Gaming or Reading
I’ve not done much in the way of console gaming this year. Some might say thats because I have MC to take up my time but really it’s because I’ve been too busy reading, or reasonably often, board gaming. I haven’t particularly been keeping track of what I’ve read but heres a taster:
Anasi Boys is Neil Gaiman’s latest foray into the world of gods mingling with the world of humans. This time starring Anansi, the spider god. You’ll probably recognise some of Anasi’s stories as being those retold as Brer Rabbit stories. Of course Anansi owns all the stories though. If you get the audio CD version (also available as MP3) then you’ll also get the delight of it being narrated by Lenny Henry.
Sandman: Endless Nights. One story for each of the members of the Endless. The characters taken from Neil Gaimans Sandman stories and each story drawn by a different artist.
The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish. This is the reprint of a childrens picture/story book. My copy had an audio CD version of it in the back sleeve but I’m not sure if that was a limited edition or not.
Cloud Atlas. I think this one won the Man Booker prize so that’s enough to put a lot of people off! I think I enjoyed the structure and the idea of what it could have been rather more than I did the story. Thats not to say that I hated it; there were certainly a few characters in their that I would have liked to have read more about. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be as we were whisked away into another time period where echo’s of the enveloping stories filtered through. Nearly, but not quite.
Light. The first M. John Harrison book I’ve read. This was another that was an enjoyable read then things must have got too much for me as it stopped making sense towards the end. Definitely one for a serious book reader that thinks Sci-Fi is all Pratchett and Tolkien though.
Magician. I wasn’t expecting this to be quite as cliched as it was. Any fantasy novel hater is going to stop reading as soon as we start with the elves, dwarves, dragons and mythical beings. Which is a shame because if you look through all of that it actually turns out to be a damn good read with an incredibly satisfying ending.
The Gas-Fitters Ball and Thunderbolt’s Waxworks. Two books revolving around the New Cut Gang. A couple of amusing little children’s books from Philip Pullman (from His Dark Materials fame). Not as engaging as the Dark Materials trilogy but the characters and settings make them fun to read.
Hexwood. A pretty fine read from Dianna Wynne Jones. I only heard of her last year and immediately devoured the first 3 Chrestomanci books. Hexwood mixes fantasy with war gaming type themes with humans being puppets in a dimension spanning game between demon-kind. Or maybe I’m, mixing it up with The Homeward Bounders also by Dianna. Anyway, they’re both bloody good, much better than that Harry Potter drivel. While I’m banging on about Dianna Wynne Jones I should also point out that Howl’s Moving Castle, the new Studio Ghibli anime film, is based on one of her books too.
Wilkins’ Tooth I forgot this was coming next. Another Dianna Wynne Jones childrens story. She’s good. I don’t know why noone told me about her when I was a child. Its a good job I haven’t grown up much.
Colony. Well I am a big fan of Red Dwarf. The books were good, the TV series were good and this one by Rob Grant is good too. I’m now really looking forward to Incompetence which I did hear was better which seems unlikely but here’s hoping.
I’m sure there’s more, things like Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation and similar, but thats enough for now. Apologies for it turning out more like a list than a review section. Perhaps I’ll have a go at a review for one or more of them some time, but for now I’m off for some dinner and perhaps to play some board games or read 