So I sometimes read shorter books or just don't have the things to say about a book. Here, small reviews. For books that aren't for little people/
Title: The Age of
Satan (Pantheon series)
Author: James Lovegrove
Published: February 2013 by Solaris
Warnings: suicide,
rape, violence. Very not for children.
Source: publisher
Review: Guy Lucas, throughout his life has had multiple
run-ins with Satan. There’s theistic Satanists at his school. After a Ouija
board session, his girlfriend kills herself. Later, he finds another group of
theistic Satanists who try and drag him
into their cult. Then he meets Petra.
I didn’t really know what I was getting into with this. I
just saw that it was an offshoot of a series mixing modernish day settings with
panthenons and religions of old, and I thought, yeah, go for it.
Guy, I didn’t really relate to. He was a good enough
character to make the journey with, but I didn’t really enjoy him. He did
develop a bit, after meeting Petra. Throughout, most of the characters blended
in to one another, aside from Petra, who was by far my favourite character. Her
view on philosophy is essentially the same as mine, and she’s also cool.
The pacing was ok, just touching on important events in
Guy’s life. The writing was descriptive in all places, even in places where you
probably didn’t want one.
The end bit seemed a
bit rushed, with a timejump from pre-Thatcher to present day. The summary of
what happened was more a setup to another book, not really an ending.
Overall: Strength 3.5, more a 3, to an interesting
novella. I will give the main series a try.
Title: The Wasp
Factory
Author: Iain M Banks (RIP)
Published: February 1984 by Macmillan
Warnings: murders,
gore, squick, animal cruelty
Source: bought
Review: Frank is
a killer, but he’s stopped on people now. He now just uses his Wasp Factory, a
device which makes the wasp die in whatever way it happens to, and kills other
things like seagulls. Here he is, relatively happily, and his brother Eric
breaks out of an insane asylum, and starts making his way home and Frank must
deal with secrets surrounding his family and himself.
Anne recommended this to me and I really was looking
forwards to reading it. When I started it, I was intrigued. I soon found myself
not really caring about Frank, mainly because of the way he acted towards
everyone else. The book went slowly, I’m not sure whether it was because of the
plot or the writing, but both were hard to get through. The last few chapters
just came out of nowhere, turning my view on my head and leaving me really
confused.
It did deal with interesting topics, ie death, identity and
who you are, in a frank, brutal way.
Overall: Strength 2 tea to a story that I just didn’t
get the point or plot of.
The Age of Satan has a kid-ish cover, so it's a bit interesting that it's not at all for kids. Even if you couldn't connect with Guy, at least you were able to connect with Petra. I love meeting literary characters that share a lot of the same views as you. =)
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry The Wasp Factory wasn't a very sucessful read for you, Nina. I really, really dislike slow books, so I'd definitely have to pass on that one.
Lovely mini-reviews, Nina! <3