John Leighton
I give up. Tried and tried to read but getting nowhere. It's not the subject (Dave, love you man), it's the writers style. So hit and miss, so presuming “this is the way I guess it was”. Thought, when I read reviewers comments on his constant unnecessary insertion of punks history, that it would be needed to tell the story, man was I wrong. Possibly the ramblings of a writer who doesn't know his subject that well?
Not what one would expect from looking at the cover(mine differs from the one pictured). This is not all about explosions and fighting. It is about the people who fraught, the horrors and also the lighter side of war.
It has taken me several attempts to get into this book over the years & i can say that, having finished it, I was not that entertained. I have always been a big fan of Stephen King & loved several of his books but i will not class this as one of them. It seemed to me to drag & i felt that the story could well have been told in novella form rather than as a novel, I read the extended version of The Stand last year & at almost 3 times the length I found it so much easier to get into. Sometimes, with Kings writing, I find that what he describes in 2 or 3 pages, most writters could set up in a few paragraphs. Pet Sematary seemed a little drawn out for, what I felt, was a very disappointing ending.
Was an ok read, nothing new to add to the genre (for first three quarters of book) that hasn't been been done better by Fleming etc. Enjoyed when sci-fi was thrown in with time travel elements, just brought it a little way up from average.
Not that funny, won't be taking Jeremy Paxmans' word again, “Very funny”, indeed. Did however find humour in some of the books surreal situations. Given it an extra star for it's unashamed none p.c.ness, was written in 1999, something which everything has to be “careful” with these days.
First book I have read in the series, in fact the first book I have read by Harrison. Maybe I've missed something by not reading previous books, maybe all the humour was used up by time he got this far. ‘The Monty Python of the spaceways' it states on front cover, maybe on a bad day. Absolute rubbish.
A fun read. Reads like a very low budget Hammer film (which for this reader is good, as I love Hammer). To enjoy though, one needs to look past the yoga practicing, telepathic, transcendental yetis.
I give 4 stars for the first part of the book, which contained well written biographical material but 2 to the second part, which contained small interviews with people involved in Peter and Dudley's lives, which added nothing to what had gone before and made the book unnecessarily longer than it needed to be.
Enjoyed the build up of this book but that ending? Was it an ending or did I miss something?
Got this free on Kindle. Wasted download time, wasted the time reading, glad I didn't waste the £5.99 it should have been.
Free to read. Not free of cliches. Thank goodness for Mulligan (read to understand). Hooah!
Grew up on Slade as a teenager, read Ghoul over & over again. Where did it all go wrong? This is not the Slade I loved to read. Story, what story? Loved the historical parts, very informative, forgot the rest. Holy grail, the antidote to writers block?
Yawn!Yawn!Yawn! What a bore. Such a mammoth chore for such a short book. “Temeraire: Black Powder War”, maybe try “Temeraire: How to Feed Your Dragon”.
A fun read, quite well paced but not as enjoyable as The Hand of the Devil, which received 4 stars and so this rated 1 less.
These books are always by-the-number but that doesn't make them any less fun to read. A bit of mindless nonsense that we need now and again. This wasn't the best but it had it's moments, especially when the history and mythology is brought in (the parts I always love about this type of book). I was just sat thinking, after the description of creature, “this does not sound like an ogre” and then the history of the word ogre is discussed (Tremayne's version anyway).
Really enjoyed this book, if enjoyed is the right word to use, maybe captivated by would be better. Have never read anything by this author before, only seen Audition but I would definitely read more. It has been a long time since I have read anything which has grabbed me right from the start & made me want to read on, the way the situations adjust between the two main characters is fascinating. I was drawn in by the “is he going to get away with it” curiosity, knowing there was going to be a twist but unsure of what. Recommended reading, if you can get through the visceral aspects of the book, not for the easily offended.
Would have given it 3 stars, but the Beasts in Velvet story brought it up to 4 (the one with the least Genevieve involvement). The short stories in Silver Nails (the 4th book in this omnibus) were nothing special.
Decided to give this another go, having given up on it several times over the years & found myself hooked, don't know why it did nothing for me before. I have always been a fan of the movie, which I rewatched as i neared the end of this novel. Having heard that King has never liked the movie adaptation, I saw why as I compared the two, why did Kubrick change such silly little details as room 217 to room 237? The ending of the film is such an anti-climax compared to Kings amazing build up, a real value for money, blockbuster finally. Still enjoy the movie for it's seperate merits but the novel just blew me away, it was worth going back to.
