**spoiler alert** This is an odd collection of two unrelated short pieces. 'Nerilka's Story' is part of the Pern dragon rider series, set at the same **spoiler alert** This is an odd collection of two unrelated short pieces. 'Nerilka's Story' is part of the Pern dragon rider series, set at the same time as 'Moreta, Dragon Lady of Pern'. I read the latter years ago and didn't like it so I passed it on and have no desire to get another copy. The present story is a mixed bag, starting off strong but fizzling out. Interestingly, it is told in the first person, which I don't recall being used in this series before.
Nerilka is a daughter of Tolocamp, Lord Holder of Fort Hold. She is one of a large family (nineteen children) of handsome boys and plain girls, and has made herself useful, learning herbal lore and nursing from her mother. The story starts when her parents and four of her younger sisters, set off for a Gather at Ruatha Hold. Nerilka is upset at being excluded from the visit because she had been fostered with Suriana, late wife of Alessan, the Lord Holder of Ruatha, and would like to see the place she never had a chance to visit while Suriana, her best friend, was alive. Her mother, far from being sympathetic, gives her a list of grotty jobs to do, such as supervising the bathing of the drudges and clearing the tunnel snake traps. She threatens her with "disciplinary action" by her father.
Tolocamp has had all the children educated in drummer codes, the way news is transmitted by members of the harper craft, so she already knows about a strange cat rescued by seaholders at Keroon. Over the next few days, nothing happens apart from Master Capiam of the Healers being summoned to Igen to treat patients afflicted by a mysterious disease. Then a drum message comes through from Capiam ordering quarantine. Nerilka's elder brother is rather ineffectually in charge, but she manages all the domestic side including checking their supplies of food and herbs. The store caves are packed due to her parents' hoarding, though in the past she and her sisters have often smuggled food to the needy. Next day, drum messages tell of further outbreaks and appeals for medical assistance. Capiam is ill and Desdra, one of his journeymen, organises the other healers. Nerilka offers her the use of the hold's supplies. Then Tolocamp returns, given a lift with a dragon rider and breaking quarantine. He doesn't tell anyone what has happened to Nerilka's mother and the sisters who accompanied their parents to Ruatha, but orders that his mistress and her family, including the children he has with her, be fetched. A drum message later announces the deaths of Nerilka's mother and sisters.
Nerilka helps carry supplies to the healers and learns that her father has set up an internment camp to imprison anyone travelling to the hold, including harpers and healers. Capiam is on the mend and researching a cure in old records. When Nerilka returns, she has to pacify the cook who is upset that Tolocamp's mistress is throwing her weight around saying she is now in charge and making unreasonable demands. Nerilka stays out of her way, brewing cough syrup and soup for Desdra. The first glimmer of hope comes with a vaccination developed by Capiam, but the situation in the hold comes to a head when Tolocamp denies medical supplies to the healers in his internment camp.
I liked that Nerilka was a competent and determined character who volunteers her skills to tend the sick and later manages to reach Ruatha. Where the story disappoints a little is in the morphing into a one-sided romance and her transformation into a housewife. I had thought, given her skills, that she might have found a home in the healer crafthall, but perhaps the author avoided that as being a parallel to the harper hall story of Menolly although Nerilka is in a more privileged position than Menolly and it wouldn't have been too similar.
The lot of drudges continues to concern me. It's not clear why a whole class of lowly servants exists who share the same characteristics. When Nerilka poses as one to leave the hold for the last time, she "slumped my shoulders, lowered my head, canted my knees at each other for a more awkward gait, and pretended to be weighed down by my burdens, scuffing my feet in the dust." She also advises Capiam, accompanying her with medical supplies, to walk slowly as that is in character. And "drudges were always attempting to ignore what they were supposed to be doing in favour of any activity that appeared more interesting". Not surprising if they are stuck with the scutwork.
One point where the story possibly suffers is by not being quite standalone. Certain questions are raised but never answered, such as why Capiam never said much about Suriana's riding accident. I do also find the use of "rider beast" or similar rather silly: in this story, there are references to mare and foal so why not just call them horses and be done with?
'The Coelura ' is set in a space travelling society where the wealthy spend time hunting and dressing fashionably. Caissa is the body heir of Minister Baythan in a society where short term contracts to produce such an heir are the norm. High Lady Cinna, Caissa's womb-mother, has an outstanding clause in the contract with Baythan concerning the Coelura, a species which spins cloth that changes colours according to the wearer's emotions. Caissa finally meets a man she is keen to contract with through her investigation into what her father is working on.
I preferred the Pern tale but wish it had been a bit less domestic by the end and not involved Nerilka being some sort of consolation prize. Moreta is seen in passing and is a cardboard cutout Mary Sue. I also think it ridiculous that she and her borrowed dragon are lost - as they were already using the dragon ability to time travel why couldn't they have rested somewhere and recovered, avoiding the need to deliver vaccines when overstretched? Altogether I would rate this a 3 star read....more
Cute short story read as part of 'Get Off the Unicorn' and one of the few I liked in that collection. Nothing earth shattering if you've already read Cute short story read as part of 'Get Off the Unicorn' and one of the few I liked in that collection. Nothing earth shattering if you've already read the first two Pern trilogies, as I have, but a good introduction to that world for younger children who probably should leave most of the others till they are older, given the problematic treatment of sexuality and gender, apart from the first two Harper Hall books which would also be suitable for younger readers.
As in the two other books - 'Dragonsinger' and 'Dragondrums' - that deal with a school or training situation, bullying plays a large part in this, and I can't help thinking the adults should address it. The harm caused to the child on the receiving end escalates through those first two books, till in this story, the main character Keevan suffers significant bodily injury. But a touching conclusion and overall I would rate it at 3 stars....more
**spoiler alert** This is a collection of short stories dating in publication from 1959 to 1973 and first published in 1977, with my British Corgi edi**spoiler alert** This is a collection of short stories dating in publication from 1959 to 1973 and first published in 1977, with my British Corgi edition dating from 1979. Some were subsequently expanded into novels. There is some interest in the author's introduction to each group of stories and the explanation that the title came about because of an orphaned title on the publisher's schedule, 'Get (meaning offspring) of the Unicorn' which her editor asked if she could do something about. Thus, a short story collection.
The first two stories became novels - 'The Rowan' and 'Damia' - I have a vague recollection of reading the second years ago but either got it from the library or didn't enjoy it enough to keep it. They concern a far future in which interstellar commerce is enabled by powerful telekinetics/telepaths. The first story is set on Callisto station where the star player is The Rowan, a woman with enormous ability but who languishes without love, and is the tale of how she finds it over interstellar distances. Her second-in-command, Afra, an alien from Capella, is a main character in the sequel which is about the daughter of The Rowan (the nickname is never explained) and husband Jeff. Damia, like her mother before her, contacts a mind across space but this one gives grave cause for concern on the part of her parents and Afra. As in the previous story, she, too, is bereft without love, and the closing paragraphs include an explicit statement of what has troubled me in the Pern books by this author, when Damia is temporarily unable to use her telepathy and has to rely on sight: "And he was suddenly a very different man. A man! That was it. He was so excessively masculine. How could she have blundered around so, looking for a mind that was superior to hers, completely overlooking the fact that a woman's most important function in life begins with physical domination?"
Well! That explains a lot about the various non-consensual sex scenes in the Pern novels where people are either swept up in the lust of their mating dragons, or the man just decides that the woman needs a good 'seeing to' to sort out her hangups as in a particularly disturbing scene in 'Dragonquest', where F'nor decides to "initiate" Brekke, a reluctant virgin who naturally gets over her refusal and decides she likes it. And in 'The White Dragon ', Jaxom is wound up after proximity to raunchy dragons - not even his own, which is asexual - and overpowers his girlfriend though his dragon assures him that it's OK because she likes it. There are many pernicious assumptions in that statement, not least being the implication that women's most important role is childbearing, but also the idea that they just need to be forced and then they will enjoy the 'physical domination'. It does suggest a certain masochism on the part of the author which she projected onto women as a whole.
'Daughter' and 'Dull drums' are stories written for young adults about a young woman from a futuristic collective farm in a society where everything is based on social cohesiveness and conformity. Nora Finn's father has little time for her despite the fact that she has more aptitude for farm work - rather implausibly handled by computer control and automation - and has helped twin brother Nick with the assignments he is too bored to do. Things come to a head but societal rules come to her rescue: her father can't prevent her going to university. In the second story, incomprehensibly to modern readers, Nora is thrown off the computer course and told to do socio-pysch dynamics, a much better use of her talents apparently. The author obviously had no idea that the real interest in the field of IT is in the applications to which it might be put. Disturbingly, Nora's boyfriend spends quite a bit of time shaking her in every interaction and of course is against her studying computer science.
The misogyny hits a new low in a story which the author admits was never previously published, having been rejected by Harlan Ellison for his 'Dangerous Visions' anthology (to his credit, Ellison wasn't a misogynist). In it, Roy, a gay man, has a friendship with a woman despite finding other women repellent - she's the token exception - and she ends up in a household with him and his boyfriend and her own husband. She agrees to become a surrogate mother so that Roy can fulfill his dream of having a son - no daughters allowed - and he kidnaps her and takes her to a cabin in the woods to deliver HIS child. The idea for this story apparently stemmed from bitterness among her gay friends at being unable to adopt. Given the fairly widespread prejudice at the time this collection was published, it's a pity this very nasty story, which could only have exacerbated such prejudice, was included.
After all the foregoing, 'Weather on Welladay ' came as a refreshing mouthwash to dispel the sour taste of so much internalised misogyny. It concerns piracy on a remote planet where someone is killing docile whales by over milking their glands of a radioactive iodine used to control plant diseases throughout the populated galaxy. Shahanna is shot down as the story begins, and her mercy ship - she has been sent to obtain iodine as shipments have dried up - crash lands in a remote lagoon during one of Welladay's fierce storms. There is plenty of action, misdirection as suspicion falls on various characters who might be in league with the pirates, and thankfully a female character who is allowed to be competent and brave with absolutely no pining for men or having any need to be overpowered. This was the first story I liked.
Unfortunately, the following story - 'The Thorns of Barevi' - was a return to all the things wrong in the collection. Weirdly, the author introduced it as one of her humorous stories. I saw nothing funny in a tale of Christin, a student from Denver, abducted by aliens and sold in their slave market. As the story opens, she has been living off the land for a few weeks after stealing her master's flitter, a flying vehicle. She helps one of the master race evade others who shoot down his flitter, but even while they are hiding from his enemies, he rapes her and, this being a McCaffrey story, she 'enjoys' it. The author states that this story was an attempt to "cash in on the lucrative market for soft- and hard-core pornography in the 60s". Another one she should have consigned to the round file.
'Horse from a Different Sea ' is an odd story about the varied visitors to a brothel and what happens after their liaison with a woman there who happens to be an alien. 'The Great Canine Chorus ' features a police dog the author knew while living in the town in which it is set. The dog and his handler are contacted by a telepathic child whose father exploits her for criminal purposes. They try to help her, but gradually she becomes a hardened character. Given the story 's downbeat nature, its label of humorous is odd.
The next three were written for Roger Elwood, a prolific editor of fantasy and science fiction anthologies at the time. In 'Finder's Keeper ', Peter has an uncanny knack of finding lost things, so uncanny that the police became interested and he and his mother had to move town. Now their precarious breadline existence is threatened by a greedy insurance investigator who plans to exploit Peter's ability for his own gain. 'A Proper Santa Claus' concerns a small boy with a magical talent and what happens when that comes into contact with prosaic reality: the author implies that she had to give it a happy ending in its first publication as she reinstated the original ending here. And 'The Smallest Dragonboy ' as might be expected is about a boy small for his age who has to overcome bullying - there's an awful bullying culture among children on Pern - to have the chance to impress a dragon. A sweet story but nothing new if you've already read the first few Pern novels. There do seem to be some contradictions though: here the prospective candidates are encouraged to touch the eggs whereas in the novels that is a strict no-no. It is set in Benden Weyr as F'lar and Lessa feature. Yet in ' Dragonquest ' , their son and his friend Jaxom had to sneak through a back way to get near the hatching ground and both boys were concerned Jaxom would be punished for touching an egg. Also, Lessa isn't the only person who can receive telepathically from all dragons: so can Brekke.
The penultimate story is 'Apple' set in a future in which psychic talents have almost won legal protection when the telekinetic thefts of a wild talent threatens to unravel everything. There's a certain racist assumption in the identity of the thief.
The final story is 'Honeymoon' , a follow up to 'The Ship Who Sang '. The author says that it won't make sense to anyone who hasn't at least read the short story if not the novel of that name. I definitely read it years ago but remember very little about it. Again, some of the assumptions, this time that a 'cripple' is good for nothing but to be brain-wired to a space ship, is problematic when read today. Compounded by her having to have paid off a debt for her upbringing and even her installation into the ship. There's also the dodgy references that Niall, who runs the ship in partnership with her as her "brawn" is so highly sexed that he might be tempted to open the shell encapsulating her mid flight for some 'light relief '.
I initially thought this would just about reach 3 stars but having worked through the stories for this review, I've realised I didn't like many of them so I think I will have to designate this as an OK 2 star read....more
This story started off well, with the arrival of Violet and her parents in a town called Perfect. Her father, a top ophthalmologist, has been hired beThis story started off well, with the arrival of Violet and her parents in a town called Perfect. Her father, a top ophthalmologist, has been hired because there's one drawback in the town: anyone who lives there soon develops blindness which is only staved off by rose-coloured glasses issued by the Archer brothers, two men who run the town and have a spectacle shop. It is supposed to be due to the very unlikely cause of the sun somehow being too bright in the town compared to anywhere else.
I know I'm not the target audience for this because the real cause of the eyesight problems was obvious to me when the family were treated to the town's speciality tea on their arrival. Sure enough, next morning they have to be whisked off to the Archers' shop and issued with glasses. Her father embarks on his job, becoming irritable and unlike himself. Conversely, her mother who was a career woman, suddenly becomes fanatical about housework and baking. Neither have time for Victoria who struggles with the unspoken rules in the town: rules that can result in your being banished to the secret part of town behind a wall. Only a special pair of wooden-framed glasses enable her to see Perfect's real status and also a boy (called Boy) who lives in the town-within-a-town, but who ventures into the public part of the town to try to get help for his compatriots. Then Victoria's father disappears, supposedly away on a conference, and her mother is oblivious and uncaring either of what has happened to him or is happening to Victoria.
For me, this degenerated after the promising beginning into a chase/action story which involved running around from A to B, meeting various people and trying to get them to help without much success. The children of the hidden part of town are the only ones Victoria can depend upon. Eventually, a plan is put in place and executed, but the whole thing dragged a bit and became a bit repetitive. The map at the front of the book definitely helped with the running around though.
I wasn't keen on the constant reiteration that Victoria is 'only' a girl and Boy's disgust when she saves him for a change. At one point they have a senseless argument for no reason at all, other than the author wanting to introduce some conflict. The number of times he was knocked out was also unrealistic: in real life, he would have needed hospitalisation for severe concussion at least. The writing style seems too young for the somewhat dark subject matter. So I found it a bit disappointing and for me it's an OK 2 star read....more
This third volume is an oddity, switching focus from Menolly, protagonist of the first two volumes in the trilogy. After her unlikely rapid promotion This third volume is an oddity, switching focus from Menolly, protagonist of the first two volumes in the trilogy. After her unlikely rapid promotion to journeyman at the end of book two, the logical progression would have been a book about how she finds her feet in her new role, taking on greater responsibility and becoming an understudy to Harpermaster Robinton. But instead, this switches focus to Piemur, her friend and Artful Dodger like character. Three years have also passed by and Piemur, at fourteen, is about to sing the part of Lessa in a new work when his voice breaks.
Unlike Menolly, Piemur is not a prodigy and his boy soprano voice was his chief musical talent. However, his ability to think on his feet and improvise leads Robinton to find Piemur a new role as an intelligence-gathering spy. As cover, Robinton sends him to the drummers' tower but Piemur's quick wits work against him when the other drummer apprentices react with jealousy and vindictive hazing that eventually becomes murderous bullying. This isn't helped by Piemur's character transformation into a brooding teenager who decides to keep his troubles to himself. Eventually one of his missions leads to a life-changing relocation.
I wasn't so keen on this book for a number of reasons. I liked Piemur in book two when he was a cheeky lively eleven-year-old, but he wasn't strong enough to carry the whole book. There were also sequences which bordered on unlikely happenstance which were engineered for obvious plot reasons. In some ways, this book retrod ground already seen in Menolly's history: she, too, was bullied at Harper Hall, and she also spent some weeks living off the land with the company of fire lizards - one in his case, though he also befriended an orphaned herd beast.
Menolly does make cameo appearances but I wasn't convinced by the romance that had apparently developed between her and Sebell (?): someone with the character development of a paper bag. Although the fire-lizard-induced 'mating' scene was decorous, and given existing attraction didn't have the negative connotations of such scenes between dragon riders in 'Dragonflight' and 'Dragonquest', it didn't really belong in a trilogy that up to now had been aimed at a readership of 10+. This was emphasised by the fact that when Piemur meets a girl of his own age and spends a lot of time with her, there is absolutely no sign of the raging hormones that he surely would have experienced in real life. He doesn't even fancy her while blushing in embarrassment. I found that very unrealistic, but if the author wanted to avoid any hints of sex, she shouldn't have included that other scene with Menolly.
The sequence of surviving in the wilds is not only a recap of what the reader has already seen in 'Dragonsong', it was overstretched and I found it boring. Piemur's decision to relocate at the end seemed to arise more out of some plot arc requirement than the character's own journey. There are also some morally dubious sequences - not so much the stealing of a fire lizard egg as there have been instances of theft and extortion back at least as far as 'Dragonquest' so it doesn't seem to be a particular problem on Pern as long as the person doesn't get caught - but the scene of Robinton and others witholding pain relief, even from a character who has always been a villain, is cringe making. Pern comes across as a dysfunctional society due to this and occurrences in previous books in a way that the author perhaps did not intend: for example, three years after Menolly was known to suffer bullying at Harper Hall, it is still going on, and in this case is being encouraged by one of the drummer journeymen. It's also unclear as to whether that individual will incur any penalty.
With all these reservations, I can only rate this as an OK 2 stars....more
'Dragonsinger' carries on where the first book of the trilogy leaves off and also takes place during the period covered by 'Dragonquest', book two of 'Dragonsinger' carries on where the first book of the trilogy leaves off and also takes place during the period covered by 'Dragonquest', book two of the initial Pern trilogy. Some events of that book are referenced, the main one being F'nor's flight to the Red Star.
Menolly, having been recognised at long last as Harper Petiron's long-lost apprentice, is taken by MasterHarper Robinton to Harper Hall to be assessed by several teaching masters who cover the various aspects of what it takes to become a Harper on Pern. There, she has to contend with jealous girls who are studying at the Harper Hall, a nasty woman in charge of the girls' dorm, a couple of hostile masters who don't like the idea of a girl training to be a Harper, and the challenge of looking after nine hungry fire lizards, having formed a bond with (Impressed) those in book one. She also acquires friends in the shape of Artful-Dodger-like Piemur and mentally-disabled Camo, as well as champions among the masters and a motherly woman who handles domestic affairs at the hall and is much kinder and more decent to her than her own mother.
I liked this a little less than volume one, mainly because there isn't a real plot - it's just the story of someone settling in during their first week at music school - and the conclusion, which I won't give away, stretched my suspension of disbelief. Also, Menolly is much more of a Mary Sue in this although she isn't universally loved as I've mentioned above. But she's an all-round musical prodigy, and her songs are already winning wide acclaim when she's only been at the hall a few days. Masterharper Robinton is keen to disseminate them as they concern recent events and the people can be educated by them, since all education on Pern comes primarily through songs.
The decision to include a mentally disabled character is interesting. On the one hand it's positive in that Camo is a devoted, loyal friend who loves the fire lizards. On the other, the way he's addressed - and in the narrative also, not just in the speech of various characters - is in terms that wouldn't be acceptable in a book published today. He's also manhandled on a routine basis: when he's finished helping to feed the lizards each morning/evening, he's turned around and given a bit of a push back into the kitchen. All this made me uneasy, an extension to the unease I've felt whenever any "kitchen drabs" (Camo is one) are mentioned/featured: lowly kitchen slaves by any other name. They are allowed to go to local festivals, and to stand on the peripheries of musical performances so their lives aren't totally devoid of anything that makes them worth living, but the glimpses into their existence - which featured also in 'Weyr Search' (the original novella which became part one of 'Dragonflight') when Lessa was surviving as a kitchen drudge in her family's hold after they had been massacred - makes me think there are too many inequalities in the world of Pern. Such people have no chance of developing any skills they might have if educated. They're even worse off than the repressed position in which Menolly toiled in her original home Hold.
Another aspect - and one I found puzzling - is the presence of other girls at the hall, who are studying music in a rather dilatory fashion. None are accomplished musicians, and they seem to prefer gossiping, going around with the local lord's foster lordings or bullying Menolly. Apparently, they are paying students. Yet we know from 'Dragonsong' that girls are not allowed to become harpers (Menolly being the big exception because of her huge talent) and it seems to be the equivalent of finishing school for them but with a much reduced curriculum. Their real reason for inclusion is so they and the dorm mistress can bully Menolly. And it makes Menolly seem a token girl, because there's no possibility for an ordinarily-talented girl musician to become a harper. No one questions this either. You have to be almost a Mozart-level genius to break the gender barrier (and it helps if you were in the family of the Hold lord where you came from too - plenty of class distinctions on Pern as well). Otherwise, the best you can hope for is to marry well and become a lady of leisure, or be a hard-working domestic who might rise to manage the domestic side of a hold/craft hall.
One quirk of the author's surfaced right at the start of the book: when Robinton introduces Menolly as the mysterious 'lost apprentice' who penned the song about saving the fire lizards, I thought at first that it was a continuity error. Menolly saved the lizards and wrote the song after her former mentor, who sent a couple of her songs to the Harper Hall, had died. But the author finally explains around page 30 that it was his replacement who found the song where she'd hidden it among the harper's papers in the training room, and it was he who had sent the song to Robinton. I've noticed McCaffrey does sometimes give the reader information in the wrong order which results in confusions like this.
I liked Piemur and the fire lizards. Camo's presence had some positive aspects, and on the whole I like Masterharper Robinton. There's also a brief inclusion here and there of the dragons and their riders. But with the various reservations I have about this volume, and the lack of credibility of the ending, I can only award it 3 stars....more
This is book one of the Harper Hall trilogy. I had intended to read 'The White Dragon' straight after finishing 'Dragonquest', but realised from MenolThis is book one of the Harper Hall trilogy. I had intended to read 'The White Dragon' straight after finishing 'Dragonquest', but realised from Menolly's inclusion in chapter one that there were probably massive spoilers for this separate trilogy so switched to this instead. The book (and its follow up) is set within the same timescale as 'Dragonquest'.
This trilogy is quite noticeably intended for younger readers: for a start, the books are much shorter than the original 'Dragonflight' trilogy. Also, there's no sex, which is a bonus given McCaffrey's penchant for scenes that border if not actually cross over the line into sexual abuse/assault. But this first volume is quite a sombre tale for a young adult or older children's audience given that the protagonist, Menolly, lives in a repressive society within a seahold where her gift for music is systematically suppressed.
When the story opens, she is 'allowed' to sing a lament for her mentor, the old Harper, Petiron, who has just died and is being buried at sea. Her father, the man in charge, is very resistant to her continuing involvement in music as she is 'only' a girl and not permitted. However, he has to bow to necessity as no one else is competent to teach the children (history and essential knowledge are taught through songs on Pern, the planet where the books are set). But this is a stop gap measure only, until the new Harper arrives: a couple of months, given the low tech means of communication. Petiron had promised Menolly he would send a couple of her songs to the Harper Hall, to Masterharper Robinton, but as he was becoming senile before he died, she didn't know if he had actually done so.
When her father hears her play one of her own songs to the children, he flogs her. Later, when put to work gutting fish she cuts her hand and her mother deliberately neglects to heal it properly. Both parents are happier that she should be "crippled" (1970s sensibilities) and unable to do a lot of the backbreaking tasks allocated to women and girls, rather than allow her to bring "disgrace" on her settlement by exhibiting musical talent. Only her brother has any sympathy for her but he's too afraid of their father to speak out. When the new Harper arrives, everyone lies to him about who taught the children in his absence, and Menolly is prevented from even joining in the evening singalongs.
She ends up roaming the shores to gather sea creatures and edible plants each day, a task she can still manage, and on one of her expeditions comes across fire lizards. These are diminutive small dragons, related to the large animals bred to fight Thread (a dangerous organism that travels across from another planet in Pern's system). Her relationship to the queen fire lizard eventually leads to her situation improving.
This was a quick, page turning read. The abuse dealt out to Menolly is disturbing. She would be in danger of becoming a 'Mary Sue' character - she has perfect pitch, plays all instruments well, can make her own instruments, knows all the essential teaching, and composes music as good as the traditional songs - but given the hostility towards her of her family, apart from her brother, she avoids this fate. The parts of the story where she lives alone and survives on her own wits, while forming a bond with fire lizards, are interesting though possibly a bit dragged out. Her eventual salvation does arrive via quite a few lucky coincidences. And I continue to have problems with some of the names on Pern - Petiron kept coming out in my mind as Periton, an anti-histamine medication! But overall I enjoyed it and would rate it at 4 stars....more
This third volume of the first Pern trilogy focuses on Jaxom who, at the end of 'Dragonquest', impressed a white dragon, never before seen and not expThis third volume of the first Pern trilogy focuses on Jaxom who, at the end of 'Dragonquest', impressed a white dragon, never before seen and not expected to live. This allows Jaxom, heir to Ruatha Hold, to retain his position while being bonded to a dragon, normally something that would result in the person becoming a dragon rider and living in a Weyr, renouncing all titles as Lessa was obliged to do in 'Dragonflight' when she gave up her claim to Ruatha. He starts off around twelve at the beginning, but matures during the book as does his dragon.
The beginning few chapters are rather uneven as they jump forward in time. I soon realised that they contained spoilers about the Harper Hall trilogy and switched to that, reading all three before returning to this volume. However, there are other things alluded to which happen off stage frustratingly. For example, it's clear from chapter two's opening that Masterharper Robinton has just returned from a dangerous visit to the southern continent where only his Journeyman Menolly's seamanship saved them. That is referred to a number of times throughout this book but the reader is never shown what happened; it's just reported off stage like a battle in a Shakespeare play.
The book is not very coherent plotwise. Firstly, there's the strand of the southern exiles, who were sent there in 'Dragonquest' after one of their leaders made a murderous attack on F'lar, Weyrleader of Benden Weyr. A queen dragon egg is stolen and Lessa, Weyrwoman of Benden and the rider of Ramoth whose egg it was, is ready to go to war. It makes her come over as unreasoning and unpleasant, though she does come round a lot before the end of the story. But the author quite often resorts to giving her female characters these negative trends. Either they are angry, or they are whiney. Mirrim is a case in point. She started off in the earlier books as a foster child of Brekke, another Benden Weyrwoman (bereft of her dragon due to events in 'Dragonquest') and seemed resourceful but in this she comes across as petty and jealous of Jaxom for no real reason. She has a green dragon herself yet never seems to ride to fight thread even though the Weyrwomen do on their queens.
Another plot thread is Jaxom's gradual acceptance as the future lord and the balancing act between that and his wish to fly Ruth against Thread. But as soon as he wins permission to do so, he seems to lose interest and finds the essential training boring. He often goes off on a tangent, doing things by himself, taking risks despite his position, but then getting away with it. On one level, he is actually a bit of a spoiled brat. He dislikes Piemur, the harper who relocated to the southern continent at the end of book three of the Harper Hall trilogy, and the author has written Piemur as quite annoying, but Jaxom's position in society is vastly privileged, compared to Piemur's itinerant existence, travelling alone apart from his fire lizard and runner beast through dangerous terrain in order to 'map' the continent for his superiors.
Another thread is Jaxom's love life and his uneven path towards marriage which has a slightly saccharine conclusion at the end of the story. His dragon Ruth, through their telepathic bond, has a voyeuristic spectator role whenever Jaxom has sex. Unfortunately, Jaxom's personality takes a turn for the worse as he grows into adulthood. By virtue of being heir to the Holder Lord title, he exercises a 'droit de seigneur' right with a farmer's daughter, which strays into the realms of assault when he resorts to her after being turned on by a green dragon's mating flight. Afterwards, he's full of remorse, though Ruth (and I did find the name odd for a male dragon) assures him she enjoyed it (something all too common in McCaffrey's fiction). It didn't endear Jaxom to me when, after his remorse, he quickly decides he should return to the farmer's daughter if he can't have sex with Sharra, the woman whom he now 'loves'.
Yet another thread is the development of Toric, southern Holder and brother of Sharra, into a low-level villain who is trying to landgrab as much of the southern continent as possible and build a powerbase through the younger sons of holders being sent to him from the north. There was no hint of this personality trait in book three of the Harper Hall trilogy where he was introduced, and it really seems to come out of nowhere.
Finally, most interestingly, there is the plot strand where various people get together, led by F'lar and Lessa, to explore the ruins on the southern continent of the original settlements of their ancestors, abandoned due to seismic activity. Jaxom manages to insert himself into this by going off on an exploratory flight and discovering the two sites of interest. This strand fizzles out by the end of the story, though maybe the author continues it in a later book.
I liked the character of Ruth, but altogether, with the rambling plot and the annoying character of Jaxom, I can only really rate this at 3 stars....more
Loved this but I don't want to say too much about it. I began reading without having read the blurb or any review: I just saw this in a charity shop aLoved this but I don't want to say too much about it. I began reading without having read the blurb or any review: I just saw this in a charity shop and thought the front cover and title were intriguing. So at first I was thrown by what happens near the beginning when I'd started to 'get comfortable' with the viewpoint of the first character. But by the time the third one came in, I began to get into the swing. And I liked the whole insane vibe of an Agatha Christie house party in a mansion that is mouldering and decaying all around the characters.
This isn't a book for everyone. There's quite a lot of graphic violence. It's also very convoluted with lots of point-of-view switches, timeline switches, and the same events as seen by different people. It's very clever and must have been very difficult for the writer to pull off. The writing is also powerful with some great atmospheric passages and also dark humour. It did leave me with one puzzle - something that didn't quite add up - a certain character is meant to be trying to escape the scenario in which they find themselves but is very invested in getting hold of certain books to take over a particular business (no spoilers) which is odd if he wants to leave. And I wasn't totally convinced about the change of heart of a key character, who certainly had little compunction in killing a couple of people even though it was to save the protagonist. But I enjoyed the read, will be hanging onto this one as I'd like to read it again, and overall am rating it as 5 stars. (And for anyone who wants to know more about it without actually spoiling, there's a great review by PattyMacDotComma - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)...more
Nora Seed is weighed down by a lifetime of regrets. As a schoolgirl, many options were open to her, as the kind school librarian, Mrs Elm, pointed outNora Seed is weighed down by a lifetime of regrets. As a schoolgirl, many options were open to her, as the kind school librarian, Mrs Elm, pointed out. Nora spent many afternoon breaks in the library playing chess with Mrs Elm. One of her many interests was the far north and the science of glaciology. Others were music - she was a talented pianist and songwriter - and she was also a champion swimmer, although that was a dream of her father's which she had rebelled against. Then Mrs Elm took a phone call with devastating news for Nora.
Nineteen years later, Nora has a dead-end job in a music shop and gives piano lessons to a teenage boy. She has a cat, and her only real friend moved to Australia. She once turned down the offer of going for a coffee with a nice man called Ash, because she was already going out with Dan - but she subsequently backed out of marrying Dan. The reader is told that Nora is in a countdown to deciding to die, a decision triggered by a series of misfortunes which send her into a downward spiral - she is already on anti-depressants.
She then wakes up in the Midnight Library, a metaphorical place which exists only because she is caught between life and death. An entity who appears to be Mrs Elm becomes her guide. There are countless books, each representing an alternative life which she can join (but at her current age - she doesn't get to live those whole timelines). In each, she has to muddle through until she works out the situation and can see if that life would be more 'right' for her. She can, for example, see what it would have been like if she'd married Dan, or if she had conquered the stage fright which led to her brother's band not being signed by a record company (his dream) as they were only interested in the band if she remained as lead singer and songwriter. Or what would have happened if she'd stuck to swimming and become an Olympic champion as her father wanted.
If one of these alternative lives is a better fit, she can stay and will gradually forget about the library and her original 'root' life. But if it is disappointing, she will fade out and return to the library to try again. Her initial choices in particular are governed by her book of regrets which starts off very thick.
I found this an interesting concept, rather like a literary version of 'It's a Wonderful Life', as one of the review comments at the front pointed out. It's a relatable concept as I think everyone has regrets in life, and it would be fascinating to find out what would have happened if you had made a different decision about a key factor. I found it easy to feel sympathy for Nora despite her conviction that she was useless and no one would miss her etc: this was convincingly depressed thinking. I also liked her relationship with Mrs Elm, both the real life one and the library persona. Some of the other characters were also engaging, as was the way she gradually learned and developed through her extra-life experiences, realising that she had made a positive difference to other people in her 'root' life. An enjoyable read and I would award it five stars....more
The premise of this sounded interesting but it didn't really live up to it: it came across in the end as a sort of X-Men:Lite. I understand that this The premise of this sounded interesting but it didn't really live up to it: it came across in the end as a sort of X-Men:Lite. I understand that this is book 1 - and having looked at the series record, it has a lot of follow-ups - but not a great deal happens amongst the repetition in this opener. Seventeen-year-old Sienna wakes up to find two men who have broken into the house so she proceeds to defend herself, though not with total success. A stranger called Reed arrives in a car and whisks her off but they only go as far as the nearest supermarket where he treats her to a chicken dinner. The two men catch up and then a monstrous creature named Wolfe arrives who creates havoc and Sienna has to be rescued and wakes up in a facility. She learns there that there are superhumans called 'meta' and she is one of them: stronger, faster and supposedly more intelligent than ordinary humans, and likely to have a special power that she will develop now she is nearly eighteen.
In the meantime, it has become clear that Sienna has not had a normal life. She has literally never set foot outside her house and has been raised by her mother to be an exemplary fighter but has also been abused in the process. Her mother has now gone missing. I won't go into details on that aspect as there is a big reveal later. However, the basic scenario has little effect on Sienna or her character. In real life, someone leaving a house where they have been incarcerated since the age of five would at the least experience disorientation and maybe agoraphobia. She would have a lot more issues adapting to moving to a place where there are lots of people when she can't recall interacting with anyone but her mother for most of her young life. Her mother's abuse was designed to break her down and make her obedient, yet she is strongly defiant towards authority. This whole aspect of the book is just unrealistic.
After another violent encounter with Wolfe in which eight agents are killed, and subsequent atrocities which he commits to draw her out of hiding at the institute, nearly everyone turns against her and even hates her. A M-squad of super-mutants is meant to be coming back from South America to sort out the problem, but they never turn up, putting all the weight onto Sienna to deal with a seemingly unbeatable opponent. The only person sympathetic to her, Zack, goes off to find the M-squad and that's the last seen of him, in this volume at least, and she can't even be sure he's really on her side and not acting as a spy for the man who runs the institute. The attitude expressed towards her came across as inappropriate: I could have accepted one or two characters being like that, but she's not even eighteen and is known to have had a totally deprived background. Their hatred should have been directed at the creature responsible for the death toll, not Sienna. In effect, they bully her into offering herself up as a sacrifice. The twist at the end didn't save it for me, and I can only rate this as an OK 2 stars....more
This is book 1 of a series in which Rosemary inherits a house from her grandmother, who the reader knows from the prologue was murdered by enemies. RoThis is book 1 of a series in which Rosemary inherits a house from her grandmother, who the reader knows from the prologue was murdered by enemies. Rosemary is a single mother whose husband Dain is completely unreliable and who has alienated their daughter Athena. After moving into the house, which they originally plan to sell, Rosemary and Athena discover that they both have powers inherited through the family line, and that their grandmother/great-grandmother was a powerful witch. Power is embedded in the house but it is locked up and it is Rosemary's job to release it and thereby come into her own power, but she faces challenges. Meanwhile, enemies are also trying to steal the power from the house.
I liked the various quirky characters in the community and the way magic was embedded in Myrtlewood, with goddess-worship and other manifestations. The story is a light, humorous read. Although Rosemary is pretty ditzy and often has to be managed by her teenage daughter, it's clear later on that a lot of that stems from certain measures which her grandmother had to take which have affected Rosemary's memory. Altogether, it was a pleasant, page turning read and I would rate it at 3 stars....more
As someone who has been interested in the Celts and Celtic mythology for many years, this book appealed to me immediately. The author has a love of IrAs someone who has been interested in the Celts and Celtic mythology for many years, this book appealed to me immediately. The author has a love of Irish myths and legends which comes across right away. Bree is a young woman of eighteen who has been raised by her aunt in a very confined environment: the interior of a cave. Her aunt, Áine, has educated her to a point using books about the gods, goddesses and heroes, of the Tuatha Dé Danann, Bree’s people. In this reimagining, they had to leave their original homeland and split into three companies. One went to Ireland, one to Tir Na Nog, and another seems to have disappeared. But Áinewill not answer a lot of Bree’s questions. She does, however, emphasise that it is Bree’s duty to guard the ancient flame in a little cauldron in a room in their cave home, and the reason becomes clear when an earthquake occurs, which Áine confesses means that Bree’s mother, the Triple Goddess, has died. Bree is thus able to bond with the flame as her mother did. Then the god Lu (whose name I’m more used to seeing as Lugh) arrives to bring them out of exile.
I liked the development of the main character from naïve young woman to one who gradually gains in confidence and is able to take on a leadership role. Also her relationship with Lu starts off prickly but it is obvious there is a mutual attraction despite Bree’s belief that Lu dislikes her or even that he is jealous of her position. There were plenty of mythical characters included, some taken from Greek mythology or other legends, such as centaurs and unicorns, and I especially liked Niamh, the fairy who befriends Bree. I did think that Áine’s role as Queen of the Fairies could have been expanded a bit, as it wasn’t really clear how she, a seemingly ordinary woman, related to tiny creatures which glow and fly. But perhaps that will be explored in a later volume.
Every story requires an antagonist of some kind for the main character to struggle against and prove themselves in the process and in this, Mor, a creepy character with great power, loosely based on the Morrigan of Celtic myth, is Bree’s opponent.
The book has low key romance and fantasy violence but nothing too graphic in either respect, and I think suits a young adult audience. The plotline is linear and very straightforward. There was some repetition when Bree spoke her incantation, naming her various aspects, which could have been covered later on by just saying that she did just that rather than repeating it all each time, but that was a minor niggle. Bree and Lu were my favourite characters, and I found it an enjoyable read.
Thanks to the author for an ARC of this. I am rating it as 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review....more
I found this one a bit uneven. Maddy is kidnapped from her bed and finds herself in a fortress where she is told she is one of the vaettir, a Norse naI found this one a bit uneven. Maddy is kidnapped from her bed and finds herself in a fortress where she is told she is one of the vaettir, a Norse name for nature spirits, but also rather wider than that if googled. She has a 'gift' or curse whereby she can inadvertently draw out the energy of other people, killing them, when she is only trying to comfort them for a relatively slight injury. For some reason, she has been left in the human world, untrained, until now, but the leader of a particular faction among the vaettir wants to use her ability. Quite a bit of the story involves walking around the fortress and traipsing up and down corridors and in and out of the kitchen, so it did strike me as rather static until Maddy finally leaves the fortress.
There is a lot of torture and graphic descriptions of injury and death. There is also a sort-of romance with another character, the brother of a vaettir who helps the heroine. Maddy is drawn into the conflict between the various factions and never knows who is on whose side given the shifting allegiances. It's a bit confusing about the abilities of the various characters - her would-be boyfriend has cat fangs at times but doesn't actually shift into a cat creature. Altogether, I found the world-building not quite concrete enough and the violence a bit too graphic so I can only give this an OK 2 star rating....more
This is book 1 in a very interesting fantasy series with a different background. The two main characters are Nahri, who is a con artist and thief in 1This is book 1 in a very interesting fantasy series with a different background. The two main characters are Nahri, who is a con artist and thief in 18th century Cairo during the French occupation, and Ali the son of a King in the hidden city of Daevabad. Nahri has always had strange abilities, such as picking up languages without even trying and being able to diagnose and even heal illnesses. When she hosts a ceremony to quieten a disturbed girl, supposedly by pacifying a djinn possessing her (which Nahri knows is not the case), she makes the mistake of chanting part of the words in a language which she believes to be the one her unknown parents spoke but has never met anyone else who knows it. Despite her lack of belief in magic, she summons up a powerful djinn, called Dara (for short as his name is much longer), and the girl who is the subject of the ritual becomes possessed by an iffrit , a demonic type of djinn. This creature comes after Nahri, who is apparently a descendent of the Nahdi, a tribe of djinn healers and rulers believed until now to be extinct, and Dara ends up rescuing her despite his anger at her for dragging him from another dimension to serve her.
The other viewpoint character, Ali, is a djinn himself, younger son of the ruler of Daevabad. His tribe converted to Islam, and Ali is a devout believer. His moral standards have led him to provide monetary and other assistance to the downtrodden part-human inhabitants known as shafit, but his good nature has been abused, and the recipients of his largesse are arming themselves against the rulers. Ali is then torn between his loyalty to his family and his compassion for the downtrodden, with tragic results.
The two characters come together after Dara brings Nahri to the city, which is a refuge from the iffrit who cannot enter. A love triangle of sorts develops. I wasn't a fan of that as I didn't think the story really needed it: I could believe an attraction developing between Ali and Nahri due to their common interests, but the relationship with Dara seemed to be a kind of instalove and pure physical attraction. He has a lot of unpleasant character traits including misogyny, racism and a tendency to resort to violence as the answer to conflict.
The worldbuilding in this book is extensive and intricate. It runs the risk of causing confusion at times. There is a lot of backstory about the origin of the six djinn tribes and why they are corporeal and no longer creatures of fire as originally created. Quite often this becomes an infodump. There are unresolved contradictions, such as the original reason for Ali's family being rulers of Daevabad. Their ancestor led a rebellion against the Nahdi, the old rulers, because of the cruelty they inflicted on the shafit - but in the present day, Ali's family use the same brutal methods against the shafit and his father compels Ali to preside over a horrific Nahdi style execution.
The last part of the book is a rollercoaster but it does take a long while to get there and I got a bit tired of Nahri's brattish behaviour once they reached the city and she was supposed to be learning how to heal the Nahdi way. I'm not sure I understood all the nuances: the djinn have relics, items in which part of their soul has been placed, but I think there were also other objects of significance. Some of that went over my head. It was also a bit confusing that the tribe who are still loyal to the Nahdi (and hence Nahri) are called Daeva rather than djinn - it seems djinn was an Arabic word which Ali's family adopted for themselves and other tribes came to do the same. That seemed an unnecessary complication. But I have already purchased book 2 on Kindle because I enjoyed the opening volume - only my reservations held it back from being a 5 star read....more
A survey of epic fantasy through the lenses of the author's biases, stated in various places. He is scathing about the Inklings: Tolkien, C S Lewis anA survey of epic fantasy through the lenses of the author's biases, stated in various places. He is scathing about the Inklings: Tolkien, C S Lewis and Charles Williams. One of the things he dislikes about Tolkien is the latter's supposedly small minded environmental concerns and yet this is one of the aspects that probably appeals the most to modern readers given the ongoing loss of habitat and biodiversity. He views them as Oxford snobs. As someone who obsessively re-read Lewis ' Narnia series as a child, despite being working class myself, that all went over my head at the time and I just enjoyed the stories and characters. I've yet to re-read them but doubt I'll develop the antipathy towards them that the author demonstrates.
He highly rates the late Fitz Leiber, as do I, having discovered his work when at high school, and he points out the male dominated nature of the genre and the good work being done by women at the time of publication (my copy is the first edition). But a singular omission in his discussion of women fantasy writers of the period is Tanith Lee who was very prolific at the time although her early work was published in the States since she couldn't get UK publishers interested. I found it odd - she wasn't even mentioned in passing, unlike Katherine Kurtz who at least had her surname included, though frustratingly nothing more. Another odd omission is that despite discussing some of the work of André Norton, he fails to even mention her Witch World series, her biggest contribution to the genre.
A lot of the book consists of quotes from various works but with not much critical input. He also states up front that he has excluded his own writing so anyone hoping for insights into the development of the Eternal Champion canon will be disappointed. Given the uneven nature of the book, for me it rates an OK 2 stars...more
One of the worse things I've ever read, this apparently is the concluding volume in a five book series. There is little character development of any oOne of the worse things I've ever read, this apparently is the concluding volume in a five book series. There is little character development of any of the principles, and new point of view characters were being introduced three quarters of the way through. The hero, Frankenstein's 'monster' going by the name of Deucalion, has such spectacular powers that he is not only strong enough to overturn a heavy vehicle with passengers inside, he can teleport both himself and any vehicle he is inside to anywhere he wants, by folding space. So not a lot of tension, as he easily rescues all the children in town when Victor, a clone of the original Frankenstein, lets loose the apocalypse.
Similarly, the villains defeat themselves. Although the nano-monsters, the Builders, can reshape any living thing into their own substance to create more of themselves, and often the furniture and any other inanimate object, in doing so they malfunction and often self destruct. The Replicants created to take the place of the townsfolk and aid the take-over soon start obsessing over cleaning or some other action, such as destroying ornaments because they offend their sensibilities and again defeat themselves. They do manage to kill quite a few citizens but the revolt is derailing even when the hero acts against its leader. Meanwhile, even the dogs and horses are spared although I did wonder whether anyone went back and rescued the horses, trapped in a reinforced stable, from starving.
It was quite difficult to remember who was meant to be who when switching between the pairs of sidekicks who were roaming around town having various encounters with the nano-types. The FBI agents were particularly cardboard and forgettable so it didn't matter which were killed. Similarly, the people at the radio station were barely sketched. One character who did come off the page forcefully, though should have stayed there, was Jocko who apparently was a sentient tumour.....! Whatever it was supposed to be, this personality came across as someone on a particular cocktail of drugs and was very irritating.
The author's prejudices against college professors and the like is periodically referenced and an admiration of gun-toting survivalists is prominently on show. There is also a ludicrous development where the person putting up the money for Victor's plot to destroy all life on the planet is supposedly the US president. Apart from the question of why anyone less crazy than him would want to exterminate themselves and their family as well as everything else, it was a misfire as I thought he was referring to a now ex-president with the initials DT. I read afterwards that it was meant to be Barak Obama and have no idea what the author has against him. But as he was as cardboard as everyone else bar Jocko, it could have been anyone.
The only positive point is that all the women are both kick-ass and beautiful. So at least there are no downtrodden or wilting violets while the apocalypse plays itself out.
Altogether, a right load of nonsense which can only be awarded one star....more
A short novella which can be read in a couple of hours, this is apparently book 1 in a trilogy and a collaboration with a writer I hadn't heard of befA short novella which can be read in a couple of hours, this is apparently book 1 in a trilogy and a collaboration with a writer I hadn't heard of before.
Twelve year old Gwendy is exercising one day, trying to get her weight down having had a spiteful comment directed at her and aware that when she starts at the new school shortly she will be bullied if she is chubby. She runs up the stairs to a vantage point in the local park, known as suicide stairs, and at the top a man dressed in black is sitting who introduces himself in a quirky manner. She is naturally cautious at first but he says he has a present for her and shows her an attractive box covered with coloured buttons. Each represents a continent except for the black one which must never be pressed and stands for everything, and a red one which can be anything she wills. A lever on one side produces delicious miniature chocolate animals, one per day, which will allow her to eat her proper balanced meals but not be tempted by deserts. And on the other side, another level occasionally produces valuable silver dollars which eventually help her with college expenses.
The mysterious man in black, who has the initials RF (Randall Flagg anyone?) tells her that to guard the box will be her responsibility. She does so but as she gets older and college looms, what to do with it becomes more of a burden. One or two things happen which make her very wary of it. Meanwhile, it seems to have done a lot of good to her and her family without her having to actively utilise it.
On the plus side, I liked Gwendy as a character: sensible, kind, hard working and so on, she is an ideal guardian for a dangerous weapon. I wasn't such a fan at one point that to overcome a villain she flashes her boobs at him; surely some other method could have been chosen for her to distract a killer? And RF, if it were indeed he, seems far too benevolent. Rather than give it to someone responsible, wouldn't he just press the buttons and blow the world up? The book has some nice illustrations and it was a pleasant read, but on the whole I would rate it at 3 stars....more
A woman, Jilly, and two brothers, Dylan and younger brother Shepard known as Shep, have to go on the run together when they are injected by a mad scieA woman, Jilly, and two brothers, Dylan and younger brother Shepard known as Shep, have to go on the run together when they are injected by a mad scientist character who seems to be using them as vehicles for his life's work, as he expects the imminent arrival of assassins. When said assassins arrive and blow up the woman's car, seemingly with the scientist aboard, they are forced to depart in the car belonging to the brothers. The story is then their cross-country road trip trying to stay ahead of the killing squad and to work out what has been done to them. They eventually find out it involves nanotechnology and that nanobots are reshaping their brains with very odd results.
I did quite like the book, which is more than I can say for any other 21st century offering from the author although I liked his original novels. This at least does not have devils intruding into human lives or deadly creatures that can only been seen by someone who helps the dead. Instead, the uncanny powers, however unlikely, are science fictional in nature even though the science behind them is pretty shaky. I must admit, the plot of someone being injected in order to save a scientist's life work from being destroyed by his employer gave me deja vu from the start as it reminded me strongly of Greg Bear's 'Blood Music' (which predates this novel by about 20 years) although the scientist in that story injects himself to smuggle his research out of the lab. So it was even more familiar when it turned out the substance they had been injected with contained nanobots. Anyway, apart from those basic ideas the two books are not similar otherwise.
Some of the character traits that the individuals have are annoying, for instance, Jilly's constant anger and argumentativeness. Similarly, it seems odd that if the nanobots in question are meant to enhance the brain's structure they don't resolve Shep's autism. And I found his name rather a challenge, given that there was a famous Blue Peter dog of that name in the UK (Blue Peter is a long-running children's programme) which even had a hit record, 'Get Down Shep!'
The book is rather overwritten in places so that tension is rather dissipated by long drawn out description, such as when Dylan creeps through a house, followed by Jilly, towards a dangerous individual. And the winding up rather spoils things by its unlikely deus-ex-machina of a wealthy benefactor and where the story almost turns into a superhero origin tale. I did find it a bit odd also that the phrase (used as the book's title) coined as a reference to the scientist's wickedness, is eventually adopted by the nano-engineered individuals as a sort of club name for themselves. There are a few references to the author's dissatisfaction with modern life, but nowhere near as intrusive as in more recent novels of his which I've read, but that ending is pure wish fulfilment on the author's part. Overall, I rate this at a 3 star read....more
A little confused about this short book which is one of the Moomin stories that I didn't read as a child - but I think it was subsequently revised andA little confused about this short book which is one of the Moomin stories that I didn't read as a child - but I think it was subsequently revised and published as Moominpapa's Memoirs? Anyway, I liked it in parts. Moominpapa, having reached the age of 40, and suffering from a cold, writes his memoirs for the edification of his family and friends. During the book, there are asides where we get the reactions of his son Moomintroll and his son's friends to whom he is reading each bit of the story. By the end of the book, a few mysteries are solved.
There are some places where I found it to drag a bit - I didn't find the ghost particularly funny, for example. The ending also makes no sense because why haven't certain characters' parents raised them if they are alive and well? And what happened to Hodgkins who was my favourite of the new characters introduced - I don't recall him being in any of the ones I've read? On the plus side, I loved the illustrations as always. So on balance, I rate this at 3 stars....more
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