Alia-801's reviews

Ok, since I seem to be ploughing through a fair few books of late, I thought it was time I started communicating my thoughts about them, so here goes..

Author: Robert Rankin

Title: The Brentford Triangle

b>Genre: Fantasy

Synopsis: All is not well in Brentford. After the events of The Antipope, things should just settle down and let the residents of Brentford head to the Swan for their well-earned pints of Large. Unfortunately it's not to be. Aliens. Aliens who used to live on the fifth planet from the Sun, which disappeared some time ago, are coming back, and they're heading for Brentford. Enter the Professor, Jim and John. And watch out for the darts player who just happens to have a forked tongue and powers which can only be described as... demonic.

Rating: ****

Review: Another completely zany book by the master of... well... zany books! The characters introduced in The Antipope come back to save the world, or at least Brentford, again, ably assisted by a cast which includes a very odd computer game, a camel which doesn't seem to understand gravity and a man who lives several miles below Penge, which I understand to be a very nice place, although I've never been there myself.

Summary: Well worth a read, but take your brain out of gear first. On second thoughts, you might prefer to put it into reverse...

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Author: Raymond E. Feist

Title: Silverthorn

Genre: Sci-Fantasy

Synopsis: This book follows on from where Magician left off. Pug, Kulgan et al. are busy working in the Kingdom setting up a school for those with magical powers, but all is not well. Something is causing trouble, and it doesn't seem to be bound by conventional laws such as those governing life and death. Pug and his friends have the fight of their lives on their hands, and losing could seal the fate of two worlds. Rating: ****

Review: The second book in the Riftwar saga. I was spoilt by the amazing rewriting of Magician. Feist (according to the intro in the first book) wrote these stories when he was much younger, and it shows. Whilst the story flows, and is as gripping as I have come to expect, the writing style is not quite as polished as I've come to expect. But don't let that put you off - this is still an excellent story told well.

Summary: A must for anyone who has read any of the Riftwar saga, especially those who've just read Magician.

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Author: J.R.R. Tolkein

Title: The Silmarillion

Genre: Fantasy

Synopsis: A collection of tales which tell of the mythology behind Lord of the Rings.

Rating: ***1/2

Review: A history of the land where Lord of the Rings is set, from the beginning of its history up to the time of LotR. If you're interested in Hobbits and humans, it's probably not too worth reading, but if you like the elves and other, older races, then this is a fascinating insight into the world behind the stories. It also contains an index of characters, places, and other useful things to know, which is essential as so many of the names are very similar. There is a section on pronunciation of elven names too.

Summary: Not essential reading, but if you enjoyed the parts of Lord of the Rings with the elves then this is definitely worth a look.

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Author: Raymond E. Feist

Title: Magician

Genre: Sci-Fantasy

Synopsis: A young castle boy, Pug, is taken on by the King's magician as an apprentice. He is less than successful though, having great difficulty with the workings of magic, while becoming distracted by the King's beautiful daughter. Just when things seem to be complicated enough, the Kingdom is invaded by people from a different land. Pug is taken to a foreign land and enslaved, working in marshland forests where it seems likely he will die until he is rescued by the landowner's son who wishes to learn their language and customs. As time goes on, Pug is discovered by other magicians who sense his talent and train him. His power grows, as the two kingdoms continue to battle each other, until eventually he is left with the fate of both lands in his hands.

Rating:*****

Review: This version of the book, which was originally written some 20 years ago, has been updated and emended to be the book which the author would have written then, knowing what he know's now (to paraphrase the introduction!). It is a stunningly crafted story, with many parallels to the work of Tolkein, but still manages to maintain its own individuality. The tale is gripping enough to keep you turning over each and every page of the book (which is long, but not overly so). It flawlessly establishes the history of the Riftwar, of Kelewan and of the Kingdom of the Isles.

Summary: An excellent book which leaves you wanting more. Set aside plenty of time to plough through it's hundreds of pages though.

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Author: Robert Rankin

Title: Sex and Drugs and Sausage Rolls

Genre: Fantasy/Comedy

Synopsis: A group of characters who, between them, want to manage a rock band, win on the horses, have travelled to the centre of the world (and planted a flag for the Queen), sing in a rock band (healing the sick with the songs), and time travel, come together to cause absolute chaos for the 382 pages of the (hilarious) book.

Rating: **** + 1/2

Review: I wasn't very sure what to expect when I started this book, and to be honest I wasn't too sure what had happened when I got to the end of it, but I certainly enjoyed the ride! There are lots of larger-than-life characters in the story, including several real ones (the Queen, the Beatles, Richard Branson and others) which add to the interest. Each chapter also begins with a "poem" which has some connection (some of them very vague, all of them amusing) to the following story.

Summary: Well worth a read, but a good idea to take your brain out of gear before you begin.

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Author: Iain Banks

Title: A Song of Stone

Genre: Contemporary fantasy. Sort of.

Synopsis: A bit tough to explain. There's been some sort of war in Europe. The main character lives in a castle with his partner. Just as they are fleeing it, and the renegade fighters who inhabit the area, they are captured by a group of the renegades. What follows in the rest of the book is best described as their humiliation and degradation.

Rating: 0 stars

Review: From the description on the back cover of this book I was expecting something entirely different to what I got. The story is written in the second-person present (the author is "I", the reader is the character to whom the tale is being told, and referred to as you; action is described as it happens) which is unusual in the novels I read generally. The writing style is quite poetic, and with a less unpleasant story would make good reading. The author appears to have tried to get some sort of sexual description or reference into nearly every chapter, which gets quite tiresome after a while. A lot of what is supposed to happen to the two key characters is disturbing.
I was determined to get to the end of the book to see if anything was going to suddenly change how I'd viewed everything thus far. Unfortunately nothing did. I still don't quite know what the point of the story was. Perhaps there was one, but I'm afraid I didn't find it, and I'm not really very keen to reread the book to try to find it.
Summary: Don't read this book unless you're really into disturbing fiction with a poetic tilt to it.

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Author: John McLaren

Title: Press Send

Genre: sci-fi/thriller

Synopsis: Hilton Kask has a plan to create a computer that thinks more like a human than any other machine. A prototype is under development, but in order to take it any further money is needed. Lots of money. Unfortunately the bankers don't know a lot about computers and don't care to find out. The group are left with no money for their project, and just when it looks like things couldn't get any worse, Hilton is diagnosed with inoperable cancer...

Rating: ****

Review: This book is excellent. It's John McLaren's first novel, and it makes really good reading. The story twists and turns, though not so drastically that the reader gets lost in it, but enough to hold attention. The story is a kind of modern-day David and Goliath, with the developers against the banks. Even though you can see the ending coming, it's still something of a surprise when it does.

Summary: A good book when you want some light reading that will hold your attention for a while.

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Author: Patrick O'Brian

Title: Master and Commander

Genre: Historical/Naval fiction

Synopsis: Jack Aubrey is the newly appointed captain of His Majesty's sloop Sophie. He has to find his own crew, and head off in search of Spanish ships and treasure. Some of his superiors take a dim view of him, along with some of his men. For the most part he is well liked, and makes his way through intrigues and battles with his character intact.

Rating:***+1/2

Review: This is the first in Patrick O'Brian's naval series featuring Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin. I haven't read any of the rest of the series, but I am quite likely to have a look at the next few books sometime in the near future. The story wasn't quite as action packed as I thought it might be, but there was always something going on to hold the attention. I did get a bit lost in some of the descriptions of boats (I lost count of the number of different decks, masts and sails mentioned or described, and gave up looking them up after a while!), but it is easy to allow the details to flow past while following the characters and their exploits.

Summary: Excellent if you know your stuns'ls from your forecastle, good if you're not sure which is port or starboard.

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