Spriggana

W zasadzie to oceniłabym na 4½ ★ – więcej niż „really liked it” ale jednak nie „it was amazing” – powiedzmy „it was great”. Ale już dawno przyjęłam zasadę zaokrąglania do góry w takich przypadkach, więc do średniej policzy się 5.

More like 3 and ½ stars, but I'm giving it a benefit of the doubt. I liked the story of Peri and her struggle to find out who she really is. Still, the setting – close-future USA – bothers me. Releasing a deadly race-specific virus in Africa is a crime, but releasing a deadly virus in Asia is apparently OK, because the UN said so (and they asked for it by not agreeing to limit CO₂ emission)...

Extra star for the bull, the dog and the goat. ;-)

Powinno być 2,5 gwiazdki, ale zaokrągliłam w górę.
Po lekturze miałam wrażenie że za mało jest tu trochę powiązania ewolucji literackich detektywów ze zmianami w świecie – niby jest omówione jedno i drugie, ale miałam wrażenie że jakoś tak... osobno. No i sporą część historii kryminalistyki znałam z wcześniejszej lektury Thorwalda, ale rozumiem że autor nie mógł założyć, że każdy czytelnik jego książki ma za sobą te dwie cegły.

Trzyma się zaskakująco dobrze. Wprawdzie z początku się zjeżyłam na Karola Gordona perorującego jak to powinni iść i nauczać czerwonoskórych, ale dalej okazało się że to był ich pomysł, a w każdym razie ich części, która zdawała sobie sprawę że bez tego są skazani na zagładę.
Rozczulił mnie za to przypis o tym, kto wynalazł dynamit... :-D

Very difficult book to rate.
Starts with two three-star stories (both loosely connected to the Flora Segunda books). But then we get three stories which can be dubbed as Hardhands and Tiny Doom: The Early Years, and I really did not like them. But I dislike writers never using one word if they can use two or – better! – more. It very rarely works for me, and in this case it did not. The fact that Hardhands and Tiny Doom's family is the very model of a disfunctional one does not help...
Luckily the last two stories I really liked, the Hand in Glove being my favourite. Strangely, the best stories have almost nothing to do with Flora books – they simply happen to be happening in the same world, and that's all.

Musiałam niestety bardzo tłumić jęki przy opisach lotu w próżni (jeśli kiedyś polecicie w kosmos nie próbujcie wykorzystywać wiedzy z „Królowej...”); problemy, które muszą rozwiązywać bohaterowie biorą się przede wszystkim z niepojętych rozwiązań technicznych i programistycznych; rolą kobiet zaś jest głównie do wykazywanie emocji i przygotowywanie tortów i innych słodkości. Jednak biorąc pod uwagę że KK ukazała się 25 lat temu to i tak lektura była ulgą po współczesnych książkach dla młodzieży, których autorzy zdają się brać udział w konkursie na najbardziej ponury i beznadziejny świat...

Do understand me – I do not say it's not a good book. But the Goodreads rating system is based on liking, and while I agree this is a good book, it is one I really do not care about...

A new series about a recurring character from Harper Connolly? Why not, I liked Manfred.
But at the very beginning Bobo from a town called Shakespeare appeared. Then a vampire, with obligatory mention of synthetic blood. But not much else was happening. Still I kept on reading only to see if I can spot any other guest appearences – and there is a new sheriff in town, and his name is Arthur Smith, and he used to be in a club discussing old murder cases... And by that time something happened. But it was not very interesting.
From rasw usenet discussion group comes the term Brain Eater Syndrome (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Nicoll#.22Brain_eater.22) – a disease sometimes contracted by authors. Among the proposed symptoms are:
• nothing happens in later books (check)
• an attempt to tie all his/her previous books into one giant multiverse (check).
The second symptom is more worrying, because Sookie and Lily/Aurora do not belong in the same universe. Just imagine Lily/Aurora saying Sure, we have vampires coming through Shakespeare/Lawrenceton sometimes. Did I forget to mention it?. You can't? Well, neither can I.

I liked the story, but have no idea why would anyone treat it as a sf-f...

Am I the only one who wanted to strangle Flavia's father? He loved Harriet so much that he would rather part with her house then with one very valuable book, because they have signed it together? Aaaargh.

An extra star for the excellent Saint Nick trap. Read and learn, Bob Howard! ;-)

Czyta się równie miło jak w dzieciństwie, choć może już nie z takimi wypiekami na twarzy ;-)

W zasadzie tylko za Dukaja się należy. Napisał IMO jedyne zmysłowe opowiadanie w antologii... Reszta jest albo o seksie albo o braku seksu (a czasem i o tym nie). Zmysłowości, a tym bardziej erotyki, nie widzę w nich żadnej.

This was a strange one. Somewhat like a Douglas Adams book, but a lot darker.
Think of the final parts of Fforde's Shades of Grey compared to his Thursday Next series.

The only problem I had with this book is that: everytime someone said something like this Godlike Awful Aliens tried to Kill All Humans 2 billion years ago I wanted to scream What humans!? Some algae, most likely! They were probably simply alienforming... (OK, probably not simply but I fail to see the Awfulness of it).

Cztery gwiazdki za język, trzy za treść, dwie za turpizm...

Sadly, no unicorns. A FHK-style unicorn would probably earn an extra star ;-)

Waitaminute, this is what Brandon S. calls “standalone”? I think someone should dig out a dictionary...

The whole series is great, with the first book being my favorite. If I could give half-stars rating it would be 5 for the first volume, 4 for the second and 4.5 for the third one. But somehow rounding the 4.5 to 5 this time does not seem right, so 4 stars it is.

Yes, it was a reread. This time I have been skipping the military parts...

Ocena oczko niższa niż 1 tomu - głównie ze względu na straszliwie irytującą narratorkę. Ale nie porzucam Fandorina. :-)

A bit better then the first one, but the con a bit ubelievable. Yes, I know, it is a pulp sf story, so what do I expect? Well, if I can not have believability, I would settle for some fun. Unfortunately humor is missing, too. Or it is not my kind of humor.

Finally a Leland Hale story I liked. Of course, it's the last one :->.
The con if properly convoluted (which does not mean I wold not improve it a bit ;-)) and the victims are crooked themselves – as it should be in a proper con. :-)

Too American. To compare to TV: I prefer Hustle to Leverage. The key difference: the British crew does not need a “muscle man”. As for the book (more likely a short story or a novelette) – Leland Hale has no problem with killing someone which puts him few steps lower then Stainless Steel Rat...