I stopped at less than a hundred pages - of >650 - so this isn't a thorough review ( Read more... )

Ok. The book _does_ get better. We finally get to see more magic than a single desperate spell - a couple of snatches and a dreamland where an important battle is fought ( Read more... )

I sort-of-liked the book the first time I read it until I got to a certain point, at which I was thoroughly disgusted ( Read more... )

I'm following Sam Pepys on Twitter - they're only snippets from the Diary, but I get the odd glimpse of his life. So I picked up this novelisation with interest - and after reading it, I want to read his diary in the full ( Read more... )

I've talked about the opening paragraph in another context elsewhere, but since I've typed it out, I might as well repeat it.

The breathless sound of 'Santa Baby' trickled from the sales office's radio next door, a soft child-like voice singing about wanting a yacht, a flat and a string of race horses. At least it was better than 'White Christmas ( Read more... )

I loved this book. I think the fact that I love most about this book is that it's doing relatively well, it was published in 2010, and it's a My Kind Of Book ( Read more... )

This book is in my posession because I liked it a lot when I was thirteen or so. It was one of my Mum's, and I read almost everything that didn't protest, so I read it, too, and remembered it fondly ( Read more... )

Niven/Pournelle/Barnes: The Legacy of Heorot

This is very much a not-for-me book, and it could simply not be written brilliantly enough for me to appreciate the core of the book.

( Truths, general and specific )

I'll be honest in saying that I don't know yet whether I shall want to keep this book, but it passes the quality test. It's history-with-magic, where Druids really *are* holding the darkness back. I'm not certain about the PoV - first person is always hit and miss, and I found it a little infodumpy, but she does a very fine job building tension ( Read more... )

The idea of a novel about a velociraptor (or close relative) is one that needs some narrative skill to pull off. Animal novels are not impossible - think Watership Down, think Tad Williams - but this uses very distant narrative, does not build a believable character for the protagonist, and is a single unashamed infodump.

Raptor Red's sister ( Read more... )