You know, it says something troubling about a book when its most memorable female character is a chimpanzee… who then turns into a boy.

Plot plot plot. The Last Oracle is the latest entry in Rollins’ popular Sigma Force series, a seres of technothrillers based around the adventures of ingenious military folk. They’re in it for the moral good, y’all. Anyways, at our novel’s beginning, we’re (re)introduced to Gray Pierce, who’s still reeling over the disappearance of Monk, his BFF. Monk ...Read More

This was a great read til the last five minutes. Basically, what’s going on is that our narrator, Ariella, is realizing that her dad’s a vampire. Also, she’s realizing that SHE might be a vampire as well. Little things like her (human) mother’s disappearance, the fact that her dad won’t let her leave the house, and that he doesn’t appear to age all point to vampirism running in the family. Amidst her own burgeoning sexuality and the mysteries surrounding a ...Read More

Ultimately, Lisey’s Story is an unmemorable foray into King’s trademark prose. While it’s certainly compelling, it doesn’t really stand up to some of his classic works like The Stand or to some of his more recent works like The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. I mostly read it because I’m a pretty rabid King fan, and have a thing about reading everything by certain beloved authors.

Really, it’s this love that got me through. King takes some of his more awesome ...Read More

Sometimes? LKH makes me really really angry. Why? Because she takes these pretty standard tropes re: the angsty mulatta, tosses in some vampires/angry faeries, and voila! People love it.

I’m gonna do a close read of The Laughing Corpse, one of the first books in the Anita Blake series. After this, I’ll probably do a follow up with Obsidian Butterfly, to talk about what almost-getting-it-right looks like.

Rightio then. We begin the story with a monster; it dashes in, kills a family, ...Read More

‘When I finally made it downstairs, wearing an old tracksuit I had found in my cupboards, she [my mother] put her hand to her mouth. “You look very sick,” she said. “Your eyes are like pits of tar: yellow and black. And your skin is the colour of white people. What were you trying to do? Die?”‘ (Silver Screen — 347)

Oh. My. God. I think I have a new favorite book. My mother says that to me whenever I come ...Read More

So I bought one of Dan Brown’s regular thrillers, figuring that he can pace a scene well, and that I might like one of his books better if it’s not peddling daft conspiracy theories. This one promised a lead, NSA cryptographer Susan Fletcher, fighting for her country, her life, and the life of the man she loves. That promise was not honoured.

First, her life. Susan’s part of the story takes place entirely within the NSA’s cryptography offices, ...Read More