Greig – Page 24 – transmission

apples?

Posted on April 7, 2015 by Greig

Indexing

Seanan McGuire

Indexing is kind of a mash up between The X-Files and Fables.
The story follows one team of government agents as they battle to prevent fairy tales from causing chaos in death when those narrative archetypes begin to impact on everyday life.
It’s quite a lot of fun and I particularly liked the characters of Henry and Sloane. Henry’s the lead agent and a perpetually ticked off almost-Snow-White and Sloane is a violent, misanthropic, permanently teenage Wicked Sister.
It feels a bit less polished and less fully realised than a lot of McGuire’s stuff I’ve read but it’s very enjoyable and worth a read if you like her brand of urban fantasy.

Rating: B

rosa?

Posted on April 6, 2015 by Greig

The Cinderella Deal

Jennifer Crusie

This is the second time I’ve read this book and it is still my favourite from the pile of ‘fake marrieds’ stories I read last year.
It’s lacking in the feminism department – which is a problem I noticed much more this time round – but the chemistry and banter between the two protagonists is so much fun.

Rating: B

ariadne?

Posted on April 3, 2015 by Greig

Double Trouble

Deborah Cooke

The premise of this romance is utterly unbelievable. I honestly can’t see a twin marrying her sister’s ex-husband and becoming their stepmother under any circumstances in real life.
I finished it because the lead character Maralys is the kind of tough exterior/inner sweetheart cliché that I enjoy. Otherwise it really doesn’t have much in the way of redeeming features.

Rating: C-

heli?

Posted on March 31, 2015March 31, 2015 by Greig

Instant Attraction

Jill Shalvis

An enjoyable, if boilerplate, romance set in the Sierra Mountains.
Katie has survived a terrible accident and is looking to escape her humdrum live for an adventure. Cam is a former snowboarding champion who has never recovered emotionally from the accident that nearly took his leg.

Rating: C

yowie?

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Greig

Pocket Apocalypse

Seanan McGuire

The fourth Incryptid book and the second to have Alex Price as the lead character finds him in Australia fighting a lycanthropy outbreak.
These books are generally the frothiest of McGuire’s output but I found this particular volume to be slight by even those standards. That’s not to say that it’s anything less than entertaining it’s just all a bit too straightforward to feel inspired.
Maybe I just miss Verity. I’m definitely looking forward to her return as the lead character in the next book.

Rating: B

crack?

Posted on February 16, 2015February 16, 2015 by Greig

The Madness Underneath

Maureen Johnson

The second book in the Shades of London series is just as charming and as much fun as The Name of the Star.
Following on shortly after the events of the first book we find Rory coming to terms with the trauma of those events and the consequences of her new abilities.
It’s all really hard to talk about without spoiling, but I’ll tell you one thing – this book has a doozy of an ending.

Rating: B+

vikes?

Posted on February 10, 2015 by Greig

Search For Senna

K.A. Applegate

The first of 12 Everworld books this an extremely slight YA alternate world fantasy.
It’s doing a lot of expositional heavy lifting as the first book in a series but it’s still a speedy read. It consists of a bunch of teenagers scraping through one adventure after another but there’s no emotional heft to explain why these kids are putting themselves in the way of all this danger beyond misguided heroic notions.
I’m probably going to read at least one more of this series to give it a chance but it will have to be a serious improvement to keep me reading beyond that.

Rating: B-

hip?

Posted on January 16, 2015 by Greig

Barefoot Season

Susan Mallery

The first of a trilogy set on Blackberry Island in Washington State.
This tells the story of a returning injured army veteran trying to take over the reins of the hotel she inherited.
This brings her to loggerheads with her ex-best friend.
Decent romance novel with an enjoyable emphasis on female relationships over the actual romance stories.

Rating: C+

2014 Albums of the Year

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Greig

1O’Hooley & Tidow
The Hum

2St. Vincent
St. Vincent

3Jenny Lewis
The Voyager

4Angel Olsen
Burn Your Fire For No Witness

5Sharon Van Etten
Are We There

6Perfume Genius
Too Bright

7Damien Jurado
Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son

8Morgan Delt
Morgan Delt

9Mark Lanegan Band
Phantom Radio

10King Creosote
From Scotland With Love

11EMA
The Future’s Void

12Wye Oak
Shriek

13The New Pornographers
Brill Bruisers

14Elbow
The Take Off and Landing of Everything

15The Afghan Whigs
Do The Beast

16Grouper
Ruins

17Lucius
Wildewoman

18Wild Beasts
Present Tense

19The War On Drugs
Lost In The Dream

20Mirel Wagner
When the Cellar Children See the Light of Day

21Sturgill Simpson
Metamodern Sounds In Country Music

22The Rural Alberta Advantage
Mended With Gold

23J Mascis
Tied To A Star

24Spoon
They Want My Soul

25Honeyblood
Honeyblood

The Hum and St. Vincent were released a week apart in February 2014 and it’s a testament to their quality that even with the toll of many months listening that my pick for record of the year was a straight choice between the two.
It was a hard decision but I picked the O’Hooley & Tidow record for my number one. It’s a very beautiful record packed with personality and humanity. That sense of personality edged it ahead of St. Vincent’s seamless, jeweled, statement of intent.

Gig of the year was Neutral Milk Hotel at the Corn Exchange. A joyous experience from beginning to end despite the slightly rubbish venue.

My favourite new-to-me song of the year was You, Sailor by Erin McKeown.
My most listened to song from a 2014 record was Coil & Spring by O’Hooley & Tidow

2014 Alternates

Posted on January 2, 2015January 6, 2015 by Greig

Audiobooks listened to in 2014

The Secret Diary Of Lizzie Bennet by Kate Rorick and Bernie Su read by Ashley Clements
Ashley does a wonderful job of representing the various characters from The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, usually taking the costume theatre versions from the show and toning them down a little to make them seem like authentic recreations.
Read my review for my reservations over the book in general, but I will say that her performance here does elevate the material a good deal.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline read by Wil Wheaton
It’s really striking from the audio version of this book how large a percentage of this book is infodump and nostalgic remembrance of 80’s US pop culture and how little is actually stuff happening!