whippycleric's reviews
253 reviews

I've wanted to read this for a long time and had no idea how long it was until I got the book. It's always a bit nerve racking to pick up such a long book knowing if it's not very good I’ll force myself to finish it, thankfully this was a great book.
 
I would say it could be easily enough split into 3 acts, and could have been a trilogy (probably would be published as such today given the costs).

I would class everything up until the first appearance of the Count of Monte Cristo as the first book, then the second book would be slightly harder to define but I guess up until the downfall of the first of the enemies, and finally the rest as the third book

. Given this division I would rate the first book as 5 stars, more if it were possible. The pacing of this section is superb, every character is layered and brilliant. I was so happy during this first section I genuinely thought I would be finishing this book in just a few days as I struggled to put it down. The second, and largest, section was slower. Whilst still enjoyable I’d probably opt for a 4 star rating for this section, the characters were still vivid, and the way the changing world unfolded was enticing, but it was just a little too slow for me. The final section was satisfying, surprising in places, and a just reward for the time invested. Not as strong as the start, but clearly better than the middle I’d have to go with a 4.5, and hence my overall 4.5 rating. 

This was my first Dumas and I’m looking forward to reading more of his famous works. 

This has been a very solid series so far, and this continues that trend. It's not my favorite so far so but it's also better than the previous. We get a few more of the classic manage tropes in this one, but it's par for the course when reading this type of stuff, and it's a bit of fun.
 
Like in the others, unsurprisingly, the artwork is the same and still nice. It was a couple of new games in this one, and the solutions felt a little bit obvious, but seeing how other players tried to get through them was interesting and well written.
 
I'll be continuing this series whenever I feel like a modern manga and expect I'll eventually finish the whole thing. Maybe I'll get a Japanese copy at some point to try to re-read when I can manage that level. 

Like many reviewers have said this book is very different to the film. Which is fortunate for me as I can’t say I particularly liked the film but I thoroughly enjoyed the book. The lovely happy Mary Poppins from the film is in fact quite a stern, not that attractive, magical nanny and an intriguing character. 

It's really a collection of short stories, with no real over arching plot except that it covers the arrival and departure of Mary Poppins as their nanny. This collection, as with most, is a bit of a mixed bag but I enjoyed them all, and some were particularly good. 

I read this to my son, who is too young to understand it right now, but in the future I think he could like these stories. I’ll try to get the rest of the collection, and then I can read him individual chapters as bed time stories later. I love the world built here P L Travers, and it’s so much more interesting than the film. 

This was my first Irvine Welsh novel, and I think it's fine to read this series a bit out of order. I'd seen the film before and loved it so was excited to pick up the book, knowing most of the time the book is better and loses something when adapted to film. In this case however I think Danny Boyle, and John Hodge (screenplay writer) did an incredible job and improved on the original. The book is still great, and the characters brilliantly written, but it has a few drawbacks for me personally.
 
The switching of POV between chapters is something I tend to enjoy in books, with one condition, it's always clear who's POV you're reading from. In Trainspotting this is not the case immediately, after a few sentences or maybe a paragraph or two it tends to be clear, but it's hard to be immersed the whole time when at the start of each chapter you're unable to picture the scene as you don't know the character involved.  After a while you can pick up on nuances of the style between the characters inner monologue but since it's all written with a phonetic Edinburgh accent it took me a while to spot. One additional point there is that although for me this style of phonetic spelling was fine and I enjoyed, I can imagine if you've not lived in the region or heard a lot of the accent before it could be a problem. Obviously in a film the POV issue is resolved just by not having to picture the scene at all.
 
The book also has much less of a narrative, it's much more a collection of short scenes in the lives of these characters. The film adaptation re-orders some of this and creates an arc following Renton from being to end on a kind of anti-hero redemption arc which just doesn't really exist in the book but is hinted at.
 
I still enjoyed the book, but it wasn't quite what I expected from the film. I'll read more Irvine Welsh in the future and I’m sure I’ll enjoy it more going into it knowing what to expect. 

 I wasn’t around for Hunt’s F1 era, my time watching F1 beginning in the 2000’s with Hamilton and Button, so reading a biography from this era was super interesting. I have watched some races from this time, but the broadcast quality leaves a lot to be desired when compared to today, so it wasn’t enough to get a sense of the drivers just from these. I have watched the film Rush which chronicles Hunt’s rivalry with Lauda but after reading this book I realize how wrong Rush was. 

Seeing how good friends Hunt and Lauda, despite what the film would imply, was a pleasant surprise. It was also interesting to read about his post championship life and how he stopped racing. It took me a few chapters to get into as it did feel a bit detail heavy at the start, but as soon as it got going it became much more character driven and easier to read. I know Gerald Donaldson has written several of these for other drivers, so I’ll happily read more of his in the future. 

 Switching to a new character’s perspective in this book, Yuma, who was revealed to exist at the end of the last volume, this one proves to be a bit of tease, leaving more questions unanswered than before. 
 
It follows a very similar structure to the first 2 volumes but condensed into one and told from a new perspective. I like the live RA game, and the solution was both elegant and unexpected. It felt a little repetitive at the start due to the structure, but the games made up for it. It ended with a similar cliffhanger as before, looking forward to finding out the solutions to these mysteries now.

 This was my first Thomas Hardy novel, and I was warned beforehand that he tends to be quite depressing. I was a bit confused by this because I found the first few chapters so much fun, though that's probably not what he was going for and says more about me than the writing. I can confirm though the depression kicks in shortly after and continues till end.
 
 The whole thing was a great read, and despite the sadness of the book it was always a delight to sit down with.  The characters are interesting, though I did find Elizabeth-Jane a little flat, Lucetta was great though so I wouldn’t say Hardy is incapable of writing women. I was surprised by several of the twists in this book, and although the style is dated the plot is engaging and the characters realistic. 

I’ll happily read the rest of his novels as I come across them, especially given this is not one of his most well known ones 

This was a fun book to read at times, and at other times just a little dull. The main plotline of this one is a little weak and is mainly supported by all its surrounding subplots. Ibb and Obb's development from start to end is a lot of fun, the odd dream sequences are also quite nice. There's a huge amount of world building going on in this book, like in the others, but it feels it's been done at the expense of the plot itself. Literary references abound of course, and are generally appreciated, but perhaps the volume of them is a little much. It makes sense given this novel is set entirely in the fictional world, but it still starts to feel a little OTT at points.

I'm still excited to read some more of this series but hope the next books are an improvement as right now this series is trending a bit downhill. 

I absolutely loved this book. It's the most 'because of the vibes' 5 star review I've ever given. I would struggle to analyze this and justify the review beyond the fact that when I put it down it was because I had to, not that I wanted to. When I wasn't reading it, I was waiting to read it and thinking about it. It is possibly the best book I've ever read. At the same time, I can't say I would recommend it, this is the most counter intuitive statement I will have ever put in a review, but it's because I don't know why I loved it so much. If someone else reads it and dislikes it, I can accept that as reasonable. What I can't accept is several of the reviews (the one-star ones) which say that they didn't read the book but dislike the author... that's not a review of the book, that's just random hate. I will, however, endeavor to try to explain why I liked it so much, even though it’s hard to articulate. 

The characters in this are extraordinarily vivid, with the other Ayn Rands books in the past I’ve read (all but Atlas Shrugged at the time of writing) I’ve found the characters immensely absorbing but without depth as they have been embodying a trait or a principle. However, in this book I found several of the characters did have depth, as well as this embodiment of a principle. I can still see they are not as layered as I would expect in other books, but with their place in the story it’s amazing to see this human side of characters like Wynand, Roark and Dominique. Toohey is still a little too much of a villain archetype for my liking and a touch more depth to him would be my only wish for improvement. As the embodiment of collectivism though, and that being the true villain of the piece I can see why it was never going to happen. The struggle and the progression of the average man shown through Keating is brilliantly written. 

The plot is there to serve the characters here and is very much secondary to how the people behave, but it’s still bizarrely gripping. The message of this book, and the moral benefit of it is up for debate. Like most other reviews I will say I am not a fan of Rands philosophy. I am less against it than most it seems but it’s not one I ascribe to, and I can see how if one were massively opposed to capitalism this would not be a fun book to read, but if you’re anywhere near the political center then it shouldn’t spoil your enjoyment of this beautifully written novel. 

The writing here is just superb, the characters brilliant, the atmosphere beautifully dark. It’s a mirror being held up to society and finding it wanting. I’m sad to have finished this but happy I still have Atlas Shrugged to read in the future. 

I've been meaning to read this book for a while. I'm a fan of Richard Osman's podcast and this book has done phenomenally well. This isn't my go-to genre and I do normally find I end up giving most in this genre a 3 or 3 and a half rating but I'm happy to say this one did live up to its reputation for me. 
 
The characters were great, especially Elizabeth, there's clearly a whole backstory there to be uncovered in future instalments. The other members of the club were all distinct, relatable, and funny. The villains were maybe a little flatter but even then, they were easy to visualise. The plot was good, kept you guessing, and it managed to avoid me having guessed the end while still having it make perfect sense, and not leaving me feeling annoyed as can be the case sometimes.
 
I still never got fully invested with these characters, and there're a few tropes here and there, so I'll go with 4 stars, as far as this genre goes it's definitely up there for me.