Triffids Beard 2 - The Bearded Triffid

Recommendations

Info

ody, and the game is afoot. The rest is vintage Pratchett. Trust me -- you'll love it (particularly the werewolf who suffers from pre-lunar tension). Johnny and the Bomb is also a book with all the old familiar characters in it. This time Johnny travels though time back to the second world war in an attempt to prevent (or at least minimise) some of the destruction caused by a bomb that was dropped on the village. In many ways it is a traditional time travel book, full of gleeful paradoxes. There is also a subtext (as there usually is with the Johnny books) and therefore much moralising about the rights and the wrongs of things. Just what is a moral action anyway? Who has the right to interfere in other people's lives? The Johnny books are the best pure writing that Pratchett has produced. Johnny and the Dead bids fair to being the best book he will ever write. In this company Johnny and the Bomb has to come second. But a very close second; there isn't much in it. This is a great book. The quizbook is equally fascinating and is one of the few quizbooks where the answers are sometimes even funnier than the questions. You won't be able to answer very many of them, but you will have enormous fun trying. In the same parcel was the new Tom Holt novel My Hero. Holt is a patchy writer and is somewhat too prolific for his own good. When he is firing on all cylinders he writes truly hilarious books. But sometimes he is too hasty and the jokes don't work. Unfortunately nobody can be just a little bit funny. Either it makes you laugh or it doesn't. My Hero is one of his weakest books. It strains for effect and it never quite makes it. Jane, the heroine, is a writer and the book concerns the secret lives of her characters when they are not being written about. Eventually Jane's life and the characters lives come to intersect more and more closely (they talk to each other on the phone). Another author appears on the scene. He has become trapped in his fantasy world and he needs Jane to write him back to reality. This is real bottom of the barrel stuff and it didn't work for me at all. You may remember that a couple of months ago I read a novel called Time Scout by Robert Asprin and Linda Evans. I praised it highly as a good old fashioned adventure story. Now comes the sequel Wagers of Sin. It is set in the same Time Travel station as the first and it involves many of the same characters. In a lot of ways it is not so much a sequel as a continuation of the same story and if you haven't read the first, you probably shouldn't bother with this one (you won't understand a lot of the allusions). but if you read and enjoyed the first you will lap this one up. Like the first it is a rollicking good yarn and the scenes set in ancient Rome (and Denver during the heyday of the wild west) are, as always, particularly well written. I hadn't realised this was going to turn into a series, but for once I don't mind. It's a lot of fun. I used to like David Eddings. I loved the five books of The Belgariad, and I still think they are among the best fantasy that I have ever read. I was less than impressed with his other series, but on the strength of my memories of The Belgariad I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and read Belgarath the Sorcerer, a prequel to the series and a book that promised to shed much light on one of the most fascinating characters from the original series. I shouldn't have bothered. The book concerns the plottings of Gods and the machinations of their servants (of whom Belgarath is one). When you write on this scale and deal with the manipulations of whole races of people and the attempted destruction of the planet you necessarily paint on a very large canvas indeed. This is a very difficult thing to do and Eddings avoids the point by making far too much of the action take place off stage. We only learn about it as characters describe what happened in response to questions from other characters. This unavoidably lends a distancing effect to the story and ultimately I ceased to care. It was too much a Greek Chorus and too little a story. I found it dull. Tim Page is a photojournalist. During the Vietnam war he was one of the elite crew who brought that terrible war very close to home. Now he has returned to Vietnam and Cambodia and in the articles published in Derailed in Uncle Ho's Victory Garden he compares and contrasts the countries as they are today with the countries they were in the 1960s and 1970s when he lived there and reported the war. This is a harrowing book (particularly when it discusses the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge in Pol
Pot's Cambodia) but it is a very important book. It puts history into perspective which is always a valuable insight to have, and it doesn't pull any punches. Stephen King is up to volume 4 of The Green Mile and the plot complications come thick and fast. Mr Jingles plays a decisive part, and the grotesque events surrounding the bungled execution of the convict Eduard Delacroix are described in grisly detail. You'll need a strong stomach for this one. King has seldom done better. Michael A. Cusumano & Richard W. Selby Microsoft Secrets Harper Collins Stephen Gould Wild Side Jumper Tor Terry Pratchett Feet of Clay Gollancz Johnny and the Bomb Doubleday Dave Langford Terry Pratchett's Discworld Quizbook The Unseen University Challenge Vista Tom Holt My Hero Orbit Robert Asprin & Linda Evans Wagers of Sin Baen David & Leigh Eddings Belgarath the Sorcerer Del Rey Tim Page Derailed in Uncle Ho's Victory Garden Simon & Schuster Stephen King The Green Mile Part 4: The Bad Death of Eduard Delacroix Penguin
Page 3 and 4:
Trimmings From The Triffid's Beard
Page 5 and 6:
Foreword Unlike most holics, (if, a
Page 7:
Buster Keaton and the lateral mind
Page 11 and 12:
Movie Go Round Phlogiston Thirty-Fi
Page 13 and 14:
crisps and a most revolting orange
Page 16 and 17:
Lingua Frankly Phlogiston Thirty-Si
Page 18 and 19:
tranquil islands of San Serif as th
Page 20:
linguistic analysis. It is a theme
Page 23 and 24:
up is laughable (feudalism across t
Page 25 and 26:
perhaps over six feet." or "The per
Page 28 and 29:
A Dozen Drabbles Phlogiston Thirty-
Page 30:
This sort of thing had been going o
Page 33 and 34:
In the story Jack Connie Willis cho
Page 35 and 36:
(assuming the author describes them
Page 37 and 38:
You should also consider whether or
Page 40 and 41:
The Lesser Spotted Science Fiction
Page 42 and 43:
. . . She peered at the cracked man
Page 44 and 45:
stick. He hit the bed, and it was s
Page 47 and 48:
Funny Business Phlogiston Forty-One
Page 49 and 50:
...A large bottle. And in the bottl
Page 51 and 52:
His wit and wisdom are highly prais
Page 53:
16 novels, a Companion and a Mappe,
Page 56 and 57:
weekends, many fine fictional works
Page 58 and 59:
Zelazny brought Corwin's struggle t
Page 60:
ordinary). He has also written some
Page 63 and 64:
using them. Such ideas are reinforc
Page 65:
that is quite frightening in the ra
Page 69 and 70:
(v = velocity of aeroplane, c = spe
Page 71 and 72:
press in recent years about people
Page 74 and 75:
John Kilian Houston Brunner (1934-1
Page 77 and 78:
In the Beginning Phoenixine Seventy
Page 80 and 81:
It's Only Words Phoenixine Seventy-
Page 82: Alan Dean Foster Montezuma Strip As
Page 85 and 86: Drachenfels is absolutely brilliant
Page 88 and 89: There's a Pigeon in the Hole Phlogi
Page 90 and 91: detective story. Currently, under t
Page 92: Shock -- The unofficial Iain M Bank
Page 95: worlds (The Two Timers), interstell
Page 98 and 99: that were published in the Azazel c
Page 100 and 101: they came out and his new one is ju
Page 103 and 104: To Be Continued Phoenixine Seventy-
Page 105: searching out and nullifying sabote
Page 108 and 109: various acquaintances. Most of the
Page 112 and 113: The Mixture As Before Phoenixine Ei
Page 114 and 115: Paul J. McAuley's new novel Fairyla
Page 116: John Barnes Kaleidoscope Century Mi
Page 119 and 120: and move hastily on. It is also qui
Page 121: outside of these areas it is corres
Page 124 and 125: Bushell of the Royal American Mount
Page 127 and 128: Genre? Phoenixine Eighty-Two, July
Page 129: example, it is genuinely moving. On
Page 135 and 136: Living in an SF Novel Phoenixine Ei
Page 137 and 138: Robyn Gossett is an entertaining wr
Page 140 and 141: Youthful Vices Phoenixine Eighty-Fi
Page 142 and 143: story is ever continued, I will be
Page 145 and 146: Connections Phoenixine Eighty-Six,
Page 147 and 148: have worried. She is on the top of
Page 150 and 151: New Things Phoenixine Eighty-Eight,
Page 152 and 153: novel with a lot of libertarian pre
Page 155 and 156: Oh Frabjous Day Phoenixine Eighty-N
Page 157: Falco, the detective in Vespasian's
Page 160 and 161: autobiography and several smaller a
Page 162: anyone to be proud of. But Malafren
Page 165 and 166: It sounded good and I dived into it
Page 168 and 169: Real Hols Phoenixine Ninety-One, Ma
Page 170 and 171: few months ago and complained that
Page 173 and 174: I Can't Lift up My Book Phoenixine
Page 175 and 176: There was a time, many years ago, w
Page 178 and 179: Moronicity Phoenixine Ninety-Three,
Page 180 and 181: my body opening in anticipation of
Page 183 and 184:
Cats Phoenixine Ninety-Four, June 1
Page 185 and 186:
With Higher Education, Sheffield an
Page 188 and 189:
Food Phoenixine Ninety-Five, July 1
Page 190 and 191:
through. His books pull you up with
Page 193 and 194:
Snot Phoenixine Ninety-Six, August
Page 195 and 196:
I have no hesitation in recommendin
Page 198 and 199:
Tower Blocks and Graffiti Phoenixin
Page 200:
picture had appeared on the wall an
Page 203 and 204:
As I collected my luggage, the clou
Page 205:
the Kay Scarpetta stories. Other th
Page 208 and 209:
Ah -- so now I was having earthquak
Page 210 and 211:
went back to the dentist. "Oh yes,
Page 213 and 214:
Tony Phoenixine One-Hundred, Decemb
Page 215 and 216:
ut when she puts her mind to it she
Page 218 and 219:
Bouncy Phoenixine One-Hundred and O
Page 220 and 221:
slammed shut as the wind screamed p
Page 222 and 223:
A series of bizarre murders is shak
Page 225 and 226:
The Universe Hates Me Phoenixine On
Page 227 and 228:
humour with which this farrago of n
Page 230 and 231:
Diatribe on Language Phoenixine One
Page 232 and 233:
unless your school principle says s
Page 234 and 235:
with large gaps in his memory and a
Page 237 and 238:
Toilets Phoenixine One-Hundred and
Page 239 and 240:
wall rather than recessed into it.
Page 241:
Richard Matheson I am Legend Orb Ro
Page 244 and 245:
almost a reprise of the war of 1812
Page 246 and 247:
McConnell's book Code Complete proc
Page 249 and 250:
Fiji Phoenixine One-Hundred and Six
Page 251 and 252:
Every night the resident trio of mu
Page 253 and 254:
The next day I flew home and the vi
show all

Triffids Beard 2 - The Bearded Triffid

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?