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First Generation

Advantages: Sections of absolute hilarity
Disadvantages: A lot of filler

As Colony is Rob Grant's first step away from the Red Dwarf series, I was very interested to see how he would do without the established characters of Lister and co. guiding his writing. The book centres around Eddie O' Hare, a lifelong loser who, at the start of the book, is in grave danger due to a clerical error with a large sum of money. As he attempts to win the money in casinos, he manages to get himself involved in a project to save the human ...
...The main problem with Colony is that there's not a lot to credit the sections without comedy. The storyline is definitely there, but it is weak, not particularly engaging and lacking in the credibility department. Furthermore, it eats away at what Grant does best - create laughs. In parts he gets sucked in by the storyline and fails to deliver anything comical at all. The scene setting and charater descriptions are few and far between, I can't even ...

crutchley_am 09.08.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Colony - Rob Grant

Coffins It wasn't the cough that carried him off.

Advantages: Interesting historical horror story.
Disadvantages: Shortish saga. For those that like epics, this may be too short.

"Coffins" is the first novel of Rodman Philbrick's that I have read although from doing a little research into him it would seem he is quite a prolific American author with many titles published including "Freak the Mighty" which was made into the well known film "The Mighty" starring Sharon Stone and Gillian Anderson. Going back to "Coffins" it's not the sort of book I would have bought myself; indeed I didn't as it was bought as a present from ...
...in the best position to judge my literary tastes! But that said it's very nice to be able to report that this time she outdid herself and picked out an extremely entertaining book and I would have no hesitation in selecting another Philbrick novel in the future. The story is set in the Northern American States just before the outbreak of the American Civil War. Dr Davis Bentwood is the Boston medical graduate who thanks to a generous legacy finds ...

etala 21.08.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Coffins - Rodman Philbrick

Closer to Heaven

Advantages: Great character building
Disadvantages: A little slow paced for my taste

Fantasy and science fiction are genres that mesh well together. Some authors have written successfully across both genres, but not usually in the same story. Jaine Fenn has managed to combine both in one book and it's an interesting read. One night, a stranger is found lying unconscious in a bog just outside the village of Dangwern. He appears to have come from nowhere and, apart from a strange piece of cloth lying near his naked body, there is nothing ...
...Unfortunately, this includes the stranger himself, as he is suffering from amnesia and has no idea even where he is, much less how he came to be there. Fortunately for Sais, as he is nicknamed, the boy who finds him is "sky touched". This means he is soon to travel to the City of Lights to be tested to see if he is worthy of being a consort of the goddesses. The village elders permit Sais and the boy's mother Kerin to accompany him to see if anyone ...

Soho_Black 19.12.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Consorts of Heaven - Jaine Fenn

It is not just about football!

Advantages: It's very funny, and oh so true!
Disadvantages: None

The Disc, for those who don't know, continues to float in space, supported by the elephants who ride the back of the great swimming turtle A'tuin. The Hub about which the planet spins is a centre of great magic, and best avoided if you want to live a happy and contented life. At the outer perimeter is the great circle sea which unendingly streams over the rim into the void, which is best avoided if you want to continue to live at all. Most Discians ...
...Smeems, for instance, is the Candle Nave at the Unseen University. He has to worry about keeping the candles not just alight, but properly melted, artistically, gothicly, dribbled, as it were. Of course, there's Trevor to help. And there's Nutt. With two t's. Trevor Likely has a tendency to skive off work whenever possible, and to kick a tin can around. His dad was a legend. Nutt is… well, no-one's quite sure what Nutt is, even him. Goblin isn't ...

hiker 07.12.2009 · Read full review
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Review of The Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett

From Dead to Worse

Advantages: Good read
Disadvantages: Lots of threads, can be confusing

...A failed attempt of takeover from werewolves in another area results in Alcide becoming the new packleader. This, however, comes with a price which is the death of a few weres in the community including the previous packmaster Patrick, Maria-Star, Alcide’s girlfriend. As for the vampires, the explosion in the vampire summit results in the loss of various main personnel in Queen Sophie’s court and the King of Nevada, Felipe, grabs the opportunity. ...
...Louisiana apart from Eric and his gang. Eric surrenders to the new regime and manages to keep his area. And with Sookie saving the King from the attack of the Sophie’s last surviving child, Eric is slowly gaining the trust of the new King. And as for our heroine Sookie, a surprise meeting with her great-grandfather Niall reveals her heritage of being part-fairy. This completes Andre’s discovery of Sookie having fairy blood. And also explains the ...

medgenie 21.11.2009 · Read full review
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Review of From Dead to Worse - Charlaine Harris