#1

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Bernard Jan: Postcards From Beyond Reality (EBook, Bernard Jan) 4 stars

His life has been a cocktail of melancholy, sorrow, and desire. When a skateboarder dips …

Intriguing poetic portrait

4 stars

I will admit that, when I was first offered a review copy of Postcards From Beyond Reality, I wasn't sure how well the project would work out. I knew how convincingly Bernard Jan had managed to inhabit Michael Daniels' personality within the novel Cruel Summer, but to repeat the feat for a whole poetry collection did seem ambitious to say the least. I should have had more faith!

I loved being given deeper insights into Michael's character through his poetry. It often felt as though I was surreptitiously reading his journal or diary instead. The work is so personal yet also addresses universal themes, particularly those that are important to young people. On remembering how the events of Cruel Summer affected Michael, I could see echoes within the poems however I don't think it is necessary to have already read the novel in order to appreciate Postcards From Beyond Reality. …

reviewed Winter's Heart by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time, #9)

Robert Jordan: Winter's Heart (Paperback, 2002, Tor Books) 4 stars

The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. …

Picking up speed

5 stars

I feel like the series really gets much better again with Winter's Heart. Yes, there's still repetitive stuff, when things get described, that have been described every book since #1. That's probably worse if you read the whole lot in one go as I do now.

But thanks to massive story beats around Mat, Elayne and Rand here, arcs get resolved that have been hanging in mid-air for whole books. And it's good, trust me. At least, when seen in the context of the whole series, of course.