Book Review Updated Monthly Rating System * Boring ** Pedestrian *** Good **** Excellent ***** All Time Favourite July 2004 Snare by Katharine Kerr I tale of three vastly different groups on a planet far in the future and far from earth. To the mix add a group of aliens the monority group on the planet though indigenous. This book appealed to both my science fiction side and my pre history side. A good thick book with intermingled stories. I enjoyed the ride. *** April 2004 Atlantis Endgame : A New Time Traders Adventure by Andre Norton and Sherwood Smith A very cool title. I wuld think a good story idea. how did it fail. Well for me it failed as it was written in a style you would expect from a young adult or early teen novel. It therefore it seems to prove it was and audult book Threw in words in an attempt to make you run for the dictionary. On top of that the logic was non exsistant in places. They were sent back to Atlatis seasoned time travellers to thwart and atempt to upset human history, they were well trained in languages and had the ability to blend into any part of history, YET the greek members of the team speak english with thick greek accents. What gives? They are sent to Atlantis as I said; you know the pinical of human achievement for melenium either side on the time line and they have to take back vitamin enriched food. Why I ask?? Did they think the diet of such a rich and civialised nation would be poor? we are meant to feel the blow to the team when the bad guys steal this food. I am sorry I did not. They have a shower built into their ship, it is so small so as not to be conspicious to natives of the time and the door to it is hidden. Again I ask why Surely time travelers should blend in and make use of the commonly available bathing methods but no they go in the seat box as they call it with no room to move ... because presumably no self respecting modern person can survive without a shower. This book merely annoyed me. annoyed becuause it did not live up to the hope the name and concept inspired in me. Annoyed because no one though about the situations logically. Annoyed because the big words while I knew them thanks to Word of the Day still intruded in the story stopping it short and added nothing to the story in doing so but the thought the authors were trying to prove they could read a dicitionary and use new words in sentences. * February 2004 The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett Terry Pratchett is one of my favourite authors to unwind to. He does not dumm down entertainment but relies on parodies of history, fantasy and folk lore. The more you know about these things the funnier you will find the books. This was a good example of Terry's work, though not my most favourite of his. This story is about a young girl who find herselve needing to save the world from the queen of dreams. If you think the queen is good just remeber some of those dreams of yours where you wake up sweating. Indeed imagine your childhood dream of having all the sweets you want to eat, comes true! *** January 2004 Son of the Shadows by Juliet Marillier Trust me to read book two of a series first. I really was carried along with the emotion of this story. I just wish my lifes story could have followed the same path. If you put enough work into a relationship it will all work out in the end. The magic of a celtic landscape is interwoven into this story making it enormously enjoyable. **** December 2003 Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A Heillein First published 1961, I have only just by recomendation of a friend found this book. I finished reading it today and thoroughly enjoyed the read. It really does not show its age, if you accept that there is life on Mars. The story of a baby the only survivor of the fist manned Mars mission, who is brought up by aliens (Martians) and learns to think and act as an alien. He is brought back to earth as a full grown adult by a successive mission. The story deal with him learning to be human and weaves a full bodies story touching amny lives round this. It also has quirky starts to chapters which give snipets of things happening on earth att he time which I found confusing at first then clicked they were not always realted directly to the story and so groked (understood) them . **** November 2003 People of the Silence by Kathleen O'Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear Another book to pull u into the mists of time and breathe life into archaeological data in a story the captivates you. I just finished reading this book this month and while it is not the my favourite of these books it in no way dimmed my enthusiasm for this series of books. My only real complaint is that they seem to be forgetting how to end a story satisfyingly. They seem to be going into the realms of make your own ending up form here. ***** May 2003 Asterix The Gaul by Goscinny and Uderzo I discovered Asterix and Oblix when I was at Intermediate (11-12yrs old). The books were only available in French and the only French I knew was the few word my Father had taught me. Still they had the capacity then to make me laugh. I would get an Asterix book out the school library and look at the first scene of the comic read the speach bubbles, guess the words that looked similar to the english then nut out what was being said from these clues. Some words were repeated often so I figures these to be "a", "the", "and" etc. Despite it being hard work and a lot of extrapolation to "read" the books I would often have to smother bouts of laughter in the library. Other kids looked at me strangely when I explained I did not read french but could understand what I was reading. I like that too. Asterix The Gaul is the first in the series and is still amusing today. The premise of all the stories is that this is the last gaulish village to withstnd the Roman Empire. Asterix a small man with great wit, his friend Oblix a large rotund man who accidentally got dropped in Getadix magic potion when he was a baby so is now incredibly strong; Getafix the wise druid of the village all have adventures, many of which end up keeping the Romans at bay. ***** April 2003 An Intimate History Of Humanity by Theodore Zeldin This was a book that took a bit of getting your head round where they were coming from at first and then was a facinating read. The authors indroduction tell you he plans to give you a look through a telescope and then a microscope and human history in regards to how humans relate to each other and while that did not make sense at the time I read it it perfectly describes the style of writing. If you are looking for options on how to relate to others, want to know what was considered normal in other civilasations and times, this book is a facinating read. **** February 2003 Five Weeks in a Balloon by Jules Verne This was an e-gift from a special friend, it is The Project Gutenberg Etext of Five Weeks in a Balloon, by Jules Verne. It is #16 in their series by Jules Verne The book is written in the dry style of the time, tell of a great adventure in a cool and measured tone. More specifically it tells of the many little adventures that make up a grand adventure. As three men traverse unchartered territories in a balloon. A great read for anyone with a taste for this era or wanting to expand their reading diet and capture the sense of another time. *** January 2003 GUENEVERE The Knight of the Sacred Lake The Second Novel in the Guenevere Series by Rosalind Miles This was a birthday present. The birthday party was on a medieaval theme so I recieved a medieaval book. It has been a while since I visited the Arthurian Ledgends so this was a plesant return despite is being book two and me never having read book one. The book does not stick to the ledgend I have in my head and invokes a world embroiled in changes. The story is told from many views but obviously has Guenevere central to the plot. The book starts with Guenevere almost a decade into her marriage to Arthur and Lancelott her lover and ends with you still wanting to know more of her life so I hope there is a book three around It emcompasses the arrival of Christians to Camelot and the eve of the worship of the Goddess. The Goddess worshippers see her as the creator of life and that women are the bringers of life to the world and are therefore the rulers and the devine to be honoured and loved. They see the Christians as killers and degrading women. The Christians see the worshippers of the Goddess as worshipping the Great Whore and making women think they are equal to men when they are the lessor of Gods creations as they are all Eve's tempting men to do wrong. While this interplay between the religeons is a background to the main thread of the story I found it interesting, and cleverly woven. *** Rating System * Boring ** Pedestrian *** Good **** Excellent ***** All Time Favourite Past Reviews