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There should be no dispute about my slacker extraordinaire status, my last supposedly monthly book review was in August last year, hehe. =P
To date, read 21 novels since last review, and as usual, I have forgotten most of them. ^_^
Decided to use a scoring system, out of ten, for the novels I read so people can judge for themselves whether of not a certain novel is worth their time. But of course, as with all reviews, it's purely subjective so unless you happen to have same taste as I do, take these scores with a pinch of salt.
On second thought, make that a tablespoonful of salt. =P
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The Adromeda Strain by Michael Crichton told a story about organism brought back from outer space that wiped out the population of an entire town. The only survivors, an old man and a baby, were put in maximum contamination control centre that has automated atomic self-destruction mechanism should leakage happened.
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The story unfolds how the experts studied the toxic extraterrestrial agent in order to find a way to control and destroy it.
Very entertaining and gripping: 8.5/10
Quotes from The Adromeda Strain:
"Like many intelligent men, Stone took a rather suspicious attitude toward his own brain, which he saw as a precise and skilled but temperamental machine. He was never surprised when the machine failed to perform, though he feared those moments, and hated them."
"Scientific research was much like prospecting: you went out and you hunted, armed with your maps and your instruments, but in the end your preperations did not matter, or even your intuition. You needed your luck, and whatever benefits accured to the diligent, through sheer, grinding hard work."
Sir Winston Churchill once said that "true genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazaedous, and conflicting information."
Montaigne's acerbic comment: "Men under stress are fools, and fool themselves."
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By my own reckoning, The War of Souls trilogy is the third trilogy for Dragonlance New Age, and I reread them because I wanted to read the new novel I bought, the last book in the fourth New Age trilogy.
Two of my all time favorite authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman wrote the trilogy, which consists of Dragons of a Fallen Sun, Dragons of a Lost Star and Dragons of a Vanished Moon.
image sources: vol. 1, vol. 2, and vol. 3
The trilogy described the New Age of Krynn under the rule of the dragon overlords, as well as the coming of Mina and the One God. This trilogy concluded the lives of all remaining Heroes of the Lance, as well as the demises of many famous characters in Dragonlance. New characters were introduced, for example Sir Gerard, Marshal Medan, Odila, The Lioness, Gilthas, Silvanoshei, et cetera, and not all of them survived by the end of the trilogy.
There were love, betrayal, war, magic, dragons, which were woven into a captivating storyline. The fall of the elven nations, the return and then the final demise of Tas, the deaths of Caramon, Laurana, Goldmoon. The true identity of the One God, the return of the Gods and even the demise of God! My favorite character Raistlin made a brief return as well.
This is the must read trilogy for Dragonlance New Age. Actually, it's a must read for all Dragonlance fans: 8.5/10
Quotes from Dragons of a Fallen Sun:
"Silvanoshei was young, and the young know they will live forever."
"A promise isn't something you make with your mouth. You make a promise with your heart. Every time you break a promise, your heart breaks a little until pretty soon you have cracks running all through it."
Quotes from Dragons of a Lost Star:
"It is a sad truism that the misfortunes of others, no matter how terrible, always pale in comparison to our own."
"This notion was completely irrational, but when one is in love, all things are possible."
"For the dreams and secrets of our heart may be spoken, but words are poor handmaidens. Words can never fully say what we want them to say, for they fumble, stammer, and break the best porcelain. The best one can hope is to find along the way someone to share the path, content to walk in silence, for the heart communes best when it does not try to speak."
"Death is inevitable, a part of life. We defeat death by living, by doing something with our lives that will last beyond the grave."
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The Dark Disciple, written by Margaret Weis, is a trilogy about the enigmatic Mina introduced in The War of Souls trilogy. The Dark Disciple consists of Amber and Ashes, Amber and Iron and Amber and Blood.
image sources: vol. 1, vol. 2, and vol. 3
With the return of Gods and magic to Krynn, and in the wake of the monumental event that occurred in The War of Souls, the Gods were vying for supremacy and Mina became the disciple of choice for the Gods.
Mina sided with the God of Death, Chemosh, which led to the rise of undeads. A monk of the God Mejere named Rhys, along with his faithful dog Atta and the kender Nightshade who could communicate with the dead, set out to stop Chemosh followers. The story told of the plots and schemes of the various Gods and the lives of the mortals trapped between Gods' battle.
In the centre of everything was Mina and the rediscovering of herself. "Mina is a what?!?!!" was my reaction when it was revealed at the end of volumn 2, and thanks to my goldfish memory, it was my reaction again when I reread that volumn.
While not as good as the other Dragonlance stories by Margaret, it's a good one nevertheless: 7/10
Quote from Amber and Ashes:
"Patience. That was the key. Haste makes waste."
Quotes from Amber and Iron:
"...promises made under duress or from fear of punishment are empty of meaning."
"What we believe is not important." "That we believe is."
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The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton is just that, a story of a great train robbery.
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The planning and execution of the train robbery was described, with many criminal jargons and slangs so it was heavy reading at times unless you understand all those criminal talks. Nevertheless, the story reads like a movie, it's another page-turner from Crichton: 8/10
Quotes from The Great Train Robbery:
"The peoples of London may despise some eyesore until it is demolished, whereupon by magick the replacement is deemed inferior to the former edifice, now eulogized in high and glowing reference."
"There is often, in the course of this wayward and bewildered life, exterior opposition, and sincere and even violent condemnation, between persons and bodies who are nevertheless profoundly associated by ties and relations that they know not of."
"...did you never feel, at any time, some sense of impropriety, some recognition of misconduct, some comprehension of unlawful behavings, some moral misgivings, in the performance of these various criminal acts?"
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First Among Equals by Jeffrey Archer talks about politics, urgh!
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It's about the story of four politicians going after the prime minister post, since it's politics (urgh!), there are naturally only evil and lesser evil.
Archer is a skillful author so I didn't burn the novel straight away when I found out it's about politics, it's not a bad read but since it's about politics (urgh!), it gets 6.5/10
Quotes from First Among Equals:
"Women are for vearing children and ensuring a continuation of the male line."
"Struggle on but never sacrifice your integrity."
"Perhaps he's going to be a politician after all," concluded Louise, staring down at her son.
"What has changed your mind?" asked Andrew.
"He never stops shouting at everyone, he's totally preoccupied with himself and he falls asleep as soon as someone else offers an opinion," she replied.
"You're the best thing that's happened to me in my whole life."
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Without Fail by Lee Child is an entertaining read.
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Story is about an ex-military police, Jack Reacher, being asked to test the protection of American's vice president. A typical American super hero who cannot die and always right kind of story. Could easily visualise into a movie, the storyline is gripping and fast-pased: 7/10
Quotes from Without Fail:
"A problem shared is a problem halved."
"Cowards are bullies, bullies are cowards."
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The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld is a tad confusing for my simple mind.
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The story involves the murder of a young pretty girl and the investigation of said murder with plots like missing body, framing, sex, and betrayal. Psychoanalysis, or psychology, is the meat of the book but I find the logic confusing: 6/10
Quote from The Interpretation of Murder:
"We are not responsible for our feelings; therefore no feeling can cause us shame."
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Slackerdom kicked in, so I will just split this into two parts. =P
