Category: Reviewed

Night Shift Dragons — Rachel Aaron

By 5t4n5

Night Shift Dragons -- Rachel AaronWhat a thoroughly good ending to a thoroughly good trilogy.   It’s been well paced enjoyment all the way through, written/edited really well, great characters and a really great location.

Rachel does hint at the end of the book that she’ll be bringing us more stories from the DFZ at sometime, and i for one can’t wait.   This trilogy certainly leaves a need for us to head back there at some point just to find out how Opal and Nik got on in their happily ever after.

And while i’m waiting for more DFZ books, i’ve got lots of other books by Rachel that i haven’t read yet, so i’m looking forward to clearing them out of my to-read-pile fairly soon.

Keep well, folks.

Rachel’s Page

#fantasy #rachelaaron

Minimum Wage Magic — Rachel Aaron

By 5t4n5

Minimum Wage Magic -- Rachel AaronThe first book in the follow up trilogy to Heartstrikers.   It does say at the beginning of this book that you don’t need to have read Heartstrikers to enjoy this trilogy, but there’s so much in this book that is predicated on what happened in Heartstrikers and i really think you’d be missing out on a whole lot of background and enjoyment if you didn’t read Heartstrikers first.

Plus the fact, Heartstrikers, although tedious in places, is a really good yarn and just worth reading for it’s own sake.

So, anyway, this trilogy begins a few years after the events of Heartstrikers and the DFZ is now relatively calmed down after all those shenanigans.   Part of the being relatively calm is that the spirit of the DFZ has become rather strict on her tenants and anyone a month late in their rent gets their place cleaned out by “cleaners” and taken back by the DFZ to rent to someone else.

Basically, there are auctions twice a day for places to clean, and the cleaners go and bid for them.   Whatever is in a place then becomes the property of the cleaner who wins the auction for it.   The cleaner also has one month to get the place to the standards the DFZ sets to rent it out again.   If it’s not fit for re-rental in that month the cleaner has to pay that month’s rent.

A bit like those people who buy storage units, but with magic traps and all kinds of other weird stuff lurking around.

This book is about one of those cleaners.   A cleaner who owes a lot of money and who keeps winning auctions on places that fail to turn a profit.

But maybe, this one day, her luck is about to change and she can pay off her debts and be free.   Or maybe not, you’ll just have to read and see.

It’s really good.   And all those tedious bits i kept moaning about in the Heartstrikers books, the ones that kept slowing the pace down, well they aren’t in this book.   And those tedious bits were my only complaint about Rachel’s writing before.   So yeah, super good stuff and i dived straight into book 2, Part Time Gods.

Rachel’s Page

#fantasy #rachelaaron

Part-Time Gods — Rachel Aaron

By 5t4n5

Part-Time Gods -- Rachel AaronIf you enjoyed the first book in this trilogy then you’ll enjoy this one just as much.

Once again, Rachel keeps the action moving along at a good pace with none of those annoying delays we had in Heartstrikers.

I’m enjoying it so much that i’m diving straight into book three, Night Shift Dragons, only pausing briefly to write this review.

Super good stuff.

Rachel’s Page

#fantasy #rachelaaron

Nasty: My Family And Other Glamorous Varmints — Simon Doonan

By 5t4n5

Nasty: My Family And Other Glamorous Varmints -- Simon DoonanThe book that spawned the TV sit com Beautiful People.   I don’t watch hardly any TV shows as 99% are utter crap: Beautiful People was well in the 1%.

So how did the book compare to the TV show?

Superbly.

I would definitely suggest to anyone thinking about reading this book to watch the TV show first, as i can’t see it being as good watching it afterwards.   The book has so much more of Simon’s life in it and there are so many more characters and escapades from his childhood that were left out of the TV show and if you read the book first you’ll probably end up getting grumpy that some of the characters and escapades in the book aren’t in the TV show.

That’s not to say the TV show is bad, it’s not, it’s superb, but in order to make a good sit-com out of this book there had to be a few characters left out and certain characters that were left in have been changed somewhat.

Anyways, enough of that, just go watch the TV show and have a good laugh knowing you’ve got a lot more to read about afterwards for desert.

My first Simon Doonan book, and it certainly won’t be my last.   He’s a really good writer.   Thanks for the giggles and laughs, Simon.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Shortly after i wrote the above review i received James Clear’s The 3-2-1 Newsletter which had the following quote in it:

Psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler Ross on how beautiful people are made:

The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths.   These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern.   Beautiful people do not just happen.

Source: Death: The Final Stage of Growth

PS.   Do consider signing up for The 3-2-1 Newsletter — it’s really good — and don’t forget to read James’ book, Atomic Habits.

Simon’s Page

#lgbtq #simondoonan

Sparrow Falling — Gaie Sebold

By 5t4n5

Sparrow Falling -- Gaie SeboldWhile i rather enjoyed Shanghai Sparrow with it’s steampunk silliness and, also, the growth of Evvie, this book has immediately become unenjoyable with Evvie just turning into some kind of idiot who doesn’t want anyone else’s help or advice, even when she’s up to her neck in problems.   It’s really like the Evvie we left off with at the end of Shanghai Sparrow has been replaced with some utter idiot who learned absolutely nothing from her earlier experiences.

I do believe this is the first book of Gaie’s that not only have i not liked, but just couldn’t continue reading it was annoying me that much.   I gave it until 27% but it just kept on getting worse and i quit.   I’ve got too many good books to read to waste my time on stuff like this.

But as i’ve said about other writers whose works i’ve totally enjoyed, at some point each is going to write a book that i just don’t like.   This is that book for Gaie.

Ho hum!

Gaie’s Page

#steampunk #gaiesebold

Shanghai Sparrow — Gaie Sebold

By 5t4n5

Shanghai Sparrow -- Gaie SeboldThis began the final couple of Gaie’s books that i haven’t read.

Admittedly, i picked this up with a fair few preconceptions and had them all dashed rather quickly.   The first thing is that i’ve put Gaie’s writing firmly in the fantasy-for-grown-ups genre, and this is anything but that.

So i was rather surprised to find myself reading some steampunk with a hint of fantasy aimed at teenage girls (at least that where i think it belongs).   I was even more surprised to find myself quite enjoying it, being a 57 year old man.   It’s very similar to Magnificent Devices by Shelley Adina, so if you enjoy that kind of “silly” then i’m sure you’ll enjoy this kind of “silly”.

I’m certainly enjoying a bit of “silly” at the moment, so i’m diving straight into the second book in the series, Sparrow Falling for some more.

Gaie’s Page

#steampunk #gaiesebold

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang — Ian Fleming

By 5t4n5

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang -- Ian FlemingOne of my favourite films, so favourite that i never bothered to read the book before.   I know, putting the cart before the horse is so unlike me.

Anyways, i’ve finally put things right and read the book, and guess what?   I totally enjoyed it.

Like the film, it’s aimed directly for young children, i’d say around 7 or 8 years old, but it’s also good for us Boomers who loved the film.

How do they compare?   Well the book only has some glimpses of the James Bond theme coming through, whereas the film, which was made well after Ian’s death, has all the Bond tropes shoehorned into it somewhere and is much more the James Bond for children thing.   Example would be that in the book Caractacus is married to Mimsie, but in the film they needed to work in the Bond girl trope somehow, so they killed off Mimsie and created Truly Scrumptious.   They also made the arch villain much more Bond like with the big castle, and all that, and gave him the Bond henchman in the Kiddy Catcher.

But the book is still good and well worth getting if you have young children to give them a good reading to before you make them sit and watch the film: i’m sure they’ll love it because Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is, without a doubt, the best James Bond film ever.

Enjoy.

Ian’s Page

#ianflemming

Galactic North — Alastair Reynolds

By 5t4n5

Galactic North -- Alastair ReynoldsThis is bizarre.   After three trilogy length novels — two spanning decades and one a few centuries — going into glorious detail and getting the reader really involved with the characters and their situations, we now have a story spanning tens of millennia that’s only a short: WTF?

It all feels extremely rushed, utterly lacking in depth and just seems like Alastair threw it together before breakfast to meet some publisher’s needs before he went on holiday.

Ho hum, we can’t really expect all of Alastair’s books to be excellent.   This one’s very disappointing.

Anyways, this is the last story in the whole series for now.   Just a bit of a wait until Inhibitor Phase is released on 26th August 2021.

It’s certainly been a blast reading the whole series in one go, it was just under 3 months ago when i began Great Wall of Mars.   And no inbetweenies due to boredom: this is one of those series that you just want to keep on reading without any other books getting involved.

Available in the collection, Galactic North.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

Absolution Gap — Alastair Reynolds

By 5t4n5

Absolution Gap -- Alastair ReynoldsIf you’re not into reading a whole trilogy crammed into one book then i’d suggest staying away: this book is huge.   But if you’ve got this far you’ve just read two books of similar length so you’re used to it by now — dive right in.

My thoughts are that this book just doesn’t come up to the same level as the previous two.   I think it’s because everything in this universe that we’ve come to know is all getting torn apart into molecules by the Inhibitors and there’s not much left of life as we once knew it.   It’s all quite depressing really, as are some of the characters.   And while i like a writer who isn’t afraid to kill off a main character or several, i was a bit put out by one of them as i really wanted to hear more from them: i won’t say which one because it would spoil the whole book.

But, this is war, this is the threatened annihilation of the human race, so we can’t expect it to be all upbeat and fun — can we?

So yeah, straight into Galactic North now and then it’s a bit of a wait for Inhibitor Phase to be published on 26th August 2021.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

Redemption Ark — Alastair Reynolds

By 5t4n5

Redemption Ark -- Alastair ReynoldsOooh wow, now that was a really good read, extremely lengthy but really good.

This time we’re back in the Yellowstone system but our old friends (or enemies, depending on how you view them), the Conjoiners are back, along with a few blasts from the distant past: don’t worry, you’ll soon catch up with who’s who again.

When Ilia activated the cache weapons in the last book the Conjoiners, whose weapons they actually happen to be, received an alert that they’ve been activated and it’s not too long before they decide that they’re going to get them back.   But there’s rifts amongst the Conjoiners, who aren’t as conjoined as they might seem, and some want the weapons for a different reason.

And so it’s off to Resurgam, via Chasm City, in souped up lighthuggers that bend the laws of physics, in a crazy game of star-ship-chase-me as the different factions want to get there first and get the cache weapons — both gleefully trying to throw a spanner in the other’s works along the way.

And what a great time is going to be had when we get to Resurgam, what with the Inhibitors now unleashed by Sylveste’s previous shenanigans, running amok and making to destroy the whole solar system, and also Ilia having absolutely no desire to give up her weapons to anyone.

There’s also lots of other great story telling things and characters going on besides — like a whole planet to evacuate before the inhibitors burn it to death.   You won’t be bored.

Super good and now it’s straight into Absolution Gap.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds