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I'm very much not impressed by this bood.

While I enjoy reading plays, and I enjoy the Harry Potter universe, to me this book failed to capture the tone of the original works, provided a story consisting of plot-holes and cheap tricks, and then added inconsistencies - all in all it read like mediocre fanfiction (except for the format).

While the inconsistencies (brewing polyjuice to-go? Where is Teddy Lupin? Why are James and Lily out and about while fearing for their lives?) may sound nitpicky, they made suspension of disbelief that much harder. I liked some of the new characters, Scorpius in particular, but to my (very biased) eye and brain, there was a lot of queerbaiting going on, and that was just horribly disappointing. (Yay for consistent characterization of McGonagall, I guess.)

I also had an intense dislike for the time travelling. Not for breaking in-universe rules, but for being lazy, and old, and done over and over in better ways. The writers also seemed to have a weird focus on Cedric. What's up with that?

And "Voldemort's Daughter" sealed the "bad fanfiction" deal. Seriously.

This Laundry novel features Alex as the protagonist, going up against elvish aliens and his family's expectations... He's not the most lovable character we've seen so far, but he works out as a fairly generic protagonist.

More notably, Stross gives us much more background, backstory and explanations than usually, which took some getting used to. It's not exactly bad, but you'll need to think less for yourself than in the average Laundry novel.

Horrid generic post-Hunger-Games YA with no redeeming features.

Now this was a fantasy novel I really enjoyed. I went in with no expectations at all, randomly chose it from my Kindle, and oh boy, was I in for a ride.

Fitz is likeable without being perfect, and both of his mentors, especially Chade, are wonderful in their characterizations. I also liked that the Six Duchies have a well-considered political and geographical structure. Seeing FitzChivalry go from stable boy to young assassin without the usual tropes of the assassin fantasy novels was a treat. I'm fairly sure I'm going to read the other novels, too.

Wow. Wooow. I think this book gripped me as much or even more than Name of the Wind, and that's saying something. Locke, Jean, Bug, the twins and Chains grew close to my heart really soon. There is a phase in the beginning where the book is going slowly and the characters don't mean anything to you, but it works well in hindsight, and it didn't feel like it was dragging on to me.

Locke and the Gentleman Bastards are the best, most daring thieves in a complete (if slightly mysterious, what's with the Eldren?!) world - who are suddenly thrown from grand thievery for the fun of it into a battle for their lives. Oh Locke. Oh Jean. My heart broke for you both over and over again.

This is a very nice little book, filled with Faery and language that is exceedingly ornate but never quite pretentious. And it's a modern fairy tale at that - September didn't grow too close to my heart (maybe I'm too old for that), but the narrator did, and maybe that is good enough.

It's very much classic fantasy (discounting the torture, maybe). Richard, the woman, the wizard, the quest, the traitor, the evil antagonist.

The author has a bad case of "tell, don't show", and his language and phrasing are far from lyrical. The story has some very strong parts, but feels mediocre and generic in between. The book's saving grace is the detailed world and world building that allows the reader to forget everything else (including the story and the dull language).

So, thriller is most definitely not my genre, but I can't deny that Stephen King is a master - both in his genre and with words in general. He paints incredibly vivid people, murdering for reasons they think right, and dealing with the consequences.

While I'm still not into thrillers, I can't deny the pull these stories have, and I'm sure I'll try a full-length King novel in the future.

Sehr Isau, viele Referenzen. Bisschen billige Grundannahme, und das erste Drittel sehr unerträglich in der Beschreibung des love interests, aber macht halt trotzdem Spaß, weil Isau.

Very Scalzi-ish (although, of course, the other way around). Took some getting used to the terse style, after that very well thought through and enjoyable. Especially all the implication of time dilation by long distance space jumps.