Sarah
There may be a reason that the only plays I have read have be school mandated...or this is actually terrible. To use the word “discombobulated” 3 times in a play is a bit wanky if you ask me. Also, turning Ron into comic relief really irked me. He is a funny character but after 7 books he is a little more than a one trick pony. The obvious effort to make the 2 sons into some nerdy cool outsiders types was clunky and ineffective in the plot of the story, which was very predictable by the way. the conversations between Albus and Scorpius had none of the elegance and the ease that comes with the type of friendship that they were supposed to have, and that friendship was the reason we all love Harry, Ron and Hermione. I don't know if they were trying to capture lightning in a bottle trying to recreate the friendship but they failed. In a colossal way.
This is one of those rare books that is not as good as the tv show. This book is a dry retelling of a jail sentence with an overarching sense of “but this is really hard and unusual for me because i'm white and a wasp.” I found it really condescending considering all the problems that exist in the american penal system.
this story was poorly written and there seemed to be no continuity in the writing style. the character development was clunky and didn't inspire sympathy in any of the characters. I just didn't care what happened to them or the history of the world. Which is unfortunate because it started out well and just went downhill from there. 1 out of 5 stars
The Ask and the Answer By Patrick Ness Review
Patrick Ness has succeeded in continuing a truly unique young adult story without all the trappings on most of the other series in that genre. The Ask and the Answer is the second book in the Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness.
The first book in the series, The Knife of Never Letting Go, was a fast paced story of the chase of Todd Hewitt across largely uninhabited frontier land of a newly colonised planet with new comer Viola Eade, who's parents were killed in the crash landing of their scout vessel.
In this instalment of the story, Todd and Viola are caught in between two warring factions when Major Prentiss (now President Prentiss) finds resistance to his hostile takeover of Haven (renamed New Prentisstown) in the form of Mistress Coyle (a local Healer) and her reformed gorilla group from the Spackle Wars, The Answer.
The Answer snatch the uncooperative Viola away to help in their bombing raids of New Prentisstown. Whilst Todd is held captive and manipulated into working for President Prentiss's cause.
This book is written in an amazingly graphic and compelling manner, with the change in font for both main characters POV and that of the “noise”. I felt like screaming at the characters at points when I knew they would be walking into a trap, and crying with them in others when everything seemed so without hope. These emotions, I believe are the signs of a well written book. Can not recommend this series enough.
4/5 Stars
Amari By Steven Atwood
Amari is a science fiction, dystopian future, space adventure where the UN took over the running of the known universe after the GFC. They became power hungry tyrants that basically became thought police. They shipped people off to Mars to be “Re-educated” in the mines and others who escaped colonised Europa and beyond, creating places ripe for piracy and black market trading.
I think I was hoping for Firefly and was sorely disappointed. I also thought I could read around the religious aspects of the book but couldn't. The idea that all the religious people were calm and righteous and all those against religion were cruel, callous and fear their own death more than anything else really grated on me. Mainly because I read science fiction because it reflects the world quite well and I don't see this as the way the world is. Simple being religious does not suddenly make you a perfect person as it seemed to do in this story.
The further you go in the book the more grammatical errors there are, which slows down the reading process dramatically.
If religion is the saviour of you world and you like science fiction with that flavour, this would be a great book for you but not me.
I received this book from Library Thing's Members Giveaways.
Wasps a the the Speed of Sound by Derryl Murphy
This is the newest edition of Wasps at the Speed of Sound, with 11 short science fiction stories (the original had 10). All of the stories have an environmental warning but this enhances the stories rather than detracts from them.
My favourite story was the Blue Train in which most of humanity that still exists after an extreme water shortage travels the world on a gigantic train in search of water and their subsequent freedom from this train by one man who dared to question the company's monopoly on the earths water.
Murphy constructs the world of each story so well, with little extraneous language as possible so the reader can create a vivid image of their own. Truly a pleasure to read for any science fiction fan and possibly for any environmentalist too.
I received this book from Library Thing Early Reviewers
Panic (Wildfire Chronicles Vol 1.) By K.R. Griffiths
Panic is a apocalyptic zombie-esque secret society driven disaster story set in the rural village of St. Davids in Wales. The ball is set rolling with the landing of steel canisters in the back yard of one of the villages' houses that results in the first “zombification” resulting in the typical struggle for survival.
One thing made me love this book and would prompt me to actually buy the further volumes of the series. That was the fantastically vivid descriptions of the carnage and the fast nature of the story telling. The story writing doesn't labour over the small unimportant details of the scenery or talk down to the reader by explaining who everyone is and their back-story in more detail than necessary.
However, what makes me think again was the lack of trigger warnings for one or two of the scenes at the end. These sorts of this might be where the human condition goes to during this sort of event but please lead up to it with something to at least warn the reader of what to expect.
Well paced, fast read with a typical cliff hanger ending to keep you coming back.
3.5 stars.
I received this book to review through Library Thing Early Reviewers.
Ardent Forest by Nancy Jane Moore
This was a nice, if not overly complex, quick read that did not take much effort to get through.
The two privileged girls, Rosa and Cecily, are the step daughter and daughter, respectively, of the governor of Texas in a post economic meltdown of the US (and apparently that means the world too.)
The Governor, Guy Gisborn, seized the governorship from Rosa's mother 5 years before the story takes place and in a fit of paranoia exiles Rosa from the city.
This sets up the rest of the story but I felt that everything came to the girls without the hardship and trials that make a good science fiction/ fantasy story. It had all the elements and the set up but the complexities were not there. The people or things they were looking for were found almost effortlessly.
If Moore was trying to also make a statement about sexuality and gender stereotypes in the modern world, that was also done poorly as the characters that were addressing these issues did not face any sort of judgement or hardship because of who they were, which is unfortunately the case at this point in time.
I gave this 2 out of 5 stars.
I received this book to review through Library Thing Early Reviewers
Glitter and Mayhem
by Lynne M. Thomas (Editor), John Klima (Editor), Michael D. Thomas (Editor)
Welcome to the world of roller derby, disco, strangely human like aliens and moody angle and demon types. This is an anthology of stories with the central themes of roller derby, disco and LGBT and science fiction. Not being a fan or devote of roller derby, I had a lot of trouble getting though the really technical jargon in some to the stories and had to read around it to stick to the main story line. That being said, the sci-fi elements of the stories are so well written that it was well worth the confusion and the unfamiliar words.
Overall, if you are a fan of these themes, you will love this anthology. If you are a fan of sci-fi only, like me, Glitter and Mayhem is so well written that it becomes an interesting read.
I received this book to review through Library Thing Early Reviewers
I received this book to review through Library Thing Early Reviewers
This is another of the Double Down series that delivers two novellas in one neat little package.
Smog by Lisa Morton was a really easy read that flowed beautifully. Set in the 1960's when everything was more innocent and the only thing to fear was the Russians. This little slice of Americana becomes the setting of a chemical induced lord of the suburban flies where the main character , the tomboy Joey, has to fight for survival and deal with her first period. A fun take on the coming of age story.
Baggage of Eternal Night by Eric J. Guignard is less of an easy read but a far grittier story. This story touches at the hoarder and collector in all of us. Charlie's friend, the recovering problem gambler Joey Third, gets more than he bid for on the purchase of a suitcase from the hotel auctions. Feeling a bit like House of Leaves, this story uncovers the things in the shadows that we don't like to think about to truly giver the reader the yips.
The two novellas are certainly worth the Sunday afternoon perusal.
Second Chance by David D Levine is an atypical science fiction story about humans slipping the surly bonds of earth to touch the cold reaches of a distant galaxy and conduct extensive scientific research. However Levine has done what countless science fiction writers have done in the past, take a current emotional and political theme and distance it from the present in order for the reader to objectively analysis the consequences of the lead character's actions and feelings.
The protagonist Charles “Chaz” Eades is a highly renowned scientist that has been chosen, along with a select few to be part of the crew aboard the Cassiopia. Chaz is also a prejudiced, homophobic Christian on a vessel with two homosexual men and a transsexual woman.
But there is a twist in the fact that its clones of each person that have been sent eighty years into space with the promise that several years of brain scans would be transmitted. However Chaz wakes up with only the memory of the first scan. What happened to the rest of his scans, why wasn't anyone waiting for him when he was revived and how will he come to terms with his faith out in the cold reaches of space?
David D Levine has created a wonderful analysis of the homophobic and transgender fearing mind in a genre that has traditionally allowed the audience to traverse “touchy” and emotive subject matter, and he has done so in a short story format that leaves you wanting more, not wishing him to just finish it. 4 out of 5 stars.
One of the better horror parodies out there. Rather than taking a classic story and shoe horning zombies into it (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) Dhar has written a political commentary with characters (even some of the prominent zombies) that you care about. By the time I got to the 3rd book i really did want to know the back story of the characters, especially “Bunny Ears”. Was just a bit disappointed that we didn't get the full story on the “Hatter”
This one was bizarre. It was a three to begin with because of the jumps between locations and characters with no clear indication or really a pattern to the jumps and you just had to get used to the rhythm, and then he doesn't utilise that style again. Then the story actually got going and I thought I could forgive pass grievances and it became a four star book with the lovely dystopian fears we all have if we have a modicum of sense. But then it just ends. I don't like my conclusions spoon fed to me but I do like a book to have one. Hence the 3 star. Not as good as We and 1984 but ok. Almost like it needed 100 or so more pages.