Fifty Books

Cast a Bright Shadow

admin — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 02:10:20 +0000

Tanith Lee has an odd writing style which doesn’t work for me very well.
The people don’t seem to be fleshed out – its sort of like reading about a bunch of robots in a really rich tapestry.
I sort of liked this book, but not very much.
I won’t give a plot summary, as it would be a spoiler, but I’ll give the background.
A world in an ice age. People have evolved to cope with it, but somehow there are icebergs full of fresh fruit that show up regularly enough for people to count on them (this is never explained). There is a rich city-nation, which appears in the first chapter, fascinatingly, then doesn’t appear again until its the focus of attack.
There is a wizard, who is set up for marvelous things – and then isn’t used in the plot line.

This didn’t engage me sufficiently, and there were too many holes in the plotline and overall I just didn’t *care* about the characters.
Its one of those annoying novels where you feel that its going to get good really soon now, so you persist, but it never does.

I started the sequel to this, No Flame But Mine, but after 100 pages I just didn’t feel it was the least bit interesting, so I put it down and won’t include it here.

The Hidden City

admin — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 06:34:42 +0000

The Shining Ones

admin — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 06:32:36 +0000

Domes of Fire

admin — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 06:26:37 +0000

The Sapphire Rose

admin — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 06:25:19 +0000

The Ruby Knight

admin — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 06:23:59 +0000

The Diamond Throne

admin — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 06:22:38 +0000

Mysterious Affair at Styles

admin — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 06:19:52 +0000

A classic Agatha Christie novel, and probably one of the older ones, from the feel of the writing.
I always enjoy a Hercules Poirot novel.
This one is from the ‘murder mystery in a genteel country home’ set.
Our narrator is a friend of the family, who is staying for a few months (no, really!) and shock, horror, someone has killed the matriarch.
Fortunately, our humble Belgian detective happens to be staying in a local cottage, and our narrator knows him from long ago. How convenient.
(I tell you, if you ever discover that M. Poirot or Miss Marple are staying nearby – run for your life. because someone is about to die! I’d rather survive than be comforted in knowing my murderer would be found, myself.)

I am going to have to re-read this, because I am sure Poirot contradicted himself here and there. Oh, poor me

Little Fuzzy

admin — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 06:17:21 +0000

The Seeress of Kell

admin — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 06:13:41 +0000