The Bandersnatch (199 KP) rated The Magicians' Guild (Black Magician Trilogy, #1) in Books
Nov 7, 2019
Canavan stated on her website that the initial inspiration which ended up being part of the first chapter came form her watching a documentary of the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona where a report about the government taking the host cities homeless and sending them to other cities/towns. Later that night she saw herself and several others being herded out of a city...by magicians hence the first chapter.
Now when I first found the book I was in a Waterstones (Well known British bookstore) mindlessly looking....wasn't even expecting to buy a book and I came across The Magicians Guild. Finding the blurb interesting I bought it and after reading it I fell in love and I ended up rushing to buy the other two books. Hearing the influence of the first chapter reminded me of the influence Susanne Collins the writer of the Hunger games series had of flicking through channels and hearing two different news posts.
Lion Songs: Thomas Mapfumo and the Music That Made Zimbabwe
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Like Fela Kuti and Bob Marley, singer, composer, and bandleader Thomas Mapfumo and his music came to...
Herzl: Theodor Herzl and the Foundation of the Jewish State
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The first biography in more than a generation of the father of modern political Zionism and in...
Whose Muse?: Art Museums and the Public Trust
Glenn D. Lowry, James Cuno and Philippe de Montebello
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During the economic boom of the 1990s, art museums expanded dramatically in size, scope, and...
Thieves' Quarry (Thieftaker Chronicles #2)
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Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay, September 28, 1768 Autumn has come to New England, and...
ClareR (5726 KP) rated The Ministry of Time in Books
Jun 4, 2024
The Ministry of Time is a clever book - it uses time travel and science fiction, with a touch of history that actually happened, and mixes it up with a hefty dose of romance, thriller and literary fiction. It doesn’t sound like it will work, but I’m here to say that it really DOES!
Ok, so a quick, yet vague, synopsis: the British Government has come into possession of a device that can go back in time and find particular people in the past. It’s been decided that the people they take are all in life-threatening situations. Those plucked from their time are placed with a “Bridge”; someone who will facilitate their integration into modern society.
The main pair is that of Graham Gore, a Polar explorer from the Erebus expedition, and his Bridge, a woman whose mother escaped the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Not an easy adjustment for a Victorian man. This Bridge is the narrator.
Graham Gore adjusts quickly to modern life, but is modern life willing to accept him? And what affect does it have on him and his fellow time travellers, to be so out of time?
There was so much to think about whilst reading this - I was completely immersed, and it ended FAR too quickly!
Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly, and the Making of the Modern Middle East
9.0
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A thrilling and revelatory narrative of one of the most epic and consequential periods in 20th...
<i>Captive</i> is the debut young adult thriller by British author A. J. Grainger. Set in contemporary Britain, sixteen-year-old Robyn, the daughter of the Prime Minister, is kidnapped and held hostage by three animal rights activists. Until the government agrees to release the person accused of the attempted assassination of the PM four month previously, they refuse to free Robyn from captivity. It soon becomes clear that a lot of lies and cover-ups have been occurring and it is difficult to know whom to trust.
The novel gets off to a great start with a lot of action as Robyn and her family is ambushed on their way to visit grandparents. The first half of the book is really exciting as the reader slowly gets to grips with what is going on.
Grainger writes really well with great use of descriptive words and phrases. To keep the reader engaged and to lengthen the story she includes other interesting details that are educational in a way – for example, knowledge about birds.
Unfortunately the second half of the book is not as exciting as the first. A relationship starts developing between Robyn and one of the captors, which is rather unoriginal and predictable.
One thing that I particularly liked about this novel was Robyn’s character. Naturally people may expect daughters of prime ministers to be snobbish and spoilt but Robyn was the complete opposite. She did not care about where her clothes came from or whether or not she went to parties. Robyn was the representation of the average teenage girl preparing for her GCSEs.
Despite the clichéd captor/hostage situation <i>Captive</i> is a very enjoyable novel with a few exhilarating twists in the plot.
Utusan Malaysia
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Distinctive for its blue masthead as its logo and trademark, Utusan Malaysia was first created and...
Walden & Civil Disobedience
Henry David Thoreau, Tom Griffith and Henry Claridge
6.0
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No nineteenth-century American writer can claim to be as modern as Henry David Thoreau. His central...