{"id":13366,"date":"2009-01-11T20:07:28","date_gmt":"2009-01-12T03:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2009\/01\/11\/book-reviews-by-the-several.html"},"modified":"2009-01-11T20:07:28","modified_gmt":"2009-01-12T03:07:28","slug":"book_reviews_by_the_sever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/01\/11\/book_reviews_by_the_sever.html","title":{"rendered":"Book Reviews by the Several"},"content":{"rendered":"

Too many books, too little time for decent reviews.<\/p>\n

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Bloodsucking Fiends<\/strong><\/em><\/a> by Christopher Moore <\/strong>(1995): Hip, ironic, fast-reading tale of a woman turned into a vampire and the new-in-town aspiring writer who falls in love with her. But it’s neither as stereotyped nor as meaty as that description sounds. A fine, entertaining, light read, enough to make me look for more of the author’s work. <\/p>\n


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The Lost Fleet: Courageous<\/strong><\/em><\/a> by Jack Campbell <\/strong>(2008): Good if not outstanding space opera, with a space fleet caught behind enemy lines, led by a man who’s spent most of the century-long war asleep in a space capsule — awakened only to find out that he’s a mythical, invincible hero to the ships he’s forced to take command of, but that their ideas of war and tactics have devolved over the decades. Third of four (to date) in the series, they get a bit repetitive read back-to-back, but are worth chewing (quickly) through as they come out. Mediocre (and non-germane) covers. David Weber writes this sort of stuff better, but Campbell (John Hemry) has come up with some good ideas to work with. <\/p>\n


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Reach for Tomorrow<\/strong><\/em><\/a> by Arthur C. Clarke <\/strong>(1956): Golden age 40s-50s SF at its “very clever, if not terribly personable” best. Amusing, interesting, a bit aloof, often inspired by scientific discoveries or speculation since abandoned, the book shows the reason why Clarke was one of the brightest talents in that era. It’s reconfirmed to me why I still keep his books on my crowded shelves. Out of print, available in various used editions. <\/p>\n


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Wolverine: Election Day<\/strong><\/em><\/a> by Peter David <\/strong>(2008): David does a workmanlike job in this novel about the famous scrapping X-Man, tied up in a conspiracy of kidnapping, politics, bounty hunters and mutants (stop me if you’ve heard this before). David writes well, and captures the character quite decently without breaking any new ground or offering any new insights into Wolvie. A good book to quickly plow through then give to someone else. Per se it’s only worth three stars, but David’s writing bumps it up to a four. <\/p>\n


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Tigerheart<\/strong><\/em><\/a> by Peter David <\/strong>(2008): Splendid retelling — or sequeling, more properly — the Peter Pan story, without actually using any actual names. A witty, clever mythologizing that’s a bit more droll than Gaiman, a bit less flip than Pratchett, it’s fascinating, dark, inspiring, and all-around triffic stuff. Highly recommended, worth picking up in hardcover, and the only book on the list here that really deserved it’s own review post. <\/p>\n


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Lord Peter : The Complete Lord Peter Wimsey Stories<\/strong><\/em><\/a> by Dorothy Sayers <\/strong>(1986): This omnibus of all the Wimsey short tales — from the beginning to the end of the period Sayers wrote them — is not as entertaining as the full novels, if only because they end up focusing on the structure of the mystery rather than Wimsey himself (whose presence is often limited and shallow). They’re still good fun, though, and a nice companion to the foppish detective’s full-length books — and all worth it for the final story, “Talboys,” a lovely glimpse into Peter and Harriet’s family life. <\/p>\n


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Jhegaala<\/strong><\/em><\/a> by Steven Brust <\/strong>(2008): Probably the weakest of the recent Vlad Taltos novels, this tale fits between Phoenix <\/em>and Athyra <\/em>in chronology, telling of how Vlad hid out back East from the Jhereg, and what he found there. It’s a dark, sometimes gruesome tale, and Vlad’s constrained by not having any of the regular supporting cast (save Loiosh) to talk with. It’s still an entertaining, if quick, read (and probably worth waiting for the paperback unless you’re a hardcore Brust fan). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Too many books, too little time for decent reviews. Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore (1995): Hip, ironic, fast-reading tale of a woman turned into a vampire and the new-in-town aspiring…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-books"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14605,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/04\/21\/quick-book-reviews-so-that-i-can-clean-off-the-table-for-house-guests.html","url_meta":{"origin":13366,"position":0},"title":"Quick book reviews, so that I can clean off the table for house guests","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 21-Apr-09 9:21pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A Kiss Before the Apocalypse\u00a0by Thomas Sniegoski (2008) Remy Chandler, self-exiled angel turned PI, deals with the impending demise of his mortal wife, even as he's hired by former colleagues to find the missing Angel of Death. Decent noir and fantasy, the angelic twist livening up the \"he lives among\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":21727,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/07\/26\/book-review-lamb-the-gospel-according-to-biff-christs-childhood-pal-by-christopher-moore-2002.html","url_meta":{"origin":13366,"position":1},"title":"Book Review: “Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal” by Christopher Moore (2002)","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 26-Jul-11 9:01pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore My rating: 4 of 5 stars Christopher Moore works a miracle in this book, by embracing and teasing both the sacred and the profane, by cracking wise (and bawdy) while treating the subject of Jesus Christ with a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5741,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/07\/23\/books_reviewed.html","url_meta":{"origin":13366,"position":2},"title":"Books reviewed","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 23-Jul-04 10:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"Been finally getting some books finished during lunch hours. Here are some reviews. I'm dispensing with the usual multi-element reviews, though, for time's sake. Instead, reviews in 40 words (or...","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"best","src":"\/blog\/images\/rank_3.GIF","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10508,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/01\/03\/book_reviews_incubus_drea.html","url_meta":{"origin":13366,"position":3},"title":"Book Reviews: Incubus Dreams and Micah","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 3-Jan-07 7:57pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Bataan Sex March continues with the last Anita Blake novels out yet in paperback. \u00a0 Incubus Dreams by Laurell K. Hamilton (2005) Overall Story Re-Readability Characters There's a plot...","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17918,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/21\/foglio-fiends.html","url_meta":{"origin":13366,"position":4},"title":"Foglio Fiends","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 21-Jul-10 11:16pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Phil and Kaja Foglio. They had new color hardcover Girl Genius vol 1s. Phil also drew an appropriate sketch in the Xxxenophile I brought.","rel":"","context":"In "Comics & Comic Books"","block_context":{"text":"Comics & Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21495,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/07\/07\/book-reviews-sffantasy-old-new.html","url_meta":{"origin":13366,"position":5},"title":"Book Reviews – SF\/Fantasy, Old & New","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 7-Jul-11 11:55pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So I've been pretty good about posting my book reviews to Goodreads, but not so good about (re)posting them here. \u00a0So ... The Family Trade by Charles Stross My rating: 4 of 5 stars It's cliche to suggest this book bears a strong inspiration to Zelazny's Amber (albeit with a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13366\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}