Search

Search only in certain items:

    Occitanie by  France

    Occitanie by France

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    Album

    Savage pulsating drone-rock from France France is the trio of Jeremie Sauvage on electric bass,...

    Plane Finder Lite

    Plane Finder Lite

    Travel and Navigation

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Plane Finder Lite shows live moving planes on a worldwide map. Watch planes on the map or view with...

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
N.K. Jemisin | 2000 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
9
8.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Worldbuilding (1 more)
Thoughtful and Engaging Characters
Tight, compelling story set in an amazing fantasy world
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms has the kind of engaging plot and clear prose that makes it easy to get lost in. Jemisin's debut novel crafts a complex world that fans of traditional fantasy will love, while still being incredibly fresh and thoughtful. The worldbuilding engages in the complexities of colonialism and cultural difference in a way that makes the world feel alive and thrumming with conflict.

Yeine is a compelling protagonist and Nahadoth, her romantic interest, is sexy, dark, and tortured (like all good love interests should be.) It's 410 pages of pure fantasy fun.

The only nitpick I have is that I wish there was more of it. Seriously. The advice to writers is to start as late in the story as possible, but I wish more time had been spent building up Yeine's world and her relationship with her mother (who's death is pivotal to the plot), and with her own Kingdom of Darre. Instead the reader enters the story with Yeine already making her way to the city of Sky. This, for me, lessened the emotional impact of later reveals.
  
40x40

Awix (3310 KP) rated The Admirable Crichton (1957) in Movies

Feb 23, 2019 (Updated Feb 23, 2019)  
The Admirable Crichton (1957)
The Admirable Crichton (1957)
1957 | Comedy
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Well-made but somewhat odd British comedy. Status-obsessed Lord Loam (Parker) and his entourage wind up shipwrecked on a desert island; in order to survive some drastic steps have to be taken, and redoubtable butler Crichton (More) - yes, there is a Red Dwarf character named after him - rises to the occasion. Soon, the traditional hierarchy is upended But what will happen if they ever get rescued?

The Admirable Crichton seems incredibly dated nowadays, but it probably did so back in 1957 as well. Its preoccupation with the class system perhaps feels a bit quaint, but the story predicated on it is still involving - Lord Loam's daughter and Crichton fall in love, but can only be together in the class-inverted society they create on the island; there are similar subplots. It's fairly amusing in a broad sort of way, but the moments that stick with you are the ones of sadness and regret. It's hard to imagine a modern rom-com having the bravery to serve up an ending as downbeat as this one. Probably works better as a comedy-drama, to be honest; does so rather well.
  
***NOTE: I received a free review copy of this book from NetGalley***

The body of Farquhar Knox, QC, has been found in courtroom number three, pierced through the heart with an arrow. It's up to DI Flick Fortune and her team to find the killer. Things are made all the more difficult when a Chief Superintendent shows up on their suspect list, and the local paper implies that the very pregnant Flick and her department may not be up to the task at hand.

This was a very enjoyable read. It's the third in a series of traditional police procedurals from author Ian Simpson, but the first one that I had read. I was worried after seeing the long list of characters included at the beginning of the book that I might feel lost or have trouble keeping everyone straight, not having read the two previous books. This was not the case, however, and Simpson does a good job of making his characters distinct and recognizable. A very well-written mystery with several sub-plots and lots of red herrings, I would recommend Murder in Court Three to anyone who enjoys a good mystery.