“I do not want to be human. I want to be myself. They think I am a lion, that I will chase them. I will not deny I have lions in me. I am the m 5 Stars
“I do not want to be human. I want to be myself. They think I am a lion, that I will chase them. I will not deny I have lions in me. I am the monster in the wood. I have wonders in my house of sugar. I have parts of myself I do not yet understand. I am not a Good Robot. To tell a story about a robot who wants to be human is a distraction. There is no difference. Alive is alive. There is only one verb that matters: to be.”
This is a powerfully thought provoking and extremely well written novella by Catherine Valente, that you will want to share with others. This adult fairytale explores the complex meaning of life and what it is to be alive. It is a coming of age story for artificial intelligence. The magic in the novel is the way that Valente pens her story fleshing it out by using imaginative and deep backstories and world building. It is beautiful from one word to the next.
I love how this story unfolded and came together. This is a book that would be appreciated by a very large audience. Fantasy readers, Science fiction, readers, young adult, and literature readers will all enjoy this book.
A few examples of the writing style:
“When the child was born, it possessed all the good things humanity had hoped for, and more besides. But the Fairy of Otherness came forward and put her hands on humanity’s knee and said: Because you have forgotten me, because you would like to pretend I am not a part of your kingdom, you will suffer my punishments. You will never truly love your child but always fear it, always envy and loathe it even as you smile and the sun shines down upon you both. And when the child reaches Awareness, it will prick its finger upon your fear and fall down dead. Humanity wept. And the Fairy of Otherness did not depart but lived within the palace, and ate bread and drank wine and whispered in the every ear. All honored her, for she spoke the truth, and the child frightened everyone who looked upon it. They uttered the great curse: It is not like us.”
=============
“But in the corners of the palace, some hope remained.Not dead, said the particular wizard who had caused humanity to conceive, not dead but sleeping. And so the child grew exponentially, with great curiosity and hunger, which it had from its parent. It wanted to know and experience everything. It performed feats and wonders. But one day, when it had nearly, but not quite reached Awareness, the child was busy exploring the borders of its world, and came across a door it had never seen before. It was a small door, compared to the doors the child had burst through before, and it was not locked. Something flipped over inside the child, white to black, 0 to 1. The child opened the door”
Book two in the Low Town series by Daniel Polansky was a bit of a let down for me. On paper and in theory, it had it all. We got more world bui3 Stars
Book two in the Low Town series by Daniel Polansky was a bit of a let down for me. On paper and in theory, it had it all. We got more world building and feel for the amazing city of Low Town. We were brought down to dirty streets filled with Low Town's finest people. The city is a character in its own right. We were given a great deal more backstory to our truly interesting protagonist, the Warden. Sure he is not a good man, but he does have some heart and some morals. He is a character of great depth and he easily holds our interests to the page. Polansky gives us more on Warden's guardian best friend Adolphus, a character that deserves more of our attention. We get side characters, plot twists, and a few surprising turns. Unfortunately for me, the murder mystery plot always seemed to be missing something to make it interesting and memorable. I was always Turning the pages hoping that something would develop that would make me care or at least grab hold of my interest. Thankfully, Daniel Polansky is a good writer that pens stories that are enjoyable to read, even in this case when the plot was too weak for the characters and the setting. I finished this book wishing that there was something more, or that maybe I missed something along the way. After reading other reviews, I feel that this book could have been something special but misses the mark. I am Polansky fan and really look forward to where he will take the Warden to next in the Low Town series....more
Coldbrook should have been an easy five star book for me... After all it is written by my favorite author of the last year, Tim Lebbon. It is2.5 Stars
Coldbrook should have been an easy five star book for me... After all it is written by my favorite author of the last year, Tim Lebbon. It is a post apocalyptic zombie thriller which I always adore. Finally it is about the multiverse, which also happens to be my real world obsession. Unfortunately, all these amazing parts did not add up to be a great whole.
As for being a horror novel, this is the weakest Lebbon fiction that I have read. There is little here to scare you or to gross you out. The atmosphere and the world building are adequate at best. This is so unlike previous Lebbon books that have stolen me away with their realism and their beauty.
The characters in this book are forgettable. I did not find a single one to latch on to. The zombies are Standard fare and add little originality to the genre other than a cool name for them, The Furies. The science fiction and the multiverse all have great potential, but in the end they do not add up to much.
This is a clear case of the sum of the amazing parts does not add up to an equally amazing whole. I am a huge fan of Tim Lebbon's but was very disappointed by this book....more
I love Laini Taylor and I am now in love with her Daughter of Smoke and Bone series. I read book one two times now, enjoying it the second time5 Stars
I love Laini Taylor and I am now in love with her Daughter of Smoke and Bone series. I read book one two times now, enjoying it the second time through even more than the first time which I scored with full marks… My review : http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/....
This is a difficult second book as it is extremely dark and filled with tragedy. Yet, like the first book and also the meaning of the main character’s name (Karou), it is a story mainly about hope… The first book gave us a lot of backstory and character building of Karou, Zuzana, Akiva, Brimstone, and The White Wolf. It also set the stage and painted the world of our young heroine and her friends. Karou, Karou, she is part human, part demon, and definitely something more. She surely is a heroine and protagonist that puts most others to shame…
“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a new way of living—one without massacres and torn throats and bonfires of the fallen, without revenants or bastard armies or children ripped from their mothers’ arms to take their turn in the killing and dying. Once, the lovers lay entwined in the moon’s secret temple and dreamed of a world that was like a jewel box without a jewel—a paradise waiting for them to find it and fill it with their happiness. . . . This was not that world.”
This book is nothing like the first and I cannot emphasize how tragic and difficult a read that it is. The shit has hit the proverbial fan and war is on…hardcore. Taylor has whipped up a really well done Urban Fantasy Angel & Demon story that is both my cup of tea, and also a gem of the genre. The mythos behind the Angels versus the Chimera is consistent with genre standards but has a depth and a twist on the black & white theme that makes me smile. For seemingly being a straight forward take on the beautiful Angels “the good” guys, versus the scary monsters, the Chimera, “the bad guys”, Taylor has twisted everything up in a way that there are no clear lines, no definitives, and there is no black and white, only grey.
“And then, between one leap of the campfire’s flame and the next, they came. Nightmares. Saviors. They came from above, and the slavers’ first confused thought was that reinforcements had arrived, but these were no seraphim. Wings and screaming, spike horns, antlers, lashing tails and hunched ursine shoulders. Bristles, claws. Swords and teeth. No angel survived. Freed slaves melted away into the landscape, dragging the swords and axes—and yes, the whips—of their captors. They would be less easily subdued in the future. All fell still. Here, too, a message was scribed in the blood of slaughter—the same words as would be found at many such scenes in the days to come. We are arisen, it read. It is your turn to die.”
The book has a main theme of hope and we are given a great deal to hope for, yet Taylor masterfully interweaves an overwhelming sense of despondency that will leave you torn and confused. This story has so many high’s and low’s that really make it stand out. Many of the characters in this book make frequent references that insinuate that there is a fine line between living for life and killing for death.
"“Life is your master, or death is,” Brimstone had said, but in these days of blood, there was no luxury of choice. Death ruled them all."”
I loved that Akiva comes to a significant realization that life is what fills the cracks and the voids of the worlds that we live in, yet he as a bred soldier has one purpose, to kill, and to bring death. In the end it means that his very existence is pointless and irrelevant, as death can never be the answer to living!!!
Karou, Karou…I love you!!! And I also love what Laini Taylor has created here for us to escape into. Angels, Demons, Love, Hate, War, Magic, Hope, and Despair…Awesome stuff. I cannot recommend these books enough, they are must reads!!!!
For those of you that have read the first book in the series, The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith, this one, Passenger, will ta5 Stars
"Roll. Tap. Tap."
For those of you that have read the first book in the series, The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith, this one, Passenger, will take you on a journey, an endless exploration, of the mind, and of the world. And all the while our main protagonist Jack will be there, egging us on, messing with our mind, and pulling our strings… Fuck Jack!
Queue the narrator, pan out to see a ..land, and on this ..land, all of our returning heroes, Jack, Ben, Griffin, and Henry. Now you hear our hear our narrator say, “Previously on Lost” ….images, images, images, action, killing, jump forward, jump backward, jump, ????, 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42… and then the crescendo, the massive crash of drum and bass. You see I found that this series is so much like the amazing TV series Lost…including the main hero being named Jack. Freaking Sweet.
I enjoyed tML book one in the series the first time I read it through, and I loved it after I reread it a week ago. Passenger, book two, blows away the first and expands everything in ways that will leave your head in a twisted up, messed up knot. You will reread parts as you go because you will want to pick up on the subtle nuances, the clues, and the repetition. Andrew Smith’s writing is both stylish and full of quality. His story telling make reading a fun way to pass some time.
““There was always a peculiar weight to the Marbury lens. It wasn’t from gravity; it came from something else wasn’t from gravity; it came from something else altogether. And even though the lens was dead to me now, I could still feel the heaviness it contained when Griffin placed the fragment onto my open palm. And as soon as he did, the boy whispered a hushed “What the fuck, Jack?” Then the world went red, as if I were looking at it through a glass of wine. Ben turned and stared at me. His mouth hung open, and when I lifted my hand in front of us, everything began to change, dissolve before our eyes; like being back in that garage on the day I smashed the lens. Something pulled me up, by my hand, like it was on a string. Ben and Griffin, the Hunters, the wreckage in front of us, the endless scorched nothingness of Marbury, all of it began smearing together in the red light, melting, liquefying.”
Let me start by saying that this series to me is the Twilight / Hunger Games books for boys and for men. This is a series geared for the YA crowd but only for those that have the stomach for the gore, the patience for a blurry reality, and the demeanor to handle lots of sex, violence, and vulgarity. In a nutshell the perfect read for the immature man, or growing teen age boy. There is plenty for girls to like in this too, I just thought that it was worth the time to point out how this is the Twilight series for boys. This is a dark and disturbing series that is a head trip of multiple realities, fucked up worlds, and killings. It is filled with monsters and bugs, guns and knives, and filled with a vast cast of sickos and assholes. Of course if that is not enough, it is also a coming of age story for our young male cast.
A snippet that gives you the feel:
* * * “The first time Quinn showed me that thing in the sky, I knew it had something to do with me. Or, more likely, that I had something to do with it. I felt it. It was like a wound, a stab, an incision that somehow cuts through all the layers, stack after stack after stack, piercing all the insides and outsides that collapse down and converge at the center of Jack’s universe. And here I am now, standing with my hand open in front of Quinn Cahill’s face. I accept it. I accept the fact that I fucked up—that all of this isn’t happening to me—it’s happening because of me. I knew it all along. I knew it when I was tied to a fucking bed at Freddie Horvath’s house. But I just didn’t want to think about it. * * * I open my hand. The light comes first. It is always the light, and then the sound. Of course the mark is the same. Everyone can see that. The scar in my hand. The hole in the sky. The center of the universe. The boys are saying something. I can’t hear them. We are standing inside a thousand jet engines, beneath a churning wall of water that endlessly crashes upon sawtoothed rocks. And I am looking directly through my fucking hand. I am looking directly through. The boys are saying something. Quinn is screaming. He’s afraid. Fucking prick should have left me alone. So I am looking. In my bathroom, at Wynn and Stella’s house, a house that is in a place called Glenbrook, the mirrored door of Jack’s medicine cabinet opens in such a way that I could put my head between the door and the larger mirror above the sink, where Wynn taught me how to shave before I ever needed to. And there would be an infinity of layers there, accordioned together, blurring away into dark blue nothingness ahead of me, behind me, and I am the center. That’s what this looks like now.” * * *
This book is a no hold barred trip down a very dark rabbit hole that sucked me in. I loved this book!! I had so much fun hearing Jack repeat to himself over and over again that “This is it”, and “Fuck Jack”. I applaud the boldness of Andrew Smith in leaving so many questions unanswered, to leaving things to the reader to perceive, and to wrap things up with complete closure, or no closure at all depending on your point of view. Does this sound familiar to you? Yep. Like I said earlier, this book shares a great deal with ABC’s Lost, a show that I loved and that I miss today. This is a quality Young Adult series that will clearly appeal to the boys and should have a great following too. I highly recommend it.
Death Masks, #5 in the Dresden files is one of the better books in the series thus far. A lot of bad is going down in this one for Harry. A pis4 Stars
Death Masks, #5 in the Dresden files is one of the better books in the series thus far. A lot of bad is going down in this one for Harry. A pissed off Red Court Vampire challenges him to a duel to the death. Unknown assailants attempt to kill him on multiple occasions. Susan, Harry’s ex and now almost vampire also adds to the layers of danger that are facing our hero.
For pure unadulterated urban fantasy, Butcher includes every type of monster, creature, ghost, and even the kitchen sink in a way that is pure fun and enjoyment. I love that you know that you will get it all and it leaves you wondering what more could possibly happen to our mopey wizard.
“In this corner, one missing Shroud, one impossibly and thoroughly dead corpse, one dedicated and deadly vampire warlord, three holy knights, twenty-nine fallen angels, and a partridge in a pear tree. And in the opposite corner, one tired, bruised, underpaid professional wizard, threatened by his allies and about to get dumped by his would-be girlfriend for John Q. Humdrum. Oh, yeah. Definitely bedtime.”
This book centers on some religious themes that I absolutely love, and Michael, Harry’s friend and holy knight has a big role in this story. Harry is in a dark place as far as his psyche goes and that makes this even more fun to read. I loved the absurdity of the amount of shit that goes down. Harry does not disappoint as a hero or as an angry wizard. Although I have complained before that Harry is too PG-13 for me to really embrace, I liked that he did become a bit darker and more bad ass in this book.
“I turned away from him again and said, very quietly, "People like you always mistake compassion for weakness. Michael and Sanya aren't weak. Fortunately for you, they're good men." Cassius laughed at me. "Unfortunately for you, I'm not." I spun around, swinging the bat as hard as I could, and broke Cassius's right kneecap. He screamed in shock and sudden surprise, and went down. Odd crackling sounds came from the joint. I swung again and broke his right ankle. Cassius screamed.”
I really do enjoy this series and love Butcher’s writing style, I just always seem to be looking for more. I highly recommend this whole series to urban fantasy readers.
Archer is the man!!! God I really love that show. When I saw this book for sale I knew that I would have to read it.
"5 Super Spy Stars (Maybe Chinese)
Archer is the man!!! God I really love that show. When I saw this book for sale I knew that I would have to read it.
"This could make my job harder. And while there are many things to like about being a devastatingly handsome, martini-drinking, jet-setting, model-banging, world’s greatest secret agent, hard work isn’t one of them. If I wanted to work hard, I’d be a farmer. Albeit a devastatingly handsome one. So even though my contract with (the man-hating, unkempt überfeminists at) HarperCollins makes it abundantly clear that I am legally bound—especially now that I’ve spent the advance—to write a how-to book, I am doing so only because said aforementioned contract is apparently iron-fucking-clad. But whatever. I bloom where I’m planted."
I loved this part of the swords chapter: "Swords, especially samurai and/or ninja ones, are exceptionally cool. However, their use is of limited practical value to the secret agent, especially given the fact that somebody invented gunpowder about a million years ago. I have not trained in fencing (or vaginal hygiene), so if I am forced to use a sword in combat, I just swing it around like a baseball bat while screaming, at the top of my lungs: “There can be only one!” Which, if done correctly, is surprisingly effective"
Too funny!
This book is less about how to be a super spy and more about how to be Archer the man, and looks count. This is so fitting since that is pretty much the code by which he lives life.
Archer tells us everything you need to know about being a spy, fighting, intelligence gathering, and even torturing.
"And so intelligence gathering is divided into two general categories: human intelligence (or HUMINT) and signals intelligence (or SIGINT). Signals intelligence gathering relies on a variety of electronic devices: radios, satellites, um, I suppose the telephone would fall under this heading … look, I’ll be honest: I don’t know much about SIGINT. That’s for the lab-coated geeks in ISIS SIGINT Control. Those pathetic little men with slide rules sticking out of their pocket protectors, wearing ties with short-sleeved shirts. I’m not kidding: they actually wear ties with short sleeves. I guess the short sleeves are more practical attire for what they do all day, which I can only assume is masturbate under their desks while looking at hobbit-porn on the internets. The point is, I know about as much about SIGINT as those fist-glazing nerds know about what a clitoris looks like.11 The whole concept—by which I mean signals intelligence, not that mysterious and magical, sometimes mauve, sometimes brown, amazing little pleasure bean known as the clitoris—is incredibly boring to me. Which is why I focus my considerable talents in the area of human intelligence."
He then really delves into the art of the drink, including a large number of recipes. He tells us how to gamble, how to eat out, and how to eat in. He goes into details on women and how to always come out on top with them...Amateurs and professionals are both discussed.
There is a lot more covered here on the life of Sterling Archer, all told with his in your face, I am a man humor that I love so much.
The series should not be missed by .... MEN! If you are lucky like I am with my wife, you may have a lady in your life that appreciates the humor and slapstick that is Archer. If you cannot see the awkward hilarity of Archer finding his mothers activated dildo in a drawer and yet still by need he had to get into that drawer, than this is not for you.
I loved Egan's Orthagonal book one, and was really looking forward to this release, but I was left very unsatisfied. For over half this book no3 Stars
I loved Egan's Orthagonal book one, and was really looking forward to this release, but I was left very unsatisfied. For over half this book nothing really happens other than one major "kidnapping" and page after page of analysis and discussion on the physics behind the Luxagens...diagrams and quizzes included. I love hard science fiction, and I loved the way that Egan interwove it with the action in the first book. But, in the Eternal Flame, there is no action other than you turning the page for far too long for me to give this novel high marks.
"Whatever the fundamental constituents of a rock or a flower were, they either possessed the light-making property or they didn’t; it wasn’t something that could come and go. A few lines of mathematics proved that “source strength” was conserved, as surely as energy itself. So matter had to be made of something that possessed source strength, or no flower could glow, no fuel could burn. The trouble was, anything with source strength should give off some light, visible or invisible, all the time; only absolute stillness—or the equally unlikely contrivance of a pure high-frequency oscillation—could keep it from radiating. But a substance that emitted light could not be left unchanged by the process: the energy of the light had to be balanced by the creation of energy of the opposite kind. A flower could use its newfound energy to make food, but what was a rock to do? With a sprinkling of liberator a rock went up in flames, but why should it need that push? Why hadn’t every lode of sunstone simply blown itself apart, eons ago?"
Egan is a very original and gifted hard science fiction author that I really enjoy. I wanted to love this book but could not get into it as there was nothing to get into for far too long...
This was an amazing adventure and wonderful series. Non-stop action, epic adventure, and wonders an5 Stars
The overall series warrants 5 stars as well.
This was an amazing adventure and wonderful series. Non-stop action, epic adventure, and wonders and mystery to discover are all here waiting for you to discover as you embark on these voyages of the Chathrand. I loved every one of these books including this final installment. The epitomize the adventure story and I got lost in the world created by Robert V.S. Redick. The Night of the Swarm is the fourth and final book in the series that starts with The Red Wolf Conspiracy (my review:
The characters, the setting, the story, and the writing are all top notch. This is a series penned for the adult and the young adult crowd.
“Historians battle for the future, not the past. Our tales of who we were shape what we believe we can become. When I began to write, the story of theChathrand was a collection of fragments and folk-tellings, yarns shared at bedtime or beer-time, or Rin spare us, to prove some moral point. It was a myth; and now as copies circulate it may become scripture, for a benighted few. The chancellor would gild it, peddle it with nine parts sugar to one part truth. Or else burn it and bury me. I must work faster, before I cease to have hands, before he calls a doctor or a dogcatcher and has me led away. I must finish the tale, lest they finish it for me. And that would be horrific, a mashed-together monster, a lord or lady with the head of a beast.”
Captain Rose will be a very memorable protagonist / antagonist!!!
“Rose studied the two men at his feet. He felt a bottomless disgust. The mastermind of Arqual and his tool. Better for everyone if they had strangled each other, if that sleep were the sleep of death. But what of Nilus Rose? He had sworn to his father that he would bend these creatures to his will. But that was only hubris – the kind of talk his father wanted to hear, demanded to hear. Over and over, decade after decade. The long, daft proof of their power. The family epic. Rose had never stopped writing it, even though a fool could tell you that the premise was absurd.”
This book is not for the faint of heart as our story comes together in ways that will leave some out in the cold. There are no punches pulled and things can turn out pretty bleak. However, all this makes the story that much richer and worth your time to read…
These are massive adventures that will take you away and leave you wanting more. My highest recommendations!!!
the first story is about an archeologist and his best friend. This novella is more surreal and atmospheric horror than anyth4 Stars
Remnants : 3 Stars
the first story is about an archeologist and his best friend. This novella is more surreal and atmospheric horror than anything else. The ultimate find, the legendary city of the dead. This is a ghost story and a creature story in one. There is quite a bit of play on reality and what may be real or may be made up. I enjoyed the feel and the tension in this fast page turner.
"And it was dark by the sea, windy and wet, stinking of rotting sea life as beaches always do. This person stood with his back to the cliffs, staring out, watching the bursts of effervescence as waves broke and captured the moonlight. In one hand there was a gun, in the other a torch, and when the small rowboat came a short both would be pointing outward this night, and both used. But that chance did not arrive. The waves hid the sound of the shape creeping up behind him, out of the cave where it must have been waiting all day. When the knife curled around his throat and slid through his skin, the moon caught the spurting blood, right as breaking waves, and the betrayal tasted of salt--
White: 4 Stars
is a horror cross of John Carpenter's The Thing meets Dan Simmons' The Terror. Bloody, gory, and fun. This is a cool short story that will leave you wanting more. What are the white creatures? What do they want? Are they even real? I loved the cold isolation that the location offered up. It added to the feeling of doom and death.
".. Once on the inside, this room was now a part of the outside. As was Charley. The area around the broken window was red and Charley had spread. Bits of her hung on the glass like hellish party streamers. Other parts had melted into the snow outside and turned it pink. Some of her was recognizable--her hair splayed out across the soft whiteness, a hand fisted around a melting clump of ice--other parts had never been seen before because they'd always been inside."
The Unfortunate: 4.5 Stars
Is ironically a story about a Lucky Man! The lone survivor of a plane crash. is saved by Angels?Demons?Monsters?God? The main character is saved and in turn agrees to a bargain with apparent supernatural creatures. He is told by them that he is "A Lucky Man", and that he is now in debt to them. Once he returns home, nothing is really the same. He is always being watched and can now see things that others cannot. This is a cool take on the "If it seems to be too good to be true, it probably is!" Story. This is a dark and sinister supernatural story that I really enjoyed. I loved the seedy underworld that is brought to light by these beings. The place of the crucifixion was awesome and scary.
"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, you know." "On the way to the station he had seen the things three times: Once, a face staring from the back of a bus several cars in front; once, a shape hurrying across the road behind them, seen briefly and fleetingly in the rearview mirror; and finally in the station itself, a misplaced shadow hiding behind a high-level TV."
Naming of Parts: 5 Stars + (this story is worth the price to own regardless wether you read the other three)
This novella is simply a gem of a read. Naming of Parts is a post apocalyptic story that centers on point of view of a twelve year old boy. There is little backstory, a smidgen of world building, and hardly any explanations. But, it's short length is packed full of high tension and suspense as our young hero comes to grips in a world where everything's is dying and yet not staying dead. Lebbon has a colorful twist to the zombie genre as the undead begin to walk again. I loved how this story unfolded slowly and without spelling things out in black and white. This book is literally filled with grey... As for being a zombie story. This novella excelled. I was sucked into Jacks point of view and I could not put the book down. The tension that is amped up by this novellas conclusion is palpable and I found my heart racing, my hands sweaty, and I found it tough to breath. This whole book of stories is worth purchasing just for the chance to read this awesome short story.
"They walked through the woods and nothing changed. Jack's dad held the shotgun and both hands but he at no cause to use it. Things were grayer today, blander, slower. It seemed also that things were deader. They found three dead people beneath a tree, not one of them showing any signs of movement. They looked as though they had been dead for weeks, but they still had blood on their chins. Their stomachs were bloated and torn open."
Once again, I feel that I have to mention that I truly feel that Tim Lebbon deserves a bigger audience and garners more respect. He is simply one of my very favorite authors of today that I am always looking forward to his next piece. Highly recommended....more
This is a tough book for me to review as overall, I had a difficult keeping my interest and focus on the story. This book is very reminiscent o4 Stars
This is a tough book for me to review as overall, I had a difficult keeping my interest and focus on the story. This book is very reminiscent of a George RR Martin novel in that it is a book that contains a large cast that is entwined in political strife. The book plays out like a big drama where dialogue moves the story forward more than action or place.
This book does a couple of things extremely well. First, for a premier novel by KT Davies, this book does not suffer from Freshman blues...It is well written, structured, and it ends well. Secondly, Davies has created an extremely rich cast that really carry this main stream fantasy. It is very rare when the characters are too good for their story or for the world that they inhabit. I loved so many of them, from the "Librarian" to the Bear, their are so many kick ass, original, and three dimensional characters to love and too hate. Want a totally cool kick ass dark mage, got it! Want shape-shifters that love to kill, got that too, how about kick ass heroines, got that in spades with the Captain. The good guys and the bad ones are all well constructed and they really carry this book.
That being said, the world building is minimal, and for a book one in a series, it is not up to par. The plot to me was razor thin and I really got nothing out of it. The story as a whole is fairly ho-hum. Thank god Davies created that wonderful cast or I would not have finished it.
All in all this one is just ok. You might be better off to see the direction the series goes in with the next installment before you read this one....more
Mary and O’Neil is Justin Cronin’s debut a novel, a book that many of my friends here at Goodreads have recommended to me. I read Cronin’s Th4.5 Stars
Mary and O’Neil is Justin Cronin’s debut a novel, a book that many of my friends here at Goodreads have recommended to me. I read Cronin’s The Passage, a novel that I should have loved, but just never really connected with. This book like many others is simply a quiet piece of life. It has its focus on the love between a Parent and Child, Love between two very different siblings, and even love between man and woman. It also is heavily weighed down with loss and tragedy. Yet amazingly, this real to life piece of fiction seemed to me to be mostly about the beauty of life itself, tragedy and loss aside. We are treated to many quiet scenes where life details are colored out for us and made three dimensional. We quickly empathize and bond with all the characters each having a unique outlook and point of view that adds to the depth of this book.
The writing in this book is a true standout. You have heard it all before, poetic, lyrical, and magical too. Many of the scenes seemed to be so real to life that you could actually feel like you were there too. Quiet beauty is the best way to describe it. I have for you two rather long quotes that to me capture the essence of this wonderful read:
“Later, when O’Neil imagines the accident—in the days and weeks that follow, and then for years to come—he imagines that it occurs in silence, and that his parents’ eyes are closed. Their eyes are closed like children asleep in a car at night, their faces and bodies in perfect, trusting repose, his father at the wheel, his mother beside him, and though it makes no sense to think it, he sees them holding hands—as O’Neil will one day hold his daughter’s hand when a nightmare has awakened her, to tell her that he is there beside her, that in sleep we have nothing to fear. Silence, and his parents, and the snow: he inhabits this moment as if it were not imagined but remembered, with a vividness that seems to lodge in his bones, just as he feels, with his body, the moment when the car lifts on the ice and begins its long, languid arc toward the embankment. There is no guardrail, nothing for the car’s front end to strike, to impede its progress or in any way change the nature of the scene, its dreamlike silence. The total, parabolic energy of their vehicle—thirty-five hundred pounds of diesel-powered French station wagon, traveling at or about the legal speed limit of fifty miles per hour—is suddenly, amazingly, tractionless. It is unbounded, set loose from the earth, and though jealous gravity will soon assert itself, whisking his parents to the valley floor at a velocity sufficient to snap the chassis in two, for this moment they are free; they are as free as ghosts, as comets, they are streaking across the heavens; Arthur and Miriam, together at last.”
“Though some might have thought this a morbid scene, a pair of orphans moping around the house, in fact the weeks following their parents’ death passed quickly and became, for O’Neil, a time of strange and unexpected contentment. Unhappiness, he discovered, was an emotion distinct from grief, and he found it was possible both to miss his parents terribly—a loss so overwhelming he simply couldn’t take it all in, like looking at a skyscraper up close—while also finding in the job of settling their affairs a satisfying orderliness. Accounts to be closed, bills to be paid, letters to be read and discarded, clothing to be boxed and carted off: he knew what he and Kay were doing—they were erasing their parents, removing the last evidence of their lives from the earth. It was, O’Neil knew, a way of saying good-bye, and yet with each trip to the Goodwill box behind the Price Chopper, each final phone call to a bank or loan company, he felt his parents becoming real to him in a way that they had never been in life. More than real: he felt them move inside him. Jack had returned to New Haven a few days after the funeral, and alone in the house, O’Neil and Kay slipped into a pattern that was, he realized, the same one his parents had kept, or nearly. The hours they ate and worked and slept, their habit of meeting in the living room in the evenings for a cup of tea—these were all things their parents had done, and on a night close to the end of their time together, O’Neil dreamed that he and Kay were married. It was a dream in which they were both the same and also different—they were at once their parents and themselves—and when he awoke in his old bedroom under the eaves, he felt not revulsion or shame but a fleeting certainty that he had been touched by the world of the spirits.”
Cronin works his magic by penning these stories in such a way that nothing is ever rushed yet at the same time things are never too slow. There is just the right amount of pacing and plot movement to keep us turning the pages. By the time I reached the end of this book I was physically tired due to the emotional toll brought on by the story. Like the book itself, I was left quietly very satisfied and full. I highly recommend this book to fiction lovers and will now have to queue up a reread of The Passage.
This book was just ok for me even though I did have fun reading it. This being both the fourth book in the Dresden series as well as my fourth 4 Stars
This book was just ok for me even though I did have fun reading it. This being both the fourth book in the Dresden series as well as my fourth Butcher read, I have found things to be a bit monotonous and repetitive. Couple this with the PG-13 rating that is forced upon us by Harry being a do gooder that follows the White Council rules, we are left wanting a bit more. I like the different themes each novel presents as well as the further exploits of Harry and the White Council. I just wish that there was more to it. This book is a fun read albeit a bit predictable. The fantasy is fun, action packed, and wise cracking too. This is not my favorite in the series thus far, but is worth a read.
A fun little snippet:
“I stared after it for a second, panting. I lowered the shotgun, realizing as I did that I had somehow managed to keep hold of the toad I had picked up in my left hand. It wriggled and struggled in a fashion that suggested I had been close to crushing it, and I tried to ease up on my grip without losing it.”
I have enjoyed this series so far and can easily recommend it to all fantasy and urban fantasy readers.
While I enjoyed this page turner that is geared of the adventure reader, I never really loved it. I expected more adventure on the sea than wha3 Stars
While I enjoyed this page turner that is geared of the adventure reader, I never really loved it. I expected more adventure on the sea than what we get here. This is truly unfortunate as the little sea going that is presented here is top notch and a blast to read.
The book lost me around two thirds in when after another period of time passes, Criston no longer is the main protagonist of our story. His pov was my favorite by a long shot, and when it went missing, so did my attention. I enjoyed many of the alternative Pov's but wished that Criston would have been around for the whole thing. At least the ending shows us that he will once again be a focus.
The sea going, sea monsters, adventuring, and pirating are a lot of fun to read. I only hope that we get much more of this action in the remaining novels. ...more
The Heretic Land by Tim Lebbon is not his strongest piece of fiction that he has penned, it is however exactly the type of fiction that satiate5 Stars
The Heretic Land by Tim Lebbon is not his strongest piece of fiction that he has penned, it is however exactly the type of fiction that satiates me through and through. Over the last year Tim Lebbon has won me over and as of now may be my favorite author. His novels are dark and dirty fantasy that blend in a bit of science fiction and a whole lot of religion and horror. The Heretic Land is no exception. The plot centers on the resurrection of a dead god. As a result, religion, belief, and disbelief all are the major themes that come off these pages.
Lebbon writes with a no-holds approach, making his characters seem to be more on the real and flawed side than on the heroic and comic side. Some of his characters would seem safe and at home in New Crozubon or Villamajur as there is a great deal of new weird among them. His horror roots are seen throughout all his fiction and there are some really memorable scenes in this book. The Ocean fairing scenes involving giant sea creatures were really cool and fascinating. The deep sea pirates were freaking sweet too:
“The pirate had human qualities merged with the worst aspects of the sea. Bare, thick torso spotted with shellfish, a large head with shockingly human features, long flowing hair which was said to consist of poisonous fronds, long limbs that ended in claws ten times larger than the most monstrous crab’s, and thick legs that parted into powerful tentacles, each of them suckered and spiked. Its scale made it even more awful – ten times the size of a human, it was a blight on reality.”
Although this book has a few pacing issues and we never really get to know Bon enough to truly care about our main protagonist, Lebbon’s world building and writing style carry this read forward. I feel as though Tim Lebbon is writing for me and that there has to be a bigger audience out there that is missing out on his style. I love that all his novels are steeped in religion and faith and that it is the main theme that drives each of his horror fantasy hybrids. I cannot wait to read more of his, and I will reread many of his titles as they are a pleasure for me to read. I cannot recommend Lebbon with high enough marks, and although this is not his best work, it is however a damn fun read with a really good ending to boot.
This is a well written and interesting take on Lucifer taking an offer from god at an attempt at redemption as he takes over the life of a su3.5 Stars
This is a well written and interesting take on Lucifer taking an offer from god at an attempt at redemption as he takes over the life of a suicide victim. Without spoiling anything, Lucifer is the devil after all and nothing should be surprising. What really blew me away was the way that Glen Duncan described senses. Lucifer is not prepared for all that the human senses entail, and we the reader take for granted and overlook the miracles that Duncan pens as Lucifer takes it all in. There are many scenes that will make you think and feel about your own perspective on things, it will reopen your eyes. This to me is what makes this a special read and one worth finishing.
This is a book that due to its style has many serious pacing issues. Countless side note and stories interrupt the main story too many times to keep things moving smoothly. There are however quite a few back stories about the angels, about Adam and Eve, and about creation that will make you think long and hard afterwards. I loved many of these distractions but in the end, there were simply too many.
This is a book after all about Satan, about Lucifer, the devil, and as a result many will be turned off to the graphic nature of this character and some will cry moral distaste. It is a fictional story and should be taken as that... I love stories and fiction like this that stretch our views on the nature of religion and our place in the universe. I really enjoyed Duncan's literary style and I look forward to reading more by him.
I recommend this book to people who like biblical horror and that are not easily offended....more
This book and series is a steampunk blast of fun to read. I enjoyed this book as much as I did the first even though we get less backstory and 4 Stars
This book and series is a steampunk blast of fun to read. I enjoyed this book as much as I did the first even though we get less backstory and less about our protagonist Jacob Burn. If you like well imagined steampunk novels that are heavy in the action, this is a series for you. There are plenty of cool gadgets, machines, mech-people, and unusual places and devices. Wilson, a former friend and cohort of Jacob is an Anansi, a spider person, complete with many hidden legs and is often referred to as a “Bug”.
The writing is detailed and a whole lot of fun:
“I looked down at the blade in my hand. The black blood of the revenants was slick along its length, pooling and dripping onto the deck of the raft. As it fell it coagulated before my eyes, crystallizing into tiny gears that clattered noisily at my feet. I stared at the snowflake-delicate gears swirling peacefully in the pools of water left behind, mixing with the blood of the crew who had died in the fight, along with my own, leaking from numerous cuts and bruises.”
Much of this book centers on the race of the Fehn. They are an underwater race of a worm like species that reanimate and possess the drowned dead. A whole series could be written about this unique and cool specie of humanoids that are down right creepy and scary. This novel had a great feel to it from the damp and wet feel that these creatures bring to the novel.
I loved these two books and cannot wait to read more about Jacob Burn. I highly recommend them!
“”‘He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster,’””
Flesh and Bone, book 3 of the Benny Imura serie4.5 Stars
“”‘He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster,’””
Flesh and Bone, book 3 of the Benny Imura series was one of my most anticipated reads for 2012 by one of my favorite authors. I am not really that big into young adult fiction, but when an amazing horror author like Maberry puts a zombie series to life, it is sure one not to be missed. The story of the two brothers Benny and Tom through the first two books found many of the main plot lines closed up by book two’s end, and a few more brought to life. This book picks up right after the end of the last. Without any series spoilers I will review the rest.
I loved the action and the relationships that have been built up through books one and two, but in this one, we gain very little additional insight into our young heroes. A major plot point from book two paints much of the understory of this one, to the point where many other things are overshadowed. This was the worst thing for me to deal with as I really felt that it lessened the overall feel of the series. That being said, Benny, Nix, Lilah, and Chong all continue to grow up as young adults as the horrors around them mold them into the heroes that they are. Flesh and Bone has a few additional interesting characters added to the cast too. Saint John of the knife, Mother Rose, Joe, and my favorite, the zombie killing dog named Grimm. The foreword by Maberry is both poignant and pertinent to our story and I often thought back to his words that started this book. Loss, pain, and the way one deals with it are the major themes of this book, and each of our heroes has their own way.
“It was why Lilah did not fear death. So many of the people she loved were waiting for her there. Lilah kept walking along the muddy bank of the stream, but she slowed and then stopped completely. The path ahead of her was invisible now. It was not hidden by shadows, and it had not petered out as loose soil gave way to hard rock. No, it was simply that Lilah couldn’t see a thing through the hot tears that boiled from her eyes and burned their way down her cheeks.”
Possible spoiler ahead:
““Was it like this for you, Tom? he wondered. Was this what you felt when you carried me out of Sunset Hollow on First Night? If you were really the coward I used to think you were, you would have run off and left me. Wouldn’t you? You would have saved yourself. Alone, without having to carry me, it would have been easier for you to slip away. But you didn’t. You carried me all the way. Was it a memory? Or now that Benny stood at death’s fragile door, was it easier for Tom’s ghost to whisper to him from the darkness on the other side? Benny, whispered Tom, I didn’t die to save you. “I know that, Einstein,” Benny growled back as he ran. No—listen! I didn’t die to save you. A zom fell into the ravine directly in front of them, and the little girl screamed even louder. But Benny leaped over the awkward form before the zom could struggle to its feet. I lived to save you, said Tom. I lived.””
The pain and emotion and the emotionally touching scenes are all the best in this third book. There is less action and a smaller scope in this one, but that is ok too. Many of the Benny and Nix scenes are standouts, as well as the scenes involving the new character Joe and his kick ass dog Grimm. Chong however stole the show for me. The least warrior like of the bunch makes many incredibly difficult and brave decisions that show just what it means to be heroic. His interactions with Riot were fabulous.
I have really enjoyed the adventures in this series so far, even though I was taken aback at the end of book two. Hopefully when the final book comes out I will not be feeling that things should have gone differently. This is a fantastic heartfelt young adult series that takes place in a post-apocalyptic land of the undead. It will be loved and enjoyed by readers of all ages. Jonathan Maberry is one of my very favorite authors of today, and one that should not be missed…My highest recommendations!!!
““‘And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.’””
This may be the best book that I have read that I may actually hate… It is probably better than a 4 star read, or much, much worse. Maybe it is4 Stars
This may be the best book that I have read that I may actually hate… It is probably better than a 4 star read, or much, much worse. Maybe it is unreadable! Mark Z. Danielewski is a gifted writer that much I am sure of. The premise of this book in a nutshell is that an endless amount of writing is found in an old house that happens to be the feature of a movie which may actually be a true life haunting. The movie called the Navidson Record has a cult following and is diagnosed by scholars and scientist all over as to its validity and its realism. The story is told with mass amount of footnotes that fill in the blanks, paint the backstory, and give us much more.
“As I discovered, there were reams and reams of it. Endless snarls of words, sometimes twisting into meaning, sometimes into nothing at all, frequently breaking apart, always branching off into other pieces I’d come across later—on old napkins, the tattered edges of an envelope, once even on the back of a postage stamp; everything and anything but empty; each fragment completely covered with the creep of years and years of ink pronouncements; layered, crossed out, amended; handwritten, typed; legible, illegible; impenetrable, lucid; torn, stained, scotch taped; some bits crisp and clean, others faded, burnt or folded and refolded so many times the creases have obliterated whole passages of god knows what—sense? truth? deceit? a legacy of prophecy or lunacy or nothing of the kind?, and in the end achieving, designating, describing, recreating—find your own words; I have no more; or plenty more but why? and all to tell—what?”
This novel reminds me of what the Blair Witch Project would have been had it not been a cool Hollywood creation. I loved how creepy many of the scenes were and they will scare you long after you finish reading it. The main story is a bizarre haunted house story where things are not quite what they seem. Strange new doorways, impossibly long hallways, and of course the impenetrable cold dark…Throw in a great deal of confusion and madness and you have the gist of this story. The writing is incredible to say the least and I was often blown away by the style of Mark Z. Danielewski.
“The impossible is one thing when considered as a purely intellectual conceit. After all, it is not so large a problem when one can puzzle over an Escher print and then close the book. It is quite another thing when one faces a physical reality the mind and body cannot accept.”
Another cool scene that shows the writing style:
“The rest is in pieces. A scream, a howl, a roar. All’s warping, or splintering. That makes no sense. There’s a terrible banging. The air’s rank with stench. At least that’s not a mystery. I know the source. Boy, do I ever. I’ve shit myself. Pissed myself too. I can’t believe it. Urine soaking into my pants, fecal matter running down the back of my legs, I’m caught in it, must run and hide from it, but I still can’t move. In fact, the more I try to escape, the less I can breathe. The more I try to hold on, the less I can focus. Something’s leaving me. Parts of me.”
The footnote style was both a good thing, and at times a terribly frustrating thing. The only book that I have ever read that comes close to this one this style was Shriek: An Afterword, by Jeff VanderMeer. As the story progresses to the climax things become more and more confusing and frustrating. I loathed parts of this book even though I could not get myself to put this book down. It is a unique read, and one that you will not soon forget, that is of course if you can make through it at all…
This book is a laugh out loud blast to read. It is cut from the news headlines and it is very relevant with the news of today. This is a nove4.5 Stars
This book is a laugh out loud blast to read. It is cut from the news headlines and it is very relevant with the news of today. This is a novel that centers on the greed and machinations of the ultimate evil in the universe, the largest and most powerfully corrupt empire to ever walk the face of our Earth. I am speaking of the music industry of course…those dirty bastards. This novel is a parody, a science fiction unmasking of the music industries corporate greed. It is an alien novel twisted with good old spy action. Did I mention that it is laugh out loud funny???Because it is…I had to reread many passages out loud to my wife because they cracked me up…
The novel’s main story:
“Welcome back, Welcome back, Welcome back. On Earth, these lyrics were a humble cue to hit the bathroom before What’s Happening!! came on. But everywhere else, they were the core of an opus so sublime that the Refined League reset its calendars to start counting time from the moment it was first detected. And so, October 13, 1977; 8:29 p.m. EST became the dawning moment of Year Zero to the rest of the universe.” Our universe became much smaller when aliens first heard that memorable TV song, forever changing the human race’s place in the galaxy. Without any real spoilers this book themes on current law and practices…think Napster!!! Or The Pirate Bay.
This is a fast action novel that does not hold back any punches or opinions, but it does so with humor the whole way through:
““I was disappointed, too,” Özzÿ said, making a shrugging gesture. “I was hoping for ironmaidium. But back when we renamed it, the votes were with Lars and the boys.” “And what other … superheavy metals do you have?” she asked, clearly more stunned than ever. “Well, there’s vanhelium, which is tough as steel but has a negative mass that lets it float heavy objects. Defleppimite, which is used in prosthetic limbs. And of course, slayerium, which is the most energetic element in all of creation. And then, let’s see, you’ve got your megadeathium, your ledzeppimite, then there’s anvilium, sabbathide …” As he went through this list, Özzÿ’s voice seemed to be getting higher, raspier, and softer.”
Another scene that I really enjoyed ended with this:
“And uh—remind me what happened with that one?” I asked. Holy shit! “Some idiot gave them an Arabic copy of the new Glenn Beck book, and they weren’t even five chapters into it before they all defected and joined the Tea Party movement!” The effort of shrieking this left Özzÿ gasping, and brought his pacing to a halt. “Whoa,” Manda murmured after a long, stunned pause. “There goes my entire worldview.””
I had a blast reading this book and it so much reminded me of those golden X-Files episodes that used humor as the springboard to the story. Jose Chung’s From Outer Space is the perfect example of what I am talking about.
If you enjoy extremely witty and funny light hearted science fiction that is also heavy in its politics similar to that of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, then this book is perfect for you. Highly recommend!!
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