"The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England" (Second Look)

The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England (Ian Mortimer)

Like our other look at this book, I enjoyed this. A comprehensive tour of 1300s England covers topics from what food you'll be able to find to what kind of furniture you'll be sitting on to  how to stay out of trouble with the law. A few aspects I found tiresome - nobody has toilets; I get it - but on the whole this was extremely interesting. I did skip a few parts (the author's enthusiasm for fashion is commendable, but after a few pages of seeing how the doublet went under the superdoublet I checked out) but the material is almost always interesting and skillfully presented. May make you want to watch "Braveheart" again.

History Nerd Grade: A-
Normal Citizen Grade: B+

"Legion"

Legion (Dan Abnett)

"Legion", like "Fulgrim", is a frustrating book. The Alpha Legion, who the book is about, tend to lurk in the shadows and only appear for extended periods as the book goes on. The problem with this is that the author focuses his attention on something called the "Geno Five-Two Chiliad", which has a trillion new, confusing words, names, and concepts. I knew just flipping through the Dramatis Personae section at the front of the book this was going to be trouble. What do you do with names like:

Sri Vedt - Uxor Primus of the Geno Five-Two
Honen Mu - Uxor
Rukhsana Saiid - Uxor
Hurtado Bronzi - Hetman
Dimiter Shiban - Hetman
Franco Boone - Genewhip

And, oh boy, the book doesn't do any favors keeping all this straight, either. The Uxors are female officers who command the troops, which is easy to grasp. It gets annoyingly hard to keep track of when the author's laying down that the Uxors are female officers who have little retinues who use something called "'cept" (always with that distracting ') to order troops around, so you'll have Honen, or Mu, or Uxor, 'cepting her ass off with Hurt, or Hurtado, or Bronzi, or Hetman, or Het.
I never really got used to this. People, please, if you have confusing names, just pick a name and run with it. I realize that you may want to have Uxor Mu call Hetman Bronzi "Hurt" instead of "Hurtado" to show how close they are, but when I can't keep the fucking charecters straight because they have six ways they're referred to you're just defeating yourself.
So that's issue one. Now things get even goofier when we meet John Grammaticus, agent of THE CABAL, a group of anicent, smug Xeno scum. Now this introduces a big problem, because the Cabal meeting with the Primarch of the Alpha Legion is such an important event that it natrually suggests itself as the climax of the book, and the events immediately following it are so momentus that it pretty much has to be the climax. The problem this creates is that since this meeting happens at the end of the book, quite a lot of it is Grammaticus trying to get the Cabal in touch with the Alpha Legion, and this part isn't exactly thrilling. In "Fulgrim", a craftworld just shows up, hails the Space Marines, and a meeting is arranged, and while I understand that if that happened here this book would be about 75 pages long, it does get mighty tiresome as roadblocks are constantly thrown up to make sure the Legion and Cabal don't meet until the end of the book.
All that being said, when the Cabal and the Primarch do finally meet the book picks up, and the end comes with a bang. As with "Fulgrim", however, the last 8th of the book being great isn't really enough to save it. I don't want to imply this book is as bad as "Fulgrim"; The parts with the army are interesting, if hampered by the names, and Grammaticus' sneaking around isn't that great but does have one spectacular fight scene, if nothing else. I can't really recommend this book to the general population, but if you love the Alpha Legion - does anybody? - then you can't go wrong. You goof.

Grade: C

"The Great Shark Hunt" (Gonzo Papers, Vol. 1)

The Great Shark Hunt (Gonzo Papers, Volume 1) (Hunter S Thompson)

What the sub-title means by the "Gonzo Papers" is that this book is a Thompson sampler; It collects dozens and dozens of articles and book exceprts on subjects from covering the Kentucky Derby to race tension in LA following the slaying of a prominent Latino TV reporter to Muhammed Ali's loss to Leon Spinks to Nixon's impeachment and resulting fallout. I really liked this book - I was never bored, which is no easy feat considering the wide breadth of material covered and the sheer length (almost 600 huge pages). In the voice of a less talented author, Thompson's schtick could become tiresome very quickly, but he is so engaging that this never happens. A heist late in the book where he skips out on his massive hotel bill in Mexico and flees back to the US with a drug stache that he and his lawyer decided to consume all of on the plane into Texas is just as frightening and hilarious as anything early in the book where he holes up in a hotel room shooting heroin while he's supposted to be covering the Super Bowl. If you have the slightest interest in Thompson's work, I can't think of a better starting place than this. (I've also read "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72", which I'll see if I can remember enough of to cough up a bite-sized book review.)

Now one caveat: I read this over a long period of time - I left it in the car and read it when we went out to eat, which means the book was devoured in 50-page chunks. Your milage may vary, but I probably don't recommend sitting down and knocking the whole thing out in one day - like most writers with a very distinctive voice, it's probably better to savor rather than gorge. (Gonzo Papers, Vol 2, is apparently a collection of newspaper columns, which I anticipate will make an excellent bathroom book.)

Grade: A

"Witch & Wizard"

"Witch & Wizard" (James "I want money" Patterson & Gabrielle "My name appears on the cover 1/100th of the size of James Patterson's" Charbonnet)

When we got stuck in Detroit because Delta decided to cancel our flight because they couldn't find any pilots because they're a terrible airline, my wife brought me two books to read in the airport: This book, and "A Dark Matter". I read this whole book in a few hours, and as I read it two things dawned on me: First, this is a young adult book, and by "young adult" the authors seem to mean five year olds; And two, this book is pretty bad. Now, I was a young adult once, and I recall reading some pretty good young adult books that respect the intellegence of thier readers. This is not one of those books. This is a book where the villian might as well be twirling his mustache the whole time he's on screen in between sticking cute puppies in hot dog buns and eating them with disgusting sound effects.
So this book is poorly written. This part leapt out at me enough that I went and found my copy of the book to quote it for you. From page 21:

"Make me," Byron said to Whit, then he gave a smarmy, oily smile, vividly bringing to life all the times I'd seen him in school and thought, What a total butt.

What a total butt. I mean, okay, this is a young adult book, so I'm not expecting a life-changing masterpiece, but you know, young adult books can be good. They can feature real, interesting charecters, not lame one-dimensional heroes whose primary heroic virtue seems to be A.) Being a football player and B.) Being the narrator. They don't have to feature horrible lines like "What a total butt".
So okay, the book is not well written. It is poorly plotted (there's literally a new chapter every two pages for no particular reason I could figure out) and has a terrible ending, which I'm about to spoil:

Our heroes meet the villian, and he basically says "Bwa ha ha, the ANCIENT PROPHECY of squeezing more money out of my publisher decrees that we will have an awesome battle......... after you visit the next five novels coming to bookstores near YOU and collect the Magical McGuffins of Needless Plot Extending! Please buy the next volume, everybody! Poorly-written fake Snape out!"
Needless to say, I don't like this book.

Grade: F-

PS: I almost forgot the book's post-script, which contains a painfully unfunny list of acts banned by the evil N.O. organization; Look, it's They Might be Giants, but now the name is We Shall Be Titans! GET IT???????????????????????????? If we gave out anything lower than an F-, this book would get it.

"A Dark Matter"

A Dark Matter (Peter Straub)

First off, an admission: I did not finish this book. I got halfway through it and realize that if nothing was going to happen by the time I was half done with it, nothing is probably going to happen in the second half either.
It's a shame, too, because if you just read the back of the book, it sounds like a good premise: You have a group of high school and college students who unleashed some kind of eldrich horror 30 years ago (don't worry, it apparently just popped in for tea and it's long gone). The protagonist is trying to get to the bottom of these mysterious events by interviewing the survivors. Unfortunately, once you start reading the book, the inherent weakness of the premise becomes apparent: Since these events all happened 30 years ago, there's no imminent danger, no looming threat, and the only thing driving the narrative forward is that the protagonist is curious what happened. (Really, I found myself asking, he didn't wonder what happened until just now? Considering that his wife was one of the students involved in this?)
This is exacerbated with the fact that the book just isn't very interesting. Our hero wasn't at the event, but he goes around interviewing all the people who were, and hearing the same boring events re-told five times is just as exciting as it sounds. The hero's wife is nicknamed "the Eel", and my mind kept wandering to how I'd like to read this guy's adventures where his wife is a 6-foot tall talking eel and maybe then something, you know, interesting might happen. I admit I'm mildly curious about the ending, but since we already know that one person was killed and everyone else lived to tell about it boringly 30 years later, perhaps even mild is an overstatement.

Grade: D

"Fulgrim"

Fulgrim (Graham McNeill)

In retrospect, the warning signs should have been obvious about this book:
- The back declares that it follows the Emperor's Children in the buildup to the bombing of Isstvan III, events that have already been covered twice in five books - once in the initial trilogy and one book ago in Flight of the Eisenstein. (Although this book does go a little further into the following events of Isstvan V.)
- The book starts out not with a bang, but with a Remembrancer giving a concert that goes on for pages.
- Someone whose opinion I respect told me the book wasn't very good.

So why did I get this book? Well, I trusted Graham McNeill, who had yet to let me down with "A Thousand Sons", "False Gods" and "Mechanicum". Alas, this is his worst book, and if I may be allowed to judge having read a whole four, the least Graham McNeill-esque. Where he handles Rememberancers skillfully in his other novels, here they're at their most obnoxious, breaking up the action with long, pointless, boring, pointless, momentum-killing, and pointless stretches of pages in which not only does nothing happen, but nothing happens very, very slowly.
More troublingly, the rest of the book isn't very good either. Fulgrim's desent into Chaos is, and I hate to say this, boring. The series has followed other Primarchs as they turn away from the Emperor, and ultimately each one has a humanizing weakness that leads them down the dark path: Magnus, with his love of knoweldge and inablity to stop searching for it; Lorgar and his need for faith, taking the wrong lesson from the Emperor's dictate not to be worshipped; Horus and his pride, and his trust in councilors unworthy of it. So what is Fulgrim's story? Well, he goes to a planet with a temple that has weird shreiking music inside, and he pulls out a silver sword from a stone at the center, and then he starts hearing weird voices in his head. Zuh?

What else can I say about this book? For a novel about a chapter of genetically enhanced super-soldiers who end up worshipping the soul-eating god of pleasure, it's awfully boring (third time I've called the book that in a bite-sized review - not good). Even the pacing is bizzare, as I found myself finishing a chapter and flipping back a page to make sure that was really the end-point; The transitions feel like a bad movie where the director's just had enough of a scene and hacks it off. Even the names are unoriginal. Fulgrim's golden, flaming blade is named... Fireblade. Wow. Maybe McNeill just doesn't like the Emperor's Children; The (sadly brief) time spent with the Iron Hands legion I found much more interesting. Now it's not all bad; The Dropsite Massacre of Isstvan V is depicted here, and by the time the end of the book rolls around, it actually does get better (I credit the disapperance of the Rememberancers partially with this). The last 1/8th of the book is actually quite interesting, but unfortuneatly not enough to make up for the first 7/8ths. Given that the drop site massacre is also depicted in the far superior "First Heretic", I have to say that this is, sadly, the first Horus Heresey novel I recommend just taking a pass on. "Mechanicum" and "Nemesis" are, if failures, at least weird and entertaining, like your kid sister growing a third eye. Fulgrim is just a mess, like my living room.

Grade: D+

"The First Heretic"

"The First Heretic" (Aaron Dembski-Bowden)

Now this is more like it. After Mechanicum and Nemesis wandered off in interesting if sometimes slightly questionable directions, this book takes a long look at the Word Bearers legion, actually the first legion to turn away from the Emperor and begin worshipping Chaos (thus the novel name). The book begins with a bang as as the Ultramarines, led in person by Papa Smurf himself, land on a planet brought to compliance by the Word Bearers and find the population worshipping the Emperor; The population is foricbly evacuated and all the cities are destroyed by orbital bombardment as a lesson for Lorgar, Primarch of the Word Bearers, not to worship the Emperor like a god.
Well, this works too well, as Lorgar begins his long, gradual, and tragically understandable journey down the dark and crooked road to embracing the ruinous powers of Chaos. This is the real beginning of the heresy, with events 40 years before Horus' betrayal setting the stage in grand fashion. I'm kind of perplexed as to why it took 15 novels before this vital backstory was filled in, but I can't complain about how it's done; The author is skillful enough that at times I found myself rooting against what any sane observer would class as the good guys, and instead hoping the chaos-mutated, demon-possessed abominations that the Word Bearers let themselves become will come out on top. It may sound weird, but I think this is actually the most emotional of the Horus Heresey novels so far, and I mean that in the best possible way. The positives keep on coming: Rowboat Girlyman, Primarch of the Ultrasmurfs, gets knocked right on his ass in the first few chapters; The pivotal and much referred-to but never before seen (that I've read) Drop Site Massacre is finally detailed; Primarchs like Corax and Cruze who have yet to see the spotlight are given some screentime.
My one and only complaint about this book is that this probably should have been the fifth in the series after Flight of the Eisenstein; I'd recommend reading the original trilogy, Flight of the Eisenstein, and then this book - just make sure you have enough time set aside because you won't want to put any of them down.

Grade: A+

Lord of Light

Lord of Light

Roger Zelazny

Lord of Light is about Buddha, but it is also a sci-fi story. Sam, the main character, is a reincarnation of Buddha (Siddhartha, the Buddha most familiar to those in the West but not the only bodhisattva) living in the distant future on a distant planet where people apply to reincarnate via machines at Temples.

I don't want to give away more of the plot than necessary but the bulk of the book is about Sam attempting to overthrow Heaven and get the gods to treat humanity more fairly.

I liked the focus on Eastern religions, however it did make things a little harder to follow as I am not as well-versed in Hindu or Buddhism as I'd like to be. That being said...I liked the story a lot and would recommend it.

Grade: B+

"The City & The City" (Second Look)

The City & The City (China Mieville)

When we were in Rome, I was ordered to read another China Mievelle book (having finally talked my wife into reading Perdido Street Station despite having bug-headed ladies). Since my wife was reading Kraken on the Kindle, and two people reading a book at once can lose the other's place, I gave The City & The City a shot, and I think I made her mad by repeatedly asking "So this gets better, right?" and "When does this get interesting?" until I realized that, ha ha, no, it doesn't get better, and it gets interesting when you put it down and pick up another book.
Here's the problem: Mievelle has an interesting idea, but nothing else. The interesting idea is that there are two cities, occupying the same physical space, and they both make it a law to ignore the other (kind of a "I'm not speaking to you" writ city-sized). What does Mievelle do with this idea? Nothing; He throws it out there and leaves it to die like a flopping fish. This should have if anything been a short story, but even then I don't know if there's enough meat for that here. If this had remained just an idea un-fleshed out in his notebook, nothing of value would have been lost.

Grade: F+

Un Lun Dun

Un Lun Dun

China Mieville

Un Lun Dun is one of my favorite China Mieville books. The story follows a girl who is the Chosen One and must save Un Lun Dun from its enemies. Un Lun Dun reminded me a little of Neverwhere, a city below London that is a refuge for forgotten things and people. Mieville takes a different turn and includes sentient garbage, flying broken umbrellas, spiders made out of windows, and other oddities.

I believe this book might be officially a Young Adults novel but it is one of those books that can be enjoyed by anyone. This would be a good summer read for anyone interested in fantasy and imaginative storytelling.

Grade: A

"Three Kingdoms" (Romance of the Three Kingdoms)

Three Kingdoms (Lou Guanzhong, translation by Moss Roberts)

Introducing our first review of the same book by two people! Surprised it took this long, really. (I've added a "second look" tag for future posts like this.) Onward!

Romance of the Three Kingdoms is one of the four classics of Chinese literature (and the other two I don't own are on my Amazon wishlist, hint). At first it appears pretty intimidating: There's over 2000 pages of text in four volumes here, and everyone, of course, has Chinese names. On top of that, some of the more important figures also have nicknames in addition to their given names. Luckily, the superb translation ensures a minimum of confusion - partly via the simple expident of picking a way of referring to a charecter and then always using that same name. So Zhuge Liang is referred to once or twice by his given name when he's introduced, but once his nickname of Kongming is given, he always appears as Kongming. Kind of amazing how that simple step makes the book much easier to understand (ahem, Nemesis). The translation is very readable, and at times borders on poetic (my favorite example appearing early on when a commander's plan goes awry and he comes to know the regret of defeat). The quality translation combined with the undisputed classic that is the original text yields a wonderful set of four volumes that is a very long, very rewarding, and never boring or tedious read. If you have even the slightest interest, I implore you to not let the setting or size of the work scare you off; This is worth reading at least once.
Now some minor quibbles: The print quality of the books isn't great - the paper is kind of fragile - and, weirdly because the translation is so good, there are some goofy grammar and spelling errors. I barely noticed either one of these after I got a few pages in, and in truth the strongest reaction either one drew from me was an occasional raised eyebrow or giggle at the occasional mis-spelled word.

Grade: A

The City and City

The City and The City

China Mieville

I made the mistake of having this on the Kindle when N. Ham and I went to Rome this past September. I read a few Mieville books on the trip and was expounding on how awesome he is and ordered N. to read one of his books. For some reason, N. read this one.

The premise of this book was very interesting. Two cities occupying what appears to be the same space but existing completely separately of one another.

I got used to the fantastical elements normally present in Mieville's books so was a little let down by this one. Read it if you're an author-completionist like me but otherwise you may want to skip it.

Grade: D

"Mechanicum"

Mechanicum (Graham McNeill)

As it turns out, "Nemesis" doesn't actually spoil "Mechanicum", although it would be perfect if it did; This books like the anti-"Nemesis". Where Nemesis has two plots that start unconnected, one of them annoying, and wrap them together at the end, this book starts with one plot, which splits into two, with them totally unconnected at the end of the book (and one of them, frankly, annoying when you realize that it has no connection to the other story, which is the one actually dealing with Mechcanicum and the fate of Mars). Where Nemesis is probably too long at over 500 pages, I thought this book was over too fast. Although it has a hell of a climax - you can't really ask for a bigger bang to end a story on - I felt like there was still more to tell; Since I can't give the ending away, you'll just have to take my word for it.
Like Nemesis, this is a weird book (weirder in fact than Nemesis, I think), and like Nemesis it is good, but not great, although the shorter length makes this more accessible. Like Nemesis, don't miss it.

Grade: B

Iron Council

Iron Council

China Mieville

I wanted to continue to enjoy this trilogy. I did enjoy this book, mostly. Two of the main characters are gay, which I appreciated. Perhaps I'm not reading the right books but LGBT characters are under-represented in novels.

I think it was the end. Sometimes the end can sour me retroactively on a book. Read this book and see for yourself.

Grade: C

"Nemesis"

Nemesis (James Swallow)

One reason I like the Horus Heresy novels is that it can provide an in-depth look at parts of the universe that usually remain off camera. Here's an example, as this book examines the Officio Assassinorum, and a less official counter-organization (or counter-agent, I guess), with one assassination aimed at Horus, and one aimed at, well, that's kind of a spoiler.
Now, if you know anything about the setting, you already know how these events are going to turn out, but that's OK; A good story, well told, is still interesting, even if you know the ending (at least that's what I'm telling myself, because I think this book spoiled "Mechanicum", which is one of the other Horus Heresy books I want to read.) The key there is a good story and well told and unfortunately that's where this book runs into trouble. There's one minor and one major problem. The minor problem is that all of the assassins in the Imperial hit team (or Execution Squad, which I always imagined written in a jagged red font and underlined with a lightening bolt) have both a name and a assassin school that they belong to, which the author uses interchangeably, and some of them have both first and last names; So Eristede Kell of Clade Vindicare can be referred to as Eristede, Kell, or "the Vindicare", and this can get kind of confusing when you have six assassins, some of them with three names (first, last, clade). There is a Dramatis Personae section in the front of the book where you can look these up, but I feel like if you have to constantly be flipping to the cast of characters to keep them all straight the author's made a mistake somewhere.
That's the minor issue. The major one is that this book has two concurrent, almost parallel plots; One is the Execution Squad trying to assassinate Horus (and for what, class? Yes, his Heresy!) while the other starts with a crime investigation on a far-off planet at the ass end of Segmentum Ultima, far from Terra where the other plot starts. Now you know that eventually these two plots are going to combine, but it takes for ever for that to happen, and until it does, I found myself getting more and more annoyed. Trying to remember everyone's name isn't helped when every two pages we're switching back to watch the local police bumblefuck around trying to catch a serial killer, and until it becomes apparent why we're watching these scenes, they feel very intrusive. I can't help but wonder if maybe each plot should have been a separate book; As it is this novel comes in at over 500 pages. Admittedly, they do end up entangling at the end, but it feels contrived, as if the author's trying to justify why you had to read all of both plots up until now.
Strangely, there's another book of Swallow's I've read (in the Deep Space Nine universe) with more than a passing resemblance to this book - half of it follows Dukat and the Cardassians laying plans about Bajor, and the other half follows a police detective like the B-plot in this book starts with. In trying to think why it worked wonderfully there and not so here, I think that the reason is that one of these was clearly the main plot, and the same can't be said here. Or maybe the second plot in this book just annoyed me; who knows.
In summation, I know I complained at length about this book, but it's really not bad, just flawed. This isn't Swallow's strongest work, but it's not terrible either, it just falls short of being great like his other books. If nothing else, give this a read and see if you can explain to me how a blank can have a daemonskin, because I still can't figure that out.

Grade: B

The Scar

The Scar

China Mieville

I have to appreciate Mieville's attention to detail. The Scar follows a character who was briefly mentioned in Perdido Street Station as the main character's ex-girlfriend. She starts the novel escaping the events of Perdido Street Station. She winds up on one of the most imaginative settings for a novel I've seen--a giant flotilla of various sorts of boats welded together. That doesn't sound as awesome written here but, trust me, it's pretty cool.

I liked this book more than Perdido Street Station. Even though both books are filled with action, tension, and tenderness, I enjoyed this book a little more because I was able to focus on the main character's journey through the perils of the book and her personal growth. More attention is also paid to the plight of the Remade. They are portrayed as victims, still, but victims who are more than sad sacks. They love, hate, and have a lot more to "do" in this book.

Grade: S Rank

Barack Obama is Your New Bicycle (Second Look)

Barack Obama is Your New Bicycle

Matthew Honan

I never heard of this website until I saw this book in a discount bin while shopping for birthday presents last year for a certain Internet grinch (N!). A certain reviewer, who shall not be named but he knows who he is, can read the internet at work AND for several hours after I need to go to bed. Thus, Grinchy Reviewer Man has seen every meme and cat video and expresses real astonishment when I didn't know that Xena ate my balls or who Eli Porter was.

I thought the book was neat. Although, I wouldn't have paid full price.

Please enjoy this Roflcopter.

Perdido Street Station

Perdido Street Station

China Mieville

Perdido Street Station is the first of three books to take place in/around New Crobuzon, a city-state inhabited by cactus people, ladies with scarabs for heads (totally not as gross as you'd think), Remade, humans, and others. Mr. Mieville brings the city and characters to life in gross, beautiful, ugly, touching detail.

The story begins with a scientist trying to figure out crisis energy and help a garuda fly again. Honestly, I hate trying to describe plots without spoilers. I really want to say...read this book. Mieville doesn't bring us the usual dragons and griffins. He borrows from Egyptian mythology (khepri, the aforementioned scarab-head ladies) and Hindu (Garuda is Vishnu's mount), not relying on Western myths (I'm looking at you, Harry Potter!) like other books.

Grade: S Rank

"Barack Obama is Your New Bicycle"

Barack Obama is Your New Bicycle (Mathew Honan)

I think this is the laziest book I've ever read. As the author outlines in the introduction, he set up a simple webpage (http://barackobamaisyournewbicycle.com/) that fetches a single, complementary statement about Obama each time you visit. Here, in the book, is all of them in one place. Why can't that just be on the website? Because then I guess the author can't charge twelve fucking dollars for this book. (Three dollars more than a Horus Heresy novel!) I mean, what's next, is the guy behind isitchristmas.com going to get a book deal (I can see the pitch now: "It'll be 364 pages that say no - then the last one will say yes!")?
If you think I'm being too hard on this book, here is literally all of the text that appears on a single page (I'd give you the number, but even those are apparently too much work):

"Barack Obama is the beginning of spring training."
"Barack Obama listens to your podcast as soon as it shows up in iTunes."

Needless to say, I feel bad for the trees that gave up thier lives to make this worthless book. Rarely has a book earned its grade as richly as this one has strived for the coveted
Grade: F-

"The Monster at the End of this Book"

The Monster at the End of this Book (Jon Stone)

Let's take a break from Warhammer and look at something a little cuter. Loveable, furry old Grover stars in this book, but he should have read the cover, because once you open it, he realizes that there's a MONSTER at the end! Needless to say, he doesn't want to get to the end of the book, so he asks you not to turn the pages, and will resort to tying them together or setting up a brick wall to stop you from doing so. This is one of my favorite children's books (probably in a three-way tie for the top spot since I can't pick just one), and unless you're a total grouch there's no possible reason to not have a copy of this book in your possession.

Grade: A

"Flight of the Eisenstein"

Flight of the Eisenstein (James Swallow)

Although the first three books of the Horus Heresy are billed as a trilogy, this book pretty much picks up from the last one, "Galaxy in Flames" - This book's main charecter is introduced in Galaxy in Flames, and most of the surviving heroes from that book appear in this one as well. I can see why they didn't make it a quadrology, as this book doesn't follow directly on - there's a lengthly introduction before the other charecters appear, and well over a hundred pages before the Eisenstein actually begins its Flight. In the hands of a less-talented author, this could drag terribly, but Swallow is one of my favorite authors, and this book is just as hard to put down as the first three in the series. The only unpleasent part is that Swallow is evocitive enough that when a champion of the plauge god appears, it's really disgusting. I wish I could say more, but like Galaxy in Flames, spoilers abound, so let's just skip right to the...

Grade: A