Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Book review - Feb 2016

February was a slow month. Only four novels - horror, sci-fi and two fantasy ones. Both the fantasy were surprisingly tedious to read :-/

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Rating scheme is based on goodreads: 
 
             liked it
really liked it
   amazing
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The Face of Fear ★★★





A quick read with decent twist at end. Good to see POV from antagonists, though they could have been fleshed out little more

It was my second Dean Koontz book after Cold Fire. Am not much into reading horror novels, so having horror restricted as just another part of story worked for me
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The Andromeda Strain ★★★★







Riveting read. Lots of coincidences and plot convenience - necessary and yet jarring a little.

As I mainly like space and futuristic type of science fiction, I didn't think I would like a biological one. Crichton manages to hold suspense throughout and adding little anecdotes from future to give a sense of direction to plot. What is presented is unbelievable even for a science fiction, but it still makes for good reading experience.
 
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A Wizard of Earthsea ★★★




Short book but not engaging enough with plethora of names and places thrown about. Felt like it was more of a tell than show, especially about the magic system.

Story was good though and refreshing even for those who have read fantasy a lot.
 
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American Gods ★★★





Read 50-100 pages of this book. If you like it, you'll enjoy the book. Else, you'll likely find yourself slogging and skimming the book.

After an interesting setting into the world, it is a drag if you cannot relate to the characters and the fantasy premise. Action is minimal and just loads and loads of history. Thankfully, the last part picks up pace - I only kept it up as I had enjoyed Gaiman's Neverwhere (both the book and TV series) and Stardust (movie, haven't read). I'll probably just stick to his screen adaptations in future 
 
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Bonus Links

  • Someone sharing their first experience of Harry Potter 
  • Dark Tower film is coming... 
  • Some free sci-fi short stories here
  • Mahabharata is getting popular as a fantasy read
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Book title links and images courtesy goodreads
 Book review - Jan 2016 

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Cute gifv to end the post, have fun :)
  

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