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Self challenge - Rosie's Always Write 'Em Up 2015 Challenge
CastillonThe Red Knight by Miles Cameron (the author's other persona) was one of my top reads lately. This is an historical novel of great detail and atmosphere - and there is a whole series! Goody!
King of ThornsEmperor of Thorns
Books 2 and 3 in the series, very good, and it finishes properly too. Hate "trilogies" that you just know are being left open for more milking.
Hand for a HandTooth for a Tooth
Books 2 and 3 in the DI Galbraith series set in St Andrews. Well written, now tending to veer towards the highly unlikely
Dead Men's BonesInspector McLean 4. I really like this series, well written with just a hintette of the supernatural.
I fear I may have found my first refusal of the year - thought I'd read Outlander because of all the fuss over the series. What a load of boring pish. I canna tak it any more, ye ken
Well you've done a good job of picking books this year then
I nearly always get the sample first and that's usually more than enough to let me know if I want to read the whole book or not. Outlander just goes on and on and on - I made it to 34% before throwing in the towel
The Sense of an EndingVery literary, just too clever and ever so slightly dull. So introspective it nearly disappeared up its own fundament.
I have enjoyed other Julian Barnes books far more than this. At least it was mercifully short!
The True DeceiverWell this was so Scandinavian that I didn't really have a scooby what was going on. But I quite enjoyed the ride, she has a very distinctive style and how much of that is due to the fact it was written in Swedish and how much is her "voice" I don't know. But it is rich in evoking the rigours of a Finnish winter and curiously unsettling.
If I'm right then The True Deceiver is by Tove Janssonn, who gave the world the Moomins. Love all her books.
Yes it is Misha. One of my favourite books of all time is The Summer Book. I reread it regularly, it makes me smile (and think) every time.
I love the Summer book too. My sister-in-law introduced me to it for which I am eternally grateful.
Tooth for a ToothConstantinople
The Meating Room
The Woods
I have nothing to say about any of these really. Kind of knew what I was going to get with them all.
Assassin's ApprenticeI read this mainly because GRR Martin said she was so good. Yes, it was good, but not the masterpiece I had been led to expect. And curiously I'm in no rush to read any other of her books yet.
The Shadow Of What Was Lost Three or four stars I guess. Fairly generic fantasy, some of it all too familiar.The Bloody North Another generic fantasy, this time in the Abercrombie stylee. And I strongly suspect that's a cloak on the cover.
Frostborn: The Dark Warden These really are becoming monumentally samey, but I always read another one. Although I will admit to skipping the interminable battling-undead-orcs-and-assorted-unvanquishable-foes scenes. Of which there were many.
Ghost in the MachineDevil in the Detail
Fire in the Blood
Dyed In The Wool
Read all these in a row, and kind of sickened myself of them. Again, becoming rather too samey, but this may not been so evident if I hadn't read them back to back as I did, to be fair. I've really gone off the main character Cullen too.
The Blood That Stains Your HandsNow this is how it should be done!
Third in the DS Thomas Hutton series, Scottish crime/noir. Excellent mix of gory ick and humour with a wee touch of the supernatural. Made me laugh out loud a couple of times (good way to get a seat by yourself on the train).
Loved it.
The second Hutton book is on offer (99p) at the moment and the first one free.I enjoyed the first one, but didn't know if I could be bothered with the second one. If I am going to have to read the third one, then I shall have to get the second one now :)
It's just as well I topped up my Amazon gift card yesterday.
The second one was pretty boak-inducing, if I were honest, Joo!
More Equal Than OthersSomehow I thought this was the first in a series - actually it was number five. It was OK, but there were quite a few typos (spurious apostrophes aargh) and who seriously thinks that A4 paper is written 'A' four? My belief was not entirely suspended, and I felt that by book 5 characters ought to have been a bit better fleshed out.
Red LightI'm not entirely sure Masterton can really get into female characters' heads. And the amount of gore really becomes a bit tedious.
The Waterproof BibleWeird. But in a good way :)
At first I didn't really follow what was happening but the writing was good enough to stick around for the ride. Things became clearer, and it was a good read.
The Case Of The Stained Glass WidowSanta's Christmas Eve Blues
Two wee shorties by a favourite writer. Both given four stars because I really prefer longer books, to be honest.
The Legend of Sleepy HollowSuch a familiar story to me, after the Disney version and that one with Johnny Depp and Christopher Walken as the Hessian. Both more fun than the orignal :/
But to be fair, the descriptions of Sleepy Hollow were very good, very atmospheric.
Relatively GuiltyDuty Man
A new author to me set but I always like a crime novel set in Scotland and Linlithgow is an original setting. I enjoyed the first more than the second but I will read more in this series.
Daughter of Smoke & BoneI really quite enjoyed this, it was original and had good characters. Having said that I'm not sure would rush to read the next one as it looked like it was about to go down the YA cross-paranormal-species romance route which really isn't my thing, thanks.
The 45% Hangover A Logan and Steel novella As much as I love these characters this was all just a bit unlikely. And silly. And it was short.
Low TownBeing shallow I picked this to read because I liked the title and that is The Straight Razor Cure rather than Low Town as it seems to be here on Goodreads. One of the better Fantasy Noir I've read. Going directly into no 2.
Rosemary (The Nosemanny) wrote: "The Legend of Sleepy HollowSuch a familiar story to me, after the Disney version and that one with Johnny Depp and Christopher Walken as the Hessian. Both more fun than the orignal :/..."
I read this last year and wasn't impressed. Johnny Depp version much better
The Killing Of Emma Gross: A Detective Novel About A True Crime In The Weimar RepublicAtmospheric but ultimately a little dull
Tomorrow The KillingDidn't enjoy quite as much as the first. Perhaps should have left a gap between them? Still looking forward to no 3 though.
BottleneckI think this series has run its course, to be honest. The characters haven't really developed the way they should have.
Knight AwakenedDear heaven this was pants. I only really finished reading it because it was annoying me so much that I was enjoying it in a kind of masochistic way! The author set it in a land and time but frankly I don't know why, it was fantasy really as she had clearly made no effort to research the 1) history 2) language/society or 3) landscape of her setting.
The sex scenes hahahaha - nubbin??? seriously?
The "cherub" - the female character's adopted daughter (who she wouldn't let out of her sight at the start of the book and was only there as a plot device so that the male protagonist would think she wasn't a virgin) and is conveniently sidelined once the rumpy pumpy starts.
But the most amusing was the "traitor in his trews". Yes seriously! Every time the lead saw/sniffed/heard the woman we heard about his stirrings. Every effin time...
And don't get me started on the writing style. Or the editing
Not your book of the year, then? ;) I hate it when they repeat a phrase so often when it was only marginally useful the first time!
Not even my book of the day Kath!I'm not sure it reflects very well on me that I can write screeds about a book I didn't like, but don't feel the need to expound on one that I do :/
I think we're all like that. I expect the language has more derisory words than plaudits too!
The MiniaturistUmm, what did I think of this? Well, it's a beautifully crafted read, you could almost be in seventeenth century Amsterdam. And reading it makes you really, really keen to find out what's going to happen... But you don't! Not really anyway. Not that I expect every novel to sport a neat and tidy ending (happy or otherwise) but this one really left me unsatisfied! Glad I read it though.
We Are All Completely Beside OurselvesWas this nominated for the Boker prize? I think it was. I gave it four stars because I did enjoy it, although it was really rather long winded (skipped a section in the middle, shock!) and frankly I found the narrator unremittingly smug and a bit preachy. In fact looking back I don't know why I didn't give it 3? Actually going to change my rating.
The Invisible LibraryAn interesting concept.
River of Stars
Dull, dull, dull. Not a book to be picked up every time with relish. Which was a shame, because it started off so well.
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Books mentioned in this topic
The Dread Wyrm (other topics)Thief Trap (other topics)
The Curse of Chalion (other topics)
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Some good ole steampunk, original and inventive. With zombies thrown in for good measure. All a bit unlikely really, but hey, what the hell. Two not very sympathetic (to me) main characters but I liked the bit players better.