Endymion

Endymion is the third book in the Hyperion Cantos series by Dan Simmons.

After finding the last book a little patchy at times, this one returned to the same sort of pacing and thrust that made me love the first book. This story picks up nearly 300 years after the last one ends. The daughter of one of the characters from the previous book entered one of the time tombs and appeared in Hyperion 274 years later. Since then things have changed throughout the former web worlds and the church has a vested interest in keeping things the way they are. The last thing they need is a little girl, with the power to topple their stronghold on the galaxy, messing things up for them.

The timeline does jump around a little and there are always a couple of stories happening at the same time, but it is a lot more direct and easier to follow than the last book. I think this was helped by the fact I was able to read is in relatively few sittings. OK, they were spread over the best part of a month, but at least each time I picked it up I got through quite a few pages.

I’m really looking forward to the last book in the series. Fingers crossed it ends strongly…

Cheers

Tim…

The Fall of Hyperion

The Fall of Hyperion is the second book in the Hyperion Cantos series by Dan Simmons.

I’m not really sure what to say about The Fall of Hyperion. On the one hand, I was very interested to see what happened to the characters from the previous book. On the other hand, this book was much less focussed and quite disjointed at times. It didn’t help that it took me a long time to get through it, reading it in small snippets, rather than a few long sittings.

Despite my minor misgivings, I’ve already started the next book in the series and I’m keen to see how this plays out.

Cheers

Tim…

PS. I’ve just checked the dates between this post and the one from the proceeding book. It took about 2 months to get through it. I’m sure that has a big factor on my perception of it.

Hyperion (Dan Simmons)…

Hyperion is the first in the Hyperion Cantos series by Dan Simmons.

What a great Sci-Fi book! A group of seven travellers are on a pilgrimage to Hyperion. Six of the seven tell the stories of how they came to be there, with the sixth story kind-of linking things together. There is no real conclusion to the story as the next book carries on the story from the point the first one ends. It was definitely written as a series!

The timeline jumps around quite a bit through the book, but in a good way. It’s not done in a confusing way.

Definitely worth a look for any Sci-Fi readers out there.

Cheers

Tim…

PS. I put the authors name in the title, for fear of confusing people into thinking this was about work. 🙂

Chapterhouse: Dune

Chapterhouse Dune is the last in the Dune series by Frank Herbert.

It’s really hard for me to make a judgement about Chapterhouse: Dune. On the one hand there are some excellent characters and the general story line is great. On the other, there are parts I found really boring. I got a bit sick of the teasers without any explanation. At first is was intriguing, but as they continued I just got a bit fed up with them and decided to stop second guessing the outcome and just let it happen. I think there are two ways an author can play this game:

1) Make the outcome fairly obvious from the start, but make the journey to get there exciting. Kind of like The Dresden Files.
2) Make the outcome a mystery, but subtly lead you in the right direction.

I think this book is trying to do the latter, but is quite clumsy about it. Having said all that, I’m glad I read it. The overall outcome is more than satisfactory.

I’m not going to read the books by Frank Herbert’s son. I’ve been told they are not good, and the brief snippets I’ve read seem to reinforce that.

I guess the end of a series of books like this needs a bit of a summary. I think the first book is a total classic. The rest you can take or leave. There are definitely interesting elements to all of them, but they are not nearly as accomplished as the first.

Cheers

Tim…

God Emperor of Dune…

God Emperor of Dune is the fourth book in the Dune series by Frank Herbert.

After the randomness of the previous book, this fourth one was a lot more on-the-money. There are a number of scenes in the book I really hooked into, including one I blogged about a few days ago. It’s far from perfect, but it kept me interested. Probably the worst part of the book was then ending, which was rather lackluster.

I’m looking forward to see if this direction continues into the next book.

Cheers

Tim…

Children of Dune…

Children of Dune is the third book in the Dune series written by Frank Herbert.

As I suspected, Children of Dune is a bit random. In summarised form the story would sound quite good, but the books rambles on a lot. I found myself wishing for chapters to end. I’m told by a few people things pick up from here. I’ve already started the next book and so far it sounds pretty promising… 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Cold Days…

Cold Days is the latest book in The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher.

So Harry is alive again and now he’s the Winter Knight. The enforcer for Mab, the crazy queen of the Winter Fairies. Maybe staying dead was the better option. So what’s the first thing Mab orders Harry to do? Kill an immortal, whilst fighting an army of other-worldly beings, all the time trying to keep his friends safe and prevent Chicago from being leveled. Another day in the office for Harry Dresden.

I must admit this was a little struggle for me at first. The characters of Repairman Jack, Felix Castor and Harry Dresden have all merged in my head. Coming back to Harry confused me at times because I expected a different pattern of behavior from him, only to realize I was thinking about how one of the characters from one of the other authors would react. Once I got locked into Harry-mode, it was all guns blazing.

The pattern is very similar to the other books in the series. There are predictable story lines you can see from a mile off, with a number of curve balls thrown in along the way. There were definitely a few OMG moments in this book. Especially towards the end. I’m looking forward to the next book to see how some of this pans out. I can tell you now, Harry is going to have some serious ear-ache from some of his best friends!

Cheers

Tim…

Dune…

I’ve been a fan of the film Dune for ages. I also liked the TV mini series. The Children of Dune TV mini series was a bit too random for me. A remake of Dune is in the offing. With that in mind it is a little surprising to me that I’ve never got round to reading the book until now.

I think it’s safe to say I loved it. It’s one of the coolest things I’ve read in ages. Watching the film and TV series did not spoil it for me in the slightest, and quite unusually, reading the book has not lessened my love of the film.

The characters are brilliant. There is a lot of wisdom in the book too. In a previous post I mentioned one quote. I could pick out loads that are incredibly well observed and interesting. It ticks so many of the boxes for me I’m just sad there are not more of the same quality. Having discussed this book with some of the Oakies, they’ve advised me the rest in the series are pretty bad and the books written by his son are terrible. I’m not sure if I will read more, because I’m not sure I want to risk the disappointment. I’ll think on it.

I’m moving on to Cold Days now. Go Harry!

Cheers

Tim…

Girl 99…

When I was at University I lived in shared houses with the author of Girl 99, Andy, for several years. We were on the same degree course and both stayed on to do PhDs. When he left to go to London I shared a house with his (then) girlfriend for a year before she left Uni. Suffice to say, over those years I got to know the guy pretty well.

A few days ago I got an email to say his book was available in the Kindle store so I immediately bought a copy and started reading. It’s kinda weird reading a novel written by a friend, because part of you is looking for the pieces of them that have made it into the characters. It is a long way from being an autobiography, but I can spot elements of the author, and possibly other people we knew, in the book. Of course, I could probably say the same of any number of books if I were looking for the connections. 🙂

So what about the story itself?

“William Fisher is on a mission to bring the total number of his sexual conquests up to 100.

During the course of his quest he sleeps with a colleague, a colleague of a friend, a friend of a friend, a friend of a friend’s wife, the estate agent selling his flat, and several more besides. Everything is going, if not well, then at least according to plan … and then Fisher goes and ruins it all by falling for Girl 99.

Girl 99 is a story about love, sex and the sticky area in-between.”

It’s really cool. The lead character had a good mix of funny, sad, frustrating and endearing qualities. Some scenes resulted in full on belly laughs, while others were of a more reflective nature.

The writing style was really comfortable to read and it was paced well, making me a little annoyed when I had to put it down. 🙂

If you fancy reading it, I would love to hear your feedback, as would the author in the Amazon reviews…

Call me biased, but I’m looking forward to reading the next book from this author. I’ve already suggested the lead character should be a boring, fat science graduate that stumbles into an IT job… 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Repairman Jack : Nightworld…

Nightworld is (sort-of) the sixteenth book in the Repairman Jack series by F. Paul Wilson.

The days are getting shorter, the stars are changing and all hope is lost… Or is it?

Having thought that I had finished this series at book 15, it seemed a little daunting to start book 16, but I’ve made it my mission to finish this book as soon as possible. As I’ve mentioned a number of times, this is one dark series of books. I would go as far as to describe them as depressing. I do like the Jack character a lot, but my liking of him does not outweigh the toll this series of books takes on you. I feel like a need a course of Prozac now…

Whatever I read next, it better be bright and breezy!

Cheers

Tim…