I haven’t read too many of the “gritty fairy tale reboot” genre, and I didn’t know when I started this that that’s what I was getting. China Mieville book? Sign me up! Gritty story about the Pied frakkin’ Piper? What the hell? But China didn’t let me down. The outline of the story is very familiar: protagonist gets in a scrape, finds out he’s important or chosen in some way, learns new skills and gets new allies, faces Big Bad. But it’s all told with […]
Potential, buried under a few layers of meh
The friend who recommended this sold it as a ‘scary book.’ It was not scary. Or else I am awesomely brave. Yeah, I’m sure that’s it. Sweeney, Angelica, and Oliver are freshmen at a college called St. John the Divine. Grey’s Anatomy-style crushes crop up immediately, with our heroine Sweeney in love with Angelica and Oliver, and Angelica and Oliver in love with each other, but also happy to flirt with Sweeney. Things get weird pretty fast when Sweeney sees an angel in her dorm […]
Another ‘gifted teenage misfit destined to save the world’ story, but with a few original bits
I had seen Sanderson’s name on Cannonball multiple times, but I wasn’t sure where to start. A friend recommended Mistborn, so I figured a double recommendation (meatspace friend and CBR folks) was a pretty sure thing. And I really enjoyed it, even though I can’t tell which book in the series this is (there’s a snippet of ‘the concluding volume of the Mistborn trilogy’ in the back of the book, though Amazon tells me this is the first one). Teenage thief Vin lives in a […]
An emotional but worthwhile journey
There was much less sobbing than I expected, even considering what happens right at the beginning of the book (no spoilers). I am mad at the universe for taking Pratchett from us so soon (especially since I’ve been rereading Douglas Adams and I’m mad about that all over again), but I knew Pratchett wouldn’t let me down. His final Discworld book checks back in with Tiffany Aching, teenage witch and all-around badass. The elves are trying to break out of fairyland and wreak havoc in […]
Disappointment in space
Sigh. I have been on a hunt for lady sci-fi writers. There’s Lois McMaster Bujold, of course, but I’ve already read (and reread, and rerereread) all of hers. Mostly, the women are in the fantasy section, and I wanted space! So I had high hopes for this one, and they were dashed – dashed, I tell you! There’s a decades-long war going on with some aliens, and an internal coup going on in the military between factions who think the head dude is doing it […]
Better than the first one; still not as good as Hitchhiker
This is not really a sequel, as it has nothing at all to do with the first Dirk Gently book. This is a totally new adventure: one that makes slightly more sense than the first one, but still isn’t as good as the Hitchhiker series. That seems unfair, though – what could possibly be as good as Hitchhiker? Kate is an American living in London who becomes embroiled with a large blond man who claims to be Thor. Why Thor takes a shine to her […]
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