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Tim's Horror, Fantasy and Sci-Fi Reads from 2012


Timstar

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Pretty much my feelings about that book as well, Tim.  I thought it got a bit bogged down in places but generally it was likeable enough.  Still haven't had the urge to buy the second one, though - let us know if it's any good :smile:

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:) Will do.

 

On-going Series update: Number of books read out of total number in series (So far)

 

Song of Ice and Fire - George R.R. Martin - 3 of 5

The Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan - 1 of 15

Codex Alera  - Jim Butcher - 1 of 6

The Dark Tower - Stephen King - 7 of 8

Gentlemen Bas***ds - Scott Lynch - 1 of 2

James Bond - Ian Fleming - 6 of 14

Sharpe - Bernard Cornwell - 10 of 20

Hookton Series - Bernard Cornwell - 3 of 4

Ketty Jay - Chris Wooding - 1 of 3

Phoenix Conspiracy - Richard Sanders - 2 of 3

Demon Cycle - Peter V. Brett - 1 of 3

Dexter - Jeff Lindsay - 4 of 6

Rats - James Herbert - 2 of 3

Dying Earth - Jack Vance - 2 of 4

Sherlock Holmes - Arthur C. Doyle - 1 of 9

 

I should really finish some of these of before starting more...

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XD

 

Nice to see it! :)

 

I didn't know there were 9 Sherlock Holmes books! I'll have to get around to finding the rest of them (I own two two-in-one books, the first four I think, and a bigger book called The Best of Sherlock Holmes which I think are short stories)

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XD

 

Nice to see it! :)

 

I didn't know there were 9 Sherlock Holmes books! I'll have to get around to finding the rest of them (I own two two-in-one books, the first four I think, and a bigger book called The Best of Sherlock Holmes which I think are short stories)

 

There are four novels and five volumes of short stories :smile:

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  • 2 weeks later...

51-Sz0XHPbL._SL500_AA300_PIaudible,Botto Needful Things - Stephen King (Narrated by the Author)

Synopsis

 

There was a new shop in town. Run by a stranger.

Needful Things, the sign said. The oddest name. A name that caused some gossip and speculation among the good folks of Castle Rock, Maine, while they waited for opening day.

Eleven-year-old Brian Rusk was the first customer and he got just what he wanted, a very rare 1956 Sandy Koufax baseball card. Signed. Cyndi Rose Martin was next. A Lalique vase. A perfect match for her living room decor.

Something for everyone. Something you really had to have. And always at a price you could just about afford. The cash price that is. Because there was another price. There always is when your heart's most secret, true desire is for sale .

. .

 

Review

 

Whilst listening to this I was reminded of a great line from Heath Ledger's 'The Joker' in The Dark Knight - "You see, madness, as you know, is like gravity. All it takes is a little…push." The owner of a new store in town, Leland Gaunt, 'pushes' a number of the townsfolk then just sits back and watches and the madness and mayhem unfolds.

 

The book takes a while to set up for the pay-off but it is one hell of a pay-off that makes it all worth while. It begins slow and detailed but you soon learn that King hasn't wasted a word. The character set up and development was critical to the believe-ability of the story. Set again in the fictional Maine town of Castle Rock, King, as usual includes numerous nods to his previous work including Cujo, The Body, Shawshank to name but a few.

 

The story is fantastic, as Leland subtlety plays the townsfolk off against each other with small pranks that in themselves are harmless but when it happens to certain person and is portrayed as a malice act by an enemy of that person...it's the spark that lights the dynamite. In this manner the depths of the human psyche are explored and the evils that people are capable of too each other are brought into the spot light.

 

As the towns begins to turn on itself, the violence is over-the-top in the usual King style. Old grudges come to heads, friendships
fall apart and religious beliefs become more than war of words. The imagery is unique yet vivid and profound.

 

Not the best King novel by far but a great idea that is delivered perfectly.

 

Overall - 8/10

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  • 2 weeks later...

51mYvpwqryL__SS500_.jpg The Desert Spear - Peter V. Brett

 

Synopsis

 

 

The Deliverer has returned, but who is he?

Arlen Bales, formerly of the small hamlet of Tibbet’s Brook, learnt harsh lessons about life as he grew up in a world where hungry demons stalk the night and humanity is trapped by its own fear. He chose a different path; chose to fight inherited apathy and the corelings, and eventually he became the Painted Man, a reluctant saviour.

But the figure emerging from the desert, calling himself the Deliverer, is not Arlen. He is a friend and betrayer, and though he carries the spear from the Deliverer’s tomb, he also heads a vast army intent on a holy war against the demon plague… and anyone else who stands in his way.

 

Review

 

After thoroughly enjoying the originality of The Painted Man I was looking forward to reading the sequel, it started off quite interesting, not following the main characters from TPM but exploring the world and characters that live in the desert that Arlen briefly visited in the previous novel. The events begin some 30 years before the main events of TPM and follows Jardir through his training and rise to power in the desert. 

 

This was a refreshing beginning as oppose to carrying on right were the previous book left off, the problem is it went on far too long... It was 33% on my Kindle before some of the old characters came back and the story was back on track. The section was needed as it set up the events of the book but like the rest of it, it just spent far too long doing it. The length of the story is enough to rival some epic fantasies such as Jordan and Martin but the scope of events simply isn't. I'm not sure how much longer TDS is than TPM but it felt a LOT longer, i'm not the fastest reader but I would get an hour of so in just to have gone up 1 or 2% and have very little happen.

 

What I liked about TPM was that the scope wasn't 'epic' it was a more personal and simple fantasy that was easy to get stuck into, TDS would have been the same it was at least 1/3 shorter if not more. I enjoyed the events and I enjoyed the writing and characters but just the whole way through I was willing it to hurry up. I didn't come close to giving up like Kingkiller but I was finding myself wishing that I was further through. It is hard to look past that and think of the positives, so I will just say I did enjoy it and I will read the sequel... I just hope it is shorter.

 

Overall 7/10

 

N.B - There was also too much jargon to learn that the desert folk use, couldn't remember a lot of it until about half way in.

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The length of the story is enough to rival some epic fantasies such as Jordan and Martin but the scope of events simply isn't. I'm not sure how much longer TDS is than TPM but it felt a LOT longer, i'm not the fastest reader but I would get an hour of so in just to have gone up 1 or 2% and have very little happen.

 

This is never good!  I know that, if I'm wanting to get through something faster and checking the page count all the time, then I'm really not enjoying it.   

 

 

 

will read the sequel... I just hope it is shorter.

 

The hardback is just over 800 pages . . .

 

Right, that's it then.  Thanks for the excellent review, Tim.  What little enthusiasm I might have had for reading The Desert Spear has just disappeared completely.

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The hardback is just over 800 pages . . .

 

Right, that's it then.  Thanks for the excellent review, Tim.  What little enthusiasm I might have had for reading The Desert Spear has just disappeared completely.

 

Glad to have influenced you but hope it's not the wrong way... unless you loved TPM i'm guessing you wouldn't really enjoy this.

 

It's a shame cause it's such an original story but so many fantasies these seem to go for a lenghty novel as a given. As oppose to the 70s, 80s when most were 200-300 pages

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Glad to have influenced you but hope it's not the wrong way... unless you loved TPM i'm guessing you wouldn't really enjoy this.

 

It's a shame cause it's such an original story but so many fantasies these seem to go for a lenghty novel as a given. As oppose to the 70s, 80s when most were 200-300 pages

 

Yeah, it is true.  I don't have a problem with long books providing there's enough of a pay-off to make it worthwhile, but some of my more recent fantasy reads have not had that, and I include books like A Dance with Dragons and Forge of Darkness in that, not just the Jordans and Sandersons.

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Yeah, that's a good way to summarise The Desert Spear, there isn't enough pay-off to make it worthwhile.

 

Also listened to The Iliad audio book which I enjoyed immensely. Translated by Stephen Mitchell and read by Alfred Molina (Doc. Ock himself). I knew the general story but I admit I was a bit ignorant, I didn't realise that the story didn't contain the Trojan horse/sacking of Troy or the death of Achilles. I also didn't realise how much the gods meddle with the battles, right now to the individual fights, either saving directly or spurring on one side.

 

I also found the gods very fickle, they would choose to help one side then get bored or feel bad for the other side and help them. They were also very easily swayed by humans or other gods by simply being asked 'What you doing? Why you doing this? Can you...not?'. I'm generalising but you get the idea. I have never read another translation so it is hard to compare. This version was good and easy to follow but there were a lot of repeat sentences (whether this is down to the translation or not I don't know) for example someone would ask someone to take a message to someone else, they tell the messenger the message then we hear the messenger tell the recipient the same message word for word even if it is a few paragraphs long. This happened many times and seemed very unnecessary.

 

The story is crammed with vivid similes that truly paint a beautiful picture time and time again, especially during the battle scenes which were long and plentiful. I loved how it gets right down to the individual, stating who slays whom and how. If it is an unknown character it would say a bit about them as they died, ... son of so-and-so, from where-ever with a bit about either their job or family in very much a sentimental way that helps you connect with the horror, violence and waste of it all.

 

One thing I didn't like, but the story can't really be blamed for it, is the treatment of women throughout. I know it is just the time it was written in but they are seen very much as possessions to be traded and used, won or lost. Yet, ironically, the whole war is over a woman. Whether this irony is intended or not, I'm not sure.

 

Overall 9/10

 

Although I'm getting towards the end of my plan I think it was a bit too ambitious as I have now lost the will to read the final few that are on there, probably because they have been on my 'to read soon' list for so long. So I'm not giving up but I am gonna take a short break from it, I realise this kind of defeats the purpose but never mind.

 

I got Wool by Hugh Howey from the library and started that last night. I have also been reading through a few stories in Joe Hill's 20th Century Ghosts which are bizarre to say the least but I would say they are on par with Clive Barker's Books of Blood. I will be starting Red Seas Under Red Skies audio book tomorrow which I can't wait for!

 

In purchasing news I bought Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny and Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King which was the last book I needed from the 2007 Hodder collection :D

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Also listened to The Iliad audio book which I enjoyed immensely. Translated by Stephen Mitchell and read by Alfred Molina (Doc. Ock himself). I knew the general story but I admit I was a bit ignorant, I didn't realise that the story didn't contain the Trojan horse/sacking of Troy or the death of Achilles. I also didn't realise how much the gods meddle with the battles, right now to the individual fights, either saving directly or spurring on one side.

 

That's probably because Wolfgang Petersen completely removed that side of the story from Troy :lol:

 

 

I also found the gods very fickle, they would choose to help one side then get bored or feel bad for the other side and help them. They were also very easily swayed by humans or other gods by simply being asked 'What you doing? Why you doing this? Can you...not?'. I'm generalising but you get the idea. I have never read another translation so it is hard to compare. This version was good and easy to follow but there were a lot of repeat sentences (whether this is down to the translation or not I don't know) for example someone would ask someone to take a message to someone else, they tell the messenger the message then we hear the messenger tell the recipient the same message word for word even if it is a few paragraphs long. This happened many times and seemed very unnecessary.

 

That's just the way it is, I think.  I certainly read that comment many times when I was deciding which translation to buy.  You have to take into account, I guess, that - in its original form - it was probably chanted, so repetition would have formed part of that because it allowed the audience to join in as well.

 

 

One thing I didn't like, but the story can't really be blamed for it, is the treatment of women throughout. I know it is just the time it was written in but they are seen very much as possessions to be traded and used, won or lost. Yet, ironically, the whole war is over a woman. Whether this irony is intended or not, I'm not sure.

 

You really should give David Gemmell's Troy trilogy a try.  The women in his version are incredibly strong characters.

 

 

In purchasing news I bought Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny

 

Awesome book! :D

 

I look forward to your review of Wool - it's on my wishlist :smile:

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That's probably because Wolfgang Petersen completely removed that side of the story from Troy :lol:

 

That's true but the whole film is awful!  I did find myself thinking how can a 3000 year old poem be so much better than a multi-million pound film with so many great actors... (and Orlando Bloom). But it's not just the film, I had an idea of the story from seeing it so much in popular culture but it really surprised me.

 

 

 

 

 

That's just the way it is, I think.  I certainly read that comment many times when I was deciding which translation to buy.  You have to take into account, I guess, that - in its original form - it was probably chanted, so repetition would have formed part of that because it allowed the audience to join in as well.

 

 

 

That is true, I was thinking about this, how it would have been delivered originally. Didn't think of audience participation though!

 

 

 

You really should give David Gemmell's Troy trilogy a try.  The women in his version are incredibly strong characters.

 

 

 

It's on my wishlist!

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Tim, I found The Desert Spear ok in length, but gave up with The Daylight Wars - so if you find the former too long, don't bother with the 3rd one!

 

Yeah I'm in two minds, I am invested in the characters and storyline and would like to see what happens... but would just like to find out sooner :)  I have a library reservation that is at least a couple of months away so i'll see how I feel then.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Bought Bitter Seeds today which I heard someone mention was good. Also got a new copy of Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill in prep for his signing I'm going to at the end of the month for his new book. 

 

Still working my way through Wool which is ok but maybe got a bit over hyped in reviews. Hopefully finish it by the end of the week. 

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Wool.jpgWool - Hugh Howey

Synopsis

 

Life in the Silo is grim and boring, cameras show the dead and desolate world outside. The air is toxic and the surface uninhabitable.

 

The monotony is only broken by the unfortunately individual who is tasked with 'cleaning' the cameras. They are given a protective suit but the toxic air soon seeps in and they don't come back.

 

Not everything is as simple as it seems, the suits aren't as protective as they could be, and one department is to blame... IT.

 

Review

 

I was first enticed by this seeing the posters throughout the London Tube, no more information given then what is one the cover above. I looked it up and learnt Howey was self-published via Amazon Kindle and the reviews were tremendous.

 

Without knowing too much about it other than its dystopian setting I rented it from the library. I am glad I didn't pay for it.

 

The story was OK, it could have been better, but it was good enough to keep me interested because there wasn't much else to be honest. The world didn't seem particularly well thought out. The Silo itself is 148 levels deep and there are no lifts or pulleys so much or the work involves hours or days of trudging up and down the spiral staircase. Mining is going on at the bottom with no method to remove the ore or waste :S There is no back-story either true or mythical as to what happened to the world.  There were other things throughout that didn't quite make sense as well which I won't get into due to spoilers.

 

The characterisation was poor, very much 2D characters with little or no personality. The writing was very average, I can see why it was self-published.

 

I kept thinking I like the concept but so much more could have been done with it. Tonnes of potential and a good story but poor delivery.

 

Overall 6/10 (and I think that's being generous)

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Well Furies of Calderon is the first of a series, I am not sure about the Dresden Files, Steve will know. The two series aren't connected to my knowledge.

 

I only knew about the Dresden Files, I don't think I knew Butcher has been writing other stuff and other series as well. Are you going to dip into the DF at some point, do you think?

 

 

 

 

Plan update:

 

Nice to see other people are doing Plans :D Do you feel you've been more focused since you started doing this, or have you at any point felt constricted by your plan?

 

 

Locke_Lamora.jpgThe Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch (Audio book read by Stephen Page)

 

 

I don't know why but this book intrigues me. I like the title, and I like the author's name. Maybe it's the Lynch thing. You know, David Lynch and Jennifer Lynch...

 

On a completely book I have just finished The Diary of Anne Frank which was incredibly moving and gave a good insight into the her life in hiding. This was also on a list of 50 books to read before you die that I was given and I definitely agree that everyone should read it at sometime.

 

I'm glad you enjoyed reading it, I think it's one of those books that everyone should read.

 

The Wife said I'm not allowed any more... :(

 

probably next time though  :lurker: 

 

By the by, where has your Wife been? I don't think I've seen her around. I hope we haven't scared her off? :blush::D

 

 

51-Sz0XHPbL._SL500_AA300_PIaudible,Botto Needful Things - Stephen King (Narrated by the Author)

. .

 

Review

 

Whilst listening to this I was reminded of a great line from Heath Ledger's 'The Joker' in The Dark Knight - "You see, madness, as you know, is like gravity. All it takes is a little…push." The owner of a new store in town, Leland Gaunt, 'pushes' a number of the townsfolk then just sits back and watches and the madness and mayhem unfolds.

 

I haven't seen The Joker, but well put, I would say! It only takes a little push sometimes, and then it's fun just to sit back and watch other people do the dirty deeds *muahahahahhaha*

 

I liked Needful Things quite a bit, though I think it seems to get slated by many readers. Not sure why, as it's quite fun (and cringeworthy) to watch the events unfold.

 

I agree with you Tim and bobbly, I think it's definitely a solid King read, not the best perhaps but certainly not the worst either, or even one of the worst.

 

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I only knew about the Dresden Files, I don't think I knew Butcher has been writing other stuff and other series as well. Are you going to dip into the DF at some point, do you think?

I might do, but I will certainly finish the Codex Alera series first.

 

Nice to see other people are doing Plans :D Do you feel you've been more focused since you started doing this, or have you at any point felt constricted by your plan?

 

I've not felt constricted, but I think I made it too long meaning other things came along that I wanted to read before getting round to finishing the plan

 

I don't know why but this book intrigues me. I like the title, and I like the author's name. Maybe it's the Lynch thing. You know, David Lynch and Jennifer Lynch...

 

The title grabbed me as well. I would highly recommend it! Listening to the sequel now and it too is amazing.

 

By the by, where has your Wife been? I don't think I've seen her around. I hope we haven't scared her off? :blush::D

 

She is stuck on Pinterest... and her Kindle ran out of battery :giggle2:

 

I agree with you Tim and bobbly, I think it's definitely a solid King read, not the best perhaps but certainly not the worst either, or even one of the worst.

 

It is good yeah, I watched the film at the weekend, wasn't bad but they cut out so much important stuff. Had no chance to live up to the book.

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