A Western of which I knew absolutely nothing before I picked it up (via Humble Bundle). But I’m glad it was in my audiobook bundle, because it was a joy to listen to – even though I’m happy I didn’t need to do any audiobook narrating of my own, since I picked up a Southern accent because of it. Mattie Ross is a 14 year-old girl whose father was killed in another town by a drunkard who stole his horse, $150 and 2 gold coins.
It starts slowly: Freya’s online-shopping for boots when her youngest child comes up to her with a quarter and says, „Mommy, I’m pretending this is gum.” And, in the way of mothers who are slightly distracted, she doesn’t realize the full implications of that statement until a few minutes later, when she sees him clutching his throat, choking to death while his lips turn blue. Spoiler: he doesn’t die. Not that Freya’s any help: she stands there, frozen, watching him suffocate – but, luckily, one of his brothers saves him.
The necromancer stood in front of his newly risen army of undead zombies who wouldn’t get on with the program, his evil laughter trailing off into uncertainty. „I know this one,” I told myself. „Please tell me it doesn’t go where all noobs have not-so-boldly gone before. Including me, years ago.” As agreements were reached and the necromancer led his army away into his evil castle, providing them with a good life of decent employment and bad entertainment, I was starting to feel a bit uninterested, but then the unexpected happened: angels came out of the sky and deleted the castle of doom out of existence.
The reason why I keep reading Warren Ellis’s books is that I loved Transmetropolitan (his graphic novel(s)). Unfortunately, I don’t feel that his work translates very well to the written word. Sometimes it results in fascinating little swirls of crazy style… and at other times it feels oddly lacking. Gun Machine is a good example of what I’m talking about: gory, very visual details like someone’s eye popping out of its socket as he gets killed; the murderer seeing the modern world as herds of deer, predatory animals, wolves with glowing eyes – and we’re talking about cars here.
Around 2008-2009 I discovered that Project Gutenberg, which is one of THE best sources for free, out-of-copyright books, was suggesting that people can volunteer for producing those books. I signed up. I became a proofreader for the aptly-named Distributed Proofreaders. The system is long and beautiful and it produces the excellent books on the Gutenberg website today (I can tell you all about it later). It was a lovely period of my life.
Title: The Ocean at the End of the Lane Author: Neil Gaiman Rating: 5/5 Is this book for me? Yes. It takes a certain amount of magic to make you not realize that the main character has no name until you need to write the review. He is a man in his late forties, early fifties, driving down the lane where he used to live as a child. There was a funeral.
Do you know those books which you can supposedly brag about reading? You know, like „Pride and Prejudice”, „The Satanic Verses” or „The Iliad”? Of course you do. You run into them a lot – and there’s others which are less known, but just as impressive to mention. Except some of them are weird. Or very weird. Or, well, fucked up – despite being classics, critically acclaimed and other such. And despite their authors not thinking they were that twisted.
Title: Incubus Author: Amanda Meuwissen Rating: 4/5 Is this book for me? Probably. Wait, no! Do gay people bother you? Then no, it’s not. But otherwise, yes. A cool, adventurous novel of the supernatural and romantic sort, complete with a Seer, fairies and magic. Incubus is the sort of novel that keeps you turning pages (or, in my case, listening to the next audio chapter, read by the author herself). It’s sweet, a bit fluffy, romantic and it has action going on, as well as danger hanging over the heads of the characters for a bit of thrilling fun.
Series: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Is this book for me? If you liked the Hunger Games, yes. Definitely. This is where it gets wild(er).
Series: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Is this book for me? If you liked the Hunger Games, yes. Definitely. If you didn’t read the Hunger Games, then go read it. If you didn’t like it, then no. Simple enough.