Several people have read my review of Anthony Ryan’s Blood Song and have asked me to let them know when another craic read comes alongREAD THIS BOOK.
Several people have read my review of Anthony Ryan’s Blood Song and have asked me to let them know when another craic read comes along.
HERE IT IS. READ IT. READ IT NOW. READ IT TWICE.
Books like this are a privilege. Books like this remind you of why you are a person who reads for fun.
I started to write a deep analysis of what the book is about and why I love it. But that’s not what I want to do with this review because I don’t want to be the adult who takes apart the toaster right now. I don’t want to fiddle under the hood. Maybe some day.
But right now I just want to revel in this book the way I reveled in Heidi when I was 5. I want to revel in the memory of the book’s world and enjoy having been there.
This book goes on my Better Than Five Stars shelf.
Note to the author: I broke my Martin Rothfuss rule for you and read the first book before the others were complete and I am imploring you to keep faith and release the others. Yes, I know you’re not a slave to my whims (we’ll leave the misogynistic term to Neil Gaiman) and yet I’d love to read more of these people and their world. ...more
Every so often one of my friends will ask me to review their books. I used to do it a lot, but I am picky so I am running out of friends. People find Every so often one of my friends will ask me to review their books. I used to do it a lot, but I am picky so I am running out of friends. People find excuses to take their friendship elsewhere when you politely but firmly two-star their baby. My method lately has been to "say nice or say nothing".
Two times in the last three years I have had friends write books that are so compelling, enjoyable, well-written and improbably relevant to my interests that I won't shut up about it. I will beg people to read it. And I buy my own copy even though I already got a review copy. This is the second of those two times.
This is a book so good, so on point, that I can't stop raving about it.
It's fantasy, but fantasy in a world where women are equal to men in theory AND practice.
I like fantasy to make me think. To this day _Curse of Chalion_ is my favourite fantasy, followed closely by _Blood Song_ and _Name of the Wind_.
Like those, this fantasy makes me think. It compells me to rumination on bigger topics. But it's also a terrific story that's well-paced.
One thing I need to make very clear, though, is that this is a book written with a Christian perspective, focusing on a religion that is deeply analogous to Biblical Christianity. I know that type of story doesn't appeal across the board and since this book is so special I urge you to NOT read it if you're not into that type of story.
****SPOILER ALERT*******
There are a LOT of animals in this story. Some die, and their deaths are on-page.
5.0 Stars. What a wonderful, perfect book. I lingered over it for nearly a week, in hopes that I would not be made to leave. As with all perfect books5.0 Stars. What a wonderful, perfect book. I lingered over it for nearly a week, in hopes that I would not be made to leave. As with all perfect books, it brought me into its world. I am sad to have it end.
ETA: I have not yet read her debut _Major Pettigrew_ and therefore came into this without hopes or memories. I feel like much of the criticism for this book is from those who expected a second in a similar vein to Pettigrew. This is a feminist book through and through, emphasising plainly what the world was like for a woman 100 years ago. I appreciated that very much but I think many readers may subconsciously rebel at the plain illustrations of genteel tyranny. ...more
3.5 stars This is a complicated book to rate. It's technically a police procedural but it's very atmospheric and almost stream-of-consciousness in plac3.5 stars This is a complicated book to rate. It's technically a police procedural but it's very atmospheric and almost stream-of-consciousness in places. It's like a police procedural by Camus or Joyce. That casts it in a certain mood, and sometimes that mood helps the story. Other times it works against it. I often get homesick for London in January and this was an excellent tonic, as the atmospheric ramble really did make me feel present in the London of 1968. That's the strength of this style of storytelling. The drawback, though... Well, the drawback is that this is supposed to be a police procedural. Those books are a sort of puzzle that readers like to try to figure out. The absence of a traditional Police Procedural narrative made the crimes either very easy to solve (the robbery of the menswear store) or bizarrely complex and ultimately uninteresting (the murder of the girl.)
Im definitely going to read the next book, and I suspect that knowing the style ahead of time will make me better able to prepare expectations. ...more
WARNING: A good percentage of the book features a character killing and eating dogs.
Review: I absolutely loved the first book. I really like3.5 Stars
WARNING: A good percentage of the book features a character killing and eating dogs.
Review: I absolutely loved the first book. I really liked a lot about this second book. It’s a solid novel with a compelling story.
There are two storylines running concurrently. They both involve female characters awakening to their purpose and building families of choice.
My reason for dropping this to 3.5 stars is the big end conflict. It was irrational and utterly contrived. The obvious solution is obvious to anyone who read the first few pages of the book.
But instead of going straight for the clean, obvious ending there’s a lot of out-of-Left-field nonsense. Four chapters of this drag on exhaustingly and then some cooler authorial head prevails and we do the obvious solution. ...more
I started skimming when the main viewpoint character kills a dog. That's the character we're supposed to root for. The theiving, lying (her words) dogI started skimming when the main viewpoint character kills a dog. That's the character we're supposed to root for. The theiving, lying (her words) dog murderer. That's how bleak and awful this book is. When the best person in the story murders pets, it's a morass of swampy black hearts. I've lived long enough to know that there is evil in the world. I don't need to visit it for fun. The actual mystery--what I came for--is fairly hamfisted in its execution. That's my central frustration with Flynn. She excels at writing actively unsympathetic characters, people who are gross. But she can't craft a mystery around them that works as a mystery. So we're stuck in this slough of casual villains, with no actual conclusion. It's just NOT a book Id recommend. ...more
*****WARNING****** A cat is tortured to death on pages 129-131
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I gave this book EVERY POSSIBLE CHANCE. I swear I did. But it just never j*****WARNING****** A cat is tortured to death on pages 129-131
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I gave this book EVERY POSSIBLE CHANCE. I swear I did. But it just never jelled. It was terribly uneven, the characters were ciphers, the best scenes were lifted directly from Rothfuss and Ryan. It's as if the author thought he'd rewrite Name Of The Wind and Blood Song for a YA audience.
Everyone said it got better at the halfway mark. I read it through to that point and then skimmed. There were no characters to endear me to the story.
I wanted this book to live up to the hype. I truly did. But it doesn't.
I'm having trouble warming to this. I just started Chapter 6, and I have whiplash. The author starts the story going in a particular direction and them veers off into another sort of tale altogether. Twice now I've been ready to settle in and enjoy a certain type of story and twice now he's fast forwarded beyond the events I wanted to know about. It feels like he doesn't know what his book wants to be when it grows up....more
I gave this book two stars as a compromise. However unfair it is to author CJ Sansome I CANNOT rate the Kindle version any higher.
If this were just tI gave this book two stars as a compromise. However unfair it is to author CJ Sansome I CANNOT rate the Kindle version any higher.
If this were just the story and Sansome's artful telling thereof I would happily give it four stars. Unfortunately there's the matter of the error-ridden text. There are 56 typo/formatting errors across 600 pages--at least that. I lost count. The errors are clearly the result of an unproofed OCR conversion. Flustered becomes Hustered; Cull becomes CuH; random commas, periods, and spaces are inserted willy-nilly. The sum total is a constant distraction that keeps the reader from being able to read smoothly and immersively.
This book is sold to Kindle-users at a top price, even though it's 10 years old. There is NO EXCUSE for a big publishing house to ask such high price in return for this shoddy merchandise.
It's a shame. Sansome's story deserves better....more
I have to mark this as a spoiler review. I'm not going to tell you whodunit but I am going to tell you that we spen**spoiler alert** 2.5 stars. YUCK.
I have to mark this as a spoiler review. I'm not going to tell you whodunit but I am going to tell you that we spend far too much time watching a drunk be a drunk. Nothing is quite so tedious as long passages of a drunk who staggers around not remembering anything because he's so drunk.
The other main problem was the false-solution junk that clutters up the worst mystery novels. They decided at least three times who the killer was and set up several dramatic arrests that turned even more dramatic when the suspect was revealed (one way or another) to be innocent. It just was not a great book. ...more
The most fun I've had reading in five months. And I'm saying that after just coming off _Bloody Jack_, another 5-star read. This book truly is craicinThe most fun I've had reading in five months. And I'm saying that after just coming off _Bloody Jack_, another 5-star read. This book truly is craicing great fun. ...more
I initially gave this 4 stars because it was a fu page turner for the first 70%. But the more I think about the ending and how much it upset me, the mI initially gave this 4 stars because it was a fu page turner for the first 70%. But the more I think about the ending and how much it upset me, the more angry I get.
I'd've given it 2 stars, but it really was well done until it went off the rails.
*****Spoiler*******
If I read through a book where a sadistic ass kills and maims people all over the map I sure as shootin' don't want it to end with the police showing up to a person's house and that person being all "yeah, I stabbed him. There's his body."
It was just the worst ending.
The less said, too, about the utter cock-up of Tony and Carol's relationship the better. ...more
First: the animal doesn't die, but is severely wounded. That costs the story one half star for me.
This is a fine, fast-paced, read-in-one-sitting2.5
First: the animal doesn't die, but is severely wounded. That costs the story one half star for me.
This is a fine, fast-paced, read-in-one-sitting type of thriller.
It does get very gory at the end, and I had to skim a couple of passages.
One thing I don't get about this book at all: The author makes a big deal in the opening chapters about the lead's super autobiographical memory. Yet the SAM never really plays a pivotal part in the solving of the case.
It's especially annoying because the author doesn't seem to understand SAM. Most of the time she has the lead do things that are eidetic, not super autobiographical. Yet even the eidetic recalls are nothing earth-shattering or case-solving. At best having her "remember" a news article just saves a paragraph here and there where another cop would look something up on a computer.
If you want a book to read on a short plane trip, this is an ok choice....more