The Last Battle (C.S.Lewis)
Fantasy, 6/10 – February 2006 This is the final book of the chronicles and it really needs to be read last because it gives away all the secrets and has a fantastic, chilling ending. I’ve known about the Christian sub-plot all along but it is confirmed in this book. It turns out that Aslan is […]
The Silver Chair (C.S.Lewis)
Fantasy, 7/10 – February 2006 This 6th adventure in Narnia is taken by Eustace from the last book and a new character called Jill Pole. They get a break from school and are given a task by Aslam. The children and the reader are taught that appearances can be deceptive and even those who look […]
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (C.S.Lewis)
Fantasy, 8/10 – January 2006 This is the fifth out of the seven books that make up the chronicles of Narnia. It’s about an adventure made up of lots of really exciting little adventures all about Caspian going in search of his lost relatives. A Narnian take on Homer’s Odyssey. One of my favourite parts […]
Prince Caspian (C.S.Lewis)
Fantasy, 4/10 – January 2006 This is the forth out of the seven books that make up the chronicles of Narnia. I love how, in children’s books, so much can happen in so few pages. There was one part where the children got attacked by a bear but they shot it with an arrow and […]
Deception Point (Dan Brown)
Fiction, 7/10 – January 2006 This is 585 pages of fast paced action covering a political and scientific arena through the eyes of a American national security agent (who is rather cheesily, a stunning and mysterious female). The author has done his homework in order to include a lot of scientific information that holds the […]
All Tomorrow’s Parties (William Gibson)
Sci-fi, 3/10 – January 2006 This novel wraps up the strand taken from Virtual Light through Idoru (the bridge series). I was disappointed because it lacked action and there isn’t much actually that happens overall, as a story. It follows the same Gibson format in that people are caught up in a technological/social paradigm shift […]
Idoru (William Gibson)
Sci-fi, 6/10 – December 2005 It’s supposed to be the 2nd book in the bridge series but it’s pretty self contained. It’s about a rock-star celebrity wanting to marry a sort of computer-generated personality called an Idoru. It is not confirmed whether the Idoru is truly AI but she lives in the net more than […]
Pattern Recognition (William Gibson)
Fiction, 8/10 – December 2005 This book is set in the present and is not sci-fi like I’m used to from Gibson. The main character, Cayce Pollard, is a rather odd fashion Guru capable of identifying any piece of clothing but so opinionated that she is actually physically allergic to some trademarks (e.g. the Michelin […]
Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The origins of the internet (Katie Hafner, Matthew Lyon)
Computing History, 5/10 – Summer&Autumn 2005 I felt like reading an educational book on a subject which I’m interested in. I’m interested in the Internet because it is THE invention of my lifetime, one which has and is changing the world in a hugely significant matter. Ok so it was invented in the 70’s and […]
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (J. K. Rowling)
Fantasy, 7/10 – July 2005 It’s Harry’s sixth year at Hogwarts and the plot follows the usual mould of the Hogwarts school year (Hogwarts Express, Sorting Hat, Quidditch, appointment of replacement teachers, etc). Lord Voldemort’s past is explored in much more detail than previous books in the series, but we don’t actually get to meet […]
Virtual Light (William Gibson)
Cyberpunk, 7/10 – Feb 2005 I was quite disappointed that “the Matrix” didn’t come into this book (and might not be in this trilogy at all) but it’s still got some interesting tech ideas. The story revolves around some stolen Virtual Reality glasses called ‘Virtual Light’ which directly feed the optic nerve with EMP to […]
Mona Lisa Overdrive (William Gibson)
Cyberpunk, 9/10 – Jan/Feb 2005 This is nothing to do with the Mona Lisa painting, it is the 3rd and final part of the “sprawl trilogy” and there’s a chick called “Mona Lisa” who bumbles about in almost ignorance. It doesn’t exactly tie all the threads up and man the Matrix is getting weird but […]
The Wasp Factory (Ian Banks)
Horror, 5/10 – Summer 2004 It is obsessive, gory, cruel, repellent and gut churningly unsettling. This book will no doubt encompass some of your worst nightmares and lay them out clearly for you on the page. It will destroy your innocence. The story has a twist at the end, but I was expecting more and […]
Count Zero (William Gibson)
Cyberpunk, 9/10 – Summer 2004 First realise that this is the 2nd book of a trilogy that is “Neuromancer”, “Count Zero” and “Mona Lisa Overdrive”. I don’t advice reading this until you’ve read Neuromancer and have got into the whole cyberpunk vocabulary. The plots in the storyline are deliciously challenging to unravel and Gibson certainly […]
Inversions (Ian M Banks)
Sci-Fi, 2/10 – Spring 2004 Besides extra moons in the sky and stories of devastating meteor showers that toppled a former Empire, this novel’s squalid, pre-industrial world seems to have no sci-fi elements. I was constantly anticipating something cool to happen but it never did, or it did but was really really disappointing. I would […]
