Simons Mith

Not a bad fantasy novel, reads a bit like it was generated from quite an enjoyable (for the players) D&D campaign. But were that the case it would have been more fun for the players to play through than it is for us to read about. (I doubt that it actually /was/ a D&D game, but that's how it came across, to me and at least one other reader.) Some good ideas in here which might be eminently nickable for an RPG, but only an average read, or a hair above.

A touching story, joyous, sad and romantic at different points. I think my favourite scene was right at the start of the book, when the traveller meets his future wife for the first time in his timeline and she's so delighted to see him again (after a gap of a couple of years, for her) that she completely bowls him over. I will usually read a 500-odd page book in two or three chunks; this one got read in a single sitting, something I don't often do. It's going to become an acknowledged classic, I'm sure of it.

There can have been few people who had as idyllic a childhood as Gerald Durrell. And I can think of none who have written about it with such warmth, perception and eloquence. (Albeit if with a bit of, um, selective exaggeration.) And Gerry wasn't even the family writer. This was the first book in a long long time that made me cry with laughter, but I'm afraid the Great Sparrow Massacre really got to me. And there are some new characters introduced that I hadn't previously known, just as warmly portrayed (and just as loony) as Spiro and the Captain.