The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia by Ursula K. Le Guin %5B2%5D.jpg "Davies, Russell T. and Cook, Benjamin - Doctor Who The Writer's Tale (The Final Chapter)")
I wonder if it was because the new series has started and we have a new Doctor now and all this fussing about the old Doctor didn't seem so to-the-point.
Or maybe I've just had enough of the ups and downs of RTD now I'm watching Stephen Moffat.
Or maybe I'm just in a reading slump, which my lack of reading any other books right now does seem to suggest.
Anyway, I find I don't really want to keep reading.
All the same, I highly recommend the book, as I loved it the first time I read it, so check out that review instead of this one.
Doctor Who: The Writer’s Tale (The Final Chapter)
Russell T. Davies and Benjamin Cook
DNF
Read: 29-5-10 to 14-6-10
From Goodreads.com:
They are a new breed, a new race. Engineered rather than born, trained rather than raised, and their unique genetics have created more than one surprise...
Jacob left Faith six years before, unaware that the mark he left on her also left her in an agony of sexual heat that never dimmed. Now Jacob and Faith are together again, but surprises lurk around every corner and dangers as dark and deadly as their very creation surround them in more ways than one.
Sorry, but I just don't care.
I don't care about the characters. I've read a quarter of it and there doesn't seem to be any plot showing up yet. I'm just not in the mood to plough through this and I'm giving up.
Jacob’s Faith
Lora Leigh
Breeds, Book 11
Did Not Finish
Read: 23-1-10 to 30-1-10
If I remember correctly, I got this book from on2 of the school book clubs, way back when I was about 12 or so. I loved it immediately. The story of Amethyst (commonly known as Amy), a seventh princess who gets given the gift of ordinariness by one of her fairy godmothers at her christening, is a delightful story. It’s just a short, little children’s book, that even has written inside the back page, in my 12-year old writing: My verdict – Supa. Why I decided to misspell “super” remains a mystery to this day, but the verdict remains the same. The Ordinary Princess is written with an almost sly wit as it makes fun of the usual fairy tale fare full of beautiful princesses, handsome princes and other archetypes. The king wanders around insisting inviting fairies is a RASH idea (often in capitals), while the queen tries in vain to remove her youngest daughter’s freckles and Amy decides to run away when the king considers hiring a dragon to lay waste to the countryside in the hope some rash young prince will slay it and be forced to marry plain Princess Amy. It’s a truly lovely story and it doesn’t matter in the least that it’s theoretically a children’s book; it’s a delight to all ages. My verdict this time around (and, okay I’ll admit it, 28 years later) is 10/10.
I went on a McKillip spending spree last year and bought most of her recent books that I hadn’t read (it helped that Lenneth over on LJ started up a Patricia A. McKillip challenge that I quickly joined). Alphabet of Thorn was one of these. It started out in what is typical McKillip style at present, with a varied collection of characters all apparently doing their own thing. The reader has to have faith that all the separate lines of the tale will come together in the end – and McKillip always comes through. The translator Nepenthe (a orphan so named because the librarians were up to N for names when she was found) finds herself obsessed with deciphering a book written in an alphabet of thorns. Slowly, she uncovers a tale of a mighty emperor 3000 years ago and his quest to conquer the world. At the same time, the new young queen of the kingdom finds her throne at risk, a young mage caught up in family politics meets Nepethene and the aged mage, Vevay, tries to counsel a queen she doesn’t really understand. All of these strands finish up making a beautiful story that enchants the reader. I did guess the general solution to one the the book’s mysteries fairly early on, but it didn’t matter in the least. The how of getting to the end and the beautiful, lyrical language McKillip uses to tell her tale are what the book (and indeed, all McKillip’s books) is all about. I really enjoyed the tale and I’m glad I’m having a year reading McKillip. My rating for this book is 9/10.
There’s been a lot of comment on this book on a number of the blogs I read and that comment has been all positive. So I feel I bit like Scrooge crying “Humbug” to say that the book didn’t work for me. This is a zombie book that doesn’t mention the word “zombie” and while that isn’t generally my reading (or viewing) preference, I have to say that that part of the book was very well done. Mary lives in a village ringed by fences where the “Unconsecrated” live outside in the forest and a forever trying to find a way through to the living on the other side. Mary is something of a misfit, not satisfied with the live she is expected to lead, either as a member of the Sisterhood that is the authority in the village, or as a wife and mother. Her own mother told her tales of the ocean and while no-one else really believes in it, Mary is haunted by the stories and wants to find the ocean. When the fences are breached, she and several others find themselves caught of fenced paths, trying to find their way to some kind of safety. I read on bottle_of_shine’s LJ that this book is an excellent zombie metaphor. Well, I readily admit that I wasn’t reading for metaphor but for story. And as a story, it failed for me. Mary is self-absorbed and annoying as she drags everyone else along on her obsession towards the ocean. She wails about her life and obsesses about her own feelings to a point I found it annoying. Since the book is told from her point of view, not identifying with her in any way wasn’t helpful. It was also frustrating that the author drops clues about the cause of the “Return” (such as Mary finding old newspaper clippings in an attic) but then chooses not to tell us what happened. Now, I can accept that in real life – often we don’t learn the answers we’d like to learn – but in a book where there is setup about the mystery of what happened to humanity, it’s annoying not to get the reward at the end. (And I admit, part of what I like about post-apocalyptic fiction is finding about about the apocalypse through the characters history and discovery.) So sadly, this wasn’t a great read for me – although I do love the cover – and I’m glad I borrowed it from the library rather than buying it. My rating is 5/10.
I’ve nothing bad to say about this book; I just didn’t feel like continuing. The narrator has been annoying me ever since I started listening to Pawn of Prophecy and once Ce’Nedra stayed at Prolgu and I had to listen to Relg ranting at Garion, rather than Ce’Nedra and Garion squabbling, I found I’d simply had enough. It was all travel, the occasional fight and more travel, and it was getting rather boring. I know the story picks up, and if I continued I’m sure I would have started enjoying it again. However, my health is currently bad, I’m very tired and have started listening to The Grey King as a read along with a couple of other bloggers, so this one has kind of been squeezed out.
Magician’s Gambit
David Eddings
The Belgariad, Book 3
Audiobook
DNF
The Belgariad:
