Reviews and Comments

It kept me guessing. I feel like I'm in a much longer novel about the people Gamache keeps running into.

And I'd really like to get a long weekend at that Auberge. But I hope anyone who doesn't get invited along realizes it's to prevent one of us from getting murdered.

Inspector Gamache's facing a conspiracy against him was more gripping than the murder investigation. I appreciated the references to [b:Sarah Binks|348887|Sarah Binks|Paul Hiebert|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1320410379s/348887.jpg|339164]. It brought back fond memories of John Cross reciting her poems to me.

Inspector Gamache's facing a conspiracy against him was more gripping than the murder investigation. I appreciated the references to [b:Sarah Binks|348887|Sarah Binks|Paul Hiebert|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1320410379s/348887.jpg|339164]. It brought back fond memories of John Cross reciting her poems to me.

This is one of those books where I must have read a review and thought I should reserve it. Then it came in and I had no memory of why I reserved it.

The book is set at a series of comic conventions and follows a group of people who come together from going to the conventions. I thought it was going to be a fantasy or sci-fi story, but it isn't.

It's mostly about a mother and her son, and a bit about how it's tough to be a comic book writer.

I liked the story and liked the characters, but didn't love it. I think if you're interested in comic books or fantasy and sci-fi television, you might want to read this.

This story is set in Toronto, Vancouver and Sri Lanka. I loved reading the Sri Lanka parts, the protagonist even ate at the restaurant I had breakfast from every day.

The Sri Lanka parts describe some of the horror from the 80s. I arrived after that and reading this made it more vivid.

It's Shyam Selvadurai so it is incredibly well written. But it is not a happy story.

Also, the protagonist spends a lot of time being angry at other people. Often with good reason. But sometimes not. And I don't like being around angry people, I've discovered.

Sandman is still in Hell. This story moved along and then it was over. It didn't put me in a place that I want to be.

It moved along, but Sandman Slim has moves from LA to Hell. Not metaphorically. This just wasn't compelling enough for me.

And no talking cats.

It moved along, but Sandman Slim has moves from LA to Hell. Not metaphorically. This just wasn't compelling enough for me.

And no talking cats.

If you're into philosophy and gender and science fiction, this is a must read.

If you're not into stories where you don't know what is going on, this may not be for you.

By the end of this book, I started to feel like I had a bit of a clue and then it turned out this is only the first of two volumes.

No talking cats or rats, but there are tiny toy soldiers that have been brought to life and they're pretty cool.

I'm going to keep reading these Sandman Slim stories. But it gets tiresome that Sandman Slim gets so grouchy with everyone even the people who are clearly his best friends.

This volume was all about zombies and I've never been into zombies.

At least he's still got the talking head that he's actually becoming more friends with.

Maybe in [b:Aloha from Hell|10439703|Aloha from Hell (Sandman Slim, #3)|Richard Kadrey|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1302271758s/10439703.jpg|15344305] there will be a talking mouse.

It's about talking dogs. So I had to read it.

But it's very sad.

And more about philosophy and Greek gods than anything else really.

It did seem to catch what it could really be like if a bunch of dogs became conscious and could start talking to each other and even understand humans.

And it's set in Toronto, so that's cool.

I finished this at 3am last night and today I've just been wising that I had the sequel, [b:Stiletto|25695756|Stiletto (The Checquy Files, #2)|Daniel O'Malley|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1433883952s/25695756.jpg|24809605].

It's focussed on a British secret service agency that specializes in paranormal threats, and so there are some parallels to [a:Charles Stross|8794|Charles Stross|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1355510574p2/8794.jpg] Laundry series. But it's different. The magical threats might be a bit lighter, but what's inside the people might be darker.

Anyway it's different, but fun. I normally turn the light off at 11, and just couldn't stop last night.

I'm liking this series more with this second book. Somehow this one was more fun than the previous, [b:The Fall|767326|The Fall (The Seventh Tower, #1)|Garth Nix|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388890758s/767326.jpg|2795422]. Given how much I love Garth Nix's more recent books, I think this is a good demonstration of improvement with practise.

This was a fun, light read.

But I have some complaints.

a) It should have been called "Searching for a Dragon" because there was only one dragon they were looking for.

b) And that dragon didn't do much.

c) Plus there were some cats who meowed in a meaningful way, but they didn't speak. Which is hardly fair when the squirrels in the enchanted forest are famous for giving good advice about quests.

This sort of scratched the itch I've had from not having a new [a:Jim Butcher|10746|Jim Butcher|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1400640324p2/10746.jpg] novel about Harry Dresden to read.

An interesting difference from the Dresden novels is that the magical world isn't the fairy realm, but instead is heaven and hell from Christian mythology.

No talking animals, I'm afraid to say, but there is a disembodied head that will probably be entertaining in future novels.

Two things bugged me about this book:

1) The main guy, James "Jimmy" Stark, finds out that people are calling him Sandman Slim about halfway through the book and we never find out why. It seems like it's because someone decided "Sandman Slim" would be a good title for a book.

2) It seems that because Stark aka Sandman Slim has been through a lot, he has to be a jerk to everyone. It got tiresome.