This was much better than i expected it to be. I've never really given Stephen King's books much of a chance. I'm glad i finally took the plunge with this one. I really like the dreamlike quality to it, the other-worldly feel is very refreshing and a style i've come across very rarely, if at all. I was reluctant to read this one, partly due to the fact that Stephen King tends go off on a tangent a lot which can lead to his books being three times the length they might have been. This wasn't a problem here with the story simply unfolding as and when it needed to and, thankfully, not disappearing off into the distance somewhere only to get back on track some hundreds of pages in the future. It is in fact quite a short book relative to other more modern fantasy novels that seem to be under the impression that it's not fantasy unless it's at least a 1000 pages. It is however one of a seven book epic, but in this instance i'm glad it is, and am very much looking forward to the next one, 'The Drawing of the Three' which apparently throws our protagonist into the mind of a modern-day drug dealer(or something of the like).

Highly recommended.

I very much enjoyed this novel. It is undoubtedly one of those novels that screams out to be re-read, which I intend to do at the earliest opportunity. I found it to be complex at times and yet it all comes together quite well at the end. I'm moving straight onto Nova Swing now in the hopes it'll be at least as good. The characters were engaging if not entirely likable and inhabit a world so strange as to be almost dreamlike in some instances. The violence wasn't to my taste and I remember distinctly at one point wondering if I would be able to continue much further, but luckily that particular part seemed to be the worst of it.

Anyway, very enjoyable. Will undoubtedly require a re-read to get the best out of it, which I look forward to.

Two stars means 'It was OK' according to goodreads which really sums up 95% of this novel. I'm not going to go to town on this review. In fact, it's more of a personal reminder or a general overview of why I didn't quite dislike it, but certainly didn't rate it at all. So here it is then. This is the story of an anomaly or part of it anyway that basically drops off the main anomaly and causes a kind of rent or tear through to somewhere else. Predictably, things come through from that side and people go through to that side. If it sounds like I'm bored writing this its because I am. A book that can make me bored all over again when I write the review is definitely a book to avoid. Some of it was pretty good. There were parts that made me smile or sent my thoughts off at a tangent, and for that I am thankful but seriously now, most of this novel is very, very slow going and is little more than an exercise in character development. This wouldn't be a bad thing at all if there was a story to go with it, but what story there is didn't hold my interest.

I liked 'Light', but this just dragged a little to much for my taste and in the end didn't really go anywhere, at least nowhere that I wasn't expecting all along.

Not great, but not terrible either. Just OK.

This book has such a big reputation as being one of the great science fiction novels of all time that I simply had to read it. I spent nearly all of last year reading nothing but fantasy and so am spending this year catching up on my sci-fi. This seemed like a good place to start. All in all it was a very good read, interesting story and characters and I can see how it will open up into one of those galaxy spanning epics. If there's one little gripe it would be that it seems to be very much a 'tell them, don't show them' kind of affair, which on the whole I'm not a fan of. The characters and what they say to each other seems to be the method of driving the story forward rather than the author actually describing events and having the characters play them out. This tends to lead to feelings of dusty old men sitting around playing politics as opposed to the all out action novel that I feel it wants to be. Still, it's well written and I did enjoy it. I will continue with the second novel at some point, but not immediately. After finishing Foundation I feel the urge to read something with a little action to it.

What a real pleasure it is to read a book with a beginning, a middle and an ending, as apposed to an endless stream of whacking great tomes that go nowhere fast. I liked this a lot. I've been in just the right kind of mood lately for a nice bit of raging, seething vengeance, and I wasn't disappointed. That is, not until our raging, seething protagonist turned into the Buddha of a sudden. It's not all bad though since it really worked and it's always good to see a character grow so much over the course of say, oh... a few hundred pages, rather than grow NOT AT ALL over the course of a FEW HUNDRED BOOKS(I might be exagerating slightly, but not much). Anyway, this is the story of Gully Foyle who is passed over by another ship when he lets loose with the distress signals like there's no tomorrow. He escapes his fate and decides to turn his entire life into one long FUCK-YOU-FEST when he goes after the ship and henceforth it's crew to exact his raging and seething revenge. I don't want to ruin it for you so I'll just say it's not all FUCK-YOU and seething and raging in the end.

An absolutey fantastic story with characters that actually grow over the course of it all, and on top of that our forever-friend Mr Bester manages all of this without having to resort to a single extra volume, no dinky little maps at the front of the book and no endless appendices of the characters family trees along with their entire ancestors backstories.

Oh, and one last thing. 'Jisbella', henceforth and eternally etched into my very being, and now known affectionately as 'Jiz' has to be the single most fantastically, beautifully named character in the entire history of anything... ever! If I had ever had a daughter her name would have been 'Jisbella'.

Jiz... (just because I can)

This wasn't earth-shattering by any stretch, but it was extremely enjoyable. I was going to go straight onto the second one in the trilogy, unfortunaltely it gets really abyssmal reviews(on Amazon at least) so I'm now not at all sure I'll be reading it at all. I can't even bring myself to just skip the second and go onto the third, since that one only gets average reviews and says the first book is a lot better anyway.

Still, this one was good. Tabitha Jute is a well written character and her companions are interesting(especially the cherub). I'm not sure how it managed to pick up two awards in the same year, or even in any year. It's not that it's a bad read, it isn't, but I'm sure there are more deserving reads out there. I was in just the right frame of mind for a bit of pulpy science fiction though so that helped my enjoyment.

Very good read. Worth your time.

When I started reading this I thought I'd get used to the characters obsession with animals, but even now I've reached the end, I still can't quite understand what it is that drives this deep-seated obsession. A lot of animals are extinct, most are extremely rare and there's a certain primitive prestige to be gained by owning a real animal as opposed to an electric/artificial one, so I can understand them really, really wanting to own one, but that deep-seated obsession..?

This, of course, is the book that Blade Runner was based on. In many ways the film had a good deal more atmosphere, what with it's dystopian, quasi-oriental feel, and the endless rain, and none of this weird animal business. Still, it's very easy to read and difficult to put down. Dekhard is very well done, although it helped I think that I couldn't help but see Harrison Ford in the role. Rachel was very much the same, and although I half-liked the ending in the film(with them both driving into the beautiful countyside), I definitely preferred the books less sacarine ending. I say half-liked because something about the ending in the film just jolted with me. Where did the beautiful green countryside come from for example? And if it's been there all along, why aren't more people living there? Or anybody at all really? Not a soul is to be seen as they're driving through this paradisical countryside.

So anyway, the story is well known at this stage I think. There are glaring differences apart from the animals already mentioned, such as Mercerism, which seems to be some sort of futuristic psuedo-religion helped along with a good dollop of future technology. It's very strange and stikes me as coming off sort of half cocked. What I mean is, it's a good start as far as it goes, but the idea needed to be more than simply a means to become one with everyone else. But then perhaps it's hopelessness was intended to mirror the dystopian world around them. I don't know. It just felt underdone as an idea really. Another difference that was perhaps even more striking was the ease with which Dekhard dispatches the remaining few Andy's(skin jobs in the film, which I liked better than the term Andy's). He simply walks in and shoots them. Job done.

I really liked the Rachel/Dekhard storyline though, and the way she makes him truly realize that everything has life, even an Android in it's own way. Part of me would have liked to have seen this relationship in a little more detail though instead of just having her go and throw his goat off the roof and him almost shrugging it off and saying, 'meh... she's just an android after all', or words to that effect anyway.

In summary, I really enjoyed this book. Felt parts were a little too alien and maybe tried a little too hard to be so, but on the whole, a book I could easily see myself sitting down and reading again sometime in the future. I wish to god there was a sequel. Very enjoyable. Loved it.

This is a collection of short stories tied together by the setting which happens to be a saloon, Callahan's Crosstime Sallon. People find Callahan's place if they're in need of a little spiritual/emotional healing, effectively when life's been a bit unkind and they need a bit of a boost. Everybody here will not judge, but will instead listen and maybe nudge you back on track if you're lucky. It doesn't surprise me in the least that the author's wife is a Buddhist Priest, it's obviously rubbed off on him. I'm going to enjoy reading the rest of these, they're not perfect by any stretch but I did enjoy it a great deal and it's nice to know Callahan's will always be there when I need it. Very good read.

Loved it.

Unfortunately I struggled with this. It's clearly one of those books that was written because the author had to write something. Quite frankly, it's a bit of a mess and doesn't do the name Spider Robinson any justice at all. It contains a few callahan's stories, some other none callahan's stories and an awful lot of gumph in between these stories which is simply the author filling-in... a great deal of filling-in in fact.

My advise would be to simply scip this one and go straight onto the next. I wish I had.

Even though I still prefer the short stories, this was still way ahead of most fantasy in terms of setting the atmosphere and the sheer scale of the world-building. I love Conan as a character anyway but there's also a grim and gritty feel to the whole world including the other characters. They all seem so real that at times you can almost see their shadowy presence looming up before you.

Fantastic grim fantasy. Can't wait to get stuck into the 3rd one now.