Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Countries Around the World: Hungary / Charlotte Guillain

Countries Around the World: Hungary
by Charlotte Guillain

travel, subadult

copyright 2012
read in March 2013

rated 8/10: really quite good

Really quite good -- for its purpose. It's a book, for children, about Hungary. I'm not a child but I wanted an overview of Hungary. This book served that purpose, very well.

Not as detailed as Wikipedia. Not as "practical" as a Pilot Guide. Just an interesting and well presented introduction to a country.

I enjoyed this book.

And it gave me what I wanted.

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Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages / Tom Holt

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages
by Tom Holt

fantasy, satire, humour

copyright 2011
read in March 2013

rated 6/10: read to pass the time

This book is fantasy, though it could be intended to be science fiction. Mainly, though, it's social satire. And humour.

The humour is light and easy. No belly laughs, an occasional chuckle, plenty of slight smiles. Easy to read and just as easy to put down.

There's a grab bag of characters -- and I really wonder why some of them are there. Uncle Theo, for example... His role is to provide a touch of deus ex machina and perhaps a slight poke at family relationships. I was hoping for something a bit more... clever.

And then... Why is every important person a pig ? Social satire again ? It's either that -- or a pointlessly illogical way to tie up a loose end. A case of, I have a lot of pigs so I need to explain where they were while everyone else was getting on with the plot.

A lightweight, easy to read book with a vaguely unsatisfying ending.

Oh, and despite the title... There are no sausages. The actual theme of the book is eggs. And chickens.

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Burnt Ice / Steve Wheeler

Burnt Ice
by Steve Wheeler
A Fury of Aces (1)

science fiction

copyright 2012
read in March 2013

rated 7 /10: well worth reading

Shades of Doc Smith space opera ! Truly heroic heroes and heroines ! (Okay, that last -- heroic heroines -- is very much post-Doc Smith.) Building bigger and ever bigger spaceships ! With more and more powerful weapons !

What a lot of fun !

On the down side... It's often rather difficult to work out just what is happening. Or why. Here's my guess:

This is Wheeler's first book. As a first attempt, he wrote too much. To get published, he deleted whole chunks of text... and lost the plot continuity. Well, that's my guess... Could be that he simply skipped the explanation in favour of fun :-)

Because this book is fun...

A range of characters, it took me a while to separate them in my mind. They are all part of one team, so their stories are closely linked. Nearly all appear at the start of the book and are gradually given more depth. (Well, more detail. Depth may be too strong a word.)

I really do dislike books where new -- key -- characters are continually introduced. It smacks of an author who has no clear idea of what is going on. None of that in Burnt Ice: the author clearly knows what's going on... just forgets to tell the reader !

Then there's the space opera science -- a lot of fun ! Especially the "aces" of the series title. Not that the science is (within science fiction) either new or unique. Yet its implementation is so... nice !

Some of the good guy's team are rather mysterious... but you know that they really are "good". Remember Avon from Blake's 7 ? "Avon possesses genius-level intelligence, and is an aloof and sardonic computer expert found guilty of an attempt to embezzle five hundred million credits from the Terran banking system." (from wikipedia) But there is never any doubt that he is a good guy. And there is never any doubt that the Burnt Ice team are all good guys. (Do I need to say, and gals ?! )

Lots of fun, action and high adventure. Likable characters and enjoyable application of future science. A fun plot which leaps discontinuities with a single bound...

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. If it's a first book -- well done ! The plot may be hard to follow... but the book is easy to read. And very easy to enjoy.

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Jan2023: Read it again

... and much the same opinion: this book is a lot of enjoyable fun :-)


Okay, there is a lot still to be told, sometimes that annoys me, not this time: all the not-yet-explained stories are less important than the current action.

The back cover says, "Move over Star Wars!"

... Yes, I can see that. This is a world where ACEs (droids), AIs, augmented humans... and more... are all an accepted part of the world.

And yet... In this book the droid-equivalents are so much nicer, so much more interesting than those in Star Wars.

And more: Every person (and AI and ACE and etc) -- every one of them is a strong member of the team.

They work together, they support each other -- and they enjoy each other's company.

The space opera is fun. The characters are all likeable.

An easy book to read, still hard to follow, still an easy book to enjoy.



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Wednesday, March 12, 2014

The Cusanus Game / Wolfgang Jeschke

The Cusanus Game
by Wolfgang Jeschke
translated by Ross Benjamin

science fiction

copyright 2005 (the German version)
not read (in English) March 2014

not rated

Not read, not rated. Bit if I had rated it -- based on the 40 pages that I read -- it would have been 4/10: bad but could be read.

"Bad" is perhaps an exaggeration. It's just miserable. Depressing. And confusing.

There's the standard Prologue: nothing that is obviously related to the material of chapter one. But depressing. Chapter one continues the theme: depressing. One vaguely likable character -- not the narrator. Setting the scene in a miserable environment.

What is really happening ? Who knows. Will the narrator survive ? Who cares.

The story slips roughly into a fragmented flashback. The narrator talking to the pope... or some other religious figure. I forget. Speaking to the pope for some unstated and apparently unrelated reason. I gave up reading.

Perhaps I'm not in the mood to be depressed by a book. I put it down. Three weeks later -- I still cannot bear to read any further.

Four out of ten. Bad but could be read. Based on forty pages of a 500 page book. Enjoyment factor so far: nil.

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