Reviews and Comments

TomeAlone

TomeAlone@books.theunseen.city

Joined 6 days, 11 hours ago

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Travis McGee #16

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It never really came together for me, possibly as a result of being #16 in the series, and me not having read the preceding 15. I found the conclusion unsatisfying.

Iris Johansen: Dead aim (2004, Bantam Books)

The #1 New York Times bestselling author Iris Johansen returns with an electrifying and all-too-plausible …

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I thought it was going to be a horror/action/thriller, having never read anything by Johansen. Turns out it's kind of a dull sort-of romance thriller with a very abrupt and not-very-believeable ending. None of the characters interseting in any way, either. Might make a fairly popular Lifetime movie, though.

The year is 1896, the place, New York City. On a cold March night New …

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It was okay, though fairly forgettable. Kind of a New York based Sherlock Holmes pastiche. Decent enough, I guess, with a dull fart of an ending.

Agatha Christie: ABC Murders (Hardcover, 2006, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers)

There's a serial killer on the loose, bent on working his way though the alphabet. …

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This one is kind of hard to review, because it's an interesting story and it's very easy to read. The problem is that the idea is duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuumb. If you thought the trash idiots from The Walking Dead were idiotic, you'll be stunned by this one. I know America is horrible and things are really bad, but it truly strains credulity, the idea that 13 minutes after a storm a bunch of coworkers will start forming ridiculous tribes and slaughtering each other. I just can't buy it.  

Lafcadio Hearn: Kwaidan (Paperback, 2001, ICG Muse)

"Kwaidan" translates from the Japanese as weird tales, which perfectly describes these haunting stories. This …

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Pretty cool, though the ghost stories are better than the nature essays.

Adam Nevill: Last Days (2013, St. martin's Griffin)

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Wow, it's really bad. Shockingly bad. Absolutely chock-full of filmmaking and camera based errors, which is surprising coming from the guy who wrote the amazing film, <i>The Ritual</i>. But the prose is awful, the characters are awful, and most of the book is just a relentless infodump. In the final act, it picks up a bit, but it's way too little, way too late.  

And the ending is pretty stupid.

John W. Campbell: Frozen Hell (Paperback, Wildside Press)

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It's pretty cool. But you can see why it was cut down, the first three chapters are kinda unnecessary. It is really neat to see how closely Carpenter's masterpiece follows it. 

J. R. R. Tolkien: The Silmarillion (1977, Houghton Mifflin Company)

The Silmarillion (Quenya: [silmaˈrilliɔn]) is a collection of myths and stories in varying styles by …

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I just finished this for the second time, the first being way back in 8th grade- when I did a book report on it, like the cool nerdling I was. I thought it was pretty great back then, but now. . . holy smokes, it's so amazingly good. Just pretend I'm giving it a few more stars, it's that amazing. As I'm sure my wife is tired of hearing me say, people who say it's dull and dry and academic, and, above all, BORING are just plain wrong.  

It's wonderful and evocative and thrilling and heartbreaking and tragic and beautiful. Loved it.  

LOVED IT.

W. T. Grant: Wings of the eagle (1994, Ivy Books)

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A year in the life of a Vietnam War chopper pilot. A solid memoir, if not groundbreaking. However, there is one part- after months of war and privation and misery- where the author mentions turning 21. I'd forgotten that I was reading about a frickin' kid out there in hell, and that moment made me pause. That'll stick with me for a long time.

Richard Laymon: In the Dark (Paperback, Leisure Books)

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  It's decent. Doesn't really explain much about the villain, but it's one of the few Laymon books I've read that has a proper happy ending. 

Dean R. Koontz: From the corner of his eye (2001, Bantam Books)

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It's not good. Meandering, soft-headed TV evangelist spirituality, and characters that don't act a bit like people. Add in a really bad climax and it's just 720 pages of nothing.