This is the first novel I’ve read completely in French, and the first one I’ve read in a native language other than English. So it was quite exciting from that perspective. It’s also quite a classic in its own right. It’s fairly short, and has some lovely illustrations.
The Amber Spyglass – Philip Pullman
I’m writing this review having finished this book nearly 2 months ago, so I’m struggling to remember exactly what happened within it. However, I do remember that I liked the book, and overall I have liked the series. It is a very satisfying series, with a satisfying (and sad) conclusion.
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
I certainly heard a lot about this book in 2015, nothing content wise, it just kept popping up everywhere. And I think it is with good reason. It’s a good book, it’s not perfect, but it’s really well done. One of it’s bigger drawcards is it’s more unique format. It is set out as a dossier of files and transcripts about the attack by one company on another’s illegal mining operation, wiping out most of the planet’s inhabitants, and leaving the others on a damaged spaceship, which just so happens to have a mad AI, as well as a virus which turns people into killing machines, and is being stalked by one ship of the original attackers. So there’s a lot going on.
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
The second book in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, I read the first one a little while ago, and wasn’t amazed by it. It was okay, but I really expected to like it more. I thought that perhaps it was the fact that I had seen the movie of it, which meant I knew what was happening, so didn’t enjoy it as much. Given that I actually did like this one, this may be the case. The alternate is that perhaps I was in a different mood compared to last time. Whatever it is, I’m glad I decided to read the sequel.
More Than This by Patrick Ness
Ah Patrick Ness, no matter what it is you write, you do it so well. And you never fail to destroy me, but this time there was a bit less destroying, but even more awesomeness.
Go Set a Watchman – Harper Lee and so much controversy
I’m quite conflicted with this book, all the controversy over it’s publication and ‘finding’ leaves me feeling mildly uncomfortable. Selling this as the ‘sequel’ to To Kill a Mockingbird is false, while it is set years later, the key case of TKAM has its result changed in Go Set a Watchman, so it can hardly be called a sequel. And more importantly, this was written before TKAM. Really what we’ve been given is the initial draft concept for Harper Lee, which eventually came to be the mega classic TKAM. And then there’s the question of whether Harper Lee actually authorised this being released, and if she was competent enough to do so, with conflicting accounts from ‘friends’, so it has left me feeling odd, and is partially why I have waited as long as this to actually read it (another part is that I wanted it from the library, and it was a very popular book). Setting the controversy aside what did I think of the book?
Continue reading Go Set a Watchman – Harper Lee and so much controversy
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
This is one of the SF classics that I have been meaning to get around to for a while. I have watched the movie version, which I think I thought was alright at the time. So reading through this, it did feel familiar to some extent, and I of course couldn’t help picturing the characters with their actors, especially Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent. This previous exposure may have been a bad thing, because I didn’t love it all that much…
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