“It occurs to me with a shock that he may not like books. I dismiss the thought as soon as it enters my head as too preposterous to be borne. Not like books! I cannot believe it of a fellow man.” This book is the driest of the dry of humor and I loved it. I normally try to do my own plot summary for reviews, but I think that whomever wrote the blurb for this one did an excellent job, so I’m cribbing it […]
Great first introduction to a new (to me) author
Sometimes you finish a novel and get pissed off; sometimes you are sad to see it end; sometimes you feel cheated and sometimes you immediately miss the characters and wish to continue their story. Sarah Water’s Fingersmith—the first book by her I’ve read, although not the first she published—falls into the latter category. Set in Victorian-era London, the novel tells the story of Sue Trinder, an orphan who is being raised by a woman named Mrs. Sucksby, who happens to run a “baby farm” […]
Too much time messing around with the circus
This world and characters have soo much potential, but the story spends so much wasted time on Elizabeth either planning or thinking. I also find the title a bit misleading as it does not really seem to appear to refer to Elizabeth but to a minor character who only has a few pages worth of story. Elizabeth Barnabus was born into a circus family, but the evil Duke of Northampton ruined the family in order to force then 15 year old Elizabeth into indentured servitude […]
“Dangerous creatures, wallflowers. Approach them with the utmost caution.”
Lady Pandora Ravenel, one of the late Earl of Trenear’s twin daughters is suffering through her first season. Normally she spends her times at balls sitting with the wallflowers, having invented some convoluted excuse for her inability to dance that evening. When a newly married friend of hers asks for her help to retrieve a lost earring, Pandora braves her fear of the dark to go out to the deserted pavilion, searching for the earring and getting herself soundly stuck in an elaborate piece of […]
Forward but in Reverse
So The Lazarus Gate is the predecessor of The Iscariot Sanction. These 2 books as it turns out are nearly stand-alones. If I’d read them in the correct order, I’m not sure I would have liked book 2. The Lazarus Gate takes place in the better of the two alternates; for the details of the bad one, you’ll need to read Iscariot Sanction. When the bad universe that’s falling apart with demons etc is described in The Lazarus Gate, there isn’t much detail, so it’s […]
The effects of reading 4 before 1
I accidentally read book 4 of this series (The Secret of Abdu El Yezadi) before book 1, The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, so my perspective here may be a little out of whack, but oh well. I think a lot of things meant to be surprises or reveals were not because I’d already seen the results. Burton complains briefly of feeling disconnected, and the reason for that gets fully disclosed in the 4th book, so I guess I missed wondering about that too, […]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- …
- 24
- Next Page »