Mikko Saari

Ajatus on hyvä, mutta kirja jättää paljon toivomisen varaa. Piirrosasu on enimmäkseen ok, mutta ihmishahmoissa näkyvät luonnosteluviivat ovat tyylillinen ratkaisu, jota en voi ymmärtää - ottaa silmään ja pahasti.

Enimmäkseen vika on kirjan sisällössä. Tarina on suoraan sanottuna tylsä, eikä kirjan lukeminen juuri herätä halua suojella Itämerta, saati neuvo keinoja, mitä itse kukin voisi tehdä. “On todellakin monia asioita, joita voimme tehdä: pestä vaatteita fosfaatittomalla pesuaineella, viljellä maata ilman ylimääräisiä lannoitteita ja tyhjentää veneiden vessat vasta satamassa, sanoi vaari.” Siinäkö tosiaan kaikki?

Olisin kaivannut muutenkin kirjaan vähän konkreettisempaa selitystä sille, miksi ja miten Itämeri on saastunut. Nyt asia jää ilman lisäselvityksiä lapsille täysin abstraktiksi. Päähenkilöt kohtaavat hapetonta mutapohjaa ja veden sameudesta valitetaan, mutta siinä kaikki.

Tarkoitus on hyvä, mutta pelkkä hyvä tarkoitus ei riitä, jos kirja on sen verran tylsä, ettei se kiinnosta lapsia.

A small episode in the series, bringing together the Drew kids from the first book and Will Stanton from the second book. The team is back in Trewissick, Cornwall, because the Grail they found in the first book has been stolen by the Dark. The Grail must be retrieved. But what is the significance of the ceremony of the Greenwitch?

Still interesting. The storyline is mostly focused on Ciri, though Geralt makes a significant appearance as well. The times get bad, and Ciri is tossed around in the middle of everything. Hers is not an easy life. Very good.

Kaunis valokuvateos Suomen vesistöistä. Kirja esittelee niin Suomen merialueiden kuin järvien omaperäistä kasvistoa ja eläimistöä. Kirjan laatinut Pekka Tuuri on Vuoden luontokuva -voittaja vuodelta 2010 ja varsin taitava vedenalainen valokuvaaja. Kuvissa on ajatusta.

Vauhtia ja vaaraa tosiaan. Tarina kiitää eteenpäin kaasu pohjassa ja mielenkiintoisia käänteitä paljastuu. Loppukin jää todella ikävällä tavalla kesken, eli lukijaraasu jää odottelemaan jatkoa. Toivottavasti sitä saadaan pian. Henkilökaarti on yhtä hilpeää kuin ennenkin, ja faunoideista opitaan tässä osassa kaikenlaista uutta ja mielenkiintoista. Huumoriakin piisaa reippaalla kädellä, samoin varsin mielenkiintoisia romanttisia kohtaamisia. Kaikin puolin mainiota jatkoa hyvällä edeltäjälle, siis.

I think this was the best part of the series so far. Very entertaining, and the events that unfolded... well, wow. Pretty cool. Now I'm really looking forward to reading more of this. Quite the contrast to forgetting the series for five years after the first part.

The series takes a grimmer turn. This book introduces Will Stanton, a seventh son of a seventh son, who turns 11 on the Winter Solstice. That's loaded with magic, so no wonder odd things start to happen. It turns out Will is a very important person, with a very important task, in order to stop the Dark from rising. Quite interesting, and an interesting change of pace from the first part of the series.

Intriguing. The world of zoos – people who commit a crime, and are punished with an animal familiar attached to them in some magical way – is interesting, and the South African setting is unusual. The plot also has curious elements: pop music, 419 scams, extortion, murder... All in all a refreshing, unusual book.

Kolmososa [b:Me Rosvolat ja iso-Hemmin arkku 15744634 Me Rosvolat ja iso-Hemmin arkku (Rosvolat, #3) Siri Kolu http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1341899363s/15744634.jpg 21433608] oli jo vähän vaisu, mutta tämä neljäs osa pisti taas tarinaan vauhtia. Selvästi dynaamisempi kuin edellinen osa, alkoi jo vähän harmittaa, että lasten kanssa sarjan lukeminen on vähän jäänyt muiden lukemisten jalkoihin. Jatkan ehdottomasti itse näiden parissa, sen verran sympaattisia hahmoja Rosvolat ja Vilja ovat, ja juonikin on mielenkiintoinen.

Oikeastaan aika hyvä! Juoni oli skarpimpi kuin edellisessä ([b:Risto Räppääjä ja nukkavieru Nelli 16088116 Risto Räppääjä ja nukkavieru Nelli (Risto Räppääjä, #12) Tiina Nopola http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1350283111s/16088116.jpg 21890862]) ja Christel Rönnsin kuvitukseenkin alkaa jo tottua – viittaus Tarina liehupartaisesta pikkusedästä -kirjaan oli hauska!Kaksoisolennon salaisuus on mielenkiintoinen ja ratkeaa miellyttävällä tavalla. Hösöttävä Rauha-täti saa nenilleen, mikä on ihan oikein.

I read the first part of the series ([b:The Year of Our War 1386012 The Year of Our War Steph Swainston http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1355151694s/1386012.jpg 1693774]) in English back in 2008, but for some reason never got the second part (probably because I couldn't get it from BookMooch, and wasn't interested enough to buy it, and when the Finnish translation came out, I wasn't really interested anymore). Now, since the third part ([b:Dangerous Offspring 1418506 Dangerous Offspring (Fourlands, #3) Steph Swainston http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348072281s/1418506.jpg 1408880]) won the Tähtifantasia award, I decided to read the missing parts.This was interesting. The world is still curious, and the plot developed nicely. The story whizzes past, and left me somewhat hungry for the next part. I'll read the next one a bit faster, won't take another five years this time...

Kind of neat, but not without problems. The setting - guys who become computer game developers growing up in 1980s, then diving into the industry in 1990s - is nice and the description of the computer game world is interesting and the games they created were kind of cool. The characters were fine, maybe, if a bit stereotypical, and the plot was non-existential for a while and kind of forced in the end. The book was a long-winded; more compact and to-the-point writing could've earnt a fourth star.

There were technical annoyances. At one point, the protagonist uses PC commands to start a C64 game. No, it doesn't work like that. Of course the games they create and play are wildly fabulous and way larger than life, and that's kind of boring – reading about someone playing a game of your dreams is not quite the same as playing it.

And come on - how come the book doesn't mention Nethack once, when clearly large part of the Black Arts games is just Nethack? Leaving Nethack unmentioned in the final listing of games is simply wrong.

But despite these flaws, I did care enough to read the book. It's by far no masterpiece, but someone interested in computer games – particularly those derived from roleplaying games – might find this interesting. Particularly if you're a white male.

A murder has happened, and a detective is sent to investigate. A dead man's spirit enters the detective, because the detective is doomed to die and the spirit wants to die again, in order to be laid to rest properly.

The murder? A director of an old people's home is died. Everybody wants to claim they killed him; he wasn't a well-liked fellow.

Behind all of this is – of course – the post-colonial struggles of Mozambique.

Entertaining little horror novel for kids. Quick read, and the plot is quite traditional, but the book was fun and the setting is fairly unusual.

Dave Gurney is an annoying curmudgeon like always, and the story is a bit long-winding, but it does present an interesting twist on a traditional serial killer story. So, worth reading for that, if you like serial killer thrillers.

I remember the series from my childhood, but I'm not sure if I actually read it. If I didn't, I don't know why, because I was quite the fantasy fan. So, maybe I did, but it being probably about 20 years ago, I don't remember a thing.

At least the first part was a hoot, pleasant little seaside adventure. The kids are fairly well-written, and the way their youthful adventures link to darker secrets leaves me interested in the sequels. Still, 50 years later, this seemes like a decent fantasy story for kids.

Better than the initial impression, that's for sure. Wish-fulfillment fantasy for copyfighters, for sure, but at the same time a rather entertainng novel. Not Doctorow's best work, but not a dog, either.

A story about a young man in Somalia, set in the time of Ogaden crisis. Themes include identity, both personal and ethnic, as the young man's parents have died, and he is raised by a woman who is an ethnic outsider in the Ethiopian town inhabited mostly by Somalis.

It is a well-written book, but also rather heavy and at times confusing. Too intellectual and poetic for me; I'd have preferred a clearer plot and less having to wonder and interpret what the different dream sequences mean – but I'm straightforward that way.

Still, this was an interesting view on a subject different from what I usually read, so worth reading.

Nice childrens book, with funny twists and turns and some rather good jokes. Nesbø is still better for adults...

Täytyypä vielä testata tätä lasten kanssa, mutta minun makuuni tämä ei ollut ihan yhtä mielenkiintoinen kuin [b:Ruben ja rouva Mallamudin tapaus 12869104 Ruben ja rouva Mallamudin tapaus Netta Walldén http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320943155s/12869104.jpg 18021410]. Hyvin kirjoitettu toki ja ihan kiinnostava tarina – paljastuihan tässä kaikenlaista jännittävää ja asioita, joihin ensimmäisessä kirjassa viitattiin – mutta ei aivan erinomaisen edeltäjänsä veroinen.

What a jolly little book. Quickly read, but quite entertaining. My seven-year-old son likes Doctor Proctor; at least the started reading the latest book and enjoyed it quite a bit. I think he'll like this first part of the story as well.

Kelpo kesädekkari. Stein Storesen palkataan setvimään sarjaa vanhusten tekemiä kaksoismurhia. Liittyvätkö erikoiset tapaukset toisiinsa jotain kautta? Samalla Storesen pääsee taas tekemisiin tyttärensä kanssa, ja oppii tästä jotain uutta. Tarina luistaa, mutta kun luin juuri tätä ennen Jo Nesbøn [b:Police 16134936 Police Jo Nesbø /assets/nocover/60x80.png 21962567]n, niin eihän tämä ihan samassa sarjassa paini. Vetävä juttu, mutta voisi olla vetävämpikin.

Pidän kulttuurihäirinnästä, vastamainoksista, katutilan haltuunotosta ja muusta sen sellaisesta kapitalismin ilosanomaa vastustavasta kulttuuritoiminnasta. Häiriköt kokoaa mielenkiintoisen paketin vastakulttuuria yksiin kansiin, esitellen tekijöitä ja projekteja. Tällainen katsaus on väistämättä vähän pintapuolinen, mutta tämän perusteella on mielenkiintoista lähteä tutustumaan kiinnostaviin tekijöihin.

This book covers the basics of how food has changed the history of humanity, beginning from the development of agriculture. How canned food changed the way wars were fought, how the spice trade created commercial empires, how the humans developed the maize and used it to build large empires and so on.

The book is fairly light reading and well-written. It doesn't delve very deep, but is good entertainment.

Jo Nesbø is quite the devil. This is one of the best books I've read this year (and likely to remain so), and one of the best in the Harry Hole series. Yes – this is a Harry Hole novel. No – he didn't die in the end of the previous book. How is that possible? Well, you'll have to read this book to find out. Well worth it, but if you haven't read the previous Harry Hole novels, forget this one for a while, go back to [b:The Redbreast 465226 The Redbreast (Harry Hole, #3) Jo Nesbø http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320540474s/465226.jpg 1487876] and proceed in chronological order.