Steve's Bookshelf 2013

[Karsa Orlong]

We've had two IT guys in the office today, and their names are Luke and Ben.  I sensed a disturbance in the Force      Or it might just have been indigestion

 

[poppyshake]

On the plus side, at least there was no Liv 'soft-focus, slow-motion' Tyler to ruin things

 I remember seeing on the LOTR extras that they had wanted to use Liv more (good grief ) and had written a scene whereby she was fighting at Helms Deep  I still cringe at the thought and I think she had to learn to sword fight but then they wrote some more soppy scenes for her and Aragorn    

Well I'm guessing the third film will be:

 

 

about the war of the five armies (which Tolkien dealt with in about two pages, but Jackson will drag out for at least two hours), and then an hour of Bilbo saying goodbye to everyone and going home, then another half hour with Ian Holm and Elijah Wood, just for balance, of course

 

 

You are right I bet   I don't know if I can whack up the ginger to go and see it .. but then there's always the choccy plus I hate to leave a job two thirds finished  I could maybe wait for the DVD though .. but then Alan will want to go I expect though he hated how much time it took

Frodo and Sam to get up Mount Doom  

[Athena]

You are right I bet   I don't know if I can whack up the ginger to go and see it .. but then there's always the choccy plus I hate to leave a job two thirds finished  I could maybe wait for the DVD though .. but then Alan will want to go I expect though he hated how much time it took

Frodo and Sam to get up Mount Doom  

x

I agree, I thought it took a lot of time as well. I hope you have fun if the two of you go see the film . I might go see it too, in the Christmas holidays.

[pontalba]

We've had two IT guys in the office today, and their names are Luke and Ben.  I sensed a disturbance in the Force      Or it might just have been indigestion

 

 

     Good one!

[frankie]

We've had two IT guys in the office today, and their names are Luke and Ben.  I sensed a disturbance in the Force      Or it might just have been indigestion

 

 

Who's Ben? I know Luke is from The Gilmore Girls

 

Edited December 5, 2013 by frankie

[Marie H]

We've had two IT guys in the office today, and their names are Luke and Ben.  I sensed a disturbance in the Force      Or it might just have been indigestion

 

Oh, that is really sharp!!  .

[Karsa Orlong]

Who's Ben? I know Luke is from The Gilmore Girls

 

 

 

 

 

[frankie]

 

 

 

 

 

Oooh! I do recognise the facepalm

[frankie]

.. the facepalm is a good thing, right? It's like bowing to the master?

[Karsa Orlong]

.. the facepalm is a good thing, right? It's like bowing to the master?

 

Yes.  Yeeeessss, that's exactly what it is  

[frankie]

Yay, so cool

[pontalba]

Ummm.....I am compelled to post this link. 

 

 

Love.  Love.  Love. Alec Guinness.

[Karsa Orlong]

These aren't the droids you're looking for . . .

 

 

<<waves hand mysteriously>>

 

[shelley.s]

Book #71:  Mayhem by Sarah Pinborough

 

 

From Amazon:

 

When a rotting torso is discovered in the vault of New Scotland Yard, it doesn't take Dr Thomas Bond, Police Surgeon, long to realise that there is a second killer at work in the city where, only a few days before, Jack the Ripper brutally murdered two women in one night.

 

Though just as gruesome, this is the hand of a colder killer, one who lacks Jack's emotion.

 

And, as more headless and limbless torsos find their way into the Thames, Dr Bond becomes obsessed with finding the killer. As his investigations lead him into an unholy alliance, he starts to wonder: is it a man who has brought mayhem to the streets of London, or a monster?

 

 

Thoughts:

 

This was an impulse buy the other day because it was going cheap on Kindle.  Probably unwise, you'd think, but I had a quick look at a couple of non-Amazon reviews and it sounded like my kind of thing.

 

Welcome to Victorian London - in 1887, to be precise - and the time of Jack the Ripper.  Except this story isn't about Jack, it's about another series of murders that were happening at the same time: the so-called 'Embankment murders', or the 'Thames Torso' murders.  Thomas Bond is a doctor who often helps the police with their investigations, and he is called in to examine a woman's torso that has been found on the construction site of the new police headquarters at New Scotland Yard.  Soon the missing limbs (but not the head!) of the victim begin to turn up in the river, and Bond makes connections to another murder, in Rainham, earlier that year.

 

Now, see, this is what I had read about the book, and it sounded very intriguing, a bit gruesome, but mostly a bit scary, and I really liked the sound of it.  I should probably have read the blurb a bit more closely.  The thing is, a little way into the book, it becomes clear that Pinborough is taking the tale down a supernatural route.  Where I was expecting murder investigation and some excitement as the detectives think they may be closing in on the killer, instead we have a Polish immigrant with visions of past and future killings, and a mysterious priest-come-monster hunter who might just as well be Van Helsing with a dog collar.

 

The change in tone threw me a bit, I must confess.  It doesn't make it a bad book - the writing is decent and it is easy to read - but once the truth becomes clear, which is around a third of the way through, I felt it pretty much lost all sense of pacing and fear.  As it's set in Victorian times, I was hoping for some of the atmosphere and smarts that pervade the work of Conan Doyle, but the atmosphere is strangely lacking, and the characters are somewhat flat and uninvolving.  I felt there should have been an overriding feeling of suspense, the terror of who and where the killer might strike next, but it just seemed completely missing to me

 

I expected a bit more from it, really, and I wish Pinborough had stuck to telling that real story.  These murders actually happened.  Dr Bond was a real person.  There is so much scope for a great period crime novel here, even if the crimes were ultimately unsolved.

 

It's such a shame and, as such, I find it hard to recommend.  On the plus side, it's only 350 pages long . . .

 

 

5/10

 

 

ETA:  Oh and it looks like this is the first in a series she is writing about Dr Bond - the next one, Murder, is due out next year.

 

This book sounded so promising, Its such a shame all that potential was lost. However i do still like the sound of it. I like supernatural, if its done well and i love Victorian England though im not sure if its worth the read for a 5/10!

 

I love the front cover though!

Edited December 5, 2013 by shelley.s

[pontalba]

These aren't the droids you're looking for . . .

 

 

<<waves hand mysteriously>>

 

 

Okaaayyyyy.......

[frankie]

Okay, I just read your review of Mayhem. I noticed the review before, but didn't have the time to fully read it until now. Too bad you didn't enjoy it The blurb sounds good, something you might like, and something I'd be interested in myself, coincidentally. And a fab cover!

 

It's kind of odd that a supernatural thing would throw you off... I mean, you being a sci-fi/fantasy fanatic. But maybe it was the sort of supernatural you don't like...? Or maybe it was because you expected a realistic novel?

 

I was going to ask you if the book is based on true cases and then read that yes, it is. Interesting... I really wish this would've been a better read. Bummer!

Edited December 5, 2013 by frankie

[Karsa Orlong]

This book sounded so promising, Its such a shame all that potential was lost. However i do still like the sound of it. I like supernatural, if its done well and i love Victorian England though im not sure if its worth the read for a 5/10!

 

Okay, I just read your review of Mayhem. I noticed the review before, but didn't have the time to fully read it until now. Too bad you didn't enjoy it The blurb sounds good, something you might like, and something I'd be interested in myself, coincidentally. And a fab cover!

 

It's kind of odd that a supernatural thing would throw you off... I mean, you being a sci-fi/fantasy fanatic. But maybe it was the sort of supernatural you don't like...? Or maybe it was because you expected a realistic novel?

 

I was going to ask you if the book is based on true cases and then read that yes, it is. Interesting... I really wish this would've been a better read. Bummer!

 

 

The problem was probably that I didn't realise it was a supernatural story before I started it.  I was expecting lots of detail about the hunt for this killer, and how it played out whilst Jack the Ripper was getting all the attention, and lots of atmospheric Victorian London.  But none of that happened.  I just thought taking the supernatural angle was a bit of a cop-out, like she only wanted to research it so far, and then decided it was easier to explain it all away

 

I don't know if I'd've preferred it if I'd known beforehand that it took that approach.  I think I'd still feel that it lacked atmosphere and character.  Others may love it, though.

[Karsa Orlong]

Book #72:  The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip

 

 

From Amazon:

 

THE FORGOTTEN BEASTS OF ELD is a spellbinding tale of chilling sorcery, human complexities, and dynastic war.

 

Sybel is just sixteen when she is given a baby to raise. Born and brought up on Eld Mountain, with only the fantastic creatures called there by wizardry as playmates, she knows nothing of humankind . . . until the baby awakens emotions she never knew she had. And when Coren, the man who brought the baby to Sybel, returns to Eld, her serenity is shattered once again.

 

 

Thoughts:

 

Continuing my trip back through some fantasy books of yore, I found out about this one by chance as I was browsing.  Winner of the inaugural World Fantasy Award in 1975, McKillip's tale of a young girl who lives alone in a mountain fastness surrounded by mythical creatures has the feel, to me, of an ancient legend, or even a fairy tale, passed down from generation to generation.  

 

Sybel, the ivory-haired protagonist of the story, is a remarkably complex and three-dimensional character.  In the manner of a great saga, the book opens with a brief history of her ancestry, from the wizard Heald (who "coupled with a poor woman once, in the king's city of Mondor, and she bore a son with one green eye and one black eye") to his son Myk, to his son Ogam, and finally to Ogam's daughter Sybel who, as you can gather, is touched with wizardry.  From her cold, abrasive beginnings, as she has been left alone since her father's death, she begins to discover her humanity when a lord of Sirle, Coren (the seventh son of a seventh son, no less), flees a war to bring a baby to her, as she is, apparently, the baby's cousin.  The baby boy, Tamlorn, is a royal heir, and Coren believes it is only with the remote Sybel that the boy will be safe from those who would use him to their own ends.

 

And then there are the beasts themselves.  Sybel, like her father and his father before him, has the ability to "call" these creatures, and once "called" they are bound to her.  Among them are the falcon, Ter, who acts as something of a bodyguard ("I told you to drop him off the top of Eld Mountain," Sybel says to him when Coren first appears   ) and the great boar, Cyrin, who is the wisest of them all but who will only convey that wisdom in the form of riddles.  "The giant Grof," he says, "was hit in one eye by a stone, and that eye turned inward so that it looked into his mind, and he died of what he saw there".  This riddle, in itself, is key to the whole story.  And then there is the Liralen, a great white bird that Sybel has been calling for ages but cannot find.

 

If it sounds a little generic, well, it isn't.  In fact, I'd go so far to say as it is quite unique - I've never read anything like it before, and it isn't at all what I expected it to be.  You might be able to tell where it's going, and you might even be able to tell where it will end, but it's the inevitability of it all, and McKillips' ability to play against those expectations, that raise it above the crowd.  It's layered with meaning, gorgeously written, and full of wonderful characters.  McKillip also has the know-how to make you question, in the second half of the novel, whether or not you should really be liking these characters quite so much.  There is one chapter that is quite horrifying in its intent, chilling, even.  She's also got quite a light touch with the humour, which is very welcome.  If I had any quibbles with it - and I had to have one    - it's that she has a tendency for a kind of stutter in the dialogue, in that the character will start to say something, pause, and then start again.  Not a major issue as such, but it does happen rather a lot, which makes it more noticeable.

 

This is the sort of book you could imagine finding on an elderly relative's bookshelves, hidden away in a corner, that you take down and blow the dust from its cover and lose yourself in it for hours.  It has a timeless, ageless quality to it, and is filled with myths and legends that even the characters themselves have mostly forgotten, lending it a sense of history and depth which, I guess, is what has led McKillip to be compared to Tolkien.  I hate that sort of comparison, though, because it leaves her on a hiding to nothing.  That said, I think this is a wonderful, wonderful book - one with which to sit in front of the fire on a cold winter's afternoon.  Recommended!

 

 

9/10

[shelley.s]

Book #72:  The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip

 

 

From Amazon:

 

THE FORGOTTEN BEASTS OF ELD is a spellbinding tale of chilling sorcery, human complexities, and dynastic war.

 

Sybel is just sixteen when she is given a baby to raise. Born and brought up on Eld Mountain, with only the fantastic creatures called there by wizardry as playmates, she knows nothing of humankind . . . until the baby awakens emotions she never knew she had. And when Coren, the man who brought the baby to Sybel, returns to Eld, her serenity is shattered once again.

 

 

Thoughts:

 

Continuing my trip back through some fantasy books of yore, I found out about this one by chance as I was browsing.  Winner of the inaugural World Fantasy Award in 1975, McKillip's tale of a young girl who lives alone in a mountain fastness surrounded by mythical creatures has the feel, to me, of an ancient legend, or even a fairy tale, passed down from generation to generation.  

 

Sybel, the ivory-haired protagonist of the story, is a remarkably complex and three-dimensional character.  In the manner of a great saga, the book opens with a brief history of her ancestry, from the wizard Heald (who "coupled with a poor woman once, in the king's city of Mondor, and she bore a son with one green eye and one black eye") to his son Myk, to his son Ogam, and finally to Ogam's daughter Sybel who, as you can gather, is touched with wizardry.  From her cold, abrasive beginnings, as she has been left alone since her father's death, she begins to discover her humanity when a lord of Sirle, Coren (the seventh son of a seventh son, no less), flees a war to bring a baby to her, as she is, apparently, the baby's cousin.  The baby boy, Tamlorn, is a royal heir, and Coren believes it is only with the remote Sybel that the boy will be safe from those who would use him to their own ends.

 

And then there are the beasts themselves.  Sybel, like her father and his father before him, has the ability to "call" these creatures, and once "called" they are bound to her.  Among them are the falcon, Ter, who acts as something of a bodyguard ("I told you to drop him off the top of Eld Mountain," Sybel says to him when Coren first appears   ) and the great boar, Cyrin, who is the wisest of them all but who will only convey that wisdom in the form of riddles.  "The giant Grof," he says, "was hit in one eye by a stone, and that eye turned inward so that it looked into his mind, and he died of what he saw there".  This riddle, in itself, is key to the whole story.  And then there is the Liralen, a great white bird that Sybel has been calling for ages but cannot find.

 

If it sounds a little generic, well, it isn't.  In fact, I'd go so far to say as it is quite unique - I've never read anything like it before, and it isn't at all what I expected it to be.  You might be able to tell where it's going, and you might even be able to tell where it will end, but it's the inevitability of it all, and McKillips' ability to play against those expectations, that raise it above the crowd.  It's layered with meaning, gorgeously written, and full of wonderful characters.  McKillip also has the know-how to make you question, in the second half of the novel, whether or not you should really be liking these characters quite so much.  There is one chapter that is quite horrifying in its intent, chilling, even.  She's also got quite a light touch with the humour, which is very welcome.  If I had any quibbles with it - and I had to have one    - it's that she has a tendency for a kind of stutter in the dialogue, in that the character will start to say something, pause, and then start again.  Not a major issue as such, but it does happen rather a lot, which makes it more noticeable.

 

This is the sort of book you could imagine finding on an elderly relative's bookshelves, hidden away in a corner, that you take down and blow the dust from its cover and lose yourself in it for hours.  It has a timeless, ageless quality to it, and is filled with myths and legends that even the characters themselves have mostly forgotten, lending it a sense of history and depth which, I guess, is what has led McKillip to be compared to Tolkien.  I hate that sort of comparison, though, because it leaves her on a hiding to nothing.  That said, I think this is a wonderful, wonderful book - one with which to sit in front of the fire on a cold winter's afternoon.  Recommended!

 

 

9/10

 

Wow now that's more like it! As always a fab review 

 

It sounds like you found a little gem there.

 

How long is it? Just out of interest.

[Signor Finzione]

Glad you enjoyed the McKillip book. Will you be reading the other one now?

[Karsa Orlong]

Wow now that's more like it! As always a fab review 

 

It sounds like you found a little gem there.

 

How long is it? Just out of interest.

 

Thanks    It's only 200 pages long 

 

 

Glad you enjoyed the McKillip book. Will you be reading the other one now?

 

No, you know me, can't usually read two books by the same author on the trot    Now reading Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword 

[Signor Finzione]

No, you know me, can't usually read two books by the same author on the trot    Now reading Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword 

 

Ah, no exceptions here then?    Ooh, you'll have to do a 'Best of 2013' for all the magic swords you've read about this year.

[Athena]

Great review ! The book sounds quite intruiging.

[Karsa Orlong]

Ah, no exceptions here then? 

No And the other book is a trilogy in one volume, so it might take a while   

 

 

Ooh, you'll have to do a 'Best of 2013' for all the magic swords you've read about this year.

 

I don't know if it's a magic sword yet - or are you posting spoilers again?

[Signor Finzione]

I don't know if it's a magic sword yet - or are you posting spoilers again?

 

Noooo, it just says about it being special on the Amazon summary. (Spoilers? Me??    )