I'm a big fan of 'His Dark Materials' and 'Ruby in the Smoke' is set in a similar Victorian world, but without the steampunk or magical elements. It'sI'm a big fan of 'His Dark Materials' and 'Ruby in the Smoke' is set in a similar Victorian world, but without the steampunk or magical elements. It's a murder mystery where teenage orphan Sally Lockhart searches for her father's killer and tries to discover his connection to the Ruby of the title and the significance of his last warning to her - 'Beware the seven blessings.'
At around 200 pages it was a quick read. The writing is not quite as sophisticated as 'His Dark Materials', but is still really good and captures the Victorian turn of phrase very well. I can see some Dickensian influence and I imagine a bit from Wilkie Collins and Conan Doyle too. Occasionally there were a few last minute liberties written into the story to make things work - suddenly discovering Frederick is an expert climber is one that springs to mind and there was another one that was to do with the ruby. The villain Mrs Holland is a great character, but unlike Mrs Coulter, I didn't quite buy the web of influence and power she seemed to have accrued. There were also lots of good London locations and secondary characters. I will definitely read the next one in the series....more
**spoiler alert** Collins has created a compelling and exciting story, that gripped me from start to finish. The writing is not great there's bad gram**spoiler alert** Collins has created a compelling and exciting story, that gripped me from start to finish. The writing is not great there's bad grammar and sentences but once I got into the story I tended not to notice the errors as much. The worst thing about the writing is the way that everything is mediated through Katniss's boring consciousness, nothing happens without her witness and commentary and because of this I think the film works much better. It's one of the few times where I can honestly say I prefer the film to the book. Jennifer Laurence gives a great performance and from the film's third person outside view Katniss's thoughts on her situation are much more up to us to interpret. Also some of the stupider moments of the book were dropped from the film. The wolves with the personalities/souls/clones/ of the contestants was one of the weirder moments of the book that the film didn't go with.
The secondary characters are a bit flat but both Katniss and Peeta are likeable and admirable leads and there are some very good scenes between them. Having seen the film first I wonder how much the performances of the actors coloured my view of things, because there is very little detail in the writing of gesture or appearance or setting and as the series went on without the visual memory of the film the writing in the later books struggled to evoke any sense of place for me.
The weirdness of the setup of Katniss 'pretending' to fall in love with Peeta and her worry about everyone else watching them on invisible cameras and judging them etc made me think the twist at the end was the whole thing would somehow be her schizophrenic fantasy, but it didn't quite turn out that way....more
John Smith is a teenage boy in high school and also an alien. He is Number 4, a Loric from the planet Lorien, whose people are eco warriors (like the John Smith is a teenage boy in high school and also an alien. He is Number 4, a Loric from the planet Lorien, whose people are eco warriors (like the Lorien elves in LOTR). His planet was attacked by the evil Mogadorians from Mogadon (like the clinical drug and heavy sedative?!) and he and eight other children, along with their guardians, were forced to come to earth and go on the run disguised as humans. While they wait for puberty to kick in and their magic powers to develop they are being systematical hunted and killed in numerical order by the Mogadorians.
This is a young adult science-fiction fantasy set in and around a high school – with all the clichés that entails. Its hero is an alien boy in that fairytale sense where, like in Star Wars or Smallville, he is in every way a human teenager, but with magic powers. This is important because there is the whole high school story line to negotiate, where he makes friends with the geek-outsider, beats the jock-bully and gets the pretty-girlfriend ( whose one character trait is that she builds a cat sanctuary!). I couldn’t help but feel if the alien-boy had a tiny bit more cultural and physical difficulty fitting in, rather than just the usual teenage issues and the matter-of-fact magic, it would have made him a more interesting character.
The book is well plotted and mixes between the alien and the high school story lines with skill, but parts of the story and dialogue are very clichéd. The way characters react to the fact that their friend is an alien with magic powers and a load of other aliens have just rocked up to try and kill him is also highly unbelievable. There is some terrible writing and copy editing in parts of the action, which means I sometimes got a little confused. Also, the rules for the magic are a tad nonsensical and towards the end the author even seemed to add in a few new rules just when he needed them. Or, just as bad, he will spend ages clunkingly setting up a magical skill or twist just to use it in one sequence. But if those kind of things don’t annoy you too much and you can suspend your disbelief then its a fun read with lots of exciting action sequences. I think teenagers would love it....more
Brilliant, a page turning fantasy with an amazing kick-ass magical heroine in Sabriel, and a sarcastic talking cat. The book is also amazingly plottedBrilliant, a page turning fantasy with an amazing kick-ass magical heroine in Sabriel, and a sarcastic talking cat. The book is also amazingly plotted, especially at the end which manages to somehow bring things almost full circle to the first few moments of the story and tie up all the elements in a personal way, which is such a hard thing to do in such an epic sweeping fantasy....more
I liked the writing style and the story. Its atmospheric and engaging. The plot did start to get a bit repetitive at some points but I guess this is bI liked the writing style and the story. Its atmospheric and engaging. The plot did start to get a bit repetitive at some points but I guess this is because the book only really has three or four main characters. Overall a gripping and interesting historical/fantasy story for Young Adults with a few steam punky elements mixed into its medieval setting....more
I just reread this the other day, for the first time since my teen years. It's a simple and beautifully written fantasy tale. Told almost as a myth orI just reread this the other day, for the first time since my teen years. It's a simple and beautifully written fantasy tale. Told almost as a myth or an old oral story. A mage loses an evil spirit on the world and then spends the rest of the book, running from it, until he discovers how to fight it.
What it made me think of, this time, was a Jung story. Jung had a dream where he was walking through a cave carrying a candle. He turned around and saw that a dark figure was following him and he was scared, but then, when he looked backed again, he realised what was following him was only his shadow, being thrown by the light he carried, and he was no longer afraid....more
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