Sign up
Search
Advanced search settings

Search only in certain items:

Search results
All (5000)
Content
People
Apps
Books
Orbs
Movies
Music
Podcasts
Shows
Tabletop Games
Tech
TV
Video Games
YouTube Channels
Videos
40x40

David McK (3557 KP) rated The Aeronaut's Windlass in Books

Dec 20, 2023  
The Aeronaut's Windlass
The Aeronaut's Windlass
Jim Butcher | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
6
8.6 (10 Ratings)
Book Rating
The first book in Jim Butcher's new series: Cinder Spires series, if I'm honest I was a little unsure what to make of this at the start: it's not 'traditional' fantasy (that would be his 'Codex Alera' series); nor is it the urban fantasy (his - still ongoing - 'Dresden Files' series).

Rather, this is probably best described as Steampunk, which is a genre I previously had little exploration in, and which Google defines as:

"...a subgenre of science fiction and sometimes fantasy that incorporates technology and aesthetic designs inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery.".

Reading that description, this definitely fits right into that bracket!

To my mind, it also falls more towards the fantasy aspect of Steampunk: after all, we have a new magic system, airships, the ability to communicate with animals (cats), and monsters from the ground all within the pages of this story even if (for my money), it never quite gripped me as much as a Harry Dresden book.
  
40x40

David McK (3557 KP) rated Skulduggery Pleasant in Books

Jan 26, 2024  
Skulduggery Pleasant
Skulduggery Pleasant
Derek Landy | 2007 | Children
6
8.9 (15 Ratings)
Book Rating
The first in Derek Landy's 'Skulduggery Pleasant' series, which I decided to borrow recently from Kindle Unlimited.

I read (or heard) somewhere that this was attempting to be the heir to the Harry potter crown, and I can definitely see the similarities: a secret world alongside our own full of magic, where a dark sorcerer wants to gain control over the mortal world, and where a young pre-teen is introduced to the world and has (to them) unknown connections to it already, and some unpleasant relatives...

However, unlike the Harry Potter series, this is primarily set in and around Dublin (rather than London) - and so, to me, is closer to home - while the home life of the protagonist is far more settled: she's not an orphan, and lives with her family.

I also found Skulduggery Pleasant to be more of an interesting character than Dumbledore, as well as playing a far larger role in the proceedings.

Finally, I may yet read more of these.