Stan Morris's Blog, page 4
June 28, 2012
Shards of Honor by Bujold
This was a solid four star book. There is nothing fancy in this book; just good quality reading material. The setting is limited in scope but it is interesting and leaves the reader wanting to hear more. The characters are simple without being cardboards. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and I will likely buy another in the series.
June 22, 2012
Surviving the Fog-Kathy's Recollections
Sorry, but today I must report on my own work. Here is a list of chapters for Surviving the Fog-Kathy's Recollections.
I have been editing these chapters and then converting them to mobi format. This work and the mobi downloads can be found here. Chapter Thirteen *ing Spring Time is not complete and has not been posted.
https://sites.google.com/site/stanand...
Chapter One kathy@camp dot ugg
Chapter Two Alone (and Afraid)
Chapter Three The Gang [of Boys]
Chapter Four Death; Becomes Us
Chapter Five Moving, Maybe Forward
Chapter Six Adults R Us?
Chapter Seven Empathy & Friendship
Chapter Eight Boyfriend!
Chapter Nine The Dog #
Chapter Ten Growing ^
Chapter Eleven Temperature - Zero
Chapter Twelve Gabby + Tyler
Chapter Thirteen *ing Spring Time
Of course, comments are always welcomed.
I have been editing these chapters and then converting them to mobi format. This work and the mobi downloads can be found here. Chapter Thirteen *ing Spring Time is not complete and has not been posted.
https://sites.google.com/site/stanand...
Chapter One kathy@camp dot ugg
Chapter Two Alone (and Afraid)
Chapter Three The Gang [of Boys]
Chapter Four Death; Becomes Us
Chapter Five Moving, Maybe Forward
Chapter Six Adults R Us?
Chapter Seven Empathy & Friendship
Chapter Eight Boyfriend!
Chapter Nine The Dog #
Chapter Ten Growing ^
Chapter Eleven Temperature - Zero
Chapter Twelve Gabby + Tyler
Chapter Thirteen *ing Spring Time
Of course, comments are always welcomed.
June 13, 2012
The Last Boyfriend by Nora Roberts
I have never been a fan of Nora Roberts' mysteries, but I have enjoyed her romances since she was a writer for Silhouette Books. She's a little too much into beautiful people and she often uses the same cast of characters, but she always makes them interesting and likable. Some reviewers have complained about this series because it is about an inn in which she apparently has a financial interest, but my reaction is, so what? That's product placement, folks. The Last Boyfriend is the second in the Inn Boonsboro series and it is thoroughly entertaining and emotionally satisfying. A ghost who lives that the inn that these men are renovating is waiting for her long lost love. Stay turned for episode three involving Ryder and Hope. 4 and a half stars rounded up to 5 stars.
June 10, 2012
1636: Kremlin Games (2 stars)
I had high hopes for this book. It is one in the series began by Eric Flint in his book 1632. This book was co-authored by Flint, Georg Huff and Paula Goodlett.
Unfortunately, my hopes were dashed half way through the book. The reason was that this book was about 85% material that had been previously published in issues of the Grantville Gazette which is an ezine that comes out about every two months. I could have accepted this book if it had been at least 50% new material. Additionally, it veers away from the storyline in the Gazette and the reason it does so seems to be so that the story could be wrapped up quickly. Too bad.
Basically, the story is about an uptimer (American) who is hired to go to Russia and help modernize the country. Once he is there, he finds himself in the middle of Russian politics.
The story is entertaining, and the characters are interesting and believable, and the descriptions of the way the Russians adapt technology due to their limitations is very satisfying.
Unfortunately, my hopes were dashed half way through the book. The reason was that this book was about 85% material that had been previously published in issues of the Grantville Gazette which is an ezine that comes out about every two months. I could have accepted this book if it had been at least 50% new material. Additionally, it veers away from the storyline in the Gazette and the reason it does so seems to be so that the story could be wrapped up quickly. Too bad.
Basically, the story is about an uptimer (American) who is hired to go to Russia and help modernize the country. Once he is there, he finds himself in the middle of Russian politics.
The story is entertaining, and the characters are interesting and believable, and the descriptions of the way the Russians adapt technology due to their limitations is very satisfying.
May 30, 2012
Crystal Gardens by Amanda Quick (Jayne Ann Krentz)
First of all, 4 stars for this book. I'm glad Krentz has left the Arcane series behind because I was getting a little tired of that. She is still in her PA phase, and they seemed to be obliquely related to Arcane, but they stand on their own.
Crystal Gardens is the first of a trilogy which is labeled, The Ladies of Lantern Street. It is her usual fun read with plenty of strong women and intelligent men. If you like those kinds of characters, you should try Jayne Ann Krentz, I believe that you will be glad you did.
Crystal Gardens is the first of a trilogy which is labeled, The Ladies of Lantern Street. It is her usual fun read with plenty of strong women and intelligent men. If you like those kinds of characters, you should try Jayne Ann Krentz, I believe that you will be glad you did.
May 27, 2012
How to Stop Reading a Series
I have been reading "Summer Knight," by Jim Butcher. I'm not going to rate this book or even review it, because I gave up at page 137 (paperback). Instead, I'm going to suggest a technique to abruptly end reading a series.
The most likely reason for giving up on a series is that the writing is annoying to the reader for whatever reason. So why do people have trouble giving up on a series? Two reasons, first, the best writing is coming at the end of the books, and second, it is human nature to what to know what happens next.
The trick is to give up while in the middle. Now you won't know the ending to the story, so even if you read about it in a spoiler or hear about it from someone, you won't have experienced the ending. And by ending the book in the middle, you avoid coming to the good writing at the end. This works well for TV series, too.
As for "Summer Knight, I will just say,"poor Harry." Which pretty much sums up the other books I've read in this series.
The most likely reason for giving up on a series is that the writing is annoying to the reader for whatever reason. So why do people have trouble giving up on a series? Two reasons, first, the best writing is coming at the end of the books, and second, it is human nature to what to know what happens next.
The trick is to give up while in the middle. Now you won't know the ending to the story, so even if you read about it in a spoiler or hear about it from someone, you won't have experienced the ending. And by ending the book in the middle, you avoid coming to the good writing at the end. This works well for TV series, too.
As for "Summer Knight, I will just say,"poor Harry." Which pretty much sums up the other books I've read in this series.
April 27, 2012
Grave Peril
I do not know why I keep tormenting myself by purchasing books in the Dresden Files series. Every one of them has had an annoying assortment of cliches, convenient lapses and "now why didn't think of that?" moments. Still they have just enough interesting concepts so that I find myself thinking, "Maybe the next one will be better." Or at least not as quite as annoying. There is a good twist on ghosts in this book.
April 26, 2012
V is For Vengence
I don't know this for sure, but I have a hunch that Sue Grafton is getting tired of this series. I know that I'm struggling to finish it. I really don't like the movement from first person POV to third person POV. That detracts from the main character in my opinion. And the end of a lot of these recent novels is so telegraphed that by the time I get there I'm thinking, 'Ho, hum.' Only four more to go. This one was a little better than some of her recent novels, but still it was only three stars.
April 25, 2012
Explosive Eighteen
I liked this book. It was one of the better stories in this series recently. Some of the recent books have been barely three and a half stars, but this was a solid four star book. The humor was real and not contrived, and Stephanie's relationships with Joe and Ranger seem to be moving forward. This was much better than a book I read from another long time series writer. I'll discuss that in my next post
April 20, 2012
Hunger Games-the Book and the Movie
I'm not always a fan to movies bases on a book. Too often the director takes the title of a book, totally changes the plot and the characters and then presents the mishmash to an unsuspecting audience. Critics then applaud because the movie is not 'derivative,' meaning that the book has basically been plagiarized. Other times, a lot of the book is simply cut out, ala The Lord of the Rings.
Hunger Games-the Movie is sort of a combination of both. For the most part, it follows the book although some parts have been cut. The real problem is the addition of material that was not in the original book. The most glaring error was not to tell it in the first person POV. But I enjoyed the movie, and I give it 4 stars.
As for the book, I liked it too, sort of. I'm not a fan of 'boo-hoo, we are under the thumb of the government stories,' but this was better than most, so 4 stars for the book also.
Hunger Games-the Movie is sort of a combination of both. For the most part, it follows the book although some parts have been cut. The real problem is the addition of material that was not in the original book. The most glaring error was not to tell it in the first person POV. But I enjoyed the movie, and I give it 4 stars.
As for the book, I liked it too, sort of. I'm not a fan of 'boo-hoo, we are under the thumb of the government stories,' but this was better than most, so 4 stars for the book also.
