David Stringer's Blog

Reading Challenge – 96% complete – near the End.

So here we all our!  Early December, cold weather has kicked in, Christmas is looming large and social gatherings are taking place.  We also find reading challenges fast approaching the finishing line, and I think this is going to be close.

For my regular followers you will know my target is 50 books in a year.  An amount I managed last year.  This year, well, it’s going to be close.  I’ve just finished reading my 48th book.  Two to go.  Three weeks to get them in.  Plenty of festive distraction including an eight year son.

Anyway.  What two books have I managed since my last blog?

 

Book #47 – The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

Well I’ve continued by visits to the local library and found this, long awaited book The Blade itself.

Wow. I’m going to start of this review by saying, Wow. And I’m not apologising for that.

This is a fantastic start to a series of books I am about to order! The story, the characters, especially the characters, the world building and mainly the author are amazing! I love this book, it has really rejuvenated my enjoyment of reading again, which was dwindling but this and Mark Lawarence’s book ‘The Prince of Thorns’ has got me back buzzing and reading.

In this book, and something I love, we kind of have three main characters. Maybe more, but I’ll stick with the three I’m going to mention. And all are interesting. We have possibly my favourite, Logen Ninefingers, a world famous warrior and leader of a group of not-so-merry men, Rogues! No doubt about it. Rogues. Loveable though. We have the harder-to-like and a character I suspect has a lot coming his way in the future series, Jezal. A spoilt, selfish type and future sword champion and all round hero. He hopes. And then, an almost anti-hero, who I possibly like the most now I come to think of it is Glokta. Crippled inquisitor and torturer, with a slight chip on his shoulder, who was once a great hero and warrior, now a broken, in pain, suffering servant to the upper classes.

This is an epic fantasy story with clever twists and turns, It’s smart, horrific, inventive and grand in its vision. I absolutely loved it. Lord of the rings meets Game of Thrones, with grit sprinkled on top.

5 out of 5 stars!!!

Annual Reading Challenge – 92% Done. Library re-visited!

 

Hello everyone.  Well, for those that read my last blog you’ll know I’d hit a bit of a mental brick wall with my reading.  I wasn’t sure if I was getting bored of my reading, or that a few books had just switched me off a little, or I was just generally getting grumpy.

So with that in mind, as well as recently (at home) re-visiting our finances and realising that some belt tightening was very much in order, decided to re-visit a place I loved visiting when I was a child.  The Library!  Rather then constantly buying books, and often not enjoying them, have decided to borrow them from my local Library instead.

And this I believe has slightly revitalised me.  So what have I read since my last blog?

 

Book #44 – Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

So as you know I’ve picked up this book on the bounce of a few disappointing reads, with my interest in reading wavering for the first time in a few years. So no pressure Mr Lawrence. Help reignite me and my reading challenge.

And I’m so pleased I did. This book was very difficult to put down, with it’s fast pace, action and intrigue around every page and corner. The main character Jorg – Prince of Ancrath, is great. He’s your role-model anti-hero. Nasty, cruel, uncaring but with some charismatic feature and hard done too past that has you championing him every step of the way. And deep down, we all know he’s a good guy. In some perverse way.

The story is around our young prince, Jorg, who has quite a difficult time and child hood. And we then follow him as he goes through life looking for revenge, redemption and to….long term…rule the world? Him and his band of ‘not so’ merry men are a joy and you can’t help but like them. Drinking, fighting and pillaging. But be warned, like Jorg, the author has no qualms with killing one or two off! The author also has no qualms with gore, violence and a little cruelty. I say little, as although there are moments of ‘darkness’ it isn’t too much and it doesn’t ruin the story or book. And I am normally quite sensitive too such things.

So overall, I really enjoyed this book. Will definitely be reading the rest of the series and the rest of the author’s work! Thumbs up and I’m back reading again.

Five out of five stars!

Book #45 – Far North by Marcel Theroux

This is the second book I’ve picked up from the Library.  This has been on my to-read-list for a good number of years, so was pleased to find it.  And what do we find? Well, Far North is a post-apocalyptic story, which follows our main character and hero Makepeace as she survives a new, cold, harsh and desperate new world in the snowy, chilly setting of Siberia.

The author Theroux has done a good job here, everything is beautifully written and descriptive, but he also keeps things simple, things aren’t bogged down in detail. He also only reveals what the main character knows, which keeps everything quite real, understated and helps keeps the pace up. However, and it’s not a complaint at such, this style does leave us readers with lots of unanswered questions about the world, what has happened before or elsewhere for example.

So did I enjoy this book? Now that is a tough one to answer. The book has a sadness to it, which considering the theme is fine. But I’m not convinced we have much of a plot here either and we have one to many unlikely events which maybe pushed/put me off from believing everything the characters where going through.

And something that really did ruin things for me a little, sorry to say, was the revelation in chapter three that Makepeace was actually a woman. Up to this point I’d pictured a grizzly old, cowboy type male, so to suddenly spring this change on me and how I was imaging the world was a big adjustment.

So I’m going to give this a, sit on the fence, three stars. Edging more to I liked it then just ok.

Book #46 – I am a Small God by AJ Dalton

This is a nice, refreshing (almost) and humorous little book (100 pages) about a god named Ecrelis who is our hero, small god and narrator throughout the story. There is a menacingly powerful new war god taking over from the East, I’ll let you read this to work out who it is, who is going around slowly killing off the old gods including those from the ancient Greeks, the Celtics, the Egyptians etc. etc. with the help? Not really help, forced assistance of our hero Ecrelis.

There is a definite intelligence in the writing here, from the wit that is used throughout to the thought provoking actions and ideas we read about as we travel through history and time as our hero, and the war gods, adventures continue to a climatic end.

So this is, overall, a good book that is intelligent, witty and insightful with a likeable, intelligent, witty and insightful hero/underdog main character that you can’t help cheering for. A good book.

Three out of five stars.  I liked it.

 

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Now, back to the library to return a couple of books and find some new ones!

My Reading Challenge hits a snag – I’m bored.

 

It’s coming up to the end of October 2017, I’m 86% of my annual reading challenge completed, which sounds good and about on track I believe, but there’s a problem.  I’ve suddenly hit a bit of a brick wall and lost interest in my reading and what to read next!

40 Books read – Reading Challenge going well.

Well here we are, end of September 2017 already, and it’s been a good year so far for me and the family.  With some lovely holidays shared and my eldest off to Manchester University and the start of his life.  All doing well and I’m proud of all of them.

So, back to that matter and blog in hand, how has my reading been going.  Well, it has slowed down, what with family commitments and other social events recently, but I’m still on track to achieve my annual target (50).  I’m 80% there.

 

Book #39 – No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

Now this has turned into a difficult review to write. I watched the film, many moons ago, before deciding to read the book and I kind of regret that. I think. The film was a good one, and some of the performances by some of my favourite actors I believe have had quite an effect on me and my reading, picturing of this book and the story as it unfolds. Or is it simply that the book and narrative are that good that the film had no choice but to mirror it closely, meaning I kind of felt I was actually reading a screenplay? I don’t know.

So what I found here was a very entertaining, gritty and action packed story with three…maybe even four or five good, interesting characters. The standout three are Moss, who I’m kind of classing as the main character in the book. The reluctant hero, who isn’t and doesn’t want to be a hero, but is I believe a nice guy trying to do well, or the right thing. I’m not sure. Then we have Bell, the tired old police officer full of stories and wisdom. And then, like with the film, the baddy who steals the show. Anton Chigurh. Who is a force of nature that is somewhat unstoppable, has a chilling cruelness, whereby he operates on his own set of morals and simply cannot be bargained with. Like a human Terminator.

So how do I rate this book? Well, I’m giving it four stars. Probably a tad harsh, but found the lack of punctuation grating and sometimes confusing. When was I Being told something by the narrator or was it one of the characters talking? I would find a conversation had started between two characters without realising, so would sometimes have to go back a few sentences and re-read it now I knew what was happening. A conversation.

Anyway, this is a really good, entertaining read and I do understand why the author and the book get so many good reviews. I will be reading more of McCarthy’s stuff. Perhaps The Road next.

 

Book #40 – Armada by Ernest Cline

I’ll start off by saying that I loved the authors, Ernest Cline, first book ‘Ready Player One’. In fact I rank it as one of my all time favourite books. So with this fact, and the synopsis reading like the much loved (Although not watched in a very long time) film The Last Starfighter, I was more then excited and intrigued to read this. Surely we was on to a winner here.

And boy did I want it to be. It just…wasn’t. I at no point engaged with the main character Zack, other characters or the story. 60-70 pages in I realised I was actually bored. But persevered for Ernest Clines sake.

The story is about our hero Zack Lightman, a geek, nerd and general nice guy with some anger issues. His dad died before he was born, etc. so growing up was tough. Who loves, like all geeks and nerds do, playing video games. And like we all dream of, as does Zack and his father before him…that all these games are actually for real. It’s all training. It’s all real. And he now needs to go save the world with his gaming skills.

So a nice premise of a story, but sadly I never got on board and enjoyed the story, and I think that’s what I have to rate the book on. Did it entertain me? Did it have me rushing back to read on? Sadly No.

So it’s with disappointment I finish and review this book with two stars. It’s ok. Not three stars which is I liked it, as I didn’t.

Summer Holidays reading – Challenge progressing well.

After waiting nearly a year for having more than four days off together, my lovely two week summer break with the family is over.  And here we are, early September 2017 with my reading challenge of completing 50 books in one year progressing nicely with me completing 76% of my target.

 

Book #36 – The Bomb Maker by Thomas Perry

The Bomb Maker is an interesting story about a genius bomb maker, who uses his weapons and intelligence to wipe out half the LA bomb squad in one fell swoop, and from the off set the story has you gripped. To try and stop this apparent campaign and mad man, the force go to former bomb disposal expert and trainer Dick Stahl, hoping to catch our baddy before more mayhem and harm is done.

And the story does start off well, with me thinking I’d stumbled on a cracker of a read here. But alas, my interest soon waved. I think the style, and maybe initial editing, irritated and put me off. I couldn’t help notice a lot of conversations started with Dick Stahl said “Don’t cut the red wire…blah blah blah”. We’d get another line, and then, Dick Stahl said “That’ ok, I don’t like red”. Lots and lots of Dick Stahl said “bombs go boom”, Dick Stahl Said “you get the idea?”, Dick Stahl said “Aaagghhhh”.

Couldn’t he have just grumbled “We get the idea Dave”. He then slowly walked away and muttered “Ok Dave, enough already!”. Anyway….with all that said, this book is a nice idea, liked getting the bombers perspective as well as the chasers! But I’m giving this book an ‘OK’ two stars out of five. Towards the end I was just relieved to finish so I could start another read, and that been said, the end was a bit limp.

Book #37 – Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky

I didn’t realise the computer game (which I’ve never played) Metro 2033, was actually a book written by Russian writer Dmitry Glukhovsky, and reading that this is a cult classic, was tempted to purchase and read. Metro 2033 is about the Moscow Metro system, the year is 2033 and mankind had nearly wiped itself out in a nuclear war some years earlier with any/all survivors of this disaster taking refuge in the said Metro subway system.

Our hero is Artyom, a young man who will travel all around this Metro system to initially pass on a message, but as time and events occur, this mission develops and becomes a lot more important. What I really loved about the book is the continued atmosphere of dread, suspense and claustrophobia which is maintained throughout. The world building of the Metro itself is brilliant. This is the area where the book stands out for me. With the various stations, political factions (communists, capitalists, fascists, independents, mutants, cults) and mainly the oppressive and dominatingly dark tunnels. There is also danger, violence and some gore sprinkled around, especially considering how creepy some of the hostile forces Artyom encounters on his journey are.

So yes I really enjoyed this book. But I am harshly going to drop a star! Why? I hear you scream. For me, something I would normally ignore the odd time, but there is a few, little editing hiccups. But also for me, the overuse of dreams got tiresome, especially at times when you don’t always realise that this is what is happening, so confusion set’s in. Only to end up shrugging your shoulders and feel two heavy pages of reading has been done for no reason. Kind of.

So a really good book, with fantastic world building that does suck you in and make you feel part of it and a little oppressed.

Book #38 – Faulty Bones by J.M.Fraser

This is a difficult book to both rate and genre place. Faulty bones is about two professional gamblers/drifters (Amy and Mike) crashing through life without having much to show for it, who team up in this story to try and survive and get loads of cash. So far so good.

I’m going to do my best to not add a spoiler, as for me, what I enjoyed was trying to figure out what was going on. I didn’t read any other reviews or blurbs, I jumped straight in. And this is a modern day story, with for me little hints or flavours of stories like Fight Club and the insomnia type film Memento starring Guy Pearce, where you know something is-a-miss but can’t quite work out what it is. So was fun trying to guess what oddity we was seeing.

The initial story is of these two down on their luck poker players, that get roped into a mafia type scam, and find themselves getting deeper and deeper into trouble. So we have a caper type scam story, which later stumbles into fantasy territory. Enough said by me, as I said, I’m not adding spoilers.

But I’m giving this story three stars, which is still a ‘Liked it’ rating. Just a lot of character, relationship reveals towards the end I felt all got a bit much and disappointing for me at the end. Would of been better in my opinion with one or two less, kept it more realistic and grounded, twist us readers more in later books maybe if the author feels the need too.

But still an interesting, caper type modern day book worth a read.

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Thanks for popping into my blog and checking out my reviews! Hope you enjoyed them.  Give me a ‘Like’ and move on to the next blog, or book your reading

Reading Challenge 70% done and a great book also found.

 

Another month done.  It’s the end of July 2017 already, and again I’m looking outside at the rain beating down!  Can’t beat a good UK summer!?

So, how has my reading being going!  Two more books done since my last blog.  What have I read I hear you call.

Book #34 – Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Murakami

Before buying this book in a local bookstore the hand written blurb by one of the staff there intrigued me. Lot’s of praise and reviews and staunch fans of the author, who I’m sorry that in my ignorance I haven’t heard of before, piqued my interest into giving this ago.

Here we find two worlds/characters running side by side. One I understand or pictured to be a futuristic Japan and the other a more fantasy world version of Japan? And the book for me unfortunately was an extremely slow burner, it took me to the 25% completed mark before I got any interest out of it, in fact I was close to DNF status.

When suddenly Wonderland got a bit dangerous with high-tech mafia business visiting our main character, some violence, some flesh-eating monsters, a broken-into apartment, some smashing of stuff, some splitting headaches and hangovers from drowning our confusion in whiskey (both me and the MC). It was almost enough to make me think I got what all the fuss was about. And I continued this strange journey of a book, with people losing their shadows and unicorn skulls being used to read dreams….and….and…and then sadly again, I lost interest.

The book felt to forced for me. A little pretentious. Maybe the style of the authors writing isn’t to my taste or just simply on a different plain to a layman like me, but I didn’t get a great deal of enjoyment from it. I tried.

Looking at other reviews after writing my own, I’m clearly in a minority and suspect I will be frowned upon by my lovely goodreads friends. Be gentle with me.

Two out of five stars.

Book #35 – Dark Pines by Will Dean

This is a bit of a genre jump for me, a crime thriller, not one I read a lot of. And I’m glad I gave this a go, it was a really absorbing, enjoyable and entertaining read. And no, I didn’t guess the killer.

What initially got my attention, along with the interesting and atmospheric front cover, was the setting of this thriller set in a deep, dark and menacing forest from Sweden. Nordic thrillers are a bit of a trend at the moment I believe, with a few TV shows being set there recently, and the one’s I’ve seen have been vaguely interesting. So what does this book offer? Does it match these shows.

Yes. Yes it did. The main character, Tuva, isn’t your standard reporter running around trying to solve the crime. No, and this is one of the aspects I enjoyed and enjoy in other books, is that the main character here is a little different. Tuva is deaf, with hearing aids that often play up. She’s from the small town in Sweden, but has been and prefers to live in the big cities, definitely not a fan of nature and the big outdoors. She’s a little fed up with her small town life eating rubbish food, writing about town fairs and looking after her ill mother. And then suddenly the story explodes, with Tuva trying to solve/report on an apparent return of a serial killer that once terrorised the town some twenty years ago, with once again bodies of hunters appearing with the same modus operandi. This is her big break.

And what I’d like to add here, is that the huge selling point for this book, the main driver for me is the writing. The style. The author has done a great job. The scene setting, detail and the pace is perfect and you always know what the characters are thinking and feeling, the descriptions of the various environments makes you feel you are really there with some good suspenseful moments sprinkled throughout which had me rushing my reading or holding my breath. Ha ha, reading this review back to myself makes me realise how much I did get into this book.

So yes, highly recommend crime thriller readers read this. If not for the story but the writing.  Five out of five stars.

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Thanks for reading my blog!  I Appreciate your visit.  How about giving me a like, and maybe a comment! Love hearing from fellow readers and what they like or don’t.

Take care!  David

 

 

More good books – Reading challenge update.

Thank you for popping by my blog to see what I’ve read since my last blog! I continue my Goodreads reading challenge, which is to complete 50 books in a year, and so far, early July I’m already 66% there.  I’m getting through a lot of books at the moment, as my reading habits are changing.  Very little television watching is done by me these days.

So what have I read since my last blog…..

Book #31 – Drakon by C.A.Caskabel

Well the last few months, so far, have been full of good reads for me and I’m pleased to say that this adds to them. The story is around our hero Da-Ran, who we initially meet as a barbarian asking for help from priests in a monastery and then as a child as he re-tells his life story. This I understand is the first in a series of books, and it’s a cracking start.

It is very much like The Hunger games and Maze runner, meets Genghis Khan as tribes take children into trials to develop future leaders, warriors, archers but at the same time filter out and lose the weaker one’s along the way. And at times this book does have a dark, cruel side, but definitely doesn’t take anything away from the story. Adds to it. The story flows brilliantly and the author has done a fantastic job in keeping you interested and wanting to read more throughout to find out what happens next! Who survives. Who passed the next trial. What superstitions are real. I got through this book very quickly, which is a clear indication of a good, entertaining and gripping read.

Definitely wanting to follow this series, and author! 5 out of 5 stars!

Book #32 – You by Austin Grossman

I did buy this, I admit, on the hope of finding something similar to one of my favourite books ‘Ready Player One’ and hoped to find something of equal standing and entertainment. And this is similar in that it has lot’s of nostalgic nods to the old computer gaming world, arcades, bad attempts at coding and dice rolling with Dungeons and Dragons. So for me and people in my generation, original uncool geeks, this will appeal to.

There are obvious differences to the afore mentioned book, in that this is about a group of computer game programmers not just a gamer. With flash backs to their youth and to present day, with all the troubles computer programmers, gamers and geeks face. And this is interesting, as they battle to produce the Ultimate game but also solve or eradicate an old Bug in the system, this is done by playing through old games etc. and solving puzzles. So is good stuff and the author has done a lovely job here, I really did enjoy this journey back to my youth and the book as a whole.

So why the dropped stars. Firstly, I got confused and didn’t enjoy the sections where our main character started conversing in real life? with the computer games main characters! He even goes on a date with one. Not sure if this was really happening and he’d gone mad, if he was dreaming it or day dreaming it, I never really figured this out. Although will say I did like the main character Russell, who is a kind of loner, loser type that doesn’t know where he fit’s in in the world and what he wants out of it. I could relate to him.

I also found and struggled with the vast amount of history given to us about the game(s) in the book, which doesn’t actually exist. This happens a lot, especially near the end, just as the pace cranks up a gear this information dumping throws it back in the ‘walking through mud’ pace leaving the reader to trudge through. Or skip

More great books read – Reading Challenge 2017

Well after having a bit of a heat wave for a week or so, I get my day off, to a windy cloudy day!

Two Enjoyable Reads – Challenge update 54%

The year continues to fly by, as I find myself already at the end of May 2017, with the sunshine beating down…followed briskly by an unexpected rain shower.  Football season has drawn to a close, so one less distraction to my reading for a bit.

So what have I read since my last blog, well, two books I’ve really enjoyed I’ll have you know!

 

Book #26 – John Dies at the End by David Wong

I’ve had this book on my ‘to-read-list’ for a while and when recently making a book order, decided to bite the bullet and order this as well, let’s get it on. Was intrigued to check this out as a few David Wong books are starting to pique my interest. And so here I found a book a little bit different to everything else. It’s horror, I want to say mild but it isn’t really mild, but it isn’t scary or keep you up at night hiding behind the covers horror, it is quite amusing, off kilt and a little…well…weird. We do get blood, guts and tears but almost in a harmless, not real, cartoon like blood, guts and tears.

While reading it thoughts of Ghostbusters jump to mind and the Netflix TV series Stranger things, both of which I love, so echoes of them plus this weird, whacky sense of humour are rife throughout. And I did enjoy it, and read through it quite quick. The story is kind of about two guys, not loser types as such but not far off, who through certain events end up trying to save the world from other worldly dimensional monsters. And it’s quite gripping, it’s original and the writing is easy to follow and as mentioned is quite amusing. Can imagine the author is a cool guy to hang around with.

So why the dropped star, why not five? I’ll quickly say that four stars does mean ‘Really Liked it’ which I did, but, well for me it’s all a little too whacky and daft, just needed reigning in a little on the weird-o-meter (I made them up by the way). Also feel the book should of been shortened a little (480 pages) it became a bit of a slog and a little samey around the half way mark. But overall this was a good, entertaining, amusing light hearted read.

Book #27 – Sea of Rust by C.Robert Cargill

I absolutely loved this book. It is about a robot ‘Brittle’ that has survived the war that has meant robots/AI have beaten mankind and taken over the planet. So this is like the Terminator films, but afterwards, with all the fall out, mess and destruction but also with the twist that the robots won. This leaves, thirty/forty or so years later, robots like our hero Brittle scavenging the world for spare parts to continue to exist. While other big mainframes now battle it out for supremacy.

There is lot’s going on, including flashbacks to the war, robots and their previous lives and the continuing efforts of the current survivors to continue to survive. This book also raises lot’s of questions in your head and leaves you with things to contemplate.

I loved it. Think Terminator meets Mad Max, great world building here, author has done a fantastic job! I want to read more.  Five out of Five stars!

 

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Well another thank you for reading my post, hope you enjoyed it and are even tempted to try reading them.  Hit the like button, or send me a message with what you think!  More importantly, take care out there!

Reading challenge – 50% completed!

Well I’m posting an update on my reading challenge as I’ve hit a milestone!  I’ve completed half of my yearly target, ahead of schedule, which has surprised me as thought I’d struggle this year…but have read some books within a day or two this time round, I’m finding my reading habits are changing, developing or even evolving.  I’m becoming a proper reader