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| Latest Book Reviews... |
Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds
Average Rating [9/10]
(1 Review)
Paul has sent in a review for Redemption
Ark by Alastair Reynolds. Many, many millennia ago, the
Inhibitors seeded the universe with machines designed to detect
intelligent life - and then to suppress it. But after hundreds
of millions of years, the machines started to fail and intelligent
cultures started to emerge. Then Dr Dan Sylveste and the crew
of Infinity discovered what had happened to the long-vanished
Amarantin race... and awakened the Inhibitors. On Yellowstone,
where no one is quite who they appear, the Inquisitor and
the planet's Most Wanted War Criminal are watching as the
Inhibitors turn a small group of planets into raw materials.
Whatever they are building with those materials is not going
to be good for Humanity... more»»
Paul
Lappen 20th june 2009 [9/10] |
Gangs of Glasgow by Robert Jeffrey
Average Rating [8/10]
(1 Review)
Jessica has sent in a review for Gangs
of Glasgow by Robert Jeffrey. In the twenty-first century,
Glasgow is still a city living down a fearsome reputation
for crime. And for some citizens of the Dear Green Place,
brawling is in the blood and gang warfare is a way of life.
The stinking deprivation of the Gorbals and the East End,
deprivation that helped spawn pre-war gangs like the Billy
Boys, the Norman Conks and the Redskins, is largely gone,
but in each era new gangs have risen to take their place.
Battles over turf and control of the drugs trade still make
regularly lurid headlines... more»»
Jessica
20th June 2009 [8/10]
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Six Steps to a Girl by Sophie McKenzie
Average Rating [9/10]
(1 Review)
Sarah has sent in a review for Six
Steps to a Girl by Sophie McKenzie. Luke spots Eve at
his dad's funeral. She's hot - and she's the perfect distraction
from his messed up family life. There's only one problem -
she's got a boyfriend. Still, Luke's not going to give up
that easily... When he meets Ryan at a party and hears about
'the Six Steps method' to guarantee success with any girl,
Luke determines to put it to the test. Step by step, he begins
to get closer to Eve... more»»
Sarah
20th June 2009 [9/10] |
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
Average Rating [9/10]
(1 Review)
Richard Meads has sent in a review for The
Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe. 'I looked around
and people's faces were distorted... lights were flashing
everywhere... the screen at the end of the room had three
or four different films on it at once, and the strobe light
was flashing faster than it had been... the band was playing
but I couldn't hear the music... people were dancing... someone
came up to me and I shut my eyes and with a machine he projected
images on the back of my eye-lids... I sought out a person
I trusted and he laughed and told me that the Kool-Aid had
been spiked and that I was beginning my first LSD experience'...
more»»
Richard Meads
20th June 2009 [9/10] |
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon
Average Rating [10/10]
(1 Review)
Sarah has sent in a review for The
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark
Haddon, a murder mystery novel like no other. The detective,
and narrator, is Christopher Boone. Christopher is fifteen
and has Asperger's, a form of autism. He knows a very great
deal about maths and very little about human beings. He loves
lists, patterns and the truth. He hates the colours yellow
and brown and being touched. He has never gone further than
the end of the road on his own, but when he finds a neighbour's
dog murdered he sets out on a terrifying journey which will
turn his whole world upside down... more»»
Sarah
10th May 2009 [10/10] |
The Last Godfather by Reg McKay
Average Rating [8/10]
(1 Review)
Jessica has sent in a review for The
Last Godfather by Reg McKay. No-one could rule bloody
Glasgow, they said. Arthur Thompson proved them all wrong.
From a normal working class family, Thompson started out as
a bouncer, minder and bagman. Hard, bright, he learned young.
Cross him - you were scarred. Cheat him - he nailed you to
the floor. The gangsters of Glasgow thought it couldn't get
worse. It did. For forty years Thompson ruled Glasgow's mean
streets, always devising new terror... more»»
Jessica
10th May 2009 [8/10]
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Accelerando by Charles Stross
Average Rating [9/10]
(1 Review)
Paul has sent in a review for Accelerando
by Charles Stross. The year is some time between 2010 and
2015. The recession has ended, but populations are ageing
and the rate of tech change is accelerating dizzyingly. Manfred
makes his living from spreading ideas around, putting people
in touch with one another and leaving a spray of technologies
in his wake. He lives at the cutting edge of intelligence
amplification technology, but even Manfred can take on too
much... more»»
Paul
Lappen 10th May 2009 [9/10] |
The Rasner Effect by Mark Rosendorf
Average Rating [8/10]
(1 Review)
Molly has sent in a review for The
Rasner Effect by Mark Rosendorf. When the Duke Organization,
a group of ruthless killers, set off a violent explosion,
they wiped out Rick Rasner's life as he knew it. Many years
later, as he still struggled to remember any shred of his
former existence, he put a new life together - as a therapist
in the Brookhill Children's Psychiatric Residence, a facility
for troubled urban teens. The Duke Organization then resurfaced,
searching for Rick Rasner... more»»
Molly
Martin 10th May 2009 [8/10] |
Jasmine's Tortoise by Corinne Souza
Average Rating [5/10]
(1 Review)
John Alwyine-Mosely has sent in a review for Jasmine's
Tortoise by Corinne Souza. On the eve of the 2003 invasion
of Iraq, Children & Spies, an operative training
manual written by former KGB General Nico Stollen, goes to
the top of the Amazon bestseller chart. The crisis it provokes
reaches into a perplexing world of 1960s politics, freemasons,
diplomats, spooks and Jesuits. Which of the superpowers poisoned
the Kurdish water supply? Why was Britain's defence secretary
murdered twenty years later? What was the sinister history
of the construction giant Fitzwilliams International, inherited
by his widow, Jasmine Fitzwilliams? Blending historical detail
with fiction, a huge cast is introduced as the narrative tracks
the abiding friendship between three families... more»»
John Alwyine-Mosely
10th May 2009 [5/10] |
Are You Dave Gorman? by David Gorman & Danny
Wallace
Average Rating [7/10]
(1 Review)
Charlotte has sent in a review for Are
You Dave Gorman? by David Gorman & Danny Wallace.
After a heavy night of tequila, flatmates Dave and Danny set
off on what turns out to be a 24,000-mile journey to meet
all the other Dave Gormans in the world. They visit Scotland,
Israel, America, France and Ireland. They even hold a party
in London where 50 Dave Gormans attend, including two women
who have kindly changed their name via deed-poll. Silly, but
engrossing, fascinating and addictive - and a touching story
of two friends who grow to share a mutual obsession... more»»
Charlotte
10th May 2009 [7/10] |
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
Average Rating [8/10]
(1 Review)
Simon Rowley has sent in a review for Less
Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis. Clay comes home to L.A.
for Christmas vacation and re-enters a landscape of limitless
privilege and moral entropy, where everyone drives Porsches,
dines at Spago, and snorts mountains of cocaine. He tries
to renew feelings for his girlfriend, Blair, and for his best
friend from high school, Julian, who is careering into hustling
and heroin. Clay's holiday turns into a dizzying spiral of
desperation that takes him through the relentless parties
in glitzy mansions, seedy bars, and underground rock clubs...
more»»
Simon Rowley
10th May 2009 [8/10] |
This Charming Man by Marian Keyes
Average Rating [10/10]
(1 Review)
Catherine Davies has sent in a review for This
Charming Man by Marian Keyes. Lola has just found out
that her boyfriend - charismatic politician Paddy de Courcy
- is getting married. To someone else. Heartbroken, Lola flees
the city for a cottage by the sea. But will Lola’s retreat
prove as idyllic as she hopes? Journalist Grace wants the
inside story on Paddy de Courcy’s engagement and thinks Lola
holds the key to it. Grace knew Paddy a long time ago. But
why can’t she forget him? Grace’s sister, Marnie, might have
the answer but she also has issues with the past... more»»
Catherine Davies
10th May 2009 [10/10] |
I Was Born Dead by David Rehak
Average Rating [9/10]
(1 Review)
Amy has kindly sent in a review for the autobiographical I
Was Born Dead by David Rehak. In this highly personal
and confessional memoir, which reads more like a novel in
the first person, Rehak tells us an engrossing and unique
life history of being born overseas under the oppressive veil
of communism, then escaping and growing up free in democratic
Canada, living briefly in the conservative southern United
States, and then making his home in the liberal atmosphere
of Europe... more»»
Amy
10th May 2009 [9/10] |
Night Work by Thomas Glavinic
Average Rating [5/10]
(2 Reviews)
Farhan has sent in a review for Night
Work by Thomas Glavinic. The radio and TV are suddenly
filled with white noise, there's no newspaper, the Internet
is down and no one's answering the phone. Jonas seems to be
the last living creature on the planet. But what happened?
And why is he still here? Thriller and philosophical investigation
wrapped up in an intensely compelling, eerie mystery, Night
Work is compulsive and exhilarating - but don't read it
when you're all alone... more»»
Farhan
10th May 2009 [1/10]
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Love Heals All Pain by Melissa Miller
Average Rating [7/10]
(1 Review)
Jessica S. has sent in a review for Love
Heals All Pain by Melissa Miller. A strong woman, Rachel
Connors faces the possibility of breast cancer. Scared and
alone, she keeps her fears to herself. Going home to Tennessee
for the holidays for the first time in years, Rachel meets
Kyle Landers. Kyle has decided from the start to not like
Rachel. Her absence has been hard on her parents - two loving
people who took Kyle under their wing when he had no one.
But is his anger misplaced? Is there more to Rachel Connors
than he first thought... more»»
Jessica S.
10th May 2009 [7/10] |
Murder Capital by Reg McKay
Average Rating [8/10]
(1 Review)
Jessica has sent in a review for Murder
Capital by Reg McKay. Murder Capital of Europe, that's
Glasgow. A city more lethal than London, Paris, Rome, Amsterdam,
Dublin or strife-torn Belfast. But what's the truth behind
the headlines, the real story on the streets of Glasgow? And
who has earned the city its shocking and brutal reputation?
Reg McKay reveals the truth about the killers, the victims
and life and death on the streets... more»»
Jessica
13th April 2009 [8/10]
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Knowledge of Angels by Jill Paton Walsh
Average Rating [6/10]
(1 Review)
Amina Malik has sent in a review for Knowledge
of Angels by Jill Paton Walsh. It is, perhaps, the fifteenth
century and the ordered tranquillity of a Mediterranean island
is about to be shattered by the appearance of two outsiders:
one, a castaway, plucked from the sea by fishermen, whose
beliefs represent a challenge to the established order; the
other, a child abandoned by her mother and suckled by wolves,
who knows nothing of the precarious relationship between Church
and State but whose innocence will become the subject of a
dangerous experiment. But the arrival of the Inquisition on
the island creates a darker, more threatening force which
will transform what has been a philosophical game of chess
into a matter of life and death... more»»
Amina Malik
13th April 2009 [6/10] |
Aftermath
by Rhys Wilcox
Average Rating [9/10]
(1 Review)
Nigel has reviewed Aftermath
by Rhys Wilcox. Luke Robinson, an advertising sales assistant
from Camden, saved the World from an alien invasion. That's
a fact. Luke Robinson murdered a young man after a night out
down the pub. Allegedly. Charges have been made against humanity's
saviour and this special hearing is to find out if it's right
to send him to trial. And, moreover, if he's actually mentally
fit to be tried. As the witnesses testify, the World discovers
a little bit more about Luke Robinson before, during and after
the invasion. The World will also find out a lot more about
the invasion itself. Is the World ready for that kind of truth?
Can it handle it? Who is Luke Robinson? Does the World really
want to know the truth... more»»
Nigel
29th March 2009
[9/10]
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Once Upon a Time in England by Helen Walsh
Average Rating [9/10]
(1 Review)
Jessica has sent in a review for Once
Upon a Time in England by Helen Walsh.It's the coldest
night of 1975. A young man with shock-red hair tears through
the snowbound streets of Warrington's toughest housing estate.
He is Robbie Fitzgerald, and he is running for his life -
and that of his young family. In his heart, Robbie knows the
odds are stacked against them. In this unbending northern
town, he has married the beautiful brown nurse who once stitched
up his wounds. Susheela is his Tamil princess, but in the
real world the Fitzgeralds have to face up to prejudice, poverty,
and naked hatred from their neighbours... more»»
Jessica
8th March 2009 [9/10]
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The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
Average Rating [7/10]
(1 Review)
John Alwyine-Mosely has sent in a review for The
Book of Lost Things by John Connolly. 'Once upon a time,
there was a boy who lost his mother…' High in his attic bedroom,
twelve-year-old David mourns the loss of his mother. He is
angry and he is alone, with only the books on his shelf for
company. As David takes refuge from his grief in the myths
and fairytales so beloved of his dead mother, he finds the
real world and the fantasy world begin to blend. That is when
bad things start to happen. That is when the Crooked Man comes.
And David is violently propelled into a land populated by
heroes, wolves and monsters, his quest to find the legendary
Book of Lost Things... more»»
John Alwyine-Mosely
8th March 2009 [7/10] |
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