Archive for the 'Books' Category

The Gilded Chain

13/03/2008

Another one from the Sci-Fi Club Top 50 and another cracker. Most people think of fantasy novels like many of the posters you see, or a Conan movie, all muscle-bound heroes in loincloths and damsels in barely anything, fighting against dark lords and huge beasts. That’s rarely the case, certainly with the best [...]

Misspent Youth

12/03/2008

I generally like Hamilton’s books, and this is a precursor to the Commonwealth novels of Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained, the first to feature rejuvenation, something that is used heavily in those books.
It’s been suggested this was a way to feel out and test the water of some of the technologies that would be used [...]

Ender’s Game

11/03/2008

This was a recommendation from the Science Fiction Book Club Top 50 science fiction/fantasy novels, 1953-2002 (via Binary Bonsai). It was a good choice, I was a bit dubious, a sci-fi action novel starring a six-year-old, but Ender’s Game is fantastic. Sometime in the future Earth has to fight off an invasion force [...]

Hacker’s Tales

9/03/2008

I have read both Clifford Stoll’s The Cuckoo’s Egg and Tsutomu Shimomura’s Takedown, both of which are excellent stories about tracking hackers. I was hoping Hacker’s Tales was more of the same, but what I found was disappointing. There are very few real stories and the book basically serves as an excuse for [...]

Stamping Butterflies

30/11/2007

I’m not sure I’m enjoying each new book from Grimwood more than the last. The only book that really didn’t sit well was Redrobe, and perhaps the later Arabesk books (the series seemed to go a little too out there). Stamping Butterflies takes a long time to get going, you start with three [...]

Flyte

26/10/2007

The second book in the Septimus Heap series carries on the wacky notions, action, adventure and inventiveness of the first. Septimus is slowly growing into his role, but limitations on his magyk abilities mean the problems he faces cannot simply be solved with a charm and he has to rely on others and his [...]

Skybreaker

25/10/2007

Another great action story from Oppell which starts a few years after the events of Airborn. Many of the great characters return and this book, more so even than the first, has a feeling something like a 30’s swashbuckler, where the odds are long, the technology rudimentary and yet men (and women in this [...]

Infernal Machines

21/08/2007

I’ve been on a bit of a reading bent of late, starting with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (which I still haven’t written a review for), but Infernal Machines, the third book in the series which started with Mortal Engines, is the first one off my shelf of to-be-read books (I keep buying new [...]

Magyk

16/08/2007

Magyk is the first of the Septimus Heap series, which I found through an article on the Guardian Unlimited Film site titled ‘Harry Potter meets his match in Septimus Heap.’ I did my preferred method of research, head on over to the Amazon.com page and try and read an extract (I also found extracts [...]

Imperium

8/08/2007

I’ve read all of Robert Harris’ books, after catching on to Fatherland somewhat later than most. Imperium is somewhat different to his other novels, which are generally set in an historical setting, and may feature actual historical figures, but are fictitious, mainly murder mystery thrillers, but always clever, entertaining and in-depth. Imperium features [...]