John Leighton

Dragged on far too long. I'd had enough of Jimmy “The Hand” by the end of the second book, enough to have to tolerate with him more. The only thing that kept my interest and gained it a 3 star was the Pug storyline.

Would have given it 3 stars, but the Beasts in Velvet story brought it up to 4 (the one with the least Genevieve involvement). The short stories in Silver Nails (the 4th book in this omnibus) were nothing special.

Three stars for my first ever Hamilton. “Crap on that!” (Read the book and you'll understand).

Yawn!Yawn!Yawn! What a bore. Such a mammoth chore for such a short book. “Temeraire: Black Powder War”, maybe try “Temeraire: How to Feed Your Dragon”.

Big fan of the movie but never read the book, until now. Some give it negative reviews due to the vast differences between the two, the fact that the book concentrates mainly on the troops training and character development, whereas the movie more on the fighting. I liked those differences. In this way, the two complement each other and you can go from one to the other and see a journey.
Others say it is not really science fiction but of course it is, with its battle suits and arachnid beings, just subtly done.
As for Heinlein displaying too much of his political views? Don't a lot of writers? Aren't a writers opinions the basis of many books?

Like an action video from the 80's, this book has over the top guns, over the top villains, over the top sex (no pun intended) and is over the top fun.

Think this would have been better as a novella rather than a novel. It meandered like the roads the family were stuck on and just seemed to go on and on, to the point where I didn't care about their fates and hoped they would just plummet off one of the freeways they travelled (so many Americanisms in this book, like freeway, asphalt and roadhouse for a book based in Scotland and featuring a British family, annoying). Saying this, I was going to give a 2 star, then about 3/4 of the way through a new character was introduced, a sort of ‘“gunslinger”and the action seemed to build up, hence the 3. I kept thinking, whilst reading this, that Stephen King would have done this material so much justice, the single parent, stuck on a never ending road, trying to protect her family from the dangers all around, right up his street (or down his road).

A good selection of stories from a writer, I am ashamed to say, who's books I have never ventured into. There was not a bad story amongst this collection but I did enjoy The Woman Who Loved Pigs most.

Was an ok read, nothing new to add to the genre (for first three quarters of book) that hasn't been been done better by Fleming etc. Enjoyed when sci-fi was thrown in with time travel elements, just brought it a little way up from average.

An enjoyable read but more so as a thriller than horror.

These books are always by-the-number but that doesn't make them any less fun to read. A bit of mindless nonsense that we need now and again. This wasn't the best but it had it's moments, especially when the history and mythology is brought in (the parts I always love about this type of book). I was just sat thinking, after the description of creature, “this does not sound like an ogre” and then the history of the word ogre is discussed (Tremayne's version anyway).

First book I have read in the series, in fact the first book I have read by Harrison. Maybe I've missed something by not reading previous books, maybe all the humour was used up by time he got this far. ‘The Monty Python of the spaceways' it states on front cover, maybe on a bad day. Absolute rubbish.

A fun read. Reads like a very low budget Hammer film (which for this reader is good, as I love Hammer). To enjoy though, one needs to look past the yoga practicing, telepathic, transcendental yetis.

Star rating more for the first half of the book than the second.

Good to read a proper pulpy “nature attacks” book from the 70s, especially one that is written so well (hard to believe that can be said about this genre but it is). What I especially liked was an American writers nod to James Herbert's The Rats, as if it was part of the same world inhabited by his killer spiders: “Bates paused for a moment, selected a news clipping from the pile in front of him.”Here's an item from a newspaper in England. About two years ago the poorer section of London was horribly infested with rats, definitely a threat to human life on account of spreading infection and rat bites. There was even reports of packs of these rats literally tearing small children to pieces. “
Brilliant.

Described as Horror and that is certainly what these tales are.

A fun read, quite well paced but not as enjoyable as The Hand of the Devil, which received 4 stars and so this rated 1 less.

Not what one would expect from looking at the cover(mine differs from the one pictured). This is not all about explosions and fighting. It is about the people who fraught, the horrors and also the lighter side of war.

If I had read Mother and Child as a standalone, I would have given it 4 stars but as a collective I can only give 3. However, if I had only read Phoenix in the Ashes and Voices From the Dust, they would have been lucky to receive 2, there was no substance or relevance to them whatsoever.

Like Doctor Who books (especially 8th Doctor) but so, so hated this one.

8

I give this book 3 stars, based on the fact it was well written and informative (by a person close to the source).
As for Gandhi, I came away with the feeling that he seemed to live under the dictum, do as I say, live as I say, wear what I say or, I will fast until I die (like a petulant child).

Free to read. Not free of cliches. Thank goodness for Mulligan (read to understand). Hooah!

The way everything came together at the end gave me the same sense of wonder as the ending of A Prayer For Owen Meany did.

Not that funny, won't be taking Jeremy Paxmans' word again, “Very funny”, indeed. Did however find humour in some of the books surreal situations. Given it an extra star for it's unashamed none p.c.ness, was written in 1999, something which everything has to be “careful” with these days.