Stephen
One of the best chess books, slightly let down by the condescending tone and attitude he has towards the mistakes his students make.
A book of exercises that follows on from Reassess Your Chess. Highly instructive and informative.
A great debut release, quite a few good ideas crammed into this novella. Would have loved this as a full novel with the themes and ideas and technology explored in greater depth. You will be left in the dark as to the relevance of certain chapters at the time, unless you figure out the twist early, but it all comes together nicely at the end. Looking forward to his first novel.
Well, for me, I'm surprised how quickly I got through this book. It is 1072 pages long but right from the get-go you're hooked and the pace of the book is brilliant. Yes there are a ton of characters but King handles their introductions with the skill he showed in The Stand, we like and care for the people who we are supposed to and we hate and dread those who deserve it. The story is not so much about the dome as it is about the town. Just as The Mist was more about the horrors of humanity trapped i the shop rather than the beasts in the mist outside, for the most part the dome itself is simply a means of containing a town.
There are a full range of characters and they all feel realistic, especially the ‘villains' and for the most part the actions of everyone is realistic also. I cannot remember at any point question what people did.
There are very tense moments in this book, the main tension develops steadily and is done extremely well and there gradually develops two main sides to be on, unfortunately the bad side is a lot bigger.
If you love Stephen King books, especially The Stand and The Mist, then you will love this book. If you have never read a King book, this wouldn't be the one I'd recommend first, however, it is so easy to get through that if it was your first then you should have no problems at all with it. If you don't like King then why are you reading? Anyway, still try this book and you may change your mind.
This is a book that I approached thinking that I wouldnt enjoy, based on the premise. Still, I heard it was good and so I gave it a go as I wait for Kings new book next month.
The book is in first person which most of the time I don't like, though there are exceptions, luckily this was one of them. King is such a good writer that I actually enjoyed the basic premise of Edgar painting eerie pictures that foretell the future and also have powers of their own.
The thing I did not enjoy was the fact that this is essentially a ghost story, which I wasn't aware of when I started reading. Now I am not keen on ghost stories, not because they are scary, because they rarely are, but because there always seems to be some element which seems too far out. In this book I didn't like how Edgar knew everything he was supposed to do and knew everything that had happened in the past.
My main problem with Duma Key is that it gradually built and built and got more intriguing and exciting as it went on...only to just drag and bore me with the final act. I was expecting an exciting conclusion to the story but in the end it didn't interest me much at all. If it had ended strongly then I would have given this an extra star but it let me down, unfortunately.
Duma Key is still a good book though, King has several good characters, the best being Wireman, and as always his writing is strong. Lovers of ghost stories will absolutely love this book.
Good premise, very slow and dry execution. It's hard to carry on when there are other books out there. On hold for now, it'd take a lot for me to come back to it. Really enjoyed the first story but not been interested in the rest.
I was enjoying this book quite a bit, then it lulled slightly. I had about a week or two off from reading and when i came back I just couldn't bring myself to get back into this. There are some bits that are very well done but there are plenty of needless parts that slow everything down too much. I want to finish but at the moment Westeros will have to wait.
I recommend this for beginners after they have a couple of hundred games under their belt. I don't see club players and above learning a great deal from this book but a complete beginner would be lost.
The section that deals with the openings is far too sparse. It offers very little as to the ideas behind each open, instead it offers two or three routes that games usually go, only going about five moves deep. A beginner shouldn't be memorising lines until they know the ideas behind the opening so that they can carry on when they are out of book.
The rest of the book is much better 1400+ players will have to dig to get to bits that can teach them something.
Not as good as Silman's other chess books.
When I first heard that Stephen King was writing a sequel to The Shining I wasn't very keen on the idea. I have a thing against revisiting classics and rebooting them or adding a sequel years later. Then I read a brief synopsis and still wasn't keen except for the part about this True Knot and their desire to get a girl who has the most powerful case of shining. This intrigued me as I wanted something of a horror/thriller from King.
Well,this isn't much in the way of horror, barring the opening chapters, but boy what a thrill! The tension in this book gradually builds up to a very satisfying conclusion.
It does start off slowly, this is a character we know from a classic book and a lot of years have gone by and King wants to fill us in on what he's been up to whilst also giving a history of Abra, the female protagonist. If this wasn't a sequel then I don't think Danny Torrance's back story would have been as detailed and drawn out as it was.
Gradually, though, our two ‘heroes' come together and discover the threat that is out there. The True Knot are a very interesting group, lead by Rose the Hat who is a fantastic character; sly, intelligent, resourceful, caring (to her own) and mostly a vicious piece of work. We get a good look at their group and how each person has a different ability, we get hints about their long past and we witness their abhorrent acts.
Yes, this is a sequel to The Shining but it is a very different work. I found that all the references to the first book weren't in your face and we're all done nicely.
If you are expecting a scare from this tale then you may be disappointed but any lover of fiction should love this as all the characters are wonderfully realised, it is written on par with King's best, he was definitely in the zone when he wrote this.
Pros:
Excellently written
Very good characters
Great antagonists
Thrilling read
King at his best
Cons:
Slightly slow at the start with backstory
3.5 stars but rounded up as it was a fun listen (audiobook), narrator sounded like Jason Statham in Snatch which made it even more fun in a ‘cheeky-cockney' kind of way. Nothing deep, nothing amazing but a quick read that entertains enough.
Fantastic, the funniest thing since sliced bread. The audiobook is a must have. 6 hours of pure Partridge heaven. Nearly every line is quotable. Every Partridge fan should have this.