vodkafan Posted April 18, 2012 Share Posted April 18, 2012 Ah if it's a voucher then that's not really a slip at all is it? A voucher is free books just needing to be converted . Anyway why 80 that's a funny number why not 100? That way you can still have 13 yet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle Posted April 18, 2012 Share Posted April 18, 2012 I like the way VF thinks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted April 18, 2012 Author Share Posted April 18, 2012 So do I! My plan was to reduce my TBR pile considerably this year, so I was setting myself targets, first to get it below 90, then 80 etc etc. Never works like that, of course Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted April 18, 2012 Share Posted April 18, 2012 So many books so little time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted April 18, 2012 Author Share Posted April 18, 2012 I just don't read fast enough Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted April 18, 2012 Author Share Posted April 18, 2012 The Alchemist's Secret by Scott Mariani Synopsis: When Ben Hope, a former elite SAS soldier who now devotes his life to rescuing kidnapped children, is recruited to locate an ancient manuscript which could save a dying child, he embarks on the deadliest quest of his life. The document is alleged to contain the formula for the elixir of life, discovered by the brilliant alchemist Fulcanelli decades before. But it soon becomes apparent that others are hunting this most precious of treasures – for far more evil ends … Thoughts: Surprisingly, given my comment a few posts back, I actually enjoyed this a lot. Mariani's got a writing style that's easy to read, the characters are decent (although a few shades of grey would be nice), the plot's fun, and it's full of action. It's also full of cliches (Hope is tortured by his past, he is joined on his quest by a beautiful woman, etc etc) but it's told at such a breakneck pace that I just went along for the ride. The solution and the final few twists were pretty well handled so, even though I could see it coming, the ending is still entertaining. The final sentence, embarrassingly, left me with a tear in my eye I hated The Da Vinci Code but I didn't hate this. It's a huge amount of fun. I'll probably read more of Mariani's 'Ben Hope' novels some time in the future. 7/10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ooshie Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 Hi Steve, how are you doing? I was wondering if you have ever read any of the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind; someone has recommended them to me and I was thinking of getting the first book to try. Sorry if you have already mentioned them, but I can't remember! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted April 21, 2012 Author Share Posted April 21, 2012 (edited) Hi Ooshie, I'm fine thanks, you? To be completely honest, no, I haven't read anything by Goodkind because I've heard so many bad things about the series. I guess it's the old 'give it a go and see what you think' piece of advice I'm afraid. Sorry I can't be more help Edit: There's a thread about him here: http://www.bookclubforum.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/4478-terry-goodkind-good-or-bad-books/ If you are looking to read some fantasy, there are other authors out there I'd far rather recommend Edited April 21, 2012 by Karsa Orlong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted April 23, 2012 Author Share Posted April 23, 2012 (edited) Sword in the Storm by David Gemmell Synopsis: Fierce and proud, the Rigante dwell deep in the mountain lands, worshiping the gods of air and water, and the spirits of the earth. Among them lives a warrior who bears the mark of fate. Born of the storm, he is Connavar, and tales of his courage spread like wildfire. The Seidh--a magical race as old as time--take note of the young warrior and cast a malignant shadow across his life. For soon a merciless army will cross the water, destroying forever the timeless rhythms of life among the Rigante. Swearing to protect his people, Connavar embarks on a quest that will take him into the heart of the enemy. Along the way, he receives a gift: a sword as powerful and deadly as the Seidh who forged it. Thus he receives a name that will strike fear into the hearts of friend and foe alike--a name proclaiming a glorious and bitter destiny . . . Demonblade. Thoughts: Sword in the Storm is the first of David Gemmell's four-book 'Rigante' series, and Connavar another of his troubled heroes. In the other Gemmell books I've read to date the hero has been an older character, haunted by his past. Connavar is different, in that the story drops into his life at important moments, starting (naturally) with his birth, then jumping forward as he grows up and learns of an enemy who will eventually engulf the Rigante, and sets about preparing his people for war. He is a character dogged by a fate - in fact, the whole book seems to be about fate in one way or another. Each of the characters has a geas, a prediction about their lives that they mustn't break. If they do break it, then death will surely follow. There are characters who receive visions, such as the witch Vorna, and the mysterious Seidh, who have the ability to grant wishes - although, as Conn quickly learns, be careful what you wish for. This is one of Gemmell's later novels, and I found it noticeable how his writing style had developed by this stage. It is such an easy, flowing read. I would never describe his books as challenging. His stories are marvellous entertainment with strong, memorable, flawed characters, painted in shades of grey, and a thought-provoking, solid moral centre. The way the characters develop over time is beautifully handled, and even those who only appear briefly leave an indelible mark, such is Gemmell's skill. You want to love them and hate them, often both at the same time. They all do what they do because they believe in it, and they all live with the regrets and consequences. Gemmell loved to kill off characters, too, and they are always treated in a believable way, high on emotion but without melodrama. This is probably my favourite of his books that I've read to date, and I'm starting to find his books a real comfort read. They are object lessons in how to tell an absorbing fantasy tale in 450 pages or less. The ones I've read so far have never been less than entertaining, and always involving and exciting. The epilogue to this one is so ominous and full of foreboding that I wanted to jump straight into the next one, but I've managed to restrain myself - for now! The image above is different to the cover of my copy of the book. It must be a recent change, because I couldn't find an image of it anywhere. Shame - I much prefer the version I've got. 9/10 Edited April 23, 2012 by Karsa Orlong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted April 24, 2012 Author Share Posted April 24, 2012 Oh dear, some more David Gemmell books seem to be heading my way ... Dark Moon Echoes of the Great Song White Wolf The Swords of Night and Day Troy: Shield of Thunder Troy: Fall of Kings And there goes all my shelf space Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ooshie Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 (edited) Hi Ooshie, I'm fine thanks, you? To be completely honest, no, I haven't read anything by Goodkind because I've heard so many bad things about the series. I guess it's the old 'give it a go and see what you think' piece of advice I'm afraid. Sorry I can't be more help Edit: There's a thread about him here: http://www.bookclubf...d-or-bad-books/ If you are looking to read some fantasy, there are other authors out there I'd far rather recommend Thanks for the thread, Steve - he certainly seems to polarise opinion! I think I will give it a go with the first book and see how I get on... Edited April 24, 2012 by Ooshie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted April 24, 2012 Author Share Posted April 24, 2012 Let me know what you think of it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted April 26, 2012 Author Share Posted April 26, 2012 Death Masks by Jim Butcher Synopsis: Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only practising professional wizard, should be happy that business is pretty good for a change. But now he’s getting more than he bargained for: A duel with the Red Court of Vampires’ champion, who must kill Harry to end the war between vampires and wizards … Professional hit men using Harry for target practice … The missing Shroud of Turin … A handless and headless corpse the Chicago police need identified … Not to mention the return of Harry’s ex-girlfriend Susan, who’s still struggling with her semi-vampiric nature. And who seems to have a new man in her life.Some days, it just doesn’t pay to get out of bed. No matter how much you’re charging. Thoughts: It's another really enjoyable outing, the fifth book in Butcher's 'Dresden Files'. The previous book (Summer Knight) kind of felt like a pause for breath before cracking on with the looming war between the White Council and the vampires' Red Court, so this book wastes no time getting back to it. Without going into spoilers, Harry's the one responsible for starting the war a couple of books back, and now the Red Court have sent a vampire called Ortega to deal with him in a duel. If Dresden dies, the war is effectively put on hold, if he lives ... Sometimes I think there's a danger with stories that are narrated in the first-person, with a laconic, almost film noir-ish feel to them, that they can become annoyingly smug, but Butcher always seems to walk the line very deftly. Harry Dresden is a hugely likeable character, and it sucks you into his life and makes you care about him. It's easy to warm to his friends and enemies, too, because they come across in a very believable (within the context) fashion, even out-and-out bad guys like the gangster Marcone or the demon Nicodemus. As usual, there are several seemingly disparate storylines that seamlessly weave into the whole, and culminate in a breathlessly choreographed, edge-of-seat finale. It's funny, sexy, fast-paced and action-packed and, to Butcher's credit, he never loses sight of the rules he has created for his world, and often uses them to great effect. I'm finding that these stories are very addictive, and they do seem to be getting better and better as they go along. 8/10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pickle Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 Ohhh you are catching up and working through them quickly...nice review and they do get better and better...btw have you read Jo Nesbo's Headhunters and were you aware its a film???? I saw it on Amazon last year but was going through another addiction and didn't get it, film reviews seem to be positive...sorry thats really rambling its been one of those days Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted April 26, 2012 Author Share Posted April 26, 2012 Rambling is good I haven't read Headhunters yet, actually. Quite tempted. I saw the film reviewed a few weeks back and thought it looked decent. Hmmm, it's £3.19 for Kindle at the moment ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pickle Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 don't tempt me its not pay day til the end of the month and for me its the last working day. Sob sob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted April 27, 2012 Author Share Posted April 27, 2012 Damn, I was hoping you'd read it and tell me if it was any good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted April 29, 2012 Author Share Posted April 29, 2012 (edited) Book # 31: Heretic by Bernard Cornwell Synopsis: Heretic begins with a bloody battle outside Calais in 1347, a short time before the city fell to the English. The sympathetic Thomas of Hookton is bending every sinew at the service of his master, the Earl of Northampton; after risking his life time and again, Thomas finds himself commissioned to track down the most sacred relic in Christendom, the Holy Grail. He travels to Gascony, seat of power of his nemesis, Guy Vexille. Utilising his archers, Thomas conducts a fierce guerrilla war against Vexille, and yearns for a face-to-face encounter. But then Thomas is routed and finds his campaign in shreds, facing the twin enemies of the church and the plague. Thoughts: This is the third and final book in Cornwell's 'Grail Quest' trilogy. Thomas of Hookton heads south to his family's lands of Astarac in an attempt to find The Grail. Given his own archers and men-at-arms by the Earl of Northampton, he takes control of a castle and starts raiding nearby villages in the hope that he will attract the attention of his cousin, Guy Vexille. Things start to turn sour, though, when he saves a woman accused of heresy from being burned at the stake. His men believe this will bring nothing but ill luck but Thomas has (rather quickly!) fallen in love, much to the jealousy of his friend Robbie. All in all, this is a reasonable conclusion to the trilogy, but it is somewhat of a let down on the historical side. Cornwell freely admits that only the opening and closing passages are based on real history. I guess that he ultimately had to deal with Thomas's story and his reluctant search for The Grail. The problem I found was that it became a little formulaic and predictable. Thomas falls in love, something bad happens, the odds are stacked against him, he has a seemingly neverending supply of arrows just when he needs it, etc etc. It's Cornwell's writing that saves it, with that free-flowing, comfortable style of his that makes everything seem natural. I can't help feeling that he'd put himself in a bit of a corner with this story, as he had to answer the questions he'd posed sooner or later, and veering away from the real history makes it feel slightly less authentic. Also, I don't think the characters in this trilogy have ever been as good, or the story as enthralling, as they were in his Arthurian 'Warlord' trilogy. It's still a good read, though, and I wanted to get to the end and find out if Thomas survived and found The Grail. 7/10 Edited April 29, 2012 by Karsa Orlong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted May 2, 2012 Author Share Posted May 2, 2012 (edited) Book # 32: Remote Control by Andy McNab I thought about grabbing an image of the cover. Then I decided it didn't deserve it Synopsis: Tough, resourceful, ruthless - as an SAS trooper, Nick Stone was one of the best. Now he's back on the streets. After a botched mission, the Regiment no longer want his services. But British Intelligence does - as a deniable operator. It's the dirtiest job in a very, very dirty world.In Washington DC, it's about to get dirtier still. On the apparently routine tail of two terrorists, he discovers the bodies of an ex-SAS officer and his family. Soon he's on the run with the lone survivor of the bloodbath - a seven year old girl. And whilst she can identify the killers, only Stone can keep them at bay - and solve a mystery whose genesis takes him back to the most notorious SAS mission in recent history... Thoughts: The is the first of McNab's 'Nick Stone' novels. It starts in Gibraltar in the late 80s where the SAS are trying to prevent a terrorist attack by the Provisional IRA, then leaps forward several years as Stone is called in to take on a mission trailing two members of the same organisation. This leads him to Washington, where things inevitably spiral out of control, violence ensues, and Stone finds himself looking after an unwanted passenger. For me, this book is a couple of hundred pages too long for what it is. Being written in the first person, McNab feels the need to tell us every single thing Stone does, right through the novel (for example, he reminds his murdered friend's daughter, Kelly, not to open the door to anyone but him every ... bloody ... time he leaves her - it's irritating beyond belief). The writing is okay on some levels (the level of McNab's knowledge of his former trade is beyond doubt, and the book is at its best when dealing with this) and pretty poor on others (Stone's relationship with Kelly is horribly cliched and I found the dialogue between them truly risible). The twists in the story are all predictable, but the action is handled reasonably well. I haven't - and, to be honest, probably won't - read any more of McNab's novels, so I don't know whether his writing improves, but I guess some rough edges are to be expected at this stage. It's Stone's attitude towards Kelly that put me off more than anything. On the one level I suppose it's believable, in that Stone is all about the job and doesn't need the extra 'baggage', on the other it's quite shocking that he wants to get rid of a seven year-old girl whose family has just been slaughtered. Some of the decisions he makes that result in the two of them being thrust together are, I found, unbelievable and are only made to serve the plot. Even as their relationship develops, in a fairly predictable manner, and they start to care about each other, it reaches a point where Stone thinks the girl would be better off dead, and that it would be less hassle for him if she were! Well, that's alright then, isn't it? In a quite laughable ending, where Stone and Kelly have been separated, he talks her - on the phone - through the procedure, using various household ingredients, to make a bomb in order to blow up the house she's in and kill her captor. Obviously he felt this would be a good method of solving all his problems!! So it's too long, the quality of the writing is workman-like at best, it's not particularly thrilling, and the central relationship is cliche-central. Other than that it's great! 5/10 Edited May 2, 2012 by Karsa Orlong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian. Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 When I was much younger (still at school) I loved the military memoirs of SAS soldiers all thanks to Bravo Two Zero. At the time I thought it was superb but didn't read any of his fiction. A few years back I picked up a copy of Remote Control and was immediately struck by how poor the writing was. The story was ok, if a little far fetched, but the standard of writing was really dreadful. Last year I decided to re-read Bravo Two Zero and although the story was still compelling as ever the writing really lets it down, I just hadn't noticed as a teenager. A much better book on the whole episode is The Real Bravo Two Zero by Michael Asher which pours a lot of doubt onto the account of McNab. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted May 2, 2012 Author Share Posted May 2, 2012 I might have a look at that at some point, thanks Brian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian. Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Asher did a TV program about it with the same name which can be found on YouTube. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted May 2, 2012 Author Share Posted May 2, 2012 Oh, I seem to remember that being on - shall have a look for it I'm going to try and be organised with my next few reads. I took three books out last night to decide what to read next. They were: The Book Thief - Markus Zuzak The Skystone - Jack Whyte Midnight Falcon - David Gemmell I went for Midnight Falcon, so I'm determined that The Book Thief and The Skystone will be my following two reads. Unless Clive Barker's Weaveworld totally scuppers that plan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ooshie Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 I went for Midnight Falcon, so I'm determined that The Book Thief and The Skystone will be my following two reads. Unless Clive Barker's Weaveworld totally scuppers that plan Weaveworld! Weaveworld! One of my favourite books of all time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted May 2, 2012 Author Share Posted May 2, 2012 (edited) Weaveworld! Weaveworld! One of my favourite books of all time. Alright, alright So long as you read The Lions of Al-Rassan Edited May 2, 2012 by Karsa Orlong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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