Sarah
So this was a bit of a mixed bag. I really like the final conclusion of the story line between Snow and Rose Red and some of the Final Story of .... pages but there were just too many of them that I didn't care about. These made it a bit tiresome. Over all quite good but sometimes too much of a good thing is actually too much.
Lots of tying up loose ends in the filler pages with the series of “The last tale of....” including the 3 blind mice, Jack, fly catcher, Simbad, Cinderella, prince charming, Beauty and the beast (jr) and Briar Rose. I especially loved cinder's final story as it was done in a highly realistic detective noir style of artwork.
Mrs Duglas is a tenuous position with the possession of Bigby as he runs bloody rampage through the city of New York with some interesting magical consequences.
Everyone is taking sides for the final battle with, what looks to be Snow and Rose Red, looking to be on opposing sides with their magical armor of black and gold, respectively, mysteriously appearing when they are close.
I will be eagerly reading the final volume asap.
I freaking loved this book. Firstly I listened to it rather than read it but I actually think that added to the experience. This book sooooo reflected the “spiritualism” I grew up with from my Mum, to the point where I asked her if she had read it in the 80's. She hadn't but now I think she should. It's even more enjoyable knowing that Dick apparently really believed this. Its great!
I am loving this series and my new favorite character is Manon with her “savage” steed Abraxos!
A very cute little story about evil doers who do some good. My main issue was the changes in the font size, when it got really small, I found it super hard to read. Otherwise a good story with cute artwork.
Panic (Wildfire Chronicles Vol 1.) By K.R. Griffiths
Panic is a apocalyptic zombie-esque secret society driven disaster story set in the rural village of St. Davids in Wales. The ball is set rolling with the landing of steel canisters in the back yard of one of the villages' houses that results in the first “zombification” resulting in the typical struggle for survival.
One thing made me love this book and would prompt me to actually buy the further volumes of the series. That was the fantastically vivid descriptions of the carnage and the fast nature of the story telling. The story writing doesn't labour over the small unimportant details of the scenery or talk down to the reader by explaining who everyone is and their back-story in more detail than necessary.
However, what makes me think again was the lack of trigger warnings for one or two of the scenes at the end. These sorts of this might be where the human condition goes to during this sort of event but please lead up to it with something to at least warn the reader of what to expect.
Well paced, fast read with a typical cliff hanger ending to keep you coming back.
3.5 stars.
I received this book to review through Library Thing Early Reviewers.
Glitter and Mayhem
by Lynne M. Thomas (Editor), John Klima (Editor), Michael D. Thomas (Editor)
Welcome to the world of roller derby, disco, strangely human like aliens and moody angle and demon types. This is an anthology of stories with the central themes of roller derby, disco and LGBT and science fiction. Not being a fan or devote of roller derby, I had a lot of trouble getting though the really technical jargon in some to the stories and had to read around it to stick to the main story line. That being said, the sci-fi elements of the stories are so well written that it was well worth the confusion and the unfamiliar words.
Overall, if you are a fan of these themes, you will love this anthology. If you are a fan of sci-fi only, like me, Glitter and Mayhem is so well written that it becomes an interesting read.
I received this book to review through Library Thing Early Reviewers
One of the better horror parodies out there. Rather than taking a classic story and shoe horning zombies into it (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) Dhar has written a political commentary with characters (even some of the prominent zombies) that you care about. By the time I got to the 3rd book i really did want to know the back story of the characters, especially “Bunny Ears”. Was just a bit disappointed that we didn't get the full story on the “Hatter”
Whilst I am yet to read any of Homer's works, I am familiar with the story of Odysseus so this retelling from the perspective of his long suffering wife, Penelope with its fabulous feminist bent was wonderful.
I even liked the poems read by the chorus of the 12 hanged maids. They had a powerful rhythm to them that strengthened the accusations of the maids ill death. The chorus is a tradition of the greek play so it was a fitting use.
Margaret Atwood doing another wonderful job of speaking for those without voice.
This was exactly what I wanted coming out of the second book “The Dream Thieves” More Blue and more caves! Also we finally get to meet Malory with his service dog; Dog.
They follow all sorts of clues and Adam gets stronger with his powers of Cabeswater making his super power the awesomeness of chill.
They are still on the hunt for Glendower but unlike most young adults out for adventure, adults are in on the “fun and games” too. Unsurprisingly, I cried in this one, but I cry easy and for happy or sad bits.
Can't wait to get to the next one.
I listened to the BBC dramatisation version of this audio book and thoroughly enjoyed the voice acting. The story and the murder was set mostly in Petra, somewhere I truly wish to visit but even if I wasn't aware of this spectacular wonder, I would have had no trouble visualising the scene of the crime.
In normal Christie style, all of the evidence is laid out before us and I still was none the wiser as to the murderer until dutifully informed by Monsieur Poirot along with the rest of the dumb struck and gapping cast. I need to read more of these and maybe I will get a little wiser.
This was a good, but not great place to start reading a Terry Brooks series.
I think most of the recurring characters (just a guess at which they were) were reintroduced sufficiently but I will not be continuing with this series until I go back to the beginning.
The ending of this was really well done but shocking which I liked.
This is the first book in the Alex Cross series.
Alex Cross is an african american police detective with a psychology degree who is investigating a series of murders in the black community when he and his partner (Sammy) is pulled off the case to investigate the high profile kidnapping case involving the child of an actress and the child of the minister of finance.
Patterson does a really good job building the suspense and setting the scene without making gorey descriptions. What he fails at miserably though is writing a sex scene that doesn't make you either spit take you hot beverage or just laugh at the patheticness of. Seriously, they so are terrible that I hope that is was nominated for Bad Sex in Fiction Award.
Thankfully that is not what I am reading these books for and I look forward to reading more in this series.
Fantastically funny book. I listened to the audio book read by Will Wheton which added an extra layer of humor and fun to the narrative (see what I did there).
Damn it now I have to buy the next one!
This was amazing. Really takes you back into the world of The Dark Crystal. I love the characters created by Brian Froud/Jim Henson and Brian Holguin really gives them a new dimension.
I was worried that is would look to cartoony but the way they have designed the speech “bubbles” to be jagged actually added something rather than detracted.
Loved it!
A very cute reimagining/continuation of the fairy tales we all know and love. However I did not know the original ending of The Little Mermaid but considering who wrote it, I'm not surprised.
This one was bizarre. It was a three to begin with because of the jumps between locations and characters with no clear indication or really a pattern to the jumps and you just had to get used to the rhythm, and then he doesn't utilise that style again. Then the story actually got going and I thought I could forgive pass grievances and it became a four star book with the lovely dystopian fears we all have if we have a modicum of sense. But then it just ends. I don't like my conclusions spoon fed to me but I do like a book to have one. Hence the 3 star. Not as good as We and 1984 but ok. Almost like it needed 100 or so more pages.