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ARCHIVE 2019 > The Carousel Returns: Paul reads at least 250 books in 2019 probably

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message 251: by Paul Emily (last edited Nov 30, 2019 03:26PM) (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Doctor Who Short Trips - Volume 3 by Simon Miller

Book #238
Doctor Who: Short Trips - Volume 3
2 hours, 18 minutes = 138 pages

Listened to 26th to 29th August 2019

Why I listened to it: Listening to more Doctor Who audios.

Rating: ***


message 252: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Cells at Work! 2 by Akane Shimizu

Book #239
Cells at Work! Volume 2, written and illustrated by Akane Shimizu
182 pages

Read 27th to 31st August 2019

Why I read it: Reading more of the comics I picked up from Humble.

Rating: *** - Didn't like this as much as Volume 1. Not sure why. Nevertheless, a fine series that I wouldn't mind picking back up again at some point.


message 253: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Doctor Who Short Trips Steel Skies by John Binns

Book #240
Doctor Who Short Trips: Steel Skies, edited by John Binns
192 pages

Read 25th August to 1st September 2019

Why I read it: Reading more Doctor Who books.

Rating: **** - Unexpectedly quite strong. The prompt seems to have really put a fire under the contributors and let them come up with some properly interesting stuff. Admittedly some of the twists and turns are deeply... not great, but for some reason this time the highs were enough to save the anthology regardless. Genuinely worth reading.


message 254: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) The Book of Heroes by Miyuki Miyabe

Book #241
The Book of Heroes, by Miyuki Miyabe
350 pages

Read 27th August to 2nd September 2019

Why I read it: I picked it up from Humble.

Rating: *** - An odd book. A lot of it is made up of these very long, quasi-philosophic conversations on the nature of story where very little is really resolved, and the book awkwardly moves from one locale to another... every so often. The side characters are quite a lot of fun to be around though. It also has strange things to say about story that I don't quite agree with, and I'm not sure as to what extent the book ever reconciles it all, plus it has a... somewhat awkward grasp on tone. And pacing. I'm glad I read it for the good that I got out of it, but I don't know how well other people would respond to it.


message 255: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Super Mario Bros. 2 (Boss Fight Books, #6) by Jon Irwin

Book #242
Super Mario Bros. 2, by John Irwin
184 pages

Read 2nd to 3rd September 2019

Why I read it: I got all the Boss Fight books from Humble in a sale sometime back.

Rating: *** - It doesn't quite succeed in pulling everything together, but what it's trying to do is utterly fascinating. If this is the Boss Fight books on an off day, or even a reasonable baseline of quality, I think I'm going to have a fantastic time with them.


message 256: by Paul Emily (last edited Nov 30, 2019 03:27PM) (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Doctor Who Short Trips - Volume 4 by Richard Dinnick

Book #243
Doctor Who: Short Trips - Volume 4
2 hours, 22 minutes = 142 pages

Read 2nd to 5th September 2019

Why I listened to it: Continuing to listen to my Doctor Who audios.

Rating: *** - The quintessential mix of quite good stories and quite not good stories balancing out to make a collection that's kind of all right.


message 257: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) I'm Standing on a Million Lives Vol. 1 by Naoki Yamakawa

Book #244
I'm Standing on a Million Lives Vol. 1, written by Naoki Yamakawa and illustrated by Akinari Nao
193 pages

Read 2nd to 5th September 2019

Why I read it: I got it from Humble.

Rating: ** - Bad. The main protagonist is charisma-free and flip-flops in personality ridiculously, the art is standard and overly fetishy (as usual), the world has barely any personality, and while it does bring some interesting twists to what I assume is the standard isekai formula (the heroes getting to go home every so often, for example), it's not enough to save this. Avoid.


message 258: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) The Aleph and Other Stories by Jorge Luis Borges

Book #245
The Aleph and Other Stories, by Jorge Luis Borges, translated by Andrew Hurley
210 pages

Read 4th to 6th September 2019

Why I read it: Still reading the Collected Borges.

Rating: *** - Almost as good as Fictions, but not quite. I think what happened here is that some of Borges's usual preoccupations start becoming noticeable, and some of the stories are... questionable in focus. Nevertheless, a fine collection that I'm probably being harsh on.


message 259: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Die #7 by Kieron Gillen

Book #246
Die #7, written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Stephanie Hans
32 pages

Read 6th September 2019

Why I read it: More Die.

Rating: *** - Just didn't connect with this one as much as some others for some reason. Hmmm.


message 260: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Sculpture Stories by Neil Gaiman

Book #247
Sculpture Stories, written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Lisa Smellings
14 pages

Read 6th September 2019

Why I read it: It was in a Humble Bundle I got ages back.

Rating: *** - A handful of decent enough Neil Gaiman stories with these rather nice and macabre sculptures combine for a short and vaguely satisfying time.


message 261: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Doctor Who Living Legend by Scott Gray

Book #248
Doctor Who: Living Legend, by Scott Gray
54 minutes = 54 pages

Listened to 6th September 2019

Why I listened to it: It was free from Big Finish's website.

Rating: **** - Delightful. Just throws away any pretence of being serious and goes for... um ... pretending to be serious so it can mine a great pile of humour out of it. Catch some World Cup fever and get it as soon as you can. (I also decided to keep listening and check out the Zagreus making of, because come on. It's Zagreus. Didn't get a ton out of it, it's mostly puff, but my mind was slightly blown by just how many Doctor Who alumni were in it that I didn't recognise.


message 262: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Uncanny Magazine Issue 30 Disabled People Destroy Fantasy! Special Issue by Lynne M. Thomas

Book #249
Uncanny Magazine Issue 30: Disabled People Destroy Fantasy! Special Issue, edited by Katharine Duckett, Nicolette Barischoff, and Lisa M. Bradley
149 pages

Read 2nd to 6th September 2019

Why I read it: The latest issue of Uncanny.

Rating: *** - Had a weird time with this one. The stories were generally solid, but while I realise how ungrateful this sounds, they tended towards the "disabled people write fantasy" side of the scale too much for my liking. I understand that the very act of disabled people writing fantasy, and getting to publish more of it, is a kind of revolution in itself, but personally I would have preferred to see more disability within the stories themselves. Though I also recognise that disability is complex and varied and I may have blinders that prevent me from seeing it, and that disabled writers have no obligation to write exclusively about disability, or their disability. That, however, combined with my deep ambivalence for one particular non-fiction piece left me cooler on this than I'd like, and definitely cooler on it than the Science Fiction equivalent from last year.


message 263: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 19 (Fullmetal Alchemist, #19) by Hiromu Arakawa

Book #250
Fullmetal Alchemist: Volume 19, written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa
192 pages

Read 7th to 8th September 2019

Why I read it: More Fullmetal Alchemist.

Rating: ***


message 264: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) The Other Wind (Earthsea Cycle, #6) by Ursula K. Le Guin

Book #251
The Other Wind, by Ursula K. Le Guin
266 pages

Read 8th to 10th September 2019

Why I read it: Finishing Earthsea.

Rating: *** - Disappointing, though in a way that doesn't poison the rest of the series before it. It's not so much a problem with what the book does, even if it sometimes comes across as a strange late concern that casts a large shadow over the series in retrospect. But sometimes that shadow is warranted. It does a lot to recast the series as primarily being about death and life, which it was about to a great extent already. No, the problem here is that the book feels like it's constantly in second gear, just waiting to begin. The entire book feels like buildup, but not the kind of buildup where the book is constantly building and you don't know how it's going to end. More like it's the stuff that books have at the start that needs to get laid down before the thrust of the plot can really start. Except here it's the entire book and then it just kind of ends. That said, there are some sterling character interactions here, the book is definitely not without merit. As it is though, the vibe of this just didn't click with me.


message 265: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) 骨が腐るまで 1 Hone ga Kusaru made 1 (Until Your Bones Rot, #1) by Yae Utsumi

Book #252
Until Your Bones Rot, Vol. 1, written and illustrated by Yae Utsumi
194 pages

Read 7th to 10th September 2019

Why I read it: It was in a Humble bundle.

Rating: *** - Pretty good as these things go. One of the twists is definitely the kind of thing you're waiting for, but not so badly that you don't feel deflated about it. And the whole thing is strangely satisfying, having these characters who aren't all that remorseful about what they've done, caught in a trap that's tightening in all around them. The central character is a bit too passive and some of the art is a bit too... fanservicey, which should be said.


message 266: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Central Station by Lavie Tidhar

Book #253
Central Station, by Lavie Tidhar
290 pages

Read 11th to 13th September 2019

Why I read it: It was shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke Award.

Rating: **** - Nearly as strong as I was expecting, and quintessentially Tidhar while still being strange and new. By turns more and less cohesive than you might think, and impressively so for being comprised of individual short stories. It's a book with a lot of elements, an absolute tangle, and does more or less end with some collective shrugs, but it somehow still manages to all hang together with everything explored at least nearly sufficiently. Very glad I finally read it.


message 267: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Doctor Who Short Trips Past Tense by Ian Farrington

Book #254
Doctor Who Short Trips: Past Tense, edited by Ian Farrington
241 pages

Read 9th to 13th September 2019

Why I read it: Reading more Doctor Who books.

Rating: *** - Hmmm.


message 268: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Doctor Who Ghost Ship by Keith Topping

Book #255
Doctor Who: Ghost Ship, by Keith Topping
120 pages

Read 14th to 15th September 2019

Why I read it: Reading even more Doctor Who books.

Rating: *** - I think letting the Doctor narrate might have been a mistake, that is if this even is the Doctor. Aside from that though this is a perfectly solid exploration of a ... ghost ship. The reveal is definitely worth it and the characters are good to hang around with.


message 269: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland - For a Little While (Fairyland, #0.5) by Catherynne M. Valente

Book #255
"The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland - For a Little While", by Catherynne M. Valente
120 pages

Read 15th September 2019

Why I read it: I remember really liking *deep breath* The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making and knew that this existed and that I should read it.

Rating: *** - This is fine, but possibly suffers from a) being quite short, and b) having been read so long after the first Fairyland book, and only that one. It may have put a larger emphasis on it than it warranted. It has been over three years after all, and my memories of that book are incredibly vague. The way I read it, saved as a TXT file to my Kindle from Tor's website, also was a mark against it. Still though, this is really quite nice, very lushly described and its heart is in the right place. Very much a beginning, as opposed to something particularly complete, and I reckon that ending was something I read a long time ago that I didn't retain as much as I would like. Which is a shame, that book is very good. I need to read more Valente, you'd think I'd have read more than I have the way I talk about her. Space Opera was really just that powerful.


message 270: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Doctor Who Dark Eyes by Nicholas Briggs

Book #256
Doctor Who: Dark Eyes, by Nicholas Briggs
[To be determined]

Listened to 11th to 15th September 2019

Why I listened to it: Listening to more Doctor Who audios.

Rating: *** - Quite good! Molly is a lot of fun and charming most of the time the way she doesn't take the Doctor's shit at all, even if her Irishness is disappointingly genericised. Apart from that though it's all a little dully standard and ... Briggsy, even if World War I makes for an appropriately impactful setting. The way this wraps everything up in the one set is genuinely quite neat, but doesn't leave me inclined to go back for a followup.


message 271: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Somewhere the Desert Hides a Well by Maria Deira

Book #257
"Somewhere the Desert Hides a Well", by Maria Deira
16 pages

Read 16th September 2019

Why I read it: Another story from the Giganotosaurus archives.

Rating: *** - A strange one. I think one of those quintessential stories that people get mad about when you say it (very understandably, I have to add) that would have been better if it hadn't been SFF. Maybe. Definitely I remember everything not entirely adding up, and not in a satisfying "the world is full of mysteries" way either. It's just awkward.


message 272: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Torchwood One Rule (Big Finish Torchwood, #1.4) by Joseph Lidster

Book #258
Torchwood: One Rule, by Joseph Lidster
[To be determined]

Listened to 16th September 2019

Why I listened to it: Listening to more Doctor Who audios.

Rating: *** - Not sure why I gave this a 3, as my overriding sense is that I enjoyed this a lot more than I arguably should have. Maybe this got marked down because there was also the sense that the audio itself was enjoying itself more than it arguably should have. I don't know though, sometimes all you want is a steely, hard-edged, deeply flawed (but admittedly downright xenophobic, not that the series ever wants to lean into that *too* deeply) woman going around treating everyone with disdain and solving alien mysteries. So on those grounds it's an unqualified success, and I definitely had fun with it.


message 273: by Paul Emily (last edited Dec 21, 2019 10:32AM) (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Dreamtigers by Jorge Luis Borges

Book #259
Dreamtigers, by Jorge Luis Borges
96 pages

Read 17th September 2019

Why I read it: More Borges.

Rating: *** - A strange collection of bits that then transmogrified near the end to become something that could genuinely be one of the literary masterpieces of the 20th century. I would need to read it again to be sure, and probably (I'm sure I said this already) spoiled much of Borges as it is by reading it so tightly together, instead of splitting it out and successively marinating in the style. Still though, the way this ends really pulls the whole thing together, and I like the idea of this functioning as a tight bomb of story all structured around the one straightforwardly (for Borges) graspable enough concept. "Upon closer examination, however, the reader discovers the book to be a subtly and organically unified self-revelation" indeed.


message 274: by Paul Emily (last edited Dec 21, 2019 10:32AM) (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Ajin Demi-Human, Vol. 1 (Ajin Demi-Human, #1) by Gamon Sakurai

Book #260
Ajin: Demi-Human, Volume 1, written by Tsuina Miura and illustrated by Gamon Sakurai
228 pages

Read 16th to 20nd September 2019

Why I read it: I got it in a Humble Bundle.

Rating: *** - Nothing all that special, and I get the feeling that they're not really looking to analyse the... politics? of having demi-humans at all, but this is still kinda good. Nice efficient sense of pace and some genuinely striking choice of visuals and movement. Not something I'd be interested enough in to continue for myself, but sure I'll read the second volume I have of this.


message 275: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Torchwood The Victorian Age (Big Finish Torchwood, #2.1) by A.K. Benedict

Book #261
Torchwood: The Victorian Age, by A.K. Benedict
[To be determined]

Listened to 20nd September 2019

Why I listened to it: Listening to more Doctor Who audios.

Rating: *** - Eh. It's just John Barrowman and Victorian hagiography really.


message 276: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus, #1) by Rick Riordan

Book #261
The Lost Hero, by Rick Riordan
577 pages

Read 18th to 23rd September 2019

Why I read it: Finally getting to the Heroes of Olympus after having liked Percy Jackson and the Olympians quite a lot all those years ago.

Rating: *** - OK, so Rick Riordan's style definitely takes some real readjusting to. Things are a bit different now that we're in third person, but once you get to the villains you're like oh yeah for sure. Truth be told the Heroes of Olympus series as a whole might work less well than PJ&O in general simply because of that. That I'm not the same person who read the first series all those years ago. That said, this is not the best start to the series. I don't really have a problem with Percy being off screen all the time, it makes sense to layer in the new protagonists you have before bringing back old friends too sharply. (Yes, this does kind of remind me of Star Wars: The Force Awakens actually) The problem here is largely Jason because he's kind of just... there? Like his most evident trait, or one of his most evident, is that he has amnesia and false memories. Piper and Leo are easily a lot more compelling than him. Other than that this is very much the structure of a Percy Jackson book as I remember it, and maybe I was expecting things to change more quickly than they did. Not bad, but I was hoping for better.


message 277: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) The Torchwood Archive by James Goss

Book #262
The Torchwood Archive, by James Goss
[To be determined]

Listened to 25th to 26th September 2019

Why I listened to it: Listening to more Doctor Who audios.

Rating: **** - Unexpectedly delightful. Full of twists and turns and reversals and appearances from a host of characters, giving the whole thing a rich polyphonic feel without coming off as overly self-congratulatory. If the aim was a big celebration of what everything Torchwood was, then it probably succeeded. I've only ever seen Children of Earth though, so I'm probably not the best judge of that haha.


message 278: by Paul Emily (last edited Dec 21, 2019 01:00PM) (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) The Globe (The Science of Discworld, #2) by Terry Pratchett

Book #263
The Science of Discworld II: The Globe, by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, and Jack Cohen
368 pages

Read 16th to 27th September 2019

Why I read it: Still reading Discworld.

Rating: *** - Bleh. Stewart and Cohen's scientific chapters are still fascinating, though I get the distinct sense that with the move into more social science and the development of the human race they've bitten off a lot more than they can chew, which lets the side down a bit. Pratchett on the other hand just turns in some C-grade wizards stuff. It's not that great.


message 279: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Ajin Demi-Human, Vol. 2 (Ajin Demi-Human, #2) by Gamon Sakurai

Book #264
Ajin: Demi-Human, Vol. 2, written and illustrated by Gamon Sakurai
196 pages

Read 24th to 29th September 2019

Why I read it: I got it in a Humble Bundle.

Rating: *** - Think I've had enough of this. To be fair, Sakurai easily makes the shift into writing as well as illustrating, and turns in some marvelous swooping action. At the same time though, the comic also kind of doubles down on some of the same stuff it'd been doing last volume, as well as going in slightly newer, not massively incongruous directions, but still not something I'm all that interested in. So this was still readable, but I'm not really a fan.


message 280: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories by John Kessel

Book #265
The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories, by John Kessel
315 pages

Read 24th to 30th September 2019

Why I read it: I got it in a Humble Bundle.

Rating: *** - An intriguing collection. John Kessel is clearly a writer of skill, capable of turning his hands to a number of genres and serving up strange clashes of elements to some effect. At the same time though, there's the distinct sense that some of these stories simply aren't as good as they could be. As well as that... I don't know that it's so much that some of these haven't aged well, it's more that Kessel seems to have been at the forefront of what got published at the time these came out in terms of exploring things like gender relations, but who went on to be superseded, and who quite frankly needed to be superseded. Don't get me wrong, I had a good time with this, but I was surprised when idly checking if someone whose opinions I trust immensely had read him to find glowing critical analysis, admittedly from years ago. There are some genuine classics in here though. It should also be said that the edition I read was quite poorly formatted in parts, (paraphrasing from another review) double spacing between every paragraph and formatting that was apparently not applied where it should've been. Made the book a bit harder to read than I would've liked.


message 281: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Doctor Who Destination Nerva by Nicholas Briggs

Book #266
Doctor Who: Destination: Nerva, by Nicholas Briggs
1 hour, 15 minutes = 75 pages

Listened to 1st to 3rd October 2019

Why I listened to it: The first season of the Fourth Doctor Adventures was on Spotify, and it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Rating: *** - For some reason I thought I had rated this lower, because to an extent it is pretty thankless. An impact-free prequel to The Ark of Space (and I guess Revenge of the Cybermen) for some reason that collapses awkwardly near the back, it nonetheless does have some fun zingers and a sense of energy, and it genuinely is really nice to hear Tom Baker and Louise Jameson doing it all again. Just wish they'd had a somewhat better story to do it with.


message 282: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Thor God of Thunder, Volume 1 The God Butcher by Jason Aaron

Book #267
Thor: God of Thunder, Volume 1: The God Butcher, written by Jason Aaron and illustrated by Esad Ribić
136 pages

Read 1st to 4th October 2019

Why I read it: I got it in a Comixology sale, as it was recommended in an io9 article I think? As a pretty good place to head to with Thor on the back of the Marvel movies.

Rating: **** - Well worth it! The art is clean and impactful, the story is intriguing (though maybe not intriguing enough to continue with, the idea of pitting Thors at varying stages of character development beside each other is one I like a lot), and the structural tricks pulled off generally work very well. And - most critically really - Aaron comes up with a properly workable take on Thor that doesn't feel too different from what's gone before. Would probably recommend to the interested.


message 283: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Doctor Who Short Trips Life Science by John Binns

Book #268
Doctor Who Short Trips: Life Science, edited by John Binns
242 pages

Read 28th September to 6th October 2019

Why I read it: Reading more Doctor Who books.

Rating: ***


message 284: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 20 by Hiromu Arakawa

Book #269
Fullmetal Alchemist: Volume 20, written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa
200 pages

Read 6th to 7th October 2019

Why I read it: More Fullmetal Alchemist.

Rating: ****


message 285: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 21 (Fullmetal Alchemist, #21) by Hiromu Arakawa

Book #270
Fullmetal Alchemist: Volume 21, written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa
192 pages

Read 7th to 8th October 2019

Why I read it: More Fullmetal Alchemist.

Rating: ****


message 286: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Die #8 by Kieron Gillen

Book #271
Die #8, written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Stephanie Hans
31 pages

Read 9th October 2019

Why I read it: Still reading Die.

Rating: **** - Another quality issue.


message 287: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Tor.com Short Fiction Summer 2019 by Michael Swanwick

Book #272
Tor.com Short Fiction Summer 2019, by Michael Swanwick, Seanan McGuire, Carole Johnstone, Tegan Moore, Siobhan Caroll, Rivers Solomon, Silvia Park, M. Evan MacGriogair
209 pages

Read 3rd to 9th October 2019

Why I read it: I liked reading Tor's stuff last year, so kept up with it this year, signed up for the newsletter, but for whatever reason it took forever to get to me, so I only ended up reading it in October.

Rating: *** - A real mix of ups and downs, but where the winners are enough to redeem it. The less said about the Swanwicks the better - they're fine but they feel like they belong to a completely different era, one we left behind for the better a while back. The McGuire is decent but a bit inside baseball, considering how much it's angled around Tor moving to a new building. The Johnstone and the Moore have the potential to be very good, but one is too slight and the other is too meandering. The collection definitely leaves its best three stories (the Solomon, the Park, and the MacGriogair) for last. Nice and chunky and strange.


message 288: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Doctor Who The Renaissance Man by Justin Richards

Book #273
Doctor Who: The Renaissance Man, by Justin Richards
1 hour, 16 minutes = 76 pages

Listened to 10th to 11th October 2019

Why I listened to it: Still listening to those Fourth Doctor Adventures.

Rating: *** - Doesn't make its way to brilliance, but suddenly sparks up in the second half to become a lot more fascinating. Nicely toys around with some proper good concepts like the accumulation of knowledge and the limitations of bare-faced facts. Very much a bunch of fun to listen to and think back on.


message 289: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Jackstraw Magic by Eljay Daly

Book #274
"Jackstraw Magic", by Eljay Daly
31 pages

Read 12th October 2019

Why I read it: Going back over the GigaNotoSaurus archives.

Rating: **** - Very good. In a short space builds a convincing set of characters, a story, a backstory, a world, and promptly knocks them all together to see what happens. The results are well worth it.


message 290: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2) by Philip Pullman

Book #275
The Secret Commonwealth, by Philip Pullman
693 pages

Read 8th to 15th October 2019

Why I read it: Getting more of that Dust into me.

Rating: **** - A strange book in quite a number of ways. It's very scattered, exploding gradually partway through into a profusion of plotlines and mounting action that eventually doesn't really pretend to stand on its own. Sometimes it feels like it's commenting intensely on the now (and generally not too overtly, save for some instances here and there that I can't quite reconcile with everything else), sometimes Pullman is holding up two extremes visions of seeing the world (not like that, don't worry [?]) and gently guiding us to realise that this is no way to live. And sometimes it seems like it's about nothing much more than itself. Like, there's a strong sense that Lyra has allowed herself to forget some of the more fantastical happenings of her life, and that a big arc of the series will be her learning to embrace them again, but I'm not sure. And I still don't know what the fairies are about. And then the book is also about having grown up and being boxed in by the world, and... there's a lot going on.

It also doesn't help that this book, like I said, is fairly incomplete. It trails off at the end in a kind of full flow sort of like La Belle Sauvage did but not quite, leaving us to wait for book 3 where everything will (presumably) come together. I'm basically ok with this considering how rich and filling The Secret Commonwealth was, but it is very much the first half of something. And I still have the sense that the trilogy is not going to fully snap into place until it's done, that it will live and die on how the last book turns out. I don't really know how it's going to turn out, but I'm definitely interested in seeing what it does. To some extent I think that's the most that can be hoped for really.


message 291: by Paul Emily (last edited Dec 31, 2019 09:55AM) (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs vol 1 From Savoy Stompers to Clock Rockers by Andrew Hickey

Book #276
A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs vol 1: From Savoy Stompers to Clock Rockers, by Andrew Hickey
743 pages

Read October 2018 to September 2019

Why I read it: I've been listening to the podcast since it started and back the Patreon, so I got this once it was finalised, and it's based on the first 50 original episodes (more or less).

Rating: ****


message 292: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) The Tea Dragon Society (Tea Dragon, #1) by Katie O'Neill

Book #277
The Tea Dragon Society, by Katie O'Neill
72 pages

Read 14th to 18th October 2019

Why I read it: It got praise from a number of my friends and two Eisners, and was readily available online.

Rating: *** - Genuinely lovely, and has some great and very colourful art. Not quite what I was looking for admittedly, but in terms of its intended audience (ages 9-12) I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone. Personally I was hoping for a little more incident, and got a big surprise when I got to a certain point and realised it was practically over. Still had a fine time with it though, all that said.


message 293: by Paul Emily (last edited Dec 31, 2019 10:20AM) (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Doctor Who The Wrath of the Iceni by John Dorney

Book #278
Doctor Who: The Wrath of the Iceni, by John Dorney
1 hour, 16 pages = 76 pages

Listened to 18th to 20th October 2019

Why I listened to it: Still listening to Series 1 of the Fourth Doctor Adventures.

Rating: *** - Some of the absolute best writing and performances in the entire series, but all geared towards a fundamentally bankrupt premise. There's something strangely charming about the Fourth Doctor Adventures being bad even when they're good. Or at least mediocre. I'd still oddly recommend listening to it though, because I feel like a lot of people wouldn't mind that premise as much as I did.


message 294: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) The Son of Neptune (The Heroes of Olympus, #2) by Rick Riordan

Book #279
The Son of Neptune, by Rick Riordan
540 pages

Read 16th to 21st October 2019

Why I read it: Still reading The Heroes of Olympus.

Rating: **** - Much better than The Lost Hero. Not really because of Percy, who feels kind of flattened here (it's not so much that the books have become more serious, it's more that his first person narration is sorely missed, though you do get accustomed to it all in time), more because Frank and Hazel are much more interesting and rounded characters than Jason and Piper were. Yes they have cool backstories and other stuff, but I feel like that's not the only reason. And it's not the only reason I like this book more. This book has some glorious trickery from the main characters, admittedly I'm now fully back in the mood of things after spending years away from Riordan's style, and there's this odd, pleasing motif of consumerism running around the book, that I'm not entirely sure why it's there but I like that it's there nonetheless. A fine time.


message 295: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Going Postal (Discworld, #33; Moist von Lipwig, #1) by Terry Pratchett

Book #280
Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett
484 pages

Read 11th to 23rd October 2019

Why I read it: More Discworld.

Rating: **** - Really good. Strangely glee-inducing in the way that it's thoroughly worked out its plot and the implications of said plot. A proper late Discworld classic.


message 296: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Doctor Who Energy of the Daleks by Nicholas Briggs

Book #281
Doctor Who: Energy of the Daleks, by Nicholas Briggs
[to be determined]

Listened to 22nd to 23rd October 2019

Why I listened to it: Still listening to Series 1 of the Fourth Doctor Adventures.

Rating: *** - I liked it more before the Daleks showed up. Now on vinyl!


message 297: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 22 (Fullmetal Alchemist, #22) by Hiromu Arakawa

Book #282
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 22, written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa
484 pages

Read 24th to 25th October 2019

Why I read it: More Fullmetal Alchemist.

Rating: ****


message 298: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Pokémon Adventures, Vol. 1 (Pokémon Adventures, #1) by Hidenori Kusaka

Book #283
Pokémon Adventures, Vol. 1, written by Hidenori Kusaka and illustrated by Mato
200 pages

Read 22nd to 26th October 2019

Why I read it: I'd been hearing interesting things about this for a while, so thought I'd check it out.

Rating: *** - An interesting start. The art is quite simple though in some cases genuinely quite hard to make it out, and while I'm hardly wowed, I do like the approach it takes to remixing stuff I remember from the original games and the first anime series. Plus it goes to some weirdly heavy places.


message 299: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Touchstone by Mette Ivie Harrison

Book #284
"Touchstone", by Mette Ivie Harrison
91 pages

Read 27th October 2019

Why I read it: The Giganotosaurus story for this month.

Rating: *** - Strong at a lot of things, but gets very bogged down the more it goes on, and ends on a note that I think is fundamentally jarring going off the rest of the story.


message 300: by Paul Emily (new)

Paul Emily Ryan (kickbackyak) Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 23 (Fullmetal Alchemist, #23) by Hiromu Arakawa

Book #285
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 23, written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa
200 pages

Read 27th to 28th October 2019

Why I read it: More Fullmetal Alchemist.

Rating: ****


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