reubenalbatross's Reviews (521)

Well... This was a massive disappointment.
 
Pretty much the only good thing I have to say about it is that I enjoyed the way one of the expositions wasn't delivered via monologue - it was split between the pages,

Lenora telling the story

, and Kit's narration. Though this was at times slightly confusing to listen to on audio, I'm sure it would have been clear in print, and it was a nice way to get the info across without a lazy monologue. 
 
However, like everything else in this book, I was then disappointed when surprise, surprise there was an exposition monologue, and what a shitty one at that.

Like seriously?? She could walk and talk the whole time?? Not one SINGLE person, not even her 1-to-1 nurses who had looked after her for 40+ years noticed??? That was one ridiculous plot twist too many. Bloody hell.

 
 
I also guessed some of the major twists (

Including the obvious of Lenora not being Lenora, and Kit being related to the family in some way

), and the reveals towards the end felt so messy. Things didn't link up and it was bewildering (in a bad way).
 
Also, Paris yet again being romanticised by Americans. It's not that great folks!    

My first T. Kingfisher and I'm very happy that I enjoyed it as much as I did. 

Also maybe my first experience of 'cosy horror', which I hadn't even considered could be a sub-genre.

 

Unfortunately, the only bit of slight originality in this book is that is it based on Egyptian culture rather than Western culture, and even then, other Middle Eastern fantasies do exist... 
 
I've read every trope and plot point in here before, the majority of which are overdone in modern fantasy. If this story had sprinkled in some other unique features, I'd be more interested to continue, but this just seems like a rehash of the same overtold story, and I'm not interested in continuing it.
 
These plot points/tropes include:
 
 - An emotionally unavailable, impossibly physically strong, 'not like other girls', secretly magical heir. 
 - A 'peasant' girl who falls in love with an 'evil'/morally grey on the outside but really secretly good royal.
 - A main character apprenticed to a grumpy older tutor. 
 - The one little child that breaks through the main character's hard outer shell, and who the mc would do anything for.
 - A tournament and training.
 
Also Sylvia's only character trait is "I've got to be ready to escape at a moment’s notice"/"oh no I've been discovered" - so being in her head was a drag. 
 
Pleeease can we have some original fantasy ideas??  

Bloody hell, it's book inception!
 
This is by far one of the best horrors I've ever read. I was enthralled the entire time, and the increase from slight unease to absolute terror was impeccable. I was even almost brought to tears (

RIP Esra, what a tragedy

). And what a perfect ending! I haven't been so traumatised after finishing a book in a long while. 
  
Scott presented so many interesting and horrifying ideas without a hint of pretention - what a self-aware author. I was already terrified of AI and it causing fewer human interactions, and this book did not help.
 
This book deserves so much more attention! Definitely one of my favourites of the year so far. 

There was a lot going on in this, and I wasn't very convinced by some of it. For the majority of the book, the only storyline that stuck in my brain was Adam's. Until the multiple storylines start to vaguely come together near the end, everything else felt so random and I couldn't keep track of who was who and what info was important. The two main storylines were so disconnected, and for the most part it felt like I was reading two books in one. 
 
I also didn't love that it vilified emos/goths and young adult safe spaces. In reality, the kids getting involved in this kind of thing would be the 'squeaky clean' jocks and cheerleaders, not the introverted alternative crowd.
 
Not a terrible book, but nothing much to write home about either.  

This book is incredibly racist and misogynistic, especially in the way it portrays and treats Phuong. She is only there to make a point of tension between the two male main characters. She's infantilised so much, and xenophobically othered. They talk about her as if she's not there, even when she's sat at the table with them. She's purely an object to be won and serve the men. The book isn't making commentary on how badly she's treated, the author is just writing as if he believes this is the right way to treat women.
 
The quote that was the final straw and made me DNF:
 - Pyle - "But she loves you, doesn’t she?"
 - Fowler - "Not like that. It isn't in their nature... It's a cliche to call them children... They love you in return for kindness, security, the presents you give them - they hate you for a blow or an injustice." 
 
Also, all of the Vietnamese are portrayed as having zero intelligence, like they are animals rather than humans. The only people the foreigners deem to be fit to be talked to as peers are other white foreigners. 
 
This book is technically well written, but Greene's disgraceful portrayal of the Vietnamese people, and women in particular, meant I couldn't continue reading. I wasn't enjoying it, and I don't really care about war stories anyway. 

Wow, what a corker. 
 
The only reason I'm not giving this a full 5-stars is because I wasn't completely wowed by the first half, but the last 30% REALLY made up for it. So many plot lines and motivations coming together in such a high-octane way. Loved it.
 

I'm also not the biggest fan of characters magically (or not in this case) coming back from the dead. It wasn't too egregious in this case, but it always ruins the impact of the character's 'death'. In pretty much all cases I wish characters would just stay dead, however much it hurts me.

When I picked this collection up, I didn't realise it was an anthology of novellas from already established worlds. I was worried I wouldn't understand a lot of the novellas without the context of the full series, but bar one (and two I didn't finish) each story was well rounded and made sense by itself.

I had a good time reading this, and it's given me a lot of new series to dig my teeth into after being in their worlds for a brief amount of time.

The 3.5 star rating is an average of my individual ratings for each novella. My thoughts on each of the 11 novellas are as follows:

Old Music and the Slave Women
Ursula K. Le Guin
4.5 stars

This is such different writing from Le Guin's fantasy, it felt like it was written by a different person!
It was an interesting story, and has definitely made me intrigued to read the series.


A Separate War
Joe Haldeman
5 stars

This has a really interesting premise and was compulsively readable, especially for an 'older' sci-fi. SO GOOD. Will definitely give the series a go.


Investment Counselor
Orson Scott Card
4.75 stars

A nice little story, I definitely want to read the series.


Temptation
David Brin
5 stars

A very cool concept and some interesting writing techniques. Definitely reading the series.


Getting to Know the Dragon
Robert Silverberg
DNF

This is not sci-fi at all, it's historical fiction? Yes, a different history than what happened, but not sci-fi??? I was not interested at all. It feels really out of place in this collection.


The Orphans of the Helix
Dan Simmons
DNF

I already felt weird vibes from the intro to the story. A guy gets involved with someone he was close to when she was a child and he was a fully grown adult (yes, time skips happened, but still suspicious)...
The writing is pretty pretentious with unnecessarily long sentences that are almost impossible for me to follow. There's also a ridiculously stupid amount of tech jargon that completely destroys the throughline of the story, and just seems like Simmons trying to show off his massive intellect.
Also, the story itself (different coloured armbands for different personalities/genetic training) is SO boring.
I was not interested and actively annoyed by this story.


Sleeping Dogs
Nancy Kress
3.5 stars

This world definitely has interesting concepts, but I wasn't wowed by this particular story. I would be interested to give the series a go.
My biggest gripe with it was that a lot of the story hinges on a dog accidentally killing a kid who interrupted its eating/tried to take food away. It's presented as this obscene thing that only happened because the dog was genetically modified, when in actual fact this is something that has a 100% possibility of happening with 'normal' dogs. Dogs can be very possessive of food, and can return to violent animal instincts easily if someone tries to take it away. Of course a two year old could get seriously hurt and maybe even killed by a dog lashing out in this way. This made the main character’s motivations seem really weak to me, and I couldn't connect to the story properly.


The Boy Who Would Live Forever
Frederik Pohl
4.75 stars

I didn't love that everything in Estrella's life revolved around sex, but apart from that, this was a great story. I definitely want to try the series.


A Hunger for the Infinite
Gregory Benford
4.25 stars

The writing was a little too flowery and tech heavy for me to fully get into this as a novella, but I think I could get more immersed in a full-length novel. The bits with 'the harvested' were amazingly disturbing. I'd give the series a go.


The Ship Who Returned
Anne McCaffrey
5 stars

This was compelling readable with ship loads of humanity. Loved it. Yes please to the series.


The Way of All Ghosts
Greg Bear
2 stars

This was a really confusing read. I couldn't tell if I was not meant to understand everything, or I just wasn't getting it. 
I think this story suffers from not being able to stand on its own, which I haven't found with any of the other novellas in this collection. Such complex ideas need better description and more time. The concept of the world is confusing enough without thorough explanation, and then Bear adds more complicated theories on top of that... I struggled to get a grasp on anything. It felt sporadic and half finished. 
The latter half of this novella was actual and utter nonsense. And what was with the random Buddha reference at the end after no other mention of religion throughout??
I'm not very motivated to want to read the series after this, but may give it a try at some point to see if the longer format helps me understand things more. 

Compared to the rest of this series so far, I wasn't blown away by this instalment, but as books go in general it's still really good and I love this world. 
 
I didn't feel as connected to this instalment as I have to previous ones, probably because this is the first one where I haven't been able to relate my own existence to the lead character's. In all of the previous instalments I felt like the characters were speaking to me and my life experience, which really heighted the read for me. 
 
Also, despite the subject matter, this book didn't feel quite as dark as the others, which I missed. 
 
Overall though, still a great series that I'm looking forward to continuing.   

What. A. Mess.

I had high hopes for this book after reading 'The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires', but unfortunately this book did not live up to it at all.

I felt like I was constantly missing information and on the back foot while reading this, but not in a good, mysterious way. I don't know if it was Hendrix intentionally trying to make the reader feel that way and get in Lynette's head, bad writing, or my comprehension skills. For example, the character Stephenie Fugate was mentioned in passing near the start, then 100 pages in we're given her brief backstory, then another 100 pages she's there in person but it's like we're expected to know exactly who she is with no context. There's no reminder "she's the one from Camp Red Lake" we're just expected to remember everything only from her name, and no further context is given. I, for one, could not, and spent a long time skimming back over the book to figure out who she was. There were also SO many final girls with their own stories/villains and I couldn't keep them straight in my head, and I normally have a very good memory for book plots. 

There were also just some weird things that made no sense. Like at one point Michelle just seems to pluck an adult diaper out of thin air. No mention of where she got it from, and I doubt she'd just have them hanging around in her car. Also, at one point Lynette said - "It's time for this to end. After Stephanie, there will be no more final girls."... How does taking out ONE twisted kid mean no-one will ever mass murder again??? Very strange.

Lynette was insufferable. Some of the document text is crazy small. I didn't feel ANYTHING other than annoyance while reading it. And it gave the vibe that it was trying to be satirical but also serious, and ended up being a poor version of both.

So a disappointingly underwhelming read. Hopefully some of Hendrix's other books will work for me.