It’s been a while since I reached into the great big stack of elementary school documents and assignments that my folks shipped out to me a while back, so I thought that this week, instead of another teaser from Great North Road, I would go get something out of the pile of forty year old papers. And so I present to you this “Happy/Sad” assignment:
Teaser Tuesday 9/4/2018: “Great North Road”
So this week, and probably for a week or two more, I’m reading Great North Road, a science fiction murder mystery by Peter F. Hamilton. As far as I know, this book, like the excellent Fallen Dragon, is a standalone novel, unrelated to and not set in the same universe as the “Commonwealth” novels (the also-excellent Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained, the what-most-people-seem-to-consider-better-but-I-consider-only-pretty-good “Void” series, of which I’ve so far only read the first one) or the “Night’s Dawn” series, of which I’ve so far read, uh, nothing. It’s also, being Peter F. Hamilton, a doorstopper, or would be if it weren’t an eBook, which is why I’ll probably still be reading it next week. Fortunately, like most Hamilton books, it’s shaping up to be―you guessed it―excellent.
Continue reading “Teaser Tuesday 9/4/2018: “Great North Road””
Teaser Tuesday 8/28/18: “The Spirit Clearing”
So this week I was reading The Spirit Clearing, a novel (which would have been better as a short story*) about a young man who, after surviving a horrific car accident, wakes to find that his left eye has been drained of all coloration, but has gained the ability to see ghosts, auras, the past, and, possibly the future. Trading a baby blue for second sight? Sure, why not.
Continue reading “Teaser Tuesday 8/28/18: “The Spirit Clearing””
Sha Na Na Narra
So this week I am, you guessed it, still reading The Original Shannara Trilogy. At this point, I’m well into the third book, in which the band has to track down a shady who has absconded with all their cigarettes … no, wait, that’s not right. In this book, the druid Allanon and his current band of reluctant followers have to stop the Mord Wraiths (humans corrupted by the use of malign magic) from poisoning the Silver River and overrunning all the civilized lands, and some other lands too while they’re at it.
Not A Review Of “Ready Player One”
So this week, we (meaning mostly me) watched “Ready Player One”, Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the book by the same name. As he has done in the past, Spielberg took a book that was kind of so-so and made a humdinger of a thriller out of it. And if it maybe peaks right at the beginning, during this epic race/chase through the streets of New York (one of the best I’ve seen in years), well, I can forgive him for setting a bar he can’t subsequently clear. Because any movie that includes a Holy Hand Grenade is a movie I have to love.
Teaser Tuesday 8/7/2018: Shannararama!
So this week I’m still reading the original Shannara trilogy, having just finished up Elfstones and moved on to Wishsong:
Teaser Tuesday 7/31/2018: Yet More “Sword of Shannara” Trilogy!
So this week, I am still reading the “Sword of Shannara” trilogy. At this point I am partway through the second novel of the original series, The Elfstones of Shannara, which is a much better book than the first one; either Terry Brooks engaged in a lot of writing practice after Sword of Shannara, or his publisher hired a better editor, or both. Probably both.
Continue reading “Teaser Tuesday 7/31/2018: Yet More “Sword of Shannara” Trilogy!”
Not a Review of “Preacher”
So those who are familiar with the sorts of other things I’ve done “not a review” entries on, not to mention the sorts of things I write, and who also are familiar with the show Preacher* on AMC, will likely not be surprised to learn that I’ve never missed a single episode of that unhinged horror/comedy/fantasy/bizarro-land production.
Teaser Tuesday 7/17/2018: More “Sword of Shannara” Trilogy
So this week, surprising no one, I am still reading the “Sword of Shannara” trilogy omnibus. In fact I’m still on the first volume. For something a little different, I thought I would scrounge up the original cover from this book, courtesy of Goodreads:
Continue reading “Teaser Tuesday 7/17/2018: More “Sword of Shannara” Trilogy”
Teaser Tuesday 7/10/2018: The “Sword of Shannara” Trilogy
Somehow, despite being both a Child of the 80s and a fairly voracious reader of fantasy literature, I never got around to reading any of Terry Brooks’s classic “Shannara” series. That oversight is now being corrected, as I’m currently reading The Sword of Shannara Trilogy, a massive ebook comprising The Sword of Shannara (1977), The Elfstones of Shannara (1982), and The Wishsong of Shannara (1985).
Continue reading “Teaser Tuesday 7/10/2018: The “Sword of Shannara” Trilogy”
Viscosity 