Escaping Konakona isn't bad, the start is good, and grabbed, having spent a large amount of time in Hawai'i. The rest is not as good, though, as a virtual world user sees his volcano goddess creating act differently to what he expects. A bit easier going than Madame Pele, it appears.
3 out of 5
The Keepsake Purse starts off about a purse, and if you think that isn't too interesting, then in this case, you'd be right, despite the supernatural elements and creepy family stuff later.
2 out of 5
Inside by Ben Payne also starts off ok, but then changes tone and meanders on at length, after the would be anarchist types find themselves in a not so pleasant situation. Not interesting enough.
2.5 out of 5
The Classic Reprint idea is certainly a nifty one, especially if they can cadge a story that is not already online out of someone, unlike 'Why my wife left me and other stories by Diomedes' - Simon Brown. I have read this before, and didn't mind it, with its look at war and relationships displaced by time.
3 out of 5 for me.
The editorial is fun. Proclaim your inner geekdom loud and proud.
4.5 out of 5
The interviews are ok. I like the Alisa Krasnostein one, about her projects. It seems as well as SF geekdom, she is an academic geek as well. Wonder if she likes football? Having come across the ASiF site recently, some of it is pretty cool, especially her forum guests.
7 out of 10
Doctorow's why you like reading off a screen article is also worth disseminating, and reading if you haven't already. One of the main points being about novels, and reading at length electronically.
4 out of 5
As far as reviews go, I don't really care for them, in general, especially long ones. All I want to know is what the book is about, and is it any good. Having already read Armageddon's Children, didn't need to bother with that one. This trilogy is a fabulous fantasy epic, is the start of the Simon Brown story. Stop right there. Next. I have read about Blackbeard before, and do not like Anne Bishop. The mainstream thriller looking book I am ignoring, as well, and I am not going to judge these.
Mike Carey's The Devil You Know is on my Super Reader list, being in the 'Ghost Buster' genre. Wasting a paragraph on conflict of interest is really annoying, though, and what I get from this a quick look at this review is that the reviewer is nowhere near knowledgeable enough about this sort of book for me to bother with finishing this one. Apart from wasting time and words with crap that could go at the end, or not at all.
1 out of 5
I took a look at the Carnies review. An order of magnitude better (at least in base 2, anyway:) ). The author, what it is about right there, at the start. Makes it sound intriguing enough to have a look at it, right from the start, particularly with a different Australian setting, and I really haven't read a horror novel like that for a long time, that I can recall.
3.5 out of 5
The other one of interest was the Bedford review, coming across that author online recently and asking him about the books, and this review also does its job well, and fast.
4 out of 5
Overall, it seems book reviewers, unlike those for video and audio often in general are scared of quantifying how good something is, and use adjectives instead. Allergic to numbers perhaps. Maybe they all know each other personally, or whatever, but as a reader, I don't care. Tell me how good it is, anybody else seems to be able to. If you are a reviewer, and you can't, well, enough said.
Fiction - 10.5 out of 20.
Non-fiction that I read - 24 out of 35, which overall gives:
3 out of 5