elderglass?

The Lies of Locke Lamora

The best fantasy novel I’ve read in an age.
Set in a city reminiscent of medieval Venice, it’s a world full of pampered nobles and organized crime existing cheek by jowl.
Lamora is the head of a criminal gang who secretly flaunt the rules of criminal society by conning nobles out of their money.
The main plot is full of twists and turns putting the hugely likeable central characters through the ringer.
Flashbacks fill out some of Lamora’s history.
The seecondary characters are also rather well fleshed out.
His total disregard for the lives of his characters is something – lots and lots of deaths in this one.
It’s barely fantasy to be honest, barring a couple of central conceits, it could have easily been an historical novel.
I recommend this to anyone without hesitation.

Rating: A+

A+, Books, Fiction, Rated, fantasy

A+, Books, Fiction, Rated, fantasy
19:39, January 31st 2008

41?

Long List 2007
This is the longlist for my 2007 albums of the year.
I’m going to try and pick a top ten (or so) and do a write up for each album, but in the meantime here’s the candidates (in order by album title):

Yeasayer – All Hour Cymbals
Explosions In The Sky – All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone
Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha
Matthew Dear – Asa Breed
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Ask Forgiveness
The Besnard Lakes – Are The Dark Horse
Black Francis – Bluefinger
King Creosote – Bombshell
The National – Boxer
Malcolm Middleton – A Brighter Beat
Joe Henry – Civilians
Low – Drums and Guns
iLiKETRAiNS – Elegies To Lessons Learnt
Editors – An End Has A Start
Queens Of The Stone Age – Era Vulgaris
Wheat – Everyday I Said a Prayer for Kathy and Made a One Inch Square
Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
The Octopus Project – Hello Avalanche
Radiohead – In Rainbows
Maria McKee – Late December
Neil Young – Live At Massey Hall
Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
Elliott Smith – New Moon
Interpol – Our Love To Admire
Efterklang – Parades
Phosphorescent – Pride
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss – Raising Sand
Laura Veirs – Saltbreakers
Wilco – sky Blue Sky
Devendra Banhart – Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon
LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver
Okkervil River – The Stage Names
Grant-Lee Phillips – Strangelet
Rilo Kiley – Under The Blacklight
Jackie-O Motherfucker – Valley Of Fire
Mark Ronson – Version
Bjork – Volta
Emma Pollock – Watch The Fireworks
Modest Mouse – We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
Bloc Party – A Weekend In The City
The Shins – Wincing The Night Away
Trances Arc – XOXOX

Music, Year End Round-up

Music, Year End Round-up
21:57, January 17th 2008

indecision?

Love and Other Near Death Experiences

Late-night Jazz DJ Rob Garland narrowly avoids being killed in an accident and starts to question every trivial decision in life. After unburdening himself on his show he’s contacted by various characters with similar experiences. Prompted by his fiancee he embarks on a ‘quest’ to come to terms with the experience.
The book is occasionally rather funny, but is seriously let down by an obvious and laboured plot.
My verdict? This book cost me the princely sum of £1. About right I reckon.

Rating: C

Books, C, Fiction, Humour, Mainstream Fiction, Rated

Books, C, Fiction, Humour, Mainstream Fiction, Rated
13:56, January 8th 2008

feather?

Anansi Boys

Gods are a preoccupation of Mr Gaiman, what with the sheer number of Gods and godlike beings in Sandman, and of course the rather good and rather lengthy American Gods.
This time though the tone is less weighty. In a curious bybrid of fantasy, horror and humour the book relates the story of Charles “Fat Charlie” Nancy. Fat Charlie is a likeable, if rather ineffectual, man who finds out after his Father’s funeral that he was the spider god and trickster Anansi and not only that but he has a brother too.
On a whim he invites this newly revealed brother, Spider, into his life and things start to spiral out of control.
This is a very enjoyable book, wittily written and effectively scary at times. It’s only weakness is a somewhat unlikely denouement.
I’d recommend it as an introduction to Gaiman, maybe only bettered by Neverwhere. I’d also recommend it as a good read to just about anybody.

Rating: A

A, Books, Fiction, Horror, Humour, Rated, fantasy

A, Books, Fiction, Horror, Humour, Rated, fantasy
11:30, January 8th 2008

beloved?

The Ghost Brigades

The follow up to Old Man’s War is a curious beast. It’s set in the same context, even features a couple of characters from that first novel, but it’s protagonist is entirely different.
Jared Dirac is a Special Forces soldier in the CDF, what the regular forces call The Ghost Brigades. Unlike every other Special Forces soldier Dirac was created to host the conciousness of another man. Charles Boutin was the brilliant scientist behind the BrainPal and the transfer of conciousness that allows the CDF special forces to exist, but now he’s gone renegade and betrayed humanity to competing alien forces. However the transfer seems to fail and Dirac becomes a regular SF grunt.
The book follows Dirac through basic training and into full-blown combat and on to a confrontation with Boutin himself after he gains access to the man’s memories.
It’s a fun book but flawed in that it lacks a real sense of coherence and succeeds better in providing a satisfying ending to the story in the first book than anything else.
It’s still worth a read if you want a quick blast of Heinlein like old school science fiction, like.

Rating: B+

B+, Books, Fiction, Rated, Science Fiction

B+, Books, Fiction, Rated, Science Fiction
11:28, January 8th 2008

37?

The Books I Read in 2007 were (in chronological order):

1. Earth, Air, Fire and Custard – Tom Holt – B-
2. Our Band Could Be Your Life – Michael Azzerad – A-
3. Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH – Robert C. O’Brien – A-
4. Ringworld – Larry Niven – B+
5. Only Forward – Michael Marshall Smith – A
6. The Pinhoe Egg – Diana Wynne Jones – A
7. Breakfast at Tiffanys – Truman Capote – B
8. Glasshouse – Charles Stross – A-
9. Not A Runner Bean – Mark Steel – B+
10. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince – J.K. Rowling – B+
11. Pattern Recognition – William Gibson – A
12. Unknown Pleasures – Chris Ott – C+
13. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J.K. Rowling – A-
14. Old Man’s War – John Scalzi – B+
15. Things My Girlfriend And I Have Argued About – Mil Millington – B-
16. Storm Front – Jim Butcher – B
17. A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil – Christopher Brookmyre – B+
18. Kitchen Confidential – Anthony Bourdain – B-
19. The Creation Records Story: My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry for the Prize – David Cavanagh – B+
20. Making Money – Terry Pratchett – B+
21. Lords and Ladies – Terry Pratchett – A-
22. Going Postal – Terry Pratchett – A
23. The Jennifer Morgue – Charles Stross – A
24. Mortal Causes – Ian Rankin – A
25. The Land of Laughs – Jonathan Carroll – A-
26. The Court of the Air – Stephen Hunt – B+
27. Cosmonaut Keep – Ken MacLeod – A-
28. Dark Light – Ken MacLeod – A-
29. Engine City – Ken MacLeod – A-
30. Rainbow’s End – Vernor Vinge – A-
31. The Sandman Companion – Hy Bender – B
32. Good Omens – Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett – A+

I also read the five books of the Belgariad by David Eddings but didn’t bother to put them on the blog.

Books, Year End Round-up

Books, Year End Round-up
13:15, January 3rd 2008