Title: The Forever War
Author: Joe Haldeman
Series: The Forever War, #1
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
I forgot I had already read this book. And I think Joe Haldeman forgot that gay people are real, and might actually read this book.
Showing posts with label one star. Show all posts
Showing posts with label one star. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 3, 2018
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Nostalgia Review:: Enchantment, by Orson Scott Card
Title: Enchantment
Author: Orson Scott Card
Format: Kindle
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Still good?
No. Just... no. no. no. no.
Considering reading this? Go read Deathless, by Catherynne M. Valente instead. Just trust me on it. Or don't.
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Review:: In the Hand of the Goddess, by Tamora Pierce
Title: In the Hand of the Goddess
Author: Tamora Pierce
Series: Song of the Lioness, #2
Format: Kindle
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Previously:
I was promised this one might be better. I'm so glad I wasn't really expecting it to. Pretty much all the flaws of the first book remain, just with Alanna getting older. We learn she's super special. Nothing is truly difficult. Oh, and she comes out as a woman. Guess how that went over! (Didn't I just say "Nothing is truly difficult?")
Monday, October 19, 2015
Review:: The Vile Village, by Lemony Snicket
Title: The Vile Village
Author: Lemony Snicket
Series: A Series of Unfortunate Events, #7
Format: Kindle
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Previously:
I really wish I didn't feel an unhealthy desire to finish this series. Because then I wouldn't be reading them, and could be busy reading things that are awesome. At least they're quick?
In The Vile Village, the Baudelaire orphans once again get put in a horrible living situation (this time, an entire village of awful people, as it takes a village to raise a child), get ensnared in one of Count Olaf's plots (this time, with bonus Esmé), and engineer a patently ridiculous way to get out of it (this time, stretched so far the author has to hang a lantern on it). Spoilers past the cut.
Friday, September 11, 2015
Review:: Shadow of the Hegemon, by Orson Scott Card
Title: Shadow of the Hegemon
Author: Orson Scott Card
Series: Ender's Shadow, #2
Format: Hardcover
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Previously:
Ender's Shadow was fine, if not great. This book is bad and should feel wrong. Orson Scott Card decides to get weirdly preachy and weird moments, he keeps emphasizing how nothing but children matter, he's incredibly offensive to people with genetic disorders (cough ME), and he seriously says at the end that Guns, Germs, and Steel laid the ground rules for him. And everyone should read it. Makes sense. Oh, and he can't write women. Spoilers everywhere.
Saturday, September 5, 2015
Review:: Prudence, by Gail Carriger
Title: Prudence
Author: Gail Carriger
Series: The Custard Protocol, #1
Format: Hardcover
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
I am so angry at this book I can't even. Spoilers. Spoilers everywhere.
Monday, August 17, 2015
Review:: The Wide Window, by Lemony Snicket
Title: The Wide Window
Author: Lemony Snicket
Series: A Series of Unfortunate Events, #3
Format: eBook
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Previously:
So, I was trying to spread these out a bit, but apparently I'm in too much pain to do much but read middle grade books. So I don't have another review for you yet. (Hopefully soon, though.)
There aren't a lot of things that will, on its own, take a book down to one star. Usually, it's a combination of things. Well, I'd been putting up with a lot from Lemony Snicket, which has been discussed in previous reviews. But this one really, really pissed me off.
Monday, August 3, 2015
Nostalgia Review:: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling
Title: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Author: J.K. Rowling
Series: Harry Potter, #7
Format: Hardcover
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Still good?
No.
Previously:
This book made me angry. Really angry. I didn't even realize how angry at first. It's not really an issue with the end itself (although I do have issues with that); it's an issue with the writing. I complained in a previous review about how the Pensieve is one of the worst writing cop-outs ever. So here's a cool story: when it takes 100 pages of exposition to make the ending make sense, you're doing it wrong.
Monday, July 20, 2015
Nostalgia Review:: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Title: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Author: J.K. Rowling
Series: Harry Potter
Format: Hardcover
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Still Good?
No...
Previously:
I'm really sad. I remember sitting down and reading Goblet of Fire on our kitchen table. I remember liking it so much. Being so excited.
And missing all of the really gross racism. Now, as I pointed out, The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You! had some racism problems, but not to this extent. And what makes it sadder is that without that subplot, Goblet of Fire would have been fine... and quite a good book that didn't make me feel gross.
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Review:: Marsbound, by Joe Haldeman
Title: Marsbound
Author: Joe Haldeman
Format: Hardcover
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
No, you're not going to see me rip apart this book. This one wasn't entirely awful; I just didn't like it. Trite is a good word for it. Uninspired. Thrown together using a random plot generator as necessary. Okay, maybe I'm in denial. It was pretty bad.
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Review:: Polystom, by Adam Roberts
Title: Polystom
Author: Adam Roberts
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
I'm not really the type to feel sorry for an abuser, especially an abuser who's just a fucking shitty person in general. So when a book is clearly showing him in a sympathetic light, I'm going to be annoyed as fuck. On top of that, the science in it is just inconsistent and awful, which might be fine if it wasn't justified in the last 10% of the book.
To put it in a simpler way: I was literally allergic to this book and misplaced it three times. I think my subconscious really, really wanted me to stop reading it. Spoilers for the ending after the cut.
Friday, July 10, 2015
Review:: You are Here: A Portable History of the Universe, by Christopher Potter
Title: You are Here: A Portable History of the Universe
Author: Christopher Potter
Format: Hardcover
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
That moment when you're reading a non-fiction science book and you realize the author isn't a scientist. Lemme put it this way: the first moment you make a glaring error in a non-fiction book, I'm going to start giving it more scrutiny. The second? I'm upset.
Thursday, July 9, 2015
Review:: A Spell for Chameleon, by Piers Anthony
Title: A Spell for Chameleon
Author: Piers Anthony
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Usually I love ripping apart the books I hate. But no, I've been avoiding writing this review. Why? This is the most sexist fantasy book I've ever read. That's saying something. Merely thinking about this book makes my skin crawl. Below the cut, you'll hear more, there will be spoilers, there will be a lot of gross talk about rape culture, and a shitton of sexism will be unveiled.
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Review:: Iron Shadows, by Steven Barnes
Title: Iron Shadows
Author: Steven Barnes
Format: Hardcover
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
This is, hands-down, the worst book I have ever read. The prose is awful. The plot is awful. The issues are treated in offensive and gross ways. The pacing sucks. I'm trying to think of something nice to say. ...wait for it. Nope.
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Review:: Broken, by Susan Jane Bigelow
Title: Broken
Author: Susan Jane Bigelow
Format: Paperbook
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Annoying, eye-rolling dialogue paired with cardboard cut-out characters, Broken really fails to hold its own. Then the book tries to deal with issues like trauma, polyamory, and anarchism, but does so in a way that just makes the author uniformed. Oh, and the book is padded. Huge margins and text, so the publisher could make it to 300 pages.
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Review:: Innocence, by Dean Koontz
Title: Innocence
Author: Dean Koontz
Format: Hardcover
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Overt moralism, a painfully predictable plot, and characters that made me want to roll my eyes? Yeah, those are all ways to make me hate a book. The worst part about Innocence, though, was that it was honestly intriguing for a few pages, before devolving into a rather boring Biblical tale. Oh, spoilers everywhere in the review, plus mentions of rape.
Monday, April 13, 2015
Review:: Artifact, by Gregory Benford
Title: Artifact
Author: Gregory Benford
Format: eBook
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
If you can handle misogynistic, xenophobic, americancentric novels with shallow plots, poor characterization, and severe genre identity issues as long as the science is good, you will love this book! The sad part? How often you have to put up with all of that, just for a little hard scifi.
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Review:: Angel Time, by Anne Rice
Title: Angel Time
Author: Anne Rice
Series: The Songs of the Seraphim, #1
Format: eBook
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
I'd managed never to read an Anne Rice novel before Angel Time. Now, I wish I'd kept up that streak. Angel Time graces us with completely black and white morality, poor storytelling, and an eye-rolling plot. I was anything but impressed.
Spoilers towards the end of the review, but I saw them coming from a mile away... so they may not even be spoilery.
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Review:: Alice in Zombieland, by Nickolas Cook
Title: Alice in Zombieland
Author: Nickolas Cook
Format: eBook
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
In order for a mashup to work, there needs to be harmony. Harmony can come out of unexpected places. Nickolas Cook misses this mark by quite some distance. He manages not only to fail at matching Lewis Carroll's wit and charm, but goes further, ruining the original cleverness and creating what feels like a desperate, zombie-obsessed madlib.
Friday, March 27, 2015
Review:: The Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker
Title: The Age of Miracles
Author: Karen Thompson Walker
Format: eBook
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
I can deal with books that are skeptical about science, and the way science is being used. I can deal with books with soft science, as long as they don't try to justify it. What I can't deal with is a book that gets all the science terribly wrong, then proceeds to go on an anti-science vendetta. Of course you think science is awful! You don't understand any of it. Spoilers in the review.
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