Karsa Orlong Posted October 2, 2012 Author Share Posted October 2, 2012 Yes, I shall read all of those books because they are on my list, but not for one book you've read Well that's not fair! Fingersmith is 560 pages long, I Am Legend is 176 But what if I shan't like the book. Then you would've sent it to me in vain. We do have English copies of those books at the library, I've checked. That's enough negativity Of course you'll like it. I'm sure you can add one of them to your pile of 57,436,218,901 other library books you've already borrowed I know, but you liked some other series by Abercrombie and I believe you think Best Served Cold could make a great read. It could, but it might not! When do you have to return it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankie Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 Well that's not fair! Fingersmith is 560 pages long, I Am Legend is 176 Well perhaps, but Fingersmith is bloody awesome. And there are some explicit scenes on the book You'll enjoy it Shut up and read it! That's enough negativity. Of course you'll like it. I'm sure you can add one of them to your pile of 57,436,218,901 other library books you've already borrowed What do you mean of course I will like it?! And I only have 60 loans from the library, thank you very much. And five of them are CDs! Haha! It could, but it might not! When do you have to return it? Oh, so who's being negative now?! I checked my library account, the due date is on 29.10, but I don't think anyone will reserve the novel so I can add another month to it, most likely. Edit: Oh! And also, I've already read five of the 55 books on loan, but have just forgotten to return them. So there!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted October 2, 2012 Author Share Posted October 2, 2012 Well perhaps, but Fingersmith is bloody awesome. So's I Am Legend, The Time Machine, The Day of the Triffids, Dune and Hyperion And there are some explicit scenes on the book Ah, that probably explains the Waterstone's guy's reaction Shut up and read it! I'll do the latter, probably before you read any of mine What do you mean of course I will like it?! Cos it's awesome! Shut up and read it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankie Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 So's I Am Legend, The Time Machine, The Day of the Triffids, Dune and Hyperion Um.... they may not be! Ah, that probably explains the Waterstone's guy's reaction He's anti-emotion and anti good books. I'll do the latter, probably before you read any of mine We'll see about that. Cos it's awesome! Shut up and read it Fine As long as you specify, what 'it' is Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted October 2, 2012 Author Share Posted October 2, 2012 Fine As long as you specify, what 'it' is Keep up at the back! Dune Although I Am Legend would be acceptable. For now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankie Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 Keep up at the back! Dune Well you were talking about both Dune and Hyperion! Although I Am Legend would be acceptable. For now. Oh I suppose I should be pleased by the generosity of your highness now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted October 2, 2012 Author Share Posted October 2, 2012 Well you were talking about both Dune and Hyperion! Just testing No, you're right, I shouldn't have mentioned Hyperion at the same time, because I don't have a spare copy of it Oh I suppose I should be pleased by the generosity of your highness now... Better late than never Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Edit: Oh! And also, I've already read five of the 55 books on loan, but have just forgotten to return them. So there!! Is there no limit to the number of books one is allowed to borrow? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankie Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Just testing No, you're right, I shouldn't have mentioned Hyperion at the same time, because I don't have a spare copy of it Hahaa! I win the debate. Is there no limit to the number of books one is allowed to borrow? Unfortunately there is One can have 100 loans. Isn't that appallingly little?! Edit: Don't try and make me look bad, you guys! It's not like it's my first time ever to have this many loans at a time. And I know my fave librarian once went to a branch library and was about to borrow some books when she was told she already had the maximum amount She was quite embarrassed!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted October 3, 2012 Author Share Posted October 3, 2012 Hahaa! I win the debate. There was a debate? Edit: Don't try and make me look bad, you guys! But it's fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankie Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 There was a debate? There's always one with you! But it's fun! The things that amuse you... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted October 3, 2012 Author Share Posted October 3, 2012 There's always one with you! Usually when I'm talking to myself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted October 4, 2012 Author Share Posted October 4, 2012 Book #66: The Owl Killers by Karen Maitland Blurb: England, 1321 Welcome to the Dark Ages In the heart of the countryside lies an isolated village, where pagan Owl Masters rule through fear, superstition and murder. When a group of religious women ill-advisedly settles outside the village, they awaken dangerous jealousies. Why do their crops succeed? How do their cattle survive the plague? Are they concealing a holy relic which protects them from harm? The Owl Masters cry 'Witchcraft' and sharpen their talons. As torment and hellfire rain down, the women must look to their faith to save them from the darkness spreading across the land. Fear is a question of what you believe. And death alone the answer. Thoughts: I read Karen Maitland's Company of Liars a couple of years ago and enjoyed it very much. Claim to fame: I was reading that book as I sat on a Metropolitan Line train opposite food critic Jay Rayner (it was just a few days after his mother, Claire, passed away). Anyway, yes, I enjoyed that book, it was quite the page turner, but the strange thing about it was that it left very little in the way of a lasting impression. I can barely remember anything about it now, which is odd. I bought The Owl Killers almost straight after finishing CoL, but it's taken me this long to get around to reading it, mainly because I was quite confused by the lack of impression the previous book had left on me. Having finally got around to it I find I have, again, enjoyed Maitland's writing very much. She's taken the unusual approach in this one of using multiple first-person viewpoints, and I think it works really well. Each character is well-defined and, after a few chapters, you can probably tell which of their heads you are in without reading their name, which appears at the start of each section. The Owl Killers is the tale of what happens in a small fictional Norfolk village, called Ulewic, when a group of women from Flanders build their own community, or beguinage, on its outskirts. In doing so they create a triangle of belief systems, from the Church, to the pagan Owl Masters who seem to rule the roost, to their own. The novel starts with the Owl Masters exacting their own form of justice upon a local lad amongst the fires of Beltane, and spirals outward from there as they attempt to raise a demon. The leader of the beguines, Servant Martha, is the main character (I imagined her as a Louise 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' Fletcher-type) but is painted in shades of grey: she does what she does for what she believes are the right reasons, but nothing is ever so simple. A young girl called Agatha is thrust into the keeping of Servant Martha by her father, a noble who wants rid of her because, among other reasons, she had the audacity to witness the Owl Masters carry out their ritual on the first night of Beltane. Servant Martha's favouring of Agatha arouses jealousy in another of the beguines, Beatrice, who has come there for very different reasons. The local priest, Ulfrid, has been sent to Ulewic as punishment for being caught in the arms of a young male prostitute by the bishop of Norwich, and is desperate to get back into the bishop's good graces. Outside the village, up in the hills, lives the old woman Gwenith and her granddaughter Gudrun, both suspected by the villagers of witchcraft. And then there is the charmingly named weepuddle (which won't be allowed by the board's word filter, but I like it, lol), a child in the village who comes to play a large part in proceedings. Maitland gradually weaves these characters' various tales together into a very enjoyable whole, and makes their motivations very clear and believable. There are some genuinely tense and scary moments, and she ratchets these parts up very well indeed. If I have one complaint about the novel - and there is only one I can really think of - it's that one particular happening towards the end requires quite a suspension of disbelief, and relies on the reader having bought into the story completely. Other than that, the setting, the atmosphere - in the village, the forest, and just the overall sense of foreboding - are all fantastic. 8/10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppyshake Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 The Owl Killers by Karen Maitland If I have one complaint about the novel - and there is only one I can really think of - it's that one particular happening towards the end requires quite a suspension of disbelief, and relies on the reader having bought into the story completely. Other than that, the setting, the atmosphere - in the village, the forest, and just the overall sense of foreboding - are all fantastic. Hmmmm .. that's exactly what Alan thought about Company of Liars .. he was like nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! when the 'twist' was revealed. I had bought into it more and was a bit defensive but I wasn't entirely happy with it either .. though taken as a whole it was brilliant. Great review Steve, you're making a habit of it .. wish you would write some rubbish ones and stop spending all my money. Shall I just give you my purse now and live on beans for the rest of the month? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted October 5, 2012 Author Share Posted October 5, 2012 Shall I just give you my purse now and live on beans for the rest of the month? Does it come with credit cards? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppyshake Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Does it come with credit cards? Yes, but I don't know my pin Steve. I have two library cards .. however they may collar you for the 40p I owe them Where you would definitely win out is with my Waterstone's card .. I only need one more stamp for a free book .. so that'd be a bog-off situation for you (very apt .. not really ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted October 5, 2012 Author Share Posted October 5, 2012 Where you would definitely win out is with my Waterstone's card .. I only need one more stamp for a free book .. Blimey, how long has that taken? I think the highest mine's ever got before I used it was 95p so that'd be a bog-off situation for you (very apt .. not really ) I don't think the bog could handle it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted October 9, 2012 Author Share Posted October 9, 2012 Book #67: Shadow of the Scorpion by Neal Asher Blurb: Raised to adulthood during the end of the war between the human Polity and a vicious alien race, the Prador, Ian Cormac, is haunted by childhood memories of a sinister scorpion-shaped war drone and the burden of losses he doesn't remember. Cormac signs up with Earth Central Security and is sent out to help restore and maintain order on worlds devastated by the war. There he discovers that though the Prador remain as murderous as ever, they are not anywhere near as treacherous or dangerous as some of his fellow humans, some closer to him than he would like. Amidst the ruins left by wartime genocides, Cormac will discover in himself a cold capacity for violence and learn some horrible truths about his own past while trying to stay alive on his course of vengeance. Thoughts: I've come to the conclusion that Neal Asher doesn't write bad books, but he may write slightly lesser ones, such as this. Shadow of the Scorpion is a straightforward action/adventure story with an underlying mystery. It's the sixth of his books that I have read to date and, whilst it possibly doesn't rise to the challenge of equalling his brilliant 'Spatterjay' trilogy or the standalone blitzkrieg that is Prador Moon, it does manage to be taut and intriguing, and it doesn't overstay its welcome - far from it, in fact - I thought the ending felt a little abrupt, like there could and maybe should have been more. But maybe that leads into the first Cormac novel proper, Gridlinked, which I am currently resisting the urge to purchase immediately (along with everything else he's written that I don't already own . . . ). Starting with the central character, Ian Cormac, as a young boy, Asher immediately introduces us to the mystery that is central to the story - that of a giant metallic scorpion - a war drone - that keeps turning up at various stages of Cormac's formative years. The story then jumps ahead to the aftermath of the Polity/Prador war when Cormac has joined Earth Central Security. Working as part of a trainee unit he is involved in an operation to guard a downed Prador warship. However, it has crashed on a world inhabited by Polity separatists and, on Cormac's watch, they gain access to the Prador vessel and attempt to steal various weapons from within. Cormac and his fellow soldier, Carl, or ordered to disable the separatists and keep them alive for interrogation but, when Karl decides to gun them down in cold blood instead, Cormac finds himself dragged into a quest for revenge. Cormac has been the subject of another Asher series, the 'Agent Cormac' books, of which I have read absolutely none. But, seeing as this seems to act as a prequel to that series (despite being written afterwards), I figured it was as good a place as any to start. I seem to be reading the books completely out of sequence, having started with The Skinner, but this is how it fits in with the Polity timeline: How much the information in this book will spoil any reveals in the main Cormac sequence remains to be seen, but I thought this one worked quite well, even though it did call upon my knowledge of his Polity universe gained through the other books mentioned above. As such, it's maybe not a good place to start for anyone new to Asher's work. 8/10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timstar Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 Good review Steve, Spatterjay is still on my wishlist. But I really need to get my TBR pile down! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted October 12, 2012 Author Share Posted October 12, 2012 Book #68: The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld Blurb: When a wealthy young debutante is discovered bound, whipped and strangled in a luxurious apartment overlooking the city, and another society beauty narrowly escapes the same fate, the mayor of New York calls upon Freud to use his revolutionary new ideas to help the surviving victim recover her memory of the attack, and solve the crime. But nothing about the attacks - or about the surviving victim, Nora - is quite as it seems. Thoughts: Set in 1909, this novel is a mix of actual and fictional events. Taking the real-life visit of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung to the US it jumps off into a murder mystery using Freud's theories as a basis for uncovering the truth. It is his young American 'disciple', Stratham Younger, who is the main protagonist of the novel. Through his somewhat tenuous links to one of New York's upper class families, Younger's attendance at a high society ball results in him being pushed in front of the city's mayor and told of an attack on the teenage daughter of one of the mayor's good friends. Since the attack, the traumatised daughter has been unable to speak, and it is suggested that Younger's (and Freud's) methods might be able to help. Running parallel to this, a young detective, Jimmy Littlemore, is called upon by the city coroner to assist in the investigation of the murder of a debutante, the circumstances of which seem to link it directly to Younger's own case. I've read a fair bit of negativity towards this book and, for sure, it is quite clunky in places. It's unique selling point - the presence of Freud and Jung as characters involved in the story - is, to my mind, a nonsense. There is absolutely no need for them to be involved, or to even appear, in the story. Yes, one of Freud's theories is particularly relevant, but does he really need to be present for it to be so? No. That Freud's presence is pushed so hard is daft, because he doesn't actually appear that much. Even in the author's notes, Rubenfeld observes that most of his dialogue is taken from Freud's own papers. It's a bizarre choice which, to me, just indicates the author wanting to show off the research he'd done. Remove this sub-plot and it would have been a tighter, better novel, in my opinion. Additionally, many of Younger's scenes are told in the first person, whilst the rest of the book is in third person. I say 'many' because, at times, Rubenfeld decides to narrate scenes in which Younger is involved from another point of view in third person. It's kind of weird and occasionally jarring. I also found the presentation of Freud's theories, and of various theories on the interpretation of Shakespeare's Hamlet, a little over-cooked and repetitive. We get the idea, get on with the story already! Despite all this, I found it to be a suprisingly fast-paced and enjoyable read. The crime and its solution are suitably convoluted, there is a fair amount of humour (which works quite well but did make me wonder exactly what atmosphere Rubenfeld was trying to create), and Littlemore in particular is a very likeable character. Reading all the hyperbole quoted on the cover from various sources, I was possibly expecting something more from the book. It is neither 'spectacular' nor 'fiendishly clever' (blame The Guardian for those), but it is never less than an entertaining, if light, read. I'll probably seek out Rubenfeld's next book at some point. 7/10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankie Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 I can't believe you finished the novel already Hm. I was fearing to read your review of the book because I've just coincidentally purchased the novel myself and I was worried that I might be spoiled in some way. Eventhough I'm sure you are quite capable of using spoiler tags if need be. But now I'm happy that I read it, because I can adjust my own expectations accordingly Thank you very much I'm glad you enjoyed it, even given the few points that seemed to annoy you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted October 19, 2012 Author Share Posted October 19, 2012 Book #69: Apartment 16 by Adam Nevill Blurb: Some doors are better left closed . . . In Barrington House, an upmarket block in London, there is an empty apartment. No one goes in, no one comes out. And it’s been that way for fifty years. Until the night watchman hears a disturbance after midnight and investigates. What he experiences is enough to change his life forever. A young American woman, Apryl, arrives at Barrington House. She's been left an apartment by her mysterious Great Aunt Lillian who died in strange circumstances. Rumours claim Lillian was mad. But her diary suggests she was implicated in a horrific and inexplicable event decades ago. Determined to learn something of this eccentric woman, Apryl begins to unravel the hidden story of Barrington House. Thoughts: Sometimes I can't wait to review a book, other times I almost can't be bothered. Apartment 16 definitely fits into the latter category. For a horror novel it is amazingly devoid of atmosphere, which should be a criminal offense for any book in the genre. For me, the structure did not work at all. The prologue introduces us to Seth, a night porter at Barrington House, and the strange noises emanating from the titular apartment number 16. Straight away we learn about how Seth is drawn to the apartment, which is fair enough, but, because of the way in which Seth's involvement is dealt with it robs the story of all mystery - or, at least, it did for me. It was pretty obvious from the very first chapters exactly what was going on, which made the rest of the book a bit of a slog. It might have worked better for me had Nevill taken his other main protagonist, Apryl, and told the story completely from her point of view, as she tries to uncover the mystery of what happened to her uncle and aunt in their apartment in the building. Hers is the more engaging tale, and she is the more engaging character. Atmosphere, atmosphere, atmosphere. It's completely missing. There is no build up of tension, the scares - such as they are - are reliant upon incredibly wordy and yet vague descriptions which are repetitive and end up being little more than padding - and there's a lot of padding in this book. Nevill also seems to think that having characters swear a lot amounts to adult content when, really, it just comes off as juvenile. When the story finally does reach its point (at least 100 pages too late) it does belatedly start to engage, but then it culminates in a horribly rushed and unimpressive conclusion, compounded by . . . a sudden decision to introduce other character viewpoints, which he undoubtedly considered to be 'the big surprise' but which is actually jarring and results in page after page of characters, who have just been bit-part players until this point, justifying their actions. Yawn. I've put off reading this book for a long time. I should've put it off even longer. 5/10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timstar Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 Oh dear, I was really hoping to like Nevill and heard lots of good stuff so I bought Apartment 16 and The Banquet for the Damned. I gave up on Banquet as it was tediously boring, and also lacked atmosphere and characters worth investing in. I have put off reading Apartment 16 in the hope that if I approach with a fresh outlook I will enjoy it more. Maybe this is not the case.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankie Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 Oh dang. I was hoping you'd like it, or rather that it had been a great book. Now I'm not sure if I want to keep it on the wishlist. Darn bugger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobblybear Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 That's a shame. I'd heard of this book before, and made a mental note to read it at some point, but not sure if I should bother now. Like you say, horror novels need atmosphere; without it, it's just words on a page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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