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How many books exist around the fact that the author can write a whole story around one single question? All the whodunnits, I suppose, since the question is 'who did it?'. Lauren Groff writes "The Monsters of Templeton" around a girl's question: "Who's my father?". Her mother, not giving a a single (or two word - first and last name) answer sends her on a genealogical hunt among several dozens of departed ancestors. Oh, and the fact that the protagonist is an archaeologist is useful.
Apparently Stephen King recommends this book highly. I don't. It's disjointed, annoying and extremely difficult to get into. There are brief interesting spurts, but they run out of steam and the book is an overall boring read.
No stars for this one.
Another Terry Pratchett. What can I say? I've gone on a total binge because the books are so wonderfully funny. This book is the story of what happens when a dragon returns and claims the throne of Ankh-Morpork.
Where else except in these books would one fine a six-foot dwarf, a noble damsel of equally noble proportions and Sam Vimes of the Night Watch? Extremely entertaining and highly recommended. Thanks, Gayle!
Rule One: "Do not act incautiously when confronting a little bald wrinkly smiling man" How could you not enjoy a book that has rules like this one as part of it's storyline? Everything in this book is absolutely hilarious including Qu, the monk who supplies gadgets to Lu-Tze and Lobsang, two of the main characters in this book (James Bond, anyone?)...and War, one of the horsemen of the Apocalypse who is now married to a Valkyrie and is worried about his digestive system. Also, who could forget the Igors, who therve tho well?
The thing I enjoy most about all the Pratchett novels I've read so far is the fact that one can start reading at any random page and still find things funny. Of course one would then miss most of the storyline, but who cares - its still funny and entertaining.
This book likes to poke fun at the discipline behind the martial arts. The relationship between Lu-Tse and his pupil is one that could easily be drawn from that of any kung-fu movie - and includes references to masters calling their pupils by the names of various insects...
Do read this book. It's really enjoyable and I spent a pleasant time reading it.
This is one novel that leaves me undecided. Do I like it or do I not? The answer is I don't know. I think the reason is that this novel defies genre. It is wholly fantasy, part science fiction, part horror and part general fiction. China Mieville moves seamlessly from one to another, and writes a story that captures one's imagination. For people who are tired of heroes, elves, dragons, dwarfs and Stephen King here's a fantasy they might like.
Here is an excerpt from the editorial review at Barnes and Noble: All manner of aliens and humans coexist in the strange, world-spanning city of New Crobuzon. Here, dark magic and advanced science flourish amid an atmosphere of mysticism and madness, under a government that uses cruel military repression to enforce its laws. Independent cultures and civilizations exist side by side, occasionally overlapping and breeding increasingly grotesque oddities. Mutants and hybrids of every order can be found: those with extra limbs grafted to their bodies or with their heads joined to arcane machinery.
Some scenes are too repetitive, after all there are only so many times a city can be described over and over again. It provides for great visual imagery, though. The story is unremarkable with regards to the plot.
Good teen reading, especially if the teenager is someone who likes Michael Moorcock.
This is the most brilliant first fantasy novel that DAW president Elizabeth Wollheim says she read, and as I have probably read way less fantasy than Elizabeth Wollheim, it stands to reason that it is the most brilliant first fantasy novel I've read too. This is a whopper of a book. It's almost 900 pages long.
Patrick Rothfuss has very few of the problems that plague most writers of fantasy in their first books. I completely lost myself in the book for the first 600 pages or so. One slight problem was that the final quarter of the book seemed overlong. There are minute happenings that add to the overall detail of the book and in the first three quarters they fit right in. The last few hundred pages are occupied with the hero trying to hunt a mysterious 'dragon' and that's where the story got bogged down slightly.
I'm eagerly awaiting the release of the next part of the trilogy this year, and hope that Rothfuss has not lost his touch.
Thought it might appear if I'm a fan of the fantasy genre, in actuality I'm not. I'm tired of dragons. I'm tired of orcs. I'm tired of elves. I'm tired of authors who have rehashed Tolkien over and over. Nobody can best Tolkien's orcs, elves and dragons, that's my opinion.
I'd seen Lies of Locke Lamora sitting on the shelves for a while. I thought it was another medieval knight in long lost land saga. So I didn't bother picking it up. It took a long stretch of boredom and someone's recommendation to make me pick up the book.
It was a pleasant surprise. Firstly, it's very hard to write a book in which the hero is a villain, well, some sort of a villain, albeit of the Robin Hood type. Scott Lynch does the world building skillfully. The story revolves around a band of thieves and their capers, and their attempt at beating the Gray King, a shadowy figure who is intent on ruling the underworld of Camorr, the setting of this novel.
I didn't want this book to end, which is an extremely rare thing for me to say. So when the sequel Red Seas Under Red Skies came out I read that almost immediately hoping for more of the same. Unfortunately I was disappointed with Lynch's second effort which is less seamlessly put together and feels like a few scenarios hastily cobbled together.
Did you know that all famous pirates are named after their beards? Blackbeard, Bluebeard, Flamebeard, Trimbeard, Bushbeard. It's a tradition.
It's rare to find a humorous fantasy. There's always Terry Prachett, but teens might find it hard to get all the references in his books. John David Anderson writes a very funny story in Standard Hero Behavior - after all, everyone knows what a Standard Hero should behave like.
The story is the usual fantasy; a young boy sets out to find some heroes to defend his town, and also tries to find his father who has disappeared. Along with his friend Cowel and a horse named Steed (what better name for a horse after all?) Mason Quayle sets off on his quest. The going isn't easy. They encounter marauding pixies and other creatures who test their mettle. The motto is the uplifting "Anyone Can Be A Hero" but the way the story gets to that point is very entertaining and not preachy in the least.
Don't drink anything when you are reading this book: I laughed so hard I spilled tea on it...
How many books exist around the fact that the author can write a whole story around one single question? All the whodunnits, I suppose, since the question is 'who did it?'. Lauren Groff writes "The Monsters of Templeton" around a girl's question: "Who's my father?". Her mother, not giving a a single (or two word - first and last name) answer sends her on a genealogical hunt among several dozens of departed ancestors. Oh, and the fact that the protagonist is an archaeologist is useful.
