Steve

This is the third book in the Diskworld series and it feels like Pratchett was finally getting into his stride with this one. The first two books are a bit too episodic and incoherent, but this one is much more clearly plotted. Some people have complained about a lack of humour ("lack" being a relative term where Pratchett is concerned) however, personally, I would rather sacrifice some of the scattergun jokes for a better plot.

The first two books had me a little concerned that my rose tinted glasses were a little wonky, but this has left me much more confident about continuing on with the series.

A generous 4 stars, for a well-written story, but one that couldn't be more “Tolkien-in-blender” if it tried; you can draw a line between virtually every plot point and the Lord of the Rings scene that inspired it. For me, this constant mental process distracted from the overall story.

I'm not sure I'm inspired to read further in the series, but, when judged on its own merits, a reasonably good story.

I originally read this when it first came out and it has been one of favourite light reads ever since. Admittedly, the humour is not quite as laugh out loud hilarious as it was when I was younger, but it still manages to raise a smile. I am now tempted to go back to The Colour Of Magic and work my way through to the end (which, unfortunately, is very much the end now), however there are now something like 40 books in the series, so that may be a tall order.

Although the Discworld is probably going to appeal most to the teen market, I think there should be room for a little Pratchett in everybody's life.

I have to admit, after the first page of snargalfarg I seriously considered giving up, but I'm glad I didn't. Although it takes a while to get your head around the language and world, once you do it the book becomes a fascinating discussing of various philosophies, set against the backdrop of a more prosaic sci-fi story. Having said that, after finishing the book I feel more like I've been to the (mental) gym that read a ripping yarn.

If you like your books to make you think, this one will definitely give you your money's worth. On the other hand, if you want a light read, maybe skip this one...

Set 800 years in the future, this is a story where women breast boobily and all cultural references date from the 19th and 20th centuries. Having said that, the book still manages to build an imaginative view of a future, albeit one that is often jarringly anachronistic. An interesting read, although I am not sure I can face the sequels, despite the very inconclusive ending that is crying out for a sequel.

A perfectly plausible vision of the future (albeit with one macguffin to figuratively blow the status quo apart) with characters, and eventually (over the course of the series) entire populations, you care about. I think describing this as “space opera” does this a disservice, since that implies a grandiosity that this doesn't aim for. Yes, there are big events, which span huge swathes of space and have deep reaching implications for the human race, but at its core it remains grounded in reality and presents (most of) it's sci-fi lightly.

The story of a reluctant spy who, finding himself out of his depth and a long way from oversight, plays on everyone's desire for secrets. Initially for his own advantage (or, rather, his daughter's advantage), he comes a to realise that his lies have consequences for those around him.

This is a brisk, satirical tale that nicely captures the seedy nature of Cold War competitiveness, each group trying to keep one-step ahead of the others, and all failing miserably. The characters are sympathetically drawn; none being definitively evil; all at the mercy of The Great Game.

Hmm. This did not age well. I originally read this in the 90's, probably not long after it came out, and thought it was great. I subsequently read the rest of the trilogy with equal happiness. Now though, 25 years later, this is beginning to show its age.

You can't really fault an author for not predicting the future, but the politics of this novel are beginning to feel very dated. Despite being set in the late 21st century, the geo-politics still feel very founded in the 90's (China is a bit player in this, as opposed to a country that could conceivably send people to Mars in the foreseeable future). There also appears to be a lot of fall-back on ethnic stereotypes to explain behaviour, which I don't think would play well in a book released today.

With regard to the story itself, very few of the characters are sympathetic, which admittedly is not a pre-requisite for a good book, but it does make life a lot easier when the book is this size. Speaking of which, I certainly didn't recall, from my first reading, how much of this involves a character driving from point A to point B. If you edited out all of the driving sequences, which are pretty much endless descriptions of the Martian surface, this book would almost certainly be half the length, with little or no difference to the plot. There is also little real peril; people die, but it feels more like reading a news report rather than an visceral experience. There is also one frankly egregious case of someone being rescued from imminent death that beggars belief, and serves no real purpose except to provide a moment of relief for another character.

On the plus side, if you are looking for a hard science prediction of what a colonization of Mars might look like, this is indeed a classic, and it is easy to see why it has proven popular over the years. Granted there is a an occasional reliance on unobtainium and apparently bottomless financing, but I can forgive that for its stab at a reasonably realistic guess. It is just a pity that so much of the science is buried in such a long drawn-out plot.

So, after looking forward to re-reading this, I am now disappointed and in two minds whether to continue to the rest of the trilogy. On the one hand I did enjoy this hugely when I was younger, but now life feels too short to spend it driving through endless descriptions of red, dusty landscapes.

This makes an excellent companion piece for Robert Leckie's Helmet For My Pillow; they could also be two parts of a duologie, with this book slightly overlapping the end of Leckie's story and then continuing on to Okinawa.

With The Old Breed follows the same basic pattern as Leckie, being largely an account of the experiences of a single man and the people he fights alongside (the the accounts of bootcamp in books are amusingly similar). It provides slightly more in the way of context than the other book, but it is still not a dry history book. Eugene Sledge's story also provides a stronger picture of the anger and frustration that the soldiers felt towards the Japanese troops whose ferocity and dedication led the US soldiers to dread the prospect of taking the fight to Japan itself.

This is another book to thoroughly recommend to anyone who wants to have a clearer picture of what happened in the Pacific in World War 2.

I have absolutely no idea how to review this. It is whimsical and lyrical, but with a curiously frustrating ending. It smacks of allegory, but what the allusion is is not clear (Drugs? Homosexuality? Fantasy itself?). One thing that is clear, however, is that this was written at a time when the modern conception of fantasy was just beginning, which gives it a historical value, if nothing else. If fantasy floats your boat, and you've had your fill of Tolkien and everything that has come since, this is an interesting read.

The audiobook of this was excellent. Yes the story is long, but there is more than enough action and emotion to pull you through the more philosophical bits. I have no idea how I would have fared with the written book, however the audio performances easily paper over any slow parts. I am now very much looking forward to the next in the series.

This is a probably actually more of a 3.5 star book than the 4 stars I have given it. The story is fast paced and fun at times, however it didn't grab me and sometimes it felt that events were just a little too coincidental to ring true (the scene with the shoes struck me as particularly crowbarred in). Having said that, some of the characters were interesting; it would have been good to delve further into the lives of Brian and Archie in particular.

All-in-all, I am glad I read the story, but I suspect it won't stay with me too long.

At first glance this looks like a book for kids, but it's not really. Granted, I can see a child reading this and taking superficial pleasure from the episodic adventures of a boy and his dog - it brings to mind Calvin & Hobbes - however, like (to a lesser extent) Calvin & Hobbes, there is a sub-text that you probably need a more mature outlook to appreciate. The main themes are about treating life as a adventure; taking the path less travelled; not being blinkered to the possibilities around you.

It makes me curious about the Amulet series, by the same author, which I believed is aimed at a younger audience but now I wonder if there is a similar additional subtext.

I think I need to complete the trilogy to really know what I feel about this book. As seems common with trilogies, this second book feels less a novel in its own right, more a sequence of events to setup the final book.

The story is more claustrophobic than the first part, taking place in largely one locale, with only a couple of excursions into the wider world. Indeed, the action takes place in so few locations, this could almost be a stage play. It feels slightly odd that when one character leaves on A Hero's Journey To Discover Mysteries - a topic that would be the center of other books - the entire subplot happens entirely “off screen”. Maybe the third book will cover this in more detail.

There is also not a huge amount of progression in the story itself; as others have noted, FitzChivalery seems to spend an awful lot of time feeling miserable and sorry for himself, although, given the events around him, this is not too surprising. Having said that, all events lead to an ending is certainly climatic and the setup, I hope, for some form of renaissance in the final book.

That is not to say that this is not a well written and, at times, absorbing read. The world is well drawn and the sequence of events well plotted. I just hope that the final book pays off in bringing things to a satisfying conclusion.

This is a good novella that contains an interesting universe. The brevity of the story means that it leaves a lot of questions unanswered, however this just whets the appetite for a longer novel. I am not sure if there is meant to be a message in the story, other than maybe raising questions about blind observance of a religious doctorine. Having said that, this is not a Religious book although it makes good use of a religious themes; neither atheists or believers have anything to fear here.

An interesting companion read for this might be Terry Pratchett's Small Gods, which touches on (vaguely) similar themes, although from a far more humorous point of view.

I'm not sure how to describe this. Maybe: cozy found-family story, with body horror, that explores what it means to identify and be identified? The pronouns are a trip; I'm not sure I ever really got the bottom of what the difference is between them all. I guess it does a good job of driving home the message that, in a diverse universe, insisting on a binary choice is a little nonsensical.