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Books (937)

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- The Dalek Survival Guide (1)
- By Nicholas Briggs
- Finished on Feb 13, 2012
  
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The Dalek Survival Guide

This is a very cute guide to daleks. First of all there are no photographs of actual daleks from Doctor Who they are all just pencil sketches and as such they are very beautiful. There are several different history of the daleks given from different shows and books. There are also descriptions of th ... (continue)

This is a very cute guide to daleks. First of all there are no photographs of actual daleks from Doctor Who they are all just pencil sketches and as such they are very beautiful. There are several different history of the daleks given from different shows and books. There are also descriptions of the different daleks used in different episodes.
Without a doubt though my favourite section was How to survive forced captivity with a dalek. It was just hilarious. Things to avoid saying and doing with a dalek. How to tell when you were in danger. How to avoid getting exterminated. How you must never make the mistake of thinking the dalek likes you or is in anyway sympathetic to an inferior life form. The accompanying illustrations were equally brilliant.

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— Feb 19, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Killer in the Rain: "The Man Who Liked Dogs"; "The Curtain"; "Try the Girl"; "Mandarin's Jade"; "Bay City Blues"; "The Lady in the Lake"; "No Crime in the Mountains" (29)
- By Raymond Chandler
- Finished on Feb 5, 2012
  
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Killer in the Rain: "The Man Who Liked Dogs"; "The Curtain"; "Try the Girl"; "Mandarin's Jade"; "Bay City Blues"; "The Lady in the Lake"; "No Crime in the Mountains"

I'd read both Killer in the Rain and the Big sleep before but the other short stories in this collection were new to me. I enjoyed it, though unfortunately the stories faded quite quickly from my mind. Things that stand out were the very brutal torture of a criminal (thankfully by a guy who turned o ... (continue)

I'd read both Killer in the Rain and the Big sleep before but the other short stories in this collection were new to me. I enjoyed it, though unfortunately the stories faded quite quickly from my mind. Things that stand out were the very brutal torture of a criminal (thankfully by a guy who turned out to be "the bad guy" and not a nice cop), one of the girls the guy had been searching for getting beaten up by the private dick at the end of the story so she could get away with murder, the fact that not only were there black people living in Califonia, but that they had whole neighbourhoods and their own bars and clubs and lives. While I still prefer Hammett to Chandler I did enjoy these stories and definitely want to read some more of his novels. I really enjoy his style, everything is so visual and gritty. As much as I love the film noir movies everything just feels more real and dirty in the original stories.
The stories here were Killer in the rain, The man who liked dogs, the curtain, Try the girl, Mandarin's Jade, Bay City Blues, The Lady in the Lake and No crime in the mountains.

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— Feb 19, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Managra (2)
- (Doctor Who the Missing Adventures)
- By Stephen Marley
- Finished on Jan 21, 2012
  
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Managra

This was the first of the Missing adventures that I'd read that wasn't by Gareth Roberts and Oh dear it was not very good! There were lots of times that the Doctor and Sarah didn't act like themselves (Sarah wearing a plain black bikini? The Doctor knocking people unconcious with a yoyo?) The story, ... (continue)

This was the first of the Missing adventures that I'd read that wasn't by Gareth Roberts and Oh dear it was not very good! There were lots of times that the Doctor and Sarah didn't act like themselves (Sarah wearing a plain black bikini? The Doctor knocking people unconcious with a yoyo?) The story, I'd hoped would be a little like Leagure of Extraordinary Gentlemen with a bunch of 19th characters, but it was much more like a trailer for the movie. There was no real explanation for the strangeness of the world. It was just that way, with clones from previous ages and literature hanging around in different time periods. It reminded me of the role playing game Torg. The plot seemed to be that things were controlled by this evil play wright who had to be stopped before he took control of the vatican. I shall probably not be trying many more books in this series!

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— Feb 1, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Judgment Day (7)
- By Alan Moore
- Finished on Jan 21, 2012
  
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Judgment Day

This collection of superhero comics on the other hand I did not care for much at all. The only thing I found amusing was that the women superheros were complaining about the outfits of the new superheros, and quite rightly so! I thought it was supposed to be a court version of superheros like top te ... (continue)

This collection of superhero comics on the other hand I did not care for much at all. The only thing I found amusing was that the women superheros were complaining about the outfits of the new superheros, and quite rightly so! I thought it was supposed to be a court version of superheros like top ten was a police version. But instead the court plot took up only three fifths of the book and the rest was mostly filler. The characters seemed to be mostly copied from other superhero books, with a fake superman, womderwoman etc. The story itself about a magical artifact book that could change peoples lives was ok but not very original either. Definitely not one of Moore's best. I'm glad I just borrowed a copy from the library!

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— Jan 22, 2012 | Add your feedback
- The Plotters (2)
- (Doctor Who)
- By Gareth Roberts
- Finished on Jan 17, 2012
  
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The Plotters

This was the first book I've read by Gareth Roberts that wasn't fourth doctor and Romana II. It was a first doctor adventure with Vicky, Babara and Ian. While I didn't love it as much as the Romana books it was still very good. It felt like a proper first doctor historical adventure, with a lot of h ... (continue)

This was the first book I've read by Gareth Roberts that wasn't fourth doctor and Romana II. It was a first doctor adventure with Vicky, Babara and Ian. While I didn't love it as much as the Romana books it was still very good. It felt like a proper first doctor historical adventure, with a lot of humour thrown in for good measure. Roberts included a very good disclaimer at the begining that said it was not intended to be historically accurate and recommended a proper history book on the subject of Guy Fawkes if you wanted to know what actually happened. But intended it to be historically accurate in the way the Romans was. And I have to say he succeeded very well.
Like the Romans there were no space aliens hiding in the period trying to take over the world. All the plotting came from actual humans who lived during the period, Guy Fawkes and his fellow plotters and Robert Cecil. There were amusing sub plots where Vicky had to dress as a boy, and quite naturally ended up being fancied by King James I. (A plot that probably wouldn't have happened in the original first doctor adventures but worked very well). It included the idea that the Catholics were being set up by Cecil to further his anti-Catholic policies. There were secret tunnels, cross dressing, taverns, poor people and all sorts of adventure. I enjoyed is so much I'm thinking I should try some of the EDA that Gareth Roberts wrote. As so far I've been very impressed.

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— Jan 22, 2012 | Add your feedback

- Alan Moore: Wild Worlds (10)
- By Alan Moore
- Finished on Jan 4, 2012
  
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Alan Moore: Wild Worlds

So after being less than impressed with wildcats I thought Id read this collection anyway as I'd already borrowed it from the library. It was a collection of different short stories set in the wildcats universe. The first story was ABYSMAL. Ok there were some nice Alan Moore turns of phrase, but it ... (continue)

So after being less than impressed with wildcats I thought Id read this collection anyway as I'd already borrowed it from the library. It was a collection of different short stories set in the wildcats universe. The first story was ABYSMAL. Ok there were some nice Alan Moore turns of phrase, but it was a spawn crossover and was really the WORST representation of comics I've seen in a LONG time. This was the reason that most women don't read comics. Ok, so I'm bisexual and can appreciate a finely drawn woman in comics. I have read and enjoyed Moore and Gibbie's porn efforts in this regard. But the sexualisation of the women characters in the first collection in this book was just so high as to be truly absurd! First of all the women's superhero costumes was a G-string! There were so many shots of women's butts with little triangles it was absurd! Next the women had huge FAKE breasts! They were large and obviously copied from implants and not real boobs cause real boobs don't look like that!!! Next even the old crippled superhero sitting in a wheelchair wearing a blanket, wore the blanet only to the tops of her thighs to show off her shapely hips and that she wasn't wearing trousers! I can't believe Alan worked with this artist.
The next story set in a dying universe was ok but so far removed from reality that it just didn't make any sort of impression.
The third story however was one I actually really enjoyed. It was about the character from the old team that I liked the most. The one who was part demon who left the team because of their racism and decided to go back to being a stripper, "because the costumes are less demeaning and people treat you with more respect". And yes indeed the issues about the strippers were much less demeaning than the ones about the female superheros! It was a wonderful story about her returning to New Orleans and hanging out with the legba (if that's the right word) without realising what they were. It was about letting go to do the right thing. It was still quite action-y trying to stop a monstrous man from killing strippers and bringing back the dead. But it was done in a really nice sorta spooky and sorta funny way and I really enjoyed it. It made me want to look into just getting the comics for this story, even though I'm sure it'd be cheaper to buy a copy of the graphic novel.
The last two stories after that I just didn't much care for even though one had maxine, she was just drawn too weired and the plot felt like a cliche.

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— Jan 6, 2012 | Add your feedback
Doctor Who and the Day of…
- Doctor Who and the Day of the Daleks (7)
- (Doctor Who, Book 16)
- By Terrance Dicks
- Finished on Jan 3, 2012
  
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Doctor Who and the Day of the Daleks

I have this is NOT one of my favourite episdoes. I remember it being kinda pointless and lame. I think I feel asleep towards the end. But I was surprised by how much I actually did enjoy the book. I think the book did a MUCH better job at creating the post-apocalyptic world with the daleks in contro ... (continue)

I have this is NOT one of my favourite episdoes. I remember it being kinda pointless and lame. I think I feel asleep towards the end. But I was surprised by how much I actually did enjoy the book. I think the book did a MUCH better job at creating the post-apocalyptic world with the daleks in control. It was much more grim and oppresive. The story seemed to flow much better, the plot made more sense. The terrorists seemed more convincing and sympathetic. And the explosions were better. Clearly a case of imagination having a better budget than the BBC.

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— Jan 6, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Alan Moore (1)
- The Complete WildC.A.T.S
- By Alan Moore
- Finished on Jan 2, 2012
  
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Alan Moore

This series on the otherhand I did not enjoy nearly as much. It was very much a normal superhero comic set in a world with characters and people created by other writers. It started off with two storylines, one set on Earth where a new superhero team was being assembled. This was kinda dull, except ... (continue)

This series on the otherhand I did not enjoy nearly as much. It was very much a normal superhero comic set in a world with characters and people created by other writers. It started off with two storylines, one set on Earth where a new superhero team was being assembled. This was kinda dull, except for the crazy homocidal character named Maxine who was totally old school cyperpunk. She was definitely my favourite thing about the comic. The other part of the story was the old superhero team ending up back on their homeworld and discovering it to be far from the utopia they'd envisioned. This storyline got more and more interesting as it went. The world was quite horrible and it was interesting to see how it affected the different characters. But then once everyone realised it was awful, instead of doing anything to make it better they all just buggered off back to earth. It seemed like a total waste. When they did get back to Earth it seemed like none of the things that had happened there had any lasting effects. Then began the second half of the comic which was either missing issues or exceptionaly poorly written. Whole epsidoes seemed to be missing. The team showed back up but we didn't see them arrive. Different characters became important. One issue ended with them saying, now we must go to the moon, and the next was, now we are back from the moon we need to get on with X. It was jumpy and a bit incomprehensible. The plot was kinda lame, a gang war vs. supercriminals and was mostly just about fighting. The plot twists were obvious. The only part I enjoyed was maxine hitting on a large cyborg while fighting. That was cute. But definitely not a series I'd recommend.

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— Jan 6, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Top Ten, Vol. 1 (50)
- By Alan Moore
- Finished on Jan 1, 2012
  
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Top Ten, Vol. 1

Having enjoyed Promethea I thought I'd borrow some of Alan Moore's superhero books from the library. This was definitely my favourite of the ones I read so far. For one thing it wasn't really superheros. It was cops and bad guys in a city where just about everyone has a superpower of some sort. It w ... (continue)

Having enjoyed Promethea I thought I'd borrow some of Alan Moore's superhero books from the library. This was definitely my favourite of the ones I read so far. For one thing it wasn't really superheros. It was cops and bad guys in a city where just about everyone has a superpower of some sort. It was also very funny. There was a giant blob of an alien that was an ex-porn star, a lesbian whose power was semi-invisibility. The characters were all great. They were odd and absurd but also quite real. For me they were the best part of the story, watching the little interactions, seeing how they had to deal with little things, like getting phone calls from paniced mothers at 3am while trying to hunt down serial killers. It was lots of fun. I'm not sure if I'll get my own copy I think I probably will as it's fun enough to want to read again but I'm looking forward to borrowing the rest of the series from the library.

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— Jan 6, 2012 | Add your feedback
- The Lady of the Shroud (10)
- By William Hughes, Bram Stoker
- Finished on Dec 20, 2011
  
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The Lady of the Shroud

Awhile ago I read the Lair of the white wyrm by stoker and the sexism was SOOO bad it put me off reading anything else by him for ages. But I thought I'd give him one more try as I already had a copy of this book and I really liked the Jewel of the seven stars. The only explanation for this book I c ... (continue)

Awhile ago I read the Lair of the white wyrm by stoker and the sexism was SOOO bad it put me off reading anything else by him for ages. But I thought I'd give him one more try as I already had a copy of this book and I really liked the Jewel of the seven stars. The only explanation for this book I can think of is that he got paid by the word. It was so bizarre. It started with a nice haunting little tale of a ghost seen at sea. Then came an incredibly boring section with lawyers as someone's will was discussed and there was all this boring background to a family written by a pretentious idiot. Then the young hero, 7 ft tall, a veteran of all sorts of wild adventures in foreign parts, inherits a billion pounds and becomes virtually royalty in the Balkan country of Blue Mountains. There are some wonderful and lovely scenes when he gets there and is haunted by the Lady in the shroud. Her visits are amazing and the ritual in the old church in the night is lovely and creepy. Then with about 150 pages left her "secret" is revealed and there is nothing interesting or supernatural going on. The rest of the book is an odd mixture of adventure story and boring exposition. They end up making the hero their king after he marries the girl. There is an AWFUL speech she gives when he wants to make her joint queen about how a woman's place is just in the home with her family and how women really aren't the equal of men at all and shouldn't try to be. There are also lots of bizarre scenes with areoplanes which show that Stoker really didn't understand how they worked at all, having them act more like hot air ballons or hellicopters! (hoovering in place).
It's a shame as it would have been a really nice short story if it had just stuck with the spooky parts, but as it was I really didn't enjoy it that much. Don't think I'll bother with any more books by Mr. Stoker!

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— Dec 23, 2011 | Add your feedback

- Angel (12)
- (Virago Modern Classics)
- By Paul Bailey, Elizabeth Taylor
- Finished on Dec 17, 2011
  
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Angel

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At a second hand book shop in Camden I found they had a huge selection of random Virago books and this was one of the ones I got, it was the story about a eccentric British woman novelist born in 1885 who writes big exotic romances and is very loosely based on Marie Corelli. I thought it sounded qui ... (continue)

At a second hand book shop in Camden I found they had a huge selection of random Virago books and this was one of the ones I got, it was the story about a eccentric British woman novelist born in 1885 who writes big exotic romances and is very loosely based on Marie Corelli. I thought it sounded quite fun and it was interesting. It reminded me a little of Claudine, the main character Angel was SO sure of herself, even when others thought she was absurd she was totally oblivious. It was the kind of self belief that was very re-assuring even if it did make her vain and terribly lonely. The story covered Angel's discovery of writing at the age of 15 and her success and riches and then the inevitable doomed marriage and falling into debt and poverty. What made the story more interesting was that towards the end Angel seemed much happier. The poverty didn't matter to her as she'd had her success and money and tended to remember everything with rose coloured glasses. She had a best friend she lived with for 30 years, whose brother she married. There was a lot of not very disguised lesbian leanings from the sister, she was described as masculine to the point of having a moustache and her brother once got drunk and said how much his sister was in love with Angel. I found I did enjoy this story (which was oddly written only 2 years earlier than the Asimov) I liked the characters much more than I probably should have, while they were all quite flawed they were also very sympathetic.

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— Dec 18, 2011 | Add your feedback
- Skizz (2)
- By Alan Moore
- Finished on Dec 15, 2011
  
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Skizz

Skizz is 2000AD retelling ET. I didn't think that sounded like that great a premise but I found a cheap copy and decided I should get it anyway. I have to say I was surprisngly impressed. It was quite funny and had a lot of nice social commentary. It was set in Birmingham, the alien was a translator ... (continue)

Skizz is 2000AD retelling ET. I didn't think that sounded like that great a premise but I found a cheap copy and decided I should get it anyway. I have to say I was surprisngly impressed. It was quite funny and had a lot of nice social commentary. It was set in Birmingham, the alien was a translator and intelligent and shocked by the brutality he saw on Earth. He was befriended by a 15 year old school girl who with the help of a couple of unemployed blokes from her council estate managed to save the creature. The creature was captured by the government who taught him English. There as a great moment when they asked him what Roxy had told him about the Police, the alien replied that she said the police were not as good as madness, which he only now understood (cut to next scene of girl sitting listening to albums). There was a wonderful character who'd been unemployed and had gone a little mad who had some amazing speeches and ended up saving the day. I must admit that the last few pages made me cry quite hard! The art was also very good, it was in the 2000AD style of black and white realism and worked really well.

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— Dec 18, 2011 | Add your feedback
- The End of Eternity (113)
- By Isaac Asimov
- Finished on Dec 16, 2011
  
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The End of Eternity

Published in 1959 this is excellent classic Asimov. I almost loved this more than the Caves of Steel. It was about a society in the far future that had achieved time travel and was able to change the centuries of the future to provide the greatest good for the greatest number of people (kinda like T ... (continue)

Published in 1959 this is excellent classic Asimov. I almost loved this more than the Caves of Steel. It was about a society in the far future that had achieved time travel and was able to change the centuries of the future to provide the greatest good for the greatest number of people (kinda like Time Lords if they didn't have the whole non-intervention policy). There was a lot of discussion about the nature of time travel and what was best for humanity. It asked a lot of interesting questions and challenged ideas about society. It had a really fantastic ending which I can't explain without giving anything away but it made perfect sense and was very hopefull. Definitely one I'd highly recommend.

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— Dec 17, 2011 | Add your feedback
Doctor Who and the Curse o…
- Doctor Who and the Curse of Peladon (1)
- ('Doctor Who' series)
- By Brian Hayles
- Finished on Dec 16, 2011
  
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Doctor Who and the Curse of Peladon

This has to be one of my all time favourite Doctor Who episodes. There are interesting aliens, lots of plot twists, the bad guys who aren't the bad guys, diplomacy and the idea of freedom over religious superstion. There is also Patrick Troughton's son in tights. Jo being totally amazing, climbing m ... (continue)

This has to be one of my all time favourite Doctor Who episodes. There are interesting aliens, lots of plot twists, the bad guys who aren't the bad guys, diplomacy and the idea of freedom over religious superstion. There is also Patrick Troughton's son in tights. Jo being totally amazing, climbing mountains in high heels, attacking monsters with torches, brokering intergalactic peace, rescuing herself and not screaming or needing the doctor to save her once. The book must be based on an early script instead of the shooting script as it has some extra scenes and dialogues that aren't in the show. The good of these include Jo going to the King's champion and pleading her case for him to let the Doctor win their battle, and the Doctor discussing weapons with the Ice Warriors. The bad included Arcturus firing his laser when you first meet him, which makes him seem more like a bad guy and reveals too early his offensive capabilities. The description of Alpha Centauri is lovely, instead of an awkward penis type thing in a cloak s/he's a lovely shimmering octopus creature changing colour with moods although they don't have the line about him/her being gender neutral. Hayles also does a better job of getting inside the characters and their thoughts than Terrance Dicks usually does. All told a very nice adaptation of the story.

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— Dec 17, 2011 | Add your feedback
- The Bishop of Hell and Other Stories (3)
- (Mystery & Supernatural)
- By Marjorie Bowen
- Finished on Dec 13, 2011
  
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The Bishop of Hell and Other Stories

This is one of the best of the Wordsworth tales of mystery and the supernatural that I've read. I really enjoyed these stories, they were well written, spooky and even quite disturbing. Most of the time the twists were fairly obvious but it didn't stop me from really enjoying the stories. The charac ... (continue)

This is one of the best of the Wordsworth tales of mystery and the supernatural that I've read. I really enjoyed these stories, they were well written, spooky and even quite disturbing. Most of the time the twists were fairly obvious but it didn't stop me from really enjoying the stories. The characterisation was very good, especially for short stories, for the most part the characters were all very sympathetic which reminded me a little of Elizabeth Gaskell.
The Fair Hair of Ambrosine was a nice story about a murdered dancer in revolutionary Paris, The crown derby was a lovely ghost story about a sad and lonely ghost. The Housekeeper was another ghost story that wasn't quite so sympathetic but had another very cool ghost. Florence Flannery was small bits of a much bigger tragic story that was quite sad. Elsie's lonely afternoon didn't actually have any supernatural elements but was still quite sad as a young child led a totally depressing life, The Bishop of Hell was not the most disturbing tale in the book, but more a tale of justice with the more horrible things being done by mortals not supernatural beings, The Gray chamber was a more typical story of haunted room but how it got to be haunted was quite disturbing. The extraordinary adventure of Mr John Proudie was a weaker story about a chemist and a disappearing doctor. The scoured silk was the most disturbing story I've read in a long time. It was very very good. The avenging of Ann Leete was very sweet and romantic, despite the murder. Kecksies was a little odd but also disturbing and Ann Mellor's lover was a sweet story about lost love in past centuries.
There were a lot of stories with a slightly romantic twist, previous marriages coming back and ruining current ones, ghosts weren't usually bad, and justice was often served. It was a wonderful collection and I hope to find more books by the author, who apparently wrote lots and under many pseudonyms.

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— Dec 18, 2011 | Add your feedback