Fairly good YA fantasy. Clary loses her mother, finds her father Valentine and meets her brother Jace. Vampires, werewolves, fay, the works. Short but enjoyable.
Works as a second volume. Clary is still as enjoyable as a teenager can be and gains powers. Nobody really dies, but I guess that's ok. The evil father Valentine is a bit generic in his evilness.
Very generic, predictable YA at this point.
Fortunately, the Milk is an entirly charming children's book, and if my little siblings were still a bit smaller, I'd totally give it to them. I'd say it works for the ages three or four and upwards, pre-school ages mostly.
Again - Neil Gaiman can write short stories like the best of them.
- The Case of Four and Twenty Blackbirds: Neil wrote an entire (glorious) story based in nursery rhymes. Challenging for a non-native reader, but not impossible - I think I found most of the references and learned a lot.
- Troll Bridge: The closest Neil Gaiman comes to Stephen King, I think. Very touching, very sweet, if you're into, y'know, people's lives being eaten.
- Don't ask Jack: Short horror story - I think if it grips you, it's hard to get over it, but it didn't quite work on me.
- How to Sell the Ponti Bridge: I kinda wanted to like that one more than I actually liked it, the trickster seemed not quite fleshed out as much as I'd have liked, but the storytelling was marvellous nonetheless.
- October in the Chair: I knew that one already and loved to re-read Runt's story.
- Chivalry: So lovely, so English, and not about the Holy Grail at all.
- The Price: Wonderful dark story - who doesn't want to believe that a certain black cat can save us from the devil?
- How to Talk to Girls at Parties: Knew that one already, was as lyrical as I remembered it to be.
- Sunbird: I really love this story, and maybe that's why the Ponti Bridge didn't work for me - it was similar, but not quite the same.
- The Witch's Headstone: Well, it's the Graveyard Book short story and I adore that book.
Very much a Neil Gaiman book. I think both Spider and the green fedora are going to stay with me for a long time.
Second volume, and a lot happens (well, not that much per page, but fun nonetheless): Fitz gains confidence, but loses his girl, his King, his King-in-Waiting, his Queen-in-Waiting, and ultimately his life (-ish, no huge cliffhanger).
Concluding the first part of the trilogy trilogy, I still liked it. Yes, it's slowly paced high fantasy, yes, the protagonist is not a Mary Sue at all (whiny and annoying, more like), yes, the conclusion is a bit deus-ex-machina - I still liked it. It's nice fantasy. It takes you to Buckkeep and to the Mountain Kingdom and all the places Fitz and the wolf visit.
Well, well, well.
All I had read by Dick before was Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (which was weird in a good way) - and this book was certainly similar, only more on drugs. All kinds of drugs! I liked that it was emotional (although overly so for my tastes), that the characters had depth, and the story was cool. But everything seemed to be written on drugs. Seriously. Not sure what was going on there.
I enjoyed it, and I'll try Man in the High Castle, too, but I won't re-read it and Dick won't be one of my favourite authors, I think.
Ok, so Philip K Dick is just too esoteric for me. Every book I've read has about 40% that I really like, that are clever, well-thought, and interesting. While the other parts are weird, sometimes they feel kafkaesque, or trippy, and I don't get them (or at least, their relevance and what they do in the book). As always I liked the premise (also, I'm a sucker for Nazis-have-won books), but the more it progressed the more I felt like I should take some drugs to properly understand the book. Not to say that it's a bad book, but it's just not for me.
Do you know those days (or weeks) when you just want some hot chocolate and reassuring books and a safe cuddly sofa? I enjoy trashy fantasy on those days, and Mercy Thompson definitely qualifies. It doesn't get one star because I really like reading trashy urban fantasy once in a while, and it is still better than Twilight or Shades of Grey, so what the hell. Two stars it is, but don't expect quality.
Definitely the kind of scifi that I like. Real, easy to read. Also, sheep.