I haven’t updated this blog since last October, due to considerable laziness on my part. But that doesn’t mean I’ve abandoned it, and I shall try my best over the next few days to catch up on the backlog. In this post, some notes on the books I read from October to November [...]
Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett: Another Ankh-Morpork novel along the lines of The Truth, i.e. a look into the chaos that explodes when the Discworld equivalent of a modern-day convenience develops. Vetinari at his absolute best here. There’s definitely a gentle parody of that 50s film stereotype of the con man who ends [...]
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by J.K. Rowling: I bet it’s still not safe to post spoilers. What I will say is that The Half-Blood Prince has replaced The Prisoner of Azkaban as my favorite in the series. I’m sure some people will violently disagree with me (especially due to the, er, [...]
The Fairy Godmother, by Mercedes Lackey: What is there to say? It’s exactly what one expects from Lackey, complete with empowered female protagonist and all. It “overthrows” romance novel conventions in such a predictable way that nothing about the plot is unusual or surprising. Lackey does her best to make her [...]
Samguk Yusa: Legends and History of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea, by Ilyon (trans. Tae-Hung Ha): I was in Yenching, looking for books on Yi Sunsin, the famous Korean admiral who nearly single-handedly led the Korean navies to victory against Hideyoshi’s invasion, when I came across this translation of Samguk Yusa, written by the [...]