by the time he comes round. Lost opportunity! Booooo! (hide spoiler)]
If you've got to book 15 in a series... you're a fan already! - but this is a great instalment and recommended whole-heartedly.
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Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of lif
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Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of life, so I’ve decided to diversify and pursue six different lists simultaneously. This book falls into my GIFTS AND GUILTY list.
Regardless of how many books are already queued patiently on my reading list, unexpected gifts and guilt-trips will always see unplanned additions muscling their way in at the front.
I'm a big fan of Peter Hamilton's work, yet I'd never heard of Lightstorm until a couple of months ago, when I was compiling my Pantheon list.
This is a YA sci-fi, set in a shared world called 'The Web - 2027'. Half a dozen different authors each contributed a story, all with different casts, but a shared setting and antagonist. Hamilton did not create this world and is working within the framework of the shared project.
Initially, the most striking aspect of this story is the use of jargon - there's a lot and it's quite silly. A kids bedroom is his cocoon. Boring people (or things) are cogs. People you don't like should curl-up. Computer power is measured in mips. An online AI character has a phace. Leaving the web is scuttling. Eight is good, six is bad, widow is amazing. People spin in and out of websites. There's so much webspeak, the book has a glossary. It comes across as very 'teeny' but unconvincing.
Next up - the web itself. This concept of the web is built around VR. Everyone has VR interfaces to access the web, either through basic gloves and glasses, or more commonly suits - technology is just reaching to a direct link to the nervous system (a neural shunt/jack/chip, etc). There's no mention of basic 2D screen interfacing - which again, is unconvincing. So websites are places. Hacking is like pulling a heist, with security and viruses, etc, taking physical form (as spiders, rats, cages, etc). This is all very reminiscent of Tad Williams' Otherland series (an epic fantasy story disguised as a sci-fi set in a VR universe). If you liked Otherland, you'll like The Web 2027 as a kids version. Also worth mentioning that some self-aware AIs have been granted citizenship status and just live in the web as regular folk. To me, as a sci-fi geek, this is a pretty huge deal - friendly, independent AI being something of a techie nirvana - but it's just dropped in here as an aside (and link events from another book in the series).
Then we have the realworld situation: This is the UK after global warming has hit and oil/petrol has run out. People don't travel much, the roads are decaying, we all live in our local communities and use the web for anything more distant. Green energy is important. As is an eco-friendly mindset.
The story itself is a fairly simple one - a kid sees something strange. Him and his net buddies do a bit of web hacking to figure out what's going on, and then the kid goes on a realword mission to get the proof - nicely mixing the action between web and realworld. The kid is likeable, the mission is worthwhile, and the pacing/action skips along quickly. It's a light, breezy, easy-read story (as long as the jargon doesn't grate).
I have issues with the conclusion - it's very much a bad-guy out of nowhere - because that part of the story is tied into the larger series, which I haven't read - so that element doesn't work particularly well as a stand-alone.
This isn't brilliant, but it's alright - it's about a 2.6 rounded up to a 3 star rating, because I'm a Hamilton fan.
Also worth noting that Lightstorm was an Xmas present from my wife's parents - and as it's a fairly random and specific book which I particularly wanted and they bothered to track it down, I thought that was very cool.
Pure class from beginning to end - the best science journalism I've read.
It was completely coincidental that I read this just before the 2014 Ebola ouPure class from beginning to end - the best science journalism I've read.
It was completely coincidental that I read this just before the 2014 Ebola outbreak... but that did sort of reinforce why this is essential reading!
Plenty of other goodreads reviews have given superb summaries of the content of the novel, so I'll only touch on that briefly - but here's why I personally loved it:
I originally put this on my long-list as research reading. There's a novel I want to write (one day!) that is set in a an alt-history where humanity was ravaged 18th/19th century by an incredibly contagious but slow killing parasite that crosses from a fictional type of domesticated chimps to mankind.
So... I aced high-school Biology, I've seen Outbreak, I've read the Andromedus Strain and I've played the Plauge Inc app and the Pandemic boardgame - I have a higher than average interest in the mechanics of contagious diseases - but I'm certainly no pro. There were plenty of question marks in my plot regarding how my fictional plague functioned. This book sounded like the perfect, broad spectrum primer for what kinds of diseases had spread from animals, how that worked, and how it could (plausibly enough for spec fic) work.
So that's why it got on my long-list. Every time I saw a review flash past from a goodreads friend, it was invariably positive.
For the last few years I've been diligently focused on my reading lists - working through all the major sci-fi/fantasy award winners since 1980. It hasn't left a huge amount of space for books which sounded interesting, but weren't award winners. So I created a new reading list called the 'Cup of Tea List' for books that hadn't won awards but sounded like my cup of tea! I picked 10 top books for the list - and this was one of them.
So I eventually got my chance to read it! And I loved every page.
I love learning new stuff and I thought this was all fascinating and presented in an incredibly accessible way. It's not dumbed-down, but Quammen never talks in the stilted, precise vernacular of the true scientist. He's a damn-fine writer, who happens to really know his science.
At the end of every chapter I wanted to report it all back to my wife. She's kind of squeamish about sickness, so she didn't totally appreciate that, but even she found it interesting.
I've spoken about it so glowingly every since I finished it, that I've loaned it out twice already. If a friend's looking to borrow a book and they have any science leanings at all, I'm there, "dear friend, have you by chance read Spillover yet? No? Let me find where I've put it..."
In football (soccer) rhetoric, there's a running joke that club managers don't have the broadest vocabularies, and a good player is often described as "a top lad". If he's an exceptional player he might be a "a top, top lad" - with each subsequent, more emphatic "top" being reserved for the elite, the world-beaters, etc. With this in mind, I say that Spillover is a top, top, top read, and it'll only set you back a fiver.
Don't wait as long as I did - get yourself a copy now, then lend it to friends!
Despite reading Pratchett since I was twelve, I've never picked up Strata. Why?
It's just not particularly good.
That's a hard thing for a massive PratcDespite reading Pratchett since I was twelve, I've never picked up Strata. Why?
It's just not particularly good.
That's a hard thing for a massive Pratchett fan to say, but my favourite thing about this book is that I've finished it.
It's episodic to a fairly ridiculous degree. So this happened. Then this happened. Then they kept walking and this happened. Then they flew for a while and this happened. None of the happening are in any way influenced by the previous happenings. It's just a long chain of stuff that happened after each other. Each happening has a clever idea, but they all stand in isolation, there's no cohesive plot. And then the end happened.
Yes, it's always fun to see the early scribblings of a genius - but to me, this is more like the early stumblings of a brilliant distance runner. He soon got into his stride and pulled away from the pack... but at this stage he's all gangly knees and elbows flying sideways...
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Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of lif
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Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of life, so I’ve decided to diversify and pursue six different lists simultaneously. This book falls into my FINISHING THE SERIES! list.
I loves me a good series! But I'm terrible for starting a new series before finishing my last - so this reading list is all about trying to close out those series I've got on the go...
A quick look back: I said in my review of Count Zero that it wasn't "a direct sequel - it doesn't pick-up the same characters - but it's set in the same world, orbiting the same scene, with some common threads." Mona Lisa Overdrive proves me utterly wrong!
A quick summary: In the Sprawl, all roads lead to MLO. We're re-united with key characters from both Neuromancer and Count Zero, plus a few fresh faces, then treated to a ranging tour though Gibson's seedy world of cyberpunk espionage.
Neuromancer was a heist story. Count Zero was a thematic portmanteu. MLO is the tense, 'thriller' climax.
If anything, this is the most accessible of the series. The hard work has already been done; Gibson has already gauged out his stylistic niche. He's scattered his electric seeds in the darkness, and nurtured the neon flora that's emerged to grow under bickering strobe-lights... The ideas are still silhouetted as sharply as ever, but the characters are gentler...
A quick assessment of the cast: With the eponymous prostitute Mona and gang-lord's daughter Kumiko, we've got two young female character, less interested in crime and technology, more interested in hope, escape and survival. With Slick Henry we've got a young artist - he's looking for catharsis, healing and peace. They're reactive, submissive and accepting. It's the old characters, Molly/Sally from Neuromancer and Angie from Counter Zero, who set the agenda, drive the plot and flesh out the fiercer aspects of attitude and angst. Those two are looking to force a confrontation and settle the turmoil unleashed by Neuromancer. Together... it all... balances.
What not so good? So why didn't it get 5 stars? I thought it was better than Count Zero (4-stars), but not as good as Neuromancer (5-stars). I was torn between a 4 and a 5 for MLO... and that hesitation decided it for me. I don't hesitate over 5-star ratings.
Why I hesitated is harder for me to untangle. There's something about the ending that didn't quite nail it for me. It needed something big and bold, something that would blow my pitiful little mind. It needed something to leave me in awe. What I got was good, it was clever and nuanced, but I've been spoilt by Dan Simmons - I've experienced awe - and I didn't find it here.
Still no awards? Count Zero got swept aside in the award polls by Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead (which is awesome!) Mona Lisa Overdrive was also denied, but it was far less clear cut. Gibson missed out on the Locus, second behind Cyteen - Cyteen also took the Hugo, and Bujold's Falling Free nabbed the Nebula. For once, I've read all three! I love Bujold but this is definitely a better book than Falling Free. It's in the same ballpark as Cyteen, but in a straight head-to-head I'd have to give this one to Gibson.
Carry on? Well, this is the end of the Sprawl series, but Gibson's definitely done enough here to count me as a fan. I'll probably take a bit of a break before picking up another series... but I've now got that pleasant choice... the Bridge trilogy or the Blue Ant trilogy... anyone got any recommendations there?
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