Waiting on Wednesday: Morning Star by Pierce Brown
18 November 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Breaking the Spine, Morning Star, Pierce Brown, Waiting on Wednesday
“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine. Every Wednesday we get to highlight a book that we’re really looking forward to. My book this week is Morning Star by Pierce Brown. This is the third in series and I’ve loved the first two. I’m so excited for this one! Due Feb 2016. Check out this cover – does this look ominous or hopeful???
The Beast of Barcroft by Bill Schweigart
The Beast of Barcroft went in a direction that I wasn’t expecting, in fact, on reflection, I’m not quite sure what I was expecting but whatever it was this surpassed it in many way.
We start the story finding out about the neighbour from hell, Madeleine Roux. Well, that’s probably a bit of an extreme description but it’s certainly the way her neighbours feel about her. Madeleine likes to feed the birds and critters. Unfortunately, as you may know, if you place food outside it doesn’t just attract the soft and fluffy animals that you want – it attracts everything, including vermin, and Barcroft is swiftly becoming overrun. Pull up a pipe in your garden and it will likely be followed out by a slick wave of rats.
Ben McKelvie and his girlfriend have just bought a house in the area. Little did they suspect that their neighbour would cause them such problems. Anyway, a long story short, Ben becomes involved in the neighbourly battle to try and stop Madeleine encouraging yet more vermin onto the surrounding properties. He also suffers a family loss and, having become a bit embittered and grumpy about life in general his girlfriend finally decides enough is enough and leaves. She at least leaves him with the dog. Well, about the dog – the problem with all sorts of critters being attracted to the area is that bigger predators follow in their wake and Ben’s dog becomes the victim of a most unlikely predator.
Now, the neighbours are up in arms, the local authority can do very little, the local police seem disinterested at most and Ben, in desperation, enlists the help of a curator from the National Zoo.
I’m not going to go into the plot at all, other than the above.
What we have here is a sneaky story that leads you off down one route, in a very nicely written and plotted way, only to find yourself taking a different fork in the road completely. I found this fast paced and really quite intriguing not to mention down right creepy as the momentum builds.
The setting is the suburbs. Beyond the immaculate gardens is a strip of woodland with a river running through it – the Four Mile Run Trail. It all sounds really quite lovely and if it wasn’t for whatever is lurking in the shadows in the woods it probably would be. Something has come to Bancroft, something evil, something not easily banished, it knows your fears and is stalking in the shadows.
The characters. Ben, is a little difficult to like at first. He’s quite abrasive and angry but he does eventually endear himself to you. Lindsay is quite a likeable character. Hard working and dedicated to the things she enjoys. As soon as she finds out about the predator in the neighbourhood she pretty much throws herself into the search putting herself at great risk. Then we have Richard Severance, a cryptozoologist and his buddy Dr Alex Standing Cloud, who is an expert on Native American studies. These two are a pair of show stealing characters – I really liked them – they didn’t have a major role but when they put in an appearance you certainly knew about it.
Overall I really enjoyed this. I found it incredibly creepy although seasoned horror readers would probably find me a little lily livered and take this in their stride, and, it gave me a serious case of the heebee geebies. I thought the writing was smooth and the author builds the tension really well. And, let’s not forget the creepy house – it practically exudes menace.
I certainly hope more books are planned!
I received a copy courtesy of the publishers through Netgalley for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
Don’t quote me, but, I love quotes!!…
17 November 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: The Broke and the Bookish, Top Ten Quotes, Top Ten Tuesday
This week over at The Broke and Bookish the topic for discussion is:
‘Top Ten Quotes I Loved From Books I Read In The Past Year Or So’
These quotes are all chosen from books I’ve enjoyed this year:
- ‘You can’t trust everything that ass Plato wrote,” Sokrates said.” The Just City by Jo Walton
- ‘Hic sunt leones. Here be lions.’ The Golden Son by Pierce Brown
- ‘People do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father’s blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day.” True Grit by Charles Portis
- ‘Oh, for crying out loud,” she said. “Were you fools any more chivalrous I’d surely swoon on the spot and damage my uterus.’ The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis
- ‘It’s funny how many ways there are to hurt people. As many ways to hurt as there are species of flower. Whole bouquets of hurt. You do it without even realizing.’ When We Were Animals by Joshua Gaylord
- ‘I’m only a little ashamed to say I outsprinted the boy. Old habits die hard. It’s good to be faster than what’s chasing you, but really the important thing in running away is to be faster than the slowest of those being pursued. Rule number one: be ahead of the next man. Or child.’ The Liar’s Key by Mark Lawrence
- ‘The palace’s decrepit decorations were overwhelmed by piles of bone and hundreds of skulls staring down from broken chandeliers. Vampires slouched along the walls, drunk with blood, sometimes with red hands resting on humans who still showed signs of life.’ The Greyfriar by Clay and Susan Griffiths
- ‘When everyone knows you’re a monster, you needn’t waste time doing every monstrous thing.’ Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
- ‘Love as thou wilt’ Kushiel’s Chosen by Jacqueline Carey
- ‘So how’d an academic end up walking a zombie through a palace on a heist job?’ The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes
The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks
The Secret Chord is Geraldine Brooks latest story and brings to us a fresh look at King David. I confess that I know very little of King David – apart from the very well know episode of David and Goliath of course – and this is a retelling of history and myth that is really intriguing to read told by an author who is an expert at delivering a well told tale.
The story begins with David, as an older man, sending Natan (his prophet) out to meet people from his life to record his story and so we begin with David’s mother and move on from there. As I mentioned above this is a story that I really knew very little about although I believe David’s life is well documented and this is a retelling of those events.
This is a bit of a step away from my usual type of read as it contains no fantasy or sci fi elements but is a very creative reimagining of David’s life. Told through the eyes of Nathan, David’s prophet, who became so at a young age, after he witnessed the massacre of his family at the hands of David and his men. Being a prophet Nathan was greatly feared, some believed him to be a sham, others avoided him like the plague, his life revolved around David but apart from that he seems to have been the one man who could deliver the truth, even if nobody wanted to hear it.
I think Geraldine Brooks is a master of storytelling. She could probably make a shopping list fascinating to read and so in that respect this is a compelling read. Although, I will just mention at this point that this is in parts a violent book. This is definitely an age of little or no remorse in the face of death, in fact reading this the one thing that really stood out was that life seemed incredibly cheap and to be honest David was not without taint in that respect. There are scenes of battle, murder and rape and although these are not sensationalist they may be upsetting for some readers so bear that in mind.
What Brooks does here is show a side to David that is new. He has a fairly sad start until he is anointed as the chosen one. He is then greatly beloved for his heroics in battle until King Saul becomes jealous of him and he of necessity undertakes the life of a fugitive. From there things move on – but I won’t document everything here.
The absolute winning element to this story is the writing. I admit that as I started reading I did wonder if I would get on with this book and then before I knew it I was glued to the pages. Of course, David had a fascinating life and the story unfolds here in a compelling manner, the scenery is set so well, and we see a side to David that is maybe not quite so endearing. At the end of the day these were not easy times to live in with much warfare and bloodshed.
In terms of criticisms – well, I can’t really say that any of the characters were particularly endearing to read about. Well, the main characters are clearly Natan and David and neither of them are easy to like in some respects. Natan is very solitary and a bit abrasive. David, well, he certainly doesn’t come across endearing here. Okay, he has the ability to be likable and fair but to counterbalance that he also appears vain, difficult, a pretty dreadful husband and father and not always the best judge of his own actions.
I enjoyed The Secret Chord, maybe not as much as some as Brook’s other work but still thought it was a compelling and quite fascinating read.
I received a copy of this courtesy of the publishers through Netgalley for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
Kushiel’s Avatar by Jacqueline Carey, readalong week No.6
15 November 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Jacqueline Carey, Kushiel's Avatar, Readalong week No.6
Welcome to week six of our readalong of Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel series. Kushiel’s Avatar is the third in the series and I am loving it so far. All free to join in, if you’ve already read this then please join in with the comments. The full schedule is here and this week Emily at Emma Wolf is our lovely host. Before reading further: a word of warning – there will be spoilers lurking below.
So, moving swiftly on:
Chapters 62-73
1. We see yet another attempt on Imriel’s life. Any new thoughts?
Well, it appears to be Valere doesn’t it? My thoughts about it are that seeing the amount of attempts on Imriel’s life in such a short span, and not even subtle attempts, it seems like he’s never going to live an untroubled life! He’s going to long for his days tending to goats in complete oblivion.
2. Imriel pulls the old switch-a-roo and ends up with Joscelin, Phedre, and Kaneka on their way to Iskandria. Phedre decides to press on rather than turn back. What do you think of her course of action? What do you think of Imriel’s trick? Some seem to be reminded a bit too much of Melisande’s escape from Troyes-le-Mont. What do you think? What do you think of Imriel’s rationale that he is in Hyacinthe’s debt?
In a way it’s not a surprise that Phedre continued on with her journey. At the back of their minds both Phedre and Joscelin have grown very attached to Imriel and the feeling is returned. They have a feel of a family unit and more than that they have a level of trust established. Understandably, Imriel thinks that only Phedre and Joscelin can protect him and I suspect that they’re beginning to entertain similar thoughts. I think Joscelin made a good point that Imriel’s switch-a-roo ploy may come back to haunt him because people will see Melisande in that simple manoeuvre – I really don’t blame him though and personally I think he would have come to harm on board that ship. I can also understand Imriel’s thinking, even though it conveniently allows them to continue on with Joscelin and Phedre, that without Hyacinthe Phedre’s search would have foundered.
3. Phedre meets with Pharaoh again…and threatens to tell Ysandre that Pharaoh has been in touch or in league with Melisande should something happen to her or Imriel. What do you think of her move?
Well, she has guts that’s for sure. At the end of the day she is simply trying to take precautions in whatever way she feels is best – and you can’t really blame her.
4. Kaneka finds some healing with Wali, and Phedre finds her way back from the darkness of Darsanga. Thoughts?
OMG – I had goosebumps. That is all. Okay, that is not all. Phedre and Joscelin finally getting back in touch with each other after all they’ve been through – literally that was one of the most lovely scenes of the series so far. I agree with Joscelin – he needs to go and catch more fist. Now, that is all. Go fish.
5. Phedre et al. journey down the Nahar, through the desert and into Jebe Barkal and Saba. What do you think of these new places and the new characters we meet?
Such an interesting journey. Yet again Carey manages to bring scenes to life before your eyes. Everywhere we go is easy to envisage and I just love the extra attention to detail – travelling across the desert you could almost feel the searing heat – I swear that my lips also felt cracked just reading those chapters. More tea was needed.
6. Phedre meets with the elders of Saba and is disappointed. Then she meets with some of the women. What do you think? Will they help her when the others didn’t?
I think they will. Hopefully I won’t be proved wrong! These are the wise women after all – and two things must ye remember about the wise women – 1. they are women; and 2. they are wise! if they don’t give up the info then henceforth they shall be known as the not-so-wise women and that’ll teach them a lesson!
The other participants:
- Susan at Dab of Darkness
- Allie at Tethyan Books
- Lisa at Over the Effing Rainbow
- Me at Lynn’s Book Blog
- Emily at Emma Wolf
Books and travelling with Lynn 