Tag: book reviews

Book review: The Six Messiahs

CaptainFez2 Comments

The Six Messiahs.The Six Messiahs by Mark Frost
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The second (and so far final) in Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost’s series of books featuring a fictionalised Arthur Conan Doyle as a character isn’t a great departure from the first. Once more, our trusty author – now thoroughly jack of Holmes – is caught up in world-changing events of a supernatural nature and must fight with Jack Sparks (Holmes’ inspiration in this world) to prevent catastrophe, and a universal loss of stiff upper lip.

On this outing, Doyle embarks on a tour of the US to escape his failing wife (and marriage). The trip to the land of the Yankee provides plenty of space for period detail, and also ensures Frost can add a fairly big dose of cowboy-and-religion imagery to the creeping Lovecraftian grimness featured in the first volume. Continue reading “Book review: The Six Messiahs” →

Book review: My Lovely Ghost KANA, Volume 2

CaptainFezLeave a comment

My Lovely Ghost KANA, Volume 2.My Lovely Ghost KANA, Volume 2 by Yutaka Tanaka
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It’s a little difficult to review this volume of the tale of Dai and Kana as it’s largely the same as that which came before: regular life interspersed with some well-shielded sex.

My feelings for it remain the same as they were when I wrote my review of the first volume: it’s nothing earthshattering, but it is pretty enjoyable, and seems a very true-to-life observation of how relationships change. There’s hints of greater darkness here – and the introduction of other characters to the apartment complex, though this hasn’t (yet) created any untoward drama – but it’s still pretty lighthearted. Continue reading “Book review: My Lovely Ghost KANA, Volume 2” →

Book review: The List of Seven

CaptainFez4 Comments

The List of Seven.The List of Seven by Mark Frost
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Written by Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost, The List of Seven is an occult tale which takes historical fact and bends it to a distinctly gung-ho, eh-what end. It’s a Victorian tale peopled with notable figures from the time, but shot through with the sort of supreme radio-serial ridiculousness that lends the Indiana Jones series of movies their verve.

Arthur Conan Doyle himself is the major figure of the story, though he’s not the only notable personage who makes an appearance. Royalty and showbiz names crop up, and Frost throws in enough elements of their life and works – Hey! It’s Bram Stoker! In Whitby! – to elicit Continue reading “Book review: The List of Seven” →

Book review: My Lovely Ghost KANA, Volume 1

CaptainFez1 Comment

My Lovely Ghost KANA, Volume 1.My Lovely Ghost KANA, Volume 1 by Yutaka Tanaka
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the first manga of its type I’ve read, and I was pleasantly surprised. It’s the story of Daikichi (whose name means ‘good luck’) who seems to be a bit of a loser. He has no job, nobody to look after him, and ends up living in an abandoned apartment. It’s overgrown and shitty, and the heavy inference is that he’ll die there, or at least fall through the cracks.

Until he meets his ghostly girlfriend, that is. Continue reading “Book review: My Lovely Ghost KANA, Volume 1” →

Book review: The Difference Engine

CaptainFezLeave a comment

The Difference Engine.The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’ve been on a bit of a Gibson jag of late, so I figured I’d revisit this, his distinctly non-cyberpunk collaboration with Bruce Sterling. I’d read it a long time ago, and I recalled it fairly fondly, though not too well.

Turns out there was a pretty good reason. Continue reading “Book review: The Difference Engine” →

Book review: All Tomorrow’s Parties

CaptainFezLeave a comment

All Tomorrow's Parties.All Tomorrow’s Parties by William Gibson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not with a bang, but a whimper. That’s how William Gibson’s Bridge trilogy appears to end. The final novel is enjoyable, though it’s shot through with frustration and missed opportunity.

The problem is that while characters reappear from across the previous two books, certain key characters are wasted, or used too sparingly. All we get of Blackwell is one unnamed appearance? Come on, guy. Continue reading “Book review: All Tomorrow’s Parties” →

Book review: Humans of New York

CaptainFezLeave a comment

Humans of New York.Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Brandon Stanton’s Humans of New York project has received a lot of praise and some criticism. Cultural tourism? Slumming? Respectful record? Most likely it’s a combination of the two. What’s true, however, is that Stanton seems to have a knack for capturing someone’s essential spark.

This is the first book of HONY images, and it’s a wonderful example of portraiture. It does tend a little towards the garish and the colourful, which in a place like NY might seem to be shooting fish in a barrel. For my money, the portraits shot Continue reading “Book review: Humans of New York” →

Book review: Count Zero

CaptainFezLeave a comment

Count Zero.Count Zero by William Gibson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the second of Gibson’s ‘Sprawl trilogy’, and while it exists in the same world as Neuromancer, Count Zero has no compunction about shedding characters from the author’s breakthrough novel. Sure, there’s a couple of familiar faces, but the main players – a back-from-the-dead electro-merc and his target, a disgraced art dealer and her vat-dwelling Howard Hughes-alike boss, and a young-gun hacker – are new, and just as striking as any who’ve come before.

The snapping tension generated by Gibson’s shift of viewpoint between mission operatives in his first novel has flowered here into a tripartite narrative. There’s three stories braiding together through the novel. Obviously, we figure they’ll come together by book’s end, but watching how Continue reading “Book review: Count Zero” →

Book review: Neuromancer

CaptainFez1 Comment

Neuromancer.Neuromancer by William Gibson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’ve had this book since 1989. I’d heard it was cool and, impressionable 13-year-old that I was, I snaffled a copy and was immediately confused by it. I couldn’t get into it, didn’t know what to make of it. I couldn’t go on, and it sat on the shelf since then, occasionally daring me to give it a go, but mostly biding its time.

Here we are, some 16 years later and I’ve finally finished. And my first thought on reaching its conclusion is that if I can ever jack in and meet some representation of 13-year-old me, I’m gonna smack him in the head.

It’s difficult to write about the experience of reading this novel as it’s so hard to separate it from everything that came afterwards. Continue reading “Book review: Neuromancer” →

Book review: Dark Entries

CaptainFezLeave a comment

Dark Entries.Dark Entries by Robert Aickman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Robert Aickman worked in what he described as “strange stories”. It’s an oddly reductive description, inherently self-deprecating, and about as English as you’d expect from a man whose other great enthusiasm was the restoration of the inland canal system. But to think the stories are somehow lesser than more grandiose weird tales would be to underestimate their power. Continue reading “Book review: Dark Entries” →