octavia_cade's Reviews (2.64k)

Pleasant little story, with creepy rat villains (and as someone who is viscerally revolted by rats, it's nice to see them as the horrible antagonists for once, rather than some cutesy friendly things - even though I know intellectually that, yes, yes, they're intelligent creatures and can be loyal pets, still ew). I did however find it a little repetitive and a lot self-conscious.

I was quite surprised, reading this, at just how different it was from what I remembered - until I realised that what I was remembering was the film (the awesome one with Gene Wilder, not the crappy remake). Usually the book is better than the film, but this is one instance where the movie version edges out the original text, in my opinion.

Be that as it may, the book is still hugely entertaining. I love how Roald Dahl acknowledges (and he does it in other stories as well) that some children are plain horrible to be around, and here they get their just deserts. My particular love-to-hate favourite is little Veruca Salt, the spoilt brat who along with her dreadful parents is so just wonderfully awful that even squirrels can figure out she - hell, the whole beastly family! - should be booted down the rubbish chute as quickly as possible. It never fails to make me cackle.

I was in a coffee shop today, drinking my hot chocolate, and in the rack of things available to read was this. Having lived some decades now and still not having read Where the Wild Things Are, I promptly ignored the newspapers and magazines, and scuttled back to the table with my prize. Honestly, from my adult viewpoint, the story itself is a little bland - but does anyone really read this book for the story? It's the illustrations that are the big draw, and they are utterly fantastic. Weird and creepy and so deeply original that they are instantly recognisable... my favourites were the sea monster and the big cockatoo-like thing.

This is really not my field - not even remotely - so this book has essentially been acting as an introductory text on warfare for me. As such, I think it's a successful one. Keegan covers a range of times and cultures, but more importantly he does so accessibly. His is a very readable account, when very often academics tend to write more for their colleagues (and posterity) than the general public. It did take me a while to wade through it, but I feel as if I've understood what I've read, and for the most part enjoyed the process.

I am very sick of seeing the word "Clausewitzian", however.

Excellent collection of archival photographic footage, chronicling the modern history of the Los Alamos settlement. It could have used a little more general explanatory text, but the photographs themselves are varied and fantastic; a truly valuable resource.

An excellent example of what journalism can do on behalf of others, when confronted with sheer military incompetence. Murdoch is more concerned with the Aussies than the New Zealanders - and rightly so, given that he's on commission from the Australian PM of the time - but in standing up for the ANZACS (even making some factual mistakes as he did) he was at least able to speak effectively for them.

Really quite excellent. I would have liked a little more explanation of the science behind it all for a perfect score, but overall I was both fascinated and impressed. I hesitate to call real people "characters", but McKay's decision to focus on a number of personalities was a good one - it really rounded out the professional narrative to read about the lives of the men and women involved in the Y Service, and how they reacted to and connected with the events going on around them. It made the whole book highly accessible.

I've recently read - and been enthralled by - Virgil's Aeneid, so I thought I'd better take up Lavinia from the tottering piles of my to-read list while the original story was still fresh in my mind. In Virgil, of course, Lavinia is a shadowy figure - barely there, like most of the women (bar Dido). I don't think she got a single line while half the blokes in Italy started stabbing each other over who got to be married to her.

Le Guin rescues her from obscurity with this first-person account, and I had to nod smugly to myself when Lavinia started thinking about the events of the Aeneid because much of what she thought had also passed through my mind. Sucks for her, surrounded by bloodthirsty oiks, but I guess that was the time. However, while I liked Lavinia the character a lot, I found Lavinia the book a little dry in places, and Virgil coming back as dream-spirit just didn't work for me. That being said, it's still an enjoyable read, if not my favourite work of the author's.

Oh, so much good, so much bad.

I seriously dislike the main character. He's misogynistic, unpleasant, and spends far too much time whining about his dick. Why the hell he doesn't just masturbate I don't fucking know, but then I'm not A Man Alone, And Suffering. Also, for goodness sake, put down the booze and pick up a radio you stupid bastard. Yes, it turns out you may be the only true human left alive, but you don't know that at time of booze and lamentation.

That being said... main character aside there's some really good stuff here. The ending is astonishingly good, just startlingly original. I also love the focus on science - biology and psychology both - it's when Neville is trying to learn and reason that I come closest to tolerating him. And I will always give extra points to an SFF book that manages to tell a story without self-indulging itself into brick status. This is 150 taut pages, and proof positive that unnecessary length is just that.

Got to be honest, I found this pretty heavy going. Not quite as enjoyable as the last one, certainly. It was a bit slow, it had a few too many pages on ropes and ship-stuff and so on, but what really clinched it for me was Jack Aubrey. Reader, I do not like him. He may be good in a battle but that still leaves 400 pages of this imbecile to wade through. I had no pity for his women problems. Perhaps if he didn't try to juggle two cousins, knowing that his supposed best mate was interested in one, I'd feel sympathy... but all I can really think is that only someone as bland in the head as Sophia could find him a decent romantic prospect.

Frankly, I'm sticking at this series so far only through the presence of the fantastic Dr. Maturin. I live in hope that he'll finally have enough and take over as protagonist by poisoning that oblivious idiot. (How can the lummox still be oblivious, witnessing as he did Maturin getting a secret communication warning him of war before it happened? A communication that allowed them to escape enemy territory, no less. Aubrey has nothing between his ears, NOTHING.) Maturin is more interesting by a magnitude of thousands. He's simply got to snap eventually.

It would be justifiable homicide.