Poor sickly vamps…

The Reformed Vampire Support Group Catherine Jinks
328 pages; published 2009

Vampires are meant to be so glamorous and powerful, but I’m here to inform you that being a vampire is nothing like that. Not one bit. On the contrary, it’s like being stuck indoors with the flu watching daytime television, forever and ever.

If being a vampire were easy, there wouldn’t have to be a Reformed Vampire Support Group. (4)

Nina writes vampire novels; epic adventures in which her heroine, Zadia Bloodtone, is sexy and able to turn into a bat as she, yet again, save the day. Basically do and be everything that Nina is not. For Nina, being a vampire, especially a ‘reformed’ one, is far from glamorous: there’s the daily bouts of nausea, the constant haemorrhaging and the fact that surviving on a feast of guinea pigs is just, well, messy.

Somehow she could never imagine Zadia Bloodstone living her life.

She’s far from alone in this horrendous lifestyle, however, for the few vampires who live in Australia are part of the Reformed Vampire Support Group. While certainly an odd mix, they’ve come to depend on each other throughout the indignities of their existence.

But then one of their number is killed and their routine, if not comfortable, lives are upturned. There’s a vampire killer out there (and let’s face it, how to kill them isn’t exactly the world’s best kept secret) and who knows which one of them could be next.

The Reformed Vampire Support Group was in equal parts gross and hilarious. At the Sydney Writer’s Festival last month, Catherine Jinks said that she was tired of the perfect vampires and floating around and wanted to tell “the truth” of their existence. She certainly succeeded; these are vampires the likes of which I’ve never seen.

I’d recommend it as a nice alternative to some of the more glamorous or impressive vampire books out there – especially if you’d like something without the overwhelming romance, or are looking for something with a touch of humour. Though I should note that it is a touch dark in places and is very much geared at the 15-17 age bracket over the younger YA readers. 3.5/5

To be or not to be…

Sucks to be Me: The All-True Confessions of Mina Hamilton, Teen Vampire (Maybe) Kimberly Pauley
293 pages; published 2008

My parents are trying to ruin my life. Oh yeah, I know that every teenager says that, but I  really mean it. they want me dead. Or actually, undead.

My parents are vampires. Some people might think that sounds cool, but I’m not talking about those romanticised bloodsuckers, like in novels where everybody walks around in ruffled white shirts and can quote poetry. I don’t know where people get that stuff. Nothing could be further than the truth. My dad couldn’t quote a nursery rhyme if somebody paid him. He likes to watch football and CNN. He wouldn’t know (or care) who Stephenie Meyer was if she came up and bit him. (1)

Mina Hamilton is a normal 15 year old girl. She goes to high school with quirky teachers, she has a best friend she adores, and a speechless-rendering crush on the cutest boy in school. Oh yes, and her parents are vampires.

That’s right, vampires, members of the Northwest Regional Vampire Counsel. It’s not so cool as you might think however. For starters, she can’t actually tell anyone (and who’d believe her if she did?), then there’s the fact that they have amazing hearing, so there’s absolutely no sneaking anything past them, and now (how wonderful) Mina has to decide if she wants to be a vampire too – ah, no!

Turns out he wasn’t really supposed to know about her parents at all, and now she has to go to vampire lessons to help her make an informed decision about her life (or should that be her death?). Her choices: 1) become a vampire and *gulp* drink blood for the rest of her life, or 2) face the possibility of never seeing her family again. What on earth can she do?

I’m curious to see exactly how long the vampire book fixation is going to last. I’m good for a while yet, but the end must be coming soon, right? Still, the parents being the vampires was a nice twist. It was new to me at least – anyone know of others?

I found Mina to be a realistic narrator. I felt sorry for the poor girl. I particularly enjoyed her interruptions of the narration to insert varying pro/con lists or lists about why it “sucks to be her”. What can I say? I can appreciate a character with a list obsession.

Pauley’s take on vampirism was an interesting one – blood bars and vampire pamphlets and ‘sponsoring’ – though I’m not sure how I feel about her transformation process (read it and see). Not the most reinvented I’ve see so far though, that would probably have to be the House of Night series).

All in all a pretty good read. Recommended to any YA vampire lovers. 3.5/5

Angels and Visitations

Angels and Visitations: A Miscellany
Neil Gaiman
166 pages; published 1993

Memory is the great deceiver. Perhaps there are individuals whose memories act like tape recordings, daily records of their lives complete in every detail, but I am not one of them. My memory is a patchwork of occurrences, of discontinuous events roughly sewn together: the parts I remember, I remember precisely, whilst other sections seem to have vanished completely. (141)

I always enjoy Neil Gaiman’s writing, so I pretty much knew I would love this one too. His writing is just so clever, so rich, that you can’t help but want to read more.

Angels and Visitations, however, was a little different from the other novels and short stories of his that I’ve read. It is, as the title says, ‘a miscellany’, a collection of literary bits and pieces he has accumulated over the years: poetry, book reviews, stories written for this and that. As such, it was a bit of an odd collection, but still full of wonderful pieces that I’d recommend to any Neil Gaiman fan. 4.5

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Battle of the Sexes!

Olympic Games
Leslie What
234 pages; published 2004

Hera could practically smell the seduction on his breath; the way Zeus offered her a goblet of sweetened wine, how he plumper her feather pillows and tenderly slid them beneath her back. He rubbed her feet with clove-scented oil, then performed her favourite little trick: lighting the clouds on fire to leave warm, moist trails of smoke. Delightful. Oh, her husband was an expert at seduction when he wanted to be.

There was only one problem and it was a big one.

Zeus was not seducing her. (12)


Since the beginning of time, Zeus and Hera have been King and Queen of the Gods: greatest of the Olympians and supreme overseers of mortal beings. This hasn’t changed, though the times certainly have. Thing is though, what is a god without anyone to worship them?

In the hustle and bustle of modern life, worship of the Greek Gods has all but disappeared, and many of the Olympians (all but Hera and Zeus, in fact) have elected to do just that themselves, simply fade out of existence rather than continue in an unworshipped state.

For Hera and Zeus, however, it’s life as usual: Zeus charms and philanders while Hera gripes and deals with the consequences of having such a husband. This is all well and good until, as prophesised by a street oracle, a flame from Zeus’ past comes back to wreak havoc on their newly re-established alliance.

Penelope was a water naiad Zeus seduced and trapped inside a tree back in the “old country.” When freed by a love starved hermit named Possum, her human presence alerts Zeus, whose interest is immediately reinflamed.

Meanwhile, Hera’s abandoned and genetically curious son, Igor, (half Greek God, half common bar beetle) mourns the absence of his ‘father’ in his life. Despite Hera’s, admittedly somewhat indifferent, wishes he sets out to seek Zeus out.

What will happen when all characters collide? Will Zeus accept his ‘son’ and, by extension, his long-suffering wife? Or will he go onto disrupt the happy life of Penelope and Possum, claiming what he thinks of as his own? And what of Hera? Will she learn to love her son as she should, or is everything simply lost in her unending task of reigning in Zeus?

Leslie What’s Olympic Games was an ‘almost’ book for me. By that I mean that the characters, story, writing, humour, everything, was ALMOST right. I enjoyed the book, but it left me with a feeling of falling short, as if it had potential that it didn’t quite meet.

Zeus was nothing more than a hedonistic womaniser and Hera a bitter, self-centred prima donna. While I accept that, as gods of a central idea of concept, these characters may become very focused, What’s interpretations were, in places, almost two dimensional. In all fairness, I am a long-time fan of shows such as Xena: the Warrior Princess and Hercules: the Legendary Journeys, whose visions of the gods are much more rounded; I already had high expectations.

Secondary characters (Possum, Igor) were a little more interesting, but it’s redeeming character was that of Eddie, the mentally retarded shop assistant, whose chapters were heart-wrenchingly honest. He made me laugh and he made me cry. For me, he saved the book.

I was interested to read that it was a short story that had been rewritten into a novel. That cleared up a lot for me. I think that, for me, it would have been more satisfying as a short story. 2.5/5

Purchase Olympic Games here.

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Storm Front

Jim Butcher

341 pages; published 2000

My name is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Conjure by it at your own risk. I’m a wizard. I work out of an office in midtown Chicago. As far as I know, I’m the only openly practicing professional wizard in the country. You can find me in the yellow pages, under ‘Wizards.’ Believe it or not, I’m the only one there. My ad looks like this:

HARRY DRESDEN – WIZARD

Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations.

Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates.

No Love Potions, Endless Purses, Parties, or Other

Entertainment.

You’d be surprised how many people call just to ask me if I’m serious. But then, if you’d seen the things I’d seen, if you knew half of what I knew, you’d wonder how anyone could not think I was serious. (2-3)

When I come across a review of a book I find interesting it goes on a list (one that gets a little on the long side from time to time) until I can it down. As such, a lot of the time I borrow a book from the library no longer remembering why it was I wanted to read it in the first place – Storm Front, the first book of Jim Butcher’s ‘Dresden Files’ series, was one such book.

As soon as I started reading however, it came swooping back.

Harry Dresden is a professional wizard, hiring himself out as a private detective and police consultant to pay his rent and make his way in life. At the start of the book, Harry is somewhat lacking on the monetary front and takes in two assignments – one tracking down a quiet wife’s missing husband, and another consulting on magical murder case with the Chicago P.D.

It is with the murder case that most of the book is concerned, especially when Dresden himself becomes a suspect.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish – attracting many a strange look for my outright laughter. Told entirely in the first person, Harry’s voice is frank, honest, and downright hilarious.

Paranoid? Probably. But just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that there isn’t an invisible demon about to eat your face. (9)

I did feel, in parts, that this book was trying to set up a lot for the future books, and as such didn’t guy into the depth I would have liked – but as there are several books to follow, this is natural and forgivable.

Purchase Storm Front (Dresden Case Files) here.

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Dead Until Dark
Charlaine Harris
326 pages; published 2004

For a second I felt ashamed at calling Bill to rescue me: I should have handled the situation myself. Then I thought, Why? When you know a practically invincible being who professes to adore you, someone so hard to kill it’s next to impossible, someone preternaturally strong, that’s who you’re gonna call. (255-6)

Sookie Stackhouse lives in the small town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. Her life is ordinary – she lives with her grandmother, works at the local bar, and has a brother who lives nearby. Problem is, despite her lifestyle, Sookie herself is anything but ordinary. Ever since she was a young girl, Sookie has had the ability to read the minds of those around her.

Normality never sticks around for very long though – at least not with a character like Sookie in the lead. Bon Temps starts to wake up with the revelation of the reality of vampires (they’re “coming out of the coffin”). With the development of a viable synthetic blood, vampires no longer have to feed on humans to survive, and many are seeking a more human lifestyle.

When one such vampire, oh-so-scarily named "Bill", moves to town and, incidentally, next door to Sookie, her life suddenly gets turned upside down. Bill is tall, dark and handsome - and definately dangerous - but, most appealing of all, Sookie cannot hear his thoughts. Around, she does not have to endure the aching strain required to simply afford people their privacy. She is free to just relax.

But when a local woman dies under suspicious circumstances, Sookie finds herself dating a prime suspect. At what cost does her freedom come?

Vampire romances are a dime-a-dozen at the moment. Everywhere you turn you find yet another one creeping up behind you. Despite this, I found Dead Before Dark, the first of the Sookie Stackhouse series, to be an enjoyable light read. While still maintaining the romantic coupling of the moment - a (relatively) normal human girl with the dark scary vamp - it does mix it up a bit by ensuring that she herself is not entirely normal. Sookie doesn't belong in Bill's world ... but she doesn't really fit in her own either.

Harris' writing was a little slow in places; I felt like I was wading through it at times to get to the next part. Having said that, I would still recommend it to fans of the genre. Harris' humour comes into play quite strongly, leaving the book with a slightly oddball air to it, only to be effectively cut down when some of the darker elements come to the surface.

A fun read, the sequel of which I'm looking forward to reading. 3.5/5

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• Trisha at Trisha's Book Blog

Second star to the right...

Posts have been a little sparse lately, sorry bout that. Being on prac, means I haven't really had the time to read (sad) let alone review, but I've got some done, so I'm gonna try to spread them out to cover my time away.

Peter and the Starcatchers
Dave Barry and Ridley Scott
463 pages; published 2006

Peter was the leader of the boys, because he was the oldest. Or maybe he wasn’t. Peter had no idea how old he really was, so he gave himself whatever age suited him, and it suited him to always be one year older than the oldest of his mates. If Peter was nine, and a new boy came to St. Norbert’s Home for Wayward Boys who said he was ten, why, then Peter would declare himself to be eleven. Also, he could spit the farthest. That made him the undisputed leader. (13)

The first in a trilogy chronicling the events before J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, Peter Pan and the Starcatchers is a suprisingly delightful read. Why suprising? Well, as a firm believer in the 'original is always best' school of thought, I had not expected this prequel to be both as interesting and charming as it was.

Peter and his band of loyal friends (the origins of the Lost Boys) are wards of London's St. Norbert's Home for Wayward Boys. Taken away from the home in an mystery only achievable by unexplained midnight outing, the young boys are boarded on a ship, the Never Land. They soon learn that they are being tansported to the island of Rundoon, to be slaves to island's ruthless king - a man more likely to feed the boys to his snake than offer them any real or home or employment, let alone kindness.

But even before they get to Runddon things are prety rough. The Never Land's crew runs the gamut from incompetent to downright villainous, their quarters are cramped, and the food literally has things living it - not exactly a luxury liner. The only source of friendship found onboard by Peter is in the form of Alf, a kindly deckhand and the curious secretive young passenger, Molly.

Downtrodden and disgusting the voyage may be, but it doesn't lack for excitement - for it is not long before a pirate ship, captaied by the infamous 'Black Stache', starts to run them down, determined to retrieve a crumbling trunk in the Never Land's cargo.

Why are these pirates so intent on retrieving the trunk? What is inside it? And just how is Molly involved?

As I said, Peter and the Starcatchers was a lovely read - both funny and moving in equal parts. Young Peter and the others were true enough to their original counterparts to be a faithful retelling, yet fresh enough to be of interest. There were times that I felt the story to be a little on the long side - at over 400 pages, it is rather long for the start of a children's trilogy - yet despite this, there was no real dragging of the story.

My only real issue ith teh book - and it was an extremely light one at that - was that the almost ultra-realistic tone of teh start led me to beleive that it was going to be a realistic reinterpretation of the book. It's magical elements returned quickly and, while executed well, I thought it would have been interesting to have it go down the other route.

A wonderful read for lovers of Peter Pan and new readers like. 4/5

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First thing I did was steal a body...

Repossessed
A.M. Jenkins218 pages; published 2007
I don't like the term "demon". It carries quite a bit of negativity with it. It implies a pointy tail and cloven hooves. I prefer the term "fallen angel". That is, indeed, what we are. The difference between us and the angels who didn't fall from grace is that the Unfallen were, are, and always will be faithful, stalwart, and obedient. That is their nature, just as it is their nature to rejoice in worship and contemplation of the vastness of the Creator's perfection. We, the Fallen, wondered, questioned, confronted, eventually demanded, and in general, pushed the edges of the envelope until the envelope burst.

[...] the Unfallen don't hang out with us peons much anymore.

I've never really liked those guys. (p 9/10)

Kiriel is one of the Fallen, one of the angels who supported Satan in his uprising. But after spending millenia in the bowels of Hell, reflecting the sorrows of the sinners under his jurisdiction while living out his own eternal punishment, things have become a little stale and he decides to take a little vacation.

In order to take this vacation, Kiriel hijacks the body of the unassuming Shaun seconds before he dies - Kiriel thinks this perfectly acceptable, after all, he was going to die anyway, and his possession merely eliminated much of the pain the boy would have felt anyway. Taking over his body, however, also means taking over his life and Kiriel finds himself immersed in the sensations and emotions of human life - and more specifically, the world of a seventeen year old.

Kiriel knows that his 'vacation' won't go unnoticed forever though - it is, after all, completely against the rules - but he intends to enjoy it for as long as 'humanly' possible.

angeloftheLord: Kiriel, you are trespassing in direct contravention of the Creator's wishes. This is a warning: Return to your duties or you will be punished.

All the warmth had left my fingertips.

trojanxxl: who is this?

Bloo-bloo-bloop!

angeloftheLord: You must return to your duties immediately.

An eternity of wishing to speak directly to my Creator, I thought in despair - and this is how He finally contacts me? Through AOL Instant Messenger? (p 97/8)


While I loved the premise of the novel, and found it cute funny in places, I did have my issues with it. For instance, it took less than twenty pages for Kiriel to turn to his first major exploration of humanity: masturbation. This leads into his central (not only, but major) quest for the novel: sex. He sets his sights on one girl and pursues her for the entirely with little (some but not much) regard for the reality of the situation or the fact that this is a real person he's trying to catch here. Perhaps this would appeal more to a male, seventeen-year-old audience, but, for me, it had quite a large negative impact on what should have been a good book.

That said, however, it did have it's redeeming qualities. The presentation of Kiriel as a fallen angel (as opposed to a 'demon') who, despite his backing of Satan ("The Boss"), sincerly and desperately wishes to retain the communication with, and love of, God ("The Creator") was both fascinating and moving. Similarly, the unrecognised acts of redemption Kiriel undertakes during his illicit 'vacation' are quite touching.

It was an okay book - shifting to quite good in places - but overall I feel that the story had the potential to be much better than it was. 2.5/5



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The end of the world...

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

383 pages; published 1990

"This isn't how I imagined it, chaps," said War. "I haven't been waiting for thousands of years just to fiddle around with bits of wire. It's not what you'd call dramatic. Albrecht Duerer didn't waste his time doing woodcuts of the Four Button-Pressers of the Apocalypse, I do know that." -- Armageddon delayed by technical difficulties

Never before has the Apocalypse been so funny. Forget fire and brimstone or Doomsday clocks, when the end of the world is being told by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman you know you're in for a strange ride.

The Anti-Christ has come to Earth. This means the end of the world - it has, after all, been foretold in the 'Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter' (sixteenth century witch and nutball). The final battle between Heaven and Hell will soon be waged and all of it will be brought to head by this one child.

Unfortunately for all involved, there's a slight mix up in the baby-switching operation and the child in question is just an ordinary child, whereas the Anti-Christ, the spawn of Satan himself, is sent off to the quiet little suburban town of Tadfield to live his days as a normal kid and all round rascal.

'Field agents' in this cosmic battle are the demon Crowley (formerly the more serpentine 'Crawley' - the reptilian temptor) and the angel Aziraphale. The pair have been monitoring ("messing with") the state of avairs on Earth - a touch a good here, a slew of evil there - since the beginning of time and, despite their inherent differences, have long since come to a kind of truce, even friendship. What's more, this friendship allows them to come to the reluctant opinion that, inspite of the Great Plan, in spite of the fact that their respective sides have been working towards this final showdown for millenia, well, they rather like Earth.

'We'll win, of course,' he said.

'You don't want that,' said the demon.

'Why not, pray?'

[...]

'...No salt, no eggs. No gravlax with dill sauce. No fascinating little restaurantswhere they know you. No Daily Telegraph crossword. No small antique shops. No bookshops, either. No interesting old editions. No -' Crowley scraped the bottom of Aziraphale's barrel of interests - 'Regency silver snuffboxes...'

'But after we win life will be better!' croaked the angel.

'But it won't be as interesting. Look, you know I'm right. You'd be as happy with a harp as I'd be with a pitchfork.' (47/8)

Putting a plan in motion to monitor the "Anti-Christ", to make sure his natural evil tendencies do not come out in full force, the pair are rather pleased with themselves ... until they lean that it has all been for naught. The Anti-Christ, one Adam Young, is still out there somewhere, the four horsemen (bikers) are riding and the Apocalypse is nigh.

Can Crowley and Aziraphale get there in time to stop it? Can they dodge paranoid witch hunters, aliens, and superiors from Hell (literally) and save the Earth before it's too late?

I normally avoid books written by two authors, I find that more often than not, the two voices jar against one another. But when I saw that Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (two of my favourite authors) had paired up, I just couldn't resist. And I could not have been happier! Pratchett's outrageous humour was not suffocated but cushioned, enhanced, by Gaiman's rich detail; their two styles flowed together beautifully.

Good Omens was just the right amount of serious story telling and nutty commentary. Heartily recommended! 4.5/5

The Eyre Affair

Jasper Fforde

384 pages, published 2001

Book 1 in the Thursday Next series

Though I have read The Eyre Affair in the past, I thought I'd reread it since I bought the rest of the series in a recent book buying binge... wait... I wasn't going to admit to that... can I take it back?

Okay let's start again: I have never read this book before and there is no rest of the series sitting on my book shelf and there was no book buying whatsoever. I am firmly sticking to my (stupidly) self-imposed "no new books" policy and as such there was no book binging whatsoever ... now if you'll excuse me, I just have to go and revive Bethany who has collapsed in disbelieve.

On with the review.

Thursday Next, experienced operative in the London LiteraTech (Literary Detective) divison, is somewhat bored with her life: she is tired of her job, can't remember the last time she saw her time travelling father for more than five minutes, and lives alone with her pet Dodo. What she doesn't know, however, is that her world is about to be turned upside down when she is assigned to the investigation of the theft of the original manuscript of Charles Dickens Chuzzlewit. Far from an ordinary case, Thursday meets her arch-nemesis - criminal mastermind Acheron Hades, a man gleefully free of morals and who doesn't pull back from his threats to remove (and forever kill) long beloved literary characters, right off the page.

Though her encounter with Hades is a complete disaster, Hades still feels the need to increase the stakes in their relationship by threatening the integrity (and the live) of a more beloved book/character - Jane Eyre. Without the heroine, the novel will be destroyed forever. Will Thursday be able to save Jane? Can she restore her rightful place? And will she be able to all this and still manage to escape Hades herself? 5/5

Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents - Terry Pratchett

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
Terry Pratchett

241 pages, published 2001

A Discworld novel intended for a young adult audience, Amazing Maurice is the hilarious story of a talking cat (Maurice), a young piper, and their band of “educated rodents” who move fro m town to town making a living by providing and then effectively removing rat infestations.

A clever, not to mention humorous, retelling of the Pied Piper folk tale, you can’t pass up Terry Pratchett. 3/5

Georgia Nicolson Series

Angus, Thongs, Full-Frontal Snogging

On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God

Knocked Out By My Nunga-Nungas

Dancing in My Nuddy Pants
Louise Rennison

Being the dedicated, hard-working student that I am, I'm reading as many teen books as I can get my hands on ... what, you didn't buy the part about being dedicated and hard-working? Yeah, okay, i probably wouldn't have, either. To be honest I was drawn in by the titles of this series a few months ago, so when I saw them in Penrith Library today I picked up the first two. I read the whole thing this afternoon - and had to read the bits I kept laughing over to Bethany. It was extraordinarily crude but definitely funny. Almost like an updated Secret Diary of Adrian Mole. If you like to read the whining of a teenager who is somewhat insane, then give this one a go. 3/5

Death Takes an Apprentice

Mort (Discworld Novel 4)
Terry Pratchett
316 pages, published 1987

Terry Pratchett, a gangly-extra-elbowed boy, Death scaring away cats and lots of weird food. What more could you want from a novel? I’m very quickly becoming a proud Terry Pratchett addict – I really don’t know why I held out so long. I love any book where Death himself is a character, but I think that Terry Pratchett’s Death is coming to be my favourite (maybe he and the others I love can battle it out) and as such, this is my favourite Discworld novel to date.

In this book, Death (already established in the series by this stage) decides to take on an apprentice, so much of the story is about him, Mort, rather than Death. But occasionally we’ll see Death going off to the pub, trying out new and extraordinary food and generally scaring each and every cat that comes his way. 4/5

Abracadabra!

Equal Rites (Discworld Novel 3)
Terry Pratchett

283 pages, published 1987

Again, you really can’t go wrong with Terry Pratchett and, seeing as I’m working my way through the series, you’ll probably get a few of these.

Equal Rites starts with an elderly and dying wizard coming to a small town to bequeath his staff and all his magic powers to the seventh son of a seventh son – imagine everyone’s surprise when the child turns out to be a girl! Right in the middle of novel battling back and forth between the gender inequalities inherent to both witch and wizarding traditions of magic, our young magic-seeker finds herself having to make her way through the these stereotypes to get where she wants, aided of course by her (ever stereotypical) elderly witch guardian. 3/5

The Light Fantastic (Discworld Novel 2)
Terry Pratchett

285 pages, published 1986

I should have known not to pick up the first Discworld novel (The Colour of Magic) when I did, I should have known I would have gotten hooked – imagine my surprise when I found out there was over forty novels in this series! My God.

Anyways, I loved this book, but who doesn’t love Terry Pratchett? He’s weird, funny, utterly random in his humour and, just when you think he couldn’t get any crazier, he says something so completely profound. The interactions between the two main characters (Rincewind and Twoflower) are hilarious, but it’s worth reading for the descriptions of the Luggage alone. 4/5

The Greatest Show Off Earth - Robert Rankin

The Greatest Show Off Earth
Robert Rankin
316 pages, published 1994


This was a recommendation from my uncle (who insisted on my reading Robert Rankin) which I enjoyed more than I thought I would. A kind of ridiculous humour, Terry Pratchett-meets-Douglas Adams, it tells the story of two friends: one of whom is kidnapped to be produce at an alien meat market, and another who reads of his adventure in a future-telling book he stumbles across and is shot at for.

Overall it was pretty funny, but in a ‘that’s just so pathetic I can’t not laugh’ kind of way. What I loved best was that the narrator seemed to be completely aware of the fact that he was in a book and would kind often try to mislead the reader just to be annoying (and would comment on it) and would end each section part-way through a sentence, with the next section completely subverting the pathway in a funny (and usually crude) way. A good laugh. 3/5