I love #fantasy fiction and #comedy
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The story takes place on the fictional planet Urras and its moon Anarres (since Anarres is massive enough to hold …
The story takes place on the fictional planet Urras and its moon Anarres (since Anarres …
"My world, my Earth, is a ruin. A planet spoiled by the human species. We multiplied and gobbled and fought until there was nothing left, and then we died. We controlled neither appetite nor violence; we did not adapt. We destroyed ourselves. Bit we destroyed the world first. There are no forests left on my Earth. The air is grey, the sky is grey, it is always hot. It is habitable, it is still habitable - but not as this world is. This is a living world, a harmony. Mine is a discord. You Odonians choose a desert; we Terrans made a desert... We survive there, as you do. People are tough! There are nearly half billion of us now. Once there were nine billion. You can see the old cities still everywhere. The bones and bricks go to dust, but the little pieces of plastic never do"
Rather prescient writing about Earth!
I've been a fan of Duncan MacDonald since his Your Sinclair days. Always guaranteed to write absolutely hatstand reviews - including one for an April Fool's megagame Advanced Lawnmower Simulator, a game which he wrote himself and was subsequently featured on the covertape. In later times, he wrote a column for PC Zone and collaborated with a character known as Colin Culk to produce some crazy videos which were increasingly less about games, and more the sort of random nonsense you'd find on YouTube but before YouTube was a thing. In the early 2000s he wrote a blog for the website SeeThru - a project which involved another ex-Your Sinclair writer. It is that blog which forms the basis of South Coast Diaries.
It is, as I'd come to expect from Duncan, utterly hilarious in places and full of surreal characters and situations. I'm led to believe …
I've been a fan of Duncan MacDonald since his Your Sinclair days. Always guaranteed to write absolutely hatstand reviews - including one for an April Fool's megagame Advanced Lawnmower Simulator, a game which he wrote himself and was subsequently featured on the covertape. In later times, he wrote a column for PC Zone and collaborated with a character known as Colin Culk to produce some crazy videos which were increasingly less about games, and more the sort of random nonsense you'd find on YouTube but before YouTube was a thing. In the early 2000s he wrote a blog for the website SeeThru - a project which involved another ex-Your Sinclair writer. It is that blog which forms the basis of South Coast Diaries.
It is, as I'd come to expect from Duncan, utterly hilarious in places and full of surreal characters and situations. I'm led to believe by somebody who knew Duncan, that everything in the book actually happened. It follows his life on the dole whilst living in Hastings, and there's not much more I can say than that without spoilers.
Duncan sadly died before this book was published (it was originally supposed to be released in about 2003 but never materialised). Fortunately somebody must have rescued the text and managed to get it published posthumously. It is a tribute to a great writer and somebody who sadly didn't appear to get the break they deserved.
Good job, bloody good job, mate.
The Shepherd's Crown is a comic fantasy novel, the last book written by Terry Pratchett …
A fitting final Discworld novel from Sir Terry, whom Death sadly led away from this world last year.
Esme Weatherwax is also dead. Who will fill her boots? Who will fill the boots of Terry Pratchett? At least the first of these questions is answered in The Shepherd's Crown. The second.... well, maybe we will find out in the future. Like Granny Weatherwax, Terry will be a difficult act to follow. But, maybe we don't need another Terry, but somebody who does things their own way. Not another Granny, but somebody more.. Tiffany.
This was an excellent continuation of the story started in The Way of Kings. Looking forward to picking up Part 2!
Black holes. Global warming. The Hadron Collider. Ever had that sinking feeling that you really …
It's written by Ben Miller. It's about science. It is, as you'd expect, written in a light-hearted fashion, being both entertaining and informative. It also contains an entire (quite unexpected) chapter about cake. What's not to like?
It took me ages to get around to reading this book. It started off OK, and the writing is fine, but the sheer number of characters and the darting around between different groups that the author does, meant I lost track of who was who and what they were doing quite quickly. I finally gave up about two fifths of the way through, having scant idea of what was happening, where it was happening, whether all those people were originally on that boat, why it was being attacked, and whether I should care whether they make some mysterious island which was either cursed or inhabited by barbarians, not that I knew why they were going there anyway.
I put it down because I wasn't getting anything out of it. I picked it up because I got it for free from a Goodreads giveaway. At least nobody can say that has …
It took me ages to get around to reading this book. It started off OK, and the writing is fine, but the sheer number of characters and the darting around between different groups that the author does, meant I lost track of who was who and what they were doing quite quickly. I finally gave up about two fifths of the way through, having scant idea of what was happening, where it was happening, whether all those people were originally on that boat, why it was being attacked, and whether I should care whether they make some mysterious island which was either cursed or inhabited by barbarians, not that I knew why they were going there anyway.
I put it down because I wasn't getting anything out of it. I picked it up because I got it for free from a Goodreads giveaway. At least nobody can say that has influenced my review!
I might have another go at it if I run out of other books to read, but for now I can't award it any less than 1 star (I literally can't - it won't let me).
Snuff is the 39th novel in the Discworld series, written by Terry Pratchett. It was …
Goblins are people too.
