The Librain……retired

I have only managed to read one book this week! Mind you, that is not very surprising as the book was very long indeed.

Echo City by Tim Lebbon

Echo City by Tim Lebbon is a kind of science fiction/fantasy/horror mix. Here is the blurb:

Surrounded by a vast, poisonous desert, Echo City is built upon the graveyard of its own past. Most inhabitants believe that their city and its subterranean Echoes are the whole of the world, but there are a few dissenters. Peer Nadawa is a political exile, forced to live with criminals in a ruinous slum. Gorham, once her lover, leads a ragtag band of rebels against the ruling theocracy. Nophel, a servant of that theocracy, dreams of revenge from his perch atop the city’s tallest spire. And beneath the city, a woman called Nadielle conducts macabre experiments in genetic manipulation using a science indistinguishable from sorcery. They believe there is something more beyond the endless desert . . . but what?

It is only when a stranger arrives from out of the wastes that things begin to change. Frail and amnesiac, he holds the key to a new beginning for Echo City—or perhaps to its end, for he is not the only new arrival. From the depths beneath Echo City, something ancient and deadly is rising. Now Peer, Gorham, Nophel, and Nadielle msut test the limits of love and loyalty, courage and compassion, as they struggle to save a city collapsing under the weight of its own history.

I awarded the book three stars, although that might have been rather stingy, and wrote this review:

I would have given this four stars, but the book was far too long! The author paints a picture of an amazing world: a city, built upon level after level of its own past history, full with grotesque creatures and human beings with many flaws. The city exists in a poisonous desert, which means that no one can leave and no one can enter. Except that, one day, someone does enter.

So, the setting of the story is intriguing and I felt hooked by the first few chapters. Then, the journeys around the city made by the main characters started to become more and more tedious and overdone. This book feels like two or three squeezed together into one volume, or one shorter novel which has accrued too much description and should have been edited down. Also, telling the tale from multiple points of view became quite difficult to follow.

But, you know what? Despite these issues I did read the whole book and I did enjoy it. I am not sure who I would recommend it to. Perhaps someone like me with lots of spare time and the ability to keep going to find out what happens in the end.

As a former student of Archaeology, I loved the idea of a city built upon older layers. This reminded me of ancient places such as Troy. In the case of Echo City, these layers, “Echoes”, consist of tall buildings, ruins, parks, fields, trees and so on, covering mile upon mile of an underground world and going deep underneath. So interesting!

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

When I chose this present pile of library books, I picked out several really long ones. My next read is American Gods by Neil Gaiman, so I hope that I can get really hooked into that. I will tell you my thoughts about it next week.

Happy Reading to you all!

Best wishes,

📚📖📚📖📚

I read two books this week; one was really enjoyable and the other, well… read on to find out my verdict!

All By Myself, Alone by Mary Higgins Clark

My first book of the week was All By Myself, Alone by Mary Higgins Clark. Here is the blurb:

Fleeing a disastrous and humiliating arrest of her husband-to-be on the eve of their wedding, Celia Kilbride, a gems and jewelry expert, hopes to escape from public attention by lecturing on a brand-new cruise ship—the Queen Charlotte.

On board she meets eighty-six-year-old Lady Emily Haywood, “Lady Em,” as she is known throughout the world. Immensely wealthy, Lady Em is the owner of a priceless emerald necklace that she intends to leave to the Smithsonian after the cruise.

Three days out to sea Lady Em is found dead—and the necklace is missing. Is it the work of her apparently devoted assistant, Brenda Martin, or her lawyer-executor, Roger Pearson, and his wife, Yvonne, both of whom she had invited to join them on the cruise? Or is it Professor Henry Longworth, an acclaimed Shakespeare scholar who is lecturing on board? Or Alan Davidson, a guest on the ship who is planning to spread his wife’s ashes at sea? The list of suspects is large and growing.

Celia, with the help of her new friends Willy and Alvirah Meehan, who are celebrating their forty-fifth wedding anniversary, sets out to find the killer, not realizing that she has put herself in mortal danger before the ship reaches its final destination.

I decided to read something light and easy, which sounds an odd description of a murder-mystery! My review on Goodreads may shed some light:

Well, I have classified this as a mystery as I thought that the author probably intended it to be, but I guessed the “baddie” after a few pages! The only reason I bothered to finish this book was because it was light reading and I wasn’t well. This is simply a very badly written book, full of stereotypes and lazy plotting. My recommendation is: don’t bother.

Yes, I only gave this book one star!

The Painted Man by Peter V Brett

My second read of the week was much more successful. This is the blurb for Peter V Brett’s The Painted Man, #01 in his Demon Cycle series:

As darkness falls after sunset, the corelings rise—demons who possess supernatural powers and burn with a consuming hatred of humanity. For hundreds of years the demons have terrorized the night, slowly culling the human herd that shelters behind magical wards—symbols of power whose origins are lost in myth and whose protection is terrifyingly fragile. It was not always this way. Once, men and women battled the corelings on equal terms, but those days are gone. Night by night the demons grow stronger, while human numbers dwindle under their relentless assault. Now, with hope for the future fading, three young survivors of vicious demon attacks will dare the impossible, stepping beyond the crumbling safety of the wards to risk everything in a desperate quest to regain the secrets of the past. Together, they will stand against the night.

Oh, I really enjoy a rollicking read like this one! I gave it four stars and wrote the following review:

I really love the kind of book which immerses the reader so far into a fantasy world that the real world fades into the background. This is just that kind of book, for me. The kind of book where you simply shed any disbelief and join in the adventure.

The tale follows three main characters as they grow up and develop into young adults along the way. Fearsome demons visit their world at night, causing terror, mayhem and death to the people, who fight or cower away according to their strength of character. The world building in this book is excellent and many of the secondary characters are well drawn too. There are some plot holes and logic flaws, but I enjoyed engaging in the story.

Since I finished the book, I have put in several requests at the library for the rest of the series. The next book is already awaiting collection 😀.

The rest of the books in my to-read pile seem to be very thick, for some reason. Years ago, my parents used to choose books for me according to their thickness as I read so fast, even as a child. Anyway, my next read will be Echo City by Tim Lebbon and I will give you my verdict next week.

Happy Reading to you all!

Best wishes,

📚📖📚📖📚