Fantasy

I have to say I'm not a fan of travelling underground and 'Metro 2033' is an adventure in itself that hopefully we'd never have to cope with on the London tube if the apocalypse ever was to happen here.

I felt that Dmitri Glukhovsky's book was full of imagination and vision - he gives Artyom his main character full reign in this post apocalyptic fantasy of saving his Metro station where he lives. But can he save humanity itself from the dangers that he himself has to go through from the very unwordly creatures?

I have to say that Naomi Novik can do no wrong by me - her Temeraire series is fabulous. Each book takes in a different country with all it's politics, culture and colour as well, all overlaid the Napleonic Wars and the British seafaring traditions with added extras.

Here we are not only given the above but a seriously strong typhon, a sea serpent that was hell bent on trying to kill them for food as well as Chinese British relationships that were less to be desired!

Naomi Novik just keeps on getting better with each book she writes in the historical fantasy with dragons. I guess you could say that in modern warfare as opposed to the Napoleonic Wars, helicopters and fighter planes would be doing the work of the dragons, with Temeraire being the lead dragon character.

This time Naomi Novik has taken us to Europe, especially Turkey where they take the dragon eggs and fly home via Prussia - but it is a hard journey with several crew losses.

Can't emphasise enough - buy this for the Kindle - it's a huge, heavy book and uncomfortable to read unless sitting at a table !

Where to start - its classified as an epic, and the comparisons with Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series (which Sanderson helped complete) are inevitable and valid. It nearly lost me at the first hurdle as the size, plus the complexity and goriness of the first chapter didn't appeal but as it was a gift, I thought I should carry on, and I was well rewarded. It's a fantasy feast - rich, satisfying, complex.

I took Temeraire to hospital when I had to go in for some surgery - afterwards this book took me on a journey like no other fantasy book I have read. It is full of well researched historical information being set during the Napoleonic Wars, but you are not overwhelmed in anyway whatsoever. ..read more

The sequel to the Name of the Wind follows the next instalment of Kvothe's account of his life to the Chronicler. The main story is again framed with a little more of his present circumstances, with hints about links with his past and his companion Bast.

This is another episode in the long history of the planet Pern. If you loved the earlier Pern books you will enjoy this.

Although it's written by Todd rather than his mother Anne McCaffrey, the creator of Pern, he has a very similar style and knows how to build believable characters.
The book comes across as very definitely a Pern book, evoking the familiar images and feel of the earlier books while still feeling fresh and bringing different aspects of the world to view.

What a disappointment! Started well enough picking up on the characters in the previous two very good books and the Loethar and Elka storyline developing in a believable fashion, but halfway through I felt it descended into a rush to untangle all the ends at once. Yes it was good that all was sorted out but at a high cost to the characterisation and the storylines.

What happened to Leo? Complete change in character. Loved the completely unnecessary Tourettes doctor, but the Vested went by the wayside and Evie and Ravan lines could have been so much better.

Why do all fantasy novels now have to be trilogies ? There have always been series of novels, where the author, or the readers, or both, wish to continue with particular characters or a particular world, for example Darkover, Valdemar, Pern, but it seems increasingly few, Robin Hobb and now Patrick Rothfuss, being a couple of notable exceptions, can bring it off. Earlier Canavans too managed it.

The final chapter of Jean Auel's Earth's children saga and what a disappointment ! The author has literally lost the plot.

There is so much repetition, not just in this volume but also from previous books - instance cattails, Mother's song , foreign, exotic. There is no plot as such until the last third of the book until Jondalar, thoroughly out of character, and out of the blue, has sex with a previous lover, and even the consequent reconciliation is unsatisfactory.