tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58235812033320404192024-03-04T21:54:18.655-08:00This Is My FaceAn overview of books recently read by me. And my face.Adam Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05491826646836424966noreply@blogger.comBlogger79125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823581203332040419.post-89689776742241174352019-03-10T17:36:00.001-07:002019-03-10T17:36:47.221-07:00Christine Feehan - Dark Prince
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeGzsBCH76RTMz4PyaQ2pEAhMWcgzWMbCHMPYCiE-d96sDmYGP48nfuN4zih9VWwBWl4v-gcHwCVBUETsjZj0bm_aylWi-Iqs8g9da9NpFJYz7xDrCJupVaj02oTm6FVSWi8c6fawm3kUN/s1600/Dark+Prince.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="393" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeGzsBCH76RTMz4PyaQ2pEAhMWcgzWMbCHMPYCiE-d96sDmYGP48nfuN4zih9VWwBWl4v-gcHwCVBUETsjZj0bm_aylWi-Iqs8g9da9NpFJYz7xDrCJupVaj02oTm6FVSWi8c6fawm3kUN/s200/Dark+Prince.jpg" width="130" /></a></div>
This is first book I’ve finished in 2019 and hopefully the
first of many. It took me a while to get through this one mainly because it’s a
hard book for me to get into. The text was small and frankly, I found most of
the book boring.<br />
<br />
As a side note, I was reading through some of my older
reviews and it seems that I’ve decided to be more PC of late. I’m not sure why,
maybe I’m afraid of offending people by having an extreme opinion that may
differ from theirs and on that subject, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dark
Prince </i>could be a very dangerous book for me to review, especially with
what’s about to follow. So here goes.<br />
<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dark Prince </i>is the
first in a long series of books about a race of creatures known as Carpathians.
These creatures are somewhere between human and vampire and need to from a
connection with a life mate in order to not be fully consumed by the beast
inside. This story follows the Carpathian male, Mikhail who finds his life
mate, Raven and the whole experience is essentially a study on how not to date
women.<br />
<br />
I won’t go too much into the detail of the story but
essentially Raven has psychic abilities and can use these to communicate with
Mikhail with just her mind. Upon the first contact with Mikhail, he gets
annoyed when she tries to read his mind and in response… he mentally breaks
into her bedroom and plays with her vagina. There is a lot of back and forth
from then on mostly involving Raven continually claiming that she is going to
leave him, is a totally independent woman who doesn’t need Mikhail and can look
after herself… but then does the exact opposite of what she says.<br />
<br />
The other thing I don’t like about Raven is the fact that
she is portrayed as a barbie doll. Blonde hair, massive tits, tiny waist. In a
book released in 2006 when I thought we were past objectifying women, even in a
book as smutty as this. I also don’t think I’m the intended audience for this
book so I find it even more surprising that Raven is portrayed in this way.<br />
<br />
Raven appears to be totally submissive towards Mikhail and
despite continually saying that she wants to be a strong, confident,
independent woman, continually lets him dominate her. There is nothing in
narrative that suggests this is a slowly changing character trait and the whole
‘love’ between the two is more of an author’s ‘because I said so’ approach to
character development.<br />
<br />
In terms of the writing itself, it’s horribly put together.
Perspectives change at a whim which makes it hard to tell who’s narrating and
from what perspective. This happens all the time and is made worse on page 32
where one of the character names is actually wrong.<br />
<br />
The worst thing about the book however is that… nothing
really happens. It does that, what I’m finding to be, typical thing of being
308 pages long and only having anything happen in the last ten pages. Okay, I’m
overexaggerating here but even if you count the smut as things happening
there’s still 150 pages of nothing – just more gesturing by Raven and Mikhail
being angry that she was breathing without permission.<br />
<br />
The last section of the book sees the arrival of Andre the
vampire, a character who has had no visibility in the story whatsoever and
shows up as if from nowhere to piss on everyone’s parade. The way he’s dealt
with is just terrible too. I cannot believe that there were two run-ins with
Andre before the final show down, during both of which he could have been
killed… but I’m guessing for plot reasons he wasn’t?<br />
<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dark Prince </i>is the
first in a very long Carpathian series of which I’ve been informed, they get
better. But it’s going to be a while before I test that theory.<br />
<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dark Prince </i>by
Christine Feehan was published by Piatkus books in 2006. RRP £6.99 (Paperback)<br />
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Adam Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05491826646836424966noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823581203332040419.post-47934680954112097722019-02-07T09:57:00.000-08:002019-02-07T09:57:05.073-08:00David Gibbins - The Last Gospel
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The next
adventure for Jack and his crew of historical heroes has a lot of different
paths but ultimately it boils down to a hunt for a Gospel written by none other
than Jesus Christ. The trip takes them all around the world from ancient Rome,
to California in search of where it’s been kept. As always with these things
though, there are arbitrary dickheads who want to stand in the way of history
but this time it’s not for money, but more just to keep the Gospel hidden –
because there can be no change to religion.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The book
itself is well written but goes a little further with the ongoing dialogue
sections that explain the history behind everything that happens. There are a
lot more flashbacks in this one which makes me think there isn’t enough modern-day
information to keep the story going and we keep needing to dip back into the
past to have more explained to us. Again, there is nothing majorly wrong with
this, but I did feel like it broke the flow of the story as it always seemed to
happen just when the modern-day parts were building up momentum.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Another
criticism is that, just like in the last books, Jack’s power to recall
knowledge at a moment’s notice to serve the story has gotten even stronger and
this takes away a lot from the characters. I see that it serves the purpose of driving
the story forward, but it feels too easy as it’s always at the exact moment the
information is needed.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I found it a
lot harder to keep on reading this one, probably because the continual dialogue
explanations slowed down the story a lot more than in previous books. That
said, there is a very good, and also historically plausible, story in the
background here and it’s very enjoyable to see it unfold over the 542-page
extravaganza.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There’s not
really a lot else to say to be honest. The stories are written in a consistent
and coherent way and stick to an established pattern. While I’ve enjoyed these
first three books, it’s time for a break and to read something new, however,
I’m sure that the next few books will follow the same blueprint when I do go
back to them.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Last Gospel</i> by David Gibbins was
published by Headline Publishing Group in 2008. RRP £8.99 (Paperback)</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span>Adam Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05491826646836424966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823581203332040419.post-17520019827266478672019-01-21T12:42:00.001-08:002019-01-21T12:42:37.889-08:00Ernest Cline - Ready Player One
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7SnwmEQBGqbtRlI9vdaPc3h0lE_xbPYmZj5-ScRuczzwtt7zlUf-WAKFkbysNK0DsQByncsBJtwRUqd_G9KqSDHgS7Aop2NkM53Cbvi1ITsK2JAhFTHzq0lA5IgLALDOjDNC5iyCAIuan/s1600/Ready+Player+One.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="324" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7SnwmEQBGqbtRlI9vdaPc3h0lE_xbPYmZj5-ScRuczzwtt7zlUf-WAKFkbysNK0DsQByncsBJtwRUqd_G9KqSDHgS7Aop2NkM53Cbvi1ITsK2JAhFTHzq0lA5IgLALDOjDNC5iyCAIuan/s200/Ready+Player+One.jpg" width="129" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I played
squash recently with someone when I mentioned that I was reading David Gibbins’
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Atlantis</i> and they mentioned that I
might enjoy <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ready Player One.</i> The
movie had just come out and I was also told that it was wildly different from
the book and that if I was going to watch the movie, I should read the book
first. So I did.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The general
premise is, this crazy genius, James Halliday, creates this thing called the
Oasis which is a virtual universe that people log in to play games, do jobs, go
to school and essentially do anything except for eat and sleep. It’s almost
where computer games are heading now we have VR headsets, only expanded to cover
more of our general livelihood. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the book,
the real world is going to shit with wars, poverty and famine. This is summed
by the cover of the book which shows mobile homes stacked on top of each other
to increase the population density and cater for the ever widening rich/poor divide.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Anyway, in
terms of the driving force behind the story, Halliday dies and leaves no heirs
so he starts a contest to find keys in his game world. Whoever finds all the
keys gets full control of the Oasis – so essentially becomes the richest person
in the world.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There were a
couple things that irritated me about the movie, which I’ll throw in here as
it’s relative but first, the book. Now in terms of story, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ready Player One</i> is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time.
It does that thing where it drags you in, gets you invested in the characters
and makes it difficult to put down. The arrogance of the antagonist makes you
want him to lose and the characters are both engaging and charming in their own
ways.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">That’s not
to say it’s a well written masterpiece though. There are several issues I had
which unfortunately broke the flow somewhat. In hindsight, I should have
ignored them and carried on, but I can’t do that anymore.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The most
glaring of these was the time-continuity throughout the book. At some point,
weeks would go by in a sentence without any real clues toward the passage of
time. Then time will move back three days, then forward a day to the point
where it became impossible to know what day of the week it is. Maybe it’s got
something to do with the destructive capability of computer games on our
perception of reality, who knows. On the bare face of it though, it looks like
bad writing.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Halliday is
obsessed with 80s culture and a lot of the references in the book reflect this
with games like PacMan, Tempest and Joust making prominent appearances.
However, there are certain elements that cross over into the 90s. References to
directors on page 62 that only really rose to prominence in the 90s and some
didn’t make an impression until the 2000s. It seems like a strange choice when
there were a lot of movies released during the 10 years that comprised the 80s.
This is a minor point though and it annoyed me more in the movie when it states
that James Halliday’s favourite game was Goldeneye, a game released in the mid
nineties for a console that didn’t exist in the 80s!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I also found
it odd that all Wade can do in the Oasis is go to school because he doesn’t
have any money. It’s like EA came in, bought out the Oasis and then monetised
the whole thing. I would have thought that especially for a character like
Halliday, this would have been the exact opposite of how he wanted the Oasis to
work, and it feels like part of the premise of the movie – stopping the evil
protagonist from gaining control of the Oasis – is made almost redundant by
this fact.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">When I
thought about it a bit more, it seems that Wade’s inability to go anywhere
other than school in a universe of infinite possibilities, it merely a device
to drive the story and it’s really weak when you think about it. The movie
didn’t create this problem and doesn’t have Wade confined to school so while
parts of the movie annoyed me, parts of it are better too.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Another
example of things done to drive the story, when you get to page 208, Artefacts
are brought up for the first time stating that they’ve been around since the
start of the Oasis. This again feels very much like, ‘I need to do something to
move the story on… so… Artefacts?’ It could have gone by unnoticed if done
differently but it’s at the start of chapter, 208 pages into a 374-page book so
feels like an afterthought. Not as bas as some of Stephen King’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dark Tower</i> decisions though, and there
isn’t an author note to justify them either.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">One more
contrasting point from the movie is the character of Art3mis. A main part of
the book is that Wade believes that the Art3mis avatar looks like her real-life
counterpart – this is true in the book but in the movie, the avatar is an
alien. I can see absolutely no reason for this. The movie also rushes through
the premise of the Oasis making it so anyone who hasn’t read the book will
struggle to know what’s going on. Lastly, there is no relationship building
between Art3mis and Wade in the movie. He just sees her one day and the next
thing you know they are best friends. It condenses the story from the book for
no real gain or reason.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There –
movie whine over.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As I said at
the start, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ready Player One</i> is an
imaginative story with some great characters. It’s just a little rough around
the edges. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ready Player One</i> by Ernest Cline was
published by Arrow Books in 2012. RRP £8.99 (Paperback)</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span>Adam Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05491826646836424966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823581203332040419.post-45842057105799466202019-01-19T12:41:00.000-08:002019-01-19T12:41:02.494-08:00David Gibbins - Crusader Gold
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The second
book in the Jack Howard series sees Mr Howard and friends on a quest to
retrieve the Menorah, a golden Jewish relic lost to the ages. In a short
sentence, it’s pretty much a copy of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Atlantis</i>
in terms of the writing style and structure; there is lot of historic
explanation, some crazy action sequences and a lot more plot explanation.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It suffers
from the same ‘issues’ as the first book in that Jack is a walking Deus Ex
Machina who knows the exact piece of information to continually drive the plot
forward. That said, it’s still a good book that’s easy to read and has that
‘this could have happened in real life’ feel to it with its use of historical
references. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In this
case, it’s the ancient Viking Harald Hardrada who sacked Constantinople, stole
the Menorah and sailed to Greenland and then on to America or, in this case,
Newfoundland. Jack and company follow this trail while being pursued by some
evil doers who are seeking the giant golden candlestick, not for historical
purposes, but because it’s made of gold and worth a lot of money.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">While
telling its own story, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Crusader Gold, </i>appears
to set the groundwork for some other group of people who will continually cross
paths with Jack and try to kill him – adding excitement and exhilaration to their
worldly travels.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There are
two gripes I had with the story and one of the comes from the first book. Jack
has unlimited resources at his disposal and while this is almost necessary for
the course, it does feel rather convenient. It does make me wonder if there is
going to be a future story where all his resources are stripped away – it might
make some of his adventures slightly harder.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">My other
gripe was with the character Maria. She wasn’t mentioned in the first book at all,
but is made out to be so close to Jack she’s practically his sister – which doesn’t
make a lot of sense considering she was totally absent from the first book. If
they were that close, you would have thought that Jack would have told her
about a little thing like discovering Atlantis.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Crusader Gold </i>clocks in at 449 pages but
I reckon only 250 of those drive the story – the rest are spent explaining
what’s going on and providing backstory to move the plot on to the next bit.
There’s nothing wrong with that but at the same time, the balance just doesn’t
feel right here.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Crusader Gold</i> by David Gibbins was
published by Headline Publishing Group in 2006. RRP £8.99 (Paperback)</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span>Adam Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05491826646836424966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823581203332040419.post-84549691250559043362019-01-12T10:56:00.003-08:002019-01-12T10:56:17.357-08:00David Gibbins - Atlantis
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">My new year’s
resolution is to definitely read more and get more book reviews published. The first
four reviews of this year date back to my holiday in June last year so it’s high time
to crank up the output on book reading. Anyway, that’s enough about me. Let’s
talk about David Gibbins’ first book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Atlantis.</i></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There’s a
semi-interesting story behind this one. I got a book called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gods of Atlantis</i> from a charity book
thing at work and after reading the opening and doing some research, I found
out that it was the fourth or fifth book in a Jack Howard series. I didn’t like
the idea of starting part way through a series, so I got <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Atlantis </i>and the two follow up books to bridge the gap.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Atlantis </i>follows the story of Jack
Howard and his buddy Costas as they go in search of the legendary missing city.
What follows is a tale of mystery and intrigue with a beautiful girl thrown
into the mix. Naturally Mr Howard beds the girl, as it seems that all these
sorts of books have to follow the same pattern of male, physically able protagonist
has to bed the girl otherwise it’s not believable? I dunno.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">One thing
that came through the narrative a lot was Gibbins’ overwhelming need to explain
everything. There are pages upon pages of exposition with literally zero
urgency as characters will just spontaneously divulge every piece of
information they know about the subject in question. Jack is easily the worst
at this as he seems to know everything. I get that it’s a device to make the story
work but it’s crazy how much he knows about everything and how there is seemingly
time for everyone to stand around talking when there is a race against time to
stop the bad guys destroying Atlantis.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The writing
itself it actually very clean and well done and Gibbins structures his
characters well. While I make fun of the fact that Jack Howard gets the girl in
typical fashion, it’s at least structured in a way that makes it logical and
there is a relationship development piece. This in comparison to Lee Child
where the sex happens because the girl is hot.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In terms of
things that stood out, there was one on page 352 that got my attention. The
sentence talks about how there were low chances against surviving which on a
read back, made me think it was saying there was a low chance of death… which I
didn’t think was the intention of the sentence.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There was
also a reference to ‘one giant step’ which made me cringe as it was a glaring
similarity, and probably deliberate one, to the moonwalk. It just felt a bit
out of place it a book that wasn’t at all cliché at this point.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There was
one minor point when the quest for Atlantis starts by having a camel falling
down a hole to uncover an Egyptian tomb. It’s described as a coincidence… I’m
not sure how a camel falling in a hole and discovering a tomb is coincidence –
more like blind luck. Which is not the same thing.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Atlantis</i> is a solid adventure story and
despite what I’ve said about the explaining, it’s necessary and helped me
invest more in the story as you join the characters in their excitement of
discovery. There is also a lot of action too, but it suffers from the same
problem as other books where it’s 480 pages long and the last 40 pages are
pretty much where everything happens.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Atlantis </i>by David Gibbins was published
by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Headline </i>in 2008. RRP £8.99
(Paperback)</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span>Adam Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05491826646836424966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823581203332040419.post-82610207603039453482018-11-18T10:28:00.000-08:002018-11-18T10:28:06.709-08:00Richard Dawkins - The God Delusion
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIRpCsprP-LUCymG1C9xxYFOYHpInqoSrUpKiTK3Kb5iMyQe_SzgoNHQWHb4inTSZ8eORPN-2AJpGl7C9npLZ0j78ga9noXfBLAsBQyM8boHt0YmYBPBuF9cCJFxrv_U_mP_0xYL4bMvAv/s1600/God+Delusion.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="180" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIRpCsprP-LUCymG1C9xxYFOYHpInqoSrUpKiTK3Kb5iMyQe_SzgoNHQWHb4inTSZ8eORPN-2AJpGl7C9npLZ0j78ga9noXfBLAsBQyM8boHt0YmYBPBuF9cCJFxrv_U_mP_0xYL4bMvAv/s200/God+Delusion.png" width="128" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This one
took me a while to get in to after reading loads of fiction and if I’m honest,
it hasn’t endeared me to non-fiction writing, even if the subject is borderline
interesting. The edition I read was the 10<sup>th</sup> anniversary edition featuring
a new introduction. The introduction takes the interesting step of answering criticism
the book has received, not only from religious people but from the
non-religious community as well. The tact taken appears to be any criticism of
the book, even when not biased or based on counter beliefs, is wrong. Because
science. That’s basically the whole book. But what’s wrong with that you say?
Well…</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Firstly, the
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">God Delusion</i> is a published book. As
it is a book, it is designed to be read by other people. If it were me writing
a book with the sole purpose of ‘opening people’s eyes’ I wouldn’t do it using
obnoxious language and inaccessible words. I don’t claim to be the smartest guy
in the world, but I would like to think that I have some semblance of
intelligence and I had no idea what Dawkins is banging on about half the time.
But I suppose ‘religion bad, science good’ wouldn’t sell a lot of copies.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The second
thing is the way in which the book is written. It clocks in at 426 pages
including the afterword by Daniel Dennett – which is yet further posturing over
the ideas contained within the book and how they are right and anyone that
disagrees with them is wrong. The book could have been closer to 200 pages as
Dawkins has an overzealous need to repeat the same point over and over again.
On several occasions, I had to check that I hadn’t misplaced where I was in the
book and that I wasn’t reading the same thing.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now on to
the subject itself. I did think that the book would be more about why God
doesn’t exist and here’s proof looking at history, but I didn’t factor in that
Dawkins is a biologlist, not a historian so his argument comes from the
biological standpoint. There’s just one massive flaw in his main hypothesis.
Using evolution as an argument against the existence of God is weak. God is
supposed to have created the universe out of nothing. If he has the power and
ability to do such a thing, you would also think he has the ability to create
life with the ability to evolve and adapt. Almost in the same way as humans can
program AI to react to things.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There were
also a few terms I didn’t like and an overall hypothesis that feels very
contrary to the point. The first point is one I don’t quite understand and
revolves around the ‘ultimate bowing 747.’ Why is has to the be ‘the ultimate’
I have no idea. Anyway, the argument goes that if all the parts of a bowing 747
were in a scrap yard and a hurricane blew through it, what is the chance that
the hurricane will put the Bowing 747 together? Essentially this boils down to
if the universe was created by something, due to the complexity of said universe,
its creator must be at least equally as complex. This isn’t an argument for
God’s lack of existence – it’s an, ‘I don’t know but God doesn’t exist.’ It’s
not so much the argument I don’t like but the term Ultimate Bowing 747.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The second
part is where Dawkins goes on to talk about the ‘Mother of all Burkas,’ The
idea being that people are blinded from the realities of science by the belief
in God. Telling people that their beliefs are wrong is one thing, if backed
with evidence, but telling them they are blind to science because they believe
in something is total shit. I know that’s not the science way of saying it but
who cares.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The last
point I didn’t like was the way Dawkins takes credit for converting people to
atheism. Converting is an interesting word, isn’t it? And also there are a few
instances where he describes people, mostly Americans, of being afraid of
coming out of the closet with their atheist beliefs… that’s an oxymoron in
itself but it’s the best way of getting my point across. Writing a book called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The God Delusion</i> and trying to convince
people to think the same way as you, is acting in the same vein as the thing
you are trying to dissuade people from doing. It almost makes atheism seem like
its own religion, one that we should all believe in.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now from the
start I haven’t been a believer in God. I believe that we don’t know enough
about the universe to understand our own creation and we likely never will – in
fact we shouldn’t even be contemplating our own existence – but all this book
does is say that God isn’t real because you can’t know that he is. It’s not an
argument and any evidence we can fathom from our own planet is not a proof of a
lack of God. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Also,
telling people that are blind and stupid probably isn’t the best way to get
them to buy into what you are selling.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">That said, I
do agree with the concept even if I think the book goes about it in the wrong
way. If there is no religion, there would be no religious wars, there would be
less barriers towards social interaction and the world would generally be a
better place. At least in theory. Personally, I think the human race is so
destructive that even if we didn’t believe in a multitude of different things,
we would still find other reasons to kill each other. Isn’t that a sad fact of
life? And one that Dawkins doesn’t consider. If you succeed in abolishing
religion, wouldn’t you be afraid of what might take its place? Food for thought.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The God Delusion</i> by Richard Dawkins was
published by Bantam Books in 2006. RRP £9.99 (Paperback)</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span>Adam Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05491826646836424966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823581203332040419.post-61994643965649289842018-02-27T14:34:00.001-08:002018-02-27T14:34:29.018-08:00Steve Alten - The Mayan Prophecy
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb1xRKNXHanhU33BjbRQJWTDyyG0zkeAMflTgCXTP1mhN0d-6F3oNs8rMfNZ3w0rw-M17uoiuqLudvHRLKzP3ezBrjwUzxjWwRZ_CFKoLi9CfLnfb6ewlfQyo-V05DD-83Xs9GYeOLygMh/s1600/The+Mayan+Prophecy.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="181" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb1xRKNXHanhU33BjbRQJWTDyyG0zkeAMflTgCXTP1mhN0d-6F3oNs8rMfNZ3w0rw-M17uoiuqLudvHRLKzP3ezBrjwUzxjWwRZ_CFKoLi9CfLnfb6ewlfQyo-V05DD-83Xs9GYeOLygMh/s200/The+Mayan+Prophecy.png" width="129" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Firstly I
must say that I really enjoyed reading this book. At 629 pages long it’s one of
the longest books I’ve read for a while but that’s only because the text is
large and well spaced. A testimony to how much I enjoyed it is that it only
took me a few days to crank through it and I struggled to put it down most of
the time.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Mayan Prophecy</i> follows the story of
Dominique Vasquez and, I can only imagine the symbolically named, Michael
Gabriel (yes, not one angel reference but two) as they quest to save humanity
from the end of the world. The plot goes into the reasons why the Mayan
calendar ends in May 2012 and it’s actually quite well constructed in terms of
reasoning. The main plot point focuses around the fact that it wasn’t actually
an asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. It was actually an alien spaceship that
has been lying dormant at the bottom of the ocean. It’s sending out a distress
beacon which can only be picked up when the planets line up in a certain way which
happens once every several thousand years but is stopped because some other
aliens, who helped us build the pyramids and other shit, have prevented them
from doing so. Until now.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There are a
few popular culture references but because the book was written in 2001
depicting events in 2012, there is some creative license here. For example he
writes about a Rolling Stones album called Past Our Prime and Dominique has a
car that can test your alcohol level before you drive.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Despite my
overall opinion that it’s a good book there were a lot of things that irked me.
On page four we kick off with horrendous spelling errors where the non-word
‘qreat’ is used instead of ‘great’. Now, this section of the book is from a
journal of one of the characters so it could be argued that this is the
portrayal of typed up handwriting. However, even if this is the premise, I
don’t agree with it. If you are going to write something for someone else to
read, so not a journal, then spell the words right.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">On page 56,
there is a face scanner which is used to access a health facility as a security
precaution. But it’s not referenced again or cleverly bypassed by taking off
someone’s face or head to use it so it’s completely redundant in terms of the
story. I’m not if this is meant to be another futuristic prediction over security
protocols, but I’m sure this could have been less grandiose if so.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Some of the
mathematics while fascinating, is not easy on the eyes and at one point, I
found myself wondering if what I was reading was actually correct in terms of
sentence structure. Unfortunately, Steve Alten doesn’t have a Clive Cussler
character around to explain it to the dumbasses like me. One thing I do know
though is that light years is a measure of distance, not time. Yet one of the
doctor/scientist characters is either making a joke or doesn’t know this when
they refer to light years as a measure of time.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There was
one more major error I picked up on towards the middle of the book. Michael has
magic sneakers that get written off of his feet but then magically get put back
on again. And he ends up going barefoot through the alien spaceship. I’m not
sure this is the best choice when journeying in to the unknown but to each
their own, I guess.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The only
other thing I noted was the dialogue kind of falls apart in the second half of
the book. It’s almost like the characters stop caring about making sense with
their dialogue. That said, it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the story and
I will definitely get the second one to see where it goes.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Mayan Prophecy</i> by Steve Alten was
first published as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Domain</i> by Tor in
2001. RRP £6.99<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>(Paperback)</span></div>
Adam Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05491826646836424966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823581203332040419.post-30034289017818187802018-02-27T14:16:00.001-08:002018-02-27T14:16:58.391-08:00George R. R. Martin - A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipzUdNT3UgKh7c8-BnRYPE6j_PM6naxVfVVus-GZZhcx0u_X5ZBM6dt-II2-FuMqBO2SJdN6pkjtVvsSv690M7v46KUymReh_YnUOQ1MlATrTfunVO1c0Zs6KoVb7ZaY7kIUgjcoyvsaGp/s1600/A+Knight+of+the+Seven+Kingdoms.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="180" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipzUdNT3UgKh7c8-BnRYPE6j_PM6naxVfVVus-GZZhcx0u_X5ZBM6dt-II2-FuMqBO2SJdN6pkjtVvsSv690M7v46KUymReh_YnUOQ1MlATrTfunVO1c0Zs6KoVb7ZaY7kIUgjcoyvsaGp/s200/A+Knight+of+the+Seven+Kingdoms.png" width="128" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">With half
the world wondering if they will ever see a sixth instalment of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Song of Ice and Fire</i> it seems like a weird
idea for an author to write a historic spin off title set in his captivating
world of fantasy and sex. But there you go, we can’t access the mind of George
and see what his ultimate plan is. I wasn’t really planning on reading this one
either but I found myself short on books when going on holiday last year and it
was two for one in the airport bookshop. Again.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Anyway, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms </i>follows
the story of Ser Duncan the Tall who isn’t a knight at all. He just lied about
it to everyone after the knight he was squiring for dies and didn’t make him a
knight. It’s quite hilarious really.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">On his way
to a tournament to earn some knight points, he comes across a boy at an inn and
despite telling him not to, the boy follows him to the tournament. At the
tournament, he pisses off one of the Targaryen princes and ends up in a fight
for his life which he wins but at the expense of another more favourable Targaryen
who fought for Duncan. All the pieces fall quite nicely together as it turns
out the little boy from the inn is also a Targaryen; Duncan is tasked with
keeping him alive and off they go on an adventure together.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now, I
thought the entire book was going to be short stories about Dunc and Egg as
they travel about Westeros as that’s what the blurb led me to believe. As it
happens, they go to one keep, Dunc has one fight with a guy and then they go to
a tournament and Dunc loses. That’s the entire storyline of the book. It
doesn’t have a satisfactory ending and I’m left thinking that dear George simply
cannot finish anything. I’m starting to think he watched <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lost</i>, saw how that shit ended and thought, ‘fuck this, I’m not
ending anything in case in turns out like that.’ It’s the only logical
explanation I can think of for writing 355 pages and not reaching a
satisfactory conclusion. It’s not even a major cliff-hanger.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">After doing
a little research, I found out that it’s actually a collection of three short
stories written at the same time as George was writing the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Song of Ice and Fire </i>series which makes sense in terms of the story
breaks.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">That’s not
to say the content is bad. The book is actually quite funny. Duncan is an
endearing character and happens to be one of the worst knights ever. It seems
to be pure luck and sheer brute strength that keeps him and egg alive most of
the time. Egg is also hilarious whenever he watches Dunc fight, shouting,’ Kill
him! Get him! He’s right there! Kill him!’ exactly the kind of things you want
to hear a young child shouting.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms</i> is a very
good and enjoyable read, it’s just the lack of any further developments that’s
the disappointment. I’ll keep an eye out for other spin offs in the future but
I’m not going to hold my breath while the television series is still going
strong.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms</i> by George
R.R. Martin was published by HarperCollins<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Publishers
</i>in 2015. RRP £8.99 (Paperback)</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Legends I</i> originally published by Tor
Books in 1998.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Legends II</i> originally published by Del
Ray in 2004.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Warriors</i> originally published by Tor
Books in 2010. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
</div>
Adam Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05491826646836424966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823581203332040419.post-50576238220841337992018-02-27T14:00:00.000-08:002018-02-27T14:00:12.597-08:00Clive Cussler - Iceberg<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil_VeBn9EG7sw1jGfR7cX-pvfRxi788MhuKz1zFWLwi8pi7Bint0raSkGVTQhGAL4SYvzGp0REDRA1EtA0WQ97wSM87oIzDCt6zq0HMAw3x6iskj58tG-T4hpD3RM4C6MhUq-5igmSsDSE/s1600/Iceberg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="289" data-original-width="174" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil_VeBn9EG7sw1jGfR7cX-pvfRxi788MhuKz1zFWLwi8pi7Bint0raSkGVTQhGAL4SYvzGp0REDRA1EtA0WQ97wSM87oIzDCt6zq0HMAw3x6iskj58tG-T4hpD3RM4C6MhUq-5igmSsDSE/s200/Iceberg.png" width="120" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">After
reading <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Storm,</i> I really wanted to
give another Clive Cussler book a go. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Iceberg</i>
takes us all the way back to 1976 in terms of publication and based on my
experiences with more recent novels the 1970s seemed to be a much richer and
exciting time for books.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Iceberg</i> sees us following the trail of
enigmatic airman, Dirk Pitt as he goes investigating a strange iceberg with a
ship lodged in it. It transpires that the ship in the iceberg is just the start
of a conspiracy which threatens to have him killed at every turn. Despite this,
he continues his investigations against the wishes of his superiors and nearly
gets killed a lot more. It’s fun romp from start to finish as well as being a
page turner which I found difficult to put down. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">My favourite
part of reading this was being able to look back in time at what used to be
acceptable language. There is one point in the story where Dirk pretends to be
gay in order to throw off the main antagonist. While being ridiculously funny,
this part is also very un-PC in that Dirk is referenced as a faggot on more
than one occasion. If you try to put that in speech and narrative in this day
and age, you’ll be screamed at by everyone.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Also, there
appears to be some borderline misogynistic points towards some of the women but
there is also a balance between this and the woman in question being strong and
able to handle themselves. It’s weirdly ahead of its time in that regard.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It terms of
writing errors, they are hard to spot when the writing is enjoyable, but one
did stand out quite clearly. On page 308 a character is talking but the
narrative says it’s a different character. Once again, I had to read the
paragraph several times to work out what was going on which broke flow somewhat.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Dirk as a
character is almost overpowered in terms of his abilities. He basically has the
conditioning of a rhino and no amount of savage beatings can stop him climbing
sheer cliffs and running for miles. Another thing that Dirk Pitt has is a
superhuman ability to work stuff out. He’s no Jack Reacher by any means but he
still manages to reach correct, and bizarre, conclusions with seemingly very
little information. I suppose it’s all part of the allure of America’s answer
to James Bond.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Another
thing worth pointing out is that Cussler really knows his stuff. He has a
clearly advanced knowledge of aircraft, how they work and the art of the
possible and has a skill of explaining this to a dumbass like me in a way that
makes the writing accessible rather than overloading it with jargon. He also
has a knack of not taking shortcuts with his characters in this regard. If a
character is very knowledgeable about a subject, there will be a character on
hand who isn’t, who then says something like, ‘can you say that again in
English please?’ It’s a device that works well throughout the book.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Iceberg</i> is a really enjoyable 394 page
read that I managed to smash through in just a couple of hours. I would recommend
it to any fans of the action adventure genre.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Iceberg </i>by Clive Cussler was published
by Sphere Books in 1976. RRP £6.99 (Paperback)</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span>Adam Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05491826646836424966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823581203332040419.post-27129031779949973592018-02-27T12:29:00.001-08:002018-02-27T12:29:37.234-08:00Alyson Noël – Blue Moon
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijYaD4at1he1SlueQDLS4MXBbufrOZJKFdPs-oq9t5ZB1E0-ZEqmDjcL-FMVWdYaZ6_kWhm7ZABJa_HgS1W6bVBM2PSQNimztdXl6Hsmvw5atrH0YFp2ruCFp8qQMku9Fy376tcZXRhq-s/s1600/Blue+Moon.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="277" data-original-width="182" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijYaD4at1he1SlueQDLS4MXBbufrOZJKFdPs-oq9t5ZB1E0-ZEqmDjcL-FMVWdYaZ6_kWhm7ZABJa_HgS1W6bVBM2PSQNimztdXl6Hsmvw5atrH0YFp2ruCFp8qQMku9Fy376tcZXRhq-s/s200/Blue+Moon.png" width="131" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I bought this one with the first book in the series, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Evermore,</i> which I read several years
ago. I didn’t read this second one in the series straight away and after about
three pages of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Blue Moon</i>, I
remembered why.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Before I go on to that though, there is something very
puzzling about the start of the book. There’s no catch up on what happened last
time at the start of the book – very strange for a second book in a series.
This is even more dumbfounding when the book isn’t written in a way that recaps
as you go along. I had to spend the first 50 pages of the 362 page book trying
to remember who the fuck everyone was. And then I remembered. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Twilight</i>.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I was also tempted just to cut and paste my review of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Evermore</i> as I really doubt there is
anything majorly different to say, but I did find myself laughing at some
points simply because of the ridiculous language choices.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The first one I came across was on page 14. I’m not really
sure what happens in this universe but apparently a party on a Friday night
means the entire weekend is taken over and no other plans can be made. I get
that Ever is trying to get out of doing something but she’s supposed to be a
teenager with more than one brain cell so making an excuse for one out of three
days seems pretty fucking stupid. But also how stupid is her aunt for not
questioning it?!</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now I’ll move on to language choice. ‘Telepathically IM’ is
phrase I never want to see used in a book again. It’s not just the way it looks
on a page that bugs me but it feels like a tact-in attempt at being modern and
relevant, however it’s only used once so what’s the point?</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Also the word, if you can call it that, ‘omigod’ appears a
few times in many different guises throughout. I don’t think I need to say
anything more about this. Other than it nearly made me throw up in my mouth
when I read it.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There are also several narrative repetitions throughout the
book. The most prevalent ones are referring to hairstyles as ‘bangs’ to the
point where I wasn’t sure there was another hairstyle in the universe. The
other is Ever constantly pressing her lips together. She does it so much, they
are probably white from the pressure.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As a side note, Damen is a blatant rip-off of Edward from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Twilight. </i>I’m not saying that’s a good
thing but what’s most certainly not a good thing is the copying of the exact
way in which Edward drives - unnaturally fast with ridiculous reflexes. What I also
don’t like about this is the fact that it’s driving. You are limited by the
car, you can have all the reflexes in the world but you can’t be psychic and
your physical abilities don’t really impact on car brakes, tyre grip and
suspension impact so it’s pretty much a load of crap.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Also, by Chapter 19 it seemed pretty obvious what was going
to happen and this is probably my biggest criticism of the story itself. The
whole thing is driven by Ever’s terrible decisions which, based on what
happens, are almost carried out for the sake of creating a story. It feels very
forced a lot of time and the way the character has been developed, I don’t
believe she would make some of the choices she makes.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There are two other things that pissed me off, the first
being Ever’s teachers. There is no way in hell that if teachers caught wind of
a student stalking another student to the point where they commit the crime of
breaking and entering that they would not call the police or at least call
their guardian. This conveniently doesn’t happen for no other reason than to
allow the story to continue.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There is a time travel element which had me wetting myself
down to the lack of thought that was put into it. In this world, you can travel
back in time and change events that happened, as well as carrying notes (this
is just fucking stupid because it’s a mental time travel rather than a physical
one) and effecting a change in character in a past self for no reason that can
be explained in a way that makes sense.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In summary, and this is quite harsh, it feels like the book
has been written from a sixteen year old’s perspective almost because it’s the
easy option and less thought needs to go in to the writing because a sixteen
year old may not necessarily think of certain things. But that’s no excuse for
lazy juxtaposition, poor character development and writing about things like
time travel without understanding the art of the possible. This last one, I
wouldn’t have a problem with if it was explainable in its own context but it
isn’t.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Blue Moon</i> by
Alyson Noel was published by St Martin’s Press in 2009. RRP £6.99 (Paperback)</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span>Adam Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05491826646836424966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823581203332040419.post-78275931598664545502018-02-26T15:13:00.000-08:002018-02-26T15:13:56.015-08:00Clive Cussler and Graham Brown - The Storm<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjafJj1tGrhPLTAdT1_FCo2jEZ96FRARiBlMxfb5TPoyA3gzSf8IVRUPOsxHPDRNGt-RRyH_uEEjhoyqvai1vMOUwXKs8DeEILuwBZiDa0N1l8NVh3umTed5cA1Zc3xAcNVtey3MP23rT6P/s1600/The+Storm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1023" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjafJj1tGrhPLTAdT1_FCo2jEZ96FRARiBlMxfb5TPoyA3gzSf8IVRUPOsxHPDRNGt-RRyH_uEEjhoyqvai1vMOUwXKs8DeEILuwBZiDa0N1l8NVh3umTed5cA1Zc3xAcNVtey3MP23rT6P/s200/The+Storm.jpg" width="127" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">After reading <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Runemarks</i>
anything would have been an improvement in terms of reading pleasure. I had
read some Clive Cussler before but this one was written a long time after the
first book I read; and with a co-author which wasn’t something I’d seen before.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Storm </i>follows,
for the most part, the story of Kurt Austin as he investigates the mysterious
death of some of his NUMA colleagues. His search eventually leads him to face
off against Jinn al-Khalif, a crazy but somehow intelligent terrorist on a
quest to control Asia’s water supply using tiny robots to dictate the sea
temperatures and thus the direction of rain clouds. Seriously.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">All in all it’s very enjoyable book if not slightly
disconnected from the title. There is one storm that takes place during the
prologue and the mysterious connection between the prologue and the main story
is not revealed until the very of end of the 424 page book.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">One thing I spend time fussing over right from the beginning
was exactly how old Jinn is. In 1967 he is old or strong enough to be able to shoot
a revolver at a man. Later in the book this age is revealed as 4. But what I
still don’t get is the point of having these scenes happen this long ago. There
is another character, Sabah, who was friends with Jinn’s father. Even assuming
that Sabah is 20 in 1967, that makes him 69 in 2012. For me, this felt a little
too old for the region and the type of jobs this guy was doing in order to
assist Jinn in carrying out his mental plan.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">I didn’t have any major issues with the story other than
this. My biggest criticism of the book is the use of perspective. A lot of the
time, perspectives will shift back and forth over the course of pages, and
sometimes even within the same paragraph. This makes it hard to follow what’s
going on in places when the story is coming at you from multiple directions.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">There was one instance of using a ‘/’ in a character’s
dialogue and I couldn’t get on board with this. I mean, how would you say what
you were saying with a slash in the middle? If it were me, I would actually say
the word ‘slash’ but I’m not particularly normal. The sentence in question
would be better suited with a comma.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">There’s one other small bit of story that I raised my
eyebrows over. At one point, Kurt sneaks on to a plane and hides in the toilet.
No one knows he’s on board but he still puts his feet up on the toilet. It
doesn’t really make sense. If no one knows he is there, he has no reason to
hide. It’s not like someone is going to look under the door to see if the
toilet is occupied. Unless these guards check under toilets doors on a plane
looking for people that they don’t know are there? But as I said, it’s minor.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">I enjoyed <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Storm</i>
and it will definitely encourage me to pick up a few more Cussler books in the
future.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13.33px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Storm </i>by Clive
Cussler was published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons in 2012. RRP £7.99 (Paperback)</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span>Adam Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05491826646836424966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823581203332040419.post-84187101605946143572017-12-09T07:46:00.000-08:002017-12-09T07:46:47.503-08:00Anita Burgh - Exiles
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGg87zXyv4AVSHiucSE5VVnp5h-6fU4x-Yq2ggjLIOzcS6JLH77zgEYZpx-aUPzcovfYMvtvvztdWE_bFOthOHa5wKVGqv0W6Zm2GkgsXHTD_LSSRThkp-Bb4mox2FZF2Cd3lSA-yug8pq/s1600/Exiles.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="290" data-original-width="173" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGg87zXyv4AVSHiucSE5VVnp5h-6fU4x-Yq2ggjLIOzcS6JLH77zgEYZpx-aUPzcovfYMvtvvztdWE_bFOthOHa5wKVGqv0W6Zm2GkgsXHTD_LSSRThkp-Bb4mox2FZF2Cd3lSA-yug8pq/s200/Exiles.png" width="119" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Okay, time
for another one I found on a train. I can’t remember which journey it was but I
do get itchy fingers when I see people leave paperbacks lying around. It’s a
sickness.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Exiles</i> follows the story of Kate Howard,
an author who voluntarily moves to France with her asshole partner, Stewart. She
is a successful author whose life starts to mildly fall apart when she tries to
change genre and her publisher doesn’t like it.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The story
follows a small community of expats who have decided that France is a better
option than England as they all basically whine, whinge and eat their way
through the French countryside. The book is 376 pages long but there isn’t much
of a story, where a story is defined as having a beginning, middle and end. I
mean, it does go from A to B, but B is so close to A it makes the middle bit
look a bit dragged out.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Exiles </i>is a very tricky book for me to
review in that it’s not my normal genre – and not one I picked myself. The
first thing I commented on was in the first couple of pages where Kate is
describing her life with Stewart. She makes him out to be this perfect man who
does everything right... then she goes on to have an interaction with him where
she makes him look like an ass. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The first example
of this is on page 7 where both of them come off looking like dicks. Stewart
doesn’t know how Kate likes taking her tea. This seems like a fairly basic
thing to get right after a few years of cohabitation and there are two trails
of thought here. Either Kate hasn’t told Stewart and after not drinking any of
his tea for years, that she doesn’t like it... or Stewart thinks that the way
Kate takes her tea is how a man should take it and so he continues to make her
tea she doesn’t like because he’s just a dick.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It becomes
apparent that it’s the former when on page 9. Kate states that she can’t tell a
hairdresser that she doesn’t like what she does to her hair. Even though she is
paying her for the service. To me, Kate is not, an engaging or likeable
character and this became clear in the first 10 pages of the book. By chapter 4
she establishes herself as a character who orders food she doesn’t want to eat,
drinks things that she is not in the mood for, likes people that she doesn’t
like and does things she doesn’t want to do.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This
behaviour continues over the next few pages. Apparently she doesn’t like
arguments but this is followed by massive fallouts with shouting, fits of
violence and throwing stuff. Then followed by narrative fits of, ‘what have I
become?!’ It’s mental. And that’s without starting on Stewart.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mr Perfect
is a fucking wanker from the get go. And this is what really confuses me about
the book as a whole. Normally you get to see an event or cause that drives a
character to change but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Exiles</i>
outlines that these characters are lovely before showing us that they are not.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Some
instances of Stewart being a wanker are when he kicks off at the published
author for spending money on Pretty Good Solitaire when he is pissing all their
money away on wine that he doesn’t drink. This irritated me greatly as I
actually bought Pretty Good Solitaire when I didn’t have an income. It costs
£9.99 now and probably even less when the book was written in 2001.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There are
lots of other little bits like this throughout the book and these are just
small examples of Stewart being a cock, but I actually got to the stage where I
believed that this was an intentional narrative style that was supposed to
funny rather than taken seriously.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The title
sums itself is an oxymoron and microcosm of the book’s contents. To be in exile
means to be away from ones home while either being explicitly refused
permission to return or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon
return. Every English character in the book has chosen to leave England and
live in France in a community of ex-pats. So they are exiles by any stretch of
the imagination. And some of them haven’t even bothered to learn French! It
just sums up the British need to complain while highlighting the majority of
British ex-pats have no respect for other countries, even if we chose to live
there.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Exiles </i>by Anita Burgh was published by
Orion books in 2001. RRP £5.99 (Paperback)</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span>Adam Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05491826646836424966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823581203332040419.post-22564879919650236952017-12-09T07:32:00.001-08:002017-12-09T07:32:12.754-08:00Joanne Harris - Runemarks
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkM3pevraAmj13bFLYM_I4bE0mBytbIwTZLNW7zmaIoP0vQbSqcEgj4NmHTkHzKsa7J9sIgQUMhMYDMe5ypIC_O_Y_E_sSuq9uDuzDF1rn_p4wM7t7oBhrREPUDXLWSxuhV5PB0QYYdH25/s1600/Runemarks.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="181" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkM3pevraAmj13bFLYM_I4bE0mBytbIwTZLNW7zmaIoP0vQbSqcEgj4NmHTkHzKsa7J9sIgQUMhMYDMe5ypIC_O_Y_E_sSuq9uDuzDF1rn_p4wM7t7oBhrREPUDXLWSxuhV5PB0QYYdH25/s200/Runemarks.png" width="130" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Right, I
really came unstuck with this one. I started reading it back in August last
year and didn’t finish it for a good six months. I had some time off and was
reading a lot but when I got home I just couldn’t bring myself to pick it up
again. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Runemarks</i> supposedly follows the story
of Maddy Smith, a girl with magical powers who lives in a village with normal
people. She ends up going on an adventure with some characters based on Norse
Gods and ends up saving the world from the evil of Christianity – at least
that’s how the story portrays its antagonists.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now, the
first reason I couldn’t keep picking the book up – I didn’t really like any of
the characters, even those based on Odin and the like from Norse mythology
which is something I normally like as a setting for a story. I understand it’s
supposed to be an original take but it come across as Norse history meets the
Jungle Book where Maddy is Moglie and the other characters are there to be
comedic versions of their real selves. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Because of
this I actually did some research to see if it was just me once again reading a
book that isn’t intended for my eyes... but then I thought about it. The book is
intended for kids and the writing style, story structure and word usage feels
slightly too advanced. In my opinion, it’s too advanced for smaller children
and condescending for teens.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Moving on to
the writing style, I found it very sparse in terms of what’s going on and there
is such a lack of description that I couldn’t help but picture the world as a linear
path that the characters walk along. In some places, there are jumps in time
which make it feel like whole paragraphs are missing. Also, when reading
chapters, the perspective changes from one paragraph to the next without
warning which makes it hard to keep up with what’s actually going on and who’s
perspective the story is being told from.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The last
part of the writing that bugged me was the last 40 or so pages of the 504 page
offering where the last few scenes whiz by after what a massively dragged out
build up. Lots of books seem to do this, like authors are trying to reach a
certain length of book and then hammer out the ‘best bits’ in relative seconds.
But I found I didn’t care what was happening in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Runemarks</i> and was glad to be done with it.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I did make
some other observations about certain character actions that I didn’t think
were in keeping with their intended behaviour but I don’t think I’m in a
position to provide my thoughts on this as I didn’t invest in any of the
characters. To me, it was not an engaging read.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Runemakes</i> by Joanne Harris was published
by Doubleday in 2007. RRP £6.99 (Paperback)</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span>Adam Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05491826646836424966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823581203332040419.post-83664632427918711842017-10-29T08:11:00.000-07:002017-10-29T08:11:42.066-07:00J. V. Jones - A Sword From Red Ice
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmxcso8OwAk_ObfuYE3Kv_VA7sJ8l-LMNwms8Y0mfsSjtFqqPnBGrmzZ2SuIMgbKrTTH_oTDHgdYmD5qwPU2Yq53AtBV-J6ZEZW6T3H7XIGsGeULxfkGncO8ZNv0hiQ5Sdv9HTF3VtDx8H/s1600/A+Sword+From+Red+Ice.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="181" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmxcso8OwAk_ObfuYE3Kv_VA7sJ8l-LMNwms8Y0mfsSjtFqqPnBGrmzZ2SuIMgbKrTTH_oTDHgdYmD5qwPU2Yq53AtBV-J6ZEZW6T3H7XIGsGeULxfkGncO8ZNv0hiQ5Sdv9HTF3VtDx8H/s200/A+Sword+From+Red+Ice.png" width="129" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This series
is not something I’ve approached very well. I started reading it some eight
years ago when I reviewed <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Cavern of
Black Ice </i>in 2009. The books are so intimidating in size that I kept
putting them off and putting them off but my holiday finally gave me to push I
needed to read the third book in the series. Thankfully Jones is kind enough to
provide a handy synopsis at the beginning to allow people like me to remind
myself of what happened so far.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Sword from Red Ice</i> comes in at 677
pages and the words are tiny. Despite being called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Sword from Red Ice</i> the sword doesn’t actually appear until the
last 20 pages of the book. The same thing happened in the other two so the
titles of the books seem to be destinations of the journey of Raif. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Another note
on the length is that I actually think it’s too long. There is a lot of stuff
that happens to some of the characters than don’t add anything to the story.
That said the series isn’t over yet but I would have forgotten some of the
smaller things by the time I come to read the next one.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is still
a very enjoyable story with lots of intriguing characters. In fact there are so
many characters that Jones forgot how many there were when writing the blurb.
The blurb mentions three characters and their stories but the book itself is
told from seven different perspectives, told a chapter at a time. I’m not sure
why there is the need to tell the story from so many different angles when the
three on the back are highlighted as the important ones.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Which brings
me on to the biggest fuck ass in the book. Raina. She is such a twat that
reading her chapters caused me to have a headache. If it wasn’t whining about
what was going on, it was saying she was going to do something about it...and
then not. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It’s also a very
messily written book. I lost count of the amount of spelling and grammar issues
throughout but there are so many chapters and words that it’s probably not that
bad in terms of percentage.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Outside of
this, there were a few things other than Raina that made me stop and take note,
the first being Mal Naysayer and his Deux-Ex Machina ability to show up just as
the right time to save Ash’s life. Another one is where Raif’s friend Addie
develops an attitude problem for literally no reason, unless Raif didn’t give
him a reach around in one of the deleted scenes, and Angus Lok’s 100%
unnecessary involvement at the start and end of the book.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Another thing
that made me laugh is Raif’s ability to survive his monstrous injuries
throughout the entirety of the story. This was the same in the second book too.
I mean, this guy is basically physically maimed at the end of the last story
and somehow manages to continuously survive against all odds.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Despite the
book’s length and what I’ve said above, I did get a lot of enjoyment out of the
story and will be finishing the series... though I actually need to buy the
next one first and probably arrange another holiday so I will actually invest
the time in doing so.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Sword from Red Ice</i> by J.V. Jones was
published by Tor in 2007. RRP £8.99 (Paperback)</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span>Adam Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05491826646836424966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823581203332040419.post-55794263627546466522017-10-05T11:46:00.001-07:002017-10-05T11:46:17.278-07:00Simon Toyne - The Tower
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBRxaqkZbPclDY8EypJZ5Md3aBaYYC90FFczgIBsXppAYViQhPAFl84_NHV7IVgcv3MjszwYbxKJ93q6SE6H6F-P4B2i5pK5x9XwSC3Q0nx_J5OQnCqFE_dt6C4JfQr63dfWY9szbgYPPV/s1600/The+Tower.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="181" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBRxaqkZbPclDY8EypJZ5Md3aBaYYC90FFczgIBsXppAYViQhPAFl84_NHV7IVgcv3MjszwYbxKJ93q6SE6H6F-P4B2i5pK5x9XwSC3Q0nx_J5OQnCqFE_dt6C4JfQr63dfWY9szbgYPPV/s200/The+Tower.png" width="130" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Tower </i>is the climax of the three-book
series that started with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sanctus. </i>Looking
back at my review of the first book in the series, it started poorly where the
first couple of pages were really hard to get into. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Key </i>was a really good book and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Tower </i>is also very well written but there were a few story
choices that made me go ‘oh...’ in a letdown sort of way.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
I was
immediately worried early on when we are introduced to a new character – FBI
Agent Shepherd. It was a little frustrating at first as I was enjoying the
characters that had already been built so this new one was just getting in the
way. My frustration was short lived however, as Toyne manages to make Shepherd
likeable and interesting in a few short chapters.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
Another
interesting style choice was to write the book from two time periods with parts
of the story being told in the past as it catches up to the present. All the
story chapters from the past are written in italics which makes it easy to
identify what is happening and when.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
For all the
well written, well paced and well structured writing, there are a few things
that I didn’t like but this obviously goes with writing a trilogy where the
first two books are set up to answer to a big mystery so when so much effort has
been put in, it always feels like an anti-climax when you get to the end. </div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
The
following paragraphs contain major spoilers for the ending of the book so if do
want to read the trilogy (and if you haven’t already read the first two books,
why are you reading this?) stop reading now.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
There were
two things that I found irritating by the choices made at the end of the book,
the first one surrounding the character of Detective Arkadian. We’ve spent the
best page of 498 pages, plus the length of the other two books, getting to know
the lovable oaf yet our fellow characters don’t seem to feel the same way. When
he dies saving the life of others, no one seems to give two shits. Half the
reason for my annoyance is because I thought for a lot of the characters that
it was massively out of character to not be upset but then again, maybe I got
it wrong and he was actually a massive knob?</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
The other
thing that got to me was to do with the big reveal. Apparently the doomsday
clock is counting down to the point when the universe reaches maximum expansion
and then starts contracting back in on itself so essentially the half way point
of existence. And that’s great. But why the fuck does a baby need to be born to
commemorate the event? There are similarities with the birth of Jesus and other
references in the trilogy point to it being connected to the story of Adam and
Eve and the return to the garden of Eden... but none of this is explained and
it’s a very flimsy connection to the expansion of the universe. It just didn’t
make sense as a whole piece to me so I didn’t get as much enjoyment out of the
end as I wanted to.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
Despite
that, it’s a very good book that’s hard to put down and I hammered through most
of it in a few days.</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Tower</i> by Simon Toyne was published
by HarperCollins<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Publishers</i> in 2013.
RRP £7.99 (Paperback)</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
</div>
</span>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Adam Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05491826646836424966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823581203332040419.post-76438556252525428952017-10-05T11:38:00.000-07:002017-10-05T11:38:30.486-07:00Simon Toyne - The Key
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSYgp9os8XRNF3bpC0JTxgUl4AoGp9vjokv5gH9ii6_KP_S8wc37KBITEsnnL4sR0p67tPxIgGfY-B9IwaZU5iqumAejnnjORfeNPQ-gMRVyBOAsmnFJllPE9npXiyElwjCx6QYOfVQQ2m/s1600/The+Key.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="181" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSYgp9os8XRNF3bpC0JTxgUl4AoGp9vjokv5gH9ii6_KP_S8wc37KBITEsnnL4sR0p67tPxIgGfY-B9IwaZU5iqumAejnnjORfeNPQ-gMRVyBOAsmnFJllPE9npXiyElwjCx6QYOfVQQ2m/s200/The+Key.png" width="130" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’ll start
with a fairly obvious confession. I have not been giving this blog the time I
should have – case in point I actually finished reading this, and several
reviews to follow, back in July and August last year. This means I’m relying
heavily on my notes to paint the picture of this book and the next one.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Key</span></i><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> is the follow up to </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Sanctum</span></i><span style="font-family: Calibri;">, a book that turned out to
be really enjoyable despite appearing to shit all over itself in the first few
pages. </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Key </span></i><span style="font-family: Calibri;">does not make the same
mistakes. It’s a thoroughly engaging read from start to finish as are most
second books in a three-part series. But more on that later.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The one
thing I can’t quite get my head around is the fact that everything is so well
logically constructed to make sense in our own world with the exception of the
sacrament itself. That’s all I’ll say about that – after all, it’s a book I am
recommending!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">So with the
praise out of the way, I’m only left with more nit-picking through the 437 page
offering. I’ll start with the biggest one – mathematical ages of characters.
Kathryn is Gabriel’s mother but if I’ve done the maths correctly, this would
mean that she was 16 when she gave birth to him. The book makes this really
easy to work out as both their ages are depicted on page 49. I suppose it’s
feasible but it just doesn’t add up with the character traits – and it’s one of
those things that casual observers would comment on – ‘oh, you must have been
young when you had him,’ or ‘you look far too young to have a 32 year old son.’
No one says anything though – again, nothing really wrong with it, I just
thought it was an odd choice.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Another
thing I found surprising was the Vactican City’s approach to Information
Security. On page 14 one character’s narrative states that he only has one
attempt at entering a password without locking himself out of his entire computer.
I get that it’s super-sensitive information but everyone fucks up typing every
now and then. I would have thought that sense would have prevailed here and he
would have had at least two attempts at entering the password.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The last one
worth mentioning is on page 6 where Ghost is interrogating someone called the
fat man. The fat man seems to totally forget that he has programmed his Sat-Nav
with his home address seconds after being defiant in the face of having his
family threatened. I’m all for characterisation but I just don’t get how anyone
could be that stupid.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">These are
three very small observations that are more my personal preference that actual
problems. </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Key </span></i><span style="font-family: Calibri;">is a solid,
enjoyable story with strong characters. Enough said.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Key </span></i><span style="font-family: Calibri;">by Simon Toyne was
published by HarperCollins</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Publishers</span></i><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
in 2012. RRP £7.99 (Paperback)</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Adam Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05491826646836424966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823581203332040419.post-12800145181718712252017-08-22T12:50:00.000-07:002017-08-22T12:50:15.950-07:00Ezekiel Boon - The Hatching
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFtPy54AbI-ZqbjCg0pEpPHld9M8vWEog9oe5vkUtuVjgnsXc8t3Y-jW-T9ormQAIa-w18R2fhEuBkXT-L6mygc27v8AIzNGn2_qZiMevP8mxVXWPaSeEoiIwYFv68hPtRsF7OMAsBdy6M/s1600/The+Hatching.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="181" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFtPy54AbI-ZqbjCg0pEpPHld9M8vWEog9oe5vkUtuVjgnsXc8t3Y-jW-T9ormQAIa-w18R2fhEuBkXT-L6mygc27v8AIzNGn2_qZiMevP8mxVXWPaSeEoiIwYFv68hPtRsF7OMAsBdy6M/s200/The+Hatching.jpg" width="129" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">You know that feeling when you go on holiday that you haven’t brought
enough books with you? Well this was the reason I bought </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">The Hatching</span></i><span style="font-family: calibri;">. I hadn’t read a decent horror book for a while and
this one seemed to promise to fill the gap. However it turned out that </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">The Hatching</span></i><span style="font-family: calibri;"> is closer to </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Scary Movie </span></i><span style="font-family: calibri;">than </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Scream </span></i><span style="font-family: calibri;">in terms of a horror offering.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">The Hatching</span></i><span style="font-family: calibri;"> is a
multi-perspective story told from I can’t remember how many viewpoints. It’s
about spiders who want to eat everybody and how various parts of the world
react to it. In general, it was a quick and relatively enjoyable bubblegum read
that was in no way scary but there were several things that screamed at me
throughout the story. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">The first thing I found striking was that it’s an end of the world
survival horror but I found myself not really caring about any of the
characters and here’s why. Firstly there are too many viewpoints. The book is
only 351 pages long and the words are well spaced out. Due to the vast array of
characters, this didn’t give me enough time to emotionally invest in any of
them. Sad to say, I didn’t care whether any of them lived or died.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">All of the viewpoints have one thing in common. Sex. And Objectivity.
All of characters constantly make sexual narrative towards their preferred
gender and also objectify everyone. At first I was like, what, but after the
third one did it, it started to become hilarious.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">In addition to this, a lot of character types are clichéd. There is the
scientist, the simple cop (who is also the divorcee with a child to protect),
the president, the president’s aide, an author, the soldier. It’s all blah but
I understand the purpose they are serving, it’s all just a bit too thin and
doesn’t pull it off.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">My final point is one that would have me shot in certain circles so I
will to do this without attracting too much ire. All of the roles are filled by
female protagonists. The scientist is female, the president is female and the
solider is female. The solider is even narratively described as being massively
superior to the men. Now, I don’t have a problem with this in the slightest. I
watched </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Battlestar Galactica </span></i><span style="font-family: calibri;">and I
thought Mary McDonnell made a cracking president. But in this book, it feels
that the women are effectively forced into this roles just because they are
opposite typecasts. If more work had been put into the narrative and padded to
develop the characters more, I probably would have been able to buy in to the
characters and not noticed this at all.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">I guess what I’m trying to say is that </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">The Hatching </span></i><span style="font-family: calibri;">feels very hastily written. The concept is great,
don’t get me wrong but I feel that the idea is what drove the novel and the
characters are just there to plod until the conclusion. This can sometimes work
in movies but not so much in books.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">The Hatching</span></i><span style="font-family: calibri;"> by Ezekiel Boone
was published by Gollancz in 2016. RRP £12.99 (Paperback)</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Adam Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05491826646836424966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823581203332040419.post-53339249755290301402017-05-25T08:57:00.000-07:002017-05-25T08:57:11.247-07:00Simon Toyne - Sanctus
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">With a lot going on finding time to read has become quite difficult.
Setting aside an hour at bedtime normally results in about three pages of
reading before falling asleep – such is the current slow rate of reviews. That
said, the quality of books I’m reading at the moment seems to be going up and
Simon Toyne’s first book is no exception.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">I must admit that it was another slow starter and I seem to have a
developing dislike for books which set the scene for the story without using
their central character. </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Sanctus </span></i><span style="font-family: calibri;">follows
the story of Liv Adamsen and she isn’t introduced until page 20. The first 19
pages outline what happened to Brother Samuel, a monk living at the Citadel in
Turkey. While there is nothing really wrong with this approach, it made it
harder for me to connect with the main characters.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">So yeah, it’s a slow builder that takes a while to get going but the
story telling and character development is really good throughout. It is a very
slow build up but the last 200 or so pages really pick up the pace as the
action builds.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">I can’t really say a lot about the story as there are lots of twists
and turns and it’s definitely worth reading. However there were a few things
that I questioned during the 470 page novel. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">The first of these occurred on page 120 where a credit card was used to
receive a payment. Now I’m pretty sure that a credit card cannot be used in
this way. Mind you, I’ve never had a credit card that’s been in credit before
and I don’t even know how I would go about even doing it. It also seems a very
strange way of organising a payment considering the many other ways there are
to make secretive payments. In fact, I’m not even sure why you would draw
attention to the payment method.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">Also on the very next page, there is a reference to drinking a, ‘bucket
of black coffee.’ I don’t know what it is with Americans being stereotypically
portrayed in every single book going as drinking coffee all the time and seeing
coffee as way to combat tiredness. This isn’t really a criticism of Toyne but a
build up of frustration at many different authors.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">Also, this isn’t really a criticism but the narrative style changes
towards the end to be more like Lee Child where the use of full sentences is
abandoned to build the pace. Like I said, not a criticism but I did notice it
even though I was aware of its intention. I also think that narrative styles
should remain consistent. I didn’t like the Lee Child style at first but at
least the novel stuck to what it was doing throughout. I also think it wouldn’t
have had that much of an impact on the pace if it had remained in the same
style narrative, as evidenced by other books.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">Everything about is really minor and totally subjective. </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Sanctus </span></i><span style="font-family: calibri;">is a great read and I’m looking
forward to getting stuck in to the next two books in the series.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Sanctus </span></i><span style="font-family: calibri;">by Simon Toyne was
published by HarperCollins</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Publishers</span></i><span style="font-family: calibri;">
in 2011. RRP £7.99 (Paperback)</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Adam Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05491826646836424966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823581203332040419.post-68566597882924738712016-03-26T08:40:00.004-07:002016-03-26T08:40:57.300-07:00Chris Kuznetski - Sword of God<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVXzBA_o4JUmggcbS4r7e-nfdah2657q5yf4ra8DWlFHxnrtiemukiVYeMeOO52m65bChCIae0AoTHy1D2jU9Rqo9_QN6hyphenhyphen-eDI3l7E2_hdfkKsZWnrvpgKqrUnpqsgZffEgCTgrE-pGSM/s1600/Sword+of+God.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVXzBA_o4JUmggcbS4r7e-nfdah2657q5yf4ra8DWlFHxnrtiemukiVYeMeOO52m65bChCIae0AoTHy1D2jU9Rqo9_QN6hyphenhyphen-eDI3l7E2_hdfkKsZWnrvpgKqrUnpqsgZffEgCTgrE-pGSM/s200/Sword+of+God.jpg" width="121" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The reason for reading this one was simple. It was on the end of the
shelf when I came to picking my next book. In general I know what to expect
from a Chris Kuznetski, Payne and Jones (Batman and Robin) novel, so much so
that I didn’t actually make that many notes on it.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My biggest criticism of his writing is that he foreshadows events far
too much. More or less every chapter ends with a massive hint as to what will
happen in the next chapter or the chapter after that and it’s a real shame too
as his books and very readable and he is a great storyteller and character
builder.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Despite my resounding praise for his work there is always nitpicking to
be done. On page 67 (at least I’m lead to believe it is page 67 as it is
directly after page 66 but doesn’t feature a page number. This is hardly
Chris’s fault though as I’m sure he doesn’t do his own paperback printing)
there is the use of the word ‘mum’ which I always find strange when written by
an American author even when talking about Koreans.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Page 99 has a rather bizarre paragraph about Muhammed and how Muslims
and English speaking Muslims deal with saying his name, which is fine... only
it has no bearing on the story at all. Other than maybe highlight that Shari is
an English speaking Muslim who doesn’t follow the customs but we knew that
anyway and if it was such a big deal, why doesn’t anyone else mention it? The
narrative isn’t really required and doesn’t add anything to the story.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I didn’t see anything else even worth mentioning until page 316 where
another meaningless paragraph is present. The entire section about the Abraj Al
Bait Towers feels tacked in just to tell us about the target for the terrorist
attack. We knew about the building before this point so it might have been
better to have explained the size of the building earlier. Another way to
address it would have been during the mission scoping before Payne and Jones
attempt to take down the terrorists – that way it would have fit in to the
story properly rather than feeling like a total tack-in before the finale.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The last thing I picked up on was the incorrect spelling of character
name on page 414 out of 422 where Henderson is replaced by Harrison which made
me reread the chapter over again to make sure I didn’t miss anything.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So in summary, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sword of God </i>is
a good read with a few minor quibbles and definitely a good book to pick up if
you are going on a long journey. <span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">However,
I couldn’t help but be disappointed with the lack of an actual ancient sword to
find. I do enjoy the epic questing, searching for ancient objects and myths.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sword of God</i> by Chris
Kuznetski was published by Penguin Books in 2007. RRP £6.99 (Paperback)<span id="goog_218157448"></span><span id="goog_218157449"></span></span></div>
Adam Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05491826646836424966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823581203332040419.post-85750056716937604732016-03-26T08:19:00.000-07:002016-03-26T08:19:19.709-07:00Stephen King - The Wind Through the Keyhole<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYSqVT0z8tGpbeON51J8rHsR3lM5-kcJhUkoYMtxLnLUrsMXufmDppWSFA5k-gAriy2FB1m2p_sGGdGenIexU3bgDPW1r095nG34zxzB3Oib9jIBOQmJUGnpCnCLuBNsKf8fpGMxbz1-xh/s1600/Wind+Through+Keyhole.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYSqVT0z8tGpbeON51J8rHsR3lM5-kcJhUkoYMtxLnLUrsMXufmDppWSFA5k-gAriy2FB1m2p_sGGdGenIexU3bgDPW1r095nG34zxzB3Oib9jIBOQmJUGnpCnCLuBNsKf8fpGMxbz1-xh/s200/Wind+Through+Keyhole.png" width="129" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">When I found out another <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dark
Tower</i> book was released, I was quite excited. I thought it would be great
to dive back in to Stephen King’s crazy world of Gunslingers and apocalypse in spite
of everything I may have said in my review of the final <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dark Tower</i> book. For the most part I was right. It is a tale that
can work by itself and also as an extension of the seven-book extravaganza –
but only if you make certain exceptions.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The main
thing that stood out to me was the weird suedo-English used throughout <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wind Through the Keyhole</i>. In the main
series you are made aware that there is a high speech and a low speech. The low
speech is how we - in the real world - communicate with each other. The problem
I found in this book was that King creates his own in-between language without
any kind of background explanation as to what the words he uses actually words
mean. The crux of this is that at points, it is really hard to understand what
on earth people are talking about.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Wind Through the Keyhole</i> is actually
a story within a story... within a story. That’s not actually overtyping, but
fact. Roland is telling the usual gang of wanderers a story about his past.
While telling the story of his past, he then tells another story in this
story... it’s less complicated than I’ve made it sound but it’s still a bit
weird. Especially when Roland is supposed to be telling them a story about the
storm they are sitting in. Why not just tell them the actual story you told to
the boy in the story from your past? It didn’t really make much sense in terms
of framing... or over-framing.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There were a
couple of things that made me stop reading to question what was actually going
on, more than just the suedo-language, during the 333-page addition to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dark Tower.</i> The first one occurs on page
132 when one character’s wife and child die. The next three words in the
narrative are ‘Ross was gloomy.’ This feels kind of redundant in the face of
another character losing everything they supposedly loved and is also
ridiculously selfish when put into context. Ross is supposed to be a character
we look up to and respect yet he becomes gloomy as he thinks his friend would
resort to drink and violence in the face of his wife’s death because he will
have to deal with it. Really?</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The other
thing that stuck with me, and I’m pretty sure this came up in the original
series as well, is the description, ‘Turtle that holds up the world,’ which
still feels like a Terry Pratchett <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Discworld</i>
rip-off. This could also be a reference to Chinese or Indian mythology but that
seems like a giant leap in term of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dark
Tower </i>story.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Other than
that though, it is good standalone novel that fits nicely in to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dark Tower</i> journey. If any more of these
come out, I will definitely read them but I would like to see more adventures
from the actual journey to the tower rather than stories within stories within
stories.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Wind Through the Keyhole </i>by Stephen
King was published by Hodder and Stoughton in 2012. RRP £7.99 (Paperback)</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
Adam Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05491826646836424966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823581203332040419.post-66504718129048685692016-03-03T10:08:00.004-08:002016-03-03T10:09:31.306-08:00Lee Child - Killing Floor<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ_cD0ABvJnKK6wNLUqLKtasTaKnuYbZy7wB8XvvQ3suFf2ImzYpH10Jq-G40y9GrHHeA4BSa7rn4bmHA4Mb27eqjbjEb0Nl6WkWsMwrO6xYd6gawQWm6aUpKzyrgm86bAwnaP7dYstMrk/s1600/Killing+Floor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ_cD0ABvJnKK6wNLUqLKtasTaKnuYbZy7wB8XvvQ3suFf2ImzYpH10Jq-G40y9GrHHeA4BSa7rn4bmHA4Mb27eqjbjEb0Nl6WkWsMwrO6xYd6gawQWm6aUpKzyrgm86bAwnaP7dYstMrk/s200/Killing+Floor.jpg" width="128" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">This book
was recommended to me by a friend who doesn’t read very much so I thought I
would pick it up and give it a go. What I’m about to say may seem extremely
negative and for the most part it is because there were a lot of things about
the book I didn’t like. That said, once I got used to the writing style, it
became a fast paced, accessible action-adventure which was difficult to put
down. That’s the praise out of the way, let’s talk shittiness.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Now I’ve
always been taught that the first page of anything you write is the most
important, especially when it comes to novels. Selling yourself to publishers
happens in about sixty seconds, maybe less depending on how many manuscripts
they have to read. The first page here made me take a second check of what was
going on because the last paragraph, which crosses over to the second page,
starts with some newspaper bullshit of no relevance to the scene and moves
immediately to the action of our main protagonist being arrested. I understand
the reasons for this but it made me stop, think and need to re-read and that’s
not something I should be doing on the first page of a novel.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">As I’ve said
above, it took me a while to get used to the writing style, however once I did
it reads quite well. The main issues I had were with some of the character
decisions made throughout the book and they link back to the writing. I will
warn you now that some of things I’m about to say may be considered spoilers
but I will try to be as vague as possible.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">As early as
page 39, I started to raise my eyebrows at some of the stuff that was going on.
Apparently the Chief of Police sees Reacher at the crime scene at midnight. Not
one person turns around and asks what the Chief of Police was doing there. Just
a routine stroll around the out-of-town warehouse where someone was murdered as
the exact same time?? This is explained later on as to why he thinks to saw
Reacher there but that just poses more questions than answers. This carries on
for the next twenty pages and not even the first-person narrator questions why
the police chief is there. Maybe I’ve read/watched too many deductive programs
but it would have been the first question on my list.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">On page 80
when Reacher and Hubble turn up at the prison, the warden asks which one of the
two of them is Hubble... but doesn’t address Reacher at all. This doesn’t make
any sense. Either you are checking you have both of the right people or you
know both of them. Why only ask one of them? Again, there is a clear reason for
this but it doesn’t make sense to do it in the context it is done unless the
Warden’s character is really stupid but if that’s the case, Reacher isn’t he so
should have sensed something was up. The intelligence of Reacher is established
early on when he works out that Finley is an ex-smoking divorcee just by
looking at him. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">In fact, a
lot of the other points I’ve made about the narrative decisions relate to
Reacher’s early show of observation and deduction. Apparently, it’s a super
power that needs to re-charge because he didn’t work out that someone at the
police station didn’t run the victim’s prints and was therefore in on the
murder; he didn’t question the suspicious death of the previous investigator
even though the evidence made me think it was murder (and I was right); he
didn’t work out until a few days after the event, that the white supremacists
who tried to kill him should have been trying to kill Hubble; he doesn’t think
that taking a car from a house would alert anyone watching the house that he
had been back there; he drives for 50 miles further than his petrol tank will
allow him to go but after pointing this out, he isn’t surprised by this and
doesn’t even do a fuel check after stopping. </span></div>
<o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">It’s lucky
though because his super powers come back in to play at the end as he manages
to track down Hubble by making a fuck load of ridiculous assumptions about his
fake name and location that, of course, are right on the money. Looking at
this, it actually seems like his deductive brilliance is actually out of
character.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">On the
subject of Reacher, he is the a-typical male character. He objectifies the one
woman in the town who is actually attractive (according to the narrative
anyway) and of course, she ends up fancying him too. It’s all very
stereotypical.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">So there you
go, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Killer Floor </i>is a novel with some
narrative decisions that are more puzzling that the decision to cast Tom Cruise
as the 6-foot tall blonde guy. As I said though, none of that takes away from
the fact that it’s a very readable book and there are some clever bits in there
that make it worth reading.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Killing Floor</i> by Lee Child was published
by Bantam Press in 1998. RRP £7.99 (Paperback)</span></div>
Adam Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05491826646836424966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823581203332040419.post-27697128589091632712015-08-23T05:11:00.000-07:002015-08-23T05:11:17.850-07:00Chris Kuznetski - The Sign of the Cross<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcPpyhNtC96FxK20nqs3ew_m1dAHHwjWHNGQt1C7OOXW0riTLmRqEtZFyGDDrrX2n97XXhUxatHeISOvIu3NXesRNXA88L6QJmp1XVQnByR5qBtK6WVZ-FLqxBAh1uidX8ThRVReD5A4WX/s1600/Sign+of+the+Cross.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcPpyhNtC96FxK20nqs3ew_m1dAHHwjWHNGQt1C7OOXW0riTLmRqEtZFyGDDrrX2n97XXhUxatHeISOvIu3NXesRNXA88L6QJmp1XVQnByR5qBtK6WVZ-FLqxBAh1uidX8ThRVReD5A4WX/s200/Sign+of+the+Cross.jpg" width="125" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
After making my way through the <i>Conqueror
</i>series I was in a place for some much needed fun. I had previously read one
of Chris Kuznetski’s books and <i>Sign of
the Cross</i> just happened to be on the end of my bookshelf. This was good
because, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and it was definitely the much needed
entertainment I was looking for. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
The story follows Kuznetski’s heroes, Payne and Jones, as they are
tasked with tracking down a supposedly dangerous criminal in Europe. Meanwhile
some other guys are re-enacting the Crucifixion of Christ using handpicked
individuals as Christ’s replacement. As you can expect, these storylines cross
paths in a fast paced, action packed and generally well crafted story.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
A lot of what I’m about to say goes against what I’ve said above but
I’m slowly coming round to believing that decent fiction cannot be completely
well written without being horrendously boring. Entertaining fiction also
appears to attract a certain type of pompous dickhead who will criticise
someone’s choice of fiction, but I’ll get more into that one later. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Generally speaking, there are few mistakes in the 606 page text and
only a few that were worth stopping for. One such issue occurred in the form of
where you capitalise ‘dad.’ ‘My dad’ is not capitalised but ‘Dad,’ where Dad
takes the place of a name, is a proper noun, and is thus capitalised... but not
in <i>Sign of the Cross</i>. There are also
a few duplicated words sprinkled around the text but that’s about all I picked
up on that broke the flow of the story.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Another interesting one is when one of the wholly English characters
used the term ‘mom.’ There is no way an English person would use the
Americanism for Mum. Ever.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Moving on to the writing choices; the first one, and I may have
mentioned this is my review of <i>The Secret
Crown, </i>is that the police are labelled as incompetent from the outset. This
one is surprising in that the police rock up at a murder site and immediately
contaminate the scene. Like there is any way that would happen in a developed
European city. The police in Africa were a lot better prepared when their
murder happened and acted a lot more in line with what you would expect.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Another thing that struck me was the similarities between Jonathan
Payne and Batman. His company is called Payne Industries. He has loads of money
which allows him to run his own detective agency and travel the world at a
whim. Both his parents are dead. And he is extremely resourceful. Jonathan
Payne is Bruce Wayne.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Perspective is quite often a tricky thing and I’m beginning to wonder
if what I was told about its use is actually true. In this book I was perplexed
that when we were looking from Nick Dial’s perspective, when he is on a phone
call we are able to see the other guy’s reacting in terms of grinning, raised
eyebrows, the works. Either Nick Dial has an amazing sixth sense or there are
perspectives flying around all over the place.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Geography is another subject that takes a hit. The first one is one
that I cannot understand. I’m sure there is a good reason for this but instead
of using the world renowned Oxford or Cambridge universities for a setting in
Britain, Chris decides to create Dover University, one of the oldest, most reputable
and fictitious universities in England.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Italy also doesn’t make a lot of sense. Payne and Jones are able to
travel vast distances really quickly, probably on the premise that they have a
fast car. However, a fast car does not account for the treacherous Italian
country roads. 60 miles only translates to 60 minutes if you are driving at
exactly 60 mph the whole way, which is of course impossible to do on winding
roads with blind corners that will of course be filled with lorries and
coaches, especially as it’s running to a tourist destination.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Which brings me on nicely to my last subject. Everywhere that Payne and
Jones go there seems to be conveniently placed Americans to help them with
whatever situation they find themselves in, especially when they are in a
country where neither of them know the language.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Despite all of these issues as I said at the beginning, it is an
enjoyable book that was hard to put down, mainly due to the strength of the
story. I will be reading more of his books in due course. However, some people
don’t feel the same way. While I’ve mentioned above that Chris Kuznetski
fictionalised Dover University, some members of the literary community took
this to heart and while focussing on this one detail, labelled the book ‘<span style="background: white;">atrocious
garbage.’ I guess some people make my reviews look kind!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i>The Sign of the Cross</i> by
Chris Kuznetski was published by Penguin in 2007. RRP £6.99 (Paperback)</div>
Adam Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05491826646836424966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823581203332040419.post-37317479569108915592015-08-23T04:57:00.000-07:002015-08-23T04:58:22.395-07:00Conn Iggulden - Conqueror<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoiNSF1epYTHcbk2BKFW5cyUWfakXKvjuzU95GimE9D8IXwaM-1BAvnmOaNScjzmi5hafhq7FFs0805r_glvK42PEDi-0VrK8v7RUpkMRZ_g1Q5c2rcHKTfv7hA9lFRiEZCcP1QpvITfvA/s1600/Conqueror.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoiNSF1epYTHcbk2BKFW5cyUWfakXKvjuzU95GimE9D8IXwaM-1BAvnmOaNScjzmi5hafhq7FFs0805r_glvK42PEDi-0VrK8v7RUpkMRZ_g1Q5c2rcHKTfv7hA9lFRiEZCcP1QpvITfvA/s200/Conqueror.jpg" width="130" /></a></div>
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I’ve finally completed this five book slog and I must admit, it took me
a lot longer that I would have liked. Based on how quickly I’ve finished my
next book, I think it says something about my enjoyment of this series. I did
think that <i>Conqueror </i>was the best
book in the series in terms of writing however it suffers from the same ongoing
issues that plagued the previous books in the series. </div>
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<br /></div>
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I’m not going to dwell too much on this one as, like I said, it’s the
best one and it’s probably just my taste that led me to taking so long to
finish it.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Anyway onto the stuff I didn’t like. The way Conn Iggulden paints his
characters is rather confusing. In the end of the last book, Batu was portrayed
as an asshole who believed he was more entitled to lead despite his
questionable heritage. However, at the start of this book, Guyuk is immediately
made out to be an absolute cunt and Batu is the knight in shining armour who
needs to stop Guyuk’s debaucherous leadership of the Mongol empire.</div>
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<br /></div>
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My problem with this is that the best part of writing historical
fiction is surely that you can use your own creative whims to fill the gaps
between the stuff that is officially documented. So why do we start here and
not visit slightly earlier to watch Guyuk’s descent into depravity? Not only
would it have made these early scenes easier to understand but it would have
made for some interesting reading.</div>
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There is the other matter of the ever present, ‘here is that character I
forgot about. But he/she is important so here is their funeral.’ This book goes
one further by getting rid of Yao Shu by having him leave in one paragraph, and
in the past tense, without even a word to anyone despite being ever-present
throughout the series. It’s a strange choice because, once again, the character
relationships are not something that is overly documented in history. It’s more
the events, so I would have thought there would have been more focus on the
characters than the events.</div>
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The above issues are more writing choices that I didn’t understand but
there were a few mistakes that stood out. At one point, one of the Mongol
character’s names is spelt incorrectly and towards the end of the book, Hulegu
is referred to as Kublai’s older brother, which is careless prose, especially
when you are dealing with three brothers at the same time.</div>
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<br /></div>
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And that’s pretty much it. The series has been more enjoyable than it
probably comes across in these reviews but I feel I am due a long break from
Iggulden and will be exploring different writers over the coming months, as
well as revisiting some of my favourites.</div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i>Conqueror</i> by Conn Iggulden
was published by HarperCollins<i>Publishers </i>in
2011. RRP £8.99 (Paperback)</div>
Adam Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05491826646836424966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823581203332040419.post-51097308462774697042015-01-10T08:38:00.001-08:002015-08-23T04:58:49.955-07:00Conn Iggulden - Empire of Silver<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO-FM3RCLGgBX7vzs4lD940Nb_abAy2Cv1Tned5OPa5fcUu8yVx-Mgq0oa0xdANG6kIuKr_XFx2AIG-ainAjmXtLEtNbKOqU5pLLEECD-xkJW__ucYcBVJjsw3lxlvraNx2ZDIJ4rp32na/s1600/Empire+of+Silver.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO-FM3RCLGgBX7vzs4lD940Nb_abAy2Cv1Tned5OPa5fcUu8yVx-Mgq0oa0xdANG6kIuKr_XFx2AIG-ainAjmXtLEtNbKOqU5pLLEECD-xkJW__ucYcBVJjsw3lxlvraNx2ZDIJ4rp32na/s1600/Empire+of+Silver.jpg" width="130" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is
forth book in the five book epic that I’ve managed to drag out for far too
long, mainly due to the fact that I simply could not get into the book. More on
that later, but first – the overview.</div>
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<br /></div>
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In the
aftermath of Ghengis Khan’s death, his son Ogedai, is elected to lead over his
older brother Chagatai. Ghengis has built a reputation of destroying enemies
and not having a home city so, in full respect of his father, Ogedai abandon’s
Genghis’s principles and builds a fuck-off massive city in the middle of their
homeland. Legend.</div>
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The
remainder of the story follows Tsubodai as he tries to conquer the entire world
while Ogedai sits on his ass at home with a heart condition after his younger,
stronger, better looking, more sensible brother, sacrifices himself because
some Chinese doctor said it would fix Ogedai. At this point, I was like, what a
selfish twat, but I suppose you cannot argue with history.</div>
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<br /></div>
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While the
story line follows the historical characters and is loosely based on the events
as we know them, is takes bravery to write about a bunch of thugs who went
around invading everywhere for no real reason and portraying them as the good
guys. Despite this, Iggulden still tries to; albeit very weakly. There is one
part where Tsubodai prevents a Russian woman from being raped, not because he
is merciful, but simply to prove a point. She will inevitably die a more
painful death freezing in the cold after her home was burnt to the ground, but
there you go. The lesser of two evils, right?</div>
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<br /></div>
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Compared to
the other books that precede <i>Empire of
Silver, </i>the first hundred pages or so are actually pretty good. I didn’t
notice any writing problems and the writing was well paced. I didn’t even
realise how much of the book I had read and that is exactly how it should be.
This was also the same for the last 150 pages or so, but there was a big chunk
in the middle of the 428 page book that destroyed the pace and felt like a
return to the last book in terms of style. There is not really any other word
for it but boring. I found myself bored, only reading twenty pages at a time
before finding something else to do, including falling asleep.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
There are also
a couple of new writing errors to pick on. On page 121 the use of punctuation
and sentence structure leads to a watermill feeling astonishment at workers
wearing soft slippers. There is language choice on page 255, where Tsubodai’s
senses are offended twice in the same page where this expression has never been
previously used. The writing should not draw my attention away from the story.</div>
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<br /></div>
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There are
also the usual inconsequential spelling errors littered throughout. A ‘back’
instead of ‘black’ here, and some misplaced punctuation there, but my main
issue with the book is the characters.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Number 1:
Yao Shu. The horniest Bhuddist in the East. It’s not so much that his internal
monologues about secretly wanting to pork every Mongol wife going wind me up,
but more his character change. He wants to pork Sorthatani until the cows come
home, but as soon as she gets a sniff of some power, he whips out his hate guns
and the horniness goes away. The bit I do not understand is that angry sex with
someone you don’t like can be even more satisfying than normal sex with the same
person. Use the anger Yao Shu!</div>
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<br /></div>
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Number
2: Batu. He is just a twat. He is the
unacknowledged son of Jochi who, let’s face it, was never really confirmed as
Genghis’s son in the first place and for the second half of the book walks
around as the self proclaimed Prince of the Nation. Or at least proclaimed by
the narrative, anyway. In another show of how big his balls are, he gets annoyed
when he challenged Tsubodai’s authority and gets bitch slapped for it. After
being raised by the Khan from the gutter, I would expect to see some respect,
rather than a sense of entitlement.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Number
3: Conn Iggulden’s failure to
acknowledge a character’s existence unless he feels like it. It happened with
Temulun in the last book, where he only wrote her back in to rape and kill her
and he does it again here with Genghis’ illusive mother Hoelun. I was thinking
to myself when Kachiun died (sorry, spoiler alert, the old man dies) that I’m
sure the mother was still popping around somewhere, but we are simply told that
she died at some point in the past. I don’t know what she did to piss off the
author, but it must have been bad to be written off in such a way, especially
when she was a key player to the survival of four of the series’ main
characters in the first book and is effectively the mother of the nation.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The
historical notes at the end are often a good source for reference material and
I always read them out of interest despite them not forming part of the story.
I’m glad I did this time because there are some humdingers in there.</div>
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<br /></div>
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According to
the notes, Ogedai’s son, Kaidu, was present in at the battles in Hungary but is
omitted for fear of introducing too many characters. This would probably
explain why Iggulden didn’t focus on Hoelun and Temulun but I feel this is a
kick in the teeth. There isn’t a fantastical overload of information in this
series as it is, so to remove a piece of history because I’m too stupid to
follow it is a very weak justification and also a tad insulting.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Iggulden
also omits one of the most famous battles in Mongol history with another weak
justification. I don’t really know why. With all the bullshit in the middle of
the book, I could have done with some of the more well-executed battle scenes
from the end. In fact, I almost feel robbed, especially when writing these
scenes appear to be the author’s main strength.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
There is one
more book in the series and after that, I will be done with Conn Iggulden.
After investing in the last four, I can’t stop now. Hopefully the final book
offers a thilling finale that will make reading the whole series worthwhile.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i>Empire of Silver</i> by Conn Iggulden was
published by HarperCollins<i>Publishers</i>
in 2010. RRP £7.99 (Paperback)</div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
Adam Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05491826646836424966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823581203332040419.post-22233519639003007432014-10-26T09:40:00.001-07:002015-08-23T04:58:34.097-07:00Conn Iggulden - Bones of the Hills<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDfJyEquMTvPwEOGsmHLjMMmWeO_yORNhrb0VupP7AXRGN8PWAk7gkdliq22tKRTTLoQkPWC9lxGiEoqYEP-zXfcQS2wtvLIVklyctFXzaW7omIq7WmOWjO1N8MrYqvDJzRV3SMulr0Vu6/s1600/Bones+of+the+Hills.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDfJyEquMTvPwEOGsmHLjMMmWeO_yORNhrb0VupP7AXRGN8PWAk7gkdliq22tKRTTLoQkPWC9lxGiEoqYEP-zXfcQS2wtvLIVklyctFXzaW7omIq7WmOWjO1N8MrYqvDJzRV3SMulr0Vu6/s1600/Bones+of+the+Hills.jpg" width="130" /></a></div>
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On to the
third book of the series and I am actually shocked to say that the writing in
this one is much, much improved. And I’m not even being sarcastic.</div>
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<br /></div>
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We now
follow Genghis on his travels through the Arab nations as he conquers and kills
everyone in sight. Why? Because some Arab dude personally insulted him by
killing his ambassadors. So Genghis abandons his conquest of China, turns 180
degrees and marches the entire nation in the opposite direction. I’m all for
this ‘never leave a man behind’ attitude. It’s quite cool. But in terms of
military decisions, why oh why would you do that? Destroy one enemy first and
then move on to the next. More fool them as well because if you don’t attack
them straight away, they will probably think you never will. Therefore, it
would be a massive surprise when you march over the hill to avenge your friends
who were killed five years ago. That said, I haven’t conquered entire countries
before, so what do I know?</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Despite my
opening praise, the writing issues continue on from where we left off in the
last book, this time with completely pointless narrative. On page 52, Koryo is mentioned and it feels
like it is mentioned for the sake of it. The paragraph in question is talking
about how they were all happy to be home in Mongol lands, eating Mongol food. During
the previous two novels, Koryo is mentioned once and the characters spend a few
pages there. In fact, Jelme pretty much arrives there just to be called back so
I don’t see how they can say they never had such good food in Koryo, which is
mentioned first here, and the Chin lands when the men spent all those years
away in Chin lands only. It is not even worth mentioning Koryo.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Whereas the
inclusion of Koryo as a reference in unnecessary, there a few key characters
who come back to forefront after disappearing into obscurity in the previous
novels. In my last review I said that you may have been forgiven for forgetting
that Genghis had a mother who was completely ignored throughout the second book.
Well, another character has been completely ignored since she was born in the
first book; Genghis’ sister, Temulun. One may think that Conn Iggulden does not
like writing women into his books at this rate.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Anyway, the
illusive sister reappears on page 61 only so that the readership can attempt to
develop empathy towards her because she is savagely raped and killed some one
hundred plus pages later. It’s crazy if the desired effect is for us to care,
and I can imagine this is the only reason it’s in here as the sister has no historical
relevance and her death didn’t cause Genghis to kill loads more people. It
does, however, give his illusive mother a little bit more screen time as she
makes another cameo appearance to be upset about another one of her children
being killed.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
There are a
few other small issues regarding the repetition of names and some repeated
information on the same page but it is inconsequential versus the author’s
complete disregard of his own fictional characters. This is reaffirmed as I
didn’t write anything about the last half of the 503 page book because the
majority of it is actually well written. My main criticism is that it is a
little dull and predictable and this highlights issues with the writer. He
clearly had a plan towards certain historical events that he wanted to write
about and has had to put in the boring bits to join up the main events of the
story. These differentials should be invisible to the reader, however the fact
that they are glaringly noticeable worsened what could have been quite a good
story.</div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i>Bones of the Hills</i> by Conn Iggulden was
published by HarperCollins<i>Publishers</i>
in 2008. RRP £8.99 (Paperback)</div>
Adam Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05491826646836424966noreply@blogger.com0