7.28.2009

 

The Lightning Thief : Percy Jackson & the Olympians Book One


by Rick Riordan, 375pgs, paperback
Overall Grade: A-
Series: Percy Jackson & the Olympians

Totally recommended. It looks like Harry Potter, but it isn't. Instead it is about half-human, half-god boy who finds out that the Olympian gods never disappeared, they just moved. And there is a whole mythological world subtlely and not-so-subtlely coexisting with our own. Now with a couple of companions, he gets drawn into a quest to find Zeus' stolen lightning bolt and return it before all-out war breaks-out between the gods.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 5:49 PM
 

Carpe Jugulum


by Terry Pratchett, 378pgs, paperback
Overall Grade: B-
Series: Discworld

One of those Discworld books that I'd been avoiding because I'm not enamoured with the witches. I'm still not enamoured with them, but here they do battle with a family of "forward-thinking" vampires that move to Lancre.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 5:47 PM

7.27.2009

 

Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life [vol. 1]


by Bryan Lee O'Malley, 168pgs, paperback
Overall Grade: A
Series: Scott Pilgrim vol.1

It's sorta like manga, except American... wait, Canadian. Like when white people get their hands on something amusingly Asian and twist it to their own ways - except this time it works.
This is what American's amusingly call a graphic novel. Anyway, the story focuses on one Scott Pilgrim, a 23-year-old without a job. He lives in Toronto, plays bass in a band and starts off dating a high-school-girl. I don't want to ruin the hilarity of reading this, but let's just say Scott soon becomes obsessed with Ramona Flowers, a roller-blading delivery girl who moved there from New York.
Yes, this moves fast, but O'Malley does a commendable job planting the plot seeds as fast as he reaps them. I am avidly awaiting my requests of the next volumes coming into my library.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 11:59 PM
 

The Andromeda Strain


by Michael Crichton, 285pgs, paperback
Overall Grade: C+

Man, I had not realized just how old this book was! 1969! That's the year we landed on the moon! Anyway, Mr. Crichton sure got better at writing techno-thrillers after this. There's a lot of technobabble in here that will drive almost anyone nuts.
Plot: Follows the Wildfire team of scientists as they race to understand a deadly airborne contagion.
Warning: The end will disappoint you.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 11:55 PM

7.24.2009

 

Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War


by Michael J. Neufeld, 477pgs, hardcover
Overall Grade: A-

This hardcover beast was part of the reading list for a class on the history of the space age that I sat in on a couple of years back. A huge, but very readable biography on Wernher von Braun, famously known rocket scientist who developed the V2 that bombed London, and the Saturn V that sent men to the moon. If you are interested in space like I am, you'll probably relish learning all this stuff about one of the great minds behind the space age, otherwise you probably will find this tome tiresome. But if you are interested, you'll learn a lot of interesting stuff, starting with the fact that his commonly mispronounced last name should actually sound like 'von brown'.
My only complaint is that the sections between breaks are very long, so you have a hard time finding places to stop. And very apropos, I finished reading this on July 20th, which was the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing!

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 11:58 AM
 

SPQR VII: The Tribune's Curse


by John Maddox Roberts, 234 pgs, hardcover
Overall Grade: B+
Series: SPQR

Newly back from serving with Caesar in Gaul, Decius is once again up to his neck in a Roman mystery to solve. Between the political intrigue, foreign influences, and scads of cultish and religious ties, he has more than enough pressure without his colleagues and rivals breathing down his neck to figure it all out before all of Rome breaks out into a riot.
Frankly, this one had me turning around and around before Decius finally threw out the numerous largely irrelevant details.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 11:51 AM

7.08.2009

 

The Automatic Detective


by A. Lee Martinez, 317 pgs, paperback
Overall Grade: A

Put this one on your summer reading list, scifi fans. 'The Automatic Detective' is the perfect summer read. Fast-paced (after a slowish start), action-packed, amusing in its premise and corrupting of standard detective tropes, no demand for previously read backstory or deep thinking, and not extraordinary length at ~300 pages.
It's kind of like your stereotypical gumshoe story, except...
the protagonist is a red robot designed to destroy humanity, who starts out as a cab driver.
His best friend and fellow cabby is a massive, sentient gorilla.
The setting is a techtopia called Empire City, home to humans (mutant and normal), robots (servile and those with a 'free will' glitch), and your usual dystopia mess of lowlifes and toxic waste.
Oh, and his love-interest is a knock-out blonde gal with genius mechanical skills and a thing for robots...
The whole story begins when our protagonist, Mack, makes a perhaps ill-judged intervention into what he thinks is a domestic dispute at his neighbors' apartment. I'd tell you more but really, you should just read it :-)

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 3:21 PM
 

Captain Horatio Hornblower bkII: Ship of the Line


by C.S. Forester, 323pgs, hardcover
Overall Grade: B
Series: Horatio Hornblower

They don't bind books like this one anymore. The library copy I read was copyright 1939! God, I love the smell of old books - almost as good as new books. But I digress...
I blame the library's poor cataloging system for causing me to again read books out of chronological order. Especially because this time it was also out of publication order. So throughout the book, Horatio was pining over a Lady Barbara that I'd never adequately encountered!
Horatio himself, when he's not pining, or moping, or berating himself, was slightly better in this book. He no longer had his ethical disdain for prize money, and in fact wished he had some. He also executed a lot of cunning plans in this novel - he really is a thinker. I especially liked the chapter where they save the admiral's floundering ship during the middle of a storm. Very interesting - had not read anything like it before in the genre!
Still, I think when I am finished with Hornblower I will go back and re-read Patrick O'Brian's series. I don't recall Jack Aubrey ever being so low all the time.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 2:32 PM

7.06.2009

 

Across the Wall: A Tale of the Abhorsen and Other Stories


by Garth Nix, 305 pgs, hardcover
Overall Grade: B
Series: The Abhorsen trilogy

'Tale of the Abhorsen', my ass. The titular story only features Lirael for a few pages. It's mostly about Nicholas Sayre. And why his countrymen are dumbasses, and he should have gone back to the Old Kingdom at the end of 'Abhorsen'. Instead, he encounters an awaken Free Magic creature south of the wall, and struggles pitifully to stop it and protect those around him. I like Nick, but it could have been better.
Actually some of the other stories in this Nix anthology are pretty good. (None of the rest are set in the realm of the 'Abhorsen' trilogy though.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 7:06 AM
 

SPQR VI: Nobody Loves a Centurion


by John Maddox Roberts, 259 pgs, hardcover
Overall Grade: B-
Series: SPQR

Once again, Decius Caecilius Metellus is set to the test of solving the death of the First Spear centurion in Caesar's forces in Gaul. This book spent way too much time explaining stuff because Decius was so much out of his element. Trotting around Rome he makes the perfect urban detective. Stuck in the forests of Gaul, he is totally at a loss because he doesn't know all the locals, he isn't comfortable in the military.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 7:02 AM

7.05.2009

 

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

PG, 105 minutes
IMdB page
Overall Grade: C+

Sequel to 'Night at the Museum'.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 1:56 AM

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