On some days, New York is one of the most beautiful places on Earth.
This was one of the other days.
Melody Malone, owner and sole employee of the Angel Detective Agency, has an unexpected caller. It’s movie star Rock Railton, and he thinks someone is out to kill him. When he mentions the ‘kiss of the Angel’, she takes the case. Angels are Melody’s business.
At the press party for Railton’s latest movie, studio owner Max Kliener invites Melody to the film set of their next blockbuster. He’s obviously spotted her potential, and Melody is flattered when Kliener asks her to become a star. But the cost of fame, she’ll soon discover, is greater than anyone could possibly imagine.
Will Melody be able to escape Kliener’s dastardly plan – before the Angels take Manhattan? – Online book description
Eighty years in the future, America has devolved into a totalitarian theocracy. The ruling Josephites clone the only seeds that grow in the post-apocalyptic climate, allowing their Prophet to control who eats and who starves.
Subsisting on the fringes, Archer risks violation and death each day as she scours the forest for game to feed her people. When a Josephite refugee seeks sanctuary in her home, Archer is driven to chance a desperate gamble. A gamble that will bring down the Prophet and deliver seeds and freedom, or end in a fiery death for herself and for everyone she loves.
Seeds are life. . . . Seeds are power. . . . Seeds are the only hope of a despairing people. What will Archer do for the seeds of freedom, and what will she justify in their name? – Onlinebook description
Harry Dresden’s faced some pretty terrifying foes during his career. Giant scorpions. Oversexed vampires. Psychotic werewolves. It comes with the territory when you’re the only professional wizard in the Chicago area phone book.
But in all Harry’s years of supernatural sleuthing, he’s never faced anything like this: the spirit world’s gone postal. All over Chicago, ghosts are causing trouble — and not just of the door-slamming, boo-shouting variety. These ghosts are tormented, violent, and deadly. Someone — or something — is purposely stirring them up to wreak unearthly havoc.
But why? And why do so many of the victims have ties to Harry? If Harry doesn’t figure it out soon, he could wind up a ghost himself… – Book description on cover
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.
if all else fails...use a hammer 