pedanther's reviews
460 reviews

Mists and Magic by Dorothy Edwards

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fast-paced

3.5

This book is an anthology of short stories and poems for children, so it should be noted that I'm coming to it several decades late. I probably would have enjoyed it a lot at the target age, but from here I found the stories mostly short and slight, and in many cases was already familiar with the element the story was relying on for novelty. There were a few that I thought stood out, in particular "Christmas Crackers" by Marjorie Darke and the editor's own contributions, "Night Walk", "Witch at Home", and "The Girl Who Boxed an Angel"; in retrospect, all stories where the author had put some extra work into characterisation and the protagonist wasn't just A Generic English Child. "Night Walk" is apparently an extract from a novel, which I'm now interested in reading the rest of.
Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson

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adventurous emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Peril at End House by Agatha Christie

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mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Scandal in Babylon by Barbara Hambly

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects by Mike Mignola

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adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-paced
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

For the first time, I find myself wishing the "Plot- or character-driven?" question was one of the ones with an "It's complicated" option. These stories are not driven by plot or character, they run on vibes and fun moments - one of them has a seven-year-old credited as the co-author, and it isn't noticeably weirder than the stories that don't. I don't doubt the people who gave it five stars, because I'm sure it's awesome if you're in tune with the vibes, but for myself I enjoyed some of the moments but the only story I really liked as a story was "Abu Gung and the Beanstalk", which has the closest thing to an actual plot.
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The Girl with the Red Balloon by Katherine Locke

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

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hopeful reflective medium-paced

3.5

Like the first book, this one is okay. I think I'm just not who these books are for.
Lays of Ancient Rome by Thomas Babington Macaulay

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medium-paced

3.5

The lays have some striking moments, but also some bits where the sense is clearly playing second fiddle to the meter, and they probably play better to an audience that already knows the stories they're retelling. I didn't care for them on the whole, and was more consistently interested by the author's forewords about the background of the lays than by the lays themselves. I got on better with some of the other poems in the collection that commemorate events from more recent history, possibly because the subject matter is more familiar (and not just, I'm fairly sure, because they're much shorter). "Sermon in a Churchyard" was my favourite, and the one I'm most likely to re-read at some point.
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A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.0

Day of the Dead: A Babylon 5 Scriptbook by Neil Gaiman

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adventurous lighthearted reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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