Bronwyn Knox

Pyramids is an often overlooked entry into the Discworld series. It's a story about Teppic, a young person exposed to new cultures (Ankh Morpork), and brings this to his home, a place that has kept to itself, unchanged for hundreds (thousands?) of years. Later books explored similar themes with the Dwarf storylines in the Night Watch subseries and Small Gods.

Pyramids of a science fiction element than usual on the Disc, with the pyramid blocks that are moved via a time warping/quantum mechanics that causes crazy temporal hijinks. It's as interesting a solution to the problem as any I've seen. There's also the Idea of a pyramid shape that creates “null time” inside so the buried king would “live forever.”

When Teppic becomes king of Djelibeybi (meant to reflect our ancient Egypt, he inherits an advisor named Dios, who also advised his father, and his father before him. Dios represents resistance to change in all forms, including his own freakish longevity.

There is humor in the absurdity/impracticality of repeating the same things without thought. For instance, when Teppic does/says anything at court he's supposedly “presiding” over (Dios actually making all the calls), Dios must announce all of Teppics titles “Harken to the interpreted wisdom of Teppicymon XXVIII, Lord of the Heavens, Charioteer of the Wagon of the Sun, Steersman of the Barque of the Sun, Guardian of the secret knowledge, Lord of the Horizon,...” etc.

Pyramids connects to the rest of the series, notably with an inside look at the Assassins school in Ankh Morpork, run by Dr. Cruces.

One of my favorite things in Pyramids is You Bastard, a camel who is the greatest mathematician on the Disc. Pratchett had a gift for creating these animal characters who are outside of, and most of the time above, the main action of the stories.

Reading this a second time, I moved it from three to four starts. On the first read, I wasn't feeling that patient. I only sought it out because I wanted to read the series in published order. It suffers from being sandwiched between two more popular books, Wyrd Sisters and Guards! Guards!. It is a great story on its own, full of humor, adventure, and thoughtful content on youth vs. age and resistance to change.

Overall: Clark presents an imaginative take on the idea of the KKK as true monsters from another world, feeding on the existing hate in the human mind. The story goes at a good clip and there's never a dull moment. I found this to read as more of a YA urban fantasy than horror. There's magic swords, spiritual guides, and chosen ones and so on. Nothing wrong with that, but it's interesting that it's marketed as horror.

The Horror: There's some monster goo and weird creature bits but nothing here that should keep you from reading it if you usually shy away from horror. Nothing too intense or gory.

Characters: The adventure is led by Maryse and her comrades in arms, Sadie and Chef. I liked Maryse's sidekicks quite a bit. They had personality and since we knew less about them, it was easy to project what they're like. Maryse's character arc is pretty smooth; she's never in doubt for long for what that's worth. (It is a short book after all.)

Final thoughts: I think I might have appreciated this being a bit longer. So much happened and it felt rushed. There was no chance to make a deep connection with characters or events and it seemed like the kind of story where you would want that.

A manly thriller with a manly guy, doing manly things. These include but are not limited to: beating the crap out of perverts, experiencing military PTSD, saving female police detectives from harm, attracting the opposite sex, and doing household repairs.

This is a relatively ordinary thriller but it did provide humor and escapist entertainment.

Thank god for stories of manly men. May they live in some form forever.

There's something about Jasper Fforde. The premises described in the summaries of his novels always sound weird and silly, but once you sit down with the book they're perfectly engaging and believable.

My working theory of why this is so is because he writes with a first-person protagonist who takes the situation deadly seriously, and so I do too. (Mostly first-person narrative, this one flip-flopped around a bit because I suppose the reader needed certain info that Thursday couldn't have.)

Having said that, this is a far from deadly serious book. There's lots of wit and deadpan humor. Probably a fun one for readers who like both science fiction fantasy and classic literature.

My favorite thing, which will be in my head for years to come, is the Rocky-Horrorization of Richard III that happens in this book. Don't know if real performances like this exist or if it's Fforde's wild imagination but it sure was fun to picture.

Take one of those cyberpunk books of the '80s and '90s and make it faster, funnier, broader and a lot more shallow and that's the recipe for FV&FS. Be sure to update it with social media/Black Mirror kind of satiric commentary with the Blink channel substituting for TikTok, YT, whatever. (“In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”)

There is tons of action, a few laughs, and an underdog character—one of my personal favorite character types.

After a few exciting opening chapters FV&FS became intermittently boring and annoying. There were still a few good moments here and there.

First of all, the satire is warmed-over. Rich people spend their money on ostentatious displays while people are starving blocks away. Social media/constant phone cameras create a lack of privacy, lack of humility, and narcissism. Toxic masculinity is bad. Pargin isn't stunning me with his insight and he certainly isn't making the criticisms in an innovative or subtle way.

Zoey comes off the best; I love a good underdog character and she had potential. In the beginning, she seemed resourceful, shrewd even, and rightly reluctant to trust. Soon after, she gets run over by the plot, starts trusting people immediately (like the bodyguard who shows up at the exact right time), and passively acquiesces to schemes created by her father's business associates. Worst of all, Zoey becomes a sort of offbeat fairy tale princess. I'm guessing this was also part of the satire. We all secretly hope we have rich daddys/godfathers/fairy godmothers somewhere who will transform our existence, even if we hate them and what they “stand for.” Still, she did get a few good moments of humor and insight and gets to own climatic moments. Not a complete waste.

More frustrating are the supporting characters. Will's role is “the stiff,'' and the Pargin tries to squeeze some sympathy by giving him a tragic past, mostly through awkward dialogue. There's no way a control freak would reveal such things about himself to someone like Zoey. We know even less about the others. Andre is a sharp dresser and gets the funniest lines. Echo is the token (hot!) femme and the joke about her is the assumption she's Chinese but she's actually Filipino. Hilarious. Budd is...an aging cowboy?

Then there's Molech, the antagonist. He's a cliche insecure sadist. I was mildly impressed with the relentlessness, but ultimately, he's one-note.

The book is just for fun but the bubble bursts when I can't maintain an interest in the characters.

Well, this is about this house, and...

Wait, no, there's this guy they call Piranesi...

Piranesi is in this giant labyrinth of many halls that has doors and windows and also has oceans, birds and fish, and many statues. As he maps out and studies his environment, he rediscovers how he got there in the first place and interacts with some extremely unpleasant academic types.

Part of the mystery is figuring out the situation itself, and the reader learns along with Piranesi.

Whatever it's about, Clarke is a very skilled writer and this is a beautiful book. I was enthralled with this right from the start. It's a unique little novel, I don't think I've read another I could compare to it.

Selfishly, I wish she were a bit more prolific. But to paraphrase Harlan Ellison, it's easier to read than to have ideas.

The main narrative of this book is absolutely stunning. I was on the edge of my seat wondering how they would survive, would they ever get out of the Congo, would the father kill them all, etc. I enjoyed the technique of telling the story through the four daughters' viewpoints, though it did after a while feel like a bit of a gimmick and Ruth May's sections were completely unrealistic for her age. There was some humor at times, mostly from Rachel's self involvement and Adah's sense of irony.

After the climactic incident and the aftermath, which happens about three quarters of the way in, the last fourth of the book feels endless. It is a very long epilogue and it didn't add anything to my understanding of the story. Kingslover's points about imperialism, colonialism, sexism, ableism–all your favorite isms had been well made. One character that never felt right is the father. His desire to convert the village is what drove the plot but he got no point of view. He is mainly an abusive and sexist menace to his wife and daughters and then later he becomes a figure so tragic it's nearly funny. It's not a particularly complex characterization.

These remain entertaining and fun for me without ever reaching thrilling and compelling.

The series is kind of like old episodic television shows, where they'd have a “monster of the week” plotline. There would be some really great character actor guest stars. In this case, they'd play Shiro and Sanya and recurring character Johnny Marcone. The world-building and some of the supporting characters are good.

As for the overall series arc so far, the conflict of the Red vs. White Court is missing any real stakes to make it interesting, and as for Harry's romance with Susan, I'm not feeling it. Sex scenes aren't enough to tell a story of their connection.

I did enjoy the Archive, though and I hope she returns.

My favorite of the series. There are a lot of bizarre scenes of existential horror mixed with the humor that have left a mark on my brain.

I love the concept of Milliways and I love Arthur's reaction to it.

The plot of this one plays out in a way that's a bit more satisfying to me than the original Hitchhikers.

There's a lot more Zaphod here, and he's a character that you could certainly either hate or love with his massive ego put-on cluelessness.

This is when the cynicism of the series might start to wear out a reader.

Terrible, frightening things happen that threaten all life in the Universe but all the people are either 1) to stupid to understand, 2) too self-involved to care, or 3) too inept to do anything about it.

The story of the planet Krikkit is quite tragic and sad if given consideration. Adams does this in a funny way of course.

Saving the day falls to Arthur, who is apparently the most ordinary man ever, but placed in the extraordinary position of being able to do something.

Stephen King really, really wants you to like Billy Summers. He's a highly skilled hitman but he only shoots “bad guys.” He has a tragic backstory. He's a lot smarter than he appears to other people and has secret literary aspirations. He saves damsels in distress.

This desperation for us to love this character adds up to a story that instead of being intense is rather bland and mild. It's not boring; I was certainly compelled enough to at least find out what the setup was. It just doesn't stand out much from any crime thriller, other than the fact that King wrote it. All of the time spent on the set up of Billy's job, plus establishing him as someone with a very different nature than his demeanor, didn't pay off in an interesting way.

The emotional center of the book is on his bond with Alice, which if the reader can buy into this, would make the story more meaningful. I was never convinced they would have any reason to trust each other and there wasn't any tension between them.

It's a readable book, just not one that's going to be memorable. All the political references are going to make it rather dated anyway, should anyone still care to read this in forty years or so. It's not going to be like The Dead Zone, which I would still read right now.

Warning: below is more of a shared memory than a review.

Reread this recently as sort of a “buddy” read with my daughter. I feel pretty confident in saying I still love this book. It's not nostalgia talking when I say it's one of the funniest books I'd ever read and probably formed a lot of the basis of my sense of humor and ways of thinking.

It is my standard for a humorous book and my eventual attraction to Discworld started with this series. There was a whole entire phenomenon with this series in the early '80s with a radio show, PBS series, and of course the book. I'm happy to be old enough to remember all that even though I was too young to read the book at the time. I picked this book up the first time as young as the age of eleven, and a lot of it went over my head I'm sure, but I still enjoyed it.

It is more than just funny. There is great world-building, characters with huge personalities, and lots of philosophic ideas and other stuff that just gets you thinking and laughing.

Off and on, while I was reading this, I couldn't decide if I was liking it or not. It's a quick read, 130 sparsely populated pages, so I never considered quitting. Since the story is narrated by a character, what was happening was pretty transparent and consequently, there wasn't a lot of surprise/tension. Once it got to the last 20 pages, things got more interesting.

I think it's hard to talk about without giving it away. I can say that it's about one mannequin, a few teenagers, and lots of death. Like the cover marketing says, it is indeed “twisted.” It's super weird and ambiguous, which are things I like. It was also funny at times, in that dark way.

I finished the book with a feeling of “huh...” but it was an entertaining kind of “huh...”

It was kinda funny reading this immediately after Starship Troopers, which was very much about putting yourself on the line for the good of society. Here we have a book which questions whether it makes any sense to the individual to do that, especially when inspiring leadership is nothing but a fantasy. This is a predecessor of MAS*H and Black Adder goes Forth.

“From now on I'm thinking only of me.”

Major Danby replied indulgently with a superior smile: “But, Yossarian, suppose everyone felt that way.”

“Then,” said Yossarian, “I'd certainly be a damned fool to feel any other way, wouldn't I?”

“Man was matter. Drop him out of a window and he'll fall. Set fire to him and he'll burn. Bury him and he'll rot, like other kinds of garbage.”

“The enemy,” retorted Yossarian with weighted precision, “is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on, and that includes Colonel Cathcart. And don't you forget that, because the longer you remember it, the longer you might live.”

Fun, well-constructed mystery novel, especially enjoyable if you like the character and the show. Everything is here, characterization, dialogue, tension, story. It's just as satisfying as any episode of the original series ever was.

The only thing that keeps me from giving it five stars is, it doesn't go beyond the show. It doesn't offer you much that you don't get from the series, other than that she's in her adult years now.

There is little plot but there is character development in the form of Johnnie Rico going from impulsive deciding to join the military, to choosing it as a life career to leading a platoon in a battle.

It is not my thing, as I find the endless military procedure, details, structure, etc. very boring. Yes, there's aliens, spaceships, and fantastic technology, but the science fiction seems almost superfluous here.

Heinlein had a fun, easygoing writing style so it's not as dry of a read as making it out to be.

Superficially it appears to be a celebration of military, war, and discipline but there is a more important point that he was getting to, one of responsibility to the group (family, colleagues, fellow citizens of where you live, etc.) as opposed to focusing on yourself as an individual.

“Under our system every voter and officeholder is a man who has demonstrated through voluntary and difficult service that he places the welfare of the group ahead of personal advantage.”

Violence is horrifying and should be a last resort, but I think Heinlein was emphasizing the notion of making sacrifices to a greater good rather than glorifying war.

Novel set in a dystopian United States where a large portion of the population is dying from insomnia. Sleep is a commodity that can be donated, quantified, bought and sold, etc. Nightmares are contagious physically and can infect others from one source.

Russell is a writer with great versatility and imagination. I've read a collection of her short stories and her YA novel. I'd love to see a novel from her aimed at adults.

Fun supernatural mystery with humor and a likeable main character. I look forward to reading more of the series!

Update 10/22/23: I'm not big on audiobooks but I decided to “reread” this with the audio version because I'd heard good things. Kobna Holdbrook-Smith is absolutely the perfect narrator for the series. I love it when they get it so right.

With the title and the cover art you know what you're in for: a humorous jab at science fiction, or something imitating old campy B-movies.

The story moves fast, all action and wise-cracking dialogue. In Martinez's version of the galaxy, our solar system is filled with sentient aliens from Neptune, Mars, Venus, Jupiter and so on. The title character is an “evil genius” from Neptune who has conquered Terra (Earth, kinda sorta) via a mind control device.

The plot is structured with Emperor Mollusk acting as a tour guide for a Venusian called Zala, a character whose goal is to protect the Emperor from his unknown assassin and then arrest him for crimes against her people. This gives the Emperor a chance to show her, and therefore the reader, the various civilizations on and around Terra, which he has taken over, and get into various scrapes before confronting his final nemesis. They face monstrous creatures and other sinister beings that the Emperor has pissed off over the years.

The novel is episodic, as though it were originally published as a serialized story in a science fiction magazine. I don't think it was the case, so I assume it was done deliberately to invoke older pulp and fantasy writers.

Martinez attempts to get us to like the Emperor by showing us his guilt (and boredom) over how easily he dominated the Terrans, not to mention his endless cleverness. We don't see him gradually learn this, he's already in this mental state when the story begins. It might have been more interesting to see his humility grow with the story.

The “great hilarity” promised by the cover never occurred. There's some mildly amusing dialogue that invoked an occasional snicker. Each little adventure the Emperor and Zala get into is pretty easily solved by the Emperor, which doesn't make for much tension. Seeing a character who always knows what's going to happen or has some trick hidden up his sleeve that undoes every conflict is tedious.

When we get to the final episode, the reason for the Emperor's omniscience (other than his vast genius of course) becomes clearer. I got the joke but it wasn't enough of a surprise to really astonish or impress. Cute, but I was hoping for something original that transcends the material it is imitating.

I have been listening to the Night Vale podcast and was excited to see the existence of novels about the weirdest little town in the desert. Fink and Craynor are talented writers for both types of media. It Devours had wonderful storytelling and characterization. Not to mention humor. I love books that can combine humor with science fiction and fantasy but not have it take away from the impact of the story. This one works so well; the humor ranges from silly to smart to touching at any given moment.

You don't need to listen to the podcast to know what's going on. It might help a bit though, in order to buy into the idea of Night Vale and what it's like. It's a weird place. The usual rules of logic and even basic things like, say, laws of nature don't necessarily apply here. You have to approach the weirdness with an open mind to enjoy the book.

As advertised, it is indeed a book about the conflict between religious devotion and looking to science for all of life's answers. I think the deck is stacked a bit toward science in this conflict but that might be my own bias as I'm not surrounded by a lot of religious people. Also, this is a story of a scientist, Nilanjana, who investigates a church/cult known as “the joyous congregation.” Through her point of view, the congregation does seem insane.

But the characters who are believers in the “smiling god” are also well developed and good intentioned in their own way. They point out that there is value in not knowing everything and in the search for meaning rather than facts.

“Scientists act like they have it all figured out,” Jamillah was saying, red-faced, “but no matter how many facts you learn, nothing in your knowledge can tell you what it means. You know but you don't know why. Your knowledge is a hollow edifice.”

Ultimately it is science and religion together, or at least two character groups representing each side of the argument, who get together to solve the Monster problem that is the novel's central plot. This is probably the best and most fun scene of the book. There is a spirit of cooperation and working together. One of the important things that Darryl, Nilanjana's love interest who represents the devoted side of the conflict, gets out of his church is family, a purpose in life, and people who care about him and to care about.

“What use is the truth in a world where we die either way? Isn't it better to live happy until that last moment, believing the story you are living, shoulder to shoulder with others who believe and live that same story? Why flounder in the void when there is no need to do so? The story ends the same way, no matter how you chose to perceive it. Why not choose to perceive it as meaningful?”

It Devours is a novel that has everything, action, comedy, romance, weird monsters, and a lot of food for thought.

Rock and roll will never die. Seems like a good subject for a Death sub-series book. Plenty of opportunities for pop culture jokes that Pratchett excelled at. It's also a fine introduction to my favorite Goth Disney Princess, Susan, Death's Granddaughter.

I was always a little wary of these Discworld books that blend our modern world into the timeless fantasy of the Disc though I'm not sure why. Men at Arms, Moving Pictures, The Truth etc. are all fine books. I view this one as akin to Moving Pictures because of the pop culture and the effect the phenomenon has on the citizens of the Disc, causing them to embrace showbiz/music biz with all their manic hearts. Of the two, I prefer this one, as there is more opportunity to get attached to the characters if you've been reading the full series. Susan is Mort's daughter and, if you read Mort, you get to see her make the same mistakes her father did.

The novel's themes are woven into both the story of the music taking over the Disc, as well as the personal family story of Death and Susan. Rock music as described here is something that acts on the non-logical bits of the brain, it moves you, makes you want to move, makes you feel young and rebellious etc. Susan is a character who loves logic above sentiment but is torn when she sees Death had an opportunity to save her parents from the accident which killed them.

There is also the element of rebellion in their part of the story. Death frequently shows his attachment to humans, adopting Ysabell, wanting to get to know baby Susan, etc., which goes against his role as the unstoppable force of death. Susan can't understand why she should not try to make the world better if she can once she has Death's powers.

This holds a place in my heart for my love of rock music but also because it is the book that got my teenage daughter interested in Discworld, giving us a shared pleasure in the books.

I guess you can't do a story about a circus or a carnival without it being weird, quirky, and a bit dangerous. This story has all those things. Also it's taking place in turn-of-the century Europe when life was much harder for everyone.

The main story is a romance between Fevver, a woman with swan wings, headliner of the circus and former orphaned ward of a whore house and Walser, journalist and war correspondent. He's looking for a less dangerous occupation; she loves to be a star.

There isn't a strong driving plot. Most of this is incidents or episodes that take place as the circus visits various cities in Europe. A lot of the content is backstory about the various members in the circus troupe.

Carter sets up overarching themes of feminism, mostly showing various women who are better off without the men in their lives. At one point, readers meet a prison full of women who have all poisoned their husbands and probably for good reason.

The lead character, though, suffers a breakdown of her ego and doubt in her ability to defend herself so I'm unclear how that fits into the overall feminist “women don't need men” themes. I do see that the same thing happens to her male counterpart who loses his dignity, his mind, and his identity before he is finished with the circus and ready to join Fevver in love and partnership.

There is a lot of humor and I found the backstories of the characters very engaging. The writing style is very dense, despite the deceptively short length. It's also a bit uneven. Each part of the book has a different style, from one character telling a story to another, to third-person omniscient, to first person.

A Christopher Moore book is always good for a few laughs. Mostly, the writer is a lot of fun if you're looking for an easily readable story with light but entertaining characters. This is a nimble Shakespeare-inspired adventure with a brave, underdog antagonist, the titular Fool. Like a Shakespeare play there's lots of intrigue, violence, and sex (TONS of sex) and a little bit of clever wordplay. It's a tribute to pretty much all of Shakespeare, not just King Lear.It was a page-turner for sure. I was dying to see just how Fool was going to get things to work out for his friends and allies. There was a lot of dark stuff, torture, murder, attempted suicides, maiming–you name it. Fitting for the Shakespeare theme. I would have liked more creativity in the wit and fewer sex jokes, but maybe I'm not the intended audience for this. Nothing wrong with it, except that after a while it's not as funny. Subtle and/or unexpected use of dirty jokes is more effective because you either have to think about it for a bit, or it jolts you into laughter. I can't help but compare this to my favorite comical Shakespeare tribute, [b:Wyrd Sisters 34504 Wyrd Sisters (Discworld, #6; Witches #2) Terry Pratchett https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1275974472l/34504.SY75.jpg 1494222] (Discworld). Fans of that book might enjoy this one as well, and vice-versa.

Nothing but wonderful storytelling and well-developed characters here. Undersea gods are not the most original of monsters, but I thought Deeplight handled it in a unique way, a new look at an old mythology type.

I had a few doubts about how the “science” of things worked, but nothing that spoiled my suspension of disbelief or enjoyment of the book.

Gods of Jade and Shadow reminded me very much of American Gods, only with a gentler touch and more romantic overtones.

It's not classified as a YA book but I think that audience would enjoy it. It's about a young woman who has been dealt a bad hand but is suddenly touched by fate. She has to leave the home she knows, explore a new world, learn the rules, make choices and learn consequences, etc.

I knew very little about Mayan mythology so this was a nice little mini-exposure to it. The Mayan Gods provided the supernatural elements and gave the story a fairy-tale-like feel.