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The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin, Jr.
Rating: Disliked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
This was an odd book. Very dated (published in the 70s), and it felt like it was supposed to be an analogy for something. It was based on a story from Canterbury Tales: Chanticleer and the Fox.
Though the characters were all talking animals, none of them felt at all like a real animal. Abandoned quickly (4% in).
The Magnificent 12 by Michael Grant
Rating: Disliked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
At first I had thought this one would work for me. I've read other YA series by Michael Grant, and I generally like his writing a lot. This book was supposed to be funny, but the humor didn't work at all for me. Very flippant. If the book insulted itself, why should I like it?
Add onto that that, while I like Grant's writing, I have serious issues with how he and his wife publish. Their books are listed very high in price ($7-$10 for an ebook), but they're very, very short. Adult fiction takes me 6-8 hours per book, YA 4 hours. Their books run 1-2 hours long, individual books never have an ending, and they are full of fluff to pad them out. So basically, they write an adult-length book, add a heaping helping of padding, cut it up into small chunks to sell as individual books, and end up getting $80-$100 for it.
Based on all that, the moment I stopped enjoying this book, I stopped reading it (13% in -- that's how short it was, I got that far when abandoned it one chapter in).
Darkness on a Pale Blue Stone by D.T. Peterson
Rating: Hated (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
I loved the title of this book. Unfortunately that was the only good thing about it.
Though I abandoned it fast (4% point), the book was long enough that that gave me a good taste of it.
It opened with some kind of spy, set in a future scifi world. For reasons unexplained, he was trying to steal some tech from a company. He had a prototype of some holograph that would project a different face over his own. Small, it fit behind his ear. When it stopped working, he left it in the hallway of the company. (Why? Why leave a prototype somewhere for someone to find? Why not stick it into his pocket?) Other than the main character, none of the other people in this world felt real, plus they were very stupid so the spy would seem more clever. Last straw was when he punched a table hard enough to leave an indent in it, but didn't hurt his hand at all. Not even a minor 'ow' in his thoughts.
Currently reading: Interspecies: Volume 1 (The Inlari Sagas) by various authors. While I thought this was a collection of stories set in some pre-established series' world, that seems to not be the case. The universe was created just for this anthology, and the four novellas in it flesh it out. Interesting!
Rating: Disliked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
This was an odd book. Very dated (published in the 70s), and it felt like it was supposed to be an analogy for something. It was based on a story from Canterbury Tales: Chanticleer and the Fox.
Though the characters were all talking animals, none of them felt at all like a real animal. Abandoned quickly (4% in).
The Magnificent 12 by Michael Grant
Rating: Disliked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
At first I had thought this one would work for me. I've read other YA series by Michael Grant, and I generally like his writing a lot. This book was supposed to be funny, but the humor didn't work at all for me. Very flippant. If the book insulted itself, why should I like it?
Add onto that that, while I like Grant's writing, I have serious issues with how he and his wife publish. Their books are listed very high in price ($7-$10 for an ebook), but they're very, very short. Adult fiction takes me 6-8 hours per book, YA 4 hours. Their books run 1-2 hours long, individual books never have an ending, and they are full of fluff to pad them out. So basically, they write an adult-length book, add a heaping helping of padding, cut it up into small chunks to sell as individual books, and end up getting $80-$100 for it.
Based on all that, the moment I stopped enjoying this book, I stopped reading it (13% in -- that's how short it was, I got that far when abandoned it one chapter in).
Darkness on a Pale Blue Stone by D.T. Peterson
Rating: Hated (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
I loved the title of this book. Unfortunately that was the only good thing about it.
Though I abandoned it fast (4% point), the book was long enough that that gave me a good taste of it.
It opened with some kind of spy, set in a future scifi world. For reasons unexplained, he was trying to steal some tech from a company. He had a prototype of some holograph that would project a different face over his own. Small, it fit behind his ear. When it stopped working, he left it in the hallway of the company. (Why? Why leave a prototype somewhere for someone to find? Why not stick it into his pocket?) Other than the main character, none of the other people in this world felt real, plus they were very stupid so the spy would seem more clever. Last straw was when he punched a table hard enough to leave an indent in it, but didn't hurt his hand at all. Not even a minor 'ow' in his thoughts.
Currently reading: Interspecies: Volume 1 (The Inlari Sagas) by various authors. While I thought this was a collection of stories set in some pre-established series' world, that seems to not be the case. The universe was created just for this anthology, and the four novellas in it flesh it out. Interesting!
