woolfardis's reviews
1405 reviews

Dragon Keeper by Carole Wilkinson

1.0

I have no aversion to reading children's books, but this one was of the kind that is talking down to children instead of with or at them. A nice enough plot line and a bit of Chinese history, but little else.

Crystal Rain by Tobias S. Buckell

1.0

Confusingly either an alternate Caribbean/Aztec set sci-fi or a steampunk militia fantasy without much world building. It tends to drift. Not written well and whilst I appreciate the dialogue was supposed to make you feel like they couldn't speak "English" well, it was just jarring and unnecessary. Didn't get that far, but apparently John's hand grows back once he regains his memory? Like a man with one hand can ever have a full memory? Or a full life?

The Little Book of Mindfulness: 10 Minutes a Day to Less Stress, More Peace by Patrizia Collard

1.0

Everything said is pretty much fact. We are living in a too-fast, too-full, too-horrible world and we need to slow down before we kill ourselves. We don't need a book to know this, we already know. Perhaps some need a book to have it drilled in to them, or they don't quite understand until someone will a prefix to their name says something about it. It is the same with everything: we are just too lazy, too secure in our capitalist, consumerist world to really, really care. As long as we have the new iPhone, we care about nothing else. One book will not help that.

The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester

1.0

This kid has some real issues, not least the fact that someone else is being a bit more successful than he is. So obviously he had to murder him, because hard work is just too much like hard work. But oh WAIT. Not only is murder illegal, it's also impossible because the police can read minds. But that's okay because his psychotic ancestors (who have him his pathetic, weedy spoilt brat DNA) wrote a dossier on how to kill someone without the "peepers" (actual name) finding out. And like all /good/ ancient sci-fi that's won awards, it has zero women who aren't trying to fuck whichever loser is the protagonist. Ey. Great stuff.

Thursbitch by Alan Garner

1.0

Despite being a member of the English People who actually say "nowt" and "owt" a thousand times a day, this was extremely jarring and often unnecessary. It was confusing and, from the blurb and other reviews, seems to only get more confusing, but there is still a part of me that wants to read the rest. I may return, if only because it is a short story and won't take up too much of my time. The name is very misleading as it sounds more like a fantasy than the historical-contemporary mix it actually is.

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

1.0

When you consider we have many other sci-fi writers who are not stuck in their own time and do not write all their male characters as sexist, sex-obsessed or sexy, you can clearly understand the view to give this book a very wide birth. The storyline was actually quite interesting, but I'm sure the is someone out there who had written something similar without the added bollocks "of the time".

The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan

1.0

A fantasy book that simultaneously shatters fantasy clichés as well as portraying the most pathetic of them. An openly gay and prosecuted for it war hero (shattered and clichéd) goes off to save a damsel in distress (cliché) and dark forces awaken and yada yada. Nothing particularly striking and the writing was irrelevant, or so it felt.

All the windwracked stars by Elizabeth Bear

1.0

An interesting start though the Valkyrie concept had me confused: many names and words to learn about before you leap in to this world. Possibly for another time. (Yes, but Kindle.)

The Dragon in the Sock Drawer by Kate Klimo

1.0

I enjoy children's books almost as much as their intended audience, but perhaps I am being too harsh, but I didn't find this book particularly interesting. Written fairly well with a strong opening, but still I found that it spoke down to the reader, as opposed to speaking to them.

The Inheritance Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin

1.0

"Should I pause to explain? It is poor storytelling." You're telling me. The story has no structure, instead the narrative is interrupted by the first person unreliable narration that is, for some reason, so desirable. Things that are happening, often quick-paced and quite interesting, are stopped so that we can be told some history of this world we are entering. This is called info-dumping and it's terrible writing. I cared not for the protagonist nor her life, though the enslaved gods was an interesting concept. The rest was generic YA fantasy stuff.