Some mediocre-okayish stuff, but a few really, really great ones. In the end, Granny overshadowed everything as per usual, but the barbarian hero who went to meet his maker stands out, too.
I just, y'know, kind of ate this one up. I don't think there is a thing I dislike about it (and for the record, I think the show is just as good!).
School! Evil school, granted, but school with new friends nonetheless!
Ehh. Hating on trendy people is a bit boring, but it wasn't too bad.
Great amounts of backstory, action, development, and moral conflict!
<3
I loved the whole Denounement Hotel, especially having it organized according to the Dewey Decimal System.
I really enjoyed this one - it's a fairytale, it's very very lyrical, but at the same time it surprises you with bursts of dry humour. The length and pacing is perfect, too - it's a fairly short book, but it carries its length well.
I love Neil Gaiman, and I like reading myths and legends, so I enjoyed this book a lot. It is a fairly straight, reworded retelling of much of the Snorri Edda, adding some detail from the Poetic Edda in places. Gaiman adds fine details, and a tongue-in-cheek view of the gods, but never overdoing things - it would be easy to make fun of Thor, Loki, the giants … all the time, but he does it in places, and in a very low-key (hah!) way.
Owing to the fact that Neil Gaiman did not add too much of his own voice to those stories (which is a decision I greatly appreciate!), the book does feel like "just" a good collection of Norse myths. Which it is, and which it wants to be, so 5/5 stars for fulfilling its purpose - it's just not a five star book for me, but I will treasure it as my reference manual to Norse Mythology.
It's real fantasy, it's great, and in some ways it reminds me of The Name of the Wind. Loved it a lot - Ged really grows on you, and the story is quite dense, and there as much story in this book as many others would fit in a trilogy (growing up, mastering school, mastering the antagonist, for example?). I clearly need to read more books by Ursula K. Le Guin!
Wow! This is a fantastic, clever, wonderful scifi book. I loved the explicitly humanoid species (that are probably expanded on, especially their origin, in other parts of the series). I loved the mostly-androgynous species, their peculiarities, the mechanics of it all, the implications. I loved the protagonist and the carefully spun story arch - but I loved most that the narrator/protagonist was both clever, relatable, and fallible - there were several instances where, in the middle of narration, you started to think "Hold up, I'm sure that's not quite …" or "Isn't that just your weird bisexual bias …?"
Not quite sure what to think of this one. It's fast paced, but I think it tries too hard. I liked how it plays with multiple realities, or layers of reality, but both the plot and the pacing felt so … forced.
Hard to rate collections of stories. There was really cool stuff in there, and I like how he works off similar themes (such as the jewel) repeatedly, but some stories felt too close thematically or in the way they were structured. Really enjoyed it though!
I see why this is a classic - it has aged reasonably well, and seems to have given birth to many tropes and images we perceive as common ans well-known. I liked reading it, even if it was a bit stuffy.