Windcatcher Review

Windcatcher by A.J. Norfield
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

*Disclaimer* I received this book free from the author in exchange for an honest review.
I really wanted to like this book.
This is the opening book in a large epic fantasy story with dragons which really should be completely my wheelhouse but I found the experience jarring and tedious at the same time.
My main issue that I just could not get past was the author trying to world build with a ridiculous amount of exposition shoe horned into the plot. I understand that Norfield has this entire world stuck in his head and feels the need to get every aspect of what he can see, and has constructed, onto the page but as a lover of epic fantasy I found this amateurish and off putting. Which was unfortunate because there were 2 really interesting events happening at the start of this book that normally I would have been enthralled by but for the constant interruptions to explain back story of characters, lay out of country side and political musterings between waring factions. All of these elements can be left till later when the reader has a) remembered the names of the characters and b) invested emotionally in those characters.
My secondary issue was the lengthy/wordy descriptions for EVERYTHING. We get a blow by blow list of the scratches everyone got in a battle with the enemy... big injuries and deaths only and that can be done in the action sequence please.
I really think if this had just got into the action/ main plot and left the world building to happen organically I think this would be a great book as the elements are all there but buried in to many words for words sake and exposition I would have really enjoyed it but unfortunately it was and I could not bring myself to keep going.

View all my reviews

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black Short Review

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a great start to an intriguing story. I hope the rest of the series will hold up to this opener.
I especially liked the lore building that Black has weaved through the plot. I am not familiar with all the traditional lore of the fae but it felt like she drew on it rather than creating a new tradition that made this new tale feel like it was set in a familiar and loved world. Really enjoyed this and will be recommending it to others.

View all my reviews

WTF Did I Just Read | Infinite Jest Review #WTF Did I Just Read...

WTF Did I Just Read | Infinite Jest Review

#WTF Did I Just Read is my review of Infinite Jest by #DavidFosterWallace Check it out here

via Tumblr https://ift.tt/2tli64a

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert Short Gushing review

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is by far and away the best book I have read this year and possibly last!
I was enthralled from start to finish. This read like a Anderson fairytale with all the horror and resolutions that are not happily but are sort of fair.
I powered through this over the weekend as its so well written.
This will be up there with The Night Circus as a book I will be recommending to everyone because it just so good.

View all my reviews

Weirdworld Vol 1 Warzones short review

Weirdworld, Volume 0: Warzones! by Jason Aaron
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So once again I have found a book that I love that is a very short run.
I initially thought the artwork was a bit lazy as it looks very smudged and blurry. On closer inspection I found that the blurry effect was an overlay and the work underneath is quite good.
The story itself is a solid quest for home style story, with allies made on the way to come to the rescue during the final battle.
Mainly I liked the dragon but that goes for any story.

View all my reviews

Along Came a Spider by James Patterson

Along Came a Spider by James Patterson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The ending of this was really well done but shocking which I liked.
This is the first book in the Alex Cross series.
Alex Cross is an african american police detective with a psychology degree who is investigating a series of murders in the black community when he and his partner (Sammy) is pulled off the case to investigate the high profile kidnapping case involving the child of an actress and the child of the minister of finance.
Patterson does a really good job building the suspense and setting the scene without making gorey descriptions. What he fails at miserably though is writing a sex scene that doesn't make you either spit take you hot beverage or just laugh at the patheticness of. Seriously, they so are terrible that I hope that is was nominated for Bad Sex in Fiction Award.
Thankfully that is not what I am reading these books for and I look forward to reading more in this series.

View all my reviews

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them book notes

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

once again, as an Australian, we miss out on representation and recognition. Our ministry of magic really needs to pull its finger out and get some of our more spectacular magical creatures the recognition they deserve.
The rainbow serpent was not mentioned at all among the large serpents and they carve out rivers.
The Bunyip who are known to protect the local wildlife from outside forces.
Not to mention the world famous drop bear and hoop snake.
such a shame

View all my reviews

Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie Review

Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I listened to the BBC dramatisation version of this audio book and thoroughly enjoyed the voice acting. The story and the murder was set mostly in Petra, somewhere I truly wish to visit but even if I wasn't aware of this spectacular wonder, I would have had no trouble visualising the scene of the crime.
In normal Christie style, all of the evidence is laid out before us and I still was none the wiser as to the murderer until dutifully informed by Monsieur Poirot along with the rest of the dumb struck and gapping cast. I need to read more of these and maybe I will get a little wiser.

View all my reviews

The Raven Cycle book 3: Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was exactly what I wanted coming out of the second book "The Dream Thieves" More Blue and more caves! Also we finally get to meet Malory with his service dog; Dog.
They follow all sorts of clues and Adam gets stronger with his powers of Cabeswater making his super power the awesomeness of chill.
They are still on the hunt for Glendower but unlike most young adults out for adventure, adults are in on the "fun and games" too. Unsurprisingly, I cried in this one, but I cry easy and for happy or sad bits.
Can't wait to get to the next one.

View all my reviews

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Whilst I am yet to read any of Homer's works, I am familiar with the story of Odysseus so this retelling from the perspective of his long suffering wife, Penelope with its fabulous feminist bent was wonderful.
I even liked the poems read by the chorus of the 12 hanged maids. They had a powerful rhythm to them that strengthened the accusations of the maids ill death. The chorus is a tradition of the greek play so it was a fitting use.
Margaret Atwood doing another wonderful job of speaking for those without voice.

View all my reviews

Witchblade Rebirth vol 1 Review

Witchblade Rebirth Volume 1 by Tim Seeley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sara is in a new city and stirring up trouble. I liked this volume but as an intro to the witchblade universe I probably could have chosen a better starting point. They do an alright job re-introducing characters but some are not as clear as if you had read earlier volumes.
That being said, the story line is solid, and the artwork is amazing with some beautiful full page spreads that would be great as stand alone pieces of art.
I will be reading more from this universe.

View all my reviews

Theatre of the Gods by M Suddain Review

Theatre of the Gods by Matt Suddain
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was fantastic! The plot jumped all over the place for the first 300 pages with hilarious results and considering the main objective of the Character Fabrigas is to jump to another universe, this works beautifully.
One of the things I loved the most of the pop culture references. I wish the "traditional sea shanties" had continued into the second half of the book because the image of a dirty, disreputable rabble of grisaled sailors singing mixed up versions of pop songs is one of the funniest things I have read...ever!

The second half of the book is where the plot settles down and goes in a more linear fashion. This is where the action really heats up and once the homunculus shows up we're really cooking with gas.
Awesome book really worth the read.
I want more from these universes.

View all my reviews

Fables Vol 22 by Bill Willingham & Mark Buckingham

Fables, Vol. 22: Farewell by Bill Willingham
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So this was a bit of a mixed bag. I really like the final conclusion of the story line between Snow and Rose Red and some of the Final Story of .... pages but there were just too many of them that I didn't care about. These made it a bit tiresome. Over all quite good but sometimes too much of a good thing is actually too much.

View all my reviews

Tumor: A Medical Noir by Joshua Hale Fialkov & Noel Tuazon a short review

Tumor by Joshua Hale Fialkov
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This would have been a 2 star if not for the ending. I really liked the art work but I found the story just a bit too simple. I thought that is could have had a little bit more in the way of plot to fill out what could have been a really meaty story. Ok not great.

View all my reviews

Snow White By Matt Phelan very short review

Snow White: A Graphic Novel by Matt Phelan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a re-telling of Snow White set in the 1920's told mostly by the beautiful sketched illustrations. A very quick "read" (There really isn't much to read).

View all my reviews

Bitch Planet Vol 1 Review

Bitch Planet, Vol. 1: Extraordinary Machine by Kelly Sue DeConnick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was great! The fake ads at the end of each issue about treible products that some sadly existed in the past (tapeworms for weight loss) and could very well exist (pills to make women more compliant, sound like frontal lobotomies anyone?) mixed in with sadly true stats about domestic violence.

Women are held to ridiculous standards by the "Fathers" and anyone who doesn't reach these ideals of feminine beauty, behaviour or stereotype is shipped off to the prison planet Bitch.
Keen to see where this one goes.

View all my reviews

The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes short review

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A nice collection of short mysteries solved with all the flare we expect from the legends of Holmes and Watson. The best in my opinion being "The Scandal in Bohemia" where we meet the only woman to outwit the great detective, "The Five Orange Pips" involving the possible ruin of the KKK, and "The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet" where we see the good in bad people and the bad in those seen as good.


View all my reviews

War & Peace Part 2

Countess Rostova: · A thin oriental type of face, worn out with childbearing- she’d had 12 Chapter 10 Introduced to the Rostov’s who are the rich cousins of Anna Mikhaylovna and where she stays with her son Boris whilst in Moscow. It is St Natalia’s day and name day for the countess and the youngest daughter. During receiving well wishes we hear about the rest of the night we left Peirre They put the bear in the carriage with them and went off to visit and “actress” and ended up tying a policeman to the back of the bear and putting it in a channel. Chapter 11 The “children” come tumbling into the sitting room and we get our first glimpse of Boris and the Rostov’s son of the same age, Sonya, the Rostov’s niece and others. Chapter 12 Sonya is enamoured with cousin Nicholas. Nicholas is following cousin Boris into the military service. Natasha is in love with Boris. Countess Vera is a lot more prudent. Chapter 13 Follow Natasha (12-13) out of the sitting room who waits in the shrubbery of the conservatory watching first Boris leave and then Sonya coming out sobbing followed by Nicholas who consoles her with a kiss. This inspires Natasha to find Boris, pull him into the shrubbery and kiss him where upon he assures her that in 4 yrs he will ask for her hand in marriage. Chapter 14 Countess Vera is sent from the sitting room so that the 2 older women can talk, she finds the 2 couples and starts to harass them about the decorum of their actions and being found in this way, she is seen to be a hard nosed bitch. Anna and the countess are talking about how Anna has managed Boris’ appointment with Prince Vasili (describing the encounter with much more positivity on his part) and how she is going to go to Count Bezukhov (boris’ godfather) to beg money for his outfitting. Her widowhood and a lawsuit that is crippling her financially are alluded to. Chapter 15 Anna Mikhaylovna drags her son Boris to the residence of the dying Count Bezukhov and finds Prince Vasili baring the way to entry with the count. She starts repeating that its her uncle and she should be here for him in a nursing capacity and wins a small victory but muscling out on of the princesses. Boris is sent off to invite Peirre to the Rostov’s for dinner with Prince Vasilis assurance that he would at least like him out of the was (both for the evening and out of the way of his inheritance) Chapter 16 One of the princesses had a mole on her lip which made her the prettier of the two. Since his arrival from Petersburg, Pierre has been barred from seeing the count. Boris reassures Peirre that they have no intention of asking his father for money. Chapter 17 Countess Rostova asks her husband for the money to give to Anna to outfit Boris and gets it. But there are hints they are going to be in a bad way soon too from Dimitri Chapter 18 the Rostov’s dinner We meet Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova Le terrible dragon who is known for speaking her mind and being blunt. They go into dinner and Sonya is again miffed at Nicholas for speaking to Julia Karagina again. Pierre is once again oblivious to the social graces that he is stepping on, sitting in everyone’s way, talking in monosyllables, and getting well on his way to being drunk in the dinner. Chapter 19 The dinner continues and the German Hassar who has been drinking heavily starts to get quite animated on the manifesto of war that has been delivered and why the war is necessary. They are interrupted by Marya asking what all the noise is about when she in turn is interrupted by the young Natasha demanding loudly to know what will be for sweets. Chapter 20 Moving to after dinner entertainment the children are encouraged to sing, when Natasha noticies that Sonya is not with them. After a search of the usual haunts, she is found crying about what vera has said about her and Nicholas not being allowed to marry. Natasha cheers her up and the dancing begins. Natasha is asked to employ pierre in the dance by her mother, the countess, the act of which makes Natasha feel very adult. We are then pesented with the amusing sight of the count and Marya dancing the Daniel Cooper. With the count entertaining everyone by being most animated for a plump man and most of Marya’s animation coming from her face as she too was a big woman. Amusing all the guests and even all the serfs of the household. Chapter 21 the death watch As the dinner guest dance the 6th anglish the count had his 6th stroke. Prince Vasili corners the oldest of the princesses and convinces her that not only has the count written an new will for Pierre to inherit everything leaving them nothing, that it will not be invalidated by his illegitimacy as he has written to the emperor to legitimise him but that he will have it done. It comes out that it was the princes anne mikalovena that, a year ago, came to sully them to the count and spurned him on to change his will.

War and Peace Part 1

My raw notes on my second reading of War and Peace By Leo Tolstoy War and Peace Book 1 1805 Characters with multiple names listed down the column Anna Pavlovna: · self-deprecating “if you’re not doing anything else please come and see me the invalid” · “despite her 40 yrs overflowed with animation and impulsiveness” doesn’t matter how old she gets she is forever a child or that is what she portrays · people she “serves up as a specially choice delicacy a piece of meat that no one who had seen it in the kitchen would have cared to eat” cutting comment on the aristocracy? · Prince Vasili · children: Anatole, Hippolyte, Helene Princess Bolkonskaya · on her upper lip, a delicate dark down · pregnant · the most fascinating woman in Petersburg Overwritten: “Prince Vasili did not reply, though, with the quickness of memory and perception befitting a man of the world, he indicated by a movement of his head that he was considering this information” he nodded… wtf Influence in society, however, is a capital which has to be economized if it to last” When Princess Drubetskaya was begging for his influence of the emperor to have her son (Boris) made a Guard Pierre vs vicomte V: “Liberty and quality, high-sounding words which have long been discredited.” Pierre seems like the well meaning buffoon that is only there to amuse the others, his appearance, large and bungling, picking up others possessions and not knowing the right courtly procedures, talking to the aunt etc. His opinions, his siding with Napoleon and agreeing that the execution was the right thing to do politically and that the French people will not fall back under the power of the rightful king willingly are all at odds with what the political opinions of his “betters” symbolised by the vicomte. Prince Hiployte is in love with princess bolkonskaya (the little princess) who I married to prince Andrew who doesn’t really seem to care for her, but won't be cuckolded. He is going to war, away from his new pregnant wife because the life he lives here (Petersburg) doesn’t suit him and she will be sent to the country for good measure. Prince Andrew solidifies this contempt for his little wife in an argument with her about his leaving for war and moving her to his father’s house in the country where she admits her fear, in front of Pierre. After promising Prince Andrew that he will no longer go around the Kurigins he heads straight there to see a scene of debauchery and drinking with a bear (Bruin) and a window being smashed out for a bet. End of session 1

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater Review

https://youtu.be/5u9tVfL9m8gI finally edited and got this one out there. Come and check it out.

via Tumblr http://ift.tt/2HtVFA8