octavia_cade's Reviews (2.64k)

The more I read these books, the more convinced I am that the ship parts hold my attention much less than everything else. The Fortune of War bore that out for me. I was only very mildly interested in the first half - and O'Brian's just stuffing his sailing with shipwrecks now, trying to drum up interest in any way he can - but the second half is where the story really caught fire for me. Maturin and Aubrey are stuck in Boston, and Aubrey's pretty much confined to bed and so most of the plot hangs on the only reason I'm reading these books in the first place, i.e. Stephen Maturin. He's sneaking about Boston doing intelligence work, no-one is wittering on about ropes or sails or bloody cannons, and I was enthralled until the last 20 pages, where they got back on another boat for another battle and suddenly it was like reading through treacle again, slow and sticky.

"Not to know the odds between a halliard and a sheet, after all these years at sea: it passes human understanding", complains Aubrey of his mate at one point, and six books in I don't understand it either. Birds and spies and wombats are far more appealing, so I'm with the good doctor here, as always.

Okay, it has to be said: one of the stories in here is mine - "The Better Part of Drowning" - and so I am clearly biased, but I do love horror and this anthology is full of it. There's a wide range of horror stories in here too, and range is I think always a bonus in any anthology, as it increases the chance of coming across stories that will really appeal to the individual reader. Personally, I tend to prefer horror that's as much story as gore, tending more to the contemporary than the cosmic, and so I was well-served by a lot of the pieces in here. The stories that particularly appealed to me were the excellent "West of Matamoros, North of Hell" by Brian Hodge, "Burnt" by Luciano Marano, and the beautifully written "So Sings the Siren" by Annie Neugebauer, which is going down as one of my favourite horror stories of all time.

I've honestly been putting off reading this, and now that I've got around to it I can't believe how much better than the movie it is! Because, love Star Trek as I do, the movie was dire. Boring, badly-paced, slow as a wet week, and I was expecting the same from the novelisation. But it's such an improvement - there's more character work here for one, and although the pacing isn't perfect, it still swept me along a little in a way that simply didn't happen with the source material. By far the biggest improvement was I think in Kirk. He's fundamentally a less interesting character than Spock, and I've never actually had a lot of sympathy with his moping to be back on a starship, because he plainly should never have left his captaincy to begin with and so tough bickies, but I actually felt for him here, and the impression of self-doubt and destabilisation and his constant questioning of himself came through much more strongly. I've been reading a lot of this franchise lately, and I have to say I like the older, introspective Kirk trying to hang on (and wondering if he's hanging on too long) much more than I like his younger, brasher self.

This is my first time reading Tiptree and she is extraordinary. I can't believe I've been missing out for so long! There's a range of stories here, and they are heartbreaking and horrifying and excellent. I think the one that's had the biggest effect on me is "The Screwfly Solution", which is flat-out terrifying, but "Your Faces, O My Sisters! Your Faces Filled of Light!", "The Last Flight of Dr. Ain", and "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?" were also standouts. A lot of what Tiptree writes is focused on gender, on the terrible expectations and limitations placed on women (no surprise that she used a male pseudonym back in the day) and she never pulls a punch, while simultaneously not wallowing in violence for the sake of it. I can't honestly claim that her stories are particularly subtle in what they have to say, but they're characterised by a thoughtfulness and intelligence that gives them a quiet depth that I really appreciate. I understand now why she's foundational reading within the genre.

Everything about this book is just painfully perfect. The characterisation of Merricat, especially, is a masterpiece. That girl is clearly not right in the head, but there's something so compelling about her inner life, a sort of insane charisma, that you can almost understand why Constance is so protective of her. But then, the more I read this book - and this is my third time - the more I begin to wonder just how sane Constance is herself. There's something off about her as well, albeit in a different and more easily camouflaged way.

Also, I think this book has a shot at the top prize for best opening paragraph in fiction. But then, I think I thought that about The Haunting of Hill House as well, so I think Jackson just must have a particular talent for extraordinary beginnings.

I first read this years ago, and honestly I'd forgotten most of the details, but I think I preferred it then. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it well enough, but let's be honest... Hannibal the tv show has ruined me for all other Hannibals. Even the book versions, which coming from someone who always prefers the books is heresy I know, but I don't care. This Hannibal, in Hannibal Rising, is no longer scary to me. Part of it I think is giving him a tragic backstory - he's a lot more terrifying as a natural monster, like a shark, who just exists in human skin as a freak of nature. Here you mostly just feel sorry for him, and I don't particularly read Hannibal Lecter for pity. Yes he's clever here, yes he slaughters and there is a mildly satisfying bloodbath, and yes I liked it, but this is the pink bubblegum version of Hannibal Lecter, and it's hard to forget it.

I really enjoyed this! It has a perfectly lovely length, too, whereas a lot of the more famous examples of Latin American magical realism go on far too long for my tastes. Here, magic and concision are blended extremely well, and I liked the fragmentary nature of it, and the broad focus on a number of different characters, some of whom are only tangentially connected to the main story. There's also an interesting sort of fusion going on with the religious influences here, which helps I think to tie the story together. (I can see from the other reviews that some people find this book a little too fragmentary for them, but being an atheist my perception of spirituality tends to have a hard divide between "religious" and "not", and so the mix of faiths represented here may appear more cohesive, narratively, from an outside perspective than might otherwise be the case). Anyway, I guzzled this down in one sitting, putting off the work I should have been doing instead, and I am not remotely sorry. This was a pleasure from start to finish.

A follow-up from one of the original episodes, in which Spock gets an adult son who is brought forward in time from the alien ice age past of his conception. It was an enjoyable, easy read, and Zar was a sympathetic character. I particularly liked his relationship with McCoy, who he seemed to bond with a whole lot easier than Spock. The relationship between father and son was strained at best, but there wasn't a whole lot of tension because I was expecting the reset button, which arrived on schedule and to obvious effect. However, given that so much of the early story focused on Spock, it was a little strange how he almost moved into the background as the story progressed - Zar was very much the main character for most of the book, with the Enterprise crew as much supporting cast as anything. On the one hand this has made for an interesting character study, but on the other I wonder if a more sustained focus on Spock might have made the story more compelling. Still, I understand there's a sequel, so I'm curious to know how that works out.

This doesn't quite reach the heights of The Wrath of Khan, but then nothing ever does for me in Star Trek. Still, it's an extremely entertaining follow-up - McIntyre is a reliably excellent writer in this franchise - and this is one of the very few times in the speculative genres that I'm prepared to overlook the reset button and see a beloved character brought back to life. The reset button is an overused trope that I often really dislike... but not here. Yes, it's fickle of me, no I don't care. The relationships between Kirk and Spock and McCoy, and between Spock and Saavik, and Spock and Sarek, are all interesting and sympathetic. My favourite part, though, has to be the arrival at Mount Seleya and all those Vulcans turning up to witness the incipient resurrection. For all the prejudice Spock has encountered from his father's people, for all he's internalised so very much of it, seeing him finally valued in this way is genuinely touching.

My sister's a chiropractor, and she recommended I read this. I know nothing about the field, and this book worked well as an introduction both to chiropractics as a whole and the author's own research. The text is easy to follow - it's clearly aimed at the layperson, with simple illustrations and explanations of terms.

I have to admit I found the introductory section a little off-putting (it verges on self-congratulatory) but once Haavik gets to the science I became a lot more interested. To her credit, there's a heavy emphasis on research for such a short book, and each claim is backed up with references to peer-reviewed literature which gets thumbs-up from me. Granted, I'm not qualified to assess the research myself, but I appreciate the effort and Haavik discusses some interesting ideas and some very interesting studies.