Fantasy book reviews

2024-03-10 This was advertised on sffchronicles.com and I idly took a closer look as I was intrigued by the title and cover – and was immediately impressed by the opening enough to buy a copy. What we have here is a fascinating genre mix of Welsh historical fiction, fantasy, and science fiction. Bourne handles the balance between them deftly, so while there’s a good flavour... Continue reading

2022-05-06 The Renaissance setting of this fantasy novel made for a fresh and interesting backdrop, and there’s a rich and detailed sense of culture which made the world and story really come alive. Sometimes I would have liked to have seen the pace slowed a little to spend more time on the deeper complexities of the characters. Overall, though, an enjoyable read, and I’d be... Continue reading

2021-01-02 Didn’t enjoy this book as much as other David Gemmell novels. The story began interestingly enough, but as it progressed it seemed to increasingly lose focus. The opening character, Tarantio/Dace seemed to drift away from his own story and end up with nothing resolved. Instead, other characters were introduced who spent a lot of time talking about themselves, and talking about other characters, then... Continue reading

2020-12-26 The intense moral relativity in this novel is surprising – most every character begins as morally reprehensible and at odds with one another, but over the course of the story they recognize their flaws and try to work together, and become willing to sacrifice themselves for each other if required. Yet it manages to remain a very enjoyable fantasy novel, filled with all the... Continue reading

2020-10-13 After Going Postal I had high expectations for Making Money, but ended up disappointed. Whereas Moist von Lipwig had driven the story in the previous book, in this one he simply gets dragged into one situation after another where he doesn’t really do anything. The first 25% is mainly him being told to run a bank and then touring it. There are also a... Continue reading

2020-09-19 When I originally read Terry Pratchett, I remembered Going Postal and Making Money as the author at the height of his creative powers. After some disappointment with recent Pratchett books I wasn’t sure what to expect. However, Going Postal still delivers. What we have is a tightly-written story with a very interesting character who constantly pushes the plot forward. This isn’t the case of... Continue reading

2020-09-07 Finished reading The Truth by Terry Pratchett. Like Small Gods it sagged in the second half with too much chatter, though not as much. Even still, these books seemed more juvenile this time around and neither as funny nor as intelligent as I remembered. And yet it was light-hearted and entertaining enough that I’m happy to start another Pratchett. Rating: 3/5 Continue reading

2020-08-29 I remember enjoying this book a lot when I was younger, and for the first half of the book I wasn’t disappointed. However, much of the second half became quite chatty and irrelevant – lots of focus on steam-powered inventions that were neither entertaining not even involved with the plot. In the end, this book still has strengths, but I noticed the weaknesses more... Continue reading

2020-08-22 Re-read this again and still thoroughly enjoyed it. What Legend does nicely is manage to balance the heroic and humanity of its many well-drawn, distinguished, and very memorable characters, while providing a strong pace against a rich background. As became Gemmell’s signature, morality is relative, and this is underlined here in that warriors on opposing sides cannot be denigrated to simple ideas of good... Continue reading

2020-06-15 It took a couple of chapters to get into, mostly because of a self-conscious omniscient narrator followed by a second-person point of view, both of which were difficult to engage with. However, most of the rest of the book is stylistically normal, and was both an easy and engaging read. On the one hand, this is a very clever book. The use of second... Continue reading