Book Reviews!
Aug. 17th, 2007 08:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kikoteiOkay, once again I'm pilfering these from the work related book blog I run (except Silverboy because we don't own it, yet). ^___^ I enjoyed all of these, with the exception of Silverboy. The Delaney ones I wasn't expecting much out of, but in the end I was pleasantly surprised.
Down the Rabbit Hole by Peter Abrahams
Despite the fact that Sherlock Holmes is Ingrid’s hero, she can’t seem to measure up to his skills and knowledge. Ingrid can’t even find her way around town. Now she’s gotten herself mixed up in a murder case, problem is that no one knows she’s helping the investigation – not even the police chief. Can Ingrid find the killer before the killer finds her?
Teen
Revenge of the Witch by Joseph Delaney
Thomas Ward is the seventh son of a seventh son, which doesn't leave him many options when he comes of age for apprenticeship. But the only one truly open to him, no matter how terrifying, may be the very thing he was born for. As a seventh son Tom is sensitive to the workings of the supernatural, he rarely leaves the farm out of fear of the ghosts on the other side of the hill, ghosts that only he and his mother can hear. Now Tom's mother has pulled strings to get him apprenticed to the man known as the Spook, the one man in the whole county qualified to deal with witches, boggarts, and all those things that go bump in the night. Just a few weeks into his apprenticeship, Tom makes a series of horrible mistakes, culminating in a showdown which could end in tragedy for the Ward family.
Teen
Curse of the Bane by Joseph Delaney
Sequel to Revenge of the Witch. Thomas Ward has been apprentice to the Spook for nearly six months now, and something even more terrifying than Mother Malkin waits for Tom and Spook. Something older and much more powerful. When the pair venture to Priestown (the last place a Spook or even an apprentice Spook should ever be caught in) to check the silver gate in the catacombs that is supposed to keep the Bane under control. But it seems that the Bane's power has grown and with it so has it's ability to influence the priests in the church above. Now Spook, Thomas, and Alice must flee from the power of both the corrupt church and the Bane and find some way to stop the Bane permanently.
Teen
Silverboy by N.M. Browne
Tommo is an apprentice Spellstone grinder, or at least he was until he ran away. Now he's not sure which will end his life first, the Sheriff or the quivers, a disease that eventually afflicts all grinders. The dust from the grinding process coats and soaks into the skin, causing both a distinctive silver shine and the quivers. In an attempt to escape the country and the hangman's noose, Tommo meets Akenna and the two children are sucked into a fight between the island's tyranical Protector and the former religious leaders.
I was hoping for so much more out of this book and none of it was even close met. Had the author extended the story another 100 pages she might have had a better book. And the Tommo angst would have been better if she hadn't wussed out on occasions, there were times she could have milked the anguish for all it was worth but didn't. Sadly this was also suffers from the ill-fitting epilogue syndrome.
Upper Juvenile/Teen
Down the Rabbit Hole by Peter Abrahams
Despite the fact that Sherlock Holmes is Ingrid’s hero, she can’t seem to measure up to his skills and knowledge. Ingrid can’t even find her way around town. Now she’s gotten herself mixed up in a murder case, problem is that no one knows she’s helping the investigation – not even the police chief. Can Ingrid find the killer before the killer finds her?
Teen
Revenge of the Witch by Joseph Delaney
Thomas Ward is the seventh son of a seventh son, which doesn't leave him many options when he comes of age for apprenticeship. But the only one truly open to him, no matter how terrifying, may be the very thing he was born for. As a seventh son Tom is sensitive to the workings of the supernatural, he rarely leaves the farm out of fear of the ghosts on the other side of the hill, ghosts that only he and his mother can hear. Now Tom's mother has pulled strings to get him apprenticed to the man known as the Spook, the one man in the whole county qualified to deal with witches, boggarts, and all those things that go bump in the night. Just a few weeks into his apprenticeship, Tom makes a series of horrible mistakes, culminating in a showdown which could end in tragedy for the Ward family.
Teen
Curse of the Bane by Joseph Delaney
Sequel to Revenge of the Witch. Thomas Ward has been apprentice to the Spook for nearly six months now, and something even more terrifying than Mother Malkin waits for Tom and Spook. Something older and much more powerful. When the pair venture to Priestown (the last place a Spook or even an apprentice Spook should ever be caught in) to check the silver gate in the catacombs that is supposed to keep the Bane under control. But it seems that the Bane's power has grown and with it so has it's ability to influence the priests in the church above. Now Spook, Thomas, and Alice must flee from the power of both the corrupt church and the Bane and find some way to stop the Bane permanently.
Teen
Silverboy by N.M. Browne
Tommo is an apprentice Spellstone grinder, or at least he was until he ran away. Now he's not sure which will end his life first, the Sheriff or the quivers, a disease that eventually afflicts all grinders. The dust from the grinding process coats and soaks into the skin, causing both a distinctive silver shine and the quivers. In an attempt to escape the country and the hangman's noose, Tommo meets Akenna and the two children are sucked into a fight between the island's tyranical Protector and the former religious leaders.
I was hoping for so much more out of this book and none of it was even close met. Had the author extended the story another 100 pages she might have had a better book. And the Tommo angst would have been better if she hadn't wussed out on occasions, there were times she could have milked the anguish for all it was worth but didn't. Sadly this was also suffers from the ill-fitting epilogue syndrome.
Upper Juvenile/Teen