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blairconrad's Reviews (1.12k)
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Many chucklable moments, and a few brilliant pieces, but a little too much repetition and gross crudeness for the sake of gross crudeness. Skippable, but short.
I'm not sure what I was expecting from this. A little more speculative fiction or cyperpunkiness or something, I guess. It's not there.
This is an action/thriller type book. There are some computer-type trappings, but really they're incidental, and the plot eventually turns to a different focus.
Not a bad book, but much longer than I think it had to be.
This is an action/thriller type book. There are some computer-type trappings, but really they're incidental, and the plot eventually turns to a different focus.
Not a bad book, but much longer than I think it had to be.
A cute Young Person's ghost story. Older readers will probably anticipate the direction the plot takes, but it's still entertaining enough. I really liked the take that Oliver took on ghosts, their development, and how their world relates to ours.
The younger characters had good levels of believability and sympathy, whereas the older characters were (as is often the case in Young Person's literature) somewhat cartoonish.
I'd recommend the book if only for the names - Liesl, Po, Bundle, Mo, Augusta… a delight to read.
The younger characters had good levels of believability and sympathy, whereas the older characters were (as is often the case in Young Person's literature) somewhat cartoonish.
I'd recommend the book if only for the names - Liesl, Po, Bundle, Mo, Augusta… a delight to read.
I probably wouldn't have picked this up on my own, as it's not my usual thing, and I have (at best) bland and vague memories of the movie, but a chap at work recommended the series highly and brought me a copy, so here I am.
The negative: the jargon makes the reading a bit of a tough go. I know some nautical terms, but there were a great many here, as well as slang and colloquialisms that made me slow down over a number of passages. Also, I wasn't enthralled by the story - there are somewhat exciting sea battles, but overall, not a lot seems to happen.
The good: O'Brian really commits. Instead of telling a long-ago story with modernish language and prose style, he's using the aforementioned colloquialisms and structuring characters' speech and writing (I'm told) as it would've been at the time. It helped pull me into the book even as I was wondering what the heck people were saying. Likewise, he doesn't shy away from the mores of the time - the characters have attitudes towards women, foreigners, and shore folk that are much less present (and pretty much not tolerated) today. I wasn't always comfortable reading their thoughts, but they did add authenticity. However, even though I don't think I'd be great friends with Aubrey or Maturin or Dillon, O'Brian was able to engender in me some sympathy for each of these characters - at times.
So, what appears to be a well-written book exploring two men's life in the very early 1800s Royal Navy, complete with elaborate period trappings and a somewhat disappointing storyline. I'm not champing at the bit, but would consider returning to the series in the future, largely based on assertions that it only gets better.
The negative: the jargon makes the reading a bit of a tough go. I know some nautical terms, but there were a great many here, as well as slang and colloquialisms that made me slow down over a number of passages. Also, I wasn't enthralled by the story - there are somewhat exciting sea battles, but overall, not a lot seems to happen.
The good: O'Brian really commits. Instead of telling a long-ago story with modernish language and prose style, he's using the aforementioned colloquialisms and structuring characters' speech and writing (I'm told) as it would've been at the time. It helped pull me into the book even as I was wondering what the heck people were saying. Likewise, he doesn't shy away from the mores of the time - the characters have attitudes towards women, foreigners, and shore folk that are much less present (and pretty much not tolerated) today. I wasn't always comfortable reading their thoughts, but they did add authenticity. However, even though I don't think I'd be great friends with Aubrey or Maturin or Dillon, O'Brian was able to engender in me some sympathy for each of these characters - at times.
So, what appears to be a well-written book exploring two men's life in the very early 1800s Royal Navy, complete with elaborate period trappings and a somewhat disappointing storyline. I'm not champing at the bit, but would consider returning to the series in the future, largely based on assertions that it only gets better.
A really nice teen-oriented anthology. Of course there's some variation in story quality and appeal, but I enjoyed nearly every one of them, with a few really standing out. (If you're pressed for time, I'd recommend hitting "The Last Ride of the Glory Girls", "Clockwork Fagin", "Seven Days Beset by Demons", "The Summer People", "The Oracle Engine", and "Steam Girl" in no particular order.)
The settings for the stories range far from Victorian England, hitting ancient Rome, present day pick-your-country, far off planets, and points in between. It was nice seeing the genre adapted to unusual settings. One thing detracted from the collection - a couple stories were only tangentially steampunky, but by and large they were good stories, and there's nothing wrong with refraining from smothering what could be a new genre reader.
A great book for teens that are curious about steampunk, or anyone looking for a collection of entertaining stories.
The settings for the stories range far from Victorian England, hitting ancient Rome, present day pick-your-country, far off planets, and points in between. It was nice seeing the genre adapted to unusual settings. One thing detracted from the collection - a couple stories were only tangentially steampunky, but by and large they were good stories, and there's nothing wrong with refraining from smothering what could be a new genre reader.
A great book for teens that are curious about steampunk, or anyone looking for a collection of entertaining stories.
I didn't think many of the jokes were funny, the art didn't appeal to me, and the lettering - well, she's no [a:Todd Klein|321799|Todd Klein|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1240268420p2/321799.jpg], I'll tell you that. Some of the footnotes make the comics bearable, but honestly, I can't see what the fuss is all about. I considered one star for this, but I tend to keep that for books that I didn't finish, and I actually did finish this one. Then again, the only reason I finished this is that I had nothing else in the house that I wanted to start before picking up a good-sized book in the library.