Douglas Smith | Writer

7:00 pm 18 July 2012

A Dance with Dragons

Excellent, and it restored my faith in this wonderful series after the disappointing A Feast for Crows had slowed things to a crawl. And now I wait with all the other fans for the sixth book.

7:00 pm 11 June 2012

I have given 5-stars, I think, to the first three in this series, but have to cut my rating for this, the 4th book. Martin had to cut the originally planned fourth book into two, and divided the larger volume into "A Feast for Crows" and "A Dance with Dragons," not by cutting in the middle of the plot, but by separating the books by the cast of characters. I'll admit that most of my favourite story lines are missing from "Feast," but I also found that the plot fell to a plodding pace for much of this one, which was a shock after the amazing pace of book 3. Onto book 5 now, which is restoring my faith in the series.

7:00 pm 6 January 2012

The Painted Boy

A wonderful book and a book full of wonder. I always enjoy spending time with de Lint's characters. They are so well drawn, and the characters in this book are no exception--each is unique and deeply human, each with flaws, but flaws that you can forgive, more easily than the characters forgive themselves, which makes them that much more likeable. The mythology in the book is rich and deep. But most of all, the book goes far beyond the good-versus-evil confrontation that the initial setup would lead you to expect. The hero and those around him are forced to deal with the aftermath of that confrontation, and the responsibilities that can come with taking a stand. Highly recommended.

7:00 pm 5 January 2012

Lord of the Isles

Wonderful characters that I enjoyed spending time with, but ultimately the plot that was hinted at in the beginning was never realized. The story ended up being a series of unrelated events that had nothing to do with advancing the plot forward. The conclusion was not satisfying and did not live up to the original set-up. Too bad, as the characters were well drawn and unique, and the prose well written.

7:00 pm 27 December 2011

A Christmas Carol

Great to read the original finally, after seeing so many movie versions. My favourite movie version is still the one with Alistair Sim, and it is also the one that sticks closest to the original, especially the dialog. Interesting that Bob Cratchitt is not named in the book until Scrooge and the second spirit make a visit to his home.

7:00 pm 25 December 2011

Lair of the White Worm

It's hard to believe that the same author who wrote Dracula penned this one. Unbelievably bad plotting, where otherwise interesting characters do astoundingly stupid and ridiculous things just so that the author can have the ending he wanted. Just silly.

7:00 pm 14 June 2011

Fugue For A Darkening Island

Priest's "The Prestige" is an amazing book, so I picked up this early work with high expectations, but this was so unrelentingly depressing and with such an obvious agenda that I didn't finish it.

7:00 pm 14 June 2011

Aegypt

Quite frankly, I stopped reading about 3/4 of the way through it. I just did not care for any of the characters and at no point did any of the ever so many plot lines pull me in. Life's too short and there are too many books.

7:00 pm 4 March 2011

The Dead Man's Brother

It was just so great to read "new" Roger Zelazny prose again. I got this book when it came out, but I've been saving and saving it to read, delaying the last chance I'll have to read new words by my favourite author. Great read. All I can do is hope that somehow another lost ms will turn up.

7:00 pm 19 January 2011

Burn Witch Burn!

Started out quite fun, but devolved into being predictable with a very irritating narrator / protagonist who insisted on not believing events even when he participated in them. Still fun.