Reviews and Comments

I grabbed this off the shelf, wondering if I'd ever actually read it. The first page caught my interest immediately. It turned out to be great. Poetic re-workings of Grimm tales. Wonderful use of language. Contrarian mindset.

Thoroughly fun. Now I'm eager to play the new version of Sid Meier's Pirates! when it comes out.

Dave got me a signed copy when Miéville from was in town. I'm sad I missed that.

I really enjoy the way Miéville's books in this world have characters who experiment with the way magic works. I like fantasy novels where the author has come up with an intricate, consistent cosmology to explain the magical effects that make their worlds unlike ours. (Maybe books that have this quality are really SF, rather than Fantasy...)

Usually, this cosmology is presented from a medieval perspective: the classical ancient civilizations had it all figured out, and their wisdom is passed down through ritual and lore. We, the readers, are presented the whole thing as a complete system.

That's interesting for itself, but Miéville offers an alternative: a researcher who sees a strange effect and tries to figure out how it works through trial and error. A discoverer, rather than a receiver of wisdom. This presentation of magic as science appeals to me, and the incompleteness of the picture makes me want to read more about this world.

A very interesting portrait. It spends a lot of time on the obsessive, anti-social aspects of Newton's personality: his feuds with Hooke and Liebniz, his delving into theology, his alchemical researches, his sulking refusal to publish his research in a venue that would provide criticism. Engaging. A surprisingly quick read.

Now that I've been called a Darcyist, I guess I have to find out just what it means. Melissa was kind enough to loan me her copy.

Quite fun. I was particularly fond of Mr. Bennet. His sense of humor at the absurdity of the entire situation was very entertaining. Rooting for Elizabeth is easy, of course. Her refusal to put up with arrogant nonsense is refreshing.

Won a copy on eBay. Now that I see the cover, I'm sure I've never read this one before, which means I had read Death of the Necromancer before.

The book starts slowly. Too many unimportant characters are named, with too little to distinguish them. However, once the important characters take over, the story does get going nicely. It turns out to be a fun adventure, with sympathetic (though not "nice") characters.

I'm psyched to read what Wells does with this world, now that she's a more experienced writer.

Maybe it's just that I happened to be reading the Castle Falkenstein rulebook before reading this, but there are striking similarities between the details Wells mentions and those in New Europa.

An autobiography with lots of art. It was entertaining to see someone who leans on serendipity as much as I do. I'm glad he's made such good use of the coincidences.

I didn't realize this was a graphic novel when I added it to this list. I don't usually track those. This is a collection of stories about the Endless. Generally pretty good.

I thought this was the Martha Wells book that I've been looking for for years, so I borrowed it from Maggie while helping them move. Now I'm pretty sure that I've read this one before (though not totally sure), and that the one that I've been looking for is actually The Element of Fire.

It's pretty good. The setting is cool: it has the feel of a magical Victorian Europe, with lots of little details about dress and manners to add verisimilitude. Oddly, the characters have the feel of a party in an RPG: very different characters, each with a suspiciously useful skill-set, thrown together with a flimsy rationale. One wonders if it was inspired by a Castle Falkenstein campaign or some such.

I'm looking forward to Wells's new books in the same world.

Ok, now I understand why Jess didn't want to see the movies. They really color perceptions when you go back to the books. I had forgotten just how much stuff there was in this book.

Re-read. For some reason, this was the only gap in my mainline Vorkosigan series, so I stole it from my Mom's bookshelf (where I'd probably left it on a previous trip). A solid Miles book.