The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie

Genre: Fantasy

Joe Abercrombie's The Heroes, would like you to know that it is full of - misfits, flawed characters, anti heroes; everything but heroes.

It hammers this lack of heroes and that war is hell incessantly. In the book, we find ourselves in midst of a war between the barbarian northerners and the civilized union. The narratives alternates between description of various battle/skirmishes and some character building. The description of the battles is suitably gory and gritty, leaving you with little doubt that war is hell. The character buildup, done via reaction of the characters to current events and some flashbacks, is nicely done. The pace of the book is brisk and it flows well.

While there is a little twist at the end, the book really is, a bit surprisingly - All the smaller battles/skirmishes leading to a final climatic battle. The book is not pulpy enough to carry such a simple plot. All this focus on creating anti-heroes means that despite the good character buildup, you don't really care for the characters that much. A better plot would have elevated this book over average territory.

Rating: 2.5 / 5. Average

Atlantic by Simon Winchester

Genre: Non fiction.

Atlantic ( with a long subtitle - Great sea battles, heroic discoveries, titanic storms, and a vast ocean of a million stories) is a biography of this vast ocean.

Writing a biography of the Atlantic ocean is a ambitious undertaking. How do you weave a common thread through extremely diverse fields, that may have a passing link to the Atlantic ocean ? This book does not manage to find that common thread.

What we get instead is chapters, and sub-chapters that tackle diverse topics like the geological history of the ocean, ancient and modern battles on this ocean, cities along the coast, how the west explored this ocean and found the American continents, fishing, pollution, ocean conservation etc.

The writing in the book is good, and the authors personal experiences with the ocean give it some character. Sadly, none of this is able to overcome the lack of coherence in this book.

Rating: 2 / 5, Meh, skip it.

The Precipice by Ben Bova

Genre: Science fiction.

Decades of greenhouse gas emissions have taken their toll, and Earth has now warmed. Floods and various other environmental disasters are causing havoc all around, and the world is in crisis. This is the setting for the novel "The Precipice" by Ben Bova.

In this book Dan Randolph, an industrialist, pits his wits against his rival, Martin Humphries, in a race to develop and control fusion drives for space travel. Fusion drives are critical, since apparently there are the only thing that would let us tap the resources of the asteroid belt. Dan Randolph wants to do this so that he can move earth based industries into space and help mitigate climate change related chaos, while Martin Humphries wants control of this so that he can make more money.

Sounds like some cheesy soap opera plot? Unfortunately, the writing and plot in the novel never raise it above the cheesy soap opera level. The rivalry and corporate maneuvering between the two main characters is infantile. There is no plot or story to speak of. I can't think of any redeeming qualities for this book.

Rating: 1 / 5; Terrible. Don't bother.

Eye of the Red Tsar: A Novel of Suspense by Sam Eastland

Genre: Thriller / Mystery.

Eye of the Red Tsar is a detective novel set in Russia, in the years following the communist revolution. The lead character of the book is named Pekkala. Pekkala used to be a big shot investigator under the czar but has had to endure hard times under the communist.

Sam Eastland attempts to develop Pekkala's character by flashing back to his childhood and his time under the czar. However this character development ends up feeling forced and I found it hard to care or feel sympathetic towards Pekkala. A major reason for this is the simplistic attempt to paint the czar and his family as some sort of idealized royalty and the communist as bad guys.

The plot and mystery in the book is not exceptional. It is however not bad either and with better characterization would have made a above average book. The writing is decent and does not get in the way.

Rating: 2.5 / 5; Average. Nothing special.

Book review: From the dust returned by Ray Bradbury

Genre: Fantasy

From the dust returned is a collection of short stories packaged in the form of a novel. The stories center around a strange family in Illinois. This is a family of vampire like creatures, ghosts and other mythical and fantastical creatures. The stories themselves lack any real punch to them. The fantastical nature of the characters is simply used to dress up their shallowness and make them a bit less forgettable. The poetic nature of the prose and quality of writing do provide some entertainment, but there is no substantial value here.

Rating: 2 / 5, Below Average.

Book review: Remarkable Trees of the World by Thomas Pakenham

Genre: Non-fiction

Thomas Pakenham went around the world looking for remarkable trees and when he found them he took photographs of them. If you like trees ( like I do ) then the premise of the book is extremely interesting. Thomas does not try to find record holders (like largest tress or tallest tree), though he may have visited some of them. Rather he is looking for interesting trees, trees with character. Each chapter of the book focuses on one aspect, like gaints, dwarfs, Methuselah (old trees) and so on, with Thomas finding interesting examples of these.

Thomas textual description of the trees and the environment he encounters them is good, poetic sometimes even. The photographs in the book are lovely. I really wish that there were many more photographs in the book though. This kind of a book demands a large number of high resolution photographs. Perhaps If this book was written more recently and Thomas used a modern high resolution digital cameras we would get many more gorgeous photos. Thomas likely lugged around a old school film camera and so had to be careful with what he shot.

So any cons of this book are really a function of when it was written and nothing more.

Rating: 3 / 5, Good, wish it had many more photos though.

Book review: Elminster Ascending: Sage of Shadowdale by Ed Greenwood

Genre: Fantasy

This collects three books in the Elminster saga - Elminster: The Making of a Mage, Elminster in Myth Drannor, and The Temptation of Elminster. I read it as one big Novel. For such a large book there was surprisingly little story to it. The initial character and plot development was solid. There is however no epic story that unfolds in these 3 books. Ed Greenwood has a god acting mysteriously in the book and sending Elminster of on random tasks to "increase the use of magic in the world". Why ? And to what ends ? None of these questions get answered. Some clues into why the God was getting Elminster to perform these tasks would have helped peaked interest in the sequels that followed. These books simply feel like episodes of a soap opera that you know will never end or resolve anything in a meaningful or satisfactory manner.

If you are desperately hankering for some fantasy fiction then consider this book. Else give this a pass.

Rating: 2.5 / 5, Meh average.

Book review: Inferno by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

Genre: Fantasy.

This book is a modern day retelling of Dante's Inferno. In this version we follow a science fiction author who lands in hell and follow his journey as he attempts to get out of hell. The book is jointly authored by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, two well respected authors.

Never having read Dante's Inferno, I can't comment on any links between the two tales. The concept of a science fiction author in a hell or a hell like place is intriguing. The first third of the book was fun to read as the authors explore the initial concept. However after the initial exuberance has waned, the shallowness of the plot starts to come through. The book is basically composed of "Allen Carpentier" the main character of the book and "Benito", his guide / companion visiting various levels of hell and seeing the punishment being meted out. The plot is thin and the conclusion is insipid.

This is not a bad book however, namely because the writing style is good and there is some entertainment to be had from the description of a modern (well 70'e era) hell. However instead of fulfilling its promise of being a special book, we end up with one that is just average.

Rating: 2.5 / 5; Average.

Book review: Plant (DK Eyewitness Books) by David Burnie

Genre: Casual non fiction

This is a well presented introduction to plants. The book consist of chapters of a couple of pages each, that focus on a aspect of plants like leaves, flowers, propagation method etc. These chapters then present the information visually using highly detailed photographs and little blurbs that detail out the illustration. A surprisingly large amount of information is packed into each of this chapter. This information is presented in a way that is clear and extremely easy to understand.

A great read for anyone have a casual interest in learning more about plants or a great gift if you are looking to spark a interest in plants in some one else.

Rating: 5 / 5; Highly recommended.

Book review: The street lawyer by John Grisham

Genre: Fiction. Drama with some elements of a thriller.

This book tells the tale of a lawyer Michael, whose climb up his law firms corporate ladder is interrupted when a homeless man takes him and his co-workers hostage. This incident forces him to reevaluate his life. Along the way he also starts to dig into why his firm was targeted by the homeless man and uncovers a mystery.

Michael's philosophical crisis and his journey through it is not that interesting. The crisis might have been triggered by a dramatic incident, but it is basically a upper middle class lawyer having a mid-life crisis. The mystery in the book never quite develops and there are no intelligent twists and turns. There is nothing interesting or exciting about this book but it is not badly written. The end result is a solidly average book.

Rating: 2.5 / 5. Average.

Book review: Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Genre: Fiction, Steam-punk with zombies

Ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords and heavily armed pirates in late 1800's Seattle with a steam-punk vibe. That sounds like a premise of a pretty entertaining book. Unfortunately Boneshaker fails to deliver on this.

The book tells the story of a mother - Brair and her teenage son Ezekiel. Boneshaker is the name of the a machine that destroyed much of Seattle and let loose a gas that created the undead. Boneshaker was created and piloted by Brair's husband.

The first 6 chapters of the book is a attempt to define Brair and Ezekiel's character. It however does not do a good job with this and it is hard to care about what happens to them. These chapters end up being really slow and boring.

The books picks up a bit when Ezekiel goes into the undead infested city and his mother follows him in. But the plot soon starts to meander around and does not really develop into anything substantial.

The ending of the book is pretty decent and if this were a short story it would have been a good one. Personally I was just relieved that I had managed to finish the book.

Rating: 1 / 5, Terrible, skip it.