John Colton's blog

Wow, I am woefully behind in talking about which books I’ve been reading. Looks like the last “book review” post I made was on 3 Jul 2007, not counting the stuff I said about D'Artagnan a couple of months ago. It’s high time for an update. I think there are over 70 books to catch up on, so this is going to take several sittings to get the job done. Luckily I’ve been more-or-less keeping a list, so even if I miss a few books here or there, this should be fairly accurate.

This is very roughly in chronological order, starting with the books that I read the longest ago.

The Regiment, by John Dalmas - 6.5/10. The book was heading for a 8.5/10 as a pretty good example of military SF, but the ending was poor. Dalmas forgot one of the cardinal rules of writing: "Show, don't tell". The last 20 pages or so were straight telling. Looks like this might be the start of a series, but I have no desire to continue on.

Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey - 6/10. Like the last book, this one was heading for a much higher score, 7 or 8/10, but failed along the way. In the case, the failure was that it was kind of boring in places. There was too much of the stereotypical “girl discovers latent magical powers and goes to school to learn how to control them” thing, and not much plot. At the end, when a plot finally develops, *bam* the book is over.

Arrow's Flight, by Mercedes Lackey - 5.5/10. The continuation of Arrows of the Queen, but not as enjoyable. There was way too much "stuck in a cabin in a snowstorm". About 100 pages too much, to be precise.

Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein - 6.5/10. It was entertaining and well written. This book won the Hugo award in 1960. So, why the relatively low score from yours truly? Well, the biggest annoyance is that there was no plot. It also got kind of preachy in places. Additional info: the wikipedia article on the book says it helped created the military science fiction sub-genre, so it must have been quite revolutionary in the day; probably why it won the Hugo despite obvious failings. It was clear Heinlein had actual military service in his background. (googles quickly) Wow, Heinlein actually went to the Naval Academy, and was in the Navy for 6 years from 1928 - 1934.

The Thursday Next books, by Jasper Fforde - overall series 7/10 so far. These are fun & interesting books where the main character (and others) are able to go inside books, in a Gumby sort of way. They are also able to travel through time. In the early books Thursday is a member of “Jurisfiction”, a governmental organization which makes sure plots to well-known books don’t change beyond reason. In the later books, she deals more with (and is a member of?) the “Chronoguard”, a more sophisticated governmental organization that deals with time-traveling-induced paradoxes. All in all, very clever concepts combined with pretty good execution.
The Eyre Affair - 6.5/10. One of my least favorite of the books, mainly because of the profanity-- “s-word” and “f-word” both. Luckily Ford really toned the language down in subsequent books. Here, Tuesday goes inside Jane Eyre.
Lost in a Good Book - 8.5/10. Sorry, I don’t recall too many plot details, other than Tuesday’s a celebrity due to the events in the previous book. And I think this is where she joins Jurisfiction. At any rate, I liked it!
The Well of Lost Plots - 6.5/10. Fforde got a little too happy about the world he created in this one--after 100 pages in, I still didn't know what the plot was.
Something Rotten - 9/10. This one was outstanding. General I prefer the Chronoguard action to Jurisfiction.
There’s been one more book published after that, but I haven’t read it yet.

A Two-Edged Sword, by Thomas K. Martin - 5/10. This book was moderately entertaining, cruising for a 6.5/10 but (as Pauline pointed out to me) the plot really bogged down in the latter half. It’s “military fantasy” where (stereotypically) a college kid gets transported into a fantasy world and has to join the fight against evil queen. There were a lot of battles and a serious military campaign, but not much of a sense of "why should I care to read this". Then the ending was rather abrupt; apparently it's the first book of a trilogy, which I didn't know at the time (but you would have thought they would have said that on the cover). I don’t plan to continue.

Sympathy for the Devil, by Holly Lisle - 6.5/10. It was entertaining. The premise was quite interesting--a lady prays for God to give the people "burning in Hell" one more chance, so God sends a fair number of the damned souls to her very county. The computer elements of the book were obviously dated (book copyright 1995). Unfortunately too much bad language and too much sex. Also a little much "anything is OK with God as long as you love each other" attitude; while there is a lot of truth in that statement, it's not in promiscuity.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling - 9/10. Not my favorite Harry Potter, but it was very good. Another book with about 100 pages too much camping in the wilderness in it. But, it was a good read, and I liked the ending.

Phule's Errand by Robert Asprin - 6/10. One of the poorer Phule books, mostly writing in the (often unpleasant but) time-honored “travelogue” style. Phule was pretty incompetent in this one, with no explanation for the change in his character. I don’t know if I’ll be reading many more of the Phule books (assuming Asprin writes more).

Myth-Told Tales by Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye - 5/10. A book of Myth Adventure short stories. Most stories were co-written. They were rather poor. The best story was one that was written by Ms. Nye alone, M.Y.T.H., Inc. Proceeds. That one was 7/10. Looks like there have been another 5 Myth books written after this one; I don’t think I’ll be reading them unless someone whose opinion I respect tells me the quality has gone substantially up again.


13 down, lots more to go!