Some mini reviews of books I’ve read recently.
I’m not sure how I came to miss this one because usually I read the Discworld books as they come out in paperback. I really enjoyed Going Postal in which Moist von Lipwig was introduced but this book wasn’t as strong. The villains weren’t anything like as frightening as some of the others who have stalked the streets of Ankh Morpork and, although I stayed engaged with the book, when I’d finished I didn’t feel that it had ever genuinely excited me. Pratchett has had a lot of stellar successes so I’ll keep on reading the Discworld books as long as he keeps churning them out but this wasn’t one of my favourites.
The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next)
I finally got around to reading this, although I’ve had it for a while. I wanted to read it because I’m writing my own meta recursive book about books right now. But although I should have liked this – somehow I didn’t. I couldn’t get into the plot when I felt literally (!) anything could happen. I didn’t understand some of the metaphysicals and I thought the author didn’t either. I felt bored by the super villain because I was certain he would be overcome inevitably and the romantic interest just dreeped about doing very little so it was inexplicable to my why the heroine found him so desirable. In lots of places the narrative seemed to drag. I don’t know why this didn’t click for me when on paper it should have been a sure fire win. I still have two more books in this series so maybe I’ll come back to it. But not any time soon, I fear.
The Rose and the Ring
A re-read, although the last time was in my teens. It’s free from the Kindle store although you miss out on the funny illustrations reading it this way. It’s a witty, light-hearted book with some great character sketches. Definitely recommended.