Things My Girlfriend And I Have Argued About

Mil Millington

Many of you will be asking yourself if Mil Millington is the same guy as Reader Millington aka Mills. Well, of course you’re right. One of the mightiest beings to walk the earth has written based on his hellishly funny web page found here. Which of course is based on his real life.
The novel is the story of Pel Dalton who works in IT support for the library of an English Poly/Uni and goes home to his insane German girlfriend and their two kids.
The plot, such as it is, is completely barking mad with Triads, Laser Quest and “swinger” librarians turning up at various points.
My advice would be to just read for the laughs and let the plot pass you by.
Very funny (not as funny as the webpage, natch) and definitely worth a read. Besides, he’s a mighty being, how could you not want to read his book?

The Wee Free Men

Terry Pratchett

The latest Discworld book. It’s supposed to be a Young Adult book.
It’s the story of Tiffany, who’s good at making cheese, is the sort of person who always carries a bit of string and is prepared to use a child as monster bait. OK, she’s destined to be a witch.
When her annoying (wanna sweetie!) little brother Wentworth goes missing she takes her frying pan and resolves to retrieve him from the the Queen of the Elves with the aid of the ‘Wee Free Men’ of the title. The Wee Free Men are kind of daft – they’re a caricature of the drunken, thieving Scot – down to the kilts and the bizarre psuedo-Scots dialogue. I’m Scottish so I’m hypersensitive to these things but on the whole they’re funny and they come out of the story well.

It’s the best book that Pratchett has written in a while. Superb writing, funny and involving. It had me in awe at times.
It’s not very Discworldy in setting, and only the appearance of Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg near the end places it in the Discworld. Even though he’s tackled the story of Discworld Witches and the Elves before, this is a fresh take and one with even more insight than in Lords and Ladies

Without hesitation I recommend you go out and buy this book and put time aside to sit and read it. Regardless of the type of book you like to read, this is a masterpiece.

The Elenium

David Eddings

This is a fantasy trilogy consisting of the following books:
The Diamond Throne
The Ruby Knight
The Sapphire Rose
This is the story of a church knight called Sparhawk and the adventures he goes on to save the life of his queen and prevent his continent from falling in the hands of the debased God, Azash.
Eddings writes fantasy books to a pretty cynical formula, designed to attract as many fantasy readers as possible. I get the distinct impression that he writes for the money.
Saying that I still enjoy the books, they’re a diverting and speedy read. They’re no more than fluff but for reading on the train, they’re just about perfect.
If you’ve just finished reading some of his earlier books, I’d recommend you hold fire for a while, ’cause the formula will slap you in the face. If you’re coming to them fresh and you like fantasy fiction then I’d say they’re worth reading.
I much prefer the Sparhawk stories to the Garion stories, ’cause Sparhawk isn’t quite as annoying as Garion and the stories are a little more adult.
Having said that I’m trying not to read the follow up trilogy – The Tamuli any time soon!

Johnny And The Bomb

Terry Pratchett

Johnny Maxwell – one of Pratchett’s very best characters in a story that takes place in both 1996 and 1941.
The story pivots about Mrs Tachyon and her shopping trolley filled with black bags as Johnny tries to save the lives of the people living in Paradise Street from being killed in a bombing raid in 1941.
It’s meant to be a ‘Young Adult’ book. I dunno, it just seems like a very good book to me. I can’t recommend the Johnny Maxwell books enough. It’s Pratchett at his best, set in a world that’s recognisably ours, proving that he doesn’t need to use the fantasy genre to write great fiction.
I can’t see how anyone couldn’t enjoy this book.

One Fine Day In The Middle Of The Night

Christopher Brookmyre

It’s school reunion time, with all the attendant neuroses that involves. They’re gathered on an oil rig that’s half converted into a luxury holiday complex (the brainchild of the reunion organizer). When a group of mercenaries attack.
Um. I really wanted to like this book. I’ve loved all the other Brookmyre books I’ve read, but this one is only enjoyable in fits and starts. There are far too many dumb, unappealing, unsympathetic characters. I liked some of the characters Matt, Ally, Simone but he kept spending time with people I just wanted to see blown up.
Maybe you’ll like it better than I did. If you’ve enjoyed Brookmyre before give it a try.

Microserfs

Douglas Coupland

This is one of my favourite books to re-read from time to time. It’s the story of a group of friends who quit working for Microsoft to start their own software company. It’s funny, moving and has insight into what makes geeks tick.
It’s tech gets more and more outdated every time I read it, but the truths about relationships and the need to have a life outside of work still ring true.
Coupland is a very interesting writer and he has an easy going style that makes his work fun to read. I’d recommend you try one or two of his books. Apart from this one, try Generation X and Miss Wyoming. I think they’re pretty good.

Fargo Rock City

Chuck Klosterman

This is a light-hearted attempt to explain why hair metal was so damned popular in the 1980’s.
Part memoir, part critical essay, the author doesn’t really succeed in giving a non-believer (say, like me) an idea of why we should all love Motley Crue, Skid Row and Poison. He managed to make me laugh, though.
I’m not completely certain that he’s come to terms with the fact that he grew up loving the most critically reviled music of the period. He comes up with some highly specious reasons why bands like Black Flag, Fugazi and The Replacements don’t matter as much as Gun’s ‘n’ Roses and Motley Crue. A little bit of inverted snobbery going on there I think.
Anyway, an enjoyable read for anyone who knows enough about 1980’s music to understand what the hell he’s going on about. Not the greatest book of musical criticism ever written, but worth your time.

The Sacred Art of Stealing

Christopher Brookmyre

This is a highly entertaining crime novel written in Brookmyre’s usual acerbic style.
The lead character in this novel in Angelique da Xavia, an officer in Strathclyde Police, who featured prominently in Brookmyre’s Last Novel “A Big Boy Did It And Ran Away”.
The best bit was the audacious Bank robbery near the start of the novel. Not as good as “A Big Boy…” as it ran out of steam towards the end with some over telegraphed twists, but well worth reading.

Altered Carbon

Richard Morgan

A slick crime thriller in ‘cyberpunk’ clothes.
Takeshi Kovacs is an ex-Envoy who has had his mind transmitted halfway across the galaxy by an extremely rich man in his 300s who wants Kovacs to prove he didn’t commit suicide.
Central to this story is the idea that in the future everyone’s mind will be backed up to data storage either carried in the spine or remotely. That interstellar travel is best done by having minds transmitted by FTL communications and placing the mind in a new body or sleeve. That the wealthy can live a very long time by transferring their minds to a younger clone every so often.

I personally thought it was a lot of fun, but you need to have a tolerance for sex and violence.

The Eyre Affair

Jasper Fforde

I borrowed this book from someone at my work.
It’s an entertaining enough SF comedy.
The plot is insubstantial, the characters pretty wooden.
In it’s favour, though, is that it’s got a good pace and it has some very funny jokes in it.
I’ll probably read the sequel at some point.
I would say in the world of humourous genre novels this guy has got what it takes to be a new Tom Holt. It’ll take a miracle for him to get as good as Terry Pratchett.