Latest Book Reviews and Comments

These last 3 books were a waste of time. What could have been written in one was strewn across these 3! He should have just taken those last few years on focused on one book and made an awesome ending, but no. Instead he wasted many hours of people lives as they had to read through these awful books to have closure on the series!

This is a brilliant work my a master of the art. Sanderson states in the introduction that he wanted to get away from the idea that fantasy worlds were static in technological development and social change. So here is a novel set 300 years after the original Mistborn trilogy, with roughly 19th century technology compared to the original medieval-type setting. This kind of approach is rare in the genre and quite refreshing. Most importantly, Sanderson tells an engaging story with a brilliant, surprising-yet-inevitable conclusion which is quite satisfying.

I really do adore Hobb's books, but this one was quite a disappointment in her scale. Sure, we have dragons, trouble, people and nice details, but one thing that I'm left missing is that something actually happens. All this book seems to be is a introduction to the main character's before the actual action starts. Prelude to bigger a story. But as a book it wasn't too exiting read. I hope the following part is more exiting.

I usually dislike alternative history, but after a recommendation I tried this book out. And I was happy to notice that instead of history lesson of Napoleon's war, we'll get a splendid story of growth and very deep friendship. It's also fascinating how the characters in the book have manners and ways of speaking of the period. Splendid again. I do recommend this book to anyone who can stand bit of history and lot's of dragons.

After the first book my expectations were high, but this book just isn't as good as the first one. Story is of growth and friendship is not the main thing, but an adventure. And I do not find the adventure itself to be as fulfilling as the first story. In time it's entertaining enough, but story itself focuses in different thing than in the first book.

Temeraire's story started really well, but after the first to book the glamor of new ideas start to loose it's gleam and the following stories just aren't as good as the first one that I really loved. While reading this book I though it had this feeling of how random the world is, but at the same time it felt like all these things happened just to fill the pages. Especially as I'm not too interested in traveling nor war, this book had much less to give than the first of from this series.

A worthy conclusion to the Inheritance Cycle! I loved what the book had to offer, though some parts were a bit redundant. And the ending was fine, despite many complaining about it. I found the last hundred pages to be excruciatingly boring, however.

This is a strange and enigmatic story as if an episode of the prisoner had been written by Franz Kafka, if you like your fiction somewhat left field track this one down.

Lene Kaaberbøl starts off her Shamer Chronicles at a dead run. The story is told in first person by the titular character, Dina. She is not an outcast, as shamers are respected members of society who use their talents to perform essential services for the community, but no one wants to really be friends with a shamer (or her daughter who seems to have the same talent). The story is packed with desperate situations and tense moments as Dina and her family get dragged into one man's mad quest for domination. Through all this, Dina must deal with her own insecurities and learn to use and control the unusual talent that is developing in her. The story is well-told, and draws the reader into Dina's world. There is no fluff; every sentence is critical either to the plot or to character development. This book is a great start to a great series.

Ultraviolet was a book that intrigued me from the beginning. I love the way the author has combined some real life mystical elements and then something from the other end of the scale. I liked the main character Alison and reading her thoughts was very enlightening, for a reason that'll come up while reading the book. The reason why I ended up rating Ultraviolet three stars instead of the four I would have given based on the first hundred and fifty pages of the book are the last fifty pages. Somehow, from my perspective, the story line just jumped this huge distance and left me gaping and laughing to myself, thinking "is this for real?" Much more cannot be said without giving the surprise away...

**SPOILERS FOR FORSAKEN, THE FIRST BOOK IN THE SERIES (which you should definitely read first!)** It’s a bit difficult to give a brief summary of Forbidden without revealing too much, as there are a heck of a lot of amazing plot twists which I really don’t want to spoil, but I’ll try my best: Forbidden starts where Forsaken left us – with the entire city of Atlanta recovering from the demon attack that occurred at the Demon Trapper meeting; Trappers are mourning the loss of some of their greatest as well as attempting to work out how they were attacked in the first place and the citizens of Atlanta are worried that they’re not being protected efficiently enough from the demons, which leads to the ruthlessly efficient Demon Hunters being called in – something the Trappers aren’t best pleased about. Meanwhile, Riley’s relationship with Simon is most definitely on the rocks, which leads to a growing attraction to the mysterious Ori, who vows to protect her from the deadly demon that is determined to kill her. Aside from all of this, she’s trying to figure out who brought her dad back from the dead and why someone is selling counterfeit Holy Water, as well as trying to earn enough to pay the rent. In case you haven’t read Forsaken and are completely confused, the series is set in an alternate world where demons roam freely, and are graded from very harmless (Grade One a.k.a. klepto-fiends) to extremely dangerous (Grade Five a.k.a. Geo-Fiends). Trappers and Hunters do as they say on the tin with regards to the getting rid of the demonic presences, and there’s quite a bit of a rivalry between the two. Witches and Necromancers (people who reanimate the dead to sell as slaves) also exist and trade freely in this alternate future of 2018. The series is set in Atlanta, which is desperately poor, and doing anything it can to save or increase money, including closing schools and housing classes in abandoned buildings or coffee shops. Riley is a Demon Trapper – one of the youngest, and the only female – whose father was recently killed by a demon, who is now after her. The events of Forsaken were recapped very well without seeming patronising or spelling things out as obviously as possible (which many books annoyingly do), and are much needed as I, for one, had forgotten several things having read the first book of this amazing series over six months ago. I can’t describe why I like Oliver’s writing and characterisation so much – you’ll just have to grab a copy yourself to see how captivating, insightful and creative it truly is! I also love the subtle but extremely funny humour laced throughout this brilliant book as it makes Forbidden an even more enjoyable read. It is, much like its predecessor, very creative – I especially liked the creepy reanimated-body auction and the idea of parking spaces as mini shops. I also adored the klepto-fiends–micro-sized demons with a penance for shiny things–along with Mort, the necromancer, who is such a nice and kind person, despite his job of bringing back the dead to work as slaves, but we get a very good insight into his back-story, which makes you extremely sympathetic towards him. I’ve come to love Riley so much – she’s likeable, funny and down-to-earth, as well as being a really strong character, especially now she’s orphaned. Every single character in Forbidden is utterly unique, the vast majority realistic and most are surprisingly complex. The cover is stunningly striking, and I love the gorgeous blue flames that perfectly match the eyes of ‘Riley’ (and how drastically pale she has become), along with the fact that the style of Forsaken has been kept – it’ll be a lovely series to collect. However, I really didn’t like Simon, Riley’s saintly boyfriend who is barely recovering from the tragic demon attack at the Tabernacle, especially when he gets snappy with Riley, and I’m surprised that she still wanted to be with him for some time. I’m not sure if I like the accents showing up in the character’s (namely Beck and his Southern drawl and Stewart’s Scottish tongue) speech, though it does make for more realistic, if annoying, reading. Also, I was a bit confused by the whole Holy Water scam and didn’t properly understand how it worked, but it was probably just me. I was so glad to get an explanation as to how demons infiltrated earth, which was my only complaint about the first book, and the explanation was very surprising and revealing. Forbidden is full of suspense as to who stole Riley’s father’s body, how the demons managed to break in at the Trapper Meeting and what exactly Ori is up to; combine that with brilliant writing and fantastic characters and you have yourself a real page-turner of a spectacular novel.

A book which made me think, and think again.... I think I got a little tired towards the end, but it's groundbreaking and some of the ideas in it will make me rethinking how I think about good and bad events. I probably won't reread it, but would recommend to a friend... if they were the kind to appreciate a storyline that's about thinking through situations, rather than a 'the hero wins' type book.

I loved this book -- read it straight after "The Forever War" and the continued theme of war, training and the individual reactions to how this makes them feel is continued in this book. This book is more philosophical than "The Forever War" but not in an overwhelming way, but leaves you thinking about the issues long after you put the book down.

Easily one of the best books I've ever read -- and reread. The book covers the shock of war and the effects on the people involved through the concept of 'future shock'. The 'love story' is not overwhelming, and feels honest.

I never had any interest in reading beyond Wizard's First Rule, but I did wonder about Debt of Bones so I picked up a copy. I really enjoyed it. It was intruiging from the start and had a neat little twist in the end. It also brought to light some interesting points that just didn't quite fit into the first book that were good to know. It was also a quick read - I downed the whole thing from start to finish in about 2 hours.

I had heard such wonderful things about Robin Hobb so at the bookstore I picked this up on a whim. After three chapters, I exchanged it for The Dragon Keeper. It seemed horribly repetetive and unnecessarily verbose for the simplicity of the story. I was very disappointed. It did have some clever points and a few bits that made me laugh, and I was a bit intrigued about the story, but it wasn't very captivating. In the end, I rarely put down a book permanently once I pick it up, but the bad quality of the prose coupled with the slow story was enough to put me off permanently.

Great fun inspired by Hammer Gothic - castles and peasants, fog and garlic, gypsies and supernatural creatures. Good characters are properly sympathetic.

In my opinion, THE BLACK COMPANY (and the series that follows) is one of the ten best works in all of fantasy fiction. I don't say that lightly, but Cook's deft characterizations and unflinching look at combat are seldom matched. Forget winsome Elves and stoic Dwarves banding together to save the Fair Lands from the dark-lord-of-the-week. These are people fighting for their lives. They aren't good people. They aren't bad people (well, some are). They're both. I read this book more than 20 years ago, and Croaker's voice still sounds in the back of my mind. Read it. You won't be sorry.

For the first 50 or so pages I thought this was going to be just like Twilight. Initially there are lots of similarities between Helen Hamilton and Bella. For instance they both are living with their dad and both feel a bit out of it at high school. However, from about page 50 onwards this story takes on a life of it’s own. With demigods, Greek mythology, furies, the underworld. It is a fast paced page turner. And Lucas Delos is the perfect heart throb. I hope there is a sequel coming soon because the ending left me wanting so much more!

Wood Angel is a book that surprises. The basic idea is very simple, but the book itself feels more complicated, so it's an interesting read. One adjective to describe the book: unique. It was a refreshing novel to read on a summer day... a good moment to ogle one's own shadow.