Reviews and Comments

urbaer

urbaer@bookwyrm.social

Joined 3 years, 6 months ago

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Philip Reeve: Predator's Gold (The Hungry City Chronicles) (2006, Eos) 4 stars

Review of "Predator's Gold (The Hungry City Chronicles)" on 'GoodReads'

4 stars

"I just make it up as I go along" Hester says, which I guess is kind of what this one feels like.

There doesn't seem to be as strong a structure or clear goals for the characters to follow in this one compared to the first book and while it probably visits less locations, it felt like it bounced around more than the first.

Will still read the next one and see where it goes though.

reviewed The kiss murder by Mehmet Murat Somer (A Penguin mystery)

Review of 'The kiss murder' on 'GoodReads'

1 star

Abandoned about half way through.

The cover is fantastic.

This was a slog and I sometimes had to wonder if I was really reading a mystery novel. Once I got halfway through, saw that it was supposed to be hilarious. I hadn't seen anything that looked like a joke....

And it didn't really feel like she was investigating anything really. There didn't seem to be all that much stakes and I couldn't work out why someone who was being paid to be a white hat hacker wasn't using those skills to investigate this stuff.

Cover's fantastic though.

reviewed Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve (Mortal Engines Quartet, #1)

Philip Reeve: Mortal Engines (Paperback, 2004, Harper Collins US UK) 4 stars

"It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing …

Review of 'Mortal Engines (The Hungry City Chronicles)' on 'GoodReads'

3 stars

A fairly decent romp in a far flung future where cities have been turned mobile and eating each other for so long that they've started to starve, having sucked all the resources that they could from other cities.

There are pirates, zombie cyborg ninjas, vague and light political intrigue, sacrifice, questioning your parents or just losing them altogether. So pretty much like Katamari Damacy I guess.

It's generally a light punchy read where two of the main characters journey around the world, bouncing from one situation to the next.

The parts where the novel decided to go I to present tense rather than past tense are painful, though I'm not sure why. These tend to be scenes that the younger characters are not aware of and it seems jarring.

It's a pretty inoffensive steampunky romp.

reviewed Sourcery by Terry Pratchett (Discworld, #5)

Terry Pratchett: Sourcery (Paperback, 1989, Corgi Adult) 4 stars

When last seen, the singularly inept wizard Rincewind had fallen off the edge of the …

Review of 'Sourcery (Discworld Novel S.)' on 'GoodReads'

3 stars

I honestly don't know how much of my enjoyment of this book is nostalgia for the Discworld MUD and how much is actual enjoyment. As much of the book deals with the UU and the orders it's hard not to wistfuly recall the hours spent working my way through the library and making trips down to the Drum.

But the book... the pacing is a little wonky, but the jokes are there and unlike TCOM it has a firm plot. Rincewind's sacrifice and character arc may not entirely be earned, but I remember the first time I read it, this was quite sad.

Review of 'Star Diaries' on 'GoodReads'

4 stars

I'm not sure if I prefer Tichy to Pirx. Tichy's tales vary wildly from the absurd to discussions on philosophy or historical parodies. Pirx tends to stay in the puzzle to solve lane pretty much.

Some of these can be a bit of a slog (mostly the later written ones), though they certainly have their moments with laugh out loud jokes and lines that give you pause for thought.

That said I think I prefer the tone and style of the earlier written ones. They're a little bit more goofball but they're just a breeze to read. It's almost like you get your desserts before your vegetables in this book.

But of course I love it.

"4 billion BCE: The Jagaroth, the most powerful, vicious, and visually unappealing race in the …

Review of 'Doctor Who' on 'GoodReads'

4 stars

A good read, but this may just be nostalgia for an episode that firmly was stuck in my memory.

Fun to see how the story is every so slightly different in places compared to the aired version. On the whole they don't dramatically change the story, but they do give some insight into some of the characters motivations (except Duggan, he just likes hitting things).

Review of 'Big Apple Takedown (WWE)' on 'GoodReads'

1 star

Picked this up at a discount book place a while ago and finally got to read it. It's dross.

I spent most of the book wondering if there would have been any difference in the story if they were a ragtag group of fresh recruits from spy school instead of wrestlers I mean apart from the risk of being recognised by the general public and having to complete missions within three days, which I would have thought would have been reasons not to get them to work as spies. Really if this book were not released by WWE not much of the story would be different.

By the second last chapter though when John Cena, who is about to drop on to a goon whispers to himself "You can't see me" I had to facepalm.

Worse still when Austin is driving a car with Torrie, Batista and Eddie.... "Can I …