Noel Griffin
I read these as a teenager and always liked them. They are a fun mix of fantasy and science fiction. I recently stumbled upon a copy of the audio book of this and gave it a listen. While the narration is great it sadly just shows how poorly written this book is. At its heart there is a fun idea and the interplay of the characters, each of whom has a their own novel. However, Anthony doesn't have the skills to capitalise on them. Worse he's just an pervy old man who can't write a woman without telling us how amazing she looks or how ugly she is. It is just so tiresome. I did try the second book but had to stop half way through as it's even worse. I did find that he had released an 8th book much more recently but from reading the descriptions it really shows how much of a creep Piers is with an underage protagonist having sex all the way through the book. This is creepy full stop but considering the book was published in in 2007 when the writer was 73 says it all.
I suppose you could be kind and say its just a pulp novel with hero men but strangely the male protagonists are all unlikeable and far from the sharpest tools in the box. So not sure what was going on there.
This was a pretty shocking read both in terms of the quality of the novel itself but also considering how it has near universal praise.
I was very surprised at first that this read more like cosy sci-fi than the hard science fiction that I was led to believe that Andy Weir wrote.
At first it felt like a bit of a school science teachers wet dream a sort of remake of Under Seige where instead of a bunch of terrorists it's some intergalactic bug and our protagonist is “just” a school teacher rather than just the “cook”. However, there was far more drama and tension in that crappy old film than in this book despite the stakes being the survival of everyone on the planet.
None of the characters have anyone other than tired stereotypical traits. Our protagonist is practically invincible and able to do everything, ‘cause that's what science teachers do.
I'm fine with cosy fiction and quite like unlikely hero's saving the world but this was such a hard read. Felt more like a giant vanity project read more like pretty poor YA, not that I'm dissing YA.
Don't think I'll be risking another one of his.
It is a long time since I properly read any poetry, which seems like some kind of secular confession. I don't know why I picked this book of all books when browsing my bookshelves this evening. Maybe the title promised some meaning, certainly not comfort, after the most recent horror of the ongoing horrors that seem to be the ongoing acceptance of things.
I think I remember who recommended her to me but that was getting on for a decade ago and I'm pretty sure at some point I have read her work before but have forgotten. I read this through in one sitting. Reading most of it aloud, joys of living alone. I found this a very powerful and emotional collection.
Letters to the Dead
...
VII
How many daughters stood alone at a grave,
and thought this of their mothers' lives?
That they were young in a country that hated a woman's body.
That they grew old in a country that hated a woman's body.
...
How many indeed and how many will continue to do so?
Maybe this read better back when it was published in 2013 but less than a decade later it just reads rather vacuous and dated. It feels like we are supposed to identify with an aging jack howling at how the world like some kind of truth telling anti-hero but in reality he's just an arsehole. Just feels very stereotypical ranting and all the more boring for that.
Working my way through these books after watching the series and this is the first thing I've read that is definitely much better done in the series. Unless there is more on the books to come. It is a pretty stereotypical story of a well-meaning good-hearted teenage boy being led astray by a broken hot teenage girl. Really expected more than these tired tropes from this series. It is made worse by the fact that it doesn't really do much to expand on the world-building.
A fun easy read with a pretty refreshing basic premise. While I wish there was a little more nuance especially when it came to the anthropological aspects and it really could do with some more characters who are women. Not that there really are characters other then the Bob's. However, it was still a pleasant light read.
Came to the books after the TV show. I suppose which you prefer might depend on where you started but I think some of the changes made in the series were very much for the better. Not saying the book is bad, far from it, but think the authors having another look at it for the show enabled them to tighten up some of the ideas.
While maybe an interesting idea the end result just felt rather plodding and dated. I know it is nearly 20 years old but some of the themes felt like it was more 50 years old. Is it to much to ask that if you are re-writing the past and creating new hero's that you also take the opportunity to imagine old wrongs being corrected too? Particularly the undertones that the pilgrims are the true America.
This is a hard one to rate. It took me ages and ages to read. I kept leaving it and coming back to it and in the end I have to say I really liked it.
It's the third novel in the same universe. Rather than follow any particular character or sorry as the previous two did this seeks to explore the Exodus fleet which in the future is the remaining heart/home of humanity.
It is not so much that nothing happens as in there is no real obvious plot although by the time you get to the end you can see there was one in the background.
I suspect I would have enjoyed this much more had it not been for the pandemic. The sudden lack of life in general didn't lend itself to books without a clear plot.
This is perhaps closer to a 3.5 stars but for the moment it's sitting with a 3.
Fascinating and frustrating read. It is basically a knitting together of interviews of most of the, shamefully, small number of women who have been senior ministers or president of Ireland.
There is not a lot of analysis, it's not that kind of book, but what analysis is there is rather patchy.
Still the book vividly shows how slow the changes change in gender balance in Irish politics have begun to accelerate but also of how much is still to be done.
An enjoyable enough read. However, I'm not sure I see why the casual derogatory comments about Vera's weight. They didn't seem to do anything other than conform to usual stereotypes. They don't add anything to the story or to the character development in any positive way. Just made me think of the casual racism that sometimes pops into Agatha Christie's books which I'm sure wasn't the authors intention.
Probably my favourite of all these books, so much more stronger than the last few. Much more focused and coherent plot. Decent way to end the series and finally getting rid of so much of the unnecessarily side plots that dragged so much of the series down. With that done would be happy to see the protagonist come back again sometime in the future.
Cant say this booked grabbed me the way it seems to have for so many others. Reluctant to return to it meant it took far longer to get through than it should have. Thought it started interestingly enough but sagged in the middle. Never really connected to any of the characters but was disappointed to find the ending so predictable. Still enough things to like about it, including the writing style, to look forward to future work by the author.
