Carl
Superman – or Supermonster?
That's the tagline to this book.
In my honest opinion this is not one of his best books, but it is one of his earlier ones.
FYI this is a 2 minute review. Aka it took 2 minutes to write. Anything more would have been a waste.
The main character Simeon Kelly was created artificially in a laboratory as an experiment to aid the military. He mostly manages to live as his own man, but when they call he is obliged to answer, albeit extremely reluctantly. He can telepathically extract information from the minds of others.
Simeon is called in to extract information from the mind of their latest creation, another mutant who Simeon refers to as ‘Child'. ‘Child' is a vicious and extremely insane genius with the appearance of a shrivelled/ageing child.
Upon entering Child's mind Simeon discovers it to be vastly different, and more dangerous, than an average individual's mind. He becomes stuck inside ‘Child's' mind.
After that it's a bit of a surreal trip through Child's mind.
This book has mixed reviews online, ranging from 1/5 stars to 5/5. I suppose it's one of those ‘you either love it or you hate it' scenarios.
Enjoyable read for most fantasy fans, although tailored more towards young adults. However, the author himself was a teenager when he published this so that could very likely account for that.
Downsides: Contains pretty much every fantasy cliché ever, and the entire plot contains one too many similarities to Lord of the Rings. Nevertheless I (mostly) enjoyed it.
The author's own summary of the book is: “Eragon is an archetypal hero story, filled with exciting action, dangerous villains, and fantastic locations. There are dragons and elves, sword fights and unexpected revelations, and of course, a beautiful maiden who's more than capable of taking care of herself.”
Eragon's mother left Eragon with family and disappeared, never to return and no one knows who his father is. One day Eragon locates a pretty stone and hasn't got a clue what it is but takes it with him in the hopes that he can sell it, but no one wants to buy it because it came out of ‘The Spire' (some dangerous place with lotsa mountains). Later it turns out that the pretty stone is a dragon egg. He raises the dragon (Saphira) and they develop a deep connection to each other, to the point that they can communicate telepathically.
Arguably the best character in this book is Murtagh the wise/mysterious old man who travels with Eragon and Saphira and offers traning/advice, but it's not much of a competition as the character development throughout the entire book for all characters is minimal. I remember very little about who the characters are, just what they did.
Their enemies were fairly interesting I suppose, they were one of my favourite parts of the book. Then again, Eragon always escaped unscathed from fighting them which is a little disappointing to be honest. I wanted to see him struggle a bit, it would have created at least a little character development.
Oh, he also at some point rescues an Elf (princess? I want to say she's a princess but don't completely remember if she was) from a dungeon because he could see her in his dreams.
I mostly enjoyed the book, but I doubt I'll continue with the series or watch the film (which from reviews I've read is supposed to be terrible anyway).
If you enjoy fantasy for fantasy's sake then you will probably enjoy this. If you tend to be more critical of what you read then this might not be the book for you.
I would recommend this book for: adolescents/young adults that are fans of fantasy/magic/dragons etc. No-one who understands (and loathes) what a Mary Sue/Marty Stu is.
P.s. this review was written in 5 minutes and has not been edited. Apologies for any and all mistakes wherein.
I was immediately hooked from the onset. At the start of the first book we are introduced to the main character ‘Pug' who is a local teen-aged orphan boy of limited prospects. He is shortly chosen for an apprenticeship to the local magician Kulgan, much to Pug's surprise as he isn't even aware that he has any magical skills at this point.
Some other notable characters introduced are Pug's best friend Tomas, and also the Princess Carline whom Pug has a slight ‘crush' on. The characters themselves at this point seem a little... flat. It's quite difficult to connect with them or get too emotionally attached to them or the story. Kulgan is a fairly stereotypical wizard, he wears robes and a pointy hat, he has a beard and smokes a pipe, he is mysterious, he has a weird pet creature thing (a sort of small dragon) etc.
Not much happens for a fair chunk of the book. Pug chills out with his buddy, has awkward meetings with the princess, reads a lot of magic books etc. It isn't until the characters become aware of the upcoming invasion that the plot really starts to develop. The plot itself was very promising at first. The invasion via ‘Rift' from an otherworldly race was genius but poorly presented. Feist could have done a lot more with the plot than he did. The plot kept jumping ahead by years and missing out a lot of the action. We didn't even really see the start of the war. They were about to be invaded and then suddenly it was years later and they were tired of fighting? Also the supposedly main character Pug disappears for quite a large chunk of the book.
The first book in the Ben Hope series by Scott Mariani. It was his debut novel.
Ben Hope is a former solider who now spends his life searching for lost children.
In this book he is recruited by a client to look for an ancient Alchemist manuscript that could help cure a dying child.
At first he is highly sceptical and turns the offer down, but due to something that happened in his distant past Hope sympathises with his client and ends up accepting the job.
And then all Hell breaks loose.
SPOILERS AHEAD: YE BE WARNED (mostly the second-to-last paragraph)
Not long after accepting the job and going to Paris to start his investigations, Hope becomes aware that this job is going to be a lot harder than he had first thought. He'd thought that the manuscript most likely didn't exist and that he was just being sent on a wild goose chase. The more information he unearths the more interested he becomes, and the more people who try to kill him for his knowledge the more he realises how dangerous the situation he is in is.
Thankfully, he is a professional and knows very well how to deal with all this unwanted attention. Much to the annoyance of the local police who are left with a trail of bodies and no clue as to what's going on.
Overall the book was thoroughly enjoyable and kept me hooked. The plot was interesting, there aren't many books dealing with alchemy. A few, but not many. The author had obviously done his research on the topic. A nice little plot twist in there that surprisingly enough I hadn't noticed, although it should have been obvious when I think back to it. The mystery part of the book was well thought out in my opinion.
Only downsides I could see was that the book had a lot of clichés e.g. Ben Hope was plagued by something that happened in his youth and that he felt guilty for, causing him to drink and to have difficulties getting close to anyone. He was a ‘professional' but there wasn't much detail into his past to explain why he is so good at what he does. There was also the typical meet someone –> oh no I couldn't possibly be thinking of being with her she deserves so much better than me –> apart for ages then meet again suddenly and realise neither can live without the other etc.
However since it's very difficult to write something without any clichés, and that most people seem to like some romance in their stories, I've decided not to judge too harshly for this. I found the characters not too relatable also, but according to others I've spoken to I am the only one who thought so.
As you can probably guess from the title: this book deals with the subject of introversion and extroversion within humans. It's written from the point of view of an introvert, and focuses more on them than extroverts. Extroverts are usually brought up more as a comparison than anything. Ergo this book would probably appeal more to fellow introverts than any extroverts reading this. There is still a fair bit of information on extroversion in here however so don't let that discourage you too much!
The author is a self-described introvert and a former Wall Street lawyer named Susan Cain. Susan Cain is an American and so almost all of the book is set in, and directed towards, America and Americans. While some of it might not be relevant to you if you're not American (A/N: I'm not!), such as if you're from a mostly introverted country (an example she uses is China I believe) most of the book is still useful to you. Just keep in mind that she is using a mostly extroverted country as a background.
The book covers a lot of varying topics such as how introversion affects both your personal life, your career, and your relationships. There is a veritable wealth of knowledge in this book, Cain sure has done her research into this topic. It is well presented, with each chapter focusing on a different aspect of your life and how introversion can affect it.
She also gives examples of introverts and extroverts she has met throughout her life to help illustrate how certain obstacles in our life can be overcome or used to our advantage. I say obstacles here in reference to her common statement in the book that we are living in a world where extroversion is the ideal. In a world of extroverts it can be difficult to fit in, or to fake your way into being a pseudo-extrovert (more on that inside the book).
She describes introverts as a necessary part of society, indeed that society could not function without both introverts and extroverts. That the existence of the two in perfect harmony is the natural state of human society.
The book is useful to pretty much anyone, whether you're a parent trying to understand your introverted child, or an introvert trying to better understand yourself and how to achieve success in whatever you want and/or happiness.
The book is great in that it doesn't describe either introversion or extroversion in negative terms, but rather explains that they're both highly useful in their own ways. Neither one is better over the other. Cain was very non-judgemental when writing Quiet.
As an introvert I found the book to be very relatable at times. The title was especially appealing to me. The book wasn't perfect, but it was close enough. The book sometimes seems to read as fiction, to me anyway. Possibly it is the author's style of writing which gives that impression. I was also a bit turned off because of all the Americanism, but the author is American so I can't be too disappointed by that. I almost rated it a 5/5, it was a close call but ultimately decided on 4/5 mostly for the reasons I just listed.
I never actually finished reading this book so I wasn't going to review it. I changed my mind, however the review is very short.
I apologise if I offend anyone who has read this and enjoyed it.
Why was this a bestseller?
James Redfield obviously just wanted to write a book about his New Age religion but decided that he would put it into a fictional setting. Maybe he thought people would be more likely to read it that way. Sneaky.
What was good about it: I'd never read anything about this religion/spirituality before so that was interesting.
What was bad about it: Obviously the author hadn't actually bothered much with the story part of the book, he just wanted to focus on the dialogue parts which explained his religion.
This book is based upon the Witch Trials in 16th Century Essex, especially those killed by the ‘Witchfinder General' Matthew Hopkins. From 1560 to 1680 upwards of 500 women were tried for witchcraft in the area.
(Spoilers ahead!)
The book is based on fact, but the author changes the story slightly to suggest that Matthew Hopkins did not die at the young age of 27 as most scholars suggest. Moore links the killings that happened later in New England, after Hopkins' supposed death, to Hopkins. This is not what scholars say happened since he was apparently dead, but Moore acknowledges that this change in her book is purely fiction. It does make for any interesting story!
The book is mostly set in modern day Essex, and is centred around the character Mercedes “Sadie” Asquith who is a journalist that has recently lost her mother. She starts research on the Witch trials from Exeter with the intention of writing a book on the subject. The further that she gets in her research, the weirder things start to become. Moths start following her around, and a ghostly presence keeps trying to communicate with her. She also starts to have visions from the 16th Century.
This was ultimately a very enjoyable read, but I thought that the ending didn't really do it justice.
I'd recommend it for fans of the supernatural, and anyone with an interest in the witch trials.
This is a book I previously read when I was much younger (can't recall exactly how young). I picked it up again because I remembered that I had enjoyed the series immensely, but that was literally all I could remember about it. That, and that it had ‘something to do with death'.
My younger self would probably have rated this 5/5. I have rated it only 4. The quality of the book has obviously not changed, but it was originally intended for those in their very early teens. Which I no longer am, by at least a decade.
This story is based around Sabriel, whose father is (the) Abhorsen. He is essentially a necromancer, except he puts dead things back ‘into death' rather than raising them from the dead. (No wonder I remembered this book had something to do with death, it's all based on death!)
When Sabriel was very young her father sent her to live at a boarding school in Ancelstierre, outside the Old Kingdom. Ancelstierre remained relatively unaffected by what was happening in the Old Kingdom while she was growing up, namely that the dead weren't staying dead. However in her last year of school Abhorsen goes missing, and she has to venture back into the Old Kingdom to locate him, and as she undergoes her journey she discovers more about herself, her heritage, and just how bad things are in the Old Kingdom.
Overall it is a wonderful, and highly imaginative story. The world that Garth Nix wrote about is intriguing and I loved reading about it. The creatures and the characters he created are unique, particularly Mogget and Touchstone.
However, there are certain points that I didn't enjoy as much.
1. Sabriel has very little knowledge of how to deal with the dead or about the roles of the Abhorsen and yet she defeats everything she comes up against, including essentially the ultimate bad dead guy of the bad dead guys in the Old Kingdom. But this is something you see often in YA/Fantasy novels so I'm not that bothered.
2. A lot of how the magic works in the world of the Old Kingdom is a little vague in my opinion, particularly the ‘free magic'.
3. At times the plot felt like it just draaaaaaaagged along.
In conclusion: I enjoyed it (mostly), I'll probably at least consider re-reading the rest of the series, but it's just not quite as great as I remembered it being.
I would recommend it for fans of young adult and fantasy novels. If you like things like His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman you'll probably like this (he was even a reviewer for it – look at the bottom of the cover).
Just over half way through this book I abandoned it for about 2 weeks. Finally got around to finishing it today, and I'm glad I did. The ending was pretty interesting and had a plot twist that I hadn't anticipated.
Basic summary of the plot:
Sara was adopted at a very early age and never knew her birth parents or anything about them. Some things happen and she decides to start the search for her birth mother and father. She manages to locate her birth mother, but when she goes to meet her she discovers something terrible about her conception. Her mother was the only surviving victim of the Campside Killer who, as it turns out, is Sara's biological father. If you want an idea of what happens in the book just look at the words on the back cover of the book: “Sara soon realises that the only thing worse than finding out your real father is a killer is him finding out about you...”
Overall it was a good book, the only reason I had to stop reading it is because I was getting seriously annoyed at the stupidity of some characters. So much so that I actually almost threw the book at a wall in frustration. I swear the serial killer was the only decent character in the bloody thing. For those who don't like spoilers I won't go into any more detail about why they're all so f-ing stupid.
In conclusion: Liked it, however don't think I'm going to be reading any more books by this author.
This is a book I wasn't expecting to like. The authors are obviously very talented writers, this much is obvious from reading it. The plot is nothing that spectacular in my opinion. Still, I read the entire thing in one day. The book I read before this took over a week. Throughout the majority of the book I wanted to rate it 4/5, which I did end up rating it... but at the end I was contemplating rating it 3/5 just because of the ending. I mean don't get me wrong the book was still quite enjoyable, and my rating system is purely subjective. If I was rating it based purely on writing talent they'd probably get 4 or 5 stars out of 5.
I'd actually forgotten it was written by two authors when I started it, and then I got to chapter two and was thoroughly confused. For those who don't know: all the odd number chapters are written by Green (aka the Will who is friends with Tiny) and the even number ones by Levithan. Personally I think I preferred the parts written by John Green. (This was also the first book I've read by either author)
I think overall the book started good, the middle was bordering on great, and then I'm not entirely sure what happened to the end but I continued to read at the same pace that I'd read the rest, maybe in some kind of hope that it would get back to how it was. Also: my God was that a cheesy ending. Also also: I don't understand the purpose of all the different Will Graysons at the end.
The beginning was intriguing, the end was the best, the middle was tolerable.
For a ‘horror' book this book didn't actually seem to have that much horror in it. The end of it sure, the beginning some. The middle was more sad than creepy. And there was a lot of middle.
For those who know nothing of the plot (spoilers):
Louis Creed, his wife Rachel, daughter Ellie, son Gage, and cat Winston “Church” Churchill have just moved house. There's a path just off the house, heading towards the back, that leads to the ‘Pet Sematary' where children over the decades have buried their beloved pets. This is not the real cemetery that the book is about however. There is a second one behind this Pet Sematary. That one you don't, and shouldn't want to visit. We first see it shortly after Church dies when he is hit by a truck on the busy road in front of their house. Their neighbour, Jud, takes Louis and the cat to the cemetery beyond the sematary. Later that night Church comes back... kind of. He's not really the same old Church.
I quite enjoyed this part of the book and was intrigued to see what would happen next. Except not much did until the end of the book. Just talking, and reminiscing, and more talking. Which is why it probably took me so long to get through this book. I started it enthusiastically, then about half way through was just reading bits of it every now and then, until I got to the last few chapters and then got ‘back into it'. Frankly there was too much filler in this book for my tastes, and the tastes of most of my friends who have read it also.
Almost rated it 4 stars because I quite enjoyed the end, but could only overall rate it a 3.
I think I'm one of few people who prefer the book to the film (re: this particular book/film). I still loved the film, but I preferred some parts of the book. For example I preferred the ending to the book, than the ending to the film. Even though I watched the film first and read the book second (and third...).
Just finished the first part (Sub-Human). I'd rate that part 4/5. I'd almost rate it 5/5 except there were a few parts in the book that bothered me, but they were few. Will update this with reviews for the other parts when I finish them.
Just finished part 2 (Post-Human). I rated it 5/5. It was brilliant and is now a new favourite of mine. I just hope the last part is just as good.
Just finished the final part. It lived up to my expectations of it. I rate that part 5/5 and the overall trilogy 5/5 also.
Your typical fantasy novel, this one based on Celtic mythology. 18 year old Connor discovers that he is a prince from another world. While there he meets many interesting individuals, like a Banshee and an Imp and trees that speak to you and hug you. It's not all great there, he is in danger from his Uncle the evil King. Overall it was a pretty fun read. The author writes in a humorous way, even cracking jokes in traumatic scenes.
