Emma

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

I have read many fantasy books and yet I've never read anything quite like this. This book feels very modern, and by that I mean it focuses on some very modern issues even though it is set in what is supposed to be an ancient world.

First thing, I really like how the magic works in this. Magic is created by the citizens of Gujaareh in their dreams. This magic is taken to the Hetawa which is the main temple of the Hananjan faith (the religion in this book) where it is used to heal the sick. However the Hetawa have to uphold Hananja's Law, the principal tenant of which is peace. This means they are able to judge whether a person is corrupt and if so send out a Gatherer who will take the person's Dreamblood (magic) and send them on to Ina-Karekh (heaven, basically). A Gatherer is also able to do this to a person if they are so sick that they are unable to recover, in a sense giving them a good death. However this now raises a moral question, should the Hetawa be allowed to kill anyone they choose for the sake of all who live in the city.

I loved the characters, they feel like real people struggling with their ethics, history and sexuality among other things. Not only that but we have this very interesting affection between the two main male characters Nijiri and Ehiru. This isn't a sexual thing more of a mentor/mentee relationship, but you get to see how the affection changes and grows throughout the course of the book. We also get to see some fantastically strong female characters and though it is only mentioned in passing (read the sequel for more) we have a very interesting way that women are viewed in this world. In that they are seen as goddesses and don't need a Gatherer's help to get to Ina-Karekh and yet are treated as subservient to men.

One thing I did have a problem with is that Jemisin jumps straight into the plot, no info-dumps or exposition. However this means that you really need to concentrate and possibly even re-read the first 100 pages, this is the unfortunate problem with having a fantasy setting with very foreign names and places. There is a glossary at the back of the book but that only helps to an extent.

Another thing is that we know this setting is based loosely on Egypt, I would have liked a map so I could better understand where everything is, however after checking the author's blog it seems that she has a problem with maps in fantasy books. In fact it seems she thinks that if she didn't need a map while writing the book, the reader won't need a map either. Now I personally think this is a little arrogant considering the author created the world and is expecting the reader to see it the same way she does in her head. But that's just me.

I cannot recommend this book enough, seriously if you enjoy fantasy read this. This is in fact one of the only books where I have been disappointed with a sequel because it did not lead on directly from where the first book finished. I had an epic book hangover after this that even reading all of N. K. Jemisin's other published works did not fix. I enjoyed this book so much that it is very possible I will name is as my favourite book of 2015 (even though I technically read it in 2014).

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

I was really surprised by this. In that it wasn't as bad as I expected it would be. I think angels are the new in thing right now, what with books like The Bone Season and The Catalyst. In those books the beings are called angels because that is the best way to describe them, I like that in this we have proper biblical angels. I like that it had that little bit of religion in it. However I didn't like the fact that I was constantly being reminded about what hunks these angels were. I mean from what I can tell these angels basically look like those guys who stand outside Abercrombie and Fitch.

It felt a little strange. It felt like Susan Ee was trying to fit a romance story into this post-apocalyptic world and it just didn't seem to work very well. All the way through the story it felt like she was trying to hint at romance, but it was through silly stuff like Penryn wondering if she should wash her hair because cute guy. But then suddenly at the end it was all boom romance.

I also felt that Penryn doing so many years of self defense was a little unbelievable. I mean she was basically ready for the apocalypse to happen. The reason for this being that she needed to protect herself from her mother, though I didn't feel that her mother was much of a threat, other than having a strange egg obsession she didn't feel that dangerous.

My only other grievance was the start of the novel. I know its annoying if a book starts out with a huge amount of exposition, however I like to know at least a little of what happened. Especially in a post-apocalyptic world. And I definitely want to know more than just “Its been six weeks since the angels of the apocalypse destroyed the world as we know it”. Apart from that it really wasn't too bad.

I'm kind of glad I read this but I'm also kind of glad I didn't pay for it. This book is basically made up of well known sayings from nerd culture and each has a little paragraph of wisdom relating to each quote. It's an interesting read but don't pay full price for it.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

So I really liked this book. I really really liked this book. Like I would have given it 6 stars if I could. I didn't even want to finish it, however I did partly because I had to write this review and partly because I found out that there is an 800 page sequel coming out in September next year (imo that's far too long a wait but I'm not the publisher).

Luna is partly the story of a young Brazilian girl that comes from nothing, moves to the moon to find a job and creates an organisation that mines helium which basically powers all the lights on Earth. It is also the story of this family/ organisation two generations later and shows the consequences of the young girl's actions.

Its almost a dystopia in a way, the people on the moon have to pay their four elementals, air, water, carbon and data. However its almost understandable why they need to pay that. Water and oxygen are not found on the moon, it needs to be created or brought from Earth. So even though there are poor on the moon – out of a job because they have been replaced by AI – needing to sell their urine and unable to take a full breath because they are low on oxygen. It makes total sense why that system is in place.

Everyone on the moon is constantly shown the state of their elementals with a chib, a virtual pane in an interactive contact lens. Its almost like a virtual reality thing, it can show adverts and it shows every persons familiar. This is almost like a small virtual assistant. This was done so well, I've read books where the ‘altered reality' is the whole point of the story. In this its just a tool just like the daily elementals is just a thing that comes with living on the moon.

And then we have some fantastically strong female characters. Who have to be strong because they are on the moon. We see how in the beginning there are only organisations on the Moon, no definite rules, just codes of conduct. And with men outnumbering the women it means that women need to look after themselves. So basically what you now have is women who are totally prepared to kick butt while also wearing a dress and Rimmel lipstick. Basically these ladies look like Effie Trinket and fight like Brienne of Tarth.

Then you have this really interesting way that people on the moon view sexuality. It seems that people on the moon have moved beyond the Earth standard, gay or straight, man or woman. Basically its now a spectrum and people sleep with whomever they want. We also have some really interesting gender fluid characters who almost have the exact opposite of Lycanthropy. However the one single problem I had with this book, was a sex scene at almost 50% through. This book is very open about sexuality and that's good, I just didn't expect a full out 50 Shades of Grey type scene. But you can totally still enjoy this without reading that bit.

I can't fully express how much I loved this book. There is a story line through it but it's really just setting up the next volume. However the book is so fascinating that you really don't mind its just setting up the next book. Its really just the story of one family with the Moon and all this technology in the background. It was the perfect mix of interesting plot and characters that I came to genuinely care for. In fact I enjoyed it so much I am going to buy a copy of this (and all of Ian McDonalds other books too).

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

I think most of David Mitchell's books are similar in that they are quite confusing and you really need to read them more than once to fully understand what is going on. Fortunately The Bone Clocks is not as confusing as his other books, though I do feel like I need to give this another read before I can properly comment on it.

It just wasn't as good as I had expected. Now this could be down to the fact that it simply isn't as good as his other books. Or it could be the fact that I've waited so long to read this book that in my head I've built it up to be some amazing work of fiction. Or maybe like I already said, it could be that I need to read it again to fully understand all the foreshadowing and everything else that's going on. Either way it just wasn't as good as I though it would be.

But that's not to say it wasn't good, its just not 5 stars. Because I did enjoy it. The first chapter is a wonderful introduction to out protagonist. You really feel like you're in the 80s in south England with her, going on her adventure. The fifth chapter was a fantastic mix of science-fiction and fantasy. Exactly what I've come to expect from David Mitchell. The final chapter was heartbreaking and nearly made me put the book down.

I also really liked the fact that the basis for this book is very similar to Cloud Atlas, both are about souls and reincarnation. However David Mitchell has managed to create two entirely different books that are both based on the same idea. Another little thing, and this is not unique to The Bone Clocks but David Mitchell has a habit of inserting characters from his other books. It's really just a fun little nod to his other works and doesn't detract from the overall story if you don't get the references.

Basically even though it didn't live up to my expectations, it was still a good book.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

I'm the only one who knows the secrets her friends have hidden, the mistakes the police have made. I'm the only one who can warn her she's still in danger. I know exactly who attacked her. He's the same man who killed me.

The story is told through three points of view. First we meet Eve just after her death. Eve is stuck in a state of limbo, dead but not quite gone. Eve is watching the proceedings and narrates the events of her life leading up to her death. Victoria is a mother trying to balance home and work life. She is investigating Eve's death and what is increasingly looking to be a case of wrongful arrest and imprisonment.

And finally we have Melody, a survivor of a vicious attack. The Life I Left Behind is not a typical murder mystery. It is really Melody's story of coping with the effects of post traumatic stress. Melody thinks she is fooling everyone while in reality she is not coping at all. Instead she had spent years cooped up in her fancy house she shares with her boyfriend.

Considering I don't normally like murder mystery type books I enjoyed The Life I Left Behind. The focus is very much on how Melody and Eve are linked and I though Melody's emotional decline was done very well. I really liked the modern references dropped throughout, current affairs, music and even The Great British Bake Off are mentioned. I only gave it 3 stars because as I have already said I don't normally like books in this genre and it wasn't the most amazing book I have every read. Still good though.

*I received a copy of this book from Headline in exchange for a honest review.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

This could have been a really interesting book but large parts of it didn't make any sense. At the beginning the main character Cass escapes from what is basically a prison. For most of the story she is trying to find her way to an island. A safe haven for Omegas. But even though there are presumably people out looking for Cass we don't see them till nearly the end of the book. Most of the time there is no sense of danger even though Cass is being hunted by these people.

While escaping the prison Cass rescues a guy, though there is no real reason why she rescues him. For most of the novel he hinders her escape attempt more than he helps. In fact it feels that the only reason he is in the book is to be a love interest. Which eventually turns into a love triangle like all “great” YA books.

The thing is the premise for this book is really interesting. It is set in a post apocalyptic world around 400 years after an explosion which we can assume – as there is machinery and electricity (even though it is banned) – was the result of an atomic bomb. This could have been a really good book but alas it was not.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

I got a copy of this book from the publisher via bookbridgr. In the small amount of research I did I saw no mention of the fact that it is a sequel. If I had known it was a sequel I would not have requested it.

This book does not explain what is going on in this world. It assumes that the reader has read the first book; The String Diaries. The book focuses on the mysterious people known as the hosszu eletek but never actually explains what the hosszu eletek actually are. Some parts of the book simply don't make any sense and others refer back to The String Diaries without ever explaining fully what happened.

I tried to read this without reading The String Diaries and got very confused. Having gone back to read the first book I will say that this was mildly interesting. I was just pissed that I had to go read another book just to understand what was going on.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

This was a weird book, it sort of has an important message. It tries to remind you that animals have feelings too and maybe eating meat is a bad thing. But that message was lost under poop jokes and the general silliness that is this book.

I just couldn't believe that a cow was able to not be noticed in New York just by walking on two legs. I couldn't believe that no one noticed the cow on the plane. I mean cows aren't exactly that inconspicuous. I'm sure most people would recognise a cow if they were sitting next to one, even if said cow was wearing a hat and sunglasses.

I went into this book knowing that it was going to be very silly and it was still too silly for me. Though I have to say the one thing I found most unbelievable, more than a cow knowing who Jennifer Lawrence is. More than a turkey that knows how to fly a plane. Was that they had a phone that lasted 3 days before needing charged up.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

This was surprisingly enjoyable. I found it all strangely fascinating, you sort of get to see how the rich people live. Though most of the time it makes fun of the Oxbridge, art-collecting, well-read, lawyers and political types. It was a very easy book to read, the type of book you would want to take on holiday with you. I would definitely recommend if you are into art or modern day politics.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

The best way I could describe this book is CSI: Georgian London. This book does a really good job at being a murder mystery while also being a fantastic historical fiction novel. It tells the story of Harriet Westerman, a wealthy young widow and Gabriel Crowther, a brilliant, reclusive anatomist, as they investigate the death of former West Indies plantation owner. Slavery plays an importation role in this book which makes it feel very dark. It touches on the subject of England's extensive slave trade and plantation owners in Jamaica. It also focuses on the free slaves who started to build lives for themselves in the UK.

This book has a fantastically large number of interesting characters. However I am admittedly not that great with names and this resulted in me being confused because there were so many characters. While I enjoyed this book I couldn't help but feel that I would have understood who and what was going on much better if I had read the other books in the series first.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

The first thing I liked about this book is that it is the third part of a series and you would never know it. As far as I can tell it doesn't make any references back to the previous books. In fact if it wasn't for the giant ‘3' on the spine you would think this was a standalone novel

I also liked the fact that there was mermaids in it. Now these are not the mermaids you would find in a Disney movie. These are proper lure men to their death mermaids. Or to be technical sirens as they are called in the book. It was nice reading about something you don't normally come across in fantasy novels. Or at least this is the first time I've read a fantasy book with mermaids in it.

The only thing that annoyed me with this book was the magic. I read on Wikipedia that this series was the author imagining what would happen if we had magic in a modern day setting. And I really wasn't keen on it. Now this can work brilliantly, for example in Harry Potter, but the magical world and non-magical parts were kept very separate. In this everything was mashed together, you have angels and mermaids and wizards but you also have electricity and superheroes and Top Gear. It felt weird all that being together.

Not to mention the characters looking for a magical ring who kept making references to Tolkien and talking about hobbits. It was all very strange.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

The problem with this book is that there are much better fantasy books out there. The entire time I was reading this I couldn't help but compare it to The Killing Moon which was much better in my opinion.

It also annoyed me that the towns and cities were constantly moving. Now I have to say I did find it interesting that towns were constantly on the move and that castles float on lakes so they are in constant movement. But it annoyed me that there was no explanation for this other than “thats how it has always been“.

I was also surprised at how violent this book was, the sexy times were really quite graphic too. Overall it was an okay book. Good enough that I would read the sequel but there are better fantasy books out there.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

While this is technically just a review of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy the book, I'm also going to be talking quite a bit about the movie. I'll let you decide for yourself if it can still be considered a book review. I'm also going to keep this as spoiler free as possible as you should really go into this book knowing as little as you can.

The thing that struck me most about Tinker Tailor is that it reminded me of Cloud Atlas. Now I don't mean that in the stories are similar. I mean the overall story can be enjoyed in two very different ways. Either through the book or the movie. And the interesting thing is there is no better version of the story. Both are very different takes on the same thing. You can read the book and by doing so get something more out of the movie and in return you can watch the movie and get more out of the book. Some bloggers would probably argue at this point that you should read the book first because that came first. But this story is one of those interesting things where you need read and watch both multiple times to get the full enjoyment.

I almost feel strange reviewing a mystery book because I have never been able to work out if I actually like this genre. And after reading this I think I have worked it out. I loved this book. I loved it for the fact that it's a very character driven story. The whole mystery is solved through Smiley talking to people. Now you can compare this so some other mystery books which are really more CSI: Mystery Thing where the story is solved by finding evidence and doing the science stuff that points to the bad guy. I much prefer the character focused stories and this in particular has made me want to read more like it.

Now I'm not going to talk about the end too much, but suffice to say I have watched the movie at least 8 times (it took me that many rewatches just to understand what was going on) and I was still blown away by the ending in the book. Nothing was significantly different. One good thing about Tomas Alfredson's movie adaptation is it stays very close to the original story. But despite knowing what was going to happen, I was still amazed by it actually happening. I'm guessing most of you guys know how it ends. I mean the book has been out for 40 years, there must be some statute of limitations on spoilers.

Anyway if you like mysteries read this one.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

I think dystopias set in London are the in thing just now. I felt this was quite similar to The Bone Season what with the aliens and all that. Though I would say that The Bone Season was much better than this, I did feel that some parts of it still needed some work.

I didn't quite understand why some of the characters made the decisions they did. I didn't understand why this top secret “Department” allowed teenagers to take part in investigations. It also seemed to be terrible at following its own rules, most of the problems in the book wouldn't have happened if it followed the rules and didn't tell civilians about top secret work.

I also didn't like the references to Tesco, the Westfield Shopping Center and Star Trek. It brought be out of the novel and I really can't believe that in a dystopian setting after years of war people are just going about shopping like nothing happened.

But the thing with this book is I'm seriously impressed with the author, she is only 15 years old, she was 13 when she wrote this story. And while its not great, its not terrible either. It still needs some work but its an impressive first book for someone who hasn't even finished school yet.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

It's really hard to review this book because I don't want to give away any spoilers but I'm finding I have to give some parts away to explain this book. Essentially this is the story of a giant alien robot. There is quite a lot more to it than that and the story is more about a bunch of scientists finding various large metal body parts which turn out to be a giant alien robot. And really when you think about it that shouldn't be a surprise at all considering the book is called Sleeping Giants but you really don't expect an author to be quite so literal with the title of their book so it's surprising to come across a book that actually tells you what the story is about.

Anyway this book was okay I guess. I liked it. The story was fascinating. I liked the characters. I even enjoyed how it was written through a series of reports and interviews (I've been looking for something like this ever since reading World War Z). But the problem is despite enjoying the book, it felt more like it was setting up the next book rather than actually being a story. Basically you should look at this as being the prologue to something that I hope will be even better.

But yeah. A book about giant alien robots. It's what you would expect the result to be if you mixed The Iron Giant, Pacific Rim and Greek mythology and yet at the same time it's like none of those things. Basically you need to read and decide for yourself if it's good.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

I really enjoyed this book. I found the characters so interesting. I've spent days trying to decide if I actually like Tooley or if I just like the fact that she owns a book shop. In the end I decided that its a little bit of both. I love that books play a huge role in this book. As it turns out the best way to my heart is to write a book about books.

This book is really Tooley's journey, spanning over three decades. She is trying to find out who she is and what happened to her in the past. Someone described this book as a jigsaw puzzle and it really is. The narrative moves between three decades, you go along with Tooley trying to fit all the pieces of her life into place.

This is a must read book. Its fantastic and heartbreaking and the ending is wonderfully realistic. I loved this book. Its one that will stay with you.

This has nothing to do with the review, I just wanted to mention it. There is a quote at the end of this book I wanted to talk about because it explains perfectly the reason why I prefer physical books to ebooks:

People kept their books, she thought, not because they were likely to read them again but because these objects contained the past – the texture of being oneself at a particular place, at a particular time, each volume a piece of one's intellect, whether the work itself had been loved or despised or had included a snooze on page forty.

When we read an ebook we experience the story but that's it. When we read a book we experience the story but the story is contained within an object. We associate memories with that object whether that be what we were doing while reading that book or other things that just happened to happen during that particular time of our life. That object – book – begins to get its own story, one that has nothing to do with the story contained within its pages. Its a story that you miss out on if you read on a little screen. Its a story that makes reading that book more enjoyable. And I like that.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

I was a little sceptical of this book because of Bowie's recent death. It kind of felt that the publishers were using that as a way to sell more books. And yes this book was written after Bowie died. The author talks about where he was when he found out the news. I really don't like companies using the death of a celebrity as advertising (I'm still mad about the mural Facebook put up in Glasgow), but this book does a good job of eulogising Bowie's life.

There is a part in this where the author talks about how most of Bowie's younger fans found him through Labyrinth and I was one of those people who came across him through that. I wasn't even born yet when Bowie was at his biggest, I had only heard his music because my dad was a fan and when in the car we listened to what he liked. But Bowie was one of those musicians I came to enjoy even though he was before my time.

The book is a biography, it tells you about Bowie's life and how he became the pop sensation he now is. But it also goes into the impact he made on the 60s and 70s. How he changed music and how he showed that it was okay to be openly gay and wear flamboyant clothes. It goes into why he wrote certain songs and what they were about and then it goes on to show how his songs influenced and inspired other musicians and songwriters.

I'm still not keen on using a celebrity's death to sell books. But this looks at why there was such a huge outpouring of grief when the news of his death broke and as a way to memorialise him I think it's pretty good.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com

I wouldn't say that Moonseed was a good book, but I enjoyed reading it. In a way, it's similar to Armageddon or Deep Impact. The story starts out with Venus exploding, that was all I knew about the plot before starting Moonseed so I assumed it was going to be like Seveneves. However, the plot went off in a way I didn't expect. I like these sorts of hard science fiction books because the story is based on real science. I think to an extent Stephen Baxter did try that, but the plot went off in a direction I wasn't expecting. It's kind of like a Dan Brown book, it's fun to read but you're not in it for the historical accuracy.

The main character in Moonseed was a scientist called Henry Meacher, at first he came across as quite whiny and annoying. Henry moves from the US to study a moon rock at the University of Edinburgh. According to Henry everything in the UK is backwards and definitely not up to the standard he's used to in the US. It made him quite unlikable.

Stephen Baxter also spends a lot of time describing the geology around Edinburgh, I guess this is relevant to an extent. The Moonseed carried on Henry's rock from the Moon eats bedrock. So geology is quite important to the plot. But there is only so much geology talk I can take before getting bored.

I think the way the story is told is the real downfall of the book. Moonseed begins with introducing a huge cast of characters, the story is told through their point of view so this is understandable. But it felt like some of these characters were only in the story to narrate what is happening during the disasters which occur all over the planet.

It got to the point where I was expecting the story to end with all the main characters dying. Similar to Cloverfield. It becomes quite depressing when most of the book is one character dying after the other. When stories focus on huge natural disasters you need some small element of hope that everything will be fine in the end. I didn't get that with Moonseed.

In fact, the way Baxter wrote the story he made this problem worse. At one point Henry decides NASA has to go back to the Moon. This is imperative because the Moonseed came to Earth from the Moon. But it wasn't clear exactly what going to the Moon would do, how it would fix what was happening on Earth. In the end, it turned out Henry did have a plan all along. This just wasn't communicated to the reader so it would create a twist in the final part of the book.

Speculative fiction works because it changes the rules slightly. The idea behind this novel is what would happen if NASA was slightly different. It brings back a particle which eats bedrock. That's fine if the plot just continued with that it would be believable. If it was based on real science just a slightly different setting.

But then it turns out this Moonseed particle was left by aliens, and it's creating a solar sail. In fact, the aliens are trying to help humans. Imagining science being a bit different is fine, so is aliens. But I felt that having both in the same story was too far. It would have worked exactly the same if this Moonseed wasn't an alien, it was just something new. Adding the alien aspect didn't make any difference to the story. It was just there to explain why the Moonseed was on the Moon.

It's like in Seveneves, you can speculate that the Moon blew up because of aliens, but that is just speculation, it's mentioned once then never again. The story focused on what happens because the Moon blew up, not why it blows up.

The story feels frustrating in the way it has been told. I almost feel it would have worked better as a film than a book. It's easier that way to show what is happening without having to make a connection with a specific character. I think it would have been preferable to being introduced to a character just for them to be killed off.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

This book is essentially a road trip story. We meet the main character Meena as she is running away from her home (in India) and going on a journey to Djibouti to find out what happened to her parents. She does this by walking across a 3000 km bridge connecting Mumbai and Djibouti. But this isn't really a bridge, and she isn't really meant to be on it. It's a series of interconnecting scales crossing the Arabian Sea which uses the waves to collect kinetic energy and turn it into electricity.

I think the thing I enjoyed most about this book is it's diversity. The main character is Indian. It deals with racism between Indians and Africans. It's very open about sexuality, the main character being pansexual. It also has a trans character, I quite liked that nothing was made of it. Just oh this person is now a woman no big deal. It even touches on problems like how do you do the toilet in the middle of the ocean and what is this character going to do about her periods since she is almost certainly going to have one while on this journey. This is one thing that has really started to annoy me about sci-fi, most of it is written by men, most of it is about white people (also usually men) so it's really nice to finally come across a sci-fi book that does something different.

The only thing that let this book down was the epilogue. Simply because it was confusing and left more questions than answers. You could actually not read the epilogue and still get full, if not more enjoyment out of this book. Basically if I have to go search the internet to find out what's going on in the epilogue it's not a good epilogue. But I liked everything else.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

For the last three months I have been taking part in the Monster Goddess Book Club run by The Bookie Monsters and The Book Goddess. This months pick was a favourite book from your childhood. Originally I was going to read Holes by Louis Sachar because I loved that book but ended up changing to Stormbreaker after finding out (thanks to Tasha!) that the series had continued after what I had thought was the last book.

It was actually a little strange going back to this because I loved it so much as a kid. Like I literally read this book to death. When everyone else was getting all annoyed over Dumbledore dying at the end of Half Blood Prince I was more worried about the fact that Alex Rider had possibly been killed off at the end of one of the later books. True story.

And now, my opinion on Stormbreaker now that I'm all grown up. I'm very surprised to say I enjoyed it. It holds up to rereading as an adult. Admittedly it does feel a little bit childish, the plot isn't the greatest and at the end the baddie inexplicably turns up to save the day. But it could be worse. It's basically a kids version of James Bond. In fact it would be a very good way to introduce a kid to James Bond. I liked it. It wasn't good but it was still decent enough for me to want to continue the series.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

This was a reasonably good historical fiction. The only problem I found was that I kept comparing it to The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. These two books are nothing alike but The Pillars of the Earth was so good that I can't help but compare any historical fiction book I read to it. And I've found that nothing really compares to it.

I did find it a little too long for my liking. One thing I really did not like is that there is a mob scene about half way through this book. It involved lots of heads being removed from bodies and while it wasn't that violent that is just the sort of thing I really don't like and it scared me quite a lot. This book was okay, but not great. If you like historical fiction you would probably enjoy it, I hate saying this but its the sort of book you read while on holiday.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

This book will not teach you how to be more spontaneous. Because of the very nature of spontaneity it is not something you can learn from a book. However it does show how not concentrating on a task will help achieve the desired outcome.

This book also explores the meaning of the Chinese concepts of wu-wei. The book is full of examples of the action-less doing of wu-wei (being in the zone) as well as examples from contemporary neuroscience. It even goes as far as comparing wu-wei to Luke Skywalker using the force in Star Wars.

This is not a self-help book, it doesn't have a simple step-by-step guide on how to be more spontaneous. However it does have concepts that you can put into practice in every day life to try and be more spontaneous. Whether that be in sport, art, blogging or just falling asleep.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

This was a really fascinating book, its hard to believe that it actually happened. It feels more like a spy novel than an account of real events. Rossiter did a really good job of collating all the information available into a readable narrative. No easy feat considering the amount of information still classified.

I really enjoyed this book. It makes you feel sorry for Fuchs, he was undoubtably a brilliant physicist and an even better spy. Fuchs must have believed that what he was doing would help to achieve a balance between East and West. The only thing I would liked to have known more about is why he decided to turn himself in to MI6, unfortunately since Fuchs and his wife are now both dead that is something we will never know.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

I was really surprised by this. It was very creepy but in a good way. It almost reminded me of a Stephen King novel. In fact it reminded me of Blaze by Richard Bachman. We have a guy that gets himself into a bad situation. The entire book is about him trying to fix this situation and even though the things he is doing is wrong you can't help but feel sorry for him.

I really enjoyed this book. Parts are super creepy. Just when you think it can't get and worse it gets worse. And it was brilliant. Though I would put a big graphic content warning on this. So if thats not your sort of thing you may want to pass this one.