novel

Neverwhere

Book Notes Instead of being asleep at 21:21 on 5 December 2015, kitt created this:

After not finishing a book for three weeks, I'm happy to have finally finished one. Unsurprisingly, it's a fiction book, and doubly unsurprising in the sf/fantasy genre.

Neverwhere is one of the older Neil Gaiman stories, which makes me surprised I haven't read it yet. Though, really, upon thinking about it, not really that surprising. I suspect if I had realized it was the novelization of a BBC television show, I wouldn't have read it in the first place.

Which is good that I didn't know, as I somewhat enjoyed the tale of Richard Mayhew, and the mystery surrounding the appearance of Door on the sidewalk in front of Richard one evening. It's a cute storyline, though, in this case, I think I'm more inclined to recommend watching the series, it's not very long, over reading the book, which is also not very long. Things are lost in translation, with very few times the translated medium being better than the original.

So, yeah, watch the series instead, but read this if you enjoy Gaiman's works and really prefer words over a world pre-imagined for you.

Police

Book Notes kitt decided around 22:59 on 19 November 2015 to publish this:

Okay, this is the latest book (that would be book 10) in the Harry Hole series. Based on the ending, I feel this should be the last book in the series. I'm not the author, and I understand the lure of keeping a franchise alive, yet this one feels like a great place to end the series.

True to Nesbo's style of writing the Hole series (ha, I crack me up), there are a lot of twists and turns and deliberate wording causing misdirections. I was confused a bit with some of the characters, but figured them all out in the end. Unsurprising, this book was about THE POLICE, and had a large bit of house-cleaning in it (another reason why this could be the last book: a lot of the different plotlines are wrapped up, cleaned up, and squared away).

I really liked how a number of details from previous books wrap back around in this book. The details are still details, not major plot points. They are subtle enough to make this book stand on its own (without the Dresden repeating of everything), but stand out if you've read the previous book recently (like finished it about an hour before starting this one).

So, with this one, I've read five of the Harry Hole books. Given I've read the last three, and know much of the plot points of the previous ones from details gleaned from those last three books, I'm likely going to skip the rest of the Hole books.

Despite my luke-warm first book review, I have to say that I now recommend this series.

Phantom

Book Notes Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 22:58 on 11 November 2015

Second to last of the currently published Harry Hole books, which is to say, book nine, and I read this one quickly. Not really sure I intended to read this one as much as I did, I avoided some of the conference this weekend to read it, but read it and read it fast, I did.

The ending, holy crap. Totally had me emotional and upset. I was glad there was another Harry Hole book to immediately begin reading. If I had had to wait a year for it to be published, I'm not sure I would have read the next one (yes, I would have read the next one).

This one has Harry returning from Hong Kong, this time to defend Oleg, Rakel’s son. Again, in Nesbo's style of using pronouns and just enough description to paint a picture in your head, playing with your prejudices and expectations to have you paint the wrong picture, only to have a clearer picture painted later providing a different interpretation, this book has a number of twists and turns and unexpected huh? moments.

Last book, Harry almost died. In that one, it seemed to be a lucky but plausible escape from death. In this one, Harry, surprise, almost dies, but ehhhhhhhhhhhhhh, no, it's not really a plausible escape from death. Just a clever plot twist that, okay, works.

I still very much enjoyed the book. The ending had me overwhelmed. Worth reading.

The Leopard

Book Notes Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 22:57 on 8 November 2015

This book is number eight in the Harry Hole series. As such, I really need to put links to the whole list at some point. After reading The Bat, book one of the series, I sought this book out from (you guessed it) the stack of books from Mom. I will finish that stack of books. Really.

This book starts out confusingly, from the perspective of the first victim of HEY NO SURPRISE a serial killer. It takes awhile to understand the particular method of death, mostly when it happens again. I wasn't particularly able to "see" this book the way I could see the previous one, given this one is back in Norway, and not Sydney (of course). There are a number of life path changes that happened as a result of the previous book in the series, which I hadn't read, so yeah, I was confused a bit.

This one has Harry in Hong Kong, using opium instead of alcohol to numb himself. Why he's there is the subject of the previous book, which is also the first Hole book to be turned into a movie, so I might have to read it at some point. He is convinced to return to Norway, works on the case, has a number of strange romantic twists (complete with confusing real-world "Is she interested? I can't tell" moments), and several "we caught the bad guy NO WAIT WE DIDN'T" endings. You know the actual ending only because you read the last page.

Nesbo is vague enough with his descriptions and his use of pronouns that you're never really sure who is who in the books. This is one that I'm uncertain could be translated into a movie for that reason. The ending was a little surprising to me because of the use of pronouns, and that, like real life, the first guess is not always the correct answer, so I have to say, I'll be reading the remaining books in this series pronto.

This series is recommended.

The Bat

Book Notes Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 15:09 on 3 November 2015

Okay, really now, this book surprised me completely.

It is the first Harry Hole series. The first Harry Hole I read, turns out, was book five in the series. Which meant, there were four books of character development that I completely missed out on. Which is surprising, given that this book was also in the stack of books from Mom. WHEN AM I GOING TO GET THROUGH THAT STACK? I swear, that woman has defined my reading for this year, and likely next.

So, this book, the first Harry Hole book, actually acknowledges the odd name, though most people in this book pronounce Harry's last name as Holly and Holy.

The book takes place in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, which I found ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTFUL, as I started reading it when I was in Sydney. It made the story more interesting to me in the way the Harry Bosch series was engaging: I knew the area. I knew what the spaces looked like, I walked along the places, watched people in the different locations. I hadn't really realized how much that connection appeals to me.

This story also gives us a large part of Harry's background, which also made the character more interesting to me.

The plot is that Harry flies to Sydney to look into the death of a Norwegian citizen. Amidst a whole bunch of other deaths, a serial killer is discovered in investigation, and boom, now we have a plot. There were a number of Australian cultural references in the book that went along with the museums that Mom and I were visiting as I was reading the book, that made the story have a stronger impact.

I enjoyed the book, and am looking forward to the other Harry Hole books in the stack from Mom, unlike how I was after the previous Hole crime mystery thriller I read.

Recommended.

Make Me

Book Notes Instead of being asleep at 22:09 on 1 November 2015, kitt created this:

The latest in the Jack Reacher series, which means I'll read it. I have been enjoying the Reacher series, pretty much non-stop. I did try not to buy this book, opting for the library checkout, but became too impatient and just bought it. I suspect at some point I'll grow tired of the same-ish plot and same-ish highlights and the fact that REACHER ALWAYS GETS HIS MAN (no, not a correctly parallel sentence), but I'm not there yet. Enjoyed this one.

The basic premise of the book is the same as all other Reacher books, he's wandering without any destination, this place sounds good, he stops, and hey! what do you know? MYSTERY. He follows the clues, someone dies, likely someone else dies, and possibly another person dies, but that isn't a guarantee in all the Reacher books. There's a woman and he hooks up with her. In the end they part. Well, except for the love of his life lasted TWO whole books earlier in the series.

SPOILER: this one might last another book, too. We don't know, but it seems that it might be somewhat happening that way.

Part of me wonders when I will grow tired of Reacher always figuring things out. Another part of me is glad I'm not there yet.

If you like Reacher books, keep reading. This one is fun, with a clever mystery and a lot of Reacher Luck™.

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