Dennis's bookshelf: all

Dennis's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 20 Feb 2024 14:49:42 -0800 60 Dennis's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Heavy Weather 359386
Forty years from now, Earth's climate has been drastically changed by the greenhouse effect. Tornadoes of almost unimaginable force roam the open spaces of Texas. And on their trail are the Storm Troupers: a ragtag band of computer experts and atmospheric scientists who live to hack heavy weather -- to document it and spread the information as far as the digital networks will stretch, using virtual reality to explore the eye of the storm.

Although it's incredibly addictive, this is no game. The Troupers' computer models suggest that soon an "F-6" will strike -- a tornado of an intensity that exceeds any existing scale; a storm so devastating that it may never stop. And they're going to be there when all hell breaks loose.]]> 310 Bruce Sterling 055357292X Dennis 3 3.69 1994 Heavy Weather

author: Bruce Sterling
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1994
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/02/20
shelves:
review:

]]> Hamlet 18588
Professor Hibbard's illuminating and original introduction explains the process by which variant texts were fused in the eighteenth century to create the most commonly used text of today. Drawing on both critical and theatrical history, he shows how this gusion makes Hamlet seem a much more 'problematic' play than it was when it originally appeared in the First Folio of 1623.]]> 416 William Shakespeare 0192834169 Dennis 2 4.12 1601 Hamlet

author: William Shakespeare
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1601
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2019/04/15
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language (Oxford Quick Reference)]]> 636043 includes substantial entries on key subjects such as African English, etymology, Pidgin, poetry, sexism, and slang. In addition, the Companion provides bibliographies for the larger entries, generous cross-referencing, etymologies for headwords, a chronology of English from Roman times to 1990, and
an index of peopple who appear in entries or bibliographies. Packed with delightful surprises, the Companion will be an invaluable resource and a fascinating read for anyone with an interest in the English Language.]]> 720 Tom McArthur 0192806378 Dennis 5 4.33 1992 Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language (Oxford Quick Reference)

Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language (Oxford Quick Reference)

author: Tom McArthur
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/10/07
shelves:
review:

]]> Infinite Jest 544063 The Broom of the System, earned comparisons with the work of John Irving, Thomas Pynchon, and Tom Robbins. But no comparison could prepare us for what is surely one of the most original and adventurous novels of the decade: Infinite Jest.

Infinite Jest is the name of a movie said to be so entertaining that anyone who watches it loses all desire to do anything but watch it. People die happily, viewing it in endless repetition. The novel Infinite Jest is the story of this addictive entertainment, and in particular how it affects a Boston halfway house for recovering addicts and a nearby tennis academy, whose students have many budding addictions of their own. As the novel unfolds, various individuals, organizations, and governments vie to obtain the master copy of Infinite Jest for their own ends, and the denizens of the tennis school and the halfway house are caught up in increasingly desperate efforts to control the movie �� as is a cast including burglars, transvestite muggers, scam artists, medical professionals, pro football stars, bookies, drug addicts both active and recovering, film students, political assassins, and one of the most endearingly messed-up families ever captured in a novel.

On this outrageous frame hangs an exploration of essential questions about what entertainment is, and why it has come to so dominate our lives; about how our desire for entertainment interacts with our need to connect with other humans; and about what the pleasures we choose say about who we are. Equal parts philosophical quest and screwball comedy, Infinite Jest bends every rule of fiction without sacrificing for a moment its own entertainment value. The huge cast and multilevel narrative serve a story that accelerates to a breathtaking, heartbreaking, unforgettable conclusion. It is an exuberant, uniquely American exploration of the passions that make us human - and one of those rare books that renew the very idea of what a novel can do.

(from dust-jacket of the First Edition, 1996)]]> 1079 David Foster Wallace 0316920045 Dennis 4 4.29 1996 Infinite Jest

author: David Foster Wallace
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/07/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Speed Tribes: Days and Nights with Japan's Next Generation]]> 178081 304 Karl Taro Greenfeld 0060926651 Dennis 5 3.79 1995

Speed Tribes: Days and Nights with Japan's Next Generation

author: Karl Taro Greenfeld
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/06/08
shelves:
review:

]]> Glasshouse 656872 333 Charles Stross 0441015085 Dennis 5 3.89 2006

author: Charles Stross
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2009/02/16
date added: 2015/05/22
shelves:
review:

]]> Lord of the Flies 1167532
Labeled a parable, an allegory, a myth, a morality tale, a parody, a political treatise, even a vision of the apocalypse, Lord of the Flies has established itself as a true classic.]]> 190 William Golding 3125738040 Dennis 3 3.57 1954

author: William Golding
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1954
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2014/07/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Flowers for Algernon 402059 (back cover)]]> 216 Daniel Keyes 0553274503 Dennis 3 4.07 1966

author: Daniel Keyes
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1966
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2014/05/22
shelves:
review:

]]> To Kill a Mockingbird 2660 One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has earned many distinctions since its original publication in 1960. It won the Pulitzer Prize, has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, and been made into an enormously popular movie. Most recently, librarians across the country gave the book the highest of honors by voting it the best novel of the twentieth century.]]> 284 Harper Lee 044508376X Dennis 3 4.30 1960 To Kill a Mockingbird

author: Harper Lee
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1960
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2014/05/16
shelves:
review:

]]> The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 24583
Unlike his brother Sid, Tom receives "lickings" from his Aunt Polly; ever the mischief-maker, would rather play hooky than attend school and often sneaks out his bedroom window at night to adventure with his friend, Huckleberry Finn the town's social outcast. Tom, despite his dread of schooling, is extremely clever and would normally get away with his pranks if Sid were not such a "tattle-tale."

As punishment for skipping school to go swimming, Aunt Polly assigns Tom the chore of whitewashing the fence surrounding the house. In a brilliant scheme, Tom is able to con the neighborhood boys into completing the chore for him, managing to convince them of the joys of whitewashing. At school, Tom is equally as flamboyant, and attracts attention by chasing other boys, yelling, and running around. With his usual antics, Tom attempts to catch the eye of Becky Thatcher, a new girl in town, and persuades her to get "engaged" by kissing him. But their romance collapses when she learns Tom has been "engaged" previously to Amy Lawrence. Shortly after Becky shuns him, he accompanies Huckleberry Finn to the graveyard at night, where they witness the murder of Dr. Robinson.

Excerpt:
"TOM!"
No answer.
"TOM!"
No answer.
"What's gone with that boy, ��I wonder? You TOM!"
No answer.
The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them about the room; then she put them up and looked out under them. She seldom or never looked��through��them for so small a thing as a boy; they were her state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built for "style," not service—she could have seen through a pair of stove-lids just as well. She looked perplexed for a moment, and then said, not fiercely, but still loud enough for the furniture to hear:
"Well, I lay if I get hold of you I'll��"
She did not finish, for by this time she was bending down and punching under the bed with the broom, and so she needed breath to punctuate the punches with. She resurrected nothing but the cat.
"I never did see the beat of that boy!"]]> 244 Mark Twain Dennis 4 3.92 1876 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

author: Mark Twain
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1876
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/04/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Sandman, Vol. 7: Brief Lives]]> 25105 256 Neil Gaiman 1563891379 Dennis 5 4.55 1993

author: Neil Gaiman
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.55
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/03/06
shelves:
review:

]]> The Chronicles of Narnia 156766 1540 C.S. Lewis 0064405370 Dennis 2 The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was assigned reading back in middle school, and for assigned reading, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I was also naive and immature.]]> 4.39 1956 The Chronicles of Narnia

author: C.S. Lewis
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1956
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2013/12/21
shelves:
review:
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was assigned reading back in middle school, and for assigned reading, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I was also naive and immature.
]]> <![CDATA[The Holy Bible (King James Version)]]> 362172 1024 Anonymous 0452010624 Dennis 1
Oddly, it wasn't shelved with the other fiction books.]]> 4.02 1611

author: Anonymous
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1611
rating: 1
read at: 1993/01/01
date added: 2013/12/04
shelves:
review:
Badly edited, poor continuity and internal consistency. Authors seem to change between books. Plot is cliched and thin, with virtually no character development save for Judas Iscariot. The main characters of Jesus and Moses are entirely one dimensional messianic figures. The novel opens with Adam and Eve, and then ignores them for the next thousand pages or so. The built-in bookmark was a nice touch, but a little pretentious.

Oddly, it wasn't shelved with the other fiction books.
]]> House of Leaves 337907
Of course, neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of that impossibility, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story—of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams.]]> 709 Mark Z. Danielewski Dennis 0 to-read 4.03 2000 House of Leaves

author: Mark Z. Danielewski
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/12/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Time Trilogy (Time Quintet, #1-3)]]> 11841 A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet.

A Wrinkle in Time
The mysterious Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which send Meg and Charles Wallace through time and space to rescue their father on the planet Camazotz, accompanied by their new friend Calvin. Along the way, the three children learn about the "Black Thing", a cloud of evil that shadows many planets, including Earth. They encounter a Brain named IT, which controls the minds of people.

A Wind in the Door
Meg, Calvin and the disagreeable school principal Mr. Jenkins have to travel inside one of Charles Wallace's mitochondria to save him from a deadly disease, part of a cosmic battle against the evil Echthroi and the forces of "Unnaming".

A Swiftly Tilting Planet
Charles Wallace must save the world from nuclear war by going back in time and changing might-have-beens, accompanied in spirit (through kything) by Meg at home.

alibris.com and wikipedia]]> 710 Madeleine L'Engle 0374375925 Dennis 5 4.42 1963 The Time Trilogy (Time Quintet, #1-3)

author: Madeleine L'Engle
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1963
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/05/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire, #5)]]> 10664113 Alternate cover edition of ASIN B004XISI4A

In the aftermath of a colossal battle, the future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance—beset by newly emerging threats from every direction. In the east, Daenerys Targaryen, the last scion of House Targaryen, rules with her three dragons as queen of a city built on dust and death. But Daenerys has thousands of enemies, and many have set out to find her. As they gather, one young man embarks upon his own quest for the queen, with an entirely different goal in mind.

Fleeing from Westeros with a price on his head, Tyrion Lannister, too, is making his way to Daenerys. But his newest allies in this quest are not the rag-tag band they seem, and at their heart lies one who could undo Daenerys’s claim to Westeros forever.

Meanwhile, to the north lies the mammoth Wall of ice and stone—a structure only as strong as those guarding it. There, Jon Snow, 998th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, will face his greatest challenge. For he has powerful foes not only within the Watch but also beyond, in the land of the creatures of ice.

From all corners, bitter conflicts reignite, intimate betrayals are perpetrated, and a grand cast of outlaws and priests, soldiers and skinchangers, nobles and slaves, will face seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Some will fail, others will grow in the strength of darkness. But in a time of rising restlessness, the tides of destiny and politics will lead inevitably to the greatest dance of all.]]> 1125 George R.R. Martin Dennis 0 currently-reading 4.33 2011 A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire, #5)

A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire, #5)

author: George R.R. Martin
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/01/16
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fuzzy Nation (Fuzzy Sapiens, #7)]]> 9647532
Then, in the wake of an accidental cliff collapse, Jack discovers a seam of unimaginably valuable jewels, to which he manages to lay legal claim just as ZaraCorp is cancelling their contract with him for his part in causing the collapse. Briefly in the catbird seat, legally speaking, Jack pressures ZaraCorp into recognizing his claim, and cuts them in as partners to help extract the wealth.

But there's another wrinkle to ZaraCorp's relationship with the planet Zarathustra. Their entire legal right to exploit the verdant Earth-like planet, the basis of the wealth they derive from extracting its resources, is based on being able to certify to the authorities on Earth that Zarathustra is home to no sentient species.

Then a small furry biped—trusting, appealing, and ridiculously cute—shows up at Jack's outback home. Followed by its family. As it dawns on Jack that despite their stature, these are people, he begins to suspect that ZaraCorp's claim to a planet's worth of wealth is very flimsy indeed…and that ZaraCorp may stop at nothing to eliminate the "fuzzys" before their existence becomes more widely known.]]> 303 John Scalzi 0765328542 Dennis 4 4.12 2011 Fuzzy Nation (Fuzzy Sapiens, #7)

author: John Scalzi
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2011/11/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Zoe's Tale (Old Man's War, #4)]]> 2102600
I ask because it's what I have to do. I'm Zoe Boutin Perry: A colonist stranded on a deadly pioneer world. Holy icon to a race of aliens. A player (and a pawn) in a interstellar chess match to save humanity, or to see it fall. Witness to history. Friend. Daughter. Human. Seventeen years old.

Everyone on Earth knows the tale I am part of. But you don't know my tale: How I did what I did �� how I did what I had to do �� not just to stay alive but to keep you alive, too. All of you. I'm going to tell it to you now, the only way I know how: not straight but true, the whole thing, to try make you feel what I felt: the joy and terror and uncertainty, panic and wonder, despair and hope. Everything that happened, bringing us to Earth, and Earth out of its captivity. All through my eyes.

It's a story you know. But you don't know it all.]]> 335 John Scalzi 0765316986 Dennis 4 3.73 2008 Zoe's Tale (Old Man's War, #4)

author: John Scalzi
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2011/11/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Last Colony (Old Man's War, #3)]]> 88071
That is, until his and Jane's past reaches out to bring them back into the game--as leaders of a new human colony, to be peopled by settlers from all the major human worlds, for a deep political purpose that will put Perry and Sagan back in the thick of interstellar politics, betrayal, and war.]]> 320 John Scalzi 0765316978 Dennis 4 4.06 2007 The Last Colony (Old Man's War, #3)

author: John Scalzi
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2011/11/25
shelves:
review:

]]> The Puppet Masters 7171856
Except that two agents of the most secret intelligence agency in the U.S. government were on the scene and disappeared without reporting back. Then four more follow up agents also disappeared. So the head of the agency and his two top agents went in and managed to get out with their discovery: an invasion is underway by slug-like aliens who can touch a human and completely control his or her mind. What the humans know, they know. What the slugs want, no matter what, the human will do. And most of Iowa is already under their control.

Sam Cavanaugh was one of the agents who discovered the truth. Unfortunately, that was just before he was taken over by one of the aliens and began working for the invaders, with no will of his own. And he has just learned that a high official in the Treasury Department is now under control of the aliens. Since the Treasury Department includes the Secret Service, which safeguards the President of the United States, control of the entire nation is near at hand.]]> 416 Robert A. Heinlein 143913376X Dennis 3 3.89 1951 The Puppet Masters

author: Robert A. Heinlein
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1951
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2011/11/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)]]> 9969571 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

IN THE YEAR 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them.

But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.]]> 480 Ernest Cline 030788743X Dennis 5 4.21 2011 Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)

author: Ernest Cline
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2011/11/02
date added: 2011/11/02
shelves:
review:

]]> Daemon (Daemon, #1) 4699575
Matthew Sobol was a legendary computer game designer—the architect behind half-a-dozen popular online games. His premature death depressed both gamers and his company's stock price. But Sobol's fans aren't the only ones to note his passing. When his obituary is posted online, a previously dormant daemon activates, initiating a chain of events intended to unravel the fabric of our hyper-efficient, interconnected world. With Sobol's secrets buried along with him, and as new layers of his daemon are unleashed at every turn, it's up to an unlikely alliance to decipher his intricate plans and wrest the world from the grasp of a nameless, faceless enemy—or learn to live in a society in which we are no longer in control. . . .

Computer technology expert Daniel Suarez blends haunting high-tech realism with gripping suspense in an authentic, complex thriller in the tradition of Michael Crichton, Neal Stephenson, and William Gibson.]]> 432 Daniel Suarez 0525951113 Dennis 3 4.17 2006 Daemon (Daemon, #1)

author: Daniel Suarez
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2011/11/02
shelves:
review:

]]> Reamde 10552338
For Richard, the game was the perfect opportunity to launder his aging hundred dollar bills and begin his own high-tech start up—a venture that has morphed into a Fortune 500 computer gaming group, Corporation 9592, with its own super successful online role-playing game, T’Rain. But the line between fantasy and reality becomes dangerously blurred when a young gold farmer accidently triggers a virtual war for dominance—and Richard is caught at the center.

In this edgy, 21st century tale, Neal Stephenson, one of the most ambitious and prophetic writers of our time, returns to the terrain of his cyberpunk masterpieces Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon, leading readers through the looking glass and into the dark heart of imagination.]]> 1044 Neal Stephenson 0061977969 Dennis 4 currently-reading 3.97 2011 Reamde

author: Neal Stephenson
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2011/11/02
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (The Inheritance Trilogy, #1)]]> 7622904 427 N.K. Jemisin 0316075973 Dennis 2 currently-reading SO BORED. 3.83 2010

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (The Inheritance Trilogy, #1)

author: N.K. Jemisin
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2010
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2011/11/02
shelves: currently-reading
review:
SO BORED.
]]> One Hundred Years of Solitude 320 417 Gabriel García Márquez Dennis 3 4.10 1967

author: Gabriel García Márquez
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1967
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2011/08/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Last Argument of Kings (The First Law #3)]]> 944076
Logen Ninefingers might only have one more fight in him, but it's going to be a big one. Battle rages across the North, the King of the Northmen still stands firm, and there's only one man who can stop him. His oldest friend, and his oldest enemy: it's time for the Bloody-Nine to come home.

With too many masters and too little time, Superior Glokta is fighting a different kind of war. A secret struggle in which no-one is safe, and no-one can be trusted. And, as his days with a sword are far behind him, it's fortunate that he's deadly with his remaining weapons: threats, blackmail and torture.

Jezal dan Luthar has decided that winning glory is too painful an undertaking and turned his back on soldiering for a simple life with the woman he loves. But love can be painful too �� and glory has a nasty habit of creeping up on a man when he least expects it.

While the King of the Union lies on his deathbead, the peasants revolt and the nobles scramble to steal his crown. No-one believes that the shadow of war is about to fall across the heart of the Union. Only the First of the Magi has a plan to save the world �� as he always does �� but this time there are risks. There is no risk more terrible, after all, than to break the First Law...]]> 536 Joe Abercrombie 0575077905 Dennis 3 4.35 2008 Last Argument of Kings (The First Law #3)

Last Argument of Kings (The First Law #3)

author: Joe Abercrombie
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2011/08/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Magician King (The Magicians, #2)]]> 10079321
Accompanied by his oldest friend, Julia, Quentin sets off—only to somehow wind up back in the real world and not in Fillory, as they’d hoped. As they struggle to find their way back to their lost kingdom, they rely on Julia’s illicitly learned sorcery to fight a sinister threat in a world unlike the fantasy novels of their youth.]]> 432 Lev Grossman 043402080X Dennis 0 to-read 3.91 2011 The Magician King (The Magicians, #2)

author: Lev Grossman
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/08/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> All Clear (All Clear, #2) 7519231 Blackout, award-winning author Connie Willis returned to the time-traveling future of 2060—the setting for several of her most celebrated works—and sent three Oxford historians to World War II Eng;and: Michael Davies, intent on observing heroism during the Miracle of Dunkirk; Merope Ward, studying children evacuated from London; and Polly Churchill, posing as a shopgirl in the middle of the Blitz. But when the three become unexpectedly trapped in 1940, they struggle not only to find their way home but to survive as Hitler’s bombers attempt to pummel London into submission.

Now the situation has grown even more dire. Small discrepancies in the historical record seem to indicate that one or all of them have somehow affected the past, changing the outcome of the war. The belief that the past can be observed but never altered has always been a core belief of time-travel theory—but suddenly it seems that the theory is horribly, tragically wrong.

Meanwhile, in 2060 Oxford, the historians�� supervisor, Mr. Dunworthy, and seventeen-year-old Colin Templer, who nurses a powerful crush on Polly, are engaged in a frantic and seemingly impossible struggle of their own—to find three missing needles in the haystack of history.

Told with compassion, humor, and an artistry both uplifting and devastating, All Clear is more than just the triumphant culmination of the adventure that began with Blackout. It’s Connie Willis’s most humane, heartfelt novel yet—a clear-eyed celebration of faith, love, and the quiet, ordinary acts of heroism and sacrifice too often overlooked by history.]]> 656 Connie Willis 0553807676 Dennis 3 4.06 2010 All Clear (All Clear, #2)

author: Connie Willis
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2011/08/18
date added: 2011/08/18
shelves:
review:
I can't recommend the audio book. The reader was great, but Willis puts her characters in desperate situation after desperate situation, and the tone and frantic intensity became quite grating. I could only listen in small doses.
]]> Blackout (All Clear, #1) 6506307 491 Connie Willis 0553803190 Dennis 3 3.85 2010

author: Connie Willis
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2011/08/18
date added: 2011/08/18
shelves:
review:
I enjoyed it, but the frantic, repetitive internal dialogue became annoying.
]]> <![CDATA[Before They Are Hanged (The First Law, #2)]]> 902715
Northmen have spilled over the border of Angland and are spreading fire and death across the frozen country. Crown Prince Ladisla is poised to drive them back and win undying glory. There is only one problem: he commands the worst-armed, worst-trained and worst-led army in the world.

And Bayaz, the First of the Magi, is leading a party of bold adventurers on a perilous mission through the ruins of the past. The most hated woman in the South, the most feared man in the North, and the most selfish boy in the Union make a strange alliance, but a deadly one. They might even stand a chance of saving mankind from the Eaters. If they didn't hate each other quite so much.

Ancient secrets will be uncovered. Bloody battles will be won and lost. Bitter enemies will be forgiven—but not before they are hanged.]]> 442 Joe Abercrombie 0575077883 Dennis 4 4.35 2007 Before They Are Hanged (The First Law, #2)

Before They Are Hanged (The First Law, #2)

author: Joe Abercrombie
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2011/05/26
date added: 2011/05/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe]]> 7726420 ��
Minor Universe 31 is a vast story-space on the outskirts of fiction, where paradox fluctuates like the stock market, lonely sexbots beckon failed protagonists, and time travel is serious business. Every day, people get into time machines and try to do the one thing they should never do: change the past. That’s where Charles Yu, time travel technician—part counselor, part gadget repair man—steps in. He helps save people from themselves. Literally. When he’s not taking client calls or consoling his boss, Phil, who could really use an upgrade, Yu visits his mother (stuck in a one-hour cycle of time, she makes dinner over and over and over) and searches for his father, who invented time travel and then vanished. Accompanied by TAMMY, an operating system with low self-esteem, and Ed, a nonexistent but ontologically valid dog, Yu sets out, and back, and beyond, in order to find the one day where he and his father can meet in memory. He learns that the key may be found in a book he got from his future self. It’s called How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, and he’s the author. And somewhere inside it is the information that could help him—in fact it may even save his life.]]> 256 Charles Yu 0307379205 Dennis 0 3.45 2010

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

author: Charles Yu
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/04/28
shelves:
review:

]]> The Heroes 9300768 581 Joe Abercrombie 0316123358 Dennis 0 to-read 4.34 2011

author: Joe Abercrombie
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/04/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Best Served Cold 2315892
There have been nineteen years of blood. The ruthless Grand Duke Orso is locked in a vicious struggle with the squabbling League of Eight, and between them they have bled the land white. While armies march, heads roll and cities burn, behind the scenes bankers, priests and older, darker powers play a deadly game to choose who will be king.

War may be hell, but for Monza Murcatto, the Snake of Talins, the most feared and famous mercenary in Duke Orso's employ, it's a damn good way of making money too. Her victories have made her popular - a shade too popular for her employer's taste. Betrayed, thrown down a mountain and left for dead, Murcatto's reward is a broken body and a burning hunger for vengeance. Whatever the cost, seven men must die.

Her allies include Styria's least reliable drunkard, Styria's most treacherous poisoner, a mass-murderer obsessed with numbers and a Barbarian who just wants to do the right thing. Her enemies number the better half of the nation. And that's all before the most dangerous man in the world is dispatched to hunt her down and finish the job Duke Orso started...

Springtime in Styria. And that means revenge.]]> 534 Joe Abercrombie 0575082453 Dennis 0 to-read 4.24 2009 Best Served Cold

author: Joe Abercrombie
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/04/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Wise Man's Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #2)]]> 1215032 There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.��

My name is Kvothe.
I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.
You may have heard of me.

So begins the tale of a hero told from his own point of view �� a story unequaled in fantasy literature. Now in The Wise Man's Fear, an escalating rivalry with a powerful member of the nobility forces Kvothe to leave the University and seek his fortune abroad. Adrift, penniless, and alone, he travels to Vintas, where he quickly becomes entangled in the politics of courtly society. While attempting to curry favor with a powerful noble, Kvothe uncovers an assassination attempt, comes into conflict with a rival arcanist, and leads a group of mercenaries into the wild, in an attempt to solve the mystery of who (or what) is waylaying travelers on the King's Road.

All the while, Kvothe searches for answers, attempting to uncover the truth about the mysterious Amyr, the Chandrian, and the death of his parents. Along the way, Kvothe is put on trial by the legendary Adem mercenaries, is forced to reclaim the honor of the Edema Ruh, and travels into the Fae realm. There he meets Felurian, the faerie woman no man can resist, and who no man has ever survived ... until Kvothe.

In The Wise Man's Fear, Kvothe takes his first steps on the path of the hero and learns how difficult life can be when a man becomes a legend in his own time.

]]> 994 Patrick Rothfuss 0756404738 Dennis 5 4.55 2011 The Wise Man's Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #2)

The Wise Man's Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #2)

author: Patrick Rothfuss
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2011/03/11
date added: 2011/04/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Blade Itself (The First Law, #1)]]> 944073
Nobleman Captain Jezal dan Luthar, dashing officer, and paragon of selfishness, has nothing more dangerous in mind than fleecing his friends at cards and dreaming of glory in the fencing circle. But war is brewing, and on the battlefields of the frozen North they fight by altogether bloodier rules.

Inquisitor Glokta, cripple turned torturer, would like nothing better than to see Jezal come home in a box. But then Glokta hates everyone: cutting treason out of the Union one confession at a time leaves little room for friendship. His latest trail of corpses may lead him right to the rotten heart of government, if he can stay alive long enough to follow it.

Enter the wizard, Bayaz. A bald old man with a terrible temper and a pathetic assistant, he could be the First of the Magi, he could be a spectacular fraud, but whatever he is, he's about to make the lives of Logen, Jezal, and Glokta a whole lot more difficult.

Murderous conspiracies rise to the surface, old scores are ready to be settled, and the line between hero and villain is sharp enough to draw blood.

]]> 515 Joe Abercrombie 0575079797 Dennis 4 4.21 2006 The Blade Itself (The First Law, #1)

author: Joe Abercrombie
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2011/04/16
date added: 2011/04/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1)]]> 186074
The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story unrivaled in recent literature.

A high-action story written with a poet's hand, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that will transport readers into the body and mind of a wizard.]]> 662 Patrick Rothfuss 075640407X Dennis 5 4.52 2007 The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1)

The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1)

author: Patrick Rothfuss
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2011/02/05
date added: 2011/03/11
shelves:
review:
Great. Preordered the next one as soon as I finished. Kindle edition has more than a few transcription errors.
]]> Kraken 6931246 Kraken is a weird metropolis awash in secret currents of myth and magic, where criminals, police, cultists, and wizards are locked in a war to bring about—or prevent—the End of All Things.

In the Darwin Centre at London’s Natural History Museum, Billy Harrow, a cephalopod specialist, is conducting a tour whose climax is meant to be the Centre’s prize specimen of a rare Architeuthis dux—better known as the Giant Squid. But Billy’s tour takes an unexpected turn when the squid suddenly and impossibly vanishes into thin air.

As Billy soon discovers, this is the precipitating act in a struggle to the death between mysterious but powerful forces in a London whose existence he has been blissfully ignorant of until now, a city whose denizens—human and otherwise—are adept in magic and murder.

There is the Congregation of God Kraken, a sect of squid worshippers whose roots go back to the dawn of humanity—and beyond. There is the criminal mastermind known as the Tattoo, a merciless maniac inked onto the flesh of a hapless victim. There is the FSRC—the Fundamentalist and Sect-Related Crime Unit—a branch of London’s finest that fights sorcery with sorcery. There is Wati, a spirit from ancient Egypt who leads a ragtag union of magical familiars. There are the Londonmancers, who read the future in the city’s entrails. There is Grisamentum, London’s greatest wizard, whose shadow lingers long after his death. And then there is Goss and Subby, an ageless old man and a cretinous boy who, together, constitute a terrifying—yet darkly charismatic—demonic duo.

All of them—and others—are in pursuit of Billy, who inadvertently holds the key to the missing squid, an embryonic god whose powers, properly harnessed, can destroy all that is, was, and ever shall be.]]> 509 China Miéville 034549749X Dennis 0 currently-reading 3.62 2010 Kraken

author: China Miéville
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/01/04
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> God Wants You Dead 2030273 350 Sean Hastings 0979601118 Dennis 0 to-read 4.14

author: Sean Hastings
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.14
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/01/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values]]> 9683282 The End of Faith, ignited a worldwide debate about the validity of religion. In the aftermath, Harris discovered that most people - from religious fundamentalists to non-believing scientists - agree on one point: science has nothing to say on the subject of human values. Indeed, our failure to address questions of meaning and morality through science has now become the most common justification for religious faith. It is also the primary reason why so many secularists and religious moderates feel obligated to "respect" the hardened superstitions of their more devout neighbors.

In this explosive new book, Sam Harris tears down the wall between scientific facts and human values, arguing that most people are simply mistaken about the relationship between morality and the rest of human knowledge. Harris urges us to think about morality in terms of human and animal well-being, viewing the experiences of conscious creatures as peaks and valleys on a "moral landscape." Because there are definite facts to be known about where we fall on this landscape, Harris foresees a time when science will no longer limit itself to merely describing what people do in the name of "morality"; in principle, science should be able to tell us what we ought to do to live the best lives possible.

Bringing a fresh perspective to age-old questions of right and wrong and good and evil, Harris demonstrates that we already know enough about the human brain and its relationship to events in the world to say that there are right and wrong answers to the most pressing questions of human life. Because such answers exist, moral relativism is simply false - and comes at increasing cost to humanity. And the intrusions of religion into the sphere of human values can be finally repelled: for just as there is no such thing as Christian physics or Muslim algebra, there can be no Christian or Muslim morality.

Using his expertise in philosophy and neuroscience, along with his experience on the front lines of our "culture wars," Harris delivers a game-changing book about the future of science and about the real basis of human cooperation.]]> 291 Sam Harris Dennis 0 to-read 3.58 2010 The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values

The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values

author: Sam Harris
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/12/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Magicians (The Magicians, #1)]]> 6101718
Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A senior in high school, he’s still secretly preoccupied with a series of fantasy novels he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the craft of modern sorcery.

He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. Something is missing, though. Magic doesn’t bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he dreamed it would. After graduation he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real. But the land of Quentin’s fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he could have imagined. His childhood dream becomes a nightmare with a shocking truth at its heart.

At once psychologically piercing and magnificently absorbing, The Magicians boldly moves into uncharted literary territory, imagining magic as practiced by real people, with their capricious desires and volatile emotions. Lev Grossman creates an utterly original world in which good and evil aren’t black and white, love and sex aren’t simple or innocent, and power comes at a terrible price.]]> 402 Lev Grossman 0670020559 Dennis 5
1. I was expecting an adult Harry Potter and it's not, so it's bad.

2. It's sterile and dry. Where's all the magic?

3. Both 1 and 2.

I am guessing that a lot of this was unfulfilled expectation.

Magic in Magicians is like math; complex, and difficult to master without lots of study, and this is reflected in the story. Magic comes at a cost, unlike in the Potter universe, where natural talent trumps everything.

In Magicians, the focus is less on magic and more on the magicians and their escapism, hence the obsession with Narnia the main character has.

As for those who find it sterile: I guess it is possible to develop a tolerance to the fantastic.

---

I read the thoroughly engrossing The Magicians in three sittings, which is record time for me lately. Superficially, one may compare it to the Harry Potter series--I mean, they're both about people in magic school--but where the Potter books are for and about children, Magicians is for and about adults (young ones, anyway). Also in contrast, Magicians is tightly plotted, well-written, and wraps up satisfyingly in a few hundred pages with nary a Mary Sue in sight.

I look forward to more novels from Grossman.

(Full disclosure: The extent of my exposure to HP is about 30 pages of Philosopher's Stone and seen the second movie. I attest that this is enough to get the gist. Regardless, HP has no bearing on how excellent Magicians is.)

]]> 3.53 2009 The Magicians (The Magicians, #1)

author: Lev Grossman
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2010/02/10
date added: 2010/11/29
shelves:
review:
Update: The community wasn't rating this book as highly as I thought they would, so I checked out some of the low-star reviews. They tend to fall into three categories:

1. I was expecting an adult Harry Potter and it's not, so it's bad.

2. It's sterile and dry. Where's all the magic?

3. Both 1 and 2.

I am guessing that a lot of this was unfulfilled expectation.

Magic in Magicians is like math; complex, and difficult to master without lots of study, and this is reflected in the story. Magic comes at a cost, unlike in the Potter universe, where natural talent trumps everything.

In Magicians, the focus is less on magic and more on the magicians and their escapism, hence the obsession with Narnia the main character has.

As for those who find it sterile: I guess it is possible to develop a tolerance to the fantastic.

---

I read the thoroughly engrossing The Magicians in three sittings, which is record time for me lately. Superficially, one may compare it to the Harry Potter series--I mean, they're both about people in magic school--but where the Potter books are for and about children, Magicians is for and about adults (young ones, anyway). Also in contrast, Magicians is tightly plotted, well-written, and wraps up satisfyingly in a few hundred pages with nary a Mary Sue in sight.

I look forward to more novels from Grossman.

(Full disclosure: The extent of my exposure to HP is about 30 pages of Philosopher's Stone and seen the second movie. I attest that this is enough to get the gist. Regardless, HP has no bearing on how excellent Magicians is.)

]]> The Illuminatus! Trilogy 57913
Filled with sex and violence—in and out of time and space—the three books of The Illuminatus! Trilogy are only partly works of the imagination. They tackle all the cover-ups of our time—from who really shot the Kennedys to why there's a pyramid on a one-dollar bill—and suggest a mind-blowing truth.]]> 805 Robert Shea 0440539811 Dennis 3 4.02 1983 The Illuminatus! Trilogy

author: Robert Shea
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1983
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/11/29
shelves:
review:
It was kind of tedious, but it's one of those cult classics. Otherwise, how will you ever see the Fnords?
]]> <![CDATA[The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1)]]> 11
Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker's Guide ("A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have") and a galaxy-full of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox--the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod's girlfriend (formally Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years.

Where are these pens? Why are we born? Why do we die? Why do we spend so much time between wearing digital watches? For all the answers stick your thumb to the stars. And don't forget to bring a towel!]]> 216 Douglas Adams Dennis 5 4.21 1979 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1)

author: Douglas Adams
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1979
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/11/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, #2)]]> 15241
Frodo and his Companions of the Ring have been beset by danger during their quest to prevent the Ruling Ring from falling into the hands of the Dark Lord by destroying it in the Cracks of Doom. They have lost the wizard, Gandalf, in a battle in the Mines of Moria. And Boromir, seduced by the power of the Ring, tried to seize it by force. While Frodo and Sam made their escape, the rest of the company was attacked by Orcs.

Now they continue the journey alone down the great River Anduin -- alone, that is, save for the mysterious creeping figure that follows wherever they go.]]> 322 J.R.R. Tolkien 0618346260 Dennis 3 4.45 1954 The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, #2)

The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, #2)

author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.45
book published: 1954
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/11/29
shelves:
review:

]]> Watchmen 472331 Watchmen, the groundbreaking series from award-winning author Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, presents a world where the mere presence of American superheroes changed history—the U.S. won the Vietnam War, Nixon is still president, and the Cold War is in full effect.

Considered the greatest graphic novel in the history of the medium, the Hugo Award-winning story chronicles the fall from grace of a group of superheroes plagued by all-too-human failings. Along the way, the concept of the superhero is dissected as an unknown assassin stalks the erstwhile heroes.]]> 416 Alan Moore 0930289234 Dennis 3 4.38 1987 Watchmen

author: Alan Moore
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1987
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/11/29
shelves:
review:

]]> Zero History (Blue Ant, #3) 7745031
Milgrim can disappear in almost any setting, and his Russian is perfectly idiomatic—so much so that he spoke it with his therapist in the secret Swiss clinic where Bigend paid for him to be cured of his addiction...

Garreth doesn't owe Bigend a thing. But he does have friends from whom he can call in the kinds of favors powerful people need when things go sideways...

They all have something Bigend wants as he finds himself outmaneuvered and adrift, after a Department of Defense contract for combat-wear turns out to be the gateway drug for arms dealers so shadowy they can out-Bigend Bigend himself
(source: amazon)]]> 404 William Gibson 0399156828 Dennis 5 3.94 2010 Zero History (Blue Ant, #3)

author: William Gibson
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2010/10/27
date added: 2010/11/29
shelves:
review:
Reading Gibson is like being stoned for the second time. Everything is fascinating.
]]> <![CDATA[The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark]]> 17349
Casting a wide net through history and culture, Sagan examines and authoritatively debunks such celebrated fallacies of the past as witchcraft, faith healing, demons, and UFOs. And yet, disturbingly, in today's so-called information age, pseudoscience is burgeoning with stories of alien abduction, channeling past lives, and communal hallucinations commanding growing attention and respect. As Sagan demonstrates with lucid eloquence, the siren song of unreason is not just a cultural wrong turn but a dangerous plunge into darkness that threatens our most basic freedoms.]]> 459 Carl Sagan 0345409469 Dennis 5 4.28 1995 The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

author: Carl Sagan
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at: 2009/02/16
date added: 2010/11/29
shelves:
review:
A classic of science and critical analysis. This book should be assigned reading for every student.
]]> <![CDATA[A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2)]]> 10572
It is a tale in which brother plots against brother and the dead rise to walk in the night. Here a princess masquerades as an orphan boy; a knight of the mind prepares a poison for a treacherous sorceress; and wild men descend from the Mountains of the Moon to ravage the countryside. Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, victory may go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel...and the coldest hearts. For when kings clash, the whole land trembles.

Here is the second volume in George R.R. Martin magnificent cycle of novels that includes A Game of Thrones and A Storm of Swords. As a whole, this series comprises a genuine masterpiece of modern fantasy, bringing together the best the genre has to offer. Magic, mystery, intrigue, romance, and adventure fill these pages and transport us to a world unlike any we have ever experienced. Already hailed as a classic, George R.R. Martin stunning series is destined to stand as one of the great achievements of imaginative fiction.]]> 1009 George R.R. Martin 0553381695 Dennis 4 4.42 1998 A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2)

A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2)

author: George R.R. Martin
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 2010/07/10
date added: 2010/11/29
shelves:
review:
Weird how nobody's up in arms about the multiple explicit sex scenes with the 13 year-old Aryan posterchild.
]]> <![CDATA[A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire, #4)]]> 13497 Crows will fight over a dead man's flesh, and kill each other for his eyes.

Bloodthirsty, treacherous and cunning, the Lannisters are in power on the Iron Throne in the name of the boy-king Tommen. The war in the Seven Kingdoms has burned itself out, but in its bitter aftermath new conflicts spark to life.

The Martells of Dorne and the Starks of Winterfell seek vengeance for their dead. Euron Crow's Eye, as black a pirate as ever raised a sail, returns from the smoking ruins of Valyria to claim the Iron Isles. From the icy north, where Others threaten the Wall, apprentice Maester Samwell Tarly brings a mysterious babe in arms to the Citadel.

Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, victory will go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel and the coldest hearts.]]> 1060 George R.R. Martin 055358202X Dennis 4 4.16 2005 A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire, #4)

A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire, #4)

author: George R.R. Martin
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2010/11/29
date added: 2010/11/29
shelves:
review:
It took me a long time to get through this one. GRRM fatigue set in about midway through Storm of Swords. Still good, just took too big of a dose.
]]> <![CDATA[A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, #3)]]> 62291 An alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

Here is the third volume in George R.R. Martin's magnificent cycle of novels that includes A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings. Together, this series comprises a genuine masterpiece of modern fantasy, destined to stand as one of the great achievements of imaginative fiction.

Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and still the wars rage as alliances are made and broken. Joffrey sits on the Iron Throne, the uneasy ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. His most bitter rival, Lord Stannis, stands defeated and disgraced, victim of the sorceress who holds him in her thrall. Young Robb still rules the North from the fortress of Riverrun. Meanwhile, making her way across a blood-drenched continent is the exiled queen, Daenerys, mistress of the only three dragons still left in the world. And as opposing forces manoeuver for the final showdown, an army of barbaric wildlings arrives from the outermost limits of civilization, accompanied by a horde of mythical Others—a supernatural army of the living dead whose animated corpses are unstoppable. As the future of the land hangs in the balance, no one will rest until the Seven Kingdoms have exploded in a veritable storm of swords...]]> 1177 George R.R. Martin 055357342X Dennis 4 4.54 2000 A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, #3)

A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, #3)

author: George R.R. Martin
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2010/07/29
date added: 2010/11/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)]]> 13496
Sweeping from a harsh land of cold to a summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, A Game of Thrones tells a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; a child is lost in the twilight between life and death; and a determined woman undertakes a treacherous journey to protect all she holds dear. Amid plots and counter-plots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, allies and enemies, the fate of the Starks hangs perilously in the balance, as each side endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.]]> 835 George R.R. Martin 0553588486 Dennis 5 4.44 1996 A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)

A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)

author: George R.R. Martin
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at: 2010/06/29
date added: 2010/11/29
shelves:
review:
I echo the sentiments of practically everyone who's read this series. Awesome.
]]> <![CDATA[The Absolute Sandman, Volume 1]]> 23753 New York Times best-selling author Neil Gaiman's masterpiece The Sandman set new standards for mature, lyrical fantasy and graphic narrative. Now, Vertigo and DC Comics are proud to present the first of four definitive Absolute Editions collecting this groundbreaking series in its entirety.

The Absolute Sandman, Volume One reprints issues 1-20 of The Sandman , and features all-new coloring on issues 1-18, commissioned especially for this edition. This volume also includes a full reproduction of Gaiman's original proposal for the series and the complete script and pencils by Gaiman and Charles Vess for the World Fantasy Award-winning story "A Midsummer Night's Dream" from The Sandman 19. Finally, a gallery of character design sketches show the evolution of Dream of the Endless.]]> 612 Neil Gaiman 1401210821 Dennis 5 currently-reading 4.65 1990 The Absolute Sandman, Volume 1

author: Neil Gaiman
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.65
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/11/29
shelves: currently-reading
review:
Boo! There are printing errors and messed-up pages in my copy! It's been sitting on the shelf for months, but I am going to try to get Amazon to replace it, and failing that, send an email to Vertigo.
]]> <![CDATA[The Jennifer Morgue (Laundry Files, #2)]]> 14150 Pimpf tale - Bob in virtual game; Afterword; Glossary.]]> 292 Charles Stross 1930846452 Dennis 3 Jennifer Morgue. It dates itself badly, with all the references to 2005-era tech: Treos and Palm Pilots and Neverwinter Nights, but should be familiar to anyone who's experienced the past decade. Having read his more recent stuff (Glasshouse, Accelerando), I'm struck by the contrast in style between his Singularity-punk and Laundry series.]]> 4.01 2006 The Jennifer Morgue (Laundry Files, #2)

author: Charles Stross
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2010/11/23
date added: 2010/11/29
shelves:
review:
I enjoyed reading Jennifer Morgue. It dates itself badly, with all the references to 2005-era tech: Treos and Palm Pilots and Neverwinter Nights, but should be familiar to anyone who's experienced the past decade. Having read his more recent stuff (Glasshouse, Accelerando), I'm struck by the contrast in style between his Singularity-punk and Laundry series.
]]> <![CDATA[Iron Council (New Crobuzon, #3)]]> 68495
It is a time of wars and revolutions, conflict and intrigue. New Crobuzon is being ripped apart from without and within. War with the shadowy city-state of Tesh and rioting on the streets at home are pushing the teeming city to the brink. A mysterious masked figure spurs strange rebellion, while treachery and violence incubate in unexpected places.

In desperation, a small group of renegades escapes from the city and crosses strange and alien continents in the search for a lost hope.

In the blood and violence of New Crobuzon’s most dangerous hour, there are whispers. It is the time of the iron council. . . .

The bold originality that broke Miéville out as a new force of the genre is here once more in Iron Council : the voluminous, lyrical novel that is destined to seal his reputation as perhaps the edgiest mythmaker of the day.]]> 564 China Miéville 0345458427 Dennis 3 3.73 2004 Iron Council (New Crobuzon, #3)

author: China Miéville
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/11/29
shelves:
review:
Frankly, not as good as the first two.
]]> King Rat 68498 Something is stirring in London's dark, stamping out its territory in brickdust and blood. Something has murdered Saul Garamond's father, and left Saul to pay for the crime.

But a shadow from the urban waste breaks into Saul's prison cell and leads him to freedom. A shadow called King Rat, who reveals Saul's royal heritage, a heritage that opens a new world to Saul, the world below London's streets--a heritage that also drags Saul into King Rat's plan for revenge against his ancient enemy,. With drum 'n' bass pounding the backstreets, Saul must confront the forces that would use him, the forces that would destroy him, and the forces that shape his own bizarre identity.
]]> 320 China Miéville 0312890729 Dennis 3 3.56 1998 King Rat

author: China Miéville
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.56
book published: 1998
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/11/29
shelves:
review:

]]> The Blind Assassin 78433 The Blind Assassin is a richly layered and uniquely rewarding experience.

It opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister drove a car off the bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister Laura's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the reader expects to settle into Laura's story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a-novel. Entitled The Blind Assassin, it is a science fiction story told by two unnamed lovers who meet in dingy backstreet rooms. When we return to Iris, it is through a 1947 newspaper article announcing the discovery of a sailboat carrying the dead body of her husband, a distinguished industrialist.

For the past twenty-five years, Margaret Atwood has written works of striking originality and imagination. In The Blind Assassin, she stretches the limits of her accomplishments as never before, creating a novel that is entertaining and profoundly serious. The Blind Assassin proves once again that Atwood is one of the most talented, daring, and exciting writers of our time. Like The Handmaid's Tale, it is destined to become a classic.]]> 637 Margaret Atwood Dennis 3 currently-reading 3.96 2000 The Blind Assassin

author: Margaret Atwood
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/11/29
shelves: currently-reading
review:
I have to admit. I am probably never going to finish this one. I like other Atwood novels, but for some reason, this one is bouncing off me.
]]> The Face: A Natural History 49094 384 Daniel McNeill 0316588121 Dennis 4 3.54 1998

author: Daniel McNeill
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.54
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/11/28
shelves:
review:

]]> Foucault's Pendulum 255987
On a lark, the editors begin randomly feeding esoteric bits of knowledge into an incredible computer capable of inventing connections between all their entries. What they believe they are creating is a long, lazy game - until the game starts taking over...

Here is an incredible journey of thought and history, memory and fantasy, a tour de force as enthralling as anything Umberto Eco—or indeed anyone—has ever devised.]]> 533 Umberto Eco 0345368754 Dennis 3 3.81 1988 Foucault's Pendulum

author: Umberto Eco
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1988
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/03/30
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mirrored Heavens (Autumn Rain #1)]]> 2882454
In the 22nd century, the first wonder of a brave new world is the Phoenix Space Elevator, designed to give mankind greater access to the frontier beyond Earth. Built by the U.S./Pan-Asian Coalition, the Elevator is also a grand symbol of superpower alliance following a second cold war. And it’s just been destroyed.

The South American insurgent group Autumn Rain claims responsibility for the attack, but with suspicions rampant, armies and espionage teams are mobilized across the globe and beyond. Enter Claire Haskell and Jason Marlowe, U.S. counterintelligence agents, and former lovers—though their memories may only be constructs implanted by their spymaster. Forced to set aside the enigma of their past, their agenda is to trust no one. For in a time of shifting loyalties, the enemy could be anyone—from a shadowy assassin working a questionable mission on the dark side of the moon, to a Euro data thief working under deep cover and wooed into a dangerous pact.

As the crisis mounts, and the search for Autumn Rain spans both Earth and Moon, the lives of all those involved will converge in one explosive finale—and a startling aftermath that will rewrite everything they’ve ever known—about their mission, their world, and themselves]]> 409 David J. Williams 0553385410 Dennis 1
There is nothing good about it. It even smells bad.

It's been a while since I cracked it last, so these comments are weakened by time. I felt even angrier while I was reading it.

The dialogue is gross and awful. The dialogue is the Microsoft Songsmith of prose, except without the tacky, ironic appeal.

There are plenty of characters and no character development. None. They are there. They do things. They are all shallow badasses. We learn that two of them may or may not have had a romantic relationship in the past--not that we care. How could we when the characters themselves don't care either? This character might be dead! So what? This character jumped out of a flying ship! Whatever.

I'm trying to recall the plot, but I'm having trouble remembering anything more than events. There's a space elevator. We know it's important because that is what we are told. We are not shown how or why. It is blown up, possibly by terrorists or by the government or some shadowy organization that is neither. We're on the moon. Two characters who have a history we are not privy to are fighting to the death for many pages.

I don't think I got to the end.

I decided to read Mirrored Heavens because the description on Amazon sounded promising in a cyberpunky, future dystopia, techy way. Now I only care enough to discourage anyone else from reading it.]]> 3.22 2008 Mirrored Heavens (Autumn Rain #1)

author: David J. Williams
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.22
book published: 2008
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2010/01/25
shelves:
review:
The Mirrored Heavens is the worst novel I have read to-date.

There is nothing good about it. It even smells bad.

It's been a while since I cracked it last, so these comments are weakened by time. I felt even angrier while I was reading it.

The dialogue is gross and awful. The dialogue is the Microsoft Songsmith of prose, except without the tacky, ironic appeal.

There are plenty of characters and no character development. None. They are there. They do things. They are all shallow badasses. We learn that two of them may or may not have had a romantic relationship in the past--not that we care. How could we when the characters themselves don't care either? This character might be dead! So what? This character jumped out of a flying ship! Whatever.

I'm trying to recall the plot, but I'm having trouble remembering anything more than events. There's a space elevator. We know it's important because that is what we are told. We are not shown how or why. It is blown up, possibly by terrorists or by the government or some shadowy organization that is neither. We're on the moon. Two characters who have a history we are not privy to are fighting to the death for many pages.

I don't think I got to the end.

I decided to read Mirrored Heavens because the description on Amazon sounded promising in a cyberpunky, future dystopia, techy way. Now I only care enough to discourage anyone else from reading it.
]]> <![CDATA[The Stolen Throne (Dragon Age, #1)]]> 6227080 Dragon Age: Origins, the hit role-playing video game from award-winning developer BioWare!

Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne

After his mother, the beloved Rebel Queen, is betrayed and murdered by her own faithless lords, young Maric becomes the leader of a rebel army attempting to free his nation from the control of a foreign tyrant.

His countrymen live in fear; his commanders consider him untested; and his only allies are Loghain, a brash young outlaw who saved his life, and Rowan, the beautiful warrior maiden promised to him since birth. Surrounded by spies and traitors, Maric must find a way to not only survive but achieve his ultimate destiny: Ferelden’s freedom and the return of his line to the stolen throne.]]> 400 David Gaider 0765324083 Dennis 2
Everything about the book is on-the-nose. The reader is left with nothing to ponder or imagine.

What's good? The plot, I guess. It's a prelude novel to the Dragon Age video game, by the lead writer, David Gaider. Bioware should really have hired a ghostwriter, or at least a competent editor. There's no reason a novel based on a video game can't be good. ]]> 3.74 2009 The Stolen Throne (Dragon Age, #1)

author: David Gaider
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2009
rating: 2
read at: 2010/01/25
date added: 2010/01/25
shelves:
review:
It's not awful, but it's definitely not good. The first chapter consists almost entirely of straight-up description. The rest is littered with anachronistic cliches, typos (e.g. "you're" for "your". Seriously!), redundant description, poor word choices, and weak metaphors.

Everything about the book is on-the-nose. The reader is left with nothing to ponder or imagine.

What's good? The plot, I guess. It's a prelude novel to the Dragon Age video game, by the lead writer, David Gaider. Bioware should really have hired a ghostwriter, or at least a competent editor. There's no reason a novel based on a video game can't be good.
]]> <![CDATA[Old Man's War (Old Man's War, #1)]]> 51964
The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce-- and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So: we fight. To defend Earth, and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding.

Earth itself is a backwater. The bulk of humanity's resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force. Everybody knows that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. They don't want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You'll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. You'll serve two years at the front. And if you survive, you'll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets.

John Perry is taking that deal. He has only the vaguest idea what to expect. Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine--and what he will become is far stranger.]]> 318 John Scalzi 0765348276 Dennis 4 4.22 2005 Old Man's War (Old Man's War, #1)

author: John Scalzi
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2009/04/28
date added: 2010/01/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Little Brother (Little Brother, #1)]]> 954674
But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days.

When the DHS finally releases them, his injured best friend Darryl does not come out. The city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: "M1k3y" will take down the DHS himself.]]> 382 Cory Doctorow 0765319853 Dennis 4 3.93 2008 Little Brother (Little Brother, #1)

author: Cory Doctorow
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/01/25
shelves:
review:

]]> The Accidental Time Machine 21608 Rocky Mountain News). Now he delivers a provocative novel of a man who stumbles upon the discovery of a lifetime-or many lifetimes.

Grad-school dropout Matt Fuller is toiling as a lowly research assistant at MIT when, while measuring subtle quantum forces that relate to time changes in gravity and electromagnetic force, his calibrator turns into a time machine. With a dead-end job and a girlfriend who has left him for another man, Matt has nothing to lose taking a time machine trip himself-or so he thinks.]]> 278 Joe Haldeman 0441014992 Dennis 3 3.69 2007 The Accidental Time Machine

author: Joe Haldeman
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/01/25
shelves:
review:

]]> Anathem 2845024
Now, in celebration of the week-long, once-in-a-decade rite of Apert, the fraas and suurs prepare to venture beyond the concent's gates—at the same time opening them wide to welcome the curious "extras" in. During his first Apert as a fraa, Erasmas eagerly anticipates reconnecting with the landmarks and family he hasn't seen since he was "collected." But before the week is out, both the existence he abandoned and the one he embraced will stand poised on the brink of cataclysmic change.

Powerful unforeseen forces jeopardize the peaceful stability of mathic life and the established ennui of the Extramuros—a threat that only an unsteady alliance of saecular and avout can oppose—as, one by one, Erasmas and his colleagues, teachers, and friends are summoned forth from the safety of the concent in hopes of warding off global disaster. Suddenly burdened with a staggering responsibility, Erasmas finds himself a major player in a drama that will determine the future of his world—as he sets out on an extraordinary odyssey that will carry him to the most dangerous, inhospitable corners of the planet . . . and beyond.]]> 937 Neal Stephenson 0061474096 Dennis 5 4.16 2008 Anathem

author: Neal Stephenson
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/01/25
shelves:
review:

]]> Black Hole 38333
As we inhabit the heads of several key characters—some kids who have it, some who don't, some who are about to get it—what unfolds isn't the expected battle to fight the plague, or bring heightened awareness to it, or even to treat it. What we become witness to instead is a fascinating and eerie portrait of the nature of high school alienation itself—the savagery, the cruelty, the relentless anxiety and ennui, the longing for escape.

And then the murders start.

As hypnotically beautiful as it is horrifying, Black Hole transcends its genre by deftly exploring a specific American cultural moment in flux and the kids who are caught in it—back when it wasn't exactly cool to be a hippie anymore, but Bowie was still just a little too weird.

To say nothing of sprouting horns and molting your skin…]]> 368 Charles Burns 037542380X Dennis 3 3.85 2005 Black Hole

author: Charles Burns
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2009/04/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fables, Vol. 9: Sons of Empire]]> 158988 Winner of Fourteen Eisner Awards

The best-laid plans.
The free Fables living in the mundane world have struck a decisive blow against the Adversary, destroying one of his most valuable assets at the very heart of his empire - and setting the stage for an all-out war between the worlds in the process. Now, while the ruler of the Homelands licks his wounds and gathers his forces, the denizens of Fabletown have a rare chance to savor the brief peace their victory has brought them. Everyone, however, knows that this is just the calm before the storm - and that even the winds themselves will have to choose sides before it's over.

Collecting: Fables 52-59]]> 202 Bill Willingham 1401213162 Dennis 4 4.21 2007 Fables, Vol. 9: Sons of Empire

author: Bill Willingham
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/04/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall]]> 21322 Traveling in Arabia as an Ambassador from the exiled FABLES community, Snow White is captured by the local sultan who wants to marry her (and then kill her). But the clever Snow attempts to charm the sultan instead by playing Scheherazade, telling him fantastic stories for a total of 1,001 nights. Running the gamut from horror to dark intrigue to mercurial coming-of-age, FABLES:1,001 NIGHTS OF SNOWFALL reveals the secret histories of familiar FABLES characters through a series of compelling and visually illustrative tales.]]> 144 Bill Willingham 1401203671 Dennis 4 4.15 2006 Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall

author: Bill Willingham
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/04/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fables, Vol. 7: Arabian Nights (and Days)]]> 21327 Winner of Fourteen Eisner Awards

Culture Clash
With the identity of the Adversary finally revealed to the citizens of Fabletown, it's time to begin making preparations in earnest for the defense of their stronghold in the mundane world - and that means forging new alliances with whoever remains unconquered by the Adversary's legions. But the arrival in Fabletown of a delegation from the Arabian Homelands shows just how tricky this kind of coalition-building can be - especially when one side is concealing Weapons of Magical Destruction!

Collecting: Fables 42-47]]> 143 Bill Willingham 1401210007 Dennis 4 4.09 2006 Fables, Vol. 7: Arabian Nights (and Days)

Fables, Vol. 7: Arabian Nights (and Days)

author: Bill Willingham
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/04/28
shelves:
review:

]]> Fables, Vol. 8: Wolves 21324 Winner of Fourteen Eisner Awards

Into the woods.
The community of Fables living undercover in our midst has endured plenty of suffering at the hands of their longtime antagonist, the Adversary. Now it's time to return the favor and put the would-be conqueror on notice that the cost of subjugating this last stronghold of magic will be higher than he can bear. The one Fable who can accomplish this mission, however, has hidden himself away in the wild and will take some convincing if he can even be found. Luckily for Fabletown, there's something more than a trip behind enemy lines awaiting Bigby Wolf's return...

Collecting: Fables 48-51]]> 162 Bill Willingham 1401210015 Dennis 4 4.26 2006 Fables, Vol. 8: Wolves

author: Bill Willingham
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/04/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fables, Vol. 5: The Mean Seasons]]> 21330 Winner of Fourteen Eisner Awards

Written on the wind.
With the Battle of Fabletown won, and the surrounding city of New York none the wiser, the Fables have gained a little time for rebuilding and reflection - in between interrogation of the Adversary's agent and the anticipation of Snow White's impending motherhood.

For Bigby Wolf, the father of her soon-to-be newborns, that means a visit with an old friend - and a reminiscence of another, even deadlier war. For the Mayor of Fabletown, it means a rude awakening to the harsh realities of civis administration - and its conflicting demands. And for Snow herself, it means a long, painful labor - and a series of joyous, heartwrenching surprises.

Collecting: Fables 22, 28-33]]> 168 Bill Willingham 1401204864 Dennis 4 4.19 2005 Fables, Vol. 5: The Mean Seasons

author: Bill Willingham
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/04/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fables, Vol. 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers]]> 21325 When Little Red Riding Hood suddenly walks through the gate between this world and the lost Fable Homelands, she's welcomed as a miraculous survivor by nearly everyone - everyone except her old nemesis, Bigby Wolf, who smells spying and subversion more than survival. But will he be able to prove his case before disaster strikes? And how will it all affect Prince Charming's upstart campaign to become the new mayor of Fabletown?

Collecting: Fables 19-21, 23-27, The Last Castle]]> 244 Bill Willingham 1401202225 Dennis 4 4.29 2004 Fables, Vol. 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers

Fables, Vol. 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers

author: Bill Willingham
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/04/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fables, Vol. 3: Storybook Love]]> 21329
But that doesn't mean they don't have any room for romance—or the pain, betrayal and jealous rage that go along with it. In fact, love may be blooming between two of the most hard-bitten, no-nonsense Fables around. But are they destined for happiness�� or a quick and untimely death?

Collecting: Fables 11-18]]> 192 Bill Willingham Dennis 4 4.13 2004 Fables, Vol. 3: Storybook Love

author: Bill Willingham
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/04/28
shelves:
review:

]]> Fables, Vol. 2: Animal Farm 167010
Collecting the second story arc of creator and writer Bill Willingham's acclaimed series: Fables, Animal Farm features the stunning artwork of penciller Mark Buckingham and inker Steve Leialoha, and includes a special sketchbook section of preliminary artwork from Willingham, Buckingham, and cover artist James Jean.

Collecting: Fables 6-10]]> 127 Bill Willingham Dennis 4 4.11 2003 Fables, Vol. 2: Animal Farm

author: Bill Willingham
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/04/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Halting State (Halting State, #1)]]> 2564523
The prime suspects are a band of marauding orcs with a dragon in tow for fire support. The bank is located within the virtual land of Avalon Four, and the robbery was supposed to be impossible. When word gets out, Hayek Associates and all its virtual "economies" are going to crash hard.

For Smith, the investigation seems pointless. But the deeper she digs, the bigger the case gets. There are powerful players -- both real and pixilated -- who are watching her every move. Because there is far more at stake than just some game-head's fantasy financial security . . .]]> 324 Charles Stross 0441016073 Dennis 4 3.68 2007 Halting State (Halting State, #1)

author: Charles Stross
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/04/28
shelves:
review:

]]> Iron Sunrise (Eschaton, #2) 101864
The one person who does know is a disaffected teenager who calls herself Wednesday Shadowmist. But Wednesday has no idea where she might be hiding this significant information. Time is limited and if Rachel can't resolve this mystery it will mean annihilation of an entire world.

]]> 480 Charles Stross 1841493368 Dennis 0 to-read 3.98 2002 Iron Sunrise (Eschaton, #2)

author: Charles Stross
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/02/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Singularity Sky (Eschaton, #1)]]> 81992
Distant descendants of this ultra high-tech Earth live in parochial simplicity on the far-flung worlds of the New Republic. Their way of life is threatened by the arrival of an alien information plague known as the Festival. As forbidden technologies are literally dropped from the sky, suppressed political factions descend into revolutionary turmoil.

A battle fleet is sent from Earth to destroy the Festival, but Spaceship engineer Martin Springfield and U.N. diplomat Rachel Mansour have been assigned rather different tasks. Their orders are to diffuse the crisis or to sabotage the New Republic's war-fleet, whatever the cost, before the Eschaton takes hostile action on a galactic scale.

]]> 389 Charles Stross 1841493341 Dennis 0 3.84 2003 Singularity Sky (Eschaton, #1)

author: Charles Stross
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/02/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Halting State (Halting State, #1)]]> 222472
The prime suspects are a band of marauding orcs with a dragon in tow for fire support. The bank is located within the virtual land of Avalon Four, and the robbery was supposed to be impossible. When word gets out, Hayek Associates and all its virtual "economies" are going to crash hard.

For Smith, the investigation seems pointless. But the deeper she digs, the bigger the case gets. There are powerful players -- both real and pixilated -- who are watching her every move. Because there is far more at stake than just some game-head's fantasy financial security . . .]]> 351 Charles Stross 0441014984 Dennis 4 3.80 2007 Halting State (Halting State, #1)

author: Charles Stross
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/02/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Atrocity Archives (Laundry Files, #1)]]> 101869 Bob Howard is a low-level techie working for a super-secret government agency. While his colleagues are out saving the world, Bob's under a desk restoring lost data. His world was dull and safe - but then he went and got Noticed.

Now, Bob is up to his neck in spycraft, parallel universes, dimension-hopping terrorists, monstrous elder gods and the end of the world. Only one thing is certain: it will take more than a full system reboot to sort this mess out ...]]> 345 Charles Stross 0441013651 Dennis 4
I enjoyed _Atrocity Archives_. It's different in tone and subject from Stross' later books about the Singularity. He lays on the hacker/engineer jargon and slang pretty thick, which can be irritating, but then again, I have friends who talk exactly like that. All "Oh no, you let the magic blue smoke out of the boxen with the blinkenlights!"]]> 3.90 2004 The Atrocity Archives (Laundry Files, #1)

The Atrocity Archives (Laundry Files, #1)

author: Charles Stross
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2009/02/14
date added: 2009/02/16
shelves:
review:
Just some quick thoughts:

I enjoyed _Atrocity Archives_. It's different in tone and subject from Stross' later books about the Singularity. He lays on the hacker/engineer jargon and slang pretty thick, which can be irritating, but then again, I have friends who talk exactly like that. All "Oh no, you let the magic blue smoke out of the boxen with the blinkenlights!"
]]> Lolita 7604 Librarian's note: Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780141182537.

Humbert Humbert - scholar, aesthete and romantic - has fallen completely and utterly in love with Dolores Haze, his landlady's gum-snapping, silky skinned twelve-year-old daughter. Reluctantly agreeing to marry Mrs Haze just to be close to Lolita, Humbert suffers greatly in the pursuit of romance; but when Lo herself starts looking for attention elsewhere, he will carry her off on a desperate cross-country misadventure, all in the name of Love. Hilarious, flamboyant, heart-breaking and full of ingenious word play, Lolita is an immaculate, unforgettable masterpiece of obsession, delusion and lust.]]> 368 Vladimir Nabokov 0679723161 Dennis 4
I was in D.H. Hill library on the campus of NC State University combing the stacks on a literature search for a wholly unrelated research paper when I came across a copy of Lolita.

I needed a break, so I sat down in the aisle with the novel, intending to read a few pages to see if it was worth checking out. I read the entire thing. What compelled me to keep turning pages-- despite the fact that college libraries are ironically uncomfortable places to read--was the portrayal of H.H. as a man who thinks too much. He's not intuitive enough to be called a schemer and is essentially self-defeating.

I tend to avoid foreign novels, as I always feel that translation introduces distortion into the story, but I felt that Lolita came through with fidelity. Of course, I didn't find out until later that Nabokov chose to write in English.

]]> 3.87 1955 Lolita

author: Vladimir Nabokov
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1955
rating: 4
read at: 1999/04/01
date added: 2008/07/04
shelves:
review:
I don't have any deep or original insight into this novel. I just want to relate the story of how I came to read it.

I was in D.H. Hill library on the campus of NC State University combing the stacks on a literature search for a wholly unrelated research paper when I came across a copy of Lolita.

I needed a break, so I sat down in the aisle with the novel, intending to read a few pages to see if it was worth checking out. I read the entire thing. What compelled me to keep turning pages-- despite the fact that college libraries are ironically uncomfortable places to read--was the portrayal of H.H. as a man who thinks too much. He's not intuitive enough to be called a schemer and is essentially self-defeating.

I tend to avoid foreign novels, as I always feel that translation introduces distortion into the story, but I felt that Lolita came through with fidelity. Of course, I didn't find out until later that Nabokov chose to write in English.

]]> Norwegian Wood 11297
A magnificent blending of the music, the mood, and the ethos that was the sixties with the story of one college student's romantic coming of age, Norwegian Wood brilliantly recaptures a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love.]]> 296 Haruki Murakami 0375704027 Dennis 0 to-read 4.01 1987

author: Haruki Murakami
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2008/07/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> High Fidelity 285092
Rob does. He keeps a list, in fact. But Laura isn't on it—even though she's just become his latest ex. He's got his life back, you see. He can just do what he wants when he wants: like listen to whatever music he likes, look up the girls that are on his list, and generally behaves as if Laura never mattered. But Rob finds he can't move on. He's stuck in a really deep groove—and it's called Laura. Soon, Rob's asking himself some big questions: about love, about life—and about why we choose to share ours with the people we do.]]> 323 Nick Hornby 1573225517 Dennis 4 3.92 1995 High Fidelity

author: Nick Hornby
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2008/07/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers (Red Dwarf, #1)]]> 349090
Nominated for the Audiobook Download of the Year, 2008.

When Lister got drunk, he really got drunk!

After celebrating his birthday with a Monopoly-board pub crawl around London, he came to in a burger bar on one of Saturn's moons, wearing a lady's pink crimplene hat and a pair of yellow fishing waders, with no money and a passport in the name of "Emily Berkenstein."

Joining the Space Corps seemed a good idea. Red Dwarf, a clapped out spaceship, was bound for Earth. It never made it, leaving Lister as the last remaining member of the human race, three million light years from Earth, with only a dead man, a senile computer, and a highly evolved cat for company.

They begin their journey home. On the way, they'll break the light barrier. They'll meet Einstein, Archimedes, God, and Norman Wisdom...and discover an alternative plane of reality.]]> 298 Grant Naylor 0451452011 Dennis 4 4.08 1989 Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers (Red Dwarf, #1)

Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers (Red Dwarf, #1)

author: Grant Naylor
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1989
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2008/07/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction]]> 706 The Daily Show, and his coterie of patriots, deliver a hilarious look at American government.

American-style democracy is the world's most beloved form of government, which explains why so many other nations are eager for us to impose it on them. But what is American democracy? In America (The Book), Jon Stewart and The Daily Show writing staff offer their insights into our unique system of government, dissecting its institutions, explaining its history and processes, and exploring the reasons why concepts like one man, one vote, government by the people, and every vote counts have become such popular urban myths. Topics include: Ancient Rome: The First Republicans; The Founding Fathers: Young, Gifted, and White; The Media: Can it Be Stopped?; and more!

]]> 228 Jon Stewart 0713998946 Dennis 4 4.00 2004 America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction

author: Jon Stewart
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2008/07/04
shelves:
review:

]]> Congo 1014377 ***Book In French! *** 445 michael-crichton 2266068385 Dennis 3 3.11 1980 Congo

author: michael-crichton
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.11
book published: 1980
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2008/07/04
shelves:
review:

]]> A Gesture Life 273986
Courteous, honest, hardworking, and impenetrable, Franklin Hata, a Japanese man of Korean birth, is careful never to overstep his bounds. He makes his neighbors feel comfortable in his presence, keeps his garden well tended, bids his customers good-bye at the doorway to his medical supply shop, and ignores the taunts of local boys. Now facing his retirement years alone, Hata begins to reflect on the price he's had to pay for living this quiet "gesture life."

After suffering minor injuries in an accidental fire, he remembers the painful, failed relationships of his past; with Mary Burns, a widow with whom he had an affair, and with Sunny, a Korean girl he adopted when she was seven, who is now a grown woman he hasn't spoken to or seen in years. As Hata recalls the strained, troubled relationship with Sunny, he begins to understand why his daughter, unlike himself, "felt no more at home in this town, or in this house of mine, or perhaps even with me, than when she first arrived at Kennedy Airport."

Unknown to Sunny, there is a secret that has shaped the core of Hata's being; his terrible, forbidden love for a young Korean woman from his past. Serving as a medic in the Japanese army during World War II, Hata was assigned the task of overseeing the female "volunteers; women taken against their will to provide sexual favors for the men in the battalion. One of these "comfort women" he came to love. These remembrances, tinged with grief and regret, ultimately draw Hata once again to his daughter; and help him begin to attain a more truthful understanding of himself.]]> 376 Chang-rae Lee 1573228281 Dennis 3 3.79 1999 A Gesture Life

author: Chang-rae Lee
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2008/07/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War]]> 8908
Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War.

Most of all, the book captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event. Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the reader, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brooks says in his introduction, "By excluding the human factor, aren't we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn't the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as 'the living dead'?"

Note: Some of the numerical and factual material contained in this edition was previously published under the auspices of the United Nations Postwar Commission.]]> 342 Max Brooks 0307346609 Dennis 4 4.02 2006 World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

author: Max Brooks
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2008/07/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead]]> 535441 Zombie Survival Guide is your key to survival against the hordes of undead who may be stalking you right now. Fully illustrated and exhaustively comprehensive, this book covers everything you need to know, including how to understand zombie physiology and behavior, the most effective defense tactics and weaponry, ways to outfit your home for a long siege, and how to survive and adapt in any territory or terrain.

Top 10 Lessons for Surviving a Zombie Attack

1. Organize before they rise!
2. They feel no fear, why should you?
3. Use your head: cut off theirs.
4. Blades don’t need reloading.
5. Ideal protection = tight clothes, short hair.
6. Get up the staircase, then destroy it.
7. Get out of the car, get onto the bike.
8. Keep moving, keep low, keep quiet, keep alert!
9. No place is safe, only safer.
10. The zombie may be gone, but the threat lives on.

Don’t be carefree and foolish with your most precious asset—life. This book is your key to survival against the hordes of undead who may be stalking you right now without your even knowing it. The Zombie Survival Guide offers complete protection through trusted, proven tips for safeguarding yourself and your loved ones against the living dead. It is a book that can save your life.]]> 272 Max Brooks 1400049628 Dennis 4 3.87 2003 The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead

The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead

author: Max Brooks
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2008/07/04
shelves:
review:

]]> The Outsiders 231804 The Outsiders is about two weeks in the life of a 14-year-old boy. The novel tells the story of Ponyboy Curtis and his struggles with right and wrong in a society in which he believes that he is an outsider. According to Ponyboy, there are two kinds of people in the world: greasers and socs. A soc (short for "social") has money, can get away with just about anything, and has an attitude longer than a limousine. A greaser, on the other hand, always lives on the outside and needs to watch his back. Ponyboy is a greaser, and he's always been proud of it, even willing to rumble against a gang of socs for the sake of his fellow greasers--until one terrible night when his friend Johnny kills a soc. The murder gets under Ponyboy's skin, causing his bifurcated world to crumble and teaching him that pain feels the same whether a soc or a greaser.

Librarian note: This record is for one of the three editions published with different covers and with ISBN 0-140-38572-X / 978-0-14-038572-4. The records are for the 1988 cover (this record), the 1995 cover, and the 2008 cover which is also the current in-print cover.]]> 208 S.E. Hinton 0670532576 Dennis 4 4.13 1967 The Outsiders

author: S.E. Hinton
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1967
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2008/07/04
shelves:
review:

]]> Heart of Darkness 4900
A reflection on corruptive European colonialism and a journey into the nightmare psyche of one of the corrupted, Heart of Darkness is considered one of the most influential works ever written.]]> 188 Joseph Conrad 1892295490 Dennis 3 3.43 1899

author: Joseph Conrad
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.43
book published: 1899
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2008/07/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus]]> 18488 324 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley 0743487583 Dennis 3 3.84 1818

author: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1818
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2008/07/04
shelves:
review:

]]> A Light in the Attic 30118 Last night while I lay thinking here
Some Whatifs crawled inside my ear
And pranced and partied all night long
And sang their same old Whatif song:

Whatif I flunk that test?
Whatif green hair grows on my chest?
Whatif nobody likes me?
Whatif a bolt of lightning strikes me?...This 20th anniversary of Shel Silverstein's A Light in the Attic includes a CD of highlights from his Grammy Award-winning album.

Here in the attic of Shel Silverstein you will find Backward Bill, Sour Face Ann, the Meehoo with an Exactlywatt, and the Polar Bear in the Frigidaire. You will talk with Broiled Face, and find out what happens when Somebody steals your knees, you get caught by the Quick-Digesting Gink, a Mountain snores, and They Put a Brassiere on the Camel.

From the creator of the beloved poetry collections Where the Sidewalk Ends and Falling Up, here is another wondrous book of poems and drawings.]]> 176 Shel Silverstein 0060513063 Dennis 3 4.36 1981 A Light in the Attic

author: Shel Silverstein
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1981
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2008/07/04
shelves:
review:

]]> Blindness 2526 No food, no water, no government, no obligation, no order.

Discover a chillingly powerful and prescient dystopian vision from one of Europe's greatest writers.

A driver waiting at the traffic lights goes blind. An ophthalmologist tries to diagnose his distinctive white blindness, but is affected before he can read the textbooks.
It becomes a contagion, spreading throughout the city. Trying to stem the epidemic, the authorities herd the afflicted into a mental asylum where the wards are terrorised by blind thugs. And when fire destroys the asylum, the inmates burst forth and the last links with a supposedly civilised society are snapped.

This is not anarchy, this is blindness.

‘Saramago repeatedly undertakes to unite the pressing demands of the present with an unfolding vision of the future. This is his most apocalyptic, and most optimistic, version of that project yet�� Independent]]> 326 José Saramago Dennis 3 4.04 1995 Blindness

author: José Saramago
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1995
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2008/07/04
shelves:
review:

]]> Johnny Mnemonic 313998
But headaches are the least of Johnny's problems. The Americans aren't the only ones who want the data. The Yakuza are after Johnny too. Not all of him, though. All they need is his cryogenically frozen head...

In Johnny Mnemonic, the science-fiction guru of our age brings his acid-drenched tale of the near future to the screen for the first time. Containing William Gibson's original short story, his full script and exclusive stills from the film, this classic of the cyberpunk era expresses the unique vision of the author who was the first to see his way into tomorrow...]]> 160 William Gibson 000224618X Dennis 3 3.80 1981 Johnny Mnemonic

author: William Gibson
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1981
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2008/07/04
shelves:
review:

]]> The Cheese Monkeys 28756 288 Chip Kidd 0060507403 Dennis 0 to-read 3.75 2001

author: Chip Kidd
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2008/07/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Geek Love 13872 Geek Love is the story of the Binewskis, a carny family whose mater- and paterfamilias set out �� with the help of amphetamine, arsenic, and radioisotopes �� to breed their own exhibit of human oddities. There's Arturo the Aquaboy, who has flippers for limbs and a megalomaniac ambition worthy of Genghis Khan . . . Iphy and Elly, the lissome Siamese twins . . . albino hunchback Oly, and the outwardly normal Chick, whose mysterious gifts make him the family's most precious �� and dangerous �� asset.

As the Binewskis take their act across the backwaters of the U.S., inspiring fanatical devotion and murderous revulsion; as its members conduct their own Machiavellian version of sibling rivalry, Geek Love throws its sulfurous light on our notions of the freakish and the normal, the beautiful and the ugly, the holy and the obscene. Family values will never be the same.]]> 348 Katherine Dunn 0375713344 Dennis 3 3.96 1989 Geek Love

author: Katherine Dunn
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1989
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2008/07/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets]]> 1491906 Freakonomics. Gang Leader for a Day is the fascinating full story of how Sudhir Venkatesh managed to gain entrée into the gang, what he learned, and how his method revolutionized the academic establishment.

When Venkatesh walked into an abandoned building in one of Chicago's most notorious housing projects, he was looking for people to take a multiple-choice survey on urban poverty. A first-year grad student, he would befriend a gang leader named JT and spend the better part of the next decade inside the projects under JT's protection, documenting what he saw there.

Over the next seven years, Venkatesh observed JT and the rest of the gang as they operated their crack selling business, conducted PR within their community, and rose up or fell within the ranks of the gang's complex organizational structure.

Gang Leader for a Day is an inside view into the morally ambiguous, highly intricate, often corrupt struggle to survive in an urban war zone. It is also the story of a complicated friendship between two young and ambitious men, a universe apart.]]> 302 Sudhir Venkatesh 1594201501 Dennis 3 4.05 2008 Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets

Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets

author: Sudhir Venkatesh
name: Dennis
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2008/07/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[For Us, the Living: A Comedy of Customs]]> 50881 263 Robert A. Heinlein 074325998X Dennis 3 3.37 2003

author: Robert A. Heinlein
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2008/07/04
shelves:
review:

]]> Spook Country (Blue Ant, #2) 22322
Hollis Henry is an investigative journalist, on assignment from a magazine called Node. Node doesn't exist yet, which is fine; she's used to that. But it seems to be actively blocking the kind of buzz that magazines normally cultivate before they start up. Really actively blocking it. It's odd, even a little scary, if Hollis lets herself think about it much. Which she doesn't; she can't afford to.

Milgrim is a junkie. A high-end junkie, hooked on prescription antianxiety drugs. Milgrim figures he wouldn't survive twenty-four hours if Brown, the mystery man who saved him from a misunderstanding with his dealer, ever stopped supplying those little bubble packs. What exactly Brown is up to Milgrim can't say, but it seems to be military in nature. At least, Milgrim's very nuanced Russian would seem to be a big part of it, as would breaking into locked rooms.

Bobby Chombo is a "producer", and an enigma. In his day job, Bobby is a troubleshooter for manufacturers of military navigation equipment. He refuses to sleep in the same place twice. He meets no one. Hollis Henry has been told to find him.

]]> 371 William Gibson 0399154302 Dennis 4 3.71 2007 Spook Country (Blue Ant, #2)

author: William Gibson
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2008/07/04
shelves:
review:

]]> Cities 68500 304 Peter Crowther 1568583044 Dennis 0 to-read 3.53 2003 Cities

author: Peter Crowther
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2008/07/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Un Lun Dun 1861938
What is Un Lun Dun?

It is London through the looking glass, an urban Wonderland of strange delights where all the lost and broken things of London end up . . . and some of its lost and broken people, too–including Brokkenbroll, boss of the broken umbrellas; Obaday Fing, a tailor whose head is an enormous pin-cushion, and an empty milk carton called Curdle. Un Lun Dun is a place where words are alive, a jungle lurks behind the door of an ordinary house, carnivorous giraffes stalk the streets, and a dark cloud dreams of burning the world. It is a city awaiting its hero, whose coming was prophesied long ago, set down for all time in the pages of a talking book.

When twelve-year-old Zanna and her friend Deeba find a secret entrance leading out of London and into this strange city, it seems that the ancient prophecy is coming true at last. But then things begin to go shockingly wrong.

Praise for Un Lun Dun

“Miéville fills his enthralling fantasy with enough plot twists and wordplay for an entire trilogy, and that is a good thing. A-.�� —Entertainment Weekly��

“For style and inventiveness, turn to�� Un Lun Dun , by China Miéville, who throws off more imaginative sparks per chapter than most authors can manufacture in a whole book. Mieville sits at the table with Lewis Carroll, and Deeba cavorts with another young explorer of topsy-turvy worlds.�� The Washington Post Book World��

“Delicious, twisty, ferocious fun . . . so crammed with inventions, delights, and unexpected turns that you will want to start reading it over again as soon as you’ve reached the end.�� —Kelly Link, author of�� Magic for Beginners

“[A] wondrous thrill ride . . . Like the best fantasy authors, [Miéville] fully realizes his imaginary city.”�� The A.V. Club

“Mieville's compelling heroine and her fantastical journey through the labyrinth of a strange London forms that rare book that feels instantly like a classic and yet is thoroughly modern.�� —Holly Black, bestselling author of The Spiderwick Chronicles]]> 474 China Miéville 0345458443 Dennis 0 to-read 3.88 2007 Un Lun Dun

author: China Miéville
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2008/07/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1)]]> 17231 288 Jeff Lindsay Dennis 4 3.91 2004

author: Jeff Lindsay
name: Dennis
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2008/01/08
shelves:
review:

]]>