shelley.s

Oh Andrea you must! Its soo good. It reminded me a bit of shutter island. I'll probably end up reading the majority of Dicks books this year but I have a feeling that A Scanner Darkly will always be my favourite Yes definatly do, don't forget to let us know if you enjoy it! Some people love Philik K Dick and others just don't get the books at all but for me his books are as addictive as Terry Pratchetts!

Hi Ian, I've not yet read The man in the high castle but its on the list for this year! In fact I'm totally new to sci-fi. For years believed I wouldnt like it so only read fantasy and horror and at the most lurked at the edge of sci-fi. It was only until I got A Scanner Darkly for christmas and read it that I realised what I've been missing out on all these years. So I went sci-fi nuts and got Do androids dream of electric sheep and Flowers for Algernon both books I loved and how now plan to get Flow my Tears, The policeman said and Valis. I'm gutted you didnt enjoy A Scanner Darkly, its one of my favourite books along with Flowers for Algernon!

Yeh had I known how bad The people next door was id never have bothered reading it! What makes it worse was my friend recommended it to me and said it was really good! I wont be reading anymore of her recommendations needless to say as her veiw of a good book is clearly some what warped! Do Androids dream of electric sheep is a really good book, although I thought A scanner darkly was better. Flowers for Algernon is a must! I really reccommend it for all types of readers. Its a tear jerker though!

Hey all, Haven't been on for a while but I've been very busy on the book side of things! I have set myself the challange of reading a minimum of 75 books in 2012 and have got off to a very sci-fi start! Here are the books I've read so far this year... 01/01/2012 - 01/02/2012 Clockwork Prince 5/5 - This is the sequal to Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare. I loved it, it was such an excting read. If your a fan of Twilight you'll love these books! Its about a group of shadow hunters (people that hunt bad demons, vampires etc) and their fight against the 'magister' who is trying to kidnap the main character, Tessa, for unknown reasons. Its takes off where the last book ended, set in victorian London wth a group of Shadow hunters living in an institute together. The love triangle between the main 3 characters Tessa, Jem and Will grows ever stronger and there's greater risk of some one getting hurt. Secrets are revealed and a friend betrays the institute in this fabulous new installment. The Windup Girl 3/5 - This is Paolo Bacigalupi's first book. I wasnt sure about this book, all the way through I just couldnt figure out if I was enjoying it or not. Its quite political and in some chapters its easy to get a bit lost but after I had finished it, in hindsight, it was ok. Set almost entirely in the City of Divine Beings in Thailand in a post oil future where plagues and blights have wiped out the majority of all crops this books take a scary look into a possible future. In parts of the country where so many people are dead or suffering wind up workers were created to carry out work. This book is based on a wind up girl in particular who was left behind by her owner and sold on to a seedy night club to perform sexual acts as a slave. The girl however becomes a bit of a side story as the majority of the book is taken up by governments and groups and their wars for power fighting over who rules the country. The ending is rather sad but there is a good moral to this story. If everyone fights so much over something, eventually, there might not be anything left to fight over. Some people will love it and some will hate it but for now I'm on the fence. PLEASE NOTE: This book contains graphic scenes of a sexual nature, young readers may find it disturbing A Scanner Darkly 5/5 - This book blew me away, I enjoyed every minute of it and the ending had such a fab twist, it kind of reminded me of shutter island. If you want something a bit different with a good twist this is definatly the book to read! Phillip K Dick is such a unique writer, I think every one should read at least one of his books! Bob Arctor is a substance D addict. He lives with two of his addict mates who all generally fool around on crazy trips after taking the drug. Fred is an investigator sent in to bug Arctors house with scanners to find out who the big people are in this chain of drug deals. Substance D is so powerful that it almost always permanantly brain damages its user causing permanant phycosis. Things start to get strange... or do they... there's a fine line between reality and drug fuelled fantasy... can you work it out! The people next door 2/5 - This book is written by Christopher Ransom. I've got to be honest, it was naff. It could have been so good but it just wasnt. There were parts in the book that were good, especailly if you like reading gore and the idea was there but it just wasnt utilised. The ending was very mediocre and I was really dissapointed. After a trip on the boating lake goes wrong Mick Nash takes his family back home to discover that the huge expensive house next door to theirs has become occupied. In the following months after the accident the people next door seem to be living on the fringes of the Nash families lives. Always there, always lurking. Murders start to take place and a ghost of Micks friend warms him to stay away from the people next door. Sounds good but its not, don't waste good reading time on this book! Do androids dream of electric sheep 5/5 Another awesome Phillip K Dick book. I really enjoyed this book, another unique story which most sci-fi fans will enjoy. Set in the future where the majority of human kind have migrated to the planet Mars, only people that have been effected by the radioactive dust or 'chickenheads' remain. Rick remains on earth, he's an adroid hunter, retiring rogue androids that have escaped their owners and become too advanced to be controlled. Ricks biggest dream is to have a real live animal. Seeing as almost all animals are extinct after being wiped out but the radioactive dust they have become very expensive to buy and rare to find. All Rick owns is a false electrict sheep. Will he ever get a live animal? Flowers for Algernon 5/5 This book is written by Daniel Keyes and has been one of my favourite books so far. Its really sad but I was gripped by every page. It written so incredibally well, he's such a clever author. I even prelonged reading the ending simply because I didnt want the book to be over. It really is a moving reading, again another book that all sci-fi fans should read! Charlie Gordon is a retard, he works in his late uncle's friends bakery as a cleaner and an odd job boy until his special needs teacher puts him forward for an experimental brain operation that could increase his IQ and make him normal. The experiment has been carried out very sucessfully on a mouse named Algernon, he's become a genius, every thing that charlie Gordon wants to be. After having the operation his IQ shoots from 68 to over 130, but life is very diffent now that he is a genius and the horrors from his life as a retarted child start to haunt him. Everything that he never understood before has now become crystal clear. His friends were only his freinds because they could constantly goad him and use him as the butt of their jokes and his mother hated the fact that he was dumb so much that she kicked him out of their home. Was his previous ignorance bliss compared to his new life as an angry, frightened and confused genius? After a few months Algernon unexpectedly starts to deterioate and then dies. What does this mean now for poor Charlie? So as you can see, I've been busy as a bee but I've loved every moment of reading the majority of these books! I've now just bought Daughter of smoke and bone by Laini Taylor. So I will let you know how I get on with this book soon

Hi all, I'm looking for a book for my partner for christmas. He particularly likes zombie apocalypse's but I don't know what to get him. I was looking at the books by Davide Moody, the book I really wanted (Autumn: Disintegration) isnt out until after christmas so I'm now looking at his others. Which order do they go in and are they any good? They've had some really good reviews but at the same time some really bad ones! Please help! Thanks

I'm still reading The ring of soloman by jonathan stroud. It seems like I've been reading it forever. Its not that the book isnt good but I've got lots of other books id prefer to be reading so this one seems to be going slow. Plus I've notlong finished the Bartimaeus trilogy so its been a bit of a Bartimaeus overload which gets a bit saming. Its not helped that I left the book at work this after nooon either, hardly going make any head way by doing that My next book is Her Fearful Symmetry which I'm a bit dubious about but I hope I enjoy it!

This

Harry Potter... I want to ride on a staircase

I'm reading The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud. Its alright, I'm not enjoying it as much as I enjoyed The Bartimaeus trilogy, its not really keeping me gripped but that might be because I just finished Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare and absolutly loved it. I'll stick with it but I hope it gets more exciting!

Hi & Welcome, I'm fairly new here too and already the reviews and opinions have been fab. I've read lots of really great books recently and I would never have picked them up off the shelf if it hadnt been for other members recommending them. I hope you enjoy the forum as much as I do!

Thank you, thats really helpful! I think I've covered most of the points in my review above however I want to make it a bit more interesting! I think I'll have a re-write!

Yes thats very true. I'd never write a horrendous review as I'm aware of peoples feeling and if id written a book and got it publish just to read people saying terrible things about it id be really hurt! If a book is bad I'll still find as many good points as I can without being misleading to the reader however if I really can't find anything good to say I just wont write a review on it. I've started a review on the Harry Potter series, they were books that I loved and that I thought would be easy to write my first review about. I've pasted it in below... please can people tell me what they think and if/how I can improve it? Please be honest! These books were the books that got me reading. They are imaginative, mostly original, spell binding and most of all they keep the reader gripped. Anyone can enjoy these books. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Rate: 5/5 The first book in the Harry Potter seriesis a great scene setter yet it also contains action and excitement. This book is the first of the seven. It introduces us to Harry Potter, a seemingly unfortunate orphan who is living with his Aunt and uncle and spoilt cousin (The Dursleys). He isn’t wanted by the family who make it clear to him that he is a burden. Harry soon learns that he is a wizard after he recieves an invitation from Dumbledor to attend Hogwarts, a school for witch craft and wizardry. From then on Harry learns that his parents were brutally murdered by the evil wizard lord voldemort and he has now turned his attentions to the young wizard Harry. I loved the first book it did everything a first book should do and much much more. It built a relationship between the reader and Harry fantastically, it introduces you to Harrys friends (Ron and Hermoine, that stay with him through out the series) and it sets the scenes and atmospheres of the wizarding world brilliantly. This book is really great read and a definate must have for Fantasy book lovers

Wonderful thank you chrissy, just what I was after!

I had a moment like that last night. I'm reading Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare. I was so tired and had to get up for work really early the next morning but I really had to see what happened next

(Sorry mods, not sure what section this post should be under?) Anyway hi all, I need to borrow your knowledge (not that I plan to return it ) I've started a blog writing books reviews on the things I've read but its alot harder than I thought it would be I find I keep writing the same thing and I'm not really sure what to write without spoiling the plot. What do people expect to find out from a review apart from whether the book was good or bad? Does anyone know of any writing frames or good examples I could use? Also as the majority of the stuff I read is sci-fi/fantasy/horror alot of the books have things in common, I don't want to all of my reviews to sound the same about different books

Steven King's IT. I havent read it personally but that book normally crops up in this kind of topic

Hi Alison

Hi Lu lu I'm pretty new here too. Welcome to the forum. I've not read twilight although I felt the same way about the Harry Potter books as you do Twilight, cherish it because I've not found any other books that have given me the same feeling as the HP books did, I think its rare so live in the moment

Thats a shame as the books are so good but I totally see where your comming from. I watched let the right one in and then I realised that it was originally a book and felt a bit gutted. I don't want to read it now that I've see the books as theres no suspense. What about the Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud, I loved these books and have just ordered the new prequel