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Procrastinatus - God of the Shiny
And because I worship at the shiny altar, I've transferred my list of Historical Links to my webpage and coded the links themselves.
It's here - and please let me know of any other links you may have?
Just finished "A Single Man" by Isherwood, Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb, and "Raven's Gate" by Anthony Horowitz. I'll put a review to Single Man on Speak Its Name
I liked Assassins Apprentice a lot, I was expecting Fitz to have a lot of Stu-qualities and I was pleased that, rather the contrary he seemed to have trouble with everything to start with. However he's going to get Stuey before the end of the series, I'm sure of it. I loved the small hints of slash and the very insular feel of it, rather than a huge sweeping vista as you often get with fantasies. I wasn't too keen on the last chapter because it really had a rushed feeling and all it did was tell not show what happened after the big climax.
I wasn't sure what to expect because his Alex Ryder books have had a lot of hype, and I'm not much into Bond books and things of that ilk but I was very pleasantly surprised with this book (which is, as I found out, the first in a series)
Matt has always known he has unusual powers. Raised in foster care, he is sent to Yorkshire on a rehabilitation programme, only to find himself in the midst of sinister goings-on. Matt investigates and uncovers a terrible secret - eight guardians are protecting the world from the evil ones, beings banished long ago by five children. But devil worshippers want to let the evil ones back in. As the story reaches its climax, it looks like Matt has succeeded in stopping them...or has he?
There are several mistakes in that blurb, so I can't image what moron wrote it, perhaps someone who hadn't even read the book. But it covers the gist, even if it is wrong in several major points.
From the first page it is a very gripping read - the protagonist, Matt, is a realistic teenager with a huge chip on his shoulder and a home-life he wants to get away from. The story starts very normally, no sign of any supernatural aspects and gradually leaks a little weirdness here and there. You can tell right off that the Yorkshire home isn't going to be a nice place, and it's really not.
It reminded me, in a way, of the old "Tales of the Unexpected" series that used to be on the TV and anyone familiar with that series will see what I saw, I'm sure. A spooky farmhouse, mysterious deaths and lights in the night. It's actually very scary, much much scarier than Potter, but then it's a much better book than Potter.
Apparantly, these book are re-writes of The Pentagram Series, a series of books he wrote back in the 70's but this time he's changed names and will be finishing the saga, whereas he didn't do that before and stopped at book four.
I simply couldn't put it down, read it in 2 hours and thoroughly enjoyed it. Will certainly be getting the next in the series.
It's here - and please let me know of any other links you may have?
Just finished "A Single Man" by Isherwood, Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb, and "Raven's Gate" by Anthony Horowitz. I'll put a review to Single Man on Speak Its Name
I liked Assassins Apprentice a lot, I was expecting Fitz to have a lot of Stu-qualities and I was pleased that, rather the contrary he seemed to have trouble with everything to start with. However he's going to get Stuey before the end of the series, I'm sure of it. I loved the small hints of slash and the very insular feel of it, rather than a huge sweeping vista as you often get with fantasies. I wasn't too keen on the last chapter because it really had a rushed feeling and all it did was tell not show what happened after the big climax.
I wasn't sure what to expect because his Alex Ryder books have had a lot of hype, and I'm not much into Bond books and things of that ilk but I was very pleasantly surprised with this book (which is, as I found out, the first in a series)
Matt has always known he has unusual powers. Raised in foster care, he is sent to Yorkshire on a rehabilitation programme, only to find himself in the midst of sinister goings-on. Matt investigates and uncovers a terrible secret - eight guardians are protecting the world from the evil ones, beings banished long ago by five children. But devil worshippers want to let the evil ones back in. As the story reaches its climax, it looks like Matt has succeeded in stopping them...or has he?
There are several mistakes in that blurb, so I can't image what moron wrote it, perhaps someone who hadn't even read the book. But it covers the gist, even if it is wrong in several major points.
From the first page it is a very gripping read - the protagonist, Matt, is a realistic teenager with a huge chip on his shoulder and a home-life he wants to get away from. The story starts very normally, no sign of any supernatural aspects and gradually leaks a little weirdness here and there. You can tell right off that the Yorkshire home isn't going to be a nice place, and it's really not.
It reminded me, in a way, of the old "Tales of the Unexpected" series that used to be on the TV and anyone familiar with that series will see what I saw, I'm sure. A spooky farmhouse, mysterious deaths and lights in the night. It's actually very scary, much much scarier than Potter, but then it's a much better book than Potter.
Apparantly, these book are re-writes of The Pentagram Series, a series of books he wrote back in the 70's but this time he's changed names and will be finishing the saga, whereas he didn't do that before and stopped at book four.
I simply couldn't put it down, read it in 2 hours and thoroughly enjoyed it. Will certainly be getting the next in the series.
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I enjoyed it, muchly - will be interested to hear your views
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Fantasy does seem to be generally considered a YA genre here too. Kind of odd considering how for example the works of David Eddings have some pretty gory violence in them...
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I don't understand what's wrong with The Wit, though, seems a really cool idea. Send the dogs and horses (and hippos and whatever else) against your enemies.
I'm also interested in the stableman's seeming ability to "repel" Fitz right at the beginning.
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I enjoyed, anyway, and the teaser chapter for the next book. I suspect I'll be heading to the library tomorrow.
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*reads it out loud to you*
In the links...
I'm very fond of Greenwood's Map of London 1827 (http://users.bathspa.ac.uk/greenwood/) and Map of John Snow's London in 1859 (http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/1859map/map1859.html), which I don't see on your list of maps.
I have swacks of links for period research, here at del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/Adventurat/research), which you're welcome to browse for new and useful tidbits!
Re: In the links...
I'll check them out!
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You have a lot of the ones I use, but here are a few more:
http://hibiscus-sinensis.com/regency/index.htm - Lots of goodies here, including notes on money, cosmetics, colors, stores and shops, and so on.
http://www.songsmyth.com/costumerscompanion.html - Jessamyn's Regency Costume Companion. It's a costuming site, but lots of compacted info on clothing here, with visual aids.
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/course/76-451/watts.html - Commonly confused words, like "further" and "farther."
http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/folklore/scottishfolkapp.html - A pretty good reference of Scottish folklore creatures.
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Can you see I love this author? :)
Thank U
Re: Thank U
Go! Find some friends!