Reviews and Comments

David Scrimshaw Locked account

DScrimshaw@bookwyrm.world

Joined 9 months, 3 weeks ago

An avid sci-fi and fantasy reader who sometimes does historical fiction or even mainstream.

You might notice that most of my reviews are 5 stars. That's because if I start reading a book that doesn't engage me, I stop reading it. Life is too short. I've realized that it's not fair to review a book I haven't read and nobody really needs to hear why I didn't get into a book especially when they might like it.

My goals with reviews are to be brief and give other potential readers an idea of why they might like the book. I leave it to the marketing people and other reviewers to describe the plots.

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Malcolm Polstead is the kind of boy who notices everything but is not much noticed …

Review of 'Belle Sauvage : the Book of Dust Volume One' on 'Storygraph'

Completely satisfying. It might help to have read the Dark Materials trilogy first, but I don't think it's necessary. I remember very little of Dark Materials and didn't feel the loss.

And with the daimons that accompany all the humans in this world, you essentially get talking cats and talking rodents.

Philip Pullman: La Belle Savage (Hardcover, 2017, Alfred A. Knopf)

Malcolm Polstead is the kind of boy who notices everything but is not much noticed …

Review of 'La Belle Savage' on 'Storygraph'

Completely satisfying. It might help to have read the Dark Materials trilogy first, but I don't think it's necessary. I remember very little of Dark Materials and didn't feel the loss.

And with the daimons that accompany all the humans in this world, you essentially get talking cats and talking rodents.

John Green: Turtles All the Way Down (2017)

Review of 'Turtles All the Way Down' on 'Storygraph'

This is "young adult" but definitely the kind that adults should also read.

The narrator is an intelligent young woman with a debilitating obsessive mental disorder, but that's not what the story is about.

I really like how John Green dealt with all the issues that came up without succumbing to easy answers and fairy tale endings, but still showed how people can cope.

Here are some elements that might make you want to read this:
- astronomy
- fan fiction
- avant garde art
- billionaire life
- obsessive mental illness

Review of 'Majestrum' on 'Storygraph'

This is a delightfully weird book.

Two features I liked:

1. Such major weird things happened to Henghis Hapthorn before the book started that I kept thinking this must be the second book in the series. But no, this is the first book. We just have to get up to speed.

2. One of the things that happened is that Hapthorn is now living with another complete personality in his head who can share his body. This is something Hapthorn has challenges with, but mostly he just accepts it and makes the best of it. Which really is what many of us would actually do.

I'm delighted to have an author to add to my must-read list.

Matthew Hughes: Majestrum (Paperback, Night Shade Books)

Review of 'Majestrum' on 'Storygraph'

This is a delightfully weird book.

Two features I liked:

1. Such major weird things happened to Henghis Hapthorn before the book started that I kept thinking this must be the second book in the series. But no, this is the first book. We just have to get up to speed.

2. One of the things that happened is that Hapthorn is now living with another complete personality in his head who can share his body. This is something Hapthorn has challenges with, but mostly he just accepts it and makes the best of it. Which really is what many of us would actually do.

I'm delighted to have an author to add to my must-read list.

"The first installment in a debut trilogy, THE HALF-DROWNED KING tells the compelling story of …

Review of 'The half-drowned king' on 'Storygraph'

An engaging read about Viking life set around 900 AD. I might be descended from Vikings, but I'm glad I was born now and not back then.

Ken Liu, Scott Lynch, George R. R. Martin, Elizabeth Bear, Robin Hobb, Garth Nix, K. J. Parker, Lavie Tidhar, C. J. Cherryh, Walter Jon Williams, Gardner Dozois, Kate Elliott, Daniel Abraham, Matthew Hughes, Rich Larson, Ellen Kushner, Cecelia Holland: The Book Of Swords (2017, Bantam)

New epic fantasy in the grand tradition—including a never-before-published Song of Ice and Fire story …

Review of 'The Book of Swords' on 'Storygraph'

If you're not going to try a sword and sorcery book, you might as well skip this review and skip the book.

If you're thinking sword and sorcery might be for you, you can read this review, but you should read the book.

If sword and sorcery is your thing, the book is a must-read, no need for you to read this review, but you might as well since if you had a copy, you'd be reading it instead of this and it won't hurt to give you something to anticipate.

Lately, I've been starting one book after another and just not getting into them. I was starting to think there was something wrong with me. But then I started this collection and everything changed. It's full of stories that I just loved.

Going in, I knew there was a Garth Nix story. I was sort of crossing my fingers …

Max Gladstone: Three Parts Dead (EBook, 2012, Tor)

"A god has died, and it's up to Tara, first-year associate in the international necromantic …

Review of 'Three Parts Dead' on 'Storygraph'

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Likable characters, a unique magic system, plenty of weirdness.

There were no talking cats, but having sympathetic vampires and gargoyles made up for that.

I'm very glad to hear that this is part of a series that the author is thinking will go to 10 to 13 books.

One warning: This is the first book that Max Gladstone wrote in the Craft Sequence, but apparently, [b:Last First Snow|23168830|Last First Snow (Craft Sequence, #4)|Max Gladstone|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1411416296s/23168830.jpg|42713969] and [b:Two Serpents Rise|16059411|Two Serpents Rise (Craft Sequence, #2)|Max Gladstone|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1355469010s/16059411.jpg|21846173] occurred earlier in the chronology of the series. I don't know what order a reader should approach them in.

Walter Jon Williams: Quillifer (Gallery / Saga Press)

Review of 'Quillifer' on 'Storygraph'

Walter Jon Williams has been on my must-read list since [b:Hardwired|304761|Hardwired (Hardwired, #1)|Walter Jon Williams|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1317581332s/304761.jpg|2253019] in 1986. It might be my favourite cyperpunk novel. I've loved just about every other book he's written since then, particularly the science fiction.

But even in 1992's [b:Aristoi|837188|Aristoi|Walter Jon Williams|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1208280310s/837188.jpg|1875875], a hard sci-fi novel about nanotech, he had a fully developed medieval type world.

With this book, he's brought us to a full-fledged medieval world with a touch of magic that adds interest but doesn't overwhelm the story.

Quillifer, the protagonist, is likable. Enough of a rogue to be fun, not too much so you can't root for him.

I'm really glad that there are going to be two more books about him, and also happy that this volume had a satisfying ending that doesn't leave us hanging until those other books come out.

[If you want a taste of Quillifer without getting the …

Walter Jon Williams: Quillifer (Saga Press)

530 pages : 23 cm

Review of 'Quillifer' on 'Storygraph'

Walter Jon Williams has been on my must-read list since [b:Hardwired|304761|Hardwired (Hardwired, #1)|Walter Jon Williams|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1317581332s/304761.jpg|2253019] in 1986. It might be my favourite cyperpunk novel. I've loved just about every other book he's written since then, particularly the science fiction.

But even in 1992's [b:Aristoi|837188|Aristoi|Walter Jon Williams|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1208280310s/837188.jpg|1875875], a hard sci-fi novel about nanotech, he had a fully developed medieval type world.

With this book, he's brought us to a full-fledged medieval world with a touch of magic that adds interest but doesn't overwhelm the story.

Quillifer, the protagonist, is likable. Enough of a rogue to be fun, not too much so you can't root for him.

I'm really glad that there are going to be two more books about him, and also happy that this volume had a satisfying ending that doesn't leave us hanging until those other books come out.

[If you want a taste of Quillifer without getting the …

Cecil Castellucci: Beige (Hardcover, 2007, Candlewick Press)

Katy, a quiet French Canadian teenager, reluctantly leaves Montréal to spend time with her estranged …

Review of 'Beige' on 'Storygraph'

I read this because the author wrote a sci-fi novel I enjoyed.

This is not sci-fi. It's about a girl from Montreal who gets sent to Los Angeles to stay with her punk rock dad for a while. She doesn't fit in and she hates it.

It was sort of predictable, but I enjoyed the trip. I'd actually like to know what happened in the next part of Katy's life.