A fun Russian fantasy romp that captures the spirit of some Russian fairy tales. Magic, shapeshifting, love twarted and a beauty and the beast storyline weaves through this to provide a really great read.

Damiano Delstrega is an interesting character. His dog talks to him, the Archangel Raphael teaches him music and the beginning of the book sees him being left behind by his fellow villagers while they run away from an invading army. Through the trilogy he learns about life and love from a variety of people, not all of whom want to seem him alive and lives through plagues, wars and starvation.

Left Hand of Darkness is an interesting book, seminal and of it's time and yes it is a classic,however the message seems to overwhelm the actual story. I didn't really care for the characters and didn't really mind what happened to them.

This is a good starter on reincarnation. However if you've read anything about this before this really isn't anything new. Don't get me wrong, the story of a psychiatrist finding out that examining the past lives of a patient of his would help her in her present. During the sessions he gets messages about being nicer to people and by being better to people we help ourselves.

Does it add anything to the existing corpus of stuff about reincarnation. Not really, it does though show a professional changing his mind when he's faced with the evidence

To me it read like a long-term role-playing campaign and despite the plaudits I was quite unmoved by the entire thing. Not even curious about the rest of the series. That having been said it wasn't the worst thing I've read in a long time, just not really what appeals to me.

I was a little underwhelmed with this one, a book that comes with a lot of recommendations from people all around the place. I dunno, I never really connected with all the characters and I felt myself almost wanting to skip specific chapters.

To be honest it was a readable book but compares unfavourably with David Weber's Excalabur Alternative which has largely the same premise but I found it a better read.

A very readable georgian style period piece. Enjoyable characters with believable characters that made me want them to succeed or not succeed. The minor plot device of having different periods of time going on simultaneously didn't really work for me but I can understand how the writer wanted to explain what was going on but sometimes it jarred a little and I had to re-read parts in order to get what was going on. It was very good at showing how secrets can lead to confusion about motives and come between people.

Finished 13/2/6


Well I've got through the Andre Norton section, being an fan it was for her I really bought the book, the others aren't bad either. Arthur C Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Alfred Bester and Ray Bradbury feature. Interesting and varied stories.

finished 11th February 2006
An interesting mix of stories with an average of 6 pages per story, many much shorter. Some Urban Fantasy, some horror, some quite ingenius some very cliched.

Interesting if bitty fantasy that left me with no urge to find the sequels, in fact it almost works as a standalone. There's almost too many characters and they all seem to have no issues with being thrown into unusual circumstances. There is a lot of acceptance of the strange without wonder.

Just Finished



Thoughts: the first 100 pages were quite hard to get into, and I nearly abandoned the book but now I'm just flying through it.

It's pretty much an Alien living hidden in human society story. R'shiel is different, feels different, her mother is a political animal who won't let anything, even her children stand in the way of her ambitions. Her son, Tarja, is a captain on the front-lines, protecting the Sisterhood's society from the god worshipers. The gods have plans tho and they involve both of these people, who turn out not to really be brother and sister. Yeah kinda spoilerish but it's pretty telegraphed from the start.

Obvious first novel, screamingly obvious, and possibly a good editor would have tightened the first few chapters up to make it flow smoother and got the punters into the story quicker. Also the relationship developing into love between Tarja and R'Shiel, WTF? I have a foster sister, now granted she is my cousin but NEITHER of my brothers would even think of someone brought up from early on as ANYTHING other than a sister. Shame on the Goddess of Love for that squick.

Books that have scored 5/5


Fiction






Non-Fiction

Books Borrowed from Drew

2 books

Books Borrowed from Kieran

Bookcrossing Books

12/9/04 Spell in your Pocket - K West - need to find this!!
26/10/04 Czechoslovak Cookbook - J Brizova
26/10/04 Famous Australian Recipies - D Dasey
26/10/04 Pen Lettering - A Camp
26/10/04 Classic Origami
5/1/5 Eric - T Pratchett
21/3/05 Green Witchcraft - A Moura
21/3/05 Crafty Cats
31/3/05 Aquitaine Progression - R Ludlum
26/4/05 Alias Grace - M Atwood
30/4/05 Murder Room - P D James
31/5/05 Julius - D Du Maurier
31/5/05 Iron hand of Mars - L Davis
31/5/05 Phantom Pain - A Grunberg
31/5/05 Mariana - S Kearsley
25/6/05 Moonstone - W Collins
25/6/05 Woman in White - W Collins
25/6/05 Middlesex - J Euginides
25/6/05 Elf Queen of Shanara - T Brooks
25/6/05 Talismans of Shanara - T Brooks
25/6/05 Scions of Shanara - T Brooks
06/7/05 Lesser Kindred - E Kerner
14/7/05 This Immortal - R Zelazny
14/7/05 Beast Master Arc - A Norton
19/7/05 Dictionary of Imaginary Places - A Manquel
19/7/05 Green Darkness - A Seyton
19/7/05 Killer's Wake - B Cornwell
19/7/05 A man Betrayed - J V Jones
20/7/05 That eye, the sky by T Winton
22/8/05 Your Home must-do's for 2004
22/8/05 The GI Diet - extracts
22/8/05 The New Book of Goddesses and Heroines - P Monaghan
22/8/05 Whispers in the Wind - M Ryan
22/8/05 On another man's wound - E O'Malley
22/8/05 Master and Fool - J V Jones
23/8/05 On Another Man's Wound by E O'Malley
27/8/05 The Telling of Lies by T Findley
27/8/05 Swann by C Shields
28/8/05 Babylon 5:Clark's Law by J Mortimore
27/9/05 Obsession by S Lewis
27/9/05 Parallel Journeys by E H. Ayer
27/9/05 Simisola by R Rendell
27/9/05 The time to eat cookbook (Weightwatchers)- S Davies
27/9/05 Philosophical Investigation by P Kerr
27/9/05 The King's Bishop - C Robb
20/10/05 A Fragment of Time - The future is ours by M Graham
20/10/05 Battleaxe by S Douglass
20/10/05 Burglars Can't Be Choosers by L Block
20/10/05 Cartomancy by M Gentle
20/10/05 Cordelia's Honor by L McM Bujold
20/10/05 Dragonlord of Mystara by Thorarinn Gunnarsson
20/10/05 Empress Orchid by A Min
20/10/05 Garden of Beasts by J Deaver
20/10/05 Hold the Dream by B T Bradford
20/10/05 The War of the Lords Veil- A Nichols
20/10/05 Wiccan Spell a Day - S Knight

Numbers post

2 - Drew - Fiction

10 - mine - Short Stories
61 - Mine - Fiction
60 - Mine - Non Fiction

12 - Library - Fiction
73 - Library - Non Fiction
3 - Library - Tapes

10 - Kieran - Fiction

7 - Bookcrossing - Non Fiction
25 - Bookcrossing - Fiction

0 - SF Books - Fiction

Totals:263 items
3 tapes
125 Fiction
141 Non Fiction

with an average of 1.36 books per day it should take approx 189 days to get the pile to 0 so as of 23/5/05 by Monday November 28th I'll run out of books 8)

Tho I have to note that according to the records on Bibliophil.org the averages are
1.36 books/day 2005
0.97 Books/day 2004
0.24 Books/day 2003
0.23 Books/day 2002
making an overal average of 0.69 books/day over the past 4 years, which would mean finishing a week from now next year!

SF-Books.com TBR's

This is going to be for my mount TBR

The Batsford Book of Hand & Machine Knitted Laces by Tessa Lorant
[DUB] 746.226 (1982, BAtsford, 0713439203)

No real time to read this but if I need lace patterns this is a useful one