false 20 799 539 true 5881119 read 6 true 683530 currently-reading 82 true 683529 to-read 79 true 2258435 wishlist--fluffy 76 true 2258428 wishlist--crunchy 17 true 2258438 wishlist--crafty 1 false 742014 recommended <![CDATA[Arian added 'Elizabeth's Spymaster: Francis Walsingham and the Secret War That Saved England']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76571424 to: Elizabeth's Spymaster: Francis Walsingham and the Secret War That Saved England (Hardcover) by Robert Hutchinson
Sadly, I found this book surprisingly inacessible. I had hoped for an understanding of Walsingham's life and work - which I got - but I was not expected the author to assume that I was so steeped in modern warfare and espionage to understand that a "dead letter" was a person who received correspondance on your behalf, or any number of other troubling assumptions about my knowledge of such things.

Additionally, I'm chagrined to admit that the archaic English in Walsingham's correspondances was difficult for me to distinguish, though that was helped along by the author's attempt to be helpful. Almost every sentence contained bracketed words intended to indicate what was missing, or to put the term into modern parlance. I found these frustrating and not at all helpful, as I would have been better able to understand the text had it retained some semblance of flow.

Still, I did get what I was looking for: much of the book does concern Walsingham's life. ]]> <![CDATA[Arian added 'Quicksilver']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5780153 to: Quicksilver (Baroque Cycle, #1) by Neal Stephenson
]]> <![CDATA[Arian added 'The Silver Mage']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76247033 The Silver Mage (Silver Wyrm, Book 4) & (Deverry Dragon Mage, Book 7) by Katharine Kerr
bookshelves: wishlist--fluffy
]]> <![CDATA[Arian added 'The Shadow Isle (Silver Wyrm, Book 3) & (Deverry Dragon Mage, Book 6)']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76246985 The Shadow Isle (Silver Wyrm, Book 3) & (Deverry Dragon Mage, Book 6) by Katharine Kerr
bookshelves: wishlist--fluffy
]]> <![CDATA[Arian added 'The Spirit Stone (Silver Wyrm, Book 2) & (Deverry Dragon Mage, Book 5)']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76246971 The Spirit Stone (Silver Wyrm, Book 2) & (Deverry Dragon Mage, Book 5) by Katharine Kerr
bookshelves: wishlist--fluffy
]]> <![CDATA[Arian added 'The Gold Falcon (The Silver Wyrm, Book 1) & (Deverry Dragon Mage, Book 4)']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76246893 The Gold Falcon (The Silver Wyrm, Book 1) & (Deverry Dragon Mage, Book 4) by Katharine Kerr
bookshelves: wishlist--fluffy
]]> <![CDATA[Arian added 'The Gathering Storm']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76134362 to: The Gathering Storm (Wheel of Time, #12; A Memory of Light, #1) by Robert Jordan
]]> <![CDATA[Arian added 'And Another Thing...']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75005053 to: And Another Thing... (Hitchhiker's Guide, #6) by Eoin Colfer
An acceptable footnote to the Hitchhiker's series. Eoin Colfer is one of the few that would have the voice to pull this off, and he did so surprisingly well. The "Guide" entries that break up the main narrative were his weak spot, as he doesn't quite have the ear for place names that Adams did, and it shows.

The main narrative, however, is sweet and stirring, and lives up to what this book truly is - a wrapping up and an homage. The characters fit nicely into expected roles and the dialog is swift and biting. Nods back to the main books are plentiful but skillfully applied, and plotlines left drifting in the breeze are neatly completed. Don't expect a happy ending for Arthur Dent, though: each character gets more or less exactly what's coming to them, and Arthur is, after all the most unlucky man in the universe. Even the Vogons get a suitable Vogon ending.

"And Another Thing" as a title neatly sums up the entire book, and is a sweet reference to the snippet on the back of the book: the argument is over, the participants have moved on, but there's one man in the back still grumbling. Eoin Colfer did the grumbling for us, and rounded things out as best as could be done, when the winner of the argument had already, sadly, left us. ]]> <![CDATA[Arian added 'Quest for the Faradawn']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72371593 Quest for the Faradawn (Paperback) by Richard Ford
bookshelves: wishlist--fluffy
]]> <![CDATA[Arian is on page 198 of Quicksilver ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5780153 Arian is on page 198 of 960 of Quicksilver ]]>