Storm of Swords, a (2000) [novel]
Review by exos (2009-11-19)
It has a great plot, epic set pieces, and deep characters. Plenty of books/series can make me feel satisfied. However, this book had me swinging from one emotion to next. Only book where I have been able to read it multiple times and still gain a lot from the experience.

(This review refers to the 2000 version titled “A Storm of Swords”)

Good Old-Fashioned Future, a (1999) [collection]
Review by johnafair (2009-11-18)
This shows a somewhat surprising degree of variation from the author that virtually defined the cyberpunk field but the best stories in this collection are the three from 'Deep Eddy' through to 'Taklamakan', which have the advantage of still being set in the future and they do form a sort of consistent story arc.

In the main, though, these stories demonstrate the major failing of the cyberpunk genre - technological obsolescence followed by societal resistance to change - today's technology makes much of the described technology look outdated, whilst the societies in the stories seem to be stupendously different to where we are going

(This review refers to the 1999 version titled “A Good Old-Fashioned Future”)

Gathering Storm, the (2009) [novel]
Review by ziggy222 (2009-11-18)
This book is one of my favorites out of this whole series and I loved every minute of every one of the books. I love the way these books play all the characters against one another, all trying to get what they want, but none of them willing to give anything up. The plot is ovbviously amazing, and contains so many twists and unexpected turns that I stayed up all night reading it. The characters are very deep and realistic, and show just how amazingly they were written. I loved how this book really catches up the reader to what is happening incase you have forgotten something from a previous book.

(This review refers to the 2009 version titled “Gathering Storm, the”)

Portuguese Irregular Verbs (2003) [novel]
Review by igorflax (2009-11-18) Contains spoilers. View anyway.

Angels and Demons (2000) [novel]
Review by ladylaw (2009-10-21)
Until The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown was a relatively unknown author (at least to me). So once I read it, and found out he had written other books as well, I dashed off to the shop to get Angels and Demons.
I found it a very entertaining book, I even preferred it to The Da Vinci Code. It is fast-paced, with surprising twists and turns, and it grips you from the very first page.
I would definitely recommend it as the sort of book you read whilst on holiday!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007) [novel]
Review by ladylaw (2009-10-14)
When this book first arrived in the post, I expected great things of it. It was after all the final book in the Harry Potter series and the one I had been looking forward towards the most.
However, I couldn't help feeling slightly disappointed upon finishing the book. The biggest disappointment was the fact that the story isn't set at Hogwarts (not until the end at least) and that was always something I enjoyed reading about: Harry's life at school, going to classes, interactions with the teachers and other pupils, playing Quidditch, going to see Hagrid, etc. All that is omitted from this book, to be replaced by the story of Harry's wandering around the country looking for Horcruxes.
This takes up about a third of the book, and I found that whole bit quite boring, to be honest. Not even the visit to Godric's Hollow or Xeno Lovegood did it for me.
On a positive note, I did enjoy the description of the final battle for Hogwarts, even though it also left me crying because we had to say goodbye to some wonderful characters. The very last chapter was a nice addition, though I would have prefered to have a bit more information about what happened to everybody afterwards.
All in all, nobody can deny that JK Rowling wrote a wonderful series of books, to be enjoyed by children and adults alike, which take us away from the everyday world and fly us on a broomstick to the land of magic...

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005) [novel]
Review by ladylaw (2009-10-09)
I remember it as if it was yesterday: me anxiously awaiting the next instalment in the Harry Potter series... It was a nice summer's day and I spent the whole day outside, sitting in the sunshine, reading the book from cover to cover (only stopping for lunch).
I'm glad it was a sunny day, as the storyline of Harry Potter becomes darker with every book, and this one is no exception. Nonetheless I didn't like this book as much as HP & the Order of the Phoenix, I found there were certain parts which got a bit boring. The end naturally is quite sad and even got me crying...

Lost Treasure of the Emerald Eye (2004) [novel]
Review by thebrain888 (2009-10-09)
The Geronimo Stilton books are the best! I like his books because of ... well everything!They're very funny, they have fascinating information, and they're just fun to read. I started reading them spring of 2009. I saw my friend Abigail reading them, and most all the kids in my 3rd grade class reading them, so I decided to read one myself. I am in the 4th grade now and I will be ten November 11, 2009. Back to the story. One of my favorite parts in this book is in the chapter of, "Poor Trap!" I like it because when Benjamin was sobbing, "Poor Uncle Trap!" Then the next thing he says is, "Actually, now that I think about it, poor Uncle Trap could be pretty annoying." It's very funny. I had A fun time reading it and I hope you do to.
P.S. I am a boy.
Sincerily,
Yohann.


(This review refers to the 2004 version titled “Lost Treasure of the Emerald Eye”)

Left Hand of Darkness, the (1969) [novel]
Review by johnafair (2009-10-08)
This book joins together the best of genre science fiction - the development of the question 'What if...' and standard literature necessities of character development and plot.

It's in the development of the peoples of Gethen that's at the heart of this novel and, as usual, Le Guin has not forgotten that a country, never mind a world, is a huge and diverse place when viewed up close.

I have read a couple of times now and was fairly surprised to find that the bits that I had retained from the earlier read were fairly small parts of the whole novel - I had remembered the journey across the Ice but much of the central portions of the novel had disappeared from memory.

Highly recommended!

(This review refers to the 1969 version titled “The Left Hand of Darkness”)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003) [novel]
Review by ladylaw (2009-10-08)
The 5th book in the Harry Potter series continues down the dark road which was already set in the previous books, but now that Lord Voldemort has returned things really do get very serious for Harry and his friends. Furthermore, there is the constant struggle against the Ministry of Magic (represented by the horrible Dolores Umbridge) which is another great thing about this book. And we are introduced to one of the funniest characters there are, Luna Lovegood.
I enjoyed this book very much, it remains one of my favorite Harry Potter books, despite the fact we have to say goodbye to a rather important person at the end...

Diamond Age, the (1995) [novel]
Review by polarisdib (2009-10-05)

Whooooo! Here is, by far, Neal Stephenson's best book*.

Basically, The Diamond Age; or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is a post-modern Pygmalion set in "The Diamond Age" (or, the age in which humans can create diamond cheaper than glass) in which nanotechnology not only exists as the basis of everyday life and organization, but has also come to the level of being programmable to a "book" called the Primer that can teach young women... everything. It can raise them, it can teach them self-defense, and it can act as a personalized store-house for their entire intellectual lives. Neal Stephenson's not simplistic, though, and the Primer itself is not the come-all end-all solution to world education. Things are more complicated and as an economic climate in The Celestial Kingdom goes sour it's pretty much up to everyone even remotely connected to the Primer (i.e., in this hyper-webbed world, quite a lot of characters) to pull together to survive a massacre waiting to happen.

In minor ways this book follows up Snow Crash, but is much more mature and organized; it's also worth noting that Stephenson does not delve into the level of minutia he adopted immediately afterward with everything he's written since. I don't want to compare this book to an apogee because that claims that his earlier and later work isn't as good, but on a cartesian graph where the x-factor is "coolness" and the y-factor is "encompassing knowledge of every facet of the world he's writing", The Diamond Age scores highest on both--plus a z-factor of poignancy gets a good level of depth to the work as well. Stephenson isn't only positing a nano-tech world here, he very clearly understands some great things about human nature, personal and global development, epistemology, and the ever-present power of myth, and nearly every part of this book should feel recognizable and familiar to the reader while opening one's eyes to entire new worlds. The technology itself feels very familiar (along with his favored Turing machine details, the Primer is something like an Amazon Kindle set-up with a narrative Wikipedia with Artificial Intelligence, the only thing really missing is the "ractor" to run it from the other side) already, and the debate between "The Feed and the Seed" is pretty much the double-edged sword of technological dispute that runs throughout human history, turned into an elegant theme.

Up to this point, Cryptonomicon remained my favorite Neal Stephenson and I bought it with the intention of reading it maybe every few years or so. I may have to buy The Diamond Age, and soon, because I'm practically ready to read it again right now. It was immensely enjoyable and the type of book that really grows on you, where the book it was when you started is different than the book it ends up being when you finish it, and yet all you can do is want to loop around and go through the whole thing again. Also up to this point I pretty much kept Stephenson to myself as far as real-life friends were concerned, though a surprising lot of people have read Snow Crash and so I'm able to engage in them that way, however now I have another book I just wish everyone has read. So, if you're reading this review, and you haven't read this book yet, I strongly recommend you get to it.

--PolarisDiB



*keeping in mind that I haven't gotten to Anathem and he has another one set to come out in a few years, and I haven't read any of his pre-Snow Crash stuff but have never heard it argued that they are his best book

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000) [novel]
Review by ladylaw (2009-10-03)
I have rather mixed feelings about this book, on the one hand I like the suspense, always building up to one of the tasks Harry has to face, but on the other hand I find it quite a bit too outdrawn inbetween. It's not my favorite of the HP books (that would be book n° 3) but it's not the worst either.

We (1924) [novel]
Review by g3n0v4h (2009-09-28)
A great solid read concerning a dystopian novel in the similarity to BNW and 1984, but written while before even those two were ever published and read. The primary attention that admiringly grasped my reading were the mathematical poetic writing prose purposely developed for the citizen communication of the far future, contrasting which both BNW and 1984 followed literal language flow without any poetic preaching thus making the later two novels much easier to understand than this, though less imaginative. The system enforced throughout the individualess community correctly captured Stalinism due to strict socialism and collectivism, rejecting lawfully any elements of individualism or any personal goals. Leading to the almost extinction of the soul and imagination. The end of the novel is pretty happy though rather perspectively bleak from the main character due to his dependent reasoning for law and order be maintained to continue progressive human survival due to a near apocalyptic populace. Recommended to any Dystopian reader- 8.0/10

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999) [novel]
Review by ladylaw (2009-09-25)
This is my favorite Harry Potter book, the story becomes darker and more menacing than in the first two books. I find that with this book, JK Rowling goes from writing real childrens books to writing books which can satisfy adult readers as well. It also introduces us to Sirious Black and Peter Pettigrew, and it brings the Dementors!

Name of the Wind, the (2007) [novel]
Review by aleator (2009-09-22)
Good story, average writing. Character development is poor except for the protagonist. And the story, while entertaining, is somewhat disjointed.
As this was Rothfuss' first novel; I would actually expect improvements from the 2nd if he is actually able to develop his craft of writing with any success.

(This review refers to the 2007 version titled “The Name of the Wind”)

Hobbit, the (1937) [novel]
Review by g3n0v4h (2009-09-22)
The original fantasy adventure that birthed many conventions copied into contemporary concepts. Setting before the war of the ring in the LOTR it fleshes out as a children's story in that it is simple in nature and none haunting in historical happenings. Intriguingly the ring plays a small role in the story, but that's up to the reader to figure out while reading throughout the adventures.

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