Throne of Glass (08/08/18)

This book in many ways is a standard love triangle young adult novel. If you found twilight, hunger games or house of night style books tedious. Then don’t bother here. If, however, you are like me, then open up this book for a whole new world of blooming brilliance.
Simple, if interesting concept of a young assassin roped into a be all competition to become the tyrannical kings personal Champion assassin.

I found all the main characters interesting and well rounded. I want to know more about them. Luckily there are more books in this series and I can already tell there are going to be some interesting developments with some characters. The main character Celaena, I liked, a small criticism being we maybe didn’t need telling how beautiful she was every other page. This did become less apparent as the book neared its end. Love interest wise, I surprisingly liked both possibilities. Both Chaol and Dorian were likeable and swoon worthy. Without giving away anything, I have surprised myself at which one I am routing for. I would be lying however if I didn’t admit this changes every now and again.

The character of Nehemia added some depth to Celaena that I feel helped both characters become more interesting and added some nice non love interest drama to the story. Nehemia seems fierce to me and I could see her being such a strong female force in this fantasy world.

There was plenty about this book that should have made it just a YA guilty pleasure. But I feel there are some foundations for this being a blindingly fabulous series and I am just so happy to have started it. I get very into these types of books, I love a good series, but I always worry starting one. Whether it will hold up against all the other books I have read before. And luckily for me this one did. I can already feel myself getting all fan-girly about it. I could also see this being a fabulously epic tv series.

The main criticisms about this book are that the beginning does seem very predictable and a bit slow on any action happening. This young girl is meant to be this fierce, sly and amazing assassin that needs guards at all time. Yet it takes time ¾ of the way through the book for her to have a real fight scene. Plenty of people would have lost interest before that point. Luckily, I didn’t. by the end I had a good feel for what the next books will become. I could feel the writing evolving as it went on. So if your giving this book ago and feel like it’s a bit, meh, please give it till the end to judge it. It may surprise you.

The Vorrh (05/08/18)

 

This was a story unlike many others I have read. It seemed to be based around a alternative world to this one. Nothing to out of the ordinary for the most part, except for the Vorrh. The endless forest that is believe to house the garden of Eden at its centre. The book had elements of greatness. A really unique point of view, but I felt sometimes just lacked something that would make me not want to put down. Instead I spent most of the book being carried along whilst think about what I may read afterwards.

The story was initially quite hard to follow. The jump in characters seemed clumsy and at times I was not sure who was who at all. Only a couple of characters really stood out. Ishmael was the character I most looked forward to returning to and I feel that’s where the real interesting story was based.

Other characters like Mutter, Sidras and Edward Muggeridge and even Tsungali, to some extent, began to bleed into each other and until one of them spoke to someone else or someone spoke to them I didn’t really know which character the story had turned to.

Most of the characters seemed credible if lacking a bit of depth. Other than Ishmael and Gertrude I didn’t really feel attached to any of the characters. I didn’t really care what happened to them. And for me that makes a book drag. I have had a bit of a reading slump, and whilst this isn’t the worst book I have ever read by far, I feel like I should have liked it more.

I didn’t really feel like any of the story was relatable, but I also don’t believe it was meant to.

I didn’t hate the book. But it is unlikely to be one I recommend or re read at any point. There are 2 more books that follow this one and honestly at this point I am unlikely to read those as this felt like much too much hard work. When you work full time and have a small child reading needs to be easy and gratifying. Which this book on the whole, was not.

Torment (15/08/14)

I have literally realised that I had missed on posting a review from back in August. Luckily I had it saved so have been able to copy it over now.

So a couple of months back I read Fallen and was decidedly unimpressed with the whole story in general. I still can’t explain why I decided to read to follow up book Torment. But I’m glad I did. Once again, it could have been better, I’m not saying it was as good as some of the books I have read lately, but it was much better than the first book.

This book sees Luce sent off to a posh school on the west coast (there happens to be special classes about angels and demons, which made me pull many faces when reading it). Daniel, the uber love interest of the first book, Luce’s ‘one true love’ send her here after the events at the end of fallen with the premise of keeping her safe. Rebellious teenage acts ensue, and as you can guess, Luce ends up not being very safe. I still have real issues with Daniel as the love interest. We know nothing about him, he hasn’t done a single thing to endear me to him, and I kind of route for Luce to screw him over a little bit and date someone who doesn’t control her every move without giving her even a glimpse of understanding as to why these things keep happening to her.

Other than that actually the general way the story is going was much more interesting to read, Luce had more backbone and the new characters that were introduced as her friends were well rounded and well written into the story. I can see where the story may head now, which is saying a lot as I didn’t get the first book at all. I can honestly say I will now read the rest, I just hope that the author carries on developing the story and possible try to include a few less cliché type scenarios.

The Woodcutter (25/09/14)

What would happen if you tried to put as many fairy-tale characters and plots into one book? Wouldn’t everything get a bit confusing? Wouldn’t you only be able to take snippets of these fairy-tale to try and work them into a bigger plot line? Well that’s pretty much what happens in The Woodcutter.

The Woodcutter, is a retelling of a number of fairy-tale through a many story line revealing around ’The Woodcutter’. A man, one with the trees and the wood in which he lives, setting off on a journey to protect and serve his forest. Along the way he discovers the fae are being captured, princesses are being murdered and generally happy ever afters are being ruined. He must use his wits and his Axes to fight off the evils and right the wrongs he comes across.

When I read the blurb for this book, it seemed like my cup of tea completely. I love retellings of fairy tales such as Fables and the TV series Once upon a time. So I go into these types of things knowing things are not going to be exactly like the fairy tales I knew as a child. That’s what I love about them. But with this book, well, I can’t say that I wasn’t disappoints to begin with. I felt like so much more could have been done with it. 

It does pick up and the last 40% of the book was really quite good and really came together and gave me some ‘wow’ type moments. But even then I felt I could put it down at any point to make a cup of tea, and in reality when I get to the last half of a book I should be glued to it, as if I can’t honestly wait a couple of minutes to make my tea and not be reading the book. Overall, a pretty average read, but mostly I felt it could have been given more depth and back story. There were so many times something was brought up and I would think, ‘wow that would be a brilliant place for a flash back’. Due to the lack of back story and depth it was difficult to really warm to the main character until pretty late in the book.

Oryx and Crake (19/09/14)

Oryx and Crake is a dystopian style post-apocalyptic novel which for the majority focuses on one character, Jimmy, otherwise known as Snowman. The book centres on his life before the fall of a modern civilisation as well as how he move through life afterwards. This world (before the fall) is a perverted but in my opinion not too farfetched realisation of our future. The rich live in compounds with access to all sorts of medications and rejuvenating procedures to lengthen youth and help them remain beautiful. The poor live in the pleeblands, which appears to be not to different from the world we live in now. Food production has been streamlined with scientists creating ‘chicken’ style life forms that have no head/legs as these are not necessary, they just exist in a basic form with no brain function other than to grow. Also in this would entertainment has taken a leap and reality style TV has been twisted so much that it is almost incomprehensible that anyone would watch these shows. It is on one of these shows that Jimmy and his friend Crake first come across Oryx as a young girl. Jimmy and Crake grow up, go to different Universities and begin very different careers. Crake is an enigma, never really part of the human race, although he really does seem to be Jimmy’s friend. He is a genius and begins to develop science in leaps and bounds that could be the end of everything.

This book really got my mind asking questions of myself and science. Often at times it also made me feel anxious and tense in a way not many books have. I don’t see this as a negative, on the contrary I believe it was a positive element to the book. I personally am not a fan of reality shows, and the way entertainment is shown in the book doesn’t seem like a far stretch from what we are currently doing anyway. How many people only watch these shows to see people come to blows? When something horrendous happens on the news, how many people go and try and watch the act online? I am not say in the next few years I expect to see live executions on the TV, but it doesn’t seem like it could never happen. Which is more than worrying. The animal/food production element also doesn’t seem too far off, we can already grow meat in a lab, so how long till we can produce a chicken style organism like in this book. How long till science tries to combine different genes from animals to create new ones.

This is one of the best books I have come across this year and I fully intend to carry on the series. Fully entertaining, fully engrossing, horrific in an addictive way. There is no way to read it without questioning it. I would highly recommend.

The Goddess and the Thief (03/08/14)

The Goddess and the Thief is a work of fiction based in Victorian England and briefly at the beginning in Lahore, India. It tells the story of Alice Willoughby, who after living all her life in India with Her father Charles, is moved to England to live in the care of her Aunt Mercy whilst her father returns to Lahore were is works for the English residency as a surgeon. Her Aunt Mercy works as a spiritual medium and after events including the death of Alice’s father and the introduction of the enigmatic Lucian Tillsbury, Alice’s aunt endeavours for her to join the clairvoyant profession. All events lead to dramatic and catastrophic events for Alice.

Considering all the elements such as; gothic Victorian era, Hindu mythology, intrigue, drama and the paranormal I feel I should have liked this book more than I did. There is nothing particular wrong with the book, it works well and is written fine with no obvious errors that I have observed in other books. I just wasn’t my style of book. I have read other reviews that have liken Essie Fox’s writing style as similar to Sarah Waters, who I have read previously and also not found to my taste. Perhaps if books written in the style of Sarah Waters is your cup of tea you may appreciate this tale more. Having said this the inclusion of the Hindu mythology was really interesting and differently added a lot to the story development. There are twists and turns along the way and this is by no means a ‘bad book’ as said just not to my taste.

Life of Pi (26/07/14)

So Life of Pi, a story of Indian boy castaway in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger for 277 days. This is a story of human endurance and spiritual belief. The story is beautifully written and being a non-religious person I enjoyed that fact that this young boy embraces all religions he comes across and values them all equally and sees the best in each. I was slightly worried the religious aspects would be off putting for me but I believe they added depth and beauty to this story.

Unfortunately I came to read this book after having seen the film so I found it hard not to picture what I had already seen. Also, it meant I already knew how the story ended. I wish I had read the book before seeing the film as I think the story would have been better leaving the ending unknown. It was hard to get caught up with the revelations when they are revealed before you begin. I kept applying what I knew of the story’s ending to the book as I read.

I enjoyed that the story was written as if Pi himself were telling it to me, other than a couple of brief chapters were the journalist is making observations about Pi and his home. It isn’t hard to feel for Pi and knowing he survives to tell his story allows you to fully immerse in his pain and suffering. I would recommend this book, if you haven’t seen the film yet please read the book first so as not to ruin the story and how it unfolds.

American Gods (02/03/2014)

So this was the first Neil Gaimen book and have to say I was quite impressed. I will have to check out more of his work. Really enjoyed the way the story was written I thought it had a nice flow and the overall feel reminded me of Horns by Joe Hill. Which was good, as I loved Horns!

So the story was focused on one guy, Shadow, who gets out of prison early due to the fact his wife has died in a car accident. Leading to Shadow encountering a guy we initially are introduced to as Mr Wednesday. He hired Shadow as a general errand boy and basically all havoc ensues. Along the way we learn that gods walk among us and as faith a worship are lessening in modern America these gods are becoming weaker and are worrying about the occurrences of the new more modern gods that have formed from people reliance on technology.

In-between the main story telling there is a lot of side stories about other gods and how they came to America in the heart and minds of travelers and immigrants. Some people may not like this deviation from the main plot but I enjoyed the depth it gave the world I was reading about. I would definitely read more from this author again.