The Nathaniel Pages

Superior Saturday ~ Garth Nix

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:54:56 GMT

Book #28: 26 July, 2009 to 23 August, 2009

Superior Saturday ~ Garth Nix

This is the sixth book in the Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix. It's been some time since I read the first five but I soon got back into the plot quite easily. As with all the other books, this one continues on from the events of the previous one - in this case, it starts only a little time after the end of Lady Friday. I do like this technique; it throws you straight back into the story which can be a good thing if you're able to remember where the last one left off, but on the other hand, can be terribly confusing if you can't. I think it makes the books more of a series as they all run together rather than being separated by weeks, months or even years as in the case of other series.

Although Leaf had started to be introduced in earlier books, in this one she plays a very minor role, only being included at the very start and the very end. It's hard to tell from that what kind of part she will play in the next and final book.

In my review of Lady Friday, I wondered what would happen with Arthur's change into a Denizen but it seems quite clear in this book that he has gone too far down that road now. There are several references to how much taller he is now and also how handsome he has become. I do still wonder if he is going to be trapped in the House forever at the end of the series, it doesn't seem at all fair to remove him from his family like that, even if he was going to be taken away from them by Death in the first book had he not gone into the House.

I think out of all of the books so far, I enjoyed this one the most. It may have helped that I had such a long break between reading Lady Friday and this one but I also think that part of it is down to the fact that the series is coming to an end. There did seem to be a sense of urgency and speed in the pace of this book and it was hard to put it down quite often because I was so engrossed in it. It does end on more or less a literal cliffhanger and so it will certainly be interesting to see where Lord Sunday picks up. The book isn't due to be published till March 1, 2010 so there's some time to wait before we find out.

The Resurrection Casket ~ Justin Richards

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 21:23:15 GMT

Book 27: 7 August, 2009 to 18 August, 2009

The Resurrection Casket ~ Justin Richards

D’you like pirates? Then this is the book for you! Like stories set in space with spaceships and robots? This is the story for you too! Yes, this story has both pirates and robots in space. And where else would you get that interesting mix but from Doctor Who. This novelisation has the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler stranded on a planet because there’s a zone of negative something or other which renders the TARDIS unusable. But that’s okay because there’s pirates and robots and treasure to find!

Spoiler alert - if you've not read this book and you want to, there are some spoilers in the following review.
( Here be spoilers )
All in all, a good book and definitely one of the better ones. Quite engrossing and a good read to boot.

The Stone Rose ~ Jacqueline Raynor

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 22:03:08 GMT

Book #26: 4 August, 2009 to 7 August, 2009

The Stone Rose ~ Jacqueline Rayner

This is the first Doctor Who novelisation that features the Doctor in his tenth incarnation, and it also has Rose as his companion. I've sort of read this book before, but when I say read, I mean, listened to the audio book which is read by David Tennant. Even though it's several months since I did that, if not longer, I had a pretty good idea of the general plot although I'd forgotten most of it. It did come back to me as I read it though but I still enjoyed it.

For the first book featuring Ten, it's a very good choice. I think the character is very well captured here, there's a lot of his energy and babbling and rapid thought processes. I think this has got to be the first time in either the books or the programme that the Doctor changes his outfit! It's certainly a shame that this wasn't an episode, I quite like the idea of Ten in a little Roman number that comes down to his knees. Rose is also well written and the supporting characters are quite good too.

The plot is enjoyable and quite intriguing. There's a little bit of going back and forth in time which could be a little bit confusing, although I think more so for the audio book rather than the eBook. There's also lots of possible paradoxes which can tie your brain in knots if you try to work them through, so it's possibly better to just go with them. I know that reading it this time round, it did make an awful lot more sense and I had a better idea of what was going on.

I do have to say that when the instigator, for want of a better word, was revealed, it was a bit strange and really very silly. Up until that point, I'd thought it was a really good book but that just kind of spoilt it for me. It was still very typical Doctor Who fare but it was one of their more silly episodes than anything else and as such a bit of a letdown. Quite a shame really because the part of the book before that had been so very dramatic and serious but the instigator was the complete opposite. It was like having a series of brutal grisly murders but finding out that the killer was a malfunctioning teddy bear. It was still very well written and a good read despite the ending.

Only Human ~ Gary Russell

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 21:56:35 GMT

Book #25: 27 July, 2009 to 4 August, 2009

Only Human ~ Gary Russell

This is another Doctor Who novelisation, featuring the Doctor in his ninth incarnation and with Jack and Rose as his companions. This is the last novelisation with Nine in it. I found that it had me hooked from the start when a caveman turns up in 21st century Bromley. Jack is left to assimilate him to this modern age while the Doctor and Rose go off to find out what's going on. The storyline with Jack and the caveman, Das, does continue as a minor sideline as it's not really important to the main plot - it's just a catalyst really - but it is nice that it was carried on and that we got to find out what happened to the caveman. Personally, I thought that would have made a good story on its own but it probably wouldn't have been as dramatic or required the Doctor.

The characters weren't too badly written. Jack wasn't in it a great deal and was mostly shown either from Das' point of view or from his own. The Doctor seemed fairly accurately portrayed but I wasn't sure about the characterisation of Rose. She didn't seem quite right somehow, she was a bit lacking in spark and personality really. The baddie was a little strange to be honest and I wasn't really sure what to make of it. It was initially shown to be very dangerous but then later on it was also shown as being pretty stupid and easily fooled which didn't seem to ring true somehow.

All in all, it wasn't brilliantly written, yet it was still engaging and a definite page turner. I think it's the best one out of the half dozen books that feature Nine. I really enjoyed it and found it quite engrossing. It was also nice for it to have a unique plot, something that's not been touched on before and with a new baddie as well.

Fic: Reflection

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:18:36 GMT

This is the result of the plot bunny that bit me late at night a few days ago. I've been working on it quite a bit and I think this is about as good as it's going to get. I'm quite pleased that my initial plot that I jotted down in a hurry has grown from about 300 words to the 1715 words of this! It never ceases to amaze me how that happens.

Title: Reflection
Fandom: Doctor Who
Ship: N/A
Genre: Angst
Rating: PG
Prompt: None
Word Count: 1715
Author's Notes: None.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Russell T Davies, Steven Moffat et al and Auntie Beeb, Gawd bless 'er. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
( Reflection )
*****
All feedback gratefully received and appreciated.

The Shakespeare Secret ~ J.L. Carrell

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 21:38:18 GMT

Book #24: 2 July, 2009 to 25 July, 2009

The Shakespeare Secret - J.L. Carrell

I saw this book back at the beginning of the year in Waterstones and nearly picked it up to buy but decided not to. I put it on my To Read list though and finally managed to get it from the library. When I read the blurb on the back of the book, I wasn't sure why I'd wanted to read it because it was listed under crime and seemed to be pretty much about finding a killer who murdered people by copying the way Shakespeare killed off his characters. I'm not a big fan of crime books and don't generally read them but for some reason, I decided to give this one a go. I'm glad I did. The blurb does not do the story justice and for some reason, it concentrates solely on the fact that people are being killed but not the reason why which I would have thought is the more interesting part to include.

Spoiler alert - if you've not read this book and you want to, there are some spoilers in the following review.
( Here be spoilers )
It's definitely a good read though and certainly a page-turner. I was really disappointed by the ending which was quite a let-down and certainly not the way I was expecting it to turn out. The little epilogue at the end is also nothing more than pure syrup. I'd recommend this book though, especially to those who like Shakespeare.

Typical

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:49:15 GMT

Why do I always get bitten by a plot bunny at the most inopportune times? I mean, there I was, trying to sleep and from out of nowhere: plot bunny. Hmph. I suppose I should be thankful they're at least visiting.

So there may be fic coming your way later. I can't promise when, but watch this space.

City of Ashes ~ Cassandra Clare

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:51:31 GMT

Book #21: 5 June, 2009 to 28 June, 2009

City of Ashes ~ Cassandra Clare

This is the sequel to City of Bones that I finished recently. I'd been assured by Blue, who'd read both of the books before me, that the second one was much better than the first. I tried to bear that in mind as I started to read but it is much easier said than done.

Spoiler alert - if you've not read this book and you want to, there are some spoilers in the following review.
( Here be spoilers )

Procrastination Site of the Day

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:01:07 GMT

If you like puzzles and films then this is the site for you! Film magazine Empire is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a huge film-inspired puzzle. The Cryptic Canvas is a large picture with 50 film titles hiding in it. They're all recent films, presumably from within the last 20 years, so hopefully there's nothing too obscure in it.

I had a go at it yesterday and with Michael's help, managed to find 36 of the 50 titles. Some are pretty easy, such as the baby with the price tag but others are much more cunning and made us *headdesk* several times. The good thing is that you don't have to do it all in one go, it stores your e-mail address so that you can save and quit at any time, and go back to it later. Presumably at 3am when you've finally worked out what those three kickboxing cheerleaders represent.

City of Bones ~ Cassandra Clare

Sun, 31 May 2009 20:54:18 GMT

Book #19: 23 May, 2009 to 31 May, 2009

City of Bones ~ Cassandra Clare

I am quite familiar with the works of Cassandra Claire - sorry, Clare now - as I read her Draco Trilogy way back before it descended into a steaming pile of controversy. Although I was quite interested to see what she'd managed to get published, I was also really wary primarily because of who it was. I borrowed it from the library - which for some bizarre reason has 30-odd copies of the second book but only half a dozen of the first so I had to order it.

Spoiler alert - if you've not read this book and you want to, there are some spoilers in the following review.
( Here be spoilers )

April Update

Thu, 28 May 2009 11:00:53 GMT

I'm not quite sure what happened this month or how I only managed to complete one book! That's not very good at all. I finished all the Wardstone Chronicles books that I'd borrowed from the library, but I got some more books out to replace them. I'll have to get my finger out, that's for sure!
Total completed: 14 down, 36 to go.

Books Completed
The Spook's Battle ~ Joseph Delaney

Books ongoing
Traditional Tales From Long Long Ago ~ Philip Wilson
Boston City Guide ~ Mara Vorhees and John Spelman
Deviant Strain ~ Justin Richards (eBook)
Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Teen Suicide ~ Kate Bornstein
The Stealers of Dreams ~ Steve Lyons

Crikey!

Tue, 19 May 2009 20:32:48 GMT

I love words and learning languages, and so I was very pleased to learn some new words today courtesy of Twitter. According to the elves at QI, the Welsh word for oven is 'popty' and the Welsh for microwave is 'popty ping'. I suppose that's literally 'an oven that goes ping'. I think it's more of a colloquial term, I believe that 'ffwrn meicrodon' is the proper term for a microwave in Welsh. I still think 'popty ping' is a brilliant word and if I had any Welsh ancestry, I would use it at every conceivable opportunity. Maybe I'll use it anyway, my vocabulary is already littered with words from German and Yiddish, so why not include Welsh too?

Writing WIPs post

Wed, 13 May 2009 19:34:03 GMT

I know it looks like I've been quiet on here since I set it up, but I've actually been fairly busy trying to import all my entries from my reading journal over at Vox. Dreamwidth's import system only works for LiveJournal, InsaneJournal and JournalFen so far, which means I've had to do it all one entry at a time. It's been a complete pain in the arse. Vox lists each post with just the date and not the time so I have to go into each entry to find out the time it was posted. More annoying is the way it deals with HTML so I'm having to add all of the coding as well, and considering some posts have a lot of links, it's taking bloody ages.

At some point, I'm hoping to back up my writing journal here as well, although I will be posting new writings here as and when I have any. I thought I would do a brief list of all of my current WIPs to introduce them to this lovely new readership. So here they are:

I Am Draco - Part One: Father To Son
A Harry Potter fanfic started in *cough*2004*cough*. It's the first part of a trilogy. Part One has 6 chapters, totalling 25,000 words so far.
I did actually complete Part One and made a start on Part Two, but then decided the last chapter needed reworking for some reason. I made a start on rewriting it but it's not finished yet. I do have most of the first chapter of Part Two done though. I would like to finish at least the first part, just so that it's not hanging about but my interest in the Harry Potter fandom is waning and I'm not sure how likely it is.
The Making Of A Malfoy
Another Harry Potter fanfic, started in 2005. Currently has two chapters completed and a third in progress, totalling 4,500 words.
This was never really a serious attempt at a fic, I had a vague idea of what I wanted to happen, but I've not drawn out a plan of events like I normally would. I have the third chapter in the notebook that I carry about with me, but it's not been touched for ages.
Born Of David's Line
Yet another Harry Potter fanfic, started in 2008 as part of a challenge from LJ community sorting__hat to write a novel length fic. Currently has just the first chapter finished, totalling 3,000 words.
I have a rough plan of the plot for this fic and I'm not sure why I never wrote more than the first chapter. I think I may have decided it was a silly idea.
The Dreamstone
An original work, started in 2004. Currently has the prologue finished, totalling 4,200 words.
This is quite a bit different from anything I've written before, it's more of a supernatural genre with comedy elements. I really like the idea and think it could be quite good if I ever finish it! I'm a little concerned about possible Mary Sueness with the main character though.
Duplicity
An original work, started in 2005. Currently has 12 chapters finished, totalling 52,000 words.
This was my first entry for NaNoWriMo that year so I put a lot of work into planning it and managed to hit the 50, 000 word target before the end of November which pleased me a great deal. It just needs two more chapters and possibly an epilogue to finish it off and I really really want to get it completed. I've gone back to it a couple of times and it is progressing slowly. I actually read part of it at an open mic night in Boston last year and it went down very well so that's promising.

I think that's all of the major works I have in progress at the moment. Some of them were started quite some time ago, I hadn't realised how long it had been! Time flies when you're writing.

Procrastination site of the day

Tue, 05 May 2009 19:31:31 GMT

http://deepleap.org/

It's a simple Javascript word game that's a sort of cross between Scrabble and ... Tetris, I suppose. The idea is to make words from the stream of tiles that appear and gain points for each word spelt correctly.

You start off with a empty 'rack' and get a new tile every three seconds. If your rack is full, you lose the oldest tile there. Each letter has a value, similar to Scrabble, so any tile you lose means that amount is taken from your score. There's a total of 75 tiles per game so it's only quite short.

It's currently only a demo but it's a very good game. My only complaint is that the game starts as soon as you load the site. A pause button would be handy too.

New beginnings

Sat, 02 May 2009 19:42:15 GMT

I decided I'd waited long enough since Jaunty was released so I upgraded this morning. It took about 2 hours in total; an hour to download everything and then another hour to install and clean up after itself.

And then it took another two hours to get it to boot up. It would get so far and then crash.

I was rather panicked because although I don't have a great deal of stuff on my harddrive, I'd not backed it up for a couple of months and had completely neglected to do so before upgrading. After a lengthy period of angst and trying various suggestions from Michael - so relieved that I have Skype on my mobile - I wondered if the alarm-clock programme I'd installed was the problem. When I booted up, it came up with an error message and it seemed that clicking on that message was causing it to crash, so I had to remove that and see if that made any difference. Thankfully, that was the problem and so it booted up fine after that and I could play with the shiny!

Well, theoretically. I actually spent the time backing up all my stuffs. Better late than never, eh?

So new release of Ubuntu and a new Dreamwidth journal. It's like a whole new beginning or something!