FBNR Stuff:
As part of my trend to read complete series (as discussed in yesterday's post), I am now reading Blood Ties by Pamela Freeman. It is the first book in The Castings Trilogy, and the third and final book is due November 12. I'm reading the kindle edition on my iPhone (in Stanza) and I'm about 20% done. Its had a bit of a slow start, but i like the 3 main characters, the world, and the story, so I think the book has good potential. Just waiting for things to really kick into gear.
Slightly off-topic: Does anyone know if you can just subscribe to the book reviews on BSCReview? I thought that is what I had done, but apparently not. I can't handle the 45 tv and movie updates they have everyday, so if I can't just subscribe to the book review feed, I'll drop them.
Reviews:
The Spook's character was a revelation to me - here was a fully fledged 3D character and not just a mysterious tutor who said cryptic and mystical things, letting poor Thomas figure it out himself. Written with a sly sense of humour and coming across as likeable, the Spook is someone you would want to know, not just to clear some boggarts from your cellar, but someone to talk to and understand.
link: My Favourite Books: Spook's Apprentice by Joseph Delaney (I've been wondering if this series was good. After reading this review, my interested has increased. And I believe it is available digitally).
So the short review is; if you loved the series so far this is going to knock your socks off so read it!
link: Review: The Naming of the Beasts by Mike Carey (Orbit) – NextRead
The great attraction of these books is the way Chadbourn deals with British mythology, the secret history of the land as he puts it by voice of Tom. There is a whole library worth of fantasy novels that borrow from this rich source but I don't think I have read anything that does so in such a comprehensive way as Chadbourn.
link: Val's Random Comments: Always Forever - Mark Chadbourn
I didn't *hate* the book but I don't feel like I got anything out of it either. There were lots of very, very cool ideas that could have been fleshed out into fascinating aspects of the story and I dearly wish they had been.
link: Seven Foot Shelves: JD's Take: Sandman Slim (Richard Kadrey)
It turns out that the Discworld's elves are a bunch of merciless and easily-amused homicidal maniacs with a perchance for toying with their prey before killing them. This leads to some of Pratchett's most effective horror and tension-filled sequences, not something he is renowned for but given how good he is at them it may be a style of writing he should have tried employing more often.
link: The Wertzone: Wertzone Classics: Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett
To be honest, I wasn’t terribly impressed with this book. It was a page turner, but for an adult of 25 years the plot was terribly easy to figure out, right down to the last detail. Having read enough young adult in my life to spot an easy plot, I can reasonably assume that an intelligent 13 year old could figure out the ending to this book about 2/3 of the way through.
link: The Intelli-Gent Reviews:: Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant by Darren Shan
Even if Modesitt's characters think of ethics a lot, some of their actions are questionable. The author is always carefully inserts various shades of grey into his stories and in this particular instance he succeeds very well.
link: Val's Random Comments: Magi'i of Cyador - L.E. Modesitt Jr.
many discerning readers will feel disappointed with The Darkest Road. On its own merits, it’s a fine read, but the book can’t help but showcase the fact that The Fionavar Tapestry as a whole did not live up to the promise displayed in The Summer Tree.
link: The Darkest Road by Guy Gavriel Kay: Review by Keeping the Door
The prose in The Windup Girl is fantastic as Mr. Bacigalupi's always is. Similarly, the book's characters are well fleshed out and the setting capably realized (for the most part). However, none of this can make up for the fact that the story being told does not, in my opinion, come anywhere close to reaching the high standard set by his short fiction.
link: Speculative Fiction Junkie: Review - The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
I learned a lot about Sookie Stackhouse from each of the five stories, there isn’t a dud out of any of them. I’m not saying they are going to win any prices either. Harris has wonderful way of storytelling don’t get me wrong but there isn’t anything that deep in them.
link: Review: A Touch of Dead by Charlaine Harris (Gollancz) – NextRead
The real impressive part of this novel is the illustrations. The publishers went old school by including between one to two illustrations per chapter. The illustrations were done by Keith Thompson and are incredible adding a whole new level of enjoyment to the story that is rarely seen into today’s books. The purchase price alone is worth the artwork contained in this novel.
link: Robots and Vamps » RaV Book Review: Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
3 comments:
Jeff,
Did you finish Servant of a Dark God? If so, what was your take on it?
Guinevere Seaworth
No...I sure didn't it. I really liked what I read, but I knew it would be yet another book i would have trouble remembering the details a year later when reading the sequel. So depsite liking it, i put it down to pick up the Freeman book, since that series and Codez Alera end in November. I think The Broken Man trilogy by Russell Kirkpatrick wraps up next month, too. No digital versions of that, but i will read that anyway. And the Raven chronicles conclude next month. That is at least 4 good series that will conclude soon that I have been looking forward to reading.
The Last Apprentice Books are really really YA ish. They have a darker undertone to them but from your reading tastes and style I don't see you going for them. I thought they would be comparable to Ranger's Apprentice and that's how I found them out is I got the title wrong :P.
Though I do have to say that Last Apprentice was the first YA book that gave me nightmares and it wasn't because it was scary. It's a long story and rather funny!
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