The Sword-Edged Blonde

An excellent fantasy novel.  I was intrigued by the title (I'm still not entirely certain how it relates to the book), and discovered a fantastically realised world, and character within the world.  An intriguing plot, involving goddesses, the main character's uneasy past, and a brilliant mass of sub-plots.

One of the things I particularly liked was the way the swords used by the mercenary problem solver Eddie LaCrosse had brand names, like guns.  There were fantastic action scenes, intense emotional sections, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Can't wait to find the sequel.

Redeeming Love

Wow.  I read this book last night when I couldn't sleep (I'm nervous about going to uni, and no matter how much I logically know that there's no reason for me to be this nervous and there's not exactly much I can do about it, it doesn't seem to make any difference to the fact that I'm struggling to sleep), and I was seriously impressed.  I don't often read romances (ie, almost never unless I have no other choice), but I got this one for my birthday so I thought I'd better read it.  And wow.  What a story.  Powerful, moving, and intense, it's one of those books that will stick with you forever.

Set in Gold Rush California, it is, in effect, a modern retelling of the story of Hosea.  For those of you not familiar with the story: God told Hosea to marry a prostitute and love her, because He loved Israel but Israel was acting like a prostitute, running off and being besotted with other gods instead of following God.  But this story looks at the more personal consequences, for both the man, Michael Hosea, the prostitute, Angel, and others who interact with them.  Stunningly well told, with gripping and intriguing characters, from the quiet strength--and sometimes angry passion--of Michael Hosea, to the bubbly Miriam, the initially aloof and scarred Angel, and the pimps, fellow prostitutes and a whole host of excellent supporting characters.  Wow is about all I can say to sum it up.  Even if you're not much into romances or historical novels, this is well worth a read.  It's incredibly powerful, incredibly gripping, incredibly moving.  I had tears in my eyes several times over, and am really glad I was given it--I doubt I would have read it otherwise.

I can't recommend this book enough.  An excellent story from start to finish.

Red Alert

Another of the excellent UNACO series, written by Alastair MacNeill, based on the outlines for films (never filmed as far as I know) by Alastair MacLean.  If it sounds like a somewhat improbable provenance, especially as Alastair MacNeill hasn't written anything outside this series, I gotta confess I felt the same until I started reading the series.

It's excellent.  Great characters, particularly Sabrina and Mike.  And yes, this is a thriller where there's a male and female character who don't fall hopelessly in love, and Sabrina is actually pretty independent and a great character in her own right!  Amazing.  And the plot is fantastic, lots of nice twists and turns, action, excitement.  I reckon this is one of my favourites from the series.  The Red Brigades in Italy have got hold of a deadly virus in a raid on a plant.  They call it 'sleeping gas', and there's a power struggle amongst the leadership, meaning that nobody actually seems to know where the virus is--including the leaders of the Red Brigades, who decide to work alongside the police in order to get the virus back from the rogue cell.  But all is not as it seems.  Need I say more?  All the excitement and plot twists you'd expect from an Alastair MacLean, but the characters are slightly more developed in this series and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Dust to Dust

I've rather enjoyed the Stephen Dunbar thrillers up til now.  They've had interesting plots, and even if the romance element has followed exactly the same pattern throughout, they've shown good variety in terms of the main plot.  And the science has always been fascinating.  But this one, the latest (and given events in the book, presumably the last in the series) was really disappointing.  The plot revolved around a cure for AIDS, which was kinda interesting and (apparently) a viable if somewhat risky bit of science.  And also a murdered soldier.  Well, not really murdered.  But sorta murdered.  But sorta just killed accidentally.  But...  Yeh, you get the picture.  Fair enough to show that I guess, but the problem was that the mysterious 'patient x' who was getting the cure wasn't ever named, although was supposedly an important public figure.  Member of the royal family I guess, but it never actually said.  Which was annoying, because I was expecting there to be a bit of a scandal at the end.  But no.  Just a long drawn out plot, not as much excitement or interest as there usually is, a typically pathetic female character (seriously, I don't think it'd be such a problem that he has a dangerous job, I mean, let's face it, people do marry soldiers...  But Ken McClure seems under the impression that every single woman would dump his main character in the end (as in, about the end of the book, so that he can introduce a new woman and do the same romance plot again) rather than stick with him...).

Yeh, wasn't impressed.  Enjoyed the rest of the series, but this was a really feeble ending.  Sorta spoilt the rest of the series for me too.  Ah well.  Don't bother reading it.

Packing...

I am packing, honest.  I've packed my books (get the most important things sorted first...), I've got some other stuff packed or dumped in the spare room to be packed, and I'm starting a packing list.  But honestly, when did it get so hard to work out what I need to take with me?  How many books?  Glasses case, must remember that.  And pyjamas, given that I have a talent for forgetting pyjamas.  Alarm clock, need one of them.  Notebooks, pens...  It feels like I'm going away for years almost--although it's only two months.  And I want to take loads of books but my mum's persuaded me not to.  Well, told me not to more like.

I'm guessing I'll take too much stuff this time and then next time I go I'll have a better idea of what I need.  I'm just worried that I'll get there and realise I need my bike (which I've decided not to take this time), or I'll have forgotten something vital, like my timetable for fresher's week or something important like that.  Hopefully I won't.  We'll just have to see I guess.  So next week, you get to find out whether I remembered everything or not (lucky you!)

I'm kinda excited, but also getting a bit nervous.  At least I know a couple of people at the church I'll be going to in Cambridge.  Well, know them vaguely.  Don't know anyone who's going to be at Cambridge with me though.  Never mind.  I might get there and discover someone I know who I didn't know was going.  Failing that, I guess I just have to make new friends.  Not like I haven't done that before, what with moving to the States and back again...  Well, I've had a lot of prayer, and I know people will be thinking of me in Cambridge, so I'll just have to trust that God shows me the right people to be friends with when I get there.

Born Again

I promised at the top of this blog that there would be music reviews.  I think you'll find one or maybe two at most.  Well, I'm doing a music review now.

The Newsboys Album Born Again features a new lead singer, Michael Tait (formerly DC Talk).  It also includes a remix of the classic 'Jesus Freak', and the album has been, in my opinion, unfairly criticised for this.  Okay, so it's perhaps not the same as the original, but actually, the words are clearer in parts on the new version.  And while I do love the original, it's never been one of my favourites.  At least part of the reason it's not been loved, I reckon, is simply because it's a bit different.  The other cover version on the album (or at least on the download from Amazon one--it doesn't seem to be on the one on itunes), is a cover of Mighty To Save.  Now this is one of my favourite songs, and I already have four other versions of it.  It's a little bizarre in that it feels like it starts in the middle, but other than that I do love this version.  It's a bit different, it's got great guitar in the background, and I particularly like the section (incidentally, it's playing right now), that goes 'My Saviour, you can move the mountains, you are mighty to save', addressing God directly rather than talking about Him in the third person.

Yes, it's not hugely similar to their previous album In the Hands of God, but I don't see why that's a bad thing.  Isn't a vibrant, changing band much more interesting than one that stays pretty static?  I don't know about you, but I like a bit of variety in the music I listen to.  Someone was saying the other day that they reckoned the band should have a new name because nobody from the original line up is there.  However, if you ever listen to some of Delirious' early stuff compared to their last album (well, last 'proper' album Kingdom of Comfort', I don't know about the Best Of album), there's a huge difference.

An excellent collection of music.  I particularly love 'Build us Back' and 'When the Boys Light Up'.  Great lyrics to all the songs, lyrics that you can sing along to without wondering 'what the heck am I singing about'.  Very glad I decided to download this album after hearing one or two songs on CrossRhythms.  Love it.  'Born Again' is also great, and I sincerely hope they come to this country on tour and I can see them live.  The album has real 'live show' potential in my humble opinion (and I've not exactly been to many live shows...  In fact, I've been to one--saw Delirious on the Kingdom of Comfort tour).  Even if you're not enamoured with the two cover versions, the rest of the album is excellent, leaving you with 10 brilliant songs if you decide to delete the covers.

The Age of Zeus

An interesting concept for certain.  The gods have moved down to earth, to sort out human behaviour for us because we can't seem to stop fighting with ourselves.  Trouble is, these gods are a mite too powerful, and who watches the watchers?  Well, maybe the Titans.  Made powerful by incredible suits of armour, the titans are the only people who have a hope of taking on the new Greek Gods.

Although it was interesting, and mostly well written, I didn't quite finish it.  It got a little bit tedious and felt somewhat drawn out, and the interest of finding out whether or not one of my favourite characters survived gradually waned.  So I gave it up and took it back to the library.

There was an intersting twist in where the gods came from, yes, but it seemed to be somewhat laboured.  In fact, the whole thing seemed to be drawn out far more than necessary.  So although it could have been quite enjoyable, and a pretty powerful comment on genetics etc, it became a little tedious and started to feel more like a project to wade through than an interesting fiction read.  If you've more patience than I have with slower paced novels then you'll probably enjoy it--like I said, it was an interesting concept.  It just wasn't written in a particularly exciting manner.

Sunborn

Pretty average sci-fi really.  Well, maybe better than average actually.  I enjoyed it.  The one thing that did niggle at me was after Bandie gave the new alien characters names that were pronounceable, the author subsequently used the 'proper' name so although Deeeeeeeaaaaabbb (or some other number of ees, aas and bbs might have been used) was called Deep in dialogue with Bandie, it was spelt out fully all the rest of the time.  Which was kinda annoying.  And I wasn't entirely convinced by the use of little *s before sun names.  Didn't seem necessary.  Plus there was an additional plot on Saturn (or a moon of Saturn, it wasn't all that clear), involving Bandie's ex-girlfriend, which seemed kinda unnecessary.  There was more than enough plot for the novel with the main plot involving a mysterious alien technology that was steadily murdering stars for purposes (initially) unknown.

The translater stones were pretty interesting, particularly as they were, in effect, an intelligent life form that took the form of a pair of stones embedded in all the main characters.  Maybe a bit similar to the bable fish in Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, although I don't think they ever couldn't translate anything, got infected, or had personalities.  I've not read the whole series though.  Anyway, this was a book four, so it's fair to assume that a bit of character development at least will have taken place in previous books rather than this one.  As a result, the only characters who seemed more than two dimensional or plot enablers were Bandie, the female alien who he was in love with (and whose name escapes me--surely there's a case for writing a sci-fi with names that are actually memorable!), and the robots were reasonably well developed.  But there were another two members to the 'team', and they seemed more there to fill up numbers than because they were all that interesting as characters.

However, it was a good story, and there was a reasonable amount of action.  The plot was also (apart from the slightly dodgy subplot on earth, which might have made more of an impact if I'd read the first three?) pretty good.  So I enjoyed it and I'll keep an eye out for the others, but I won't be rushing out to buy it.

Changeling: Dark Moon

Not overly memorable in terms of plot--I was half way through before I was definitely sure I hadn't read this one before--but still pretty interesting.  Basically, it was a good book while I was reading it, but now it's finished I'm not sure I could tell you with any degree of certainty what went on in that one as opposed to in the other Changeling books.

Basically a teenage werewolf/vampire/sorcerer story.  Not a romance, although there's a half hearted romance plot (half hearted in that it's got the potential to turn up but neither character is pushing it at the moment, not in that it's no good).  An interesting bit of action, some teenagey angsty issues (is that the right way of putting it?).  I mean, being a teenager isn't all that easy, but being a teenager who could potentially turn into a humongous werewolf that everyone's terrified of when you get a bit mad or on the night of the full moon has gotta make things more difficult.

Well, it was enjoyable enough to read.  Not the best thing ever, and I actually think the first one in the series has a bit more of an interesting plot, but it's not bad.  I've read worse.

Hmm, having fun with the new buttons

Hello.  I am now going to try out every single one of the new buttons on the Compose side of the new blogger.  Or at least, some of them.

I like love Crossrhythms.  The link is: http://www.crossrhythms.co.uk.  Ooh, that was exciting. I got to test the link out.  There are also lots of colours, more than I expected.  And the flashy bit changes colour depending on which colour I've decided to use.  Now, what happens if I do this...  Hmm, that.  I don't have any pictures or videos I feel like inserting. 

Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunters

Well, if you're looking for a comprehensive book on the u-boat war in all theatres during WWII, this is it. If you're looking for a humongous doorstopper to hold up your desk, it'll serve that purpose too. I got about half way through before the detail threatened to make my head explode and I started to lose the thread of the overall campaign. I was also slightly disappointed because my history teacher used a quote from Clay Blair that implied he thought the u-boat war was never particularly dangerous, but although you do get the impression it could've been a lot worse, what happened seems bad enough to me.

An exhaustive (and exhausting to read) catalogue of every u-boat action, and every attempted u-boat action, along with great technical detail about the u-boats themselves and the convoy system and the commanders and...  Yeh, you get the picture.  I suspect it's the biggest book I've ever seen, except maybe the Bible (which, admittedly, I have read all the way through twice over now, including once in 90 days which was pretty fun), and this was only part one.

I don't think it was meant to be read all the way through.  In fact, although it starts off feeling pretty readable, the sheer quantity of information and detail just makes it impossible to read right through.  As a reference, I suspect it's incomparable, with a heck of a lot of detailed research work going in to work out exactly which sub sunk which ship and when torpedoes malfunctioned and which ship was doing weather reports when.  So if you fancy having a reference to every u-boat operation during WWII, and a nice and to be fair rather interesting, chunk at the beginning about the development of the u-boat arm and the specifications of the ship, this is the book to get.

One other thing I will mention that struck me was the sheer number of times the German torpedoes malfunctioned.  Although the Battle of the Atlantic initially went rather disastrously for Britain, the number of ships saved by the torpedoes failing to detonate, or because the magnetic torpedoes which would 'kill' a ship with one torpedo rather than the contact pistols which usually needed two or three torpedoes per ship were utterly useless is quite astounding.  In the end, the Germans resorted to copying British torpedoes which kept depth far better.  So we were better with them at some things...

An interesting book then, if you've got a lot of time to read it or if you want to use it as a reference.

The Galleon's Grave

This is the third Martin Stephen book (it's starting to look like I'm gonna read the series backwards, but never mind, it still makes sense). Oh, never mind. I've just had a look at the bibliography on Fantastic Fiction (great resource if you've never looked it up before) and it appears that they've not been published in chronological order anyway. That discussion aside, this is a fantastic book. Erroneously marked 'Historical Romance' by the library, there is a romantic plot in there but only as a sub plot. There's plenty of action though, more than enough to satsify. And twists and turns worty of an Alaistar MacLean novel too! Highly enjoyable, particularly in terms of the historical context. Martin Sephens really captures the feel of the era (or at least, he does it convincingly enough that if I read any books suggesting that the Elizabethan period felt any different I'd find myself seriously doubting the credibility of the latter). I loved it, can't wait to find the rest of the series. And regardless of whether I'll actaully manage to fit them anywhere, I think I might have to start hunting down my own copies. I'm going to uni soon, so that should relieve my bookcases on the basis that some of my books will have to come to Cambridge with me so the rest can have a little more space.

Henry Gresham is a believable and interesting character, and there's a bit more of his personal life showing through in this one than was evidenced in Rebel Heart. A spy for Queen Elizabeth, he finds himself caught up in a multi-layered intrigue, which leads to him sailing to England... with the Spanish Armada! Gripping and fascinating, this is a real page-turner, a read in one go sort of novel. Tense and exciting, well written and plausible. What more can you ask for in a novel?

The Hunt for Atlantis

I'm sure I must have reviewed this before. It must be the third or fourth time I've read it, if not the fifth or sixth. There's an awful lot of books on discovering Atlantis, and I've read quite a few of them, but this one remains my favourite. An excellent fast paced thriller, with enough historical context to add interest but not so much you get drowned in hypotheticals and start feeling like you're reading a text book. The characters are engaging, particularly Eddie Chase and Nina Wilde, and the plot is, if somewhat grand in scale, at least plausible. And the action is great. And there's a lot of it. Exploding helicopters, jumbo jets, corrupt soldiers, exploding trains... Yeh, you get the picture. Lots of bad guys, lots of action and excitement, a great escapist read. One of my favourite books (although I think the most recent one in the same series is perhaps even more my favourite...).

So if you're looking for a fast paced, gripping thriller, you need look no further. And the best part is, it's the start of a series that just gets better and better, and has yet to fail to deliver an interesting historical mystery combined with plenty of action. I can't wait for the newest one to come out :)

Dead Lock

The library had labelled it with a gun on the side. It wasn't a label I'd seen before, so I picked it up in an attempt to see what the gun sticker meant. Yes, that's how I've resorted to picking books--look at the stickers the library's put on and trust that they've done it accurately (which they haven't always... I read a thriller with a historical romance sticker, although I suppose there was a tiny bit of historical romance involved). Anyway. I presume the gun sticker means a thriller and they run out of the man running in cross hairs ones.

It's actually a similar idea to the Cherub book Maximum Security. I don't know that there's any actual link there though...

Basically, a leader from the Aryan Brotherhood has agreed to testify against fellow members with regard to the brutal murder of an undercover agent. The catch: he wants releasing into the general prison population, despite the fact that the Aryan Brotherhood will know he's a snitch, and go after him. So he has to be kept alive for a week, until he can testify. Enter Ryan Lock, an ex-military bodyguard, and close friend of the murdered undercover agent. Trouble is, keeping Reaper alive becomes the least of his worries, because Reaper has plans of his own. And they don't involve staying in the general prison population for long. In fact, they involve something more like the end of America...

An gripping read with plenty of twists and action. As good as the cover makes it look. I'll have to keep an eye out for the others (well, other--I've read the second, according to fantastic fiction there's one before it and one due to be released in 2011).

Rebel Heart

I'm not entirely sure why I picked this book and decided to read it. There was a spy on the spine, I was getting pretty desparate to find a book--any book--to read because I've read all the ones I could find from authors I've previously enjoyed, I read the blurb and it didn't put me off completely. So I got it out the library, despite the fact I don't generally read historical fiction, and I've never thought of reading anything about Elizabethan England. Well, I was quite surprised to discover both how much I enjoyed it and how interesting the background was.

The Court was well created, the historical background seemed plausible (I can't say more than that, because to be quite frank I know absolutely nothing about it), and it was well-evoked. There were twists and turns worthy of a great spy novel, action worthy of a great thriller, and a little sprinkling of romance that added to the plot rather than being thrown in just because. In short, it was a great novel. Couldn't put it down (which meant reading til early in the morning... again), and instantly set out to find the rest of the series. Unfortunately, this was the fourth and there don't seem to be more planned--although just because there's not a new one shown on Fantastic Fiction doesn't mean there isn't another planned. However, that does mean another three books to find and enjoy. Shame there's not more, but I guess you can't have everything.

An enjoyable and gripping read, that catapulted you back to the Elizabethan court, mapping intrigues and plots, along with a good sprinkling of action.