Tag archives for book review - Page 8
This Deceitful Light by Jemahl Evans [Book Review]
This Deceitful Light by Jemahl Evans My rating: 5 of 5 stars This Deceitful Light is the sequel to The Last Roundhead and was well worth the wait. Reading it was like being back in the 17th Century. More than just history though, there's a strong mystery to it which drives the first half of the book. There's also a strong sense of underlying treachery which I'm sure drives the title of This Deceitful Light. The whole volume is held together with the background and context to Candy fighting his only duel, with Sir John Hurry, who we first met in the Last Roundhead. This Deceitful Light English: Battle of Marston Moor, 1644 by John Barker (Photo credit: Wikipedia) This Deceitful Light carries on the story of Sir Blandford Candy, his warts and all autobiography set down in his twilight…
Rivers of London: Black Mould by Ben Aaronovitch [Book Review]
Rivers of London: Black Mould by Ben Aaronovitch My rating: 4 of 5 stars Black Mould is a lovely little side story for Peter Grant that you can read without having read all the previous ; Black Mould The premise is pretty straightforward, although there's more than meets the eye initially. Peter Grant and his colleague Guleed are called to a luxury high rise where there's an infestation of black mould. This is more than just a fungal infection, otherwise they'd have sent a cleaner instead of the Met Police's second best ; The graphic novel format works really well, and despite having read five books before getting to the graphic novels (this is the third graphic novel) the characters are drawn/painted the way my imagination did from Ben Aaronovitch's ; There are some lovely background bits that tie Black…
Once More* *with footnotes by Terry Pratchett [book review]
Once More* *with footnotes by Terry Pratchett My rating: 5 of 5 stars I've been dipping into Once More With Footnotes for over a year. Being short stories, all with introductory notes from Sir Pterry, it's easy to read a few pages and then stop than it would be if there was a full novel. Once More* Terry Pratchett auf der Elf Fantasy Fair in den Niederlanden (Photo credit: Wikipedia) It's an odd collection of things that have been published elsewhere for the most part. There are short stories, some are even discworld stories. However there are introductions to things, newspaper articles and forewords. These latter give some insight into Pterry's character, although much of that is obvious already if you read his books. If you've been following my blog for any length of time then you'll know I'm a…
The Delirium Brief by Charles Stross [Book Review]
The Delirium Brief by Charles Stross My rating: 5 of 5 stars Bob is back, and the whole Laundry series just levelled up a couple of notches. I'm a major fan of Charlie Stross and have read his entire output. The Laundry is right up my street (being a civil servant with more than a passing interest in IT). This novel even more so, because it gets into other areas that I've got a professional interest in too. The Delirium Brief In terms of broad storyline, the Delirium Brief brings back some old characters and uncovers secrets that were compartmented away from Bob in the earlier stories. It also shows more of the inner workings and rationale for the Laundry that Bob wouldn't have either known about or cared much about if he had known. The Delirium Brief of the…
Since I Bore Arms by Robert Holding [book review]
Since I Bore Arms by Robert Holding My rating: 5 of 5 stars Since I Bore Arms is an anonymised personal account of the France 1940 campaign by an infantry private soldier. The author was a private in an infantry battalion sent to France in late April 1940. The account is unusual in that very few ordinary soldiers wrote about their experiences. Since I Bore Arms The narrative is a day by day account from getting orders to embark for France until his return to the depot in the UK after being evacuated from the beach at Dunkirk. Holding doesn't name his battalion, and he has changed the names of all those mentioned. As an ordinary soldier he didn't know much of the big picture, and usually didn't know where his unit was. What he does cover is how far…