The Dead of Winter by Chris Priestley
1 November 2011
Filed under Book Reviews, Challenges for 2011
Tags: Chris Priestley, Gothic Ghost story, The Dead of Winter
Read the Dead of Winter yesterday – for Halloween – which seemed appropriate. I do read quite a lot of YA novels but not normally ones aimed at this age range (I would say 10 – 14?) but, having said this it was a good read!
To quote from Amazon:
“Michael Vyner recalls a terrible story, one that happened to him. One that would be unbelievable if it weren’t true! Michael’s parents are dead and he imagines that he will stay with the kindly lawyer, executor of his parents’ will …Until he is invited to spend Christmas with his guardian in a large and desolate country house. His arrival on the first night suggests something is not quite right when he sees a woman out in the frozen mists, standing alone in the marshes. But little can prepare him for the solitude of the house itself as he is kept from his guardian and finds himself spending the Christmas holiday wandering the silent corridors of the house seeking distraction. But lonely doesn’t mean alone, as Michael soon realises that the house and its grounds harbour many secrets, dead and alive, and Michael is set the task of unravelling some of the darkest secrets of all. A nail-biting story of hauntings and terror by the master of the genre, Chris Priestley.”
I thought this was a great read. It’s only short and the pages just flew by. It’s set in the Victorian era in a country mansion – surrounded by a moat and quite isolated, with bleak weather and a desperate sense of foreboding.
The story is narrated by the older grown up Michael and I particularly liked his voice.
There is quite a lot going on in this story and it feels as though Michael never gets a moment to himself with some quite dramatic moments (personally I think I might have asked for a change in bedroom!)! The tension builds really well and you come to the overwhelming sensation that something dreadful will happen to Michael unless he can discover the secrets of the house.
To be honest I don’t want to say too much more. I think this was a great short story with plenty going on and it felt so ‘right’ reading it now when the clocks have gone back and the dark winter nights have set in! I think you need to go into this with the right expectations – given the age range this book is aimed at – I never expected this to be totally chilling – it felt more like an indulgence really and one that I would definitely recommend!
Good writing, quick read, creepy moments, ghosts and a gothic Victorian mansion!
Rating B
The Dead of Winter
Last Breath by Rachel Caine No.11 in the Morganville Vampire Series
31 October 2011
Filed under Book Reviews, Challenges for 2011
Tags: Last Breath, Morganville Vampires, Rachel Caine
Just finished reading Last Breath by Rachel Caine. I read that there will be 15 books in total in the Morganville Vampire series with this being the 11th installment (not 12 like I originally thought). I did wonder whether RC would manage to come up with a new story or whether the series would start to tail off but I’m pleased to say that RC has put together another gripping installment. This is quite an emotional ride and I found myself quite literally gobsmacked about half way through. Yes, mouth dropped open, scratching my head, saying ‘what just happened?’ If you haven’t read the other books this review may contain spoilers.
Last Breath continues on from where Bite Club left off but in this story Morganville is going to come under attack from a new and terrible foe. An enemy that preys on vampires! This poses a much greater threat than Bishop ever did and could prove catastrophic not only to the vampires but the human inhabitants as well. A new stranger is in town, his name is Magnus – he’s not human, in fact it’s difficult to say what he is but he’s stalking around town and vampires are starting to disappear. Claire and her gang are about to have a few questions finally answered – like why vampires, who don’t like sunlight, decided to set up house in the middle of a bright and sunny desert.
What I particularly like about this episode is that RC continues with the style she adopted in the last book of allowing other participants in the story to take part in the narration. I really like this style as it allows you to see other parts of the story that are restricted by having only one storyteller and it allows us to experience the thoughts and emotions of some of the others which we havent really had an insight into previously. For example, Amelie provides some of the narration and it’s really good to hear her thoughts and understand some of her reasonings, I think it also helped to show that she’s not quite as cold as she always seems.
I think that the new threat written into this story is really well imagined with a good backdrop that slowly unfolds as the story develops – so we don’t get to learn everything right away, we’re kept in the dark about events just as Claire and her gang are. Again we are in a race against time situation where the clock is ticking ever faster as we race to the action packed finale and the final show down.
And, of course, my favourite character Myrnin is ever present in his bunny slippers and we get to see a little more into his true feelings for Claire.
I do enjoy this series and have mixed feelings, partly I don’t want it to finish but partly I can’t wait to see how it will end. Only four more books before we find out what will happen to the gang (and I’m including vamps in that – obviously we have Michael and Myrnin, but also Oliver has sort of grown on me as have a few of the others) how can you have an ending that satisfies everyone? It won’t be easy.
I thought this was much more of an emotional instalment and it ends on a cliffhanger I’m afraid with a bit of a wait before the next book comes out to satisfy the curiosity.
Rating: -A
Last Breath
Lord of the Rings read along – end of Book Two, The Two Towers
29 October 2011
Filed under Book Reviews, Challenges for 2011
Tags: J RR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers
Just finished reading book 2 of the Lord of the Rings, the Two Towers, as part of our group read along. This final instalment of Book 2 took us from The Window on the West through to The Choices of Master Samwise.
This week Andrea from The Little Red Reviewer has come up with discussion points which are below:
Faramir strikes me as a noble, intelligent fellow, especially concerning powers beyond his control. Had he gone to Elrond’s Council instead of Boromir, how might the story have changed?
I really liked Faramir (a lot more in the book than the film) and thought it was interesting to read this section because it is actually quite different from the film. I think the film version makes Faramir seem a bit more weak and indecisive than the book. In the book he comes across as intelligent, dedicated, honourable and thoughtful. He treats the hobbits respectfully and questions them in a way which gives him the answers he needs. He also tries to give them wise counsel before they continue on their quest and although he understands the nature of what is before him he resists the temptation and therefore proves himself more resistant to the ring than his brother Boromir (although whether or not he would be able to sustain his resistance if he stayed longer in company with the hobbits is unknown). But, personally I think it was better that Boromir was included in the Fellowship. I don’t think he was always the wisest but to be honest the Counsel were not short of wiseness – Aragorn and Gandalf certainly don’t have a lack of knowledge – and maybe if Faramir had been included they would have had so many wise voices that they would have just gone round and round in circles and never made any decisions. Boromir – through his dissenting voice – quite often pushed the Counsel to make decisions almost as an adverse reaction to what he was saying, and, on top of that, he was the spur that Frodo needed to break with the Fellowship and continue to Mordor with Sam.
What did you think of Shelob and her lair? Would you willingly go in there? Yes, I know Gollum says “this is the only way”, but Frodo could have demanded they explore and attempt to find another way.
I really don’t like spiders and the notion of a spider as large as Shelob gives me the shivers – in fact, I’d sooner climb up a mountain I think!. I think I would probably have preferred to look for an alternative if the truth be told but, in fairness to Frodo, he didn’t really have any other option did he? He was reliant on Gollum – he knew that he would eventually try something or betray them but whilst he seemed to be guiding them he had to trust him and the fact that Gollum was scheming meant he would never have revealed any other way to the hobbits (even if one existed). I suppose the other thing was that Frodo, having seen the army issuing forth from Mordor, now realised the urgency of his quest and so his choices were limited and the need for haste was paramount.
When Sam saves Frodo from Shelob, he finds himself in the vision he saw in Galadriel’s mirror. Knowing the future isn’t always as helpful as one would think, is it?
Definitely not. One part of me thinks it would be so irresistable to be told the future and another thinks not (maybe the winning lotto numbers!). As it happens, having seen this particular vision of the future didn’t turn out helpful to Sam at all – although, interestingly, when Sam sees the vision he assumes Frodo his asleep, in reality however he thinks Frodo has died and he therefore makes the decision to continue alone – if he had stuck with his original interpretation of the vision things may have turned out differently!
Having always been a sidekick/helper of sorts, Sam reluctantly realizes he may have to become the Ringbearer. What do you think Sam will do with the Ring of Power? If you were the sidekick of the hero, and suddenly had the opportunity to become the hero, to finish the quest, what would you do with the Ring of Power?
I think I would have reached the same conclusion as Sam, which is that the quest is too important and that it must continue to the end, even if the ringbearer has to change. I like the idea of Sam being the sidekick – just picturing him as Robin to Frodo’s Batman!!
The conversation between the two Orcs at the end was highly amusing for me. Yes, it serves to educate Sam on Frodo’s condition, and Tolkien could have just left it at that, but he didn’t. The Orc’s commiserating could have been any soldiers in any war. To me, it felt like Tolkien was humanizing the enemy, instead of the traditional dehumanizing of the enemy that you usually see in war stories. What do you think?
That’s a really good point – when I was reading the conversation between Gorbag and Shagrat the part that struck me particularly was their discussion about slipping off somewhere with a few trusty lads, somewhere with good loot and nice and handy with no big bosses – like the old times. So, you can gather from that conversation that they don’t like the war any more than anybody else – I like that Tolkien wrote it like this – I don’t think it made me like the Orcs any more but it does illustrate that in spite of the differences the enemy also wants to get things over with and have some semblance of normality.
The book ends on a cliffhanger. Are you excited to finish up the trilogy and see how it all turns out?
I’m really enjoying the read along – and particularly seeing the differences between the book and the film. It’s so long ago that I read the story that to be honest I thought the film was exactly the same and yet there are differences and I find it really interesting as these crop up – thinking particularly about the change in story regarding Faramir and how he lets the hobbits continue on their quest and also Sam and Frodo on the stairs and how they actually go in to Shelob’s lair together. I’m really looking forward to the final book!
Thanks Andrea, really good topics for discussion. 😀
Other group discussions
Geeky Daddy
Blue Fairy’s Bookshelf
Stainless Steel Droppings
All Booked Up
A Game of Thrones by George R R Martin
27 October 2011
Filed under Book Reviews, Challenges for 2011
Tags: Dragons, Game of Thrones, George Martin
Finally, just finished reading Game of Thrones by George Martin. What a fantastic read. I don’t know why I left it so long – probably because it’s such a big book that I needed to have a bit of free time to read it! But, I’m so glad that I’ve finally started this series and now I have so many more books waiting to be read!
I don’t really think I need to go too deeply into the details of the story. We start off with an introduction to the Starks of Winterfell, Lord Stark, Ned, his wife Catelyn and their children, Rob, Sansa, Arya, Bran and Rickon. Ned also has another son, Jon, but not to his wife Catelyn (a sore point to say the least but he is determined to raise Jon as best he can). The Starks rule in the North where life is hard and winters very cold. We have a quick insight into their life and characters before everything is torn apart when the King, Robert Baratheon arrives to offer Ned a position at court, to become The Hand to the King. Of course, refusing the King is not an easy or wise task and particularly difficult if the King was once your most trusted friend and so Ned reluctantly accepts and takes his daughters away to Court with him to start his new position, thus effectively splitting the family. Of course, life at court is full of intrigue, duplicity and treachery with everyone playing the game of thrones – a game which usually ends in death and despair.
I think this story is really excellent. Where can I start.
Firstly, the story is told in small chapters in a number of different voices. This is such an excellent device as it allows us to be everywhere – I love omnipresence in a book. Seriously though this enables us to read the POV from the girls and Ned in their own chapters down at court, we can hear from Jon (who has now left Winterfell to serve the rest of his life as a guard on the North’s defensive wall or to be back at Winterfell with the rest of the family. Added to that we have the introduction of a new set of characters and an alternative plot line with the Targaryens. Really, we are following three story lines, the intrigues and macchinations of court life, the life of the guards on The Wall and the strange happenings in the forest where The Others lurk and tales of giants and other stranger things are whispered, and the story of the Targaryens, Dany and her brother – last of the House of Dragons. Fairly quickly we are sucked into all three, and, despite the scale of the story, it never feels difficult to follow the plot. All three storylines move on at a pace together with each gradually gaining more and more tension until the final few chapters where it is impossible to put the book down!
Secondly, the characters. Totally fantastic and well written. There is such a lot to choose from, really despicable, mean and treacherous characters who you simply love to hate, courageous and honourable characters who are uplifting to read along with, clever and cunning, slippery and sly, naive and trusting, just such a lot. Basically I love some of the characters and by the same token really dislike others. I particularly liked Jon and I really enjoyed reading his chapters. I also thought Dany was brilliant to read about and Arya and I guess the other character who you just can’t help liking is Tyrion – so insightful. I think it’s brilliant that the author has come up with such a diversity and he manages to make you utterly dislike someone without feeling petty. Like I said some of these people are so horrible that you hope they do come unstuck and others you are crossing your fingers that they’ll be okay and in managing to stir these feelings you become totally invested in the story and the outcome.
Thirdly, we have the story itself which is epic and mind blowing in its ‘epicness’!! The scope is stunning and the author’s ability to juggle all the plotlines and come up with twists and turns along the way is staggering. On top of that this is one author who has no qualms whatsoever in telling things how they are. We have battles and deaths and they’re not always pretty, some scenes are a bit near the knuckle and there is also no hesitation whatsoever in sacrificing characters as the story moves forward. (In that respect I would say that this is definitely an adult read).
Fourthly, a great ending which has left me eager to read the next book – I sort of had an inkling what was going to happen – but, I don’t want to give away any spoilers.
In terms of criticisms. Mmm, don’t have any. Unless I can say that not having any criticisms is a criticism.
And, lastly, the beauty of appearing so late to the party is there are goodness knows how many books in the series already waiting to be read! Winner!
I loved reading this book and would definitely recommend. It’s an amazing adventure story, medieval, full of families at war and secrets and with plot lines that are only just coming to fruition.
I hope the next books are as good.
Rating A+
A Games of Thrones
Lord of the Rings read along, The Two Towers, The Road to Isengard to of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit
22 October 2011
Filed under Book Reviews, Challenges for 2011
Tags: Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, Tolkien
This week seems to have completely run away from me. I’ve had a few days off from work and so was expecting to get lots of reading done and for this part of the read along to be a breeze but the best laid plans, etc, etc. So, I’ve only just caught up! I’ve not checked out everyone’s comments yet but will do so shortly – didn’t want to be influenced before I’d sorted my answers. Thanks to Carl of Stainless Steel Droppings for providing the questions this week.
1. The Glittering Caves of Aglarond; Fangorn Forest: Which of the two would you be most excited to visit once the war was over?
I actually like the sound of the caves but I think I would not like to be under the earth for any great length of time and so I would definitely prefer Fangorn Forest. I like the idea of exploring Fangorn, even though it’s very strange, creepy and old it still sounds fascinating. I love the descriptions of the forest not to mention the moving trees – you would go to sleep under a tree and wake up in the morning and it would be gone – you’d just be totally lost. (Well, maybe being lost isn’t such a brilliant idea – better remember to take lots of provisions!)
2. How did you like the reunion of at least part of the fellowship at Isengard? Did any part of it stand out to you?
I personally enjoyed the ‘part’ reunion at Isengard although I thought it was more low key than I anticipated. That being said I thought all the bits with Merry and Pippin smoking their pipes and foraging for food added a really good injection of humour. Yet again, I really like the way that Tolkien manages to make you smile. I think his ability to add humour is one of the big pluses of this book for me and stops it becoming too dark.
3. What are your thoughts about Galdalf’s confrontation with Saruman?
Again, I found this particular scene strangely low key. I think there was a decent build up of tension with everyone being warned beforehand about how to act in the face of Saruman but somehow I think I would have liked more flash and fireworks between the two wizards, although I suppose on reflection, they had already had a face off earlier on in the novel. For me, I think I would have liked to have had the satisfaction of Gandalf kicking some wizard butt (although I knew that didn’t happen so what am I going on about here??) Gandalf is clearly a lot more grown up than me!! And, he just took it all in his stride.
4. We learn a great deal about the Palantir in this section. How do you feel about Saruman given Gandalf’s speech about the use of the Palantir? Would you, like Pippen, be tempted to look in to see what you could see?
I think Saruman showed a surprising lack of common sense throughout the novel not to mention a huge amount of arrogance. The very notion that he was going to side with Sauron is just naïve to the maximum given all his years’ of experience and what he knows of the enemy and also there is this element to his behaviour where he actually believes he can get the better of Sauron which again just seems unbelievable. It makes you see though that not only Boromir succumbed to the power of the ring after all. I think I would be tempted to look into the Palantir but I don’t think I would have had the nerve to go and take it from under Gandalf’s nose! But, in the end, Pippin’s mistake probably turned out more helpful than harmful and also saved Gandalf from a potentially dangerous confrontation.
5. What are your thoughts about Smeagol/Gollum in this first part of his journey leading Frodo and Sam? For those of you who’ve seen the film, are you hearing Andy Serkis in your head when you read Gollum’s lines?
Strange as it may seem I can’t help but like Gollum. He certainly has a one track mind and pursues his own goal relentlessly – it’s a pity he’s such a strange and lonesome little critter – he could really be quite helpful to have on your team, he virtually doesn’t need to eat or sleep, he’s dedicated and he’s an adept tracker! I also can’t help just reading all Gollum’s lines in the voice of Andy Serkis. I think he just made the role his own and it’s now impossible for me to imagine this character in any other way. Again, I like the way that Gollum manages to add quite a bit of light heartedness with his little songs, his sulking and his comical dialogue – ‘give me fish now, and keep nasty chips!’
6. Sam and Frodo are not traveling in the most picturesque part of Middle-earth. Which would you find worse, the seemingly impossible to leave mountains or the Dead Marshes?
No thought necessary for this one – I would find the mountains the worse. I don’t have any head for heights and the notion of having to peer over the edge of a cliff or scale down it brings out the goosebumps for me! Give me the marshes any day! Plus, imagine having to sleep on the side of a mountain – I’d probably roll over the edge during a dream or something. Terra firm is definitely my choice, boggy and full of dead people and strange lights or not!
7. Tolkien introduces us to a lot of places in this section of The Two Towers, many just getting a mention in passing. What do you think of Tolkien’s place names (Minas Morgul, Isengard, the Emyn Muil, and on and on)? Do any stand out to you? Are there any that you don’t care for?
I think Tolkien did a great job of naming such a lot of places – I genuinely don’t know how he did it because I think it’s not as easy as it sounds coming up with random names. Also, I feel that his name places quite often give a strange sense of what the place is going to be like – although I would say that because I’m already familiar. But, just by way of example, the Shire, you imagine this to be farmlands, rich and green with cottages, Rivendell – lots of water and falls, Fangorn – just sounds creepy as though the forest has teeth (I know I’m being overly simple here!!). But, I think Tolkien does a great job of not just conjuring the places but also naming them – he makes it look easy.
Thanks Carl for the questions this week. 😀
Links:
Other blog conversations can be found at:
Geeky Daddy
Blue Fairy’s Bookshelf
All Booked Up
Stainless Steel Droppings
Books and travelling with Lynn 