Skip the first 20%. It's about the author's life as a worker in custom-house. It might be the best description of the daily life of a worker in a custom-house, still doesn't make for a good reading.
The story seems like it could be good, Esther is a young woman is sent to this puritan town in America by her husband, and wait for him there. She ends up pregnant, and the townspeople decide not to kill her, the usual penalty for that crime, but to brand her clothes with the A letter.
However, the story purposely focus too much on the description of the characters and their feelings, with numerous metaphors and useless descriptions. No content at all.
PLEASE see the mots likes reviewer here, she got it right!
Read 3:33/8:55 40%
The parts concerning Dracula were interesting, specially the beginning, but they amount to maybe 8% of the book. The way the story is told, read from the diaries of the involved people, felt like a detailed account of an actual events, not the work of literature I find enthralling to read. So, too much useless details, not enough mystery, horror, fantasy, character development or whatever.
By the way, Van Helsing is a completely asshole. In multiple occasions he possess the facts of the situation and chooses to withhold them from everybody for days, leading them on and asking them to trust him utterly, without asking any questions. Then he acts all sanctimonious when he reveals what he knows.
Really not my kind of book, but so well written. It is a boring story, but told in an interesting way, through the eyes of a 1st grade prodigious girl.
Maybe 5% of the book is about how bad we used to treat back people, which is somewhat the main part of the book. Instead, the author focus on the lives of the people in this Southern, religious American town.
What sets this book apart for me is how intelligent the main characters are. Nothing cerebral compared to Dune, but they are very real and relatable. It is very endearing to hear Jean Louise tell this story.
Anyway, not a great book, but a real pearl among the classics, which I'm currently reading and giving up on most of them.
Two drifters that roam the country looking for work. They find a farm that will take them, but Lennie gets into trouble because he is “simple minded”. He and George are best friends and take care of each other. At the farm they share they're hopes and dreams with some of the other workers.
What I didn't like is that there is no content, this is a short story that focus more on the characters then on the plot. The characters are likeable and well developed, but they are just too boring.
Very hard to see why this is a classic, although it does have a broad appeal by telling such a simple, relatable story.
- simple characters, reminded me of my grandpa farm stories (yawn)
- no plot, nothing exciting happens
Another book that proves my fears of reading the classics to be true.
“A plane crashes on a desert island, only children survive, they try to establish a society to live in. They have to deal with food, shelter, order and trying to be rescued.” This could have been one sentence, it is the 50% of the book however. Nothing interesting happens, the characters are very uninteresting. Think the opposite of Ender. They all are children and behave as such.
Here are some of the events. They may seen somewhat interesting, but they are not, really. Maybe if it were as concise as I describe it would be acceptable.
- the plane crashed, and all of the children are dispersed on the island. Ralph, the main protagonist, meets “Piggy”, who finds a conch and give to Ralph to blow and with the loud sound, attract everybody to him. Among other kids, an “army” of children comes marching in guided by a boy named Jack.
- they decide to vote on a leader. The decision is between Jack and Ralph. Ralph is chosen. Jack is a little resented.
- Ralph decides to explore the island, to make sure they are really on an island, surrounded by water and wether there is anybody else living there. He, Jack and Simon go on to explore, but they find no one.
- fruits are plentiful, but it is not long since they see the need to form a group to hunt down boars for meat. Soon a small rivalry between the hunters and the “gatherers” start to form.
- they try to build a fire to produce smoke to be seen from afar by a possible rescue ship.
– first the fire spreads and destroy a good part of the forest. They worry that some of the younger kids may have died in the process, and they have no way of telling if that is the case because of a failed attempt of a census previously.
– second, a group of kids is assigned to keep the fire running at all times. When a ship passes by, they have abandoned their post.
- they choose a common place as bathroom, where their leavings are easily washed away by the ocean tide. The younger children don't quite follow that rule.
- some of the smaller children have nightmares about a creature that comes in the night. They start to spread panic among the others.
- they also need to build a shelter. Most kids soon give up in favor of playing in the water, while only Simon and Ralph remains. This makes Ralph more bitter.
Read 2:55/ 7:00 40%
I've written a better review, but got lost on save somehow.
The story about a teenage boy about to be spelled from the 4th time from school. It talks about his friends at school, his relationships with girls and his teachers.
It is the most boring/trivial thing I've ever read. I would rather read a 300 page description of a sandwich.
Read 1:22/6:43 22%
WHAT
An ambitious and interesting but underdeveloped plot. You find an infinite number of Earths, but all of them are empty. The book seems to be about how people would react to the idea, not about the different worlds themselves, and the authors fails to make that an engaging tale.
PLOT
People have discovered how to travel between alternate versions of our Earth. Anyone can do it and it only takes a second. There is a man who can do it without side effects, and this ability makes him a person of interest for the parties interested in exploring the most distant Earths that others have a hard time to reach.
SUMMARY
The multiverse theory is true and there is possibly an infinite number of Earths just like our own, representing different versions of what could have been our reality if certain circumstances were different. Think butterfly effect.
These Earths collectively are known as The Long Earth and any person can “step” into them with the help of an easily made device. The travel is also very fast, it takes only a second to do it, but there are some side effects. Stepping through these different Earths causes the individual to become nauseous for about 15 minutes, inducing vomit during that period.
So far people haven't stepped trough many Earths, because there is no need for so many planets. The ones they did explored seems to be almost identical to ours, but in different periods of time, and none of them have shown any sign of life. But already some interesting consequences have started to develop. Gold and other precious metals have lost their value, because now everybody can go to a different Earth and locate a gold ore site that is already known in our Earth.
Criminals have found new ways to commit felony through stepping, because it makes for a very easy mode of escaping. Laws have also been affected. Does the America from an alternative Earth falls into our own America's jurisdiction?
The story focus on a man that is capable of stepping without the help of any device and no side effects whatsoever, and a dead Tibetan monk reincarnated into a computer. This talking computer have found a way to travel through Earths much faster. Together they will travel to the farthest Earth they could possible find. You know, for the lul.
ANALYSIS
Starting with the talking computer, I expect that somewhere in this or the next books it will show why is he relevant to the plot. Maybe he was the one who created the Long Earth or something of that proportion. Otherwise this is just the “talking dog” that everyone treats like a normal character in the plot.
My summary shows all the interesting parts of what I read. You have all this worlds, that could have anything possible happening in them. That is a lot of potential, yet they're all empty. And they are also all too similar to ours. The things I described above could have been the introduction to the book, fitting in one page. This was however 20% of the book, and it didn't show signs it would get any better.
Too much time is spent on developing characters that I did not care about, and details that didn't seem to matter. In other words, I did not like the setting and the world building of the authors. The dialog was boring as well.
I find this story to suffer from the same problem as many other books I've (tried to) read that were also from famous authors and had a promising idea: it focus too much on the boring parts. This is the case of Journey to the Center of the Earth, for instance.
Read 2:40/11:30 23%
A collection of short stories and some poetry. I liked the Solomon Kane, but the others failed to convey any sort of horror, which is already a genre I'm not fond of. Some stories almost feel like Lovecraft. The poems I didn't care for at all.
I find it hard to care for very short stories, unless they have something really brilliant to convey, what's the point? One of the more lengthy stories about a Werewolf was almost entertaining, but just not worth the effort to keep reading the other ones.
Read 5:14/23:39 22%
The book made for a pleasant reading, but so far I have found it hard to give more then two stars for the mystery novels I've read.
The story is very short, but luckily to the point. Most of the book is devoted to develop the main plot, exposing enough of each characters past and personality in order to give them life, a somewhat plausible murderer and overall at least one reason for deserving to be a victim of one.
I did not care for the epilogue explaining the whole mystery. It was good, but a little too far fetched. I was expecting something more interesting and exceptional. I would rather have more time dedicated to creating a fearful atmosphere among the characters, giving each of them more presence since they died too quickly.
Also the story made very little room for making me guessing who the real killer was, and when it is revealed there were of course, no way to predict the culprit.
I wanted to like this, I wanted to ignore all the campy and dull moments of the book in order to enjoy a simple and easy to read fantasy tale. But the author just kept hammering on the worst points of the novel.
The story already had a bad start with Catti-brie annoying self, saying “You can't kill the goblins, you have to talk to them first”.
Then Wulfgar tried to kill Drizzt for NO REASON. Later is revealed that he was jealous of him for kissing Catti-brie on the cheek in a sign of friendship (Drizzt knows her since she was a child). That made me stop reading the book, it was too much for me. This is a forced nonsensical love triangle that was badly presented and event if it was well written, it should have no place on this story.
I liked the insertion of the Drows again, Drizzt's sister an brother introduced in the previous books. There is a plot involving they regaining Loth's favor by promising to try and kill Drizzt once again.
A poor man's Harry Potter? The college part was readable, there were some fantasy elements, the magic as a boring and difficult thing to learn was interesting.
But when the main characters became seniors, and had learned all they could have about magic, then the books turn into a mundane young adult novel, with two of the most brilliant magical minds in the world wondering about meeting each other parents and what they will do now that college is almost over?
By the way, the TV Series capture the book pretty well. Did not like it either, stopped watching the same part I stopped reading.
Read about 70% (CD 8 of 14)
Same as my opinion of Equal Rites, just a little more close to an interesting story. Death takes on an human apprentice, Mort. The story revolves around Mort trying to understand the great mystery of what lies beyond the veil of death. The thing is, Death himself does not know or care about any of that.
Mort also, understandably, does not want to “kill” people, so he is struggling with his new job.
Read 1:51 of 3:35 / 52%
A story about the first female Wizard in the Disc World, where women are usually enchantress or witches
My overall impression of Pratchett is this
- tries to squeeze some sort of joke or pun into every sentence
- gives an absurd meaning to an otherwise well established but somewhat unusual concept
- I don't like most of those, and so all is left is the characters, the plot and his fantasy world
- I don't like those either
There is this orphan that is good at stealing, and this guy who trains thieves. For some reason the “thief maker” needs to buy children in order to train them, there is no indication to why. Then he finds the boy to cause him too much trouble, so he sells him to a priest of the god of Trickery. I felt no immersion, no connection with the characters, no sympathy for the world or interest in the story. It could as well pass on present day. There is no fantasy here, nothing for me to care about.
Read 1:30 of 21:59 / 7%
This is the most “real” Sherlock Holmes story so far. It has no side stories taking up almost half of the book, it is not just a telling of facts made up to seem like a story.
This is a proper mystery novel, although still very dry. It is told mostly from Watson's perspective, as Holmes is seemly occupied with other matters at the moment.
The story begins in London, when the doctor of the late Charles Baskervilles the help of Holmes to solve his strange death that appears to have supernatural causes. The doctor praises himself for being a man of science, but even he cannot think of any other possibility other then a devil hound came from hell to take the life of his patient and friend.
Holmes of course is unmoved by the supernatural appeal, but he finds the details of the case interesting enough, and starts investigating right away. There is an urgency in the matter because the new heir of the Baskervilles is coming from America to live in the old mansion.
The plot already begins to unfold in London, when Sir Henry Baskervilles appears to be followed by someone. Holmes looses track of the suspect, but when Sir Henry is to travel to his state, Holmes designates Watson to go along to be his eyes while he is not there and also to protect the man. Holmes himself is otherwise busy with more pressing matters, and Watson is to send him detailed reports of his findings.
Watson tries his best to do what Holmes would in the situation, and investigates the case to the best of his abilities. This is probably what makes this book more compelling then the previous ones, because Watson is unsure of himself, and he has many doubts about the possible suspects and even to what should be his course of action.
Sherlock himself is mostly unhelpful in his letters to Watson, so he is left to his own devices investigating the crime.
There is some interesting revelations along the story, and Holmes and Watson's first meeting after weeks of being apart is very a very interesting one. They exchange notes and it i apparent that Holmes already solved the case.
Another collection of short stories like The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The last story shows his arch enemy Moriarty, but there is nothing exceptional about it. It is short and told in the same fact reporting style like the others, although with a different ending.
There is a story about Sherlock reminding of the case that made him decide to become a detective back when he was in college, and another introducing his elder and more intelligent brother, Mycroft.
WHAT
All the annoyances from the previous books magnified. Harry is a whinny self righteous wannabe hero that blames himself for every trouble in this all too black and white world. The plot starts as passable, progresses into bearable and ends in an insufferable amount of cliches worthy of cheap novels.
TLDR
- nothing stands out: characters are dull, story forgettable
- deux ex machina situations where a “demon” shows up to grant him power when needed
- every magic performed seems to cost a kidney. He seems to have a ton of those somehow.
- hero always weak or without power, yet...
- the power of love will help you through!
- no intelligent plans to overcome challenges
- over confident villain underestimates the hero, sigh!
- self pity hero, blame himself for all the problems of the world
- black/white morality. All the antagonists are clearly evil. Period.
PLOT
Something is stirring the ghosts in the city into attacking the living. Harry and his friend Michael, a Knight of the Cross, must put them to rest and find out who or what is behind this.
ANALYSIS
I wanted to like this book. The main character is likeable enough for me to overlook a few flaws with the story. But the things I saw as a problem in the first books seems to take a primary seat in this novel, and if it is as the author says that “most readers consider this and the next book the best ones”, the series is taking a shape I do not enjoy.
The story started slow and with very few characters, unlike the previous ones. Michael is very plain, a typical do good warrior that didn't stand out in the story. Murphy and Susan just make brief appearances in the beginning.
Harry is constantly drained out of his powers (at one point in the story, literally). He has never time to rest and is always operating at a half or less capacity. Yet, he keeps performing his magic by:
- drawing energy from his emotions. So, with the power of love, he defeated the bad guys.
- making bargains with an evil Faerie. She is made out to be this super villain, but it is very easy to trick her apparently. She keeps granting Harry power by making him do unreasonable promises that she should know he would not fulfill. Also she always shows when Harry needs her.
His constant state of weariness makes for very improbable scenes, where faced with VERY improbable odds, he succeeds. Situations where even with his full power he would not have been able to come out alive, yet here he makes it through and is ready for the next challenge. And again, he throws himself into danger without the faintest trace of a plan. “I'll just show up and if I REALLY, REALLY want it, my magic will destroy my enemies apart”. The same goes for Michael.
The vampire gathering scene was the worst part of the book. It abused the “sexy vampire seductress” cliche, it introduced another character that felt flat and uninteresting, all the improbable feats of magic and unplanned victories happened here and also the villain revealed his masterful plan. This is how I paraphrase the climax of the story, it should be clear why after this was revealed, I had a hard time following through with my reading and also decided to stop reading the other books in the series:
"You prevented me from killing you before. That made me mad, and because of that I'm going to kill you now. Bu I cannot attack you first, because that will be breaking the rules. So, I'm going to butcher a few people at my place, and If you try to stop me, you'll be breaking the rules yourself, and your life is forfeit."
HA! I bet you did not believe that the hero would fall for that! There is also a scene where a vampire keeps gloating as how she is the most powerful vampire of the clan, knows everything about Harry, have developed magic of her own and when she goes on to attack him, surprise! A cross repels her.
On the positive side, I could see the ideas the author was trying to convey, and they were somehow acceptable, even if not delivered very well. I like the underdog hero succeeding against overwhelming odds, finding strength in his convictions and the love of his girlfriend, being willing to sacrifice everything for doing the right thing.
WHAT
Same style and plot structure as the first one, although overall weaker in all aspects. There is not many new and/or interesting characters, and the old ones haven't progressed too much. Harry continues to run into danger without his full power or a solid plan, but somehow everything turns out all right in the end.
PLOT
Harry investigates a series of murders where werewolves were involved. He struggles now involve balancing his work and his relationship with Susan, gathering information and deciding how much to share with Murphy in order to keep her safe and still on his side, proving a man innocent of the crime, dodging the FBI restrictions on his involvement with the case, helping Murphy to deal with Internal Affairs because of her involvement with him, keeping himself alive against the ire of a refused mob-boss and an angry pack of werewolves, and keeping his ass out of jail for, well, again knowing about magic when a crime apparently involving magic is committed.
CHARACTERS
OK, this definitely contains spoilers:
Werewolves types, in somewhat order of power
Werewolf #1, the classical werewolf: humans able to shapeshift into werewolves through a spell. Weak because doesn't gain the instincts of a wolf - gang known as Alphas, nerdy environmental activists teens that wants to help Harry take out the bad guysWerewolf #2, lycanthrope: the transformation occur on their minds more then their bodies, they become more aggressive, gaining healing and strength. - gang known as the Streetwolves, wants Harry dead, because they're territorial and he invaded their turfWerewolf #3, hexenwolves: someone who made a deal with a demon or sorcerer to get a enchanted item that turns them into wolves. Can turn at will, keeping most of their wits. - gang FBI corrupt agents. Wants Harry dead because he is trying to stop themWerewolf #4, shapeshifter: not clear on its nature, a wolf that turns into a human at will - Tera West: MacFinn's bride, wants Harry to help her fianceWerewolf #5, loup-garou: people cursed to become a wolf-demon, super powerful. Turn in the full moon - MacFinn: framed for the murders, wants Harry help to prove him innocent
The other characters (wouldn't call this spoiler)
Susan: wants a story. Her relationship with Dresden evolves into a love affectionMurphy: wants Harry to tell her everything he knows and then get the hell out of her way. Will beat him senseless otherwise.Marcone: wants to hire Harry for an unlimited amount of money. Harry tells him to fuck off, repeatedly
A very crud sequence of events:
- Murphy takes Dresden to crime scene- meet FBI dicks- talks about trust issues- uses blood found on scene to track down suspects- Harry finds group of teens with an older woman with them- he is attacked in the dark, meets Murphy, goes home- Harry finds Marcone awaiting him at his home. Tells him to fuck off- learns about the types of werewolves from Bob- gets a tip from an FBI assistant- meets the Streetwolves, almost gets killed (for no reason)- second murder (no time to rest)- Murphy saw Harry with the victim before, arrests him (kicks his ass)- older woman from before frees him from police, he gets shot- wakes up to find she knows the supposed killer, her fiance, who is a loup-garou. Wants help proving him innocent- finds fiance, police finds them, they escape. Fiance is arrested- Harry must bind him with a spell before he turns when its full moon- breaks into jail disguised, but it's too late. The loup-garou kills a lot of policeman- tries to follow him, gets chased by the Streewolves gang- gets caught, has no magic left, gets spanked and captured- kept alive for to be delivered to Marcone.- Marcone wants him alive, the gang wants him dead. They fight over it- the FBI is on the scene. They transform into wolves and try to kill Harry- the young Alphas werewolves come to rescue Dresden- they flee and prepare for a final showdown at Marcone's house- arriving there, Marcone has sided with the FBI to take Dresden out- Harry is captured, along with the young werewolves and Murphy- Marcone is betrayed by the FBI agents who wanted him dead all along- The rogue agents plan: put Marcone with the others, using him as bait for the loup-garou, who would then kill everyone in the way- Harry manages to escape, turns into a werewolf himself with magic and defeats the hexenwolves- Final confrontation with loup-garou: manages to pull some powerful magic and kills him
ANALYSIS
The book is pretty much the same as the first one, feeling a bit worst because the main characters had already been introduced. It keeps the same frantic level of events unfolding and Harry having no time to rest in between.
The final showdown is even more forced then in the previous book. Harry has no power, no plan (or a lousy one) and tries to take on a bunch of werewolves all by himself. Even one werewolf alone would have been able to kill him. He is facing a gang of highly trained magic enhanced FBI agents plus a mastermind criminal, and he thinks he can doit it by himself.
When captured, the book commits one of the most offending plot cliches, which is the overconfident villain. Agent Denton, the leader of the FBI agents, decides not to kill Harry, in order to let the loup-garou do it and it all would seem like the werewolf was responsible for everything. This felt too weak of an argument.
There were some hard to believe scenes, like in the beginning where an FBI agent tries to outright shoot Murphy in the face for disagreeing with her, and everybody thinks that was OK, just like spilling coffee. Also Murphy is too eager to condemn arrest Harry, even though she knows he is innocent, claiming because he has a history of lying to her (in order to save her life), he must be guilty of something.
In the end, Harry had defeated a gang of werewolves corrupt FBI agents, a powerfull monster, a gang of street thugs werewolves, gone against one of the countries mos dangerous criminals. After being knocked down to the ground, believing Murphy had shot him for resisting arrest, he says “I forgive you Murphy, you had every reason to believe me guilty”. That is a bit too much to take, but I could look past that. I understand what the author is trying to achieve, painting him as the kind of altruistic hero that always takes the high road, even though beating himself along the way for things he cannot control.
Another thing that was present in the first book but is more clear here is the black/white morality of the characters. Marcone is clearly bad, and Harry would not even speak with him if not to insult him. The FBI agents goes from vigilantes to killing innocent people without hesitation, in order to fulfill their goals.
In spite of all these problems, I still liked the book. Harry's personality follows him from the first book and sustains the story well enough. Murphy's suspicion of him still makes her a good character to hate, even though her scenes were a little poorly constructed.
WHAT
A detective story with supernatural elements. Harry Dresden is a charismatic wizard that works as a private investigator. The characters are easy to sympathize with, the plot is intriguing, complex and yet smooth to follow.
PLOT
When the lieutenant Karrin Murphy of the Chicago P.D. is confronted with a crime scene she cannot explain, she hires the services the only supernatural consultant in the yellow pages to help her find the murderer. During his investigations, Harry faces off a powerful and seductress vampire, a ruthless mob boss and an unstoppable toad-like demon. All of this while trying to avoid the scrutiny of an attractive reporter, the vigil of an over-zealous magical enforcer and the suspicions of the police. He also must protect his friend Murphy who is oblivious to the dangers she is facing, help a damsel in distress who might not be telling him the whole truth, take care to not kill himlself and others while performing his magic, keep his car from breaking down, get his love life going and pay the rent! But hey, at least he can count on the help of Bob, an immortal horny wizard trapped within a skull.
SUMMARY
The following is a list of characters and their motivations. Spoiler free, but avoid reading if you want to be surprised when they appear.
- Murphy: police lieutenant, obsessed with catching the responsible regardless of the risks involved- Carmichael: Murphy's partner, thinks Dresden is a fraud and an ass.- Susan: tabloid reporter, tries to seduce him into telling the details of the crimes he is investigating- Marcone: mob boss, wants him to drop the investigation. One of the victims was his bodyguard- Bianca: vampire, wants him to die for seeing her true form. One of the victims was a call girl that worked for her- Morgan: warden for the White Council, patiently awaits for the time when Harry misuses his magical powers in order to justifiably kill him- Bob: talking skull, the source of great arcane knowledge. Hangs on a shelf, reads erotica novels. Wants to leave his confinement to get into an orgy- Monica Sells: damsel in distress, her husband is missing and she is worried he might be involved with dark magic- Toad demon: demon, kills people, destroy stuff- Blue beetle: car, threatens to break down at every turn
ANALYSIS
The characters are so interesting that I found it enough to summarize the book through them. The plot was very engrossing as well, it meshed seamlessly with the characters, the flow of events was well planned and the sense of mystery and thriller typical of detective stories was well established and kept along the way.
The plot progresses at a frantic level. As Harry digs deeper into the murder, things gets more complicated and dangerous very fast. He tries to protect those around him but it gets to a point where he just have to give in and accept any kind of help he can get. In the end though, he must face the culprit all by himself, while resisting the temptation of using dark magic even if used for a good cause.
The ending wasn't that clever. Harry had no plan and was almost out of power when he faced the villains. He just thew himself at them and winged it. He was also under a self moral restrain of not killing anyone, even if that would risk his life. Still I don't expect much from a standard detective novel.
Harry is a fun, flawed and real character. He knows how dark and dangerous the world really is, and he does his best to keep the evil at bay, keeping up a sarcastic and humorous attitude, cracking jokes along the way.
He is a paladin at heart, but he is treated with suspicion by those who don't know him too well and also by those who know of the things he has done in his past. He doesn't think much of himself either, but that goes to show how caring and conscious he really is. He reminds me a little of Constantine.
He is the powerful underdog, he won't use magic for personal gains, sometimes even to defend himself. He is confronted with one problem after the other, with no time to rest in between, to recharge his magical powers. By the end of the story he is pretty much confronting the villain with a fraction of his energy and just some of his wits.
He is the not so perfect hero. He is chivalrous, honest and ethical, but though when he needs to be. He breaks the law when he has to, but is always trying to do the right thing even if it means making powerful enemies along the way, and having no money to sustain himself.