Review: Redshirts

Redshirts by John Scalzi

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Very funny and surprisingly touching.



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Review: The Last Unicorn

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Way too unicorny! Big blue eyes, precious creatures, not the kind of drawings I enjoy, although my 10-year daughter did. I never saw the movie; my sister says it was good and apparently many people enjoyed it (perhaps while young) but I... find it all too (uni)corny!



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Review: Death Note: Give-and-Take, Vol. 6

Death Note: Give-and-Take, Vol. 6 by Tsugumi Ohba

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Starting to be a bit of a slog now, this series. It keeps going back and forth, who's Kira, who's not. I may have to give it up.



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Review: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I liked the gods, and thought they were very well-imagined. Their characterizations and the mythology were refreshing and novel but very - what's the word I want? Well, it really felt like a workable mythology with depth to it. I also liked the world she created; it seems richly detailed and interesting. However, I could not stop being irritated by the protagonist being such a Mary Sue! I read an excerpt of the second in this trilogy and I'm hoping the protagonist there is less marysueish; I'm looking forward to reading that book.



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Review: Boneshaker

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Reading this book made me sure that I don't. like. steampunk.



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Review: War for the Oaks

War for the Oaks by Emma Bull

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


Didn't like the whole musician thing, didn't like the fairy thing, didn't like the love story, so not my sort of book.



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Review: Blindsight

Blindsight by Peter Watts

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Can I give it 2.5 stars? I more or less liked it but there were many things that irked me, like the confusing ending, which I felt was a weakness in the writing (though it could have been a weakness in my capacity for understanding), and many dense parts describing the alien (I'm not into very hard sci-fi). But I thought the characters were interesting and had a lot of potential, some of which was not realized unfortunately. And I liked the vampire parts! All in all, it's worth a read for the ideas and character possibilities.



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Review: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


A bit of a sentimental love story in some parts, but some interesting history about Seattle's jazz scene and Japanese and Chinese communities. One thing that threw me, however, was why Henry's dad switches to Mandarin sometimes when he's a Cantonese speaker.



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Review: Amarcord: Marcella Remembers

Amarcord: Marcella Remembers by Marcella Hazan

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Not a bad read - very evocative of the period just before and after WWII in Italy. Don't read when you're hungry though (late subway rides home with this book were accompanied by much stomach rumbling)!



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Review: The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure

The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure by Hans Magnus Enzensberger

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


It was ok, but I've read more fun (and enlightening) math books for kids. In fact, I'm not sure what kind of kid this is aimed at - the story is a little awkward, and the math parts not so memorable. Does it suffer from language/cultural translation from the original German perhaps? Good illustrations though!



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Review: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Well, I thought the premise was sort of interesting but it turned out not to be really any sort of mystery at all. An interesting attempt at getting into the mind of an autistic person, but it wasn't anything revelatory or mind-blowing. I don't have anything bad to say about the book, but it just didn't do it for me.



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Review: Sunrise Alley

Sunrise Alley by Catherine Asaro

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Not bad, but not as gripping as Primary Inversion, which is the only other book I've read by this author. This one is about androids and humans, and the ways they converge and diverge, which is an interesting theme. However, the main character is not particularly well-developed, and I dislike the marysue-ish 'I don't feel I'm attractive but everyone else in the book falls for me' bit. The secondary main character had a more intriguing personality but was filtered through the first character, who I was irritated by. So an interesting premise, and decent but not particularly novel development of ideas.



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