phillip

I was afraid with the end of book 3,"City of Glass", and all of the resolutions that came with it, the story of Jase and Clairy wouldn't have the same ZING. But I shouldn't have worried. Cassandra Claire does the same fabulous job as usual and, as usual, I'm bitting my nails for the next one. I thought the narrators were excellent, though it was a bit of a jolt switching from the male narrator to the female narrator. May-be because he speaks in a low, sort of rumbly british accent that grates pleasantly on the ear (frankly I could listen to him all day!) and she is a bit louder. They are both good, just different.

I found It very hard to rate this book because to me it's like two books meshed together in some horrible "The Fly" like teleporter accident! One was an entertaining and as usual funny Terry Pratchett novel. The other was a book which, if I read it on it's own, I may have enjoyed as a quirky take on the history of earth sciences. When I bought it I thought the science would be a compliment to the novel but there's so much of it, it's burying my Pratchett! and that is a sin that can not be forgiven. I'd give the discworld part 9 stars but the annoyance of having to dig it out has reduced that to 7. They should try publishing the novel part as a stand alone work.

If you like alot (and I mean alot!) of good descriptive prose that makes a comment on the frivolity of modern society pointing out how we are all hopelessly doomed, and want a zombie twist on that, this may be the book for you. I like descriptive prose (even good descriptive prose) only if it flows naturally with the story and helps to move the plot along. If I find myself thinking "Boy.... that sure is ALOT of good descriptive prose." It's at that point my eyeballs roll back in my head and the zombie like moaning begins.

This is a wonderful, well writen adventure that has the makings of a real classic. Imagine you are crew on an elderly American destroyer caught up in world war II and are hopelessly running for your life from more powerful Japanese ships. Then pass through a strange storm and find yourself on an alternate earth, where everything on land and sea is trying to eat you and Ewoks are being warred on by monsters. but both sides have only wooden ships with sails and no one knows about gunpowder. I loved it! My only complaint is the abruptness of the ending, mostly because I wanted more. I already downloaded book 2.

I had to keep reminding myself King Peggy is a true story. It's more entertaining than a lot of fiction I've read lately. I found myself the ultimate spectator, cheering King Peggy and her people on as they root out the corruption and lies of the elders and set about making life better for the village. It made me smile and scowl and practically dance with glee at times and mostly made me wish we had a leader who cared as much about our people as King Peggy cares about hers. I would love to hear our head of state threaten to " Squeeze your balls til your eyes pop out of your heads ". Long live the king, may she never have to go for a cure in the village!

I have all the Dexter novels and this one is pretty good. Dexter is at that revolting stage of parenthood where he thinks they should hand out noble prizes for burping. Revolting but funny and I choose to believe adorable in self defence. Dexter is in a pickle trying to be a dedicated daddy and husband in the middle of coming the closest ever to being exposed as the dark avenger. Which among other things lands him in the middle of the wilderness on a Boy Scout camping trip that almost made coffee squirt out of my nose. My one complaint is that the self descriptive internal monologging got to be a bit much. Dexter the dark, Dexter the dangerous, Dexter the devious, Dexter of the enormous brain, Dexter the extremely long winded to the point of more than a few eye rolls and an unkind thought or two about the author using it to fill pages. Overall though I enjoyed it very much.

There's an art to putting a lesson in a tale without slapping people upside the head with it and no one can do that better than Terry Pratchett. Mostly because the story is so entertaining you don't care. Oh Vimes! roaming around in the horrible fresh air knocking elbows and sometimes heads with the country folks, explaining women's lib to the pride and prejudice young ladies with all the delicacy we've all come to expect and reluctantly championing an oppressed people to boot. I find the only way to rate a Terry Pratchett novel is to compare it to other Terry Pratchett novels because for me they start at 5 stars whereas most other books have to start at a humble 1 star. That being said I loved this book almost as much as Thud! which is my very favourite of the Vimeocentric discworld novels. Stephen Briggs gives his usual wonderful performance, I love the brusque voice he does for Sam, it captures him for me completely. 10 stars!

I'm always eager to find out what's going on with Sookie and, as always, it was a pleasure to slip into her mind and story again. What I never realized was how much animation is brought to Sookies story by the narrator Johanna Parker! I was introduced the series by audio and listened to all of it-never read a word-until I read the advanced chapter for Dead Reckoning on the web site. It sounded so wrong and flat in my head I actually tried to mentally give it Ms. Parkers voice and ended up laughing at how bad a job I did with it compared to her. Kudos Ms. Parker!

I've been in love with Ayla's story from Clan of the Cave Bear and the minute I closed the page on each and every book Ms. Auel created I was wishing for the next one. The wait was pretty long, but more than worth it every time. Except this time. I am so disappointed with book number 6 I actually had tears of frustration in my eyes while I was listening to it. As far as I can tell it breaks down into three main themes #1. Remembering old times (a nice way of saying stealing unabashedly from the other 5 books) #2 Discribing in mind numbing detail every painting in every cave that has ever had an echo in it ( I've heard of the title of a work saying it all, well this one says about 15 hours of it) #3 Action scenes that,while few and far between, are not even half hearted disguised rehashing of events from (you guessed it!) the other five books. With a minor theme in ( though it's majorly annoying ) multiple repetitions of "The Mother Song!" and no I haven't devolved into vulgarity, that's actually the name of the song. The only thing I can guess is that Ms. Auel sat looking at the 5 enormously large novels she wrote and decided enough was enough. As in new ideas, a new plot, etc...and now I am going to take an antacid and make myself a cup of tea, a cup of tea, a cup of tea, a cup of tea, a cup of tea, a cup of tea....

Don't listen to this on an ipod in public because people are going to think you're a nut. They do that when you bust out laughing seemingly for no reason every couple of minutes. A little dignity please! (I wouldn't drink any milk either)