Tag: goodreads

Review: Lord of the North – Bernard Cornwell

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Good afternoon everyone!!

I’ve had a busy week this week and I’m going to be catching up with you all today on the books I have been reading.
I finished Lords of the North last Sunday night and as yet had not made time to post the review – apologies! Goodreads is nagging me because I am behind schedule for my sixty book challenge this year.

I have also been reading Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by none other than J. R. R. Tolkien for the majority of this week – finishing that last night and today I have re-read Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, which I initially read at school. I will be posting reviews of all of these books today so please go check them out. I know some people dislike multiple postings in a day, but hopefully now I am back on track and I won’t have to do it again.

So first I am going to be talking to you about Lords of the North – the third installment in which we follow Uhtred and the war between the English and the Danes, following their invasion of England.

 


GoodReads – Lords of the North

Enter a world where bloody battles, and heroic deeds combine in the historic struggle to unite Britain in the face of a common enemy.

The third instalment in Bernard Cornwell’s King Alfred series, follows on from the outstanding previous novels The Last Kingdom and The Pale Horseman.

The year is 878 and the Vikings have been thrown out of Wessex. Uhtred, fresh from fighting for Alfred in the battle to free Wessex, travels north to seek revenge for his father’s death, killed in a bloody raid by Uhtred’s old enemy, renegade Danish lord, Kjartan.

While Kjartan lurks in his formidable stronghold of Dunholm, the north is overrun by chaos, rebellion and fear. Together with a small band of warriors, Uhtred plans his attack on his enemy, revenge fuelling his anger, resolute on bloody retribution. But, he finds himself betrayed and ends up on a desperate slave voyage to Iceland. Rescued by a remarkable alliance of old friends and enemies, he and his allies, together with Alfred the Great, are free to fight once more in a battle for power, glory and honour.

‘The Lords of the North’ is a tale of England’s making, a powerful story of betrayal, struggle and romance, set in an England torn apart by turmoil and upheaval.

 

My Thoughts…

I made a start on this series this year having discovered that the TV series, which I love, was based on these books! I loved the first series and so when the second series started, I began catching up with the books! This book picks up the beginning of the second series and much to my delight, there aren’t particularly any discrepancies between book and show. The only thing that crossed my mind was that one of the characters on the slave ship in the show (Hallig) was never in the book, but that is literally all. Inevitably comparisons will always be made when shows/films are based on books – some are better than others.

I actually found this book slightly easier to read than the previous two and I think it’s because we could relate to him more. The story flows very well and we get to see a refreshing development of character for Uhtred. As a general rule he is very self-confident, cocky even – he conveys a sense of self-importance and angers at the smallest sleight against him. Admittedly he knows as a Saxon born man who was raised as a Dane; he is in a unique position and knows how to use it.

In this book we see him mature; from the beginning of the book we start with Uhtred as a 21 year old young man, back from war feeling underappreciated by King Alfred… again. Whilst traveling back to Northumbria he encounters Sven and old bitter resentment returns. Throughout the book he endures at least two and a half years in slavery and then returns to England to face the man that put him in chains. Old Uhtred would have gutted that man, regardless of who he was, but I think his time as a slave must have both humbled him and given him time to think because he in fact forgives Guthred and saves him from the clutches of the other lords of the North – including Kjartan, with whom Uhtred and Ragnar have a bloodfeud.

As ever there are epic battles, daring missions and all too human struggles as Uhtred finds himself in the centre of all the conflict. Fate is inexorable, and I cannot wait to see what the three spinners bring Uthred next.

Review: Witches Abroad – Terry Pratchett

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Witches Abroad – GoodReads link
Having completed War & Peace last Saturday (hallelujah) I decided this week I would wind down from such an epic and return to some lighter reading to recover. For this, I returned to one of my now favourite authors to do so.
Anyone who follows my blog will know that I have a slight obsession with Pratchett and can quite easily prattle along quite happily about his books. Apologies in advance guys – I can’t usually help myself, although I will try!
Pratchett is known for using his books as a means of challenging certain ideologies or misconceptions faced in the real world, and this book is no exception. He focuses this book on stories and inevitability, or fate as you may wish to call it. I loved this as it focused on fairy tales, (predominantly Cinderella – with a twist of course) but other fairy tales also featured along the way, including Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood etc.
Whilst traveling to Genua in order for Magrat to become the godmother of Emberella to STOP her marrying the prince (get it… cinders, embers…) they stumble across a multitude of tales and inevitably get themselves caught up in them. Granny Weatherwax is the kind of character that cannot prevent herself interfering… she’s how I’d imagine a mother-in-law from hell to be; always sticking her nose in, telling you what you are doing wrong and being immovably stubborn and adamant that she has never made a mistake. Obviously. Thank the lord I don’t have in-laws – especially ones like that!
Unlike the previous Discworld books featuring the witches, I felt this book enabled the reader to get to know one of the three witches, Gytha Ogg a lot better. In the previous two books Gytha somewhat sits in the background not contributing much but she really comes into her own in this tale – let’s just say the rather “childish” topic is counteracted with a lot of twists and adult humour. Not only is she a witch; she loves and can hold her liquor (particularly rum and banana daiquiri’s) and has a very promiscuous past of which we are regularly reminded. Equally she is only human (as such) because she regularly writes home to her illiterate son, Jason. (Across the whole series the Discworld inhabitants are a little slow on the uptake of general common sense, intelligence, and the ability to spell, which also makes me laugh). Writing to your illiterate son is a perfectly logical thing to do…
During my last years of school I studied Performing Arts and for one assessment we had to create a performance aimed at children; we focused on the topic of fairy tales. In hindsight I really wish I’d read this book sooner as there are some fantastic ideas we could have … *cough cough* borrowed… Not that we ever did such a thing. Ever. Much.
This is the first book of Pratchett’s that had such an adult humour content and I’m glad it did as I think it needed it really to keep the story going for a wider audience. It was a fantastic, laugh-out-loud light read and was just what I needed.
For anyone considering Pratchett’s books, you don’t have to read the whole series. His books do actually stand alone so you would never have to read the entire forty something book long series. I’m just choosing to… because I can.
I have already started “Lords of the North” by Bernard Cornwell as my next read, albeit slowly – I’ve been busy the past couple of evenings doing some proofreading and I spent yesterday in the garden (note: not mine) breaking my back to help tidy it. Now summer is here, what are sunny bank holiday’s for if not that?! Needless to say, today has been a very chilled day in comparison so I’ve gotten loads of work done.
How do you guys spend your bank holidays? What books are on your reading lists? I’d love to hear from you. Until my next review, ciao for now!
 

Current reading List: June 2017

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Hi folks!
Further to the review I posted yesterday I have been reading the next book on my list: Witches Abroad by Terry Prachett!
It’s a new month and I am coming to the end of the last reading list I gave you for May, so without further ado, here are my planned reads for this month:
1. Lords of the North – Bernard Cornwell
This is the third installment of the series written by Cornwell, in which we follow the movements of the Danish invasion of Britain after 800 A.D. The narration is told from the perspective of Uthred, who has conflicting ties with both sides and struggles to find his place in the ever changing world.
2. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – J. R. R. Tolkien
This clearly needs no introduction! I’m looking forward to this one having re-invigorated my passion for it watching the first film the other night. I have had the kindle editions of the books for some time but as the narrative can be a little hard to follow, I have to psyche myself up to it. I definitely have now so I’m going for it!
3. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
This should be a quick read for me. I read the book for the first time whilst studying at school as a part of my GCSE’s, and can hand-on-heart say that this is the only book I genuinely enjoyed studying at school. I’m looking forward to re-reading the text again from a slightly more mature perspective.
4. Small Gods – Terry Pratchett
Back to one of my favourite series’ for the next book. These are excellent, light-hearted reads with amazing humour from Pratchett. These books took some getting into (i.e. books 1 & 2) personally, but now that I have, I’ve fallen for them hard.
5. The Gunslinger – Stephen King
I have only just begun to give Stephen King’s works a try and I’m looking forward to trying this one. Those that follow my blog will know that I have not long read “The Green Mile” – shameless link to my review and discussions here The Green Mile – Stephen King
I downloaded a sample of this book some time ago, however after reading The Green Mile I decided I was going to buy the book even without trying it as I’m sure I’ll love it too. Apparently there is an upcoming film of this to be released starring Idris Elba *drools* so I’m going to have to read the book before this hits local screens. I believe it is being released in August in the US, so I’ll have to wait just a LITTLE bit longer. Sad face.
 
Any-who, these are my intended reads for June so I had best get those pages turning! As ever, if you have any comments to the above please drop them below!

Review – War & Peace

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Hi guys!!
Firstly I would like to sincerely apologise for not having published in over a week *slaps wrist*
As you know (and as the title suggests…) I have been taking on this epic of a read and admittedly it was a risk. My initial challenge this year to read 20 books has been increased to 60 and as I was already dancing the fine line as to whether I’ll succeed or not, this has probably put me a little behind.
Anyhow, that is a concern for another day.
I have a lot of friends who are avid readers and having checked Goodreads, absolutely none of them have neither touched this book nor seem to even intend to, which frankly shocks me! I imagine that a lot of people are put off by the length of the book and I am not going to lie to you, it is long. I was pleasantly surprised however that the tone of the book and the writing style was very approachable. I didn’t expect this to be honest; bear in mind this novel was first published in Russian in 1869 and the version I was reading was translated and published in the 1920’s. You wouldn’t know – I had to look that up!
I was dubious as to whether I would see this through; I love historical fiction and I loved the TV adaptation the BBC aired last year here in the UK (I subsequently bought the DVD). I actually ended up referring to that in the beginning to to work out which character was who! I definitely couldn’t have gotten through it without that bit of background knowledge. I generally like to read the book first before I watch any TV/film adaptations, but I’m glad I broke the rules on this one.
It is notable that this text isn’t purely a narrative. Particularly towards the end of the book there is a lot of philosophical discussion about the historical recording of the war, how it’s movements were influenced and the impact one general or another had compared to the mass of movement and the will of the troops etc. The narrative is also written in an (almost) historically correct way as well (so we are told by Andrew Kaufmann – I haven’t checked), so if you are interested in learning about the movements of the war, then perhaps this is for you. Needless to say, if you are not interested in the historical element of the text, then I wouldn’t recommend this to you.
I’ll be perfectly honest and say whilst I did for the most part enjoy the book, there is an awful lot of information in there – perhaps too much for my liking. In the end I had to not let myself get bogged down by dates and times (there are references to old and new style dates?!). From about Book 13 I was just willing it to end. There are so many chapters about the French retreat and maneuvers by the Russians to cut off instead of routing the French (there are repeated arguments by Tolstoy that the french were doing this themselves so why waste troops engaging them – but hey, hindsight is a wonderful thing right?!).
Needless to say, I got a little bored by this point, but having come so far, I wasn’t giving up. I finally finished the book at 9:30pm last night, so decided to wind down by spending the next three hours watching the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring.
… I think that says a lot about me.
Anyhow, back to War & Peace. I think every reader should make their own mind up as to whether this kind of text is for you. I didn’t think it was for me, but I’m glad I took the plunge. I can’t say I enjoyed 100% of it; it was hard work, but knowing I took on the beast and beat it is a reward in itself. It was an experience that has broadened my scope of knowledge and I can happily say that in two weeks I completed this book – that’s pretty good going if you ask me!
I’m going to be spending the next couple of weeks reading some lighter material to recover! My next book is Terry Prachett’s “Witches Abroad”, so hopefully I can start getting the regular reviews back on track.
Has anybody else taken on War & Peace? If so, what are your thoughts?

In the Beginning…

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Every good blog has to start somewhere. It sparks as a result of any one person’s passion and is usually a means of driving themselves further towards their own personal goal(s). Lend me your ears (or eyes) and I will tell you a little of me and my passion in the hope that you either share the dream, or can at least appreciate it.

Ultimately, I wish to have some success in terms of publishing a novel.

I have loved writing from a very young age. Even from the age of five and starting school I loved the writing exercises in which you had to write and re-write letters or words to the correct guideline on the special exercise paper they gave you. Realistically learning to write was made more difficult for me given that I am left-handed. I also went through a phase in high school of using a fountain pen to write, because that’s what all the clever kids did. Not particularly the best move on my part as I had a lot of smudged homework for the first few weeks, but I mastered it in the end.

Thankfully due to technology this is no longer a particular issue. Whilst I  am required to do a small amount of hand writing notes and filling in forms as a part of my job, the majority of the work is computer based. I am actually quite thankful for this, as there is some atrocious hand writing exhibited by people on my team and it actually makes me sad that these particular people are not proud enough to have taken the time or effort to learn to write neatly.
It was during a creative writing module in my GCSE English Class that I found I had a flair and enjoyment to write. So did my teacher, who had a 10 page short story first draft to check and she certainly did not look impressed when I handed it to her; however I  never got that short story back to re-draft. It was submitted as part of my coursework and I got an A grade for it, which naturally I was more than pleased with.

From a young age I was also taught and encouraged by my mum to read and it is something I have always enjoyed. I consider it now to be my main hobby – more often than not you’ll find either a book or my kindle in hand in my free time! In prior years I found I would get the reading bug whilst on holiday and this would continue for a while, but fizzle out after a couple of months. Last year, I set myself a challenge via Goodreads to read 20 books which I thought I could easily achieve. Actually, I didn’t even come close. This year I set myself the same target, and to date (24 April 2017) I have read 19 in full and I am currently reading two further books. I anticipate by the end of April I will have met my target and I have decided I am going to double my target to see if I can read 40 books by the end of the year!

I think the reason behind the surge in my reading this year is because I have decided to put the time and effort into my dream of getting published. In order to find inspiration I am trying to read more books from authors I have not read yet, although at present I am staying within the genre region of Fantasy/Science Fiction/Historical Fiction. These are my particular interest, but I am scheduling in some Thriller/Horror/Suspense books later this year to try to broaden my horizons. I am also writing a number of short stories in order to develop ideas for something that I may wish to publish in the future and as a part of this blog I will also be publishing any short stories I write. I will also be reviewing the books I read so I may even be able to help you find your next book to read as well as collect my thoughts!

If you have any recommendations for any books to read and review I would absolutely love to hear from you! Has anyone set themselves a challenge to read a number of books this year? Please let me know how you are getting on or what kind of books you enjoy. What type of short stories you would like to see here in the near future? I look forward to your thoughts.

If you are still reading here, I would like to thank you for the time taken to read the above ramblings – it really does mean a lot to me! If you have any feedback please get in touch. If you wish to get in touch with me please fill in the form below.

Thank you,

Rebecca