What are you reading and book reviews

[volospian]

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

Well.... not sure what to make of this book... it's a fantastic (as in, it's full of fantasy) and rather surreal story about SpecOps LiteraTec operative Miss Thursday Next and her fight against the ArchVillain Acheron Hades.

My initial thoughts are...

Characterisation
The main character, Thursday Next, isn't really well fleshed out. I'm nearly half way through the book and I still feel no real connection with her. No reason to care if she lives or dies, and this seems to be the same story for the other characters. Too many come and go, with minimal descriptions and little in the way of endearing features. Hades seems to be about the best character so far, but that's only through the attitude expressed by the character in the narrative, not through any kind of connection with the "person".

Plot
The core plot is a good idea, and has a lot of potential (I won't give anything away ). The issues lie, for me, with the fantasy world in which Miss Next inhabits. This is no Narnia or Middle Earth. The novel is set in England in the 80's, but Fforde has just gone wild with his imagination. It's like he has picked up every "real world" fantasy idea ever created, poured the lot into a bucket, mixed well and tipped the lot straight into the book. This world has a myriad of alternative timelines, mega corporations controlling the governments, warewolves and vampires, time travel, impossible science fiction inventions, you name it, it's in the book. Indeed, the only thing you'll recognise about this world is the place names.

Sadly, it's all a bit like making a cake and throwing in everything you can find in your kitchen cupboards. The outcome could certainly be described as a cake, but I'm not sure it would taste that good.

style
Hmmm, style... well, the book is quite well written for the most part. I prefer a bit more description of people and events while Fforde tends to focus on the fantasy elements and describes the unusual, leaving the rest to your imagination. This is fine for the most part, but when later narrative relies upon those mundane details, the initial lack of information seems sloppy. He has also written the book with an odd mix of British and American terms and images. The cars seem to be largely American offerings, areas are referred to as "blocks" and so on. I'm not sure whether the intention is to suggest that in this fantasy world, England is, or has been, part of the USA, or the book has just been written to try and sell in an American market. Whichever, I find it annoying and distracting from the narrative.

Conclusion
I bought the book because a lot of reviews said that "if you like Pratchett, you'll love Fforde". Well, I do... and I don't. All this fantasy sort of spoils it for me. It's just a bit too crazy. The world is so far away from reality that I find myself wondering why he bothered to set it in the "real world" at all. Also, Fforde is not funny. There are, as far as I can see, no jokes in this book. The only real link between the writers is the fantasy setting, and for me, the discworld works, while Ffords world doesn't quite hit the mark.

Very slowly I am picking my way through the forest of fantasy and deciphering what is relevant to the plot, and what is just embellishment. The plot is there, the characters, while weak at the moment, do show some promise and some of the fantasy elements are essential to make the plot believable.

I just think that if Fforde had managed to rein in his imagination a bit, and kept the dictionary to one side of the atlantic, the book would be an easier read, and more enjoyable for it.

Rating
6/10

[semi-pro waster]

Archer's Goon was as great as I remembered it, it felt good to read it again.

Next was The Talbot Odyssey by Nelson DeMille - I'd never knowingly heard of the author before but I had it recommended by someone at work who I occasionally swap books with. I can't quite decide what I thought of it, I liked it in many ways as it's a good solid thriller but slightly disappointingly for me I managed to guess who the bad guys were pretty early on and what would happen. I suppose it's a good sign in that it was pretty logical and coherent which is something that many thriller writers don't seem to put too much stock into as they'll introduce something at the end to tie up the story and you could never guess what is happening.

Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson is the last book I finished as part of the OcUK book club - quite enjoyed it, slightly less than Hells Angels but more than The Rum Diaries. I haven't watched the film for a while but from what I recall of the film it actually goes pretty well with the book.

Now I'm reading Skin Tight by Carl Hiaasen - not particularly different to anything else he's written thus far but that's partly the point, it's a nice easy option.

[Psymonkee]

Currently reading my way though the Stuart MacBride series of books featuring DS Logan McRae.

Quite visceral in places but a good read

[semi-pro waster]

Skin Tight wasn't a long read, much the same as the rest but that's not really a criticism.

The Return of Heroic Failures by Stephen Pile was next as one of those random books that is lying about the house here. It's the sort of thing I rather enjoy reading for a change, full of the curiosities and idiosyncrasies not to mention outright stupidity displayed at times by people. Enough to raise a wry smile at least realising how idiotic some people can be.

I think I'll be reading The Name Of The Rose by Umberto Eco next, no idea what it's like but I've had it lying about for a while now and might as well start it.

[Tak]

Maneater II: Prey

werewolf book - first was a random "that looks interesting" book and I really enjoyed it. Didn't realise there wsas a 2nd until I walked past it in the shop

[Kitten]

Ok, as it's World Book Day I think I should update :


Have recently finished:

But Can You drink the Water? on the Kindle. It's about an 80's Liverpool family who go to live in South Africa. Pretty funny, and just 70 pee at the moment on amazon!

As a kid, one of my favourite authors was Judy Blume, so I was excited to get Summer Sisters I'd had it a long time but never got round to reading it for some reason.

It was what I expected, didn't quite grab me as they did when I was little, but then I'm old and cynical now. Still a good read, especially for anyone raised on Superfudge, Starring Sally J Freedman as herself, or Forever!

Next on the list is a freebie to preview from Waterstones : The Sonambulist

Not available until end of May, it's quite interesting & atmospheric, but I'm half way through and nothing actually seems to have happened yet. Keeping with it though, so hopefully it will.

Finally, I'm also reading the story of my new hero - Mrs Chippy's Last Expedition : The Remarkable Journal of Shackleton's Polar-Bound Cat

As described by Amazon : "this is the journal of Mrs Chippy, the cat who accompanied the carpenter Harry "Chippy" McNeish on the Shackleton's "Endurance" expedition in 1914."

[Pumpkinstew]

I finished Game of Thrones quite recently because I heard HBO were making a TV adaptation. Cracking novel. Had it's claws into me from the first dozen pages or so. It's over 800 pages and still feels like quite a lean read and has a large number of characters all with their own agenda and motivations. It's not really the kind of Tolkien high fantasy that most authors churn out, more a sort of alternative medievel history... err. .with Dragons. The story doesn't reach any kind of resolution though so if you plan on reading it you're on board for the long haul of the entire 5 (or more)tomes of a Song of Ice and Fire.



I'm about half way through The Lovely Bones now. Again I was prompted to swipe this from my wife's shelf because I was interested to see Peter Jackson's movie and wanted to read the source first.
I'm not really enjoying it truth be told. It all feels a bit wishy washy for a book featuring a serial rapist and muderer. I'm reading about some fairly unpleasant or suspenseful events but the text just isn't translating it into drama for me. Maybe I've become too used to the more direct, visceral style of writers like Richard Morgan and Iain Banks. Maybe the last 150 pages will change my mind.

[Kitten]

I loved the Lovely Bones. Thought it was evocative, beautiful and terribly sad, though I know what you mean about not really conveying the feel of violence and horror that is inherent considering the premise.

[semi-pro waster]

The Name Of The Rose by Umberto Eco was indeed next and it's a fairly decent story (now a major film starring Sir Sean of Connery apparently), I felt a little bit too long was spent on irrelevancies relating to what a monk might have believed at the time but I'm sure it is fascinating if you like that kind of thing.

Next up a selection of novels I picked up in a charity shop - when did books from charity shops stop costing about 20p? I was prepared for spending a couple of quid and left the better part of £10 lighter.

All Fun And Games Until Someone Loses An Eye by Christopher Brookmyre - if you liked any of his other books you'll like this one, if not avoid. It's entertaining and surprisingly touchingly incisive in places but fundamentally little different to the rest.

Chasing The Dime by Michael Connelly, a novel involving a scientist working on nanotechnology in computing. Quite an interesting premise but ultimately a little unsatisfying as the ending seemed a little bit rushed, it tied up the ends in some ways a little too neatly but left a lot of unanswered questions about characters motivation.

Trainspotting was going to be next of the novels. Unfortunately it's in Italian, it's been a long time since I've tried to speak Italian but I suspect the vernacular of Edinburgh junkies is well beyond my limited abilities in another language. I didn't even notice when I picked it up, if I'd even thought about it I would probably have assumed that Romanzo was the publisher given that the title and authors name were in English plus there was no blurb on the back to give me a clue. I'm just glad I discovered it before I left the house as otherwise people would have wondered why I was creasing myself laughing. If anyone does read Italian then you're more than welcome to it.

Currently reading Brick Lane by Monica Ali - a book that I've sort of meant to get round to reading for years but never quite have until now. Seems pretty good so far.

[volospian]

Originally Posted by semi-pro waster

The Name Of The Rose by Umberto Eco was indeed next and it's a fairly decent story (now a major film starring Sir Sean of Connery apparently)

Blimey, that's an old film, made in about 1986 or something... it was actually a good film, if I remember rightly...