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Monthly Archives: September 2006

Warprize

I got two very different impressions about this book. On one hand, Elizabeth Vaughan has written a light and entertaining romance. On the other, TOR did an absolutely execrable job editing and copysetting the book. So, about Vaughan’s novel. It’s well paced and fun. The author moves her story along without any noticeable lags, and [...]

Dead Witch Walking

A friend of mine recommended this highly so I decided to give it a try. I’m very sorry that I wasted my $7.99 on this drivel (and about a week of reading time because I couldn’t bring myself to read it in one day). Rachel Morgan is a paranormal bounty hunter who quits her job. [...]

Pitch Black

This prequel to the more heavily publicized (but not as good) Chronicles of Riddick was the first movie that really showcased Vin Diesel to good advantage. He plays a captured murderer, one who escapes when his transport spacecraft has to make an emergency landing on an unknown planet. A few of the passengers survive, then [...]

The Prey

I tried to get into this book, because someone close to me really really wanted me to read it. But I confess to failure. It’s not that there’s really anything strikingly wrong with the book. The plotting is okay. The writing could be tightened up some, but it’s okay. The author’s descriptions are okay. It’s [...]

On Writing

It’s a mystery to me why Stephen King is known primarily as a horror writer and not as a humorist. On Writing is freaking hilarious in places. Anyone who can talk about being farted on by a two hundred pound baby-sitter in a book that’s ostensibly about prose production — and make it work — [...]

X-Men – The Last Stand

Quite enjoyable, if not quite as good as the previous installment in the series. I don’t think that this was due to any particular lack in the story per se, but more because of the much larger cast that had to be slotted into the movie and a certain lack of attention to detail. For [...]

His Majesty’s Dragon

Naomi Novik has written an entertaining and easily read novel her first time out. The book’s main merits lie in the author’s obviously thorough grounding in the period she’s dealing with (the early 1800s) and the writing. Novik has good control of her prose, the style of which reflects the time period quite well. Sentences [...]

Childhood obesity

A recent article concerning childhood obesity says, in part: Americans are beginning to realise that childhood obesity is a real problem [gee, ya think?] and are even starting to do something about it, but there is no way to tell what actually works, a panel of experts said on Wednesday. Statements like this — and [...]

Hunter’s Moon

This is another urban fantasy centering on a werewolf. Unfortunately, it’s not nearly as good as Bitten. (See review immediately below.) Several things about the book bothered me right from the start. For one, the use of smells quickly became overwhelming. Fear smells tangy, lies smell like black pepper, etc. etc. It’s an interesting idea, [...]

Bitten

For a first novel, Bitten is pretty good. Kelley Armstrong tells a nicely paced tale of a female werewolf — the only one in existence — who finds herself torn between two men and two worlds. Armstrong’s writing is good, if a bit clunky here and there. There were far too many times that she [...]

Dae Jang Geum

Dae Jang Geum is a phenomenally popular television series from Korea. It ran over fifty episodes, two per week, and is loosely based on a real woman who lived in the 15th century. This woman rose to become the personal physician to the king of Korea, an unprecedented feat. The series starts before the main [...]

Hyperion

This is an older book; it was published in 1989, and it won the Hugo award for Best Novel the next year. I would say that the award was well deserved. Dan Simmons uses a Canterbury Tales format, having each of the main characters tell his or her story to move the main narrative along. [...]