Julie

The premise of this book is that an historian is sent back to the Middle Ages to do some research. As the Middle Ages are a ‘10' (presumably meaning they haven't been declared safe) the project is rushed through while the head of faculty is away. This of course leads to mistakes being made. So instead of sending our heroine back to the relatively safe 1320s, they miss by 20 years and send her to the outbreak of the Black Death (a far more interesting time from an historical standpoint, I would have thought).

So, I liked the book because

??? it was an interesting idea for a story
??? Kivrin was a person and not a cardboard cut out, she had her compassion and her fear
??? I enjoyed her acceptance of her situation and her attempt to save the village in the foreknowledge of what was about to happen

What I didn't like so much

??? the events in the future seemed rather contrived
??? the author hadn't done enough research: the descriptions of Oxford seemed like they had been taken from a 1950s movie, and cholera did not exist in the Middle Ages (I wouldn't have picked that up myself had I not read the introduction but the slip is unforgiveable given the amount of times the author mentions it during the story)
??? the 12 year old boy (I forget his name) seemed much older.

Despite my criticisms, I really enjoyed the book. It was well paced and the scenes in the Middle Ages were quite involving. However, I don't think it deserves its awards. I've given it a four star rating for pure entertainment value and I will be looking into reading more from Connie Willis.

The King???s Daughter is a story about the ???First Daughter of England??? Elizabeth Stuart. The only surviving daughter of James I of England and VI of Scotland, Elizabeth was third in line to the throne and seen by her father as a potential threat. At the age of 9 she foiled a kidnap attempt by the ???Gunpowder Plotters??? who intended to murder her father and elder brother and put her on the throne in their place. Unfortunately, that did nothing for her relationship with her father who suspected her of collusion with the traitors. From then on he kept a close eye on her and made sure she knew nothing of his plans for her, except, as with so many other princesses of times past, that he wanted simply to marry her off to the most advantageous suitor without compassion for her feelings. He kept her in uncertainty for years so that finally she wondered whether in fact her wouldn???t marry her off at all but just wait until she was desperate enough to marry secretly so that he could lock her up in The Tower for treason.

Having had my (temporary) fill of the Wars of the Roses and The Tudors, I picked up this book about the Stuarts, of whom I knew next to nothing. The character of Elizabeth was completely new to me and I found her to be quite sympathetic, she wasn???t overly ferocious nor excessively timid. And despite her father???s aversion to educating females, she wasn???t empty headed either. I can???t vouch for the accuracy of the events in the book but I enjoyed (if that is the right word) the author???s portrayal of a lewd, hedonistic King James and the lovable baby Charles, who wasn???t expected to reach adulthood, turning into a spoilt brat when he became first in line to the throne.

I found The King???s Daughter to be a light, easy and entertaining read and a good opener to the reign of the Stuarts, leaving me eager to read more.

This is the first book by Ann Cleeves that I have read - it won't be the last. Although I am not a huge fan of crime fiction I enjoyed the almost claustrophobic atmosphere created by the setting: a tiny, damp, foggy island where a tiny community of haves and have-nots try to do the best they can to make a living whilst maintaining a certain status in the eyes of their all-seeing neighbours. When something happens to upset the delicate balance of the community (in this case two deaths) the fa??ade slips and the secrets trickle out.

The world is a grim place and the gap between the haves and have-nots is bigger than ever. The one thing they all have in common however it OASIS, a virtual reality universe far more attractive than the real world. Basic access is free and you can even go to school there. When the creator of OASIS dies he leaves his fortune of billions hidden within OASIS as a kind of ???easter egg??? and up springs a new culture, the ???gunters??? who spend their time looking for the easter egg and following clues through worlds of 1980s pop culture. But some gunters will stop at nothing to get to the prize first...

I found the start of the book slow-going at first, some paragraphs read like an encyclopaedia of the 1980s but as the story progresses it picks up and I started to enjoy it more. Having played video games myself and now watching my kids play them, I was able to understand the attraction of the virtual life and empathise with the main characters. It???s a simple good v evil story, with a race to see who???ll find the treasure first although there is never any doubt just who will that will be, it???s simply a matter of how he will get there.

I found Ready Player One to be a fun, entertaining read without a huge amount of depth but full of nostalgia for people like me who grew up in the 70s and 80s. It should appeal to all ??bergeeks out there, who love video games, dystopian stories and the 1980s.

I didn't think I was going to finish this on, it has certainly taken me some time. The stories are weird and wacky but I just didn't ‘get' a lot of them, I kept expecting some kind of punchline that just didn't come. Entertaining but I don't think I would read them again. I much prefer his novels.