http://www.goodreads.com/review/list_rss/116610 en-US Wed, 09 Jul 2008 08:55:41 -0700 60 http://www.goodreads.com/ 200 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo.gif 26746641 Wed, 09 Jul 2008 08:55:41 -0700
The basic story line is pretty simple: Allie is in care and is sent to a new care home, where she learns she and the other kids all have some kind of power. Classic storyline follows, where the kids -Allie (TK), Rose (precognition), Timmy (telepathic child) and Jay (techempath)- run away to avoid the dubious schemes of the quasi-governmental agency. Classic, right? Also along is Lew, another teenager who works with them at the home, but isn't part of it.

It's a simple story in that sense, but it's not simplistic. Whether Dr Chill himself is bad is actually pretty ambiguous. The home is a good place for the kids, better for most of them than where they were. Allie's parents (or at least, her mother), put her in an institution/care when she was little, Timmy has spent most of life as an (apparantly) severely autistic child, Rose's father used her gifts for gambling. Lew is not forced to join the centre or abducted by the government, even though I'd think any decent scary quasi-governmental agency would give their eyeteeth for someone who is able to charm people into going along with what he wants, who is psychically likeable.

Even Timmy's refusal to deal with his parent to the point where as far as they know, he's pretty much catatonic isn't entirely justified-- they're not bad people, but he's a small kid. Because he's a kid, he's not able to deal with emotions rationally, especially when they come from other people -he can read, but not necessarily understand, and then it becomes a feedback loop.

It's like quite a lot of YA books in that sense. The story is familiar (runaways!), but how it's treated makes it genuinely worth reading.]]>
author: Thomas Hoobler
name: Jam
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1989
rating: 4
read at: 01/89
date added: 07/09/08
shelves:
review:
I'm writing this up because I recently read another book with very similar themes, written about 20 years later.

The basic story line is pretty simple: Allie is in care and is sent to a new care home, where she learns she and the other kids all have some kind of power. Classic storyline follows, where the kids -Allie (TK), Rose (precognition), Timmy (telepathic child) and Jay (techempath)- run away to avoid the dubious schemes of the quasi-governmental agency. Classic, right? Also along is Lew, another teenager who works with them at the home, but isn't part of it.

It's a simple story in that sense, but it's not simplistic. Whether Dr Chill himself is bad is actually pretty ambiguous. The home is a good place for the kids, better for most of them than where they were. Allie's parents (or at least, her mother), put her in an institution/care when she was little, Timmy has spent most of life as an (apparantly) severely autistic child, Rose's father used her gifts for gambling. Lew is not forced to join the centre or abducted by the government, even though I'd think any decent scary quasi-governmental agency would give their eyeteeth for someone who is able to charm people into going along with what he wants, who is psychically likeable.

Even Timmy's refusal to deal with his parent to the point where as far as they know, he's pretty much catatonic isn't entirely justified-- they're not bad people, but he's a small kid. Because he's a kid, he's not able to deal with emotions rationally, especially when they come from other people -he can read, but not necessarily understand, and then it becomes a feedback loop.

It's like quite a lot of YA books in that sense. The story is familiar (runaways!), but how it's treated makes it genuinely worth reading.
]]> 23032285 Tue, 27 May 2008 05:20:56 -0700
And she succeeded remarkably well, to the point where I almost don't want to mention it because when I'm reading it, I don't have to think about it. It's a good thing, when you're reading a book (and after you finished), when you don't have to agree to ignore aspects of it.

It means you can concentrate on the fact that the stories are real, old-fashioned horror without having to hand-wave over the author's obvious issues with X, Y or Z. The style is that mixture of understated combined with very specific moments of precisely terrifying descriptions that is a feature of that type of horror. The monsters are often monstrous, are things that are genuinely creepy and dangerous, but most of the evil, the wrongness is human. Even the things that are dangerous and need to be resolved, are sometimes sympathetic.

The book is a collection of horror stories set about 1950, published separately and in different magazines, but with the same narrator. Later stories do refer to earlier ones, but you can see that they'd play well separately. The narrator, Kyle Murchison Booth, is an archivist, withdrawn by nature and socially awkward (and according to Monette, the most autobiographical of her characters) and a good narrator. Observant, on the outside and uncomfortable, but also unable to look away as much as he might like to.

Strongly recommended, especially for people who like their horror creepy-terrifying, rather than graphic.
]]>
author: Sarah Monette
name: Jam
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 05/08
date added: 05/27/08
shelves: genuinelyinteresting
review:
Sarah Monette is a thinky writer and this definitely plays to that strength. In the introduction, Monette says that she wanted to write something with the feel of M. R. James and Lovecraft, but that acknwoldged things that are conspicuously absent in James and Lovecraft's works - things like strong women and sexuality.

And she succeeded remarkably well, to the point where I almost don't want to mention it because when I'm reading it, I don't have to think about it. It's a good thing, when you're reading a book (and after you finished), when you don't have to agree to ignore aspects of it.

It means you can concentrate on the fact that the stories are real, old-fashioned horror without having to hand-wave over the author's obvious issues with X, Y or Z. The style is that mixture of understated combined with very specific moments of precisely terrifying descriptions that is a feature of that type of horror. The monsters are often monstrous, are things that are genuinely creepy and dangerous, but most of the evil, the wrongness is human. Even the things that are dangerous and need to be resolved, are sometimes sympathetic.

The book is a collection of horror stories set about 1950, published separately and in different magazines, but with the same narrator. Later stories do refer to earlier ones, but you can see that they'd play well separately. The narrator, Kyle Murchison Booth, is an archivist, withdrawn by nature and socially awkward (and according to Monette, the most autobiographical of her characters) and a good narrator. Observant, on the outside and uncomfortable, but also unable to look away as much as he might like to.

Strongly recommended, especially for people who like their horror creepy-terrifying, rather than graphic.

]]> 22834486 Fri, 23 May 2008 14:48:16 -0700
And wow, was I disappointed. The first few pages in and I wanted the author to get her narratorial voice sorted out. She doesn't distinguish clearly between Dawn (or any other character's thoughts) and the general omnipotent narrator. Powering through that, and there were some potentially interesting characters, but they were let down by bad writing.

That's the thing, this book reads like badfic. Everything is expositioned, too many things happen with no sense of flow and often, no reason that's not as obvious as The Author Wanted A Sex Scene, The Author Wanted To Say This Statement, The Author...

Dawn is anguished. We hear this a lot. Many are her issues and it's not that these aren't shown, but then they're also explained right after.
As an example?

Dawn gave up. "Kik, she's a starlet. They're here today, gone yesterday. What's the use?"

Even as she said it, she knew she was being too harsh. But excuses were so much easier than getting down to the truth: the anguish of knowing that her mother had been one of them. The fact that the gorgeous masses, like Eva, made life hard for the average girl in America by creating an impossible standard of beauty to compete with.

What? Firstly, the gorgeous masses? Secondly, Hello there, Author! Nice of your to take time to speak to the audience directly about how the media-promoted ideas of beauty are bad. Thirdly, Dawn knows she's being unfair and she choses to be unfair because it's easier.

Dawn kind of sucks.

And it's all like that. The dialogue is clunky, you're never left in any doubt of someone's motivations because it's all explained to you and, just in case you forgot, the text will remind you of Dawn's anguish. Again.


"So you think... a vampire... killed your parents?"

"The police reports said it was some raging psycho who belonged in the mental ward. But they didn't see the guy, his bared teeth, the inhumanity of him. That's why I decided that they were full of crap and I was going to work my way around the system."

[...]

His clear-cut reminder of a parent's death weighed her to the spot. But it also linked her to him, because they were both struggling to shed a child's misery and loss.

It's just-- the book is bad, and it's not even bad the way a lot of paranormal romantic (or erotic) books are, because the characters are so damn cliché, although that is part of it. It's bad because it's badly written, because the book should have had an editor go through it and point out that the readers aren't stupid, that dialogue should sound natural and that knowing when it's the character thinking instead of the author is pretty damn important.

Aside from that, the plot is predictable, which isn't that surprising, but does mean that it's even less worth fighting through the prose.]]>
author: Chris Marie Green
name: Jam
average rating: 3.11
book published: 2007
rating: 1
read at: 05/08
date added: 05/23/08
shelves: notworthit
review:
I bought this book off amazon based on the blurb and my expectations weren't that high. I was looking for a fun read and I liked the idea of a stunt-woman heroine, so I was midling hopeful that I'd enjoy the book.

And wow, was I disappointed. The first few pages in and I wanted the author to get her narratorial voice sorted out. She doesn't distinguish clearly between Dawn (or any other character's thoughts) and the general omnipotent narrator. Powering through that, and there were some potentially interesting characters, but they were let down by bad writing.

That's the thing, this book reads like badfic. Everything is expositioned, too many things happen with no sense of flow and often, no reason that's not as obvious as The Author Wanted A Sex Scene, The Author Wanted To Say This Statement, The Author...

Dawn is anguished. We hear this a lot. Many are her issues and it's not that these aren't shown, but then they're also explained right after.
As an example?

Dawn gave up. "Kik, she's a starlet. They're here today, gone yesterday. What's the use?"

Even as she said it, she knew she was being too harsh. But excuses were so much easier than getting down to the truth: the anguish of knowing that her mother had been one of them. The fact that the gorgeous masses, like Eva, made life hard for the average girl in America by creating an impossible standard of beauty to compete with.

What? Firstly, the gorgeous masses? Secondly, Hello there, Author! Nice of your to take time to speak to the audience directly about how the media-promoted ideas of beauty are bad. Thirdly, Dawn knows she's being unfair and she choses to be unfair because it's easier.

Dawn kind of sucks.

And it's all like that. The dialogue is clunky, you're never left in any doubt of someone's motivations because it's all explained to you and, just in case you forgot, the text will remind you of Dawn's anguish. Again.


"So you think... a vampire... killed your parents?"

"The police reports said it was some raging psycho who belonged in the mental ward. But they didn't see the guy, his bared teeth, the inhumanity of him. That's why I decided that they were full of crap and I was going to work my way around the system."

[...]

His clear-cut reminder of a parent's death weighed her to the spot. But it also linked her to him, because they were both struggling to shed a child's misery and loss.

It's just-- the book is bad, and it's not even bad the way a lot of paranormal romantic (or erotic) books are, because the characters are so damn cliché, although that is part of it. It's bad because it's badly written, because the book should have had an editor go through it and point out that the readers aren't stupid, that dialogue should sound natural and that knowing when it's the character thinking instead of the author is pretty damn important.

Aside from that, the plot is predictable, which isn't that surprising, but does mean that it's even less worth fighting through the prose.
]]> 16742601 Fri, 29 Feb 2008 22:48:43 -0800
A canvas stays in one position for hours, is prepped to become a blank state, physically and mentally, so the artist can use them to create art. The canvas is, wants to be, perfect for the artist to work on and aims to give up their *self* for the eight hours a day they are that painting, for the time that painting is on show, until someone else becomes the canvas and the original canvas becomes a different piece of art.

And someone is destroying art, murdering the greatest pieces (starting with arguably the most valuable canvas who is also 14-year old girl and moving on).

It's murder, but also, and much more of a priority for most of the people involved, it's the destruction of art worth millions.

The canvases have personality, history, when they're not on. It's the appetite to lose that and become art that makes it more disturbing. They want to have their skin dyed, to stand absolutely still and void, showing only what the artist has put there, those emotions, to be the first canvas for a piece. They want to becomes things, and that's leaving aside Objects, people who become chairs, lights, tables.

What they get out of it are wages, but mostly what they get is being this piece of Art. The ambition is to be the first canvas of a famous piece of painting, the one that people remember as it, even if a hundred other canvases become that painting later.

What it takes from them is devotion and sometimes health, because people are not meant to hold positions like that for hours on end. It takes them letting themelves be broken down into blankness and remade into something else-- and then when that painting is done, being prepped and "stretched" again for the next painting.

The mystery is interesting, not for who did it or who dies, but for how it reflects this world.


It's disturbing, it's well-written and the translation is pretty good. Not 100% natural, but that wasn't a problem for me since the characters are meant to come from different countries so quirks of language make sense.

The thing that didn't work for me was that this art had become pretty much the only significant kind. Part of that is the perspective of the people in the book, canvases, collectors, artists, etc.

But music is barely mentioned, oldfashioned artists are strange. Dance isn't covered. These things exists, but the only thing that's really Art is this particular style. The lack of music, of acknowledgement of anything outside of it just seems so bizarre to me. ]]>
author: Jose Carlos Somoza
name: Jam
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 11/07
date added: 02/29/08
shelves: genuinelyinteresting
review:
The basic premise of the book is that at some point around the 1950s, it became common for artists to use people as canvases.

A canvas stays in one position for hours, is prepped to become a blank state, physically and mentally, so the artist can use them to create art. The canvas is, wants to be, perfect for the artist to work on and aims to give up their *self* for the eight hours a day they are that painting, for the time that painting is on show, until someone else becomes the canvas and the original canvas becomes a different piece of art.

And someone is destroying art, murdering the greatest pieces (starting with arguably the most valuable canvas who is also 14-year old girl and moving on).

It's murder, but also, and much more of a priority for most of the people involved, it's the destruction of art worth millions.

The canvases have personality, history, when they're not on. It's the appetite to lose that and become art that makes it more disturbing. They want to have their skin dyed, to stand absolutely still and void, showing only what the artist has put there, those emotions, to be the first canvas for a piece. They want to becomes things, and that's leaving aside Objects, people who become chairs, lights, tables.

What they get out of it are wages, but mostly what they get is being this piece of Art. The ambition is to be the first canvas of a famous piece of painting, the one that people remember as it, even if a hundred other canvases become that painting later.

What it takes from them is devotion and sometimes health, because people are not meant to hold positions like that for hours on end. It takes them letting themelves be broken down into blankness and remade into something else-- and then when that painting is done, being prepped and "stretched" again for the next painting.

The mystery is interesting, not for who did it or who dies, but for how it reflects this world.


It's disturbing, it's well-written and the translation is pretty good. Not 100% natural, but that wasn't a problem for me since the characters are meant to come from different countries so quirks of language make sense.

The thing that didn't work for me was that this art had become pretty much the only significant kind. Part of that is the perspective of the people in the book, canvases, collectors, artists, etc.

But music is barely mentioned, oldfashioned artists are strange. Dance isn't covered. These things exists, but the only thing that's really Art is this particular style. The lack of music, of acknowledgement of anything outside of it just seems so bizarre to me.
]]> 14604531 Tue, 05 Feb 2008 05:41:57 -0800
Roughly, it's about the author, an American, going to the Ukraine to try and find the village his grandfather came from and the book switches between the present (as narrated by Alex, his Ukrainian translator) and flashbacks to the past, his village and his ancestors which are told in a semi-magical, half-fable or fairy story way.

Except that doesn't really describe it. The Alex's English is the sort of language someone with a rough idea of the language and a well-thumbed thesaurus might come up with, making it a little like reading an Irvine Welsh book. His English gets easier as the book continues and he spends more time with the author, but reading it is at times a little like working a crossword.

It's also a lot about the process of writing. The flashbacks to the past -Jonathan's many-times-great grandmother's adoption, childhood, marriage, his grandfather's life, etc.- are passed on to Alex, who frequently ask Jonathan to change things, to make them happier, to make them work out.

It's also about truth, the lies we tell ourselves to live by. Parts of the book are harsh, brutal, but not inappropriately. Those bits are hard to take, not just because of the actions, but because confronting them -admitting them- is horrible for the people that survived them. They have to accept their betrayals, to have that honesty which can be unbearable, even if it is liberating.]]>
author: Jonathan Safran Foer
name: Jam
average rating: 2.80
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 01/08
date added: 02/05/08
shelves: bookstodoyourheadin, genuinelyinteresting
review:
I should say from the start that is is a book for people who enjoy the process of reading.

Roughly, it's about the author, an American, going to the Ukraine to try and find the village his grandfather came from and the book switches between the present (as narrated by Alex, his Ukrainian translator) and flashbacks to the past, his village and his ancestors which are told in a semi-magical, half-fable or fairy story way.

Except that doesn't really describe it. The Alex's English is the sort of language someone with a rough idea of the language and a well-thumbed thesaurus might come up with, making it a little like reading an Irvine Welsh book. His English gets easier as the book continues and he spends more time with the author, but reading it is at times a little like working a crossword.

It's also a lot about the process of writing. The flashbacks to the past -Jonathan's many-times-great grandmother's adoption, childhood, marriage, his grandfather's life, etc.- are passed on to Alex, who frequently ask Jonathan to change things, to make them happier, to make them work out.

It's also about truth, the lies we tell ourselves to live by. Parts of the book are harsh, brutal, but not inappropriately. Those bits are hard to take, not just because of the actions, but because confronting them -admitting them- is horrible for the people that survived them. They have to accept their betrayals, to have that honesty which can be unbearable, even if it is liberating.
]]> 11707022 Sat, 05 Jan 2008 09:53:22 -0800
So this is basically a spy thriller with chthonic beasts. If you like spy thrillers and cthonic beasts, you might like this and it does have some things to recommend it. It's funny in parts, it has some good characters, it doesn't take itself to seriously (although it's not a comedy).

But at the same time, it's not a book that I'd reread and it's one that I was pushing myself to finish.

Honestly, large parts of it dragged. Shiny new technomage jargon toys are not that interesting to me, and I don't want to spend a paragraph reading about the flashdisk in your bowtie and the wifi aerial in your bootlace.

The book is too impressed with it's own cleverness sometimes, in a way I don't actually find appealing. I liked the girlfriend, but I could have done with more of her. I liked that it didn't end up in Classic Bond Fashion, (or at least, not in the way you expected it to), but it still seemed like it wasn't worth the effort of reading. There are some nice things done with clichés and a nifty idea of a James Bond Geas effect, but they're still not worth sitting through those clichés in the first place.

But then, I tend not to like spy thrillers much in the first place, so I'm probably not the target audience.]]>
author: Charles Stross
name: Jam
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 01/08
date added: 01/05/08
shelves: notworthit
review:
Mine had a different colour I cannot be bothered to find.

So this is basically a spy thriller with chthonic beasts. If you like spy thrillers and cthonic beasts, you might like this and it does have some things to recommend it. It's funny in parts, it has some good characters, it doesn't take itself to seriously (although it's not a comedy).

But at the same time, it's not a book that I'd reread and it's one that I was pushing myself to finish.

Honestly, large parts of it dragged. Shiny new technomage jargon toys are not that interesting to me, and I don't want to spend a paragraph reading about the flashdisk in your bowtie and the wifi aerial in your bootlace.

The book is too impressed with it's own cleverness sometimes, in a way I don't actually find appealing. I liked the girlfriend, but I could have done with more of her. I liked that it didn't end up in Classic Bond Fashion, (or at least, not in the way you expected it to), but it still seemed like it wasn't worth the effort of reading. There are some nice things done with clichés and a nifty idea of a James Bond Geas effect, but they're still not worth sitting through those clichés in the first place.

But then, I tend not to like spy thrillers much in the first place, so I'm probably not the target audience.
]]> 8510292 Thu, 01 Nov 2007 03:17:53 -0700
author: Sander Bais
name: Jam
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 10/07
date added: 11/01/07
shelves: genuinelyinteresting, non-fiction
review:
Small book that obviously had someone pushing the productions values on it (the paper is so nice!) that makes it kind of special in a very simple way. An instructional book for people that want to know about this stuff and don't. I do recommend it as a small, clear book on pretty complicated things.
]]> 8378267 Mon, 29 Oct 2007 06:05:05 -0700
author: Nick Kanas
name: Jam
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 10/07
date added: 10/29/07
shelves: genuinelyinteresting, non-fiction
review:
Surprisingly readable, especially for a book published by Springer. Easy to pick up, doesn't require any real in-depth knowledge of celestial cartographer, packed with information and actually interesting. For me, the high points were the chapters on non-Western starmaps (China, Mesopotamia, Egypt, etc.) but others might enjoy the stuff on early American star maps more.
]]> 8266154 Fri, 26 Oct 2007 05:00:03 -0700
Firstly, it's not really about Temeraire. He's there, but he's a character, he's not the story. In this book for maybe the first time, the story is about the world and about how the differences in history -the presence of dragons, people surviving battles- changes things.

Secondly, issues raised in previous books come out here. One man's dragon is another's noble lord, is another's beast of burden, is another's living ancestor. Without going in to too much detail and ruining the plot, how people and dragons are viewed and what's acceptable to do to them, to allow to happen, all comes out. It's good, not least because these are exactly the sort of thing some authors would brush over. There's often a point reading about alternate universes and cultures where you think, "Wow, does the writer know just how fucked up this is? Are they going to actually admit that?" and in this book, the answer is yes. Naomi Novik does know how wrong these things re, she is willing to call the universe on it, to make the reader face it. Not comfortable for the characters or us, but absolutely necessary to make the book *better*.

Thirdly, the ending is, I think, exactly as it should be. It's not that I like it (It kind of makes me whimper) but anything else would be a disservice to the characters and... well, there is duty and nobility and doing what's right and the knowledge that whatever choice you make will be the wrong one. That you are picking the lesser of two evils, but that doesn't mean you won't have to pay the price or that you shouldn't.

]]>
author: Naomi Novik
name: Jam
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 08/07
date added: 10/26/07
shelves: genuinelyinteresting
review:
This books is possibly the most interesting (though not necessarily my favourite) of the Temeraire books.

Firstly, it's not really about Temeraire. He's there, but he's a character, he's not the story. In this book for maybe the first time, the story is about the world and about how the differences in history -the presence of dragons, people surviving battles- changes things.

Secondly, issues raised in previous books come out here. One man's dragon is another's noble lord, is another's beast of burden, is another's living ancestor. Without going in to too much detail and ruining the plot, how people and dragons are viewed and what's acceptable to do to them, to allow to happen, all comes out. It's good, not least because these are exactly the sort of thing some authors would brush over. There's often a point reading about alternate universes and cultures where you think, "Wow, does the writer know just how fucked up this is? Are they going to actually admit that?" and in this book, the answer is yes. Naomi Novik does know how wrong these things re, she is willing to call the universe on it, to make the reader face it. Not comfortable for the characters or us, but absolutely necessary to make the book *better*.

Thirdly, the ending is, I think, exactly as it should be. It's not that I like it (It kind of makes me whimper) but anything else would be a disservice to the characters and... well, there is duty and nobility and doing what's right and the knowledge that whatever choice you make will be the wrong one. That you are picking the lesser of two evils, but that doesn't mean you won't have to pay the price or that you shouldn't.


]]> 7415545 Mon, 08 Oct 2007 08:57:10 -0700
With this one, the storyline makes more sense, which is nice. There is character progression and despite issues with memory and flashbacks, a fairly linear bit of storytelling. Possibly, this is why the book is more of a piece, so the issues with memory and the past don't just get lost in the shuffle.

At the same time, there are fewer new people being introduced and the ones that are, while charming in their way, aren't really as interesting as the old ones. There's also the slight danger you get with flashbacks where the most interesting bits are already in the past.

I'm giving it a pretty high mark because it is a good book. Less quirky than the first, but still a good read.
]]>
author: Paul Magrs
name: Jam
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 09/07
date added: 10/08/07
shelves: genuinelyinteresting
review:
This is the second book in the series, following on from "Never The Bride" and is a pretty good continuation. The book is a lot more coherent than the first, which is both a strength and a flaw. The first book was much more sketchy. Yes, the different sections fed into each other, but overall, it was like reading a bunch of short stories about the same place, rather than one long story.

With this one, the storyline makes more sense, which is nice. There is character progression and despite issues with memory and flashbacks, a fairly linear bit of storytelling. Possibly, this is why the book is more of a piece, so the issues with memory and the past don't just get lost in the shuffle.

At the same time, there are fewer new people being introduced and the ones that are, while charming in their way, aren't really as interesting as the old ones. There's also the slight danger you get with flashbacks where the most interesting bits are already in the past.

I'm giving it a pretty high mark because it is a good book. Less quirky than the first, but still a good read.

]]> 4794660 Sun, 19 Aug 2007 23:26:52 -0700
The problem is the inconsistencies. One moment, it's clear that he and the author knows that he's not likeable, that he's meant to be an antihero. The next, his actions are excused or overlooked. He always manages to trump people in dialogue, insulting and outdebating them and getting away with it. In the first few pages, it's made clear that he's attractive "though not in the suave, if effete, manner of an English gentleman". No, Pyke has to be masculine, and (also made clear in the first few pages) has no trouble getting women and that he dumps them, they don't dump him.

He does something that is nasty, and while it's being done, it's presented as him being a hard man, borderline criminal, ruthless. After, though, there's an explanation, like him explaining why he had to do it, one that she (and we) are meant to accept. It's like the writer wants to show his hardened credentials, look at how tough, how nasty, brutal this guy is, but doesn't want to give up anything for it-- he's still attractive, intelligent, better read than a lot of nobles, cleverer, his actions are forgiveable in the context of his life. One moment, we're told that something he's done was pure pragmatism, unapologetic. The next, there's the explanation, the reason why his actions are acceptable.

The writing style is distant, I think in part to make it feel more appropriate to the era. Everything feels described, rather than shown.

In short, not a terrible book, but not one that does anything for me or that I'd particularly recommend.]]>
author: Andrew Pepper
name: Jam
average rating: 2.75
book published: 2007
rating: 2
read at: 08/07
date added: 08/19/07
shelves: notworthit
review:
The main problem I had with this book was not the fact the protagonist was unlikeable, although he is. Pyke is shown as, not just described as, hard, cruel, vicious. We're shown that he treats people (women) appallingly on more than one occasion. That's fine, that's not necessarily a bad thing in a protagonist.

The problem is the inconsistencies. One moment, it's clear that he and the author knows that he's not likeable, that he's meant to be an antihero. The next, his actions are excused or overlooked. He always manages to trump people in dialogue, insulting and outdebating them and getting away with it. In the first few pages, it's made clear that he's attractive "though not in the suave, if effete, manner of an English gentleman". No, Pyke has to be masculine, and (also made clear in the first few pages) has no trouble getting women and that he dumps them, they don't dump him.

He does something that is nasty, and while it's being done, it's presented as him being a hard man, borderline criminal, ruthless. After, though, there's an explanation, like him explaining why he had to do it, one that she (and we) are meant to accept. It's like the writer wants to show his hardened credentials, look at how tough, how nasty, brutal this guy is, but doesn't want to give up anything for it-- he's still attractive, intelligent, better read than a lot of nobles, cleverer, his actions are forgiveable in the context of his life. One moment, we're told that something he's done was pure pragmatism, unapologetic. The next, there's the explanation, the reason why his actions are acceptable.

The writing style is distant, I think in part to make it feel more appropriate to the era. Everything feels described, rather than shown.

In short, not a terrible book, but not one that does anything for me or that I'd particularly recommend.
]]> 4474230 Mon, 13 Aug 2007 13:03:12 -0700
Then there's the other family, seven siblings who run the town, farming things like power and money (Archer), crime (Shine), music and entertainment, police, and so on. Their paths cross when a good embeds himself in the Sykes home because, he says, Quentin owes Archer 2,000 words.

Diana Wynne Jones does lover her families and this does it well. They're sincere, and the relationships between them all ring true, the bad and the good ones. The way they deal with each other and the way they utterly fail to handle each other well, they way some personalities can make each other worse, even when they know each other well enough to be able to recognise when things are wrong.

All that, plus the... I don't know, mystical seems the wrong word when it feels so *practical*, but the mystical powers the seven have. Archer can hear you through an electric light, Hathaway lives in the past, literally, Torquil can lay a geas on music teachers. It's very Diana Wynne Jones, in that while there is magic, even when it's an anomaly in a mundane world, it still feels practical, kitchen sinkish. It's one of the things she's best at, making it all come across as pragmatic and mundane, even when it's amazing and unwordly.]]>
author: Diana Wynne Jones
name: Jam
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 08/13/07
shelves:
review:
One of my all-time favourite Diana Wynne Jones books. She's at her best dealing with families, and this deals with two. There's the core family, the Sykes-- Quentin (author and professor), Catriona (music teacher), Howard and Awful (Anthea is her real name, but she's *earnt* the name Awful). They live in more or less domestic harmony, of the sort that involves balancing out each minor crisis with tea, affection and the distraction of another crisis.

Then there's the other family, seven siblings who run the town, farming things like power and money (Archer), crime (Shine), music and entertainment, police, and so on. Their paths cross when a good embeds himself in the Sykes home because, he says, Quentin owes Archer 2,000 words.

Diana Wynne Jones does lover her families and this does it well. They're sincere, and the relationships between them all ring true, the bad and the good ones. The way they deal with each other and the way they utterly fail to handle each other well, they way some personalities can make each other worse, even when they know each other well enough to be able to recognise when things are wrong.

All that, plus the... I don't know, mystical seems the wrong word when it feels so *practical*, but the mystical powers the seven have. Archer can hear you through an electric light, Hathaway lives in the past, literally, Torquil can lay a geas on music teachers. It's very Diana Wynne Jones, in that while there is magic, even when it's an anomaly in a mundane world, it still feels practical, kitchen sinkish. It's one of the things she's best at, making it all come across as pragmatic and mundane, even when it's amazing and unwordly.
]]> 4473682 Mon, 13 Aug 2007 08:49:49 -0700
It's a collection of short stories, all staring dragons and with a main female character, but the forms these take... not all the narrators are female, not all the settings are fantasy. They're good stories and they're the sort of thing you wish there was more of. Some of them are more straight-forward, some of them are more disconcerting (one, I rarely read, not because I disliked the ending, but because it made me go "meep!", others I needed a sequel, a whole damn series of).


Dragonfield • Jane Yolen
Draco, Draco • Tanith Lee
Falcon’s Mate • Pat McIntosh
The Healer • Robin McKinley
Dragon Reserve, Home Eight • Diana Wynne Jones
Crusader Damosel • Vera Chapman
Cry Wolf • Pat McIntosh
Black God’s Kiss [Jirel of Joiry] • C. L. Moore

It's the range of the stories as much as anything else, seeing the dragons, seeing the women, as more than just one or two basic roles.]]>
author: Jessica Yates
name: Jam
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1989
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 08/13/07
shelves: back-ups, genuinelyinteresting
review:
If you can get a copy of this book, do. My review is with the qualifier that it's been at least ten years since I read this book, and it's one of the ones I really wish I'd taken from the school library when I left.

It's a collection of short stories, all staring dragons and with a main female character, but the forms these take... not all the narrators are female, not all the settings are fantasy. They're good stories and they're the sort of thing you wish there was more of. Some of them are more straight-forward, some of them are more disconcerting (one, I rarely read, not because I disliked the ending, but because it made me go "meep!", others I needed a sequel, a whole damn series of).


Dragonfield • Jane Yolen
Draco, Draco • Tanith Lee
Falcon’s Mate • Pat McIntosh
The Healer • Robin McKinley
Dragon Reserve, Home Eight • Diana Wynne Jones
Crusader Damosel • Vera Chapman
Cry Wolf • Pat McIntosh
Black God’s Kiss [Jirel of Joiry] • C. L. Moore

It's the range of the stories as much as anything else, seeing the dragons, seeing the women, as more than just one or two basic roles.
]]> 3835973 Sun, 12 Aug 2007 23:18:49 -0700
It's riddled with clichés, which isn't in itself bad, but they're boring clichés. They're dull and tiresome and they leach the plot of any interest it might have.

There's no suspense to be found anywhere. The heroes and villians are painfully obvious. Manipulative, sexual, coldblooded and power hungry mother, check. Honourable warrior from foreign lands, check. Innocent and virginal (yet feisty!) beautiful slave, who alone among the new inhabitants of the harem is not happy to be giving up freedom for comfort and position, check.

It's not just obvious to us, but to the other characters. They know things. It's all, "And yet he could sense her purity" "his honourableness" "her greed".

I trudged through 90 pages of *work* and it just wasn't worth it. The writing is stiff, the characters two dimensional at best and the plot unoriginal. Even without anything else for me to read, it still wasn't worth a page more.]]>
author: Fiona McIntosh
name: Jam
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2007
rating: 1
read at: 07/07
date added: 08/12/07
shelves: notworthit
review:
Let me start by saying that I'm an easy read. I read fast and I'm greedy, so I'll read pretty much anything in the absence of a better offer. I'm saying this because I got about 90 pages in to this book and just gave up.

It's riddled with clichés, which isn't in itself bad, but they're boring clichés. They're dull and tiresome and they leach the plot of any interest it might have.

There's no suspense to be found anywhere. The heroes and villians are painfully obvious. Manipulative, sexual, coldblooded and power hungry mother, check. Honourable warrior from foreign lands, check. Innocent and virginal (yet feisty!) beautiful slave, who alone among the new inhabitants of the harem is not happy to be giving up freedom for comfort and position, check.

It's not just obvious to us, but to the other characters. They know things. It's all, "And yet he could sense her purity" "his honourableness" "her greed".

I trudged through 90 pages of *work* and it just wasn't worth it. The writing is stiff, the characters two dimensional at best and the plot unoriginal. Even without anything else for me to read, it still wasn't worth a page more.
]]> 3283191 Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:00:35 -0700
The world set-up is grand, the story was often disturbing, the background was unusual, the writing was perfectly fine. So why the low rating?

Mostly because I didn't enjoy the book.

Part of my problem with this book, the chief problem, was that I'd read the story before. Specifically, I'd read it in last few books of the New Adventures novels (spin-offs of Doctor Who novelisations which for copyright reasons never actually used the word "Doctor" or "Tardis" or any TV companions and were instead focussed on a former companion who was only ever in the books). In those, there were gods who were actually parasites, feeding off of belief and creating fanaticism, once cast-out and now trying to return.

Without going in to too much detail, there are gods/parasites, machines that need fixing, stuff about revolution and belief. The problem is that I liked the new adventures stuff more. This one... well, it wasn't as interesting to me. I just didn't feel that involved with the characters. The Court of Air of the title didn't make much of an appearance. Things felt disconnected, the two main protagonists barely met. I finished it more to have it done, than to see what happened to every one.

That said, it didn't work for me, but it might work a lot for others. Not a light read -not hard sci-fi or SF, but not a light read- and good for people who like fantasy that feels more like science fiction. It just kind of left me a little... meh.]]>
author: Stephen Hunt
name: Jam
average rating: 2.42
book published: 2007
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 07/19/07
shelves:
review:
One word review: disappointing.

The world set-up is grand, the story was often disturbing, the background was unusual, the writing was perfectly fine. So why the low rating?

Mostly because I didn't enjoy the book.

Part of my problem with this book, the chief problem, was that I'd read the story before. Specifically, I'd read it in last few books of the New Adventures novels (spin-offs of Doctor Who novelisations which for copyright reasons never actually used the word "Doctor" or "Tardis" or any TV companions and were instead focussed on a former companion who was only ever in the books). In those, there were gods who were actually parasites, feeding off of belief and creating fanaticism, once cast-out and now trying to return.

Without going in to too much detail, there are gods/parasites, machines that need fixing, stuff about revolution and belief. The problem is that I liked the new adventures stuff more. This one... well, it wasn't as interesting to me. I just didn't feel that involved with the characters. The Court of Air of the title didn't make much of an appearance. Things felt disconnected, the two main protagonists barely met. I finished it more to have it done, than to see what happened to every one.

That said, it didn't work for me, but it might work a lot for others. Not a light read -not hard sci-fi or SF, but not a light read- and good for people who like fantasy that feels more like science fiction. It just kind of left me a little... meh.
]]> 2624535 Mon, 02 Jul 2007 08:08:58 -0700
The pacing is good for a star, the ending not rushed or confused. There are a lot of familiar faces, including Cat Chant as well as Chrestomanci. One of the nice things about DWJ books is that she's not afraid to let her characters grow up, which Cat is in the middle of doing.

It's also nice in that in broadens the world of Chrestomanci, introduces new styles of magic and some good new characters. Definitely one I'd recommend.

]]>
author: Diana Wynne Jones
name: Jam
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 06/07
date added: 07/02/07
shelves:
review:
Definitely one of the better written Diana Wynne Jones books. I love pretty much all of them, but it's undeniably true that some of them hang together better than others, and this is one of them.

The pacing is good for a star, the ending not rushed or confused. There are a lot of familiar faces, including Cat Chant as well as Chrestomanci. One of the nice things about DWJ books is that she's not afraid to let her characters grow up, which Cat is in the middle of doing.

It's also nice in that in broadens the world of Chrestomanci, introduces new styles of magic and some good new characters. Definitely one I'd recommend.


]]> 2526334 Fri, 29 Jun 2007 07:46:21 -0700
It has a nice range of recipes, fairly standard things that aren't too much fuss and that you can find the ingredients for easily. ]]>
author: Sally Cameron
name: Jam
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/29/07
shelves: non-fiction
review:
Just a good, easy and useful recipe book aimed at people living in flats, possibly students, who want to eat food and either don't have a great deal of experience cooking for themselves, or want to cook smaller amounts (for themselves rather than a family).

It has a nice range of recipes, fairly standard things that aren't too much fuss and that you can find the ingredients for easily.
]]> 2434774 Fri, 29 Jun 2007 07:19:38 -0700
author: Robert Lacey
name: Jam
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 01/01
date added: 06/29/07
shelves: genuinelyinteresting, non-fiction
review:
It's a nicely written book which takes very little time to read, but packs a lot of information in. Not heavy in any sense, but solid history, good for if you just want to get a feel for that era and some interesting facts, without hitting 15-volume tomes.
]]> 2355663 Mon, 25 Jun 2007 07:49:17 -0700
There are no schematics for a start. the instructions are sometimes woefully non-specific. It might tell you to cast off five stitches every other row, but won't be clear on which side (wrong or right) it should be. More than that, they sometimes go a long way around it. She'll tell you to cast off, and then later to pick up stitches from the cast-off edge when it'd be much easier just to but those stitches on a stitch holder.

The end product of the patterns is often quite nice, but I don't recommend this (or any Debbie Bliss pattern books) if you're a beginner. One for people comfortable messing about with patterns and filling in the blanks.]]>
author: Debbie Bliss
name: Jam
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2002
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 06/25/07
shelves: non-fiction
review:
The problem with Debbie Bliss books is that the end product is fine, but the instructions are lousy.

There are no schematics for a start. the instructions are sometimes woefully non-specific. It might tell you to cast off five stitches every other row, but won't be clear on which side (wrong or right) it should be. More than that, they sometimes go a long way around it. She'll tell you to cast off, and then later to pick up stitches from the cast-off edge when it'd be much easier just to but those stitches on a stitch holder.

The end product of the patterns is often quite nice, but I don't recommend this (or any Debbie Bliss pattern books) if you're a beginner. One for people comfortable messing about with patterns and filling in the blanks.
]]> 2355641 Mon, 25 Jun 2007 07:43:31 -0700
author: Naomi Novik
name: Jam
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 06/25/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2355638 Mon, 25 Jun 2007 07:43:28 -0700
author: Naomi Novik
name: Jam
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 06/25/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2355636 Mon, 25 Jun 2007 07:43:25 -0700
author: Naomi Novik
name: Jam
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/25/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2355629 Mon, 25 Jun 2007 07:43:18 -0700
author: Douglas Adams
name: Jam
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1984
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/25/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2355628 Mon, 25 Jun 2007 07:43:17 -0700
author: Douglas Adams
name: Jam
average rating: 3.52
book published: 1993
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 06/25/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2355610 Mon, 25 Jun 2007 07:42:47 -0700
author: Douglas Adams
name: Jam
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1987
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 06/25/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2202240 Thu, 21 Jun 2007 06:41:01 -0700
author: Harper Lee
name: Jam
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1960
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/21/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2153212 Wed, 20 Jun 2007 08:14:27 -0700
It's enjoyably written, with some nice darkly humorous moments, characters that are generally likeable and an author that obviously loves words as much as he loves the components of the story.

And cheese.]]>
author: Giles Milton
name: Jam
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/20/07
shelves:
review:
Possibly not a book for the lactose intolerant, unless they like tormenting themselves.

It's enjoyably written, with some nice darkly humorous moments, characters that are generally likeable and an author that obviously loves words as much as he loves the components of the story.

And cheese.
]]> 2106720 Tue, 19 Jun 2007 04:48:22 -0700
The basic plotline is simple: five parents decide to have their kids killed for reasons that are honestly pretty skimpy. The parents are pretty cold and I suppose that's part of why it's a horror, but it still comes off as bizarre more than anything else. They're sent to Coldbrook Country Boarding School, where as part of orientation, everyone goes on a hike. Unbeknownst to them, their guide has been hired to kill them.

Honestly, the parents' motivations are not a problem as such, except that you get the same logic gap in other characters. Nat, the guide, accepts the job without really thinking about it, then decides not to kill them pretty easily as well. The fact that he gets romantically involved with one of the girls as well adds to my general discomfort with him. It's just pointless, the character, his motivations, the whole thing. No consistency, no coherency.

It does have some nice touches -the letters the kids write at the beginning, explaining why they should be accepted to Coldbrook, is nicely creepy- but overall it was just kind of meh. Not scary enough and senseless in the wrong way.]]>
author: Julian F. Thompson
name: Jam
average rating: 3.61
book published: 1997
rating: 2
read at: 10/05
date added: 06/19/07
shelves:
review:
I actually found this book disappointing.

The basic plotline is simple: five parents decide to have their kids killed for reasons that are honestly pretty skimpy. The parents are pretty cold and I suppose that's part of why it's a horror, but it still comes off as bizarre more than anything else. They're sent to Coldbrook Country Boarding School, where as part of orientation, everyone goes on a hike. Unbeknownst to them, their guide has been hired to kill them.

Honestly, the parents' motivations are not a problem as such, except that you get the same logic gap in other characters. Nat, the guide, accepts the job without really thinking about it, then decides not to kill them pretty easily as well. The fact that he gets romantically involved with one of the girls as well adds to my general discomfort with him. It's just pointless, the character, his motivations, the whole thing. No consistency, no coherency.

It does have some nice touches -the letters the kids write at the beginning, explaining why they should be accepted to Coldbrook, is nicely creepy- but overall it was just kind of meh. Not scary enough and senseless in the wrong way.
]]> 2051274 Sun, 17 Jun 2007 09:30:07 -0700
I wanted more about the business, more about the characters, but everything was quite superficial. The set up, the small details of that era for comic production was good and done by someone who knew what they were talking about, but there wasn't enough if it.

In conclusion, lightweight. The mystery wasn't and the rest of it wasn't shiny enough to compensate. Not a bad read, but nothing spectacular either.]]>
author: Max Allan Collins
name: Jam
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 06/17/07
shelves:
review:
I hoped to enjoy this book, but in the end I was kind of meh. It didn't help that the mystery is kind of obvious pretty early on, no shock twists there, but it was also kind of skimpy.

I wanted more about the business, more about the characters, but everything was quite superficial. The set up, the small details of that era for comic production was good and done by someone who knew what they were talking about, but there wasn't enough if it.

In conclusion, lightweight. The mystery wasn't and the rest of it wasn't shiny enough to compensate. Not a bad read, but nothing spectacular either.
]]> 1992712 Fri, 15 Jun 2007 04:56:45 -0700
If you want to get a sense of world history (and the history of world religions), this is probably a good place to start.]]>
author: Larry Gonick
name: Jam
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at: 01/00
date added: 06/15/07
shelves: comicsmanga, genuinelyinteresting, non-fiction
review:
This actually is a world history book and definitely worth reading. Lots of stuff about China, lots about the middle east, not just the usual Roman empire stuff, even though there is a fair chunk of that as well.

If you want to get a sense of world history (and the history of world religions), this is probably a good place to start.
]]> 1992710 Fri, 15 Jun 2007 04:52:55 -0700 Warning, contains historically accurate violence, which entertaining to adults and children alike.]]>
author: Larry Gonick
name: Jam
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/15/07
shelves: comicsmanga, genuinelyinteresting, non-fiction
review:
I like this series a lot. Informative, great general history, good explanations and enjoyable to read. I actually recommend them for most ages, kids (I first read this one when I was in juniors) up to adults.
Warning, contains historically accurate violence, which entertaining to adults and children alike.
]]> 1668537 Thu, 14 Jun 2007 13:57:56 -0700
author: Sarah Monette
name: Jam
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/14/07
shelves: back-ups
review:
The structure of this book is more balanced than the first, which you might like or not, and it gives you more of a example of Felix when he's well, which again, you might like or not. I did enjoy this book and I enjoyed both narrators, even when I wanted to smack them.
]]> 1910617 Thu, 14 Jun 2007 13:51:38 -0700
One of those books you try to force everyone to read.]]>
author: Greg Rucka
name: Jam
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 01/04
date added: 06/14/07
shelves: back-ups, comicsmanga
review:
One of the best comic book series out there. Set in Gotham, but about the Gotham Central Police Department. All the best bits of noir and procedurals, great characters, great use of familiar faces. The Joker, Batman, Mr Freeze or Ivy might make appearances, but it's always about the GCPD.

One of those books you try to force everyone to read.
]]> 1960105 Thu, 14 Jun 2007 13:47:18 -0700
author: Caroline Pover
name: Jam
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 05/03
date added: 06/14/07
shelves: non-fiction
review:
Definitely a book every woman should have if she's planning on living in Japan. Easy to read and informative, it has a lot of useful day to day information, as well as the things you hope you won't need to know. Lots of anecdotes and examples from real life, as well as good factual information.
]]> 1973358 Thu, 14 Jun 2007 13:41:59 -0700
What it isn't, is a comfortable read. It's an AU of a world in which virtually everyone is a werewolf. Only a tiny percentage are born headfirst and don't change in the full moon, and life for them is...

Well, grim covers it pretty well, but not in the way you might suspect. It's not unrelentingly grim, though it feels like that some times. The narrator has a justifiable level of damage and her life is a grind when it's going well, but there's still warmth in odd moments. Worth reading, though not if you're in the mood for something light.]]>
author: Kit Whitfield
name: Jam
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 05/07
date added: 06/14/07
shelves: bookstodoyourheadin, genuinelyinteresting
review:
The reviews on the cover call it "gritty and original" which it is, and "extraordinary" which it also is.