I’ve read quite a few books in the last few days. I seem to be reading exclusively children’s books. Mainly because I can’t decide which of my own books to read next.
The last few I have read are: Vampire’s Assistant by Darren Shan, Savage Stone Age by Terry Deary and Martin Brown, Harvey Angell by Diana Hendry, and I’nm currently reading The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot. Continue reading →

And I’ve just finished Cirque Du Freak by Darren Shan. This book was recommended to me by Thom, my grandson. It’s not the kind of book I would normally read; a children’s horror story, but it was surprisingly good. Still, it’s not what I would have read as a child!
Recommended for older children.

Update: The 12th book is out in the UK. As is the 3rd Demonata book. Click the covers to get ’em!

I recently finished Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones, another in the children’s Chrestomanci Series. Again, I quite enjoyed it; but found it not quite as good as The Lives Of Christopher Chant or Charmed Life. Still, it’s a good read.

I’ve recently finished Minority Report by Philip K. Dick. Which is a re-published collection of short stories. Re-published to cash in on the movie based on the short story of the same name, I presume.
In all it was quite a good collection. I have not read a lot of Philip K Dick before, so this collection was an eye opener. I liked all the stories (although one much less then the others); he has a quirky sense of plot, and likes to add an unexpected twist to each of the stories and give you something to think about. This collection also included “We can remember it for you wholesale” which was the inspiration for the movie Total Recall. I say inspiration, because the point of the story is quite different from the movie.
I also found that the science in this science fiction was quite dated. Typical of the pre-70s (when these were written). In fact, it kind of made my feel a little nostalgic; I first started reading Sci-Fi in 1971 (Asimov’s ‘I Robot’ was the first book I ever bought).

Anyway, recommended!

I finished The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman the other day. What a fantastic book. The story line left me breathless at times. The characters of Lyra and Will develop to an incredible depth. The things they go through had me on the edge of my seat. Some of the other main characters, Mrs Coulter, Lord Asriel, Mary Malone, and so on really contribute to the story. I was pleased to see Iorek Byrnison back and making such a significant contribution.
Whenever I talked to people about these three books as I was still reading the third, I described the second book, The Subtle Knife, as filler (despite my review). Compared to Northern Lights, and The Amber Spyglass, it seemed to be lacking in depth. Having completed the trilogy, I realise that the Subtle Knife laid a lot of groundwork, introducing characters, the knife, and laying the foundations for events on The Amber Spyglass. So although, it is the weakest of the three books, it is essential to the whole story.
All three books: recommended!

I’ve now finished The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman. Another fantastic book. An earlier commenter mentioned that her daughter regarded them as better than Harry Potter, and you know I think she’s right. Whilst again they are not too comparable, I think there is more depth of character in this series compared to Harry Potter. It is clearly aimed at an older audience than the Harry Potter books, and so to me they are more gritty, and darker. That’s not to say I don’t like the HP books, but… apples and oranges and all that.
Anyway back to The Subtle Knife, very , good. We start off in a world much more like our own in the company of Will, a young boy, and his mother. We soon enter another world, and quickly meet up with Lyra as this is the same world which she entered at the end of the first book. The plot in this story is as I mentioned a lot darker, despite being somehow in ‘lighter’ surroundings than the first. The story races along, bringing back some old characters and introducing one or two new ones. The ending is very dramatic and suspenseful, but I shan’t say for risk of spoiling the plot.
Recommended!
Lyra

I finished Northern Lights by Philip Pullman yesterday. What a fantastic book!
It’s one of the best fantasy stories I have read in a long time. The cover blurb likens it to Tolkein, but I wouldn’t quite go that far. It’s not really comparable to be honest, it’s a different type of fantasy story. The main characters in the story; Lyra, Lord Asriel, Mrs Coulter, Iorek Byrnison, and the rest are really well developed. Lyra particularly, as the principal character, is really well depicted. You soon come to like her character. She at first comes across as you would expect a 12 year old to be in the setting in which you first meet her. But she soon develops depth and strength of character.
The setting, a parallel world were humans have personal Daemons, physics and other sciences are disciplines controlled by the church, where witches can really fly, and bears can talk, is fantastic (pun intended). It feels like a mixture of the Victorian London of other novels with the grand life for the privileged, but dirty streets populated with urchins who disappear without too much fuss, and middle ages Europe with the overarching power of the church suppressing scientific discoveries they don’t like.
The plot too is twisted enough to keep you intrigued without being overly complex. Lots of political intrigue which Lyra slowly becomes aware of and then to understand from her own twelve year old viewpoint.
I bought this knowing it was the first of a trilogy, but waited to see whether it was worth buying the others. I have them now and I’m already half way through the second book, The Subtle Knife, and it too is brilliant.
Recommended!

I finished Interface by Neal Stephenson and Frederick George this lunchtime. Phew! What a fantastic book! I really loved it. I found it hard to tell that it wasn’t written just by Neal, apart from the beginning of one chapter somewhere around 30, which seemed to somehow jar against the flow of the story line. I’m not sure whether it was the style of writing or a jump in the plot.
I can see this is definitely movie material.
Recommended.