Metal Reviews

Finished American Gods. I thought it was great. It didn't immediately hook me at the beginning, but as I kept reading, I couldn't put it down. The ending was great, IMO, which usually makes for a good book. I like how Gaiman is able to successfully create fantasy that is set in the present...most authors can't do that.

Now reading David Gemmell's "The swords of night and day"

Not bad, but a bit needless. More stories of Skilgannon in his youth before the daft 'cloning' thing would have been nice. Shame it will now be the final Drenai book. I wish he had gotten round to 'The War of the Twins' before his death.

I've been wanting to get around to reading some Gemmell. Any suggestions?

I started on Dark Moon, which is rather excellent despite the David Gemmell Trademark Anticlimax (something you'd need to get used to to enjoy his stuff).

It's a stand alone which makes it a good starting place (a lot of his stories are part of a series), and also features Gemmell at something like the peak of his powers in the mid-90s. A few of his early books, after his brilliant debut Legend, are a bit iffy.

Didn't enjoy Legend very much. Too much levity, I like my fantasy to be ridiculously po-faced for some reason.

Mmmmmmh, Anansi Boys. Loving this one already.

On my trip to Turkey, I am bringing:

K.J. Parker- Evil For Evil (Engineer Trilogy Book 2)
Bernard Cornwell- Sword Song (Book 4 of the Anglo-Saxon series thing)
Livy- Rome and Italy (Books 6-10 of Titus Livius' Ab Urbe Contida)
Sarah Gruen- Water For Elephants

And I'll be bringing my Latin textbook, Wheelock's, to stay in shape for that.

Finished in one day - The Man Who Japed by Philip K Dick. It's nice to see a novel in which his dystopian tendencies and bending of reality and imagination is starting to develop, it makes reading his later, finer works much more satisfying.

Now reading - Crash by J.G. Ballard.

I really didn't enjoy that book. It just seemed to be shocking just to shock. OMG secks and nudity and violence oh my!

I'm just about to finish Discipline and Punish by Foucault and anyone who is really interested in the development of prisons and the negative aspects on society and its prisoners they've created than I recommend this book. It is dense but it is incredibly informative and hard to refute.

Just started Nature Girl, by Carl Hiaasen. I think I must be the only one to read 'normal' books around here...

This book owns, highly recommended for people who like stuff. A lot more consistent/normal then Dave Eggers's others books but just as addictive and powerful.

I don't find it shocking due to a steady diet of uncensored crime scenes and rotten.com since I was a bit younger. I think it's meant to be upsetting to get a point about sexuality and technology across. It doesn't strike me as much as it would more uptight readers I suppose, because I view sex is always a positive, playful thing and not something lascivious or lewd. As such, the book doesn't really shock me as much as it perplexes me.

Well, gee, I guess it's not for me then.

After reading American Psycho it didn't shock me either, ie: nothing can shock me more than the gerbil/vagina chapter. The whole time it just seemed like I was reading smut with a murky theme in it. Its message was half assed and just didn't do anything for me. The movie tranistioned from the book well though.

Srsly everyone should read it.

I could see people criticizing it for being not as groundbreaking/literary as Eggers's other books, but the story is powerful enough that I think he made the right choice in reigning in his "style" in favour of telling the story (which he does a great job of).

The Satanic Scripturse, Magus Peter H. Gilmore.

Making another attempt at The Fellowship of the Ring...I'm giving it more of a chance this time, but while the literature is pretty good, the story remains extremely boring for me. I'm almost halfway through the book and almost nothing has happened. The story thus far has consisted of this:

Hobbits wake up
Hobbits walk through forest
Hobbits eat--oh, how hobbits love to eat!
Hobbits go to sleep

Repeat a few times...

You're not getting the sense of impending dread and loss?

Those scenes with the Black Riders still give me the chills.
"We're alone in the woods...and this creepy dude is just standing at the top of the hill above us." Brrrr....

Yeah what? Are your sure you're reading the right book Heatseeker? Because the part with those creepy dudes are pretty rad. Or maybe you're not there yet. Overall it's an awesome book. And a lotta stuff happens except hobbits taking a shit, just read it to the end.