Communication Genius: 40 Insights from the Science of Communicating
Book
The fast-track MBA in communication Imagine having instant access to the world's smartest thinking...
Flora Unveiled: The Discovery and Denial of Sex in Plants
Lincoln Taiz and Lee Taiz
Book
Sex in animals has been known for at least ten thousand years, and this knowledge was put to good...
Beren and Luthien
Book
Painstakingly restored from Tolkien’s manuscripts and presented for the first time as a fully...
Will Africa Feed China?
Book
Is China building a new empire in rural Africa? Over the past decade, China's meteoric rise on the...
Sophocles: Four Tragedies: Oedipus the King, Aias, Philoctetes, Oedipus at Colonus
Book
Sophocles stands as one of the greatest dramatists of all time, influencing a vast array of artists...
Sourdough Suppers: A Year in the Life of a Wild Yeast Culture
Book
An exquisite collection of moreish meals created around handmade breads and simple seasonal...
The Mindbody Self: How Longevity is Culturally Learned and the Causes of Health are Inherited
Book
In these turbulent times, just about every solution you can think of has been put forth by someone,...
Eleanor Luhar (47 KP) rated Homunculus and the Cat in Books
Jun 24, 2019
So I've been reading this book for quite some time now, and honestly I nearly gave up on it a few times. But for the sake of the review, I managed to keep on at it until the end.
What I managed to gather from this book is that it takes place in a whole different universe, where myths and gods are real. Winged cats with nine lives, flying carpets, even homunculi. The main characters include the Ennedi Ankh' Si, a flying cat, Tyro, a simple human, and homunculi such as Mina and Herakles. A homunculus sanctuary, fighting for equal rights for their kind, is caught in a fire. In desperate need of help, the crew end up travelling all over the place - including to an underwater palace of a goddess, where they participate in a huge battle.
If I'm really honest, I can't tell you much more than that. There's some suspicious dude called Manga, and Tyro tries to rescue his friend Herakles - requiring a trip back to good ol' America. But other than that, I'm not quite sure what happened.
The writing itself is actually pretty good. The descriptions and metaphors are great, and there's a good deal of underlying humour in places. And the whole idea of this universe full of gods and demons and creatures both beautiful and terrible is wonderful. It's just a shame that I couldn't get into it. I felt like I was reading most of it through a daze, just trying to get it over with.
I will give this the benefit of the doubt - maybe I wasn't in the right frame of mind for it, or I just wasn't paying enough attention. Others may enjoy this a lot more than I did. But I'm going to give it just two stars, which honestly feels like I'm pushing the bar a little already.
Cat Sense: The Feline Enigma Revealed
Book
From John Bradshaw, one of the world's leading experts on animal behaviour, and the author of the...
A Curious History of Sex
Book
‘Buckle your trousers, fasten your seatbelts, here comes Kate Lister. Her curious history of sex...
Sex Sexuality History of sex and sexuality Sex Workers History of gynaecology