Book Reviews
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Thought I'd start this off with my review of "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins.
This is the third in the "Hunger Games" trilogy, it was a massive disappointment and there were a number of things that lead to this rather than one overriding failure.
Firstly i think this is the only book that's managed to make a violent revolution dull, something i couldn't imagine before reading it. The plot during the first two thirds was boring, self indulgent and overcomplicated.
The main character is unrecognisable from the first book, the strong, independent and fairly likeable girl becomes whiny, selfish and faintly pathetic (think Bella from twilight). The "love triangle" something I've disliked from it's first appearance in the original book goes from the background to firmly in the foreground of everything.
The poor quality of the writing isn't confined to just this book but the dull plot and bad pacing make it glaringly obvious to the reader where before it was concealed.
There's the very occasional example of what it could have been but it doesn't come close to making up for this hatchet job of a dystopia.
This is the third in the "Hunger Games" trilogy, it was a massive disappointment and there were a number of things that lead to this rather than one overriding failure.
Firstly i think this is the only book that's managed to make a violent revolution dull, something i couldn't imagine before reading it. The plot during the first two thirds was boring, self indulgent and overcomplicated.
The main character is unrecognisable from the first book, the strong, independent and fairly likeable girl becomes whiny, selfish and faintly pathetic (think Bella from twilight). The "love triangle" something I've disliked from it's first appearance in the original book goes from the background to firmly in the foreground of everything.
The poor quality of the writing isn't confined to just this book but the dull plot and bad pacing make it glaringly obvious to the reader where before it was concealed.
There's the very occasional example of what it could have been but it doesn't come close to making up for this hatchet job of a dystopia.
Okay thanks for letting me know.
My book review number 1 is going to be
SKULDUGGERY PLEASANT BY DEREK LANDY.
Basically this book is about a twelve year old girl named Stephanie Edgely.When her uncle dies she inherits his entire estate in his will.After the reading of the will Stephanie and her mother go back to her uncles house to look around but then Stephanie's parents car breaks down so stays alone in the house.That night someone breaks in and tries to murder her.Then Skulduggery Pleasant saves her life.Afterwards they go on an adventure to stop the villain Serpine resurrecting the ultimate weapon The Sceptre of the Ancients.
I guess I would give this an 8/10.
The characters are quite interesting and the storyline is intriguing but the main annoying thing is that in places it is quite hard to distinguish who is speaking.
My book review number 1 is going to be
SKULDUGGERY PLEASANT BY DEREK LANDY.
Basically this book is about a twelve year old girl named Stephanie Edgely.When her uncle dies she inherits his entire estate in his will.After the reading of the will Stephanie and her mother go back to her uncles house to look around but then Stephanie's parents car breaks down so stays alone in the house.That night someone breaks in and tries to murder her.Then Skulduggery Pleasant saves her life.Afterwards they go on an adventure to stop the villain Serpine resurrecting the ultimate weapon The Sceptre of the Ancients.
I guess I would give this an 8/10.
The characters are quite interesting and the storyline is intriguing but the main annoying thing is that in places it is quite hard to distinguish who is speaking.
My review for "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green. It's a literary novel from the POV of Hazel Lancaster, a 16 year old girl with lung cancer. Despite the premise it's probably one of the funniest and simultaneously saddest books I've ever read.
if I were to recommend only one book this year it would be this one. I genuinely think it's a classic in the making.
"This is John Green at his best and oh is that good. The characters are beautifully drawn and heartbreakingly realistic, Hazel Lancaster doesn't represent anything and her suffering and that of her peers isn't meant to make any kind of point. It's just what it is, suffering. Equally so Hazel is simply Hazel, a girl who watches really trashy TV and loves long novels and poetry.
In being just an ordinary teenage girl she really fancies a boy and here is where we come across Augustus Waters, the boy who clenches death itself between his teeth just to prove it doesn't own him.
Through these two characters we are shown every agonizing moment of living with cancer and the fight not only to carry on living but to stop it from consuming your mind and your personality. The book seems to pose the question, if your entire personality has become nothing but the need to fight and survive cancer and there is no longer room for joy or even love, then in what way is that living?.
A large part of this struggle takes place within family circles, the parallel desperation and monotony of having a child with cancer is skilfully and subtly made evident by Green.
Ultimately Green strives to portray his characters not as those fighting cancer are often shown, forced into playing the role of brave and wise soldiers stoically enduring untold suffering. He shows them as they truly are, just people, people who have no choice but to keep fighting because they are given no other option and because to admit defeat means death.
It is not their struggle that defines them but who they are in spite of it, managing to live and to love and even have fun and laugh. They use every moment given to them in the most beautiful way possible and that is what makes them exceptional."
if I were to recommend only one book this year it would be this one. I genuinely think it's a classic in the making.
"This is John Green at his best and oh is that good. The characters are beautifully drawn and heartbreakingly realistic, Hazel Lancaster doesn't represent anything and her suffering and that of her peers isn't meant to make any kind of point. It's just what it is, suffering. Equally so Hazel is simply Hazel, a girl who watches really trashy TV and loves long novels and poetry.
In being just an ordinary teenage girl she really fancies a boy and here is where we come across Augustus Waters, the boy who clenches death itself between his teeth just to prove it doesn't own him.
Through these two characters we are shown every agonizing moment of living with cancer and the fight not only to carry on living but to stop it from consuming your mind and your personality. The book seems to pose the question, if your entire personality has become nothing but the need to fight and survive cancer and there is no longer room for joy or even love, then in what way is that living?.
A large part of this struggle takes place within family circles, the parallel desperation and monotony of having a child with cancer is skilfully and subtly made evident by Green.
Ultimately Green strives to portray his characters not as those fighting cancer are often shown, forced into playing the role of brave and wise soldiers stoically enduring untold suffering. He shows them as they truly are, just people, people who have no choice but to keep fighting because they are given no other option and because to admit defeat means death.
It is not their struggle that defines them but who they are in spite of it, managing to live and to love and even have fun and laugh. They use every moment given to them in the most beautiful way possible and that is what makes them exceptional."
This is my review of "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" by Laini Taylor. below is the blurb taken from Amazon and below that is my review.
"Errand requiring immediate attention. Come.
The note was on vellum, pierced by the talons of the almost-crow that delivered it. Karou read the message. 'He never says please', she sighed, but she gathered up her things.
When Brimstone called, she always came. In general, Karou has managed to keep her two lives in balance. On the one hand, she's a seventeen-year-old art student in Prague; on the other, errand-girl to a monstrous creature who is the closest thing she has to family. Raised half in our world, half in 'Elsewhere', she has never understood Brimstone's dark work - buying teeth from hunters and murderers - nor how she came into his keeping. She is a secret even to herself, plagued by the sensation that she isn't whole.Now the doors to Elsewhere are closing, and Karou must choose between the safety of her human life and the dangers of a war-ravaged world that may hold the answers she has always sought."
There was so much promise and potential here, old stories and new concepts blend together effortlessly. Teeth, the magic shop, the Chimera, the hierarchy of wishes, the girl who doesn't know who she is.
The first 160 pages are great,even excellent in places.
Characterization is good, the plot moves along at a nice pace and the writing is of a high quality; then the whole thing quite suddenly devolves into every bad romance novel ever written. From that point it is simply an exercise in dullness.
Every third sentence becomes a description of the main character's love interest or his description of her, the plot is completely abandoned. Almost nothing happens for the rest of the book, at all. Chapter after chapter is surrendered to another seemingly unending flashback to characters I don't care about and the author never tries to make me care about.
The quality of the writing drops too, a paragraph is even closed with "all hell broke loose" a cliché I thought had been consigned to the realms of poorly written fan fiction years ago.
I don't understand why the romance is even included let alone why it needs to consume half of the book. When used correctly it should enhance the story and deepen the characters but here it beheads the story, leaves it bleeding to death in some back alley in Prague and proceeds to reduce the characters to shallow, dull facsimiles of their former selves.
Why do some YA authors put so much effort into creating complex rich worlds, stories and characters and then gleefully throw them away on the wind in favour of tired storylines that weren't interesting when they were new? it's "The Hunger Games" trilogy all over again and I'm baffled by it.
"Errand requiring immediate attention. Come.
The note was on vellum, pierced by the talons of the almost-crow that delivered it. Karou read the message. 'He never says please', she sighed, but she gathered up her things.
When Brimstone called, she always came. In general, Karou has managed to keep her two lives in balance. On the one hand, she's a seventeen-year-old art student in Prague; on the other, errand-girl to a monstrous creature who is the closest thing she has to family. Raised half in our world, half in 'Elsewhere', she has never understood Brimstone's dark work - buying teeth from hunters and murderers - nor how she came into his keeping. She is a secret even to herself, plagued by the sensation that she isn't whole.Now the doors to Elsewhere are closing, and Karou must choose between the safety of her human life and the dangers of a war-ravaged world that may hold the answers she has always sought."
There was so much promise and potential here, old stories and new concepts blend together effortlessly. Teeth, the magic shop, the Chimera, the hierarchy of wishes, the girl who doesn't know who she is.
The first 160 pages are great,even excellent in places.
Characterization is good, the plot moves along at a nice pace and the writing is of a high quality; then the whole thing quite suddenly devolves into every bad romance novel ever written. From that point it is simply an exercise in dullness.
Every third sentence becomes a description of the main character's love interest or his description of her, the plot is completely abandoned. Almost nothing happens for the rest of the book, at all. Chapter after chapter is surrendered to another seemingly unending flashback to characters I don't care about and the author never tries to make me care about.
The quality of the writing drops too, a paragraph is even closed with "all hell broke loose" a cliché I thought had been consigned to the realms of poorly written fan fiction years ago.
I don't understand why the romance is even included let alone why it needs to consume half of the book. When used correctly it should enhance the story and deepen the characters but here it beheads the story, leaves it bleeding to death in some back alley in Prague and proceeds to reduce the characters to shallow, dull facsimiles of their former selves.
Why do some YA authors put so much effort into creating complex rich worlds, stories and characters and then gleefully throw them away on the wind in favour of tired storylines that weren't interesting when they were new? it's "The Hunger Games" trilogy all over again and I'm baffled by it.
I just thought I'd tell people my list of books to review
1.Red Dwarf by Grant Naylor
2.Better than Life by Grant Naylor
3.Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
4.Evermore by ?(can't remember her name)
5.Buffy:Coyote Moon
6.Buffy
eep Water
7.Buffy:Unnatural Selection
8.Equal Rights by Terry Pratchett
9.The Spooks Mistake by Joseph Delany
10.The Enemy by Charlie Higson
11.My secret Admirer by Carol Ellis
I have no idea when I'm going to review these books or in what order but I'll do it eventually.
1.Red Dwarf by Grant Naylor
2.Better than Life by Grant Naylor
3.Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
4.Evermore by ?(can't remember her name)
5.Buffy:Coyote Moon
6.Buffy
eep Water7.Buffy:Unnatural Selection
8.Equal Rights by Terry Pratchett
9.The Spooks Mistake by Joseph Delany
10.The Enemy by Charlie Higson
11.My secret Admirer by Carol Ellis
I have no idea when I'm going to review these books or in what order but I'll do it eventually.
Book review #2
Buffy:Coyote Moon
This book is about Buffy,Willow and Xander all enjoying the last week of summer before school starts.Then a carnival comes to Sunnydale with very strange workers.When Willow and Xander get a date with two of the workers they put their lives in danger because the two workers are were-coyotes who are trying to resurrect Spurs Hardaway the master of disguise.
I really enjoyed this book.The characters were exactly like they were on the show.
I would give it a 9/10
Buffy:Coyote Moon
This book is about Buffy,Willow and Xander all enjoying the last week of summer before school starts.Then a carnival comes to Sunnydale with very strange workers.When Willow and Xander get a date with two of the workers they put their lives in danger because the two workers are were-coyotes who are trying to resurrect Spurs Hardaway the master of disguise.
I really enjoyed this book.The characters were exactly like they were on the show.
I would give it a 9/10
Wanted to give a review of this, but its not technically a book, but not a tv show either.
Recently i've been going through a radio drama with a funny (and largly unrelated) name for the umpteenth time. I Love Bees.
Its a stand alone, 5 and half hour audio only story set a few hundred years in the future. Humanity has been at war with an alien group for decades and most people harbor a fear that the war will one day reach earth. An Earth military ship drops out of slipspace in earth orbit and unleashes a massive energy burst that disrupts communications for the solar system for a few seconds before the ship crashes. The story opens as the power comes back and a teenage computer geek named Jersey finds his home computer has acquired a new passenger. A powerful AI that has lost most of her memories but still has the ability to find information. He tests her by having her find out information on the hottie that lives in his building.
From there the story starts shifting perspective across about a half dozen characters as the AI (whom Jersey names Durga) listens in on them. You have Kamal, an immigrant med student who gets involved with a woman from his home colony world. Jan, the aforementioned hottie, a strong, smartassed daughter of a former special forces soldier. Rani, a college student from Kentuky living in Boston, with the eyes of a detective being recruited for a job in Naval Intelligence. and an Elderly spy, Colonel Herzog, who's investigating the crashed ship.
The stories are mostly independant, but begin to intertwine as things go along. Its a full performance with different actors for each character, and sound effects, though no score. The story is very much a human one, each person dealing with their situation in there own way. While the story is not overly original The performances are overall very strong (though a few take a bit to get there). The overall tone is fairly light, comedic moments exist through-out, but there are some powerful, dark and sad moments. One inparticular is done so well, so believably that even though i've listened to the entire thing several times it still is heartwrenching. and there is this over arching sense of dread, a tone that may seem familiar if you know anything about what happened during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and people's feelings during that time. Its not a dominant factor, but its there.
I used to listen to radio dramas as a kid cause my parent had tapes. ones like the shadow, call northside 777, the sub-basement, war of the worlds and others. It was nice to find a modern one. i feel its a lost art, and would hope, in the internet age, things like this would find a following and we could see a resurgence.
The original story was released as numerous 1-5 minute clips organized by character but a fan took them and edited them together into 12 chapters.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Afterword
The afterword, a goodbye done in character by the actress for durga, is mainly directed at the fans of the time, so is odd out of context but i included it out of completeness. plus its so genuine, you can tell she was feeling it.
Recently i've been going through a radio drama with a funny (and largly unrelated) name for the umpteenth time. I Love Bees.
Its a stand alone, 5 and half hour audio only story set a few hundred years in the future. Humanity has been at war with an alien group for decades and most people harbor a fear that the war will one day reach earth. An Earth military ship drops out of slipspace in earth orbit and unleashes a massive energy burst that disrupts communications for the solar system for a few seconds before the ship crashes. The story opens as the power comes back and a teenage computer geek named Jersey finds his home computer has acquired a new passenger. A powerful AI that has lost most of her memories but still has the ability to find information. He tests her by having her find out information on the hottie that lives in his building.
From there the story starts shifting perspective across about a half dozen characters as the AI (whom Jersey names Durga) listens in on them. You have Kamal, an immigrant med student who gets involved with a woman from his home colony world. Jan, the aforementioned hottie, a strong, smartassed daughter of a former special forces soldier. Rani, a college student from Kentuky living in Boston, with the eyes of a detective being recruited for a job in Naval Intelligence. and an Elderly spy, Colonel Herzog, who's investigating the crashed ship.
The stories are mostly independant, but begin to intertwine as things go along. Its a full performance with different actors for each character, and sound effects, though no score. The story is very much a human one, each person dealing with their situation in there own way. While the story is not overly original The performances are overall very strong (though a few take a bit to get there). The overall tone is fairly light, comedic moments exist through-out, but there are some powerful, dark and sad moments. One inparticular is done so well, so believably that even though i've listened to the entire thing several times it still is heartwrenching. and there is this over arching sense of dread, a tone that may seem familiar if you know anything about what happened during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and people's feelings during that time. Its not a dominant factor, but its there.
I used to listen to radio dramas as a kid cause my parent had tapes. ones like the shadow, call northside 777, the sub-basement, war of the worlds and others. It was nice to find a modern one. i feel its a lost art, and would hope, in the internet age, things like this would find a following and we could see a resurgence.
The original story was released as numerous 1-5 minute clips organized by character but a fan took them and edited them together into 12 chapters.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Afterword
The afterword, a goodbye done in character by the actress for durga, is mainly directed at the fans of the time, so is odd out of context but i included it out of completeness. plus its so genuine, you can tell she was feeling it.
