Category: Books & Literature

On why I hated A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin

This is not a review. A review, in my mind, seeks to make a balanced evaluation of a (in this case) book, highlighting both strong and weak points and, while it does make a judgement about said book, it leaves the reader to make a choice whether they want to read the book. This is not that. This is a rant about a book that I hate and that I’m probably going to hate for the rest of my life. It doesn’t help that the book is smack-bang in the middle of a series that, up until now, I’ve really enjoyed.

Here’s what happened. Nothing. Seriously. Nothing happens for more than seven-hundred pages (which actually makes a spoiler-warning a bit superfluous, but be warned this post contains significant spoilers regarding the third and fourth books in the Song of Ice and Fire franchise (or the coming fourth season of Game of Thrones for those barbarians among you who only watch the TV show). To skip spoilers, go straight to the last page when you reach the end of this one.)

I’d been taking a break from the books since I finished A Storm of Swords in April last year (the plan was to finish my reading for my Master’s…yeah, that worked out well), but with the fourth season of the TV series looming I reckoned I’d better read the next book so I can stay ahead. (I know the fourth season is still primarily based on book three, but they’ve been weaving in snippets of later books since season three already, as flashbacks don’t work so well on the telly.) I wish I hadn’t.

To start with, over half of the main characters are not even in the book. Mr Martin wrote a nice little note in the back that the book had grown too long and he decided to split it, having one bunch of characters in the one book and the rest of the characters in the next. But he didn’t put any of the interesting characters in this book. Jon Snow, Daenerys, Tyrion and Bran never make an appearance (except the very first chapter from Samwell Tarly’s perspective where Jon Snow makes a quick cameo). And those characters that are there spend most of the book going nowhere and doing nothing.

Continued on Page 2. To avoid spoilers, skip straight to Page 3. Also on Page 3, links to actual reviews on A Feast for Crows.

Pages: 1 2 3

KokkieH Reviews The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

The Shining Girls by South African author Lauren Beukes revolves around Harper Curtis, a drifter in Chicago’s Hooverville in 1931. Harper is on the run after killing a man when he finds the key to The House. He discovers that the house allows him to step into other times and in the bedroom upstairs there are names written on the wall; names of girls that he stalks through time, his shining girls.

In 1989 one of his victims, Kirby Mazrachi, survives and with the help of Dan Velasquez, a burned-out homicide reported who had covered her case, starts to investigate a number of brutal murders scattered through the decades, convinced that they are somehow connected to the attempt on her life. Continue reading “KokkieH Reviews The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes” →

KokkieH Reviews Spud – Exit, Pursued by a Bear by John van de Ruit

Spud - Exit, Pursued by a Bear cover — Publisher: penguinbooks.co.za

Spud – Exit, Pursued by a Bear is the fourth and final installment in John van de Ruit’s highly successful (at least in South Africa) Spud-series chronicling the adventures of one self-conscious teenager as he navigates the perils of boarding school.

For those of you unfamiliar with the series, John “Spud” Milton is a South African boy from a middle class family in the suburbs of Pietermaritzburg. He wins a scholarship to attend Michaelhouse, a prestige boarding school left over from the days of British colonialism. Spud differs from the other boys in the school as his parents aren’t wealthy (or classy) and when the first novel starts he also hasn’t yet hit puberty. And he keeps a journal. In fact, that’s what we get to read, as the novels are written in the style of Spud’s personal journal, one novel for each year in the school. Continue reading “KokkieH Reviews Spud – Exit, Pursued by a Bear by John van de Ruit” →

KokkieH Reviews Side Jobs – Stories From The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

I’ve been wanting to read Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files for a while now but have been unable to get hold of Storm Front, the first book in the series. I’m not willing to start a series anywhere else as at the first book, but I decided to compromise when I spotted Side Jobs, a collection of short stories from the Dresden universe.

Side Jobs by Jim Butcher — Cover illustration by Chris McGrath
Publisher: http://www.orbitbooks.net

For those of you who have never heard of Harry Dresden (philistines!), he is a wizard. He is also a private investigator. And he lives in modern-day Chicago. So, we have a wizard/PI in Chicago (who is also a bit of a chauvinist), chasing down vampires, ghouls, faeries, and the like. He also catches regular bad guys, so he supplements his magic spells with a revolver. He has a talking skull called Bob. He has a giant dog called Mouse. He has a half-brother who’s a…no, that might be a spoiler. Continue reading “KokkieH Reviews Side Jobs – Stories From The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher” →

KokkieH Reviews The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King

Third time’s the charm, it seems, at least as far as Stephen King is concerned. The first book of his I read was The Talisman, back in college. It didn’t really do it for me and I mainly finished it because, as previously mentioned, I’m a bit obsessive-compulsive when it gets to books. Earlier this year I read Firestarter. It was okay, but way too easy to put down. I was ready to give up on Mr King, when I came across the brand new reprint of his 1988 (when I was in the first grade) novel, The Eyes of the Dragon.