Made of Library

I wish I hadn’t discovered before reading this book that it was based on a podcast, or that that podcast was based on a game. I haven’t had good experiences with books based on games. The Assassins Creed games are fantastic, the books are painfully awful. Please, steer well clear from them of you can. Because I knew this story had been told as a podcast I heard it in my head being read by overly dramatic voice actors. It took me a long while to forget that and let the characters own voices come out. Once I did I started enjoying the book. The first few chapters are just an introduction to the characters and are quite slow. The chapter headings are counting us down to something and I guess the title of the book makes it pretty obvious what that is. When the invasion hits is when this book hits its stride. Things get interesting and we get to see what these meta-humans are really made of. Metaphorically, not literally. Literally they are made of the same things we are (<a hre

I’m in two minds about short stories. On the one hand they are short, self-contained, bite-sized chunks of entertainment.   On the other hand I feel like they need to have a point to them, a reason for their existence, and if they don’t I feel like I’ve wasted my time reading it. I’m not sure how to classify these stories. I wouldn’t call them sci-fi or fantasy, but they are definitely not realist either.   The writing has a surreal quality to it. Like Dali’s melting clock or the warped mirrors in a funhouse. I liked it. It gave a different and unique flavour to these stories. I would very much like to read a full length novel by this author. I want to see if that surrealism can be maintained for the whole length or if it can only be held for the duration of a short story. I also want to meet some real characters. The characters in these stories never had a chance to develop. That’s one of the points against short stories, in my opinion. I don’t get a chance to know and be

This is book 2 in a series of, I think, 6 books, so far. I don’t know if this is an ongoing series or whether there are a planned number of books. Book 2 was pretty well encapsulated as its own adventure but still makes some nice advances on the overarching story of Kate’s heritage and develops her relationships with the other characters. One thing that bugs me. The author of this book uses the pseudonym of Ilona Andrews. The author is the husband and wife writing team of Ilona and Gordon. So am I missing something or isn’t the pseudonym just the wife’s name? Ilona Andrews… that’s her name… how is that a pseudonym? Isn’t she really just saying “I wrote these books but I guess hubby helped a bit, too”? Book 2 feels much more episodic. Like we’re settling into a groove and a pattern, which is cool. There’s 6 of these things so I like that there’s a clear delineation to each one, rather than one just blending into the next and being essentially just one really long story.

I am a huge fan of Toothpaste for Dinner . I have been reading it since about 2006 and I’ll give a go to pretty much anything that Drew creates. I wasn’t too sure what to expect from Veins but I was hoping for some laughs and that warped yet honest way of viewing the world that TPFD has. Veins certainly delivered. The story went to some darker places than I was expecting, definitely, but it was still funny and made plenty of astute observations. I don’t know if I can say that I enjoyed the book. There was a lot in there that was uncomfortable or squirmy or just downright sad. It wasn’t a happy story, but it was compelling and I couldn’t put it down. The story is really a series of anecdotes from the main character, M.R. He is a weird guy and does some weird, weird things. He can explain most of the weird things he does though. He tells you the steps that lead to this situation and how each step leads to another to eventually end up with this completely bizarre outcome. M.R

I’ll admit that I judged this book by its cover before I even started reading it. I do this all the time, and I know I shouldn’t. To me, this book just looked cheesy and lame and I knew I was going to have some serious problems with the pouty, I’m-so-hardcore girl on the cover.   Sometimes it’s nice to be surprised when you’re expectations are shattered. I just don’t like Kate Daniels though. It just feels like she’s forcing that attitude too much. Sure, sure, the attitude is her defence mechanism and her way of not getting crushed by the weight of the world on her shoulders. It still feels too ‘put on’ though, and if it was really a defence mechanism it would need to be a lot more solid than it is.   I could just be being really picky though. I have a problem with finding any female characters believable, whether it’s in books, movies, TV shows or games. I hold female characters up to a much closer scrutiny than I do any male character. Perhaps it’s a role model thing. When I