Anki
Beat to Quarters was an interesting read, and I quite enjoyed it. It contains plenty of action and high-seas adventure and a cast of colorful and entertaining characters. There were a number of places where I wished I had a reference of nautical terminology (I am still uncertain as to the exact state of a ship that is hove-to, for instance), but this did not dramatically affect my enjoyment of the text.
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the romance element between Horatio Hornblower and Lady Barbara. It seemed almost an afterthought in some respects, and it also seemed somewhat rushed. Plus, sailor or not, Hornblower is married. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in later installments of the series.
Scumble is the sequel/companion novel to Newbery Honor book [b:Savvy 2133795 Savvy Ingrid Law http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1202851100s/2133795.jpg 2596626], and is set nine years later. A number of the characters from Savvy make appearances, but the main character and narrator is just-turned-thirteen Ledger Kale, cousin to the Beaumonts.I enjoyed reading Savvy, so I had high hopes for Scumble. It did not disappoint! Rather, Scumble takes all the good things from Savvy and makes them even better. Characterisation and pacing are tightened up. Distinction between character voices is improved. And we get to see how the various Beaumonts grew up in the nine intervening years.There definitely seems to be room for more books about these delightful families, and I really hope there will be.
I first read Harriet the Spy when I was about eleven years old; the same general age as the title character. I remember that I quite enjoyed the book, and I'm fairly certain I spent a good several months trying to be a spy just like Harriet. But beyond that I had very little recollection of the story.
The story holds up fairly well, even given the huge technological advances that have been made since it was written in 1964. I actually think the most telling thing as to the age of the story was the fact that Harriet's class at school had ten students. That class size seems more or less unheard of these days, even in private schools.
With my most recent reading–nearly eighteen years later–I found myself more interested in the behavior of the people Harriet observes on her “spy route” than I was in her antics. It was interesting to see how they were described, and the little hints and clues as to who they might be (outside the rather limiting filter of an eleven-year-old's perspective).
The Hunt for the Eye of Ogin is Patrick Doud's first novel. From a purely technical standpoint, the novel is solid: the language is descriptive and there are no egregious grammatical errors. On the plot side of things the story is...generic. It feels as though someone gave Doud two checklists: things to make a good juvenile/YA novel and things every epic fantasy novel should strive to include (this second list cribbed heavily from the works of Tolkien). And Doud seems to dutifully follow these lists.
The unfortunate end result is that the story, pretty descriptions and turns of phrase notwithstanding, is not really very engaging. It begins by throwing as many “look, I'm a fantasy novel!!” things out as possible, but without giving a coherent structure. Many of the names of characters and places are very similar to one another, which adds a level of confusion and frustration. And the level of “coincidence” is far higher than I really care to have in my fantasy stories.
(I received this book as an ARC through an Early Reviewer program)
The Stepsister Scheme is the first in a series of fairytale retelling/mashup novels by Jim C. Hines. It follows what happened after the “happily ever after” found at the end of essentially every fairytale. It also pulls from more sources than just the Disney versions of the stories that many people are familiar with.
From a technology perspective this novel holds up remarkably well for something written in 1973 (Most likely due to the relatively minimal descriptions of technology), and the writing is still pretty solid.
The combination of utopia/dystopia and post-apocalyptic elements puts Children of Morrow solidly within an existing body of literature that's pretty popular and likely to remain so for quite some time. There are aspects of the writing that give a definite timestamp to the novel (for example, everybody seems to be wearing a jumpsuit in the advanced-tech society), but they aren't so glaring as to throw readers out of the story.
What's the fastest way for a brother and sister on the run to shake off pursuit? Why, switch places, of course! Prudence and Robin Tremaine are masters of disguise, and they both need all their wits about them to pull off their most recent masquerade: Prudence as a dashing young man, and Robin as the lovely young sister.
Of course, nothing is ever as easy as it seems, but that's more than half the fun! This was my first experience with Georgette Heyer's work, and it was absolutely delightful. Fascinating characters, intricate plots within plots within plots, and a goodly dash of romance. I have to admit, however, that I wanted to soundly shake the “old gentleman” on more than one occasion. He was far too pleased with himself for it to be healthy.
An Assembly Such as This is the first book in a trilogy that relates the events of [a:Jane Austen 1265 Jane Austen https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1380085320p2/1265.jpg]'s [b:Pride and Prejudice 1885 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320399351l/1885.SY75.jpg 3060926] from the viewpoint of Mr. Darcy.I really loved how Pamela Aidan took the existing text and fleshed things out from Darcy's perspective. The writing is definitely modern as far as structure and description go, but stylistically and factually it stays within the bounds of Austen's England. In this book Darcy finds Elizabeth every bit as difficult to read as she finds Darcy in the original novel.The cast of characters is somewhat expanded, as Darcy does not and would not interact with a number of the people Elizabeth spends her time with. Some of the prominent characters in the original novel–Elizabeth's mother and sisters, for example–are only minor characters here, and individuals like Bingley and his sisters become much more prominent. Probably the most noticeable addition of Aidan's in this book is the character of Fletcher, Darcy's valet. He is a delightful addition to the story, and really helps to ground the setting historically.
2.5 / 5.0
The concept of a library that lends out objects rather than books is very fun, and it makes a very good setting for any number of stories. Adding in the fairy tale elements just makes it more intriguing.
When it comes to characterisation, however, this novel falls rather flat. None of the characters really seem to have much depth, even Elizabeth as the narrator. Additionally, several things are just quickly glossed over in the telling, and a number of things got solved too quickly, in my point of view.
Still, it's a quick, fun read. And a good way to spend an afternoon.
This is my first experience with the Hannah Swensen mysteries by Joanne Fluke, and overall I enjoyed it. Because it is later in the series it was difficult at first to keep track of the side characters (which characters are there just for the one story, and which are recurring cast members), but overall I think it stood fairly well on its own. I'll have to go back to read more of the series to pick up on some of the book to book plot threads.
I particularly liked that the murder investigation wasn't the only mystery within the book, and I'm really looking forward to trying a number of the recipes.
As with any other short story anthology, there were some stories in this that I enjoyed more than others, both in style and content. The title story was...something of a forehead slapper once I figured out where things were going (and it did take me a bit, since I'm not that familiar with Scooby Doo). A good portion of the stories were set outside of Valdemar proper, and some seemed only tangentially related to Velgarth at all.
This book is in the same general vein as the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz: a capable and resourceful teenage boy from England travels to some sort of exotic locale and faces a variety of dangers before saving the day. Lots of action and gadgets, and Gilman introduces a mystical element with the inclusion of African shamanism. If you are looking for high-stakes adventure and plenty of action it may be worth checking this book out, but you will also need to be able to overlook some aspects of the writing that I found distracting.
Gilman is rather obviously accustomed to writing scripts for television shows. I counted at least fourteen distinct viewpoint characters while reading, and the book is just under 400 pages in length (American hardcover release). That makes for a lot of jumping around, even within scenes, and whenever it happens the story turns rather clunky. A television show is better designed for quick changes in viewpoint, and it can accommodate more viewpoints in a single episode than a novel can. (It did not help matters for me that some of the jumps seemed solely for the purpose of explaining why the adults in the story were keeping vital information from the teenagers, even when giving the teenagers that information would have vastly simplified matters for everyone involved. In other words, it felt very artificial as I was reading it.)
It was also just as obvious to me that one of the goals of this story is to impart information in order to educate the readers about environmental and social issues. When information and issues are so obviously presented as such in a novel – when the main purpose and goal is not to tell a good story – I tend to resent it, since I was expecting a story and not a lecture or lesson. Including morals and information and serious discussion in a story isn't bad – it's actually quite important – but they don't have to be blatant, and it is probably better if they aren't. For one thing, slowing (or stopping) the story in order to explain something can contribute to clunky writing, and in an action/adventure/thriller type story you really don't want to put a high-speed chase on hold in order to describe the countryside. It tends to throw the reader out of the story.
I am not in the target age group for this series, and I knew that going into it. However, I am usually able to keep that in mind when reading books intended for younger audiences, and typically manage to select titles that are enjoyable for adults as well as children.
Overall this wasn't a bad read. It just wasn't really spectacular either. It lacked a level of substance that I want in my reading material. At least in the stuff I'm going to buy. I think even when I was in the intended age group for this book (and the sequels) I would have had some issues with the worldbuilding (or rather, general lack thereof).
The Maltese Falcon is probably one of those quintessential mystery/detective novels. I found the writing to be rather spare, and a touch misogynistic. This is definitely a “boys book” in that at the time it was written the target audience was most likely men, and men of a certain temperament as well.
I enjoyed reading this as an example of the genre and as a period piece, but I don't know that I am likely to reread it any time soon.
Eon: Dragoneye Reborn is a refreshingly non-western culture fantasy with plenty of action and intrigue. The main character and narrator, Eon, provides an accessible voice for readers while still being fully a part of the Empire of the Celestial Dragons.[return]
[return]I did find myself wanting to shake Eon for stupidity on a couple of occasions, mostly when I had managed to piece something together before Eon did.
This book is an excellent conclusion to the series, providing closure for the major plot elements without freezing the characters into a static position just because the story is “over.”[return][return]I am particularly fond of the setting in this series since it is something you don't often see in the current crop of fantasy novels. The frontier settlement aspect provides a different set of basic conflicts than you'd find in a city or within the sweeping vistas of epic fantasy.[return][return]I do have to say that my decision to start reading this late in the evening was a mistake, but only because I got sucked into the story and before I quite knew what happened I was halfway through the book and it was three in the morning...and I had work the next day.
I started reading The Dreamer online (can't remember now precisely how I came across it) and fell in love with the story right from the start. Stories like this are one of my absolute favourite ways to learn about history. When IDW printed the first six issues I picked all of them up as they came out, and then my sister got me the collected graphic novel for Christmas.
The story is available online, which is wonderful, but having it in print allows you to see all sorts of little details that just get lost on even a really good computer screen.