Tag: books

Dream a little Dream

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In a mysterious town hidden in our collective subconcious, theres a department store that sells dreams…

What a wonderful idea! The concept caught my interest straight away and I would have given this book a go even if it didn’t fit my book bingo 2024 list, but it happens to do that quite well in the category of Author of Colour, and it fits for hard mode, which is another bonus. Interestingly, the book was published as a debut in 2020 and funded entirely through a crowd-funding service in Korea – and became a bestseller! How awesome is that! It’s also my local Waterstones pick of the month for August 2024, and there’s a book club meet about it at the store in September, so I’ll be going to that!

This endearing and whimsical tale follows Penny as she becomes the newest employee in Dallergut’s, supplying dreams to customers with various requirements. It’s reminiscent of Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium in parts but is most definitely something that is unique: and I wanted so desperately to love it, to get swept away in the deliciousness of the concept, but it really didn’t hit home for me.

It’s not the concept – that’s fabulous. It’s not the characters, although I felt they could have been more fleshed out. The translation wasn’t even much of an issue, although I do feel that it simplified the narration somewhat and it may have been more effective as a whole if read in the original language. DDDS (Dallergut Dream Department Store) is a very good book: it’s a feel-good, cosy, slice-of-life tale but it could have achieved so much more. I don’t want to spoil anything, but the Tale of the Three Disciples is just one example that could have been expanded to become something even more wonderful. I know it’s part of a duology, and that in the next book, there is the possibility that it could become something amazing. I also know that it might not be the author’s intent for it to become something other than what it is, which is cosy, slice-of-life as I’ve said, but there is so much potential in the concept that wasn’t executed and it’s such a shame.

I liked DDDS, the characters were quirky, and the idea of dream-making and selling was intriguing and compelling. I loved the messages that were in the book – the themes of friendship, love, grief, loss, loneliness, stress, perseverance, acceptance, identity and more were all covered in this little novelette and were covered well. It is a magical, lovely little tale.

I was just expecting something else, and I can see so much more that could come from it. I’ll still be picking up the sequel so I can find out what happens to Penny, Weather, Dallergut, Maxim, Assam, Babynap Rockabye, Animora Bancho and even Vigo!!

If you enjoy slice-of-life, cosy fantasy, you’ll love DDDS, and even if cosy fantasy isn’t normally your go-to, try this one. You might find you enjoy it more than you think you will.

Hauntingly Evocative

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Welcome to Area X. An Edenic wilderness, an environmental disaster zone, a mystery for thirty years.

The Southern Reach, a secretive government agency, has sent eleven expeditions to investigate Area X. One has ended in mass suicide, another in a hail of gunfire, the eleventh in a fatal cancer epidemic.

Now four women embark on the twelfth expedition into the unknown…

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
Southern Reach #1
Published 2014
Book Bingo: Eldritch Creatures (Hard Mode)

This is a ridiculously difficult book to review.

I picked this book up as part of the Bingo 2024 challenge for the Eldritch Creatures category. I’m a little ashamed to say, especially given that I read a lot of horror, that I didn’t realise these odd entities/creatures had a categeory of their own. Anyway, Emily, another lovely member of staff at my local Waterstones, assured me that I would love this book and that it definitely fitted what I was looking for.

Told from the point of view of “the biologist” although the tale includes others, including her own husband’s experiences, her perspective leads us beautifully through this unique, eerie tale of an exploration team (the 12th expedition according to the text) in a place called “Area X.”

The imagery in this deceptively small-looking novel is just beautiful, although not technically traditional. It lulls and lures the reader into a lyrical dance that undulates in the bizarre, and it stays with you. It’s incredibly immersive, and so odd that it’s difficult to define just how effective it is, because I can see how devisive it could be – the interpretation is completely up to the reader, and the content reflects this in the interpretation given by “the biologist” – there are no correct answers, just mystery.

There are plenty of secrets in this book and as the answers are slowly revealed, the story draws you in to its surreal and distorted and disconcerting sense of reality. You are left stranded in the in-between, a kind of limbo, yet there is a feeling of fulfillment. Still there is a sense of needing to dig deeper, to eke out the mystery, to find the reasoning. You know there is more, just not where to find it.

Atmospheric is an almost perfect descriptor, ominous is another.

Personally, I like hauntingly evocative.

“It was as if I travelled through the landscape with the sound of an expressive and intense aria playing in my ears. Everything was imbued with emotion, awash with it, and I was no longer a biologist but somehow the crest of a wave building and building but never crashing to the shore.”

4/5 stars

The Expanse: Leviathan Wakes

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Jim Holden is an officer on an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, the Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted.

Detective Miller is looking for one girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to the Scopuli and Holden, he realises the girl may hold the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must work together and thread the needle to find the truth, but between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries and secretive corporations, the odds are against them.

Out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.


Are you actually kidding me?

I am one of the most idiotic, ridiculous and stupid people in the world of readers. I like *watching” sci-fi: I love Star Wars, Star Trek, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, but it never crossed my mind, not once, to see if I liked *reading* it.

Well, I’m sheepish. And very, very ashamed that it’s taken me this long to read a space opera. As I’m participating in Book Bingo 2024, I’ve read A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers for the Space Opera Square (HM) but it didn’t feel like a space opera. It felt like Firefly. Which I know is in my list above, but it’s not really a space opera, it’s cosy space-fantasy-sci-fi. Not that that’s a bad thing. I mean, yay! cosy sci-fi- I loved it, but I don’t really think it captured the “spirit of the square” so I’m still waiting for something to fill that slot. I digress, my original point is this: I’ve never read a Space Opera, even though I’m evidently a fan of them in TV format, so, when The Expanse was recommended to me by Dan at my local Waterstones I dived right in.

And I am most definitely not disappointed.

I have never, and could never have imagined enjoying a sci-fi book so much. Seriously. Did I understand all the jargon? No. Was it still amazing? Hell. Yes!!! So much so, I checked out the TV series too…

I went into this book blind. All I knew was that it was something set in space. If it had just been that, I would have been satisfied, but it’s so much more. Seriously, this is Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek on steroids in book form!!!! The characters are intriguing, the plot engaging, the writing ebbs and flows in exactly the right ways and the threads all weave together brilliantly. And one of the most amazing things is the world-building: it’s realistic, the foundations are secure and based on fairly current knowledge… – it’s believable that this could be what our world becomes, and funnily enough, that’s a theme that runs through the series -what could our world become? And what will we do when it changes into that?

So, yeah, I went out and got the rest of the series before I’d finished the first book. I got distracted from bingo for a little while, but never mind.

Back to the matter at hand. It’s all Dan’s fault.

I loved the noir aspect of this – I love thrillers and crime dramas and all that sort of thing, so Miller being a detective really hit the spot, and the mystery alongside the science/space intrigue kept me turning pages. I love Miller. He’s odd, a little bit psycho and stalkery, but he’s so intriguing and his relationship with Holden is just really endearing. I think if they weren’t almost polar-opposites, they’d be best mates.

I have to admit, I found it difficult to get into at first, so I checked out the first episode of the series to “get the feel” of it all, and I don’t regret doing that because it really helped me to get into the vibe of the book. Once that was done, I flew through it. There were some parts that were slower, which I anticipated, but on the whole, it was just fascinating and really enjoyable.

Out of all of the relationships in the book, Miller and Julie really got me. I mean, he kind of went a bit loopy, but the scene where he “saved” earth and Julie, was just so beautifully described, both in the book and in the series, that it completely devastated me as well as filling me with a sense of awe and just made me think “wow, there are still decent people out there.”

I’m really looking forward to getting to know the rest of the crew and seeing what else the belt, the martians and the earthers have in store for Holden and his friends.

Bother, I’m Bothered

Es the Book Hoarder2 Comments

But Why?

Since posting this article on the communities I haunt on reddit, I’ve had a fair few people ask why I bothered writing a response to the Mythcreants article at all. I’ve also seen plenty of responses where people have considered the article similar to a troll post, and even some who initially thought that the article was satirical – and said they wouldn’t waste their time, so why would I waste mine, in fact, what makes Ms. Winkle’s opinion so valuable to me?

So I’ll make it clear here. Chris’s opinion isn’t valuable to me, not with regards to the text that she evaluated but it could be valuable to any potential readers of the Malazan series, and it could be valuable to any potential authors who specifically look towards Mythcreants for advice.

I’ve said it throughout my response and I’ll say it here again – what frustrated me about the article when I first read it, and frustrates me still (enough that I felt I should write a response) is that it is framed/presented as a teaching article – Lessons From Bad Writing – yet it is not. That Ms. Winkle criticises the text, and in most cases does so in a dismissive, contemptuous, incorrect or assumptive nature is fine – she is perfectly entitled to do that in a subjective, opinion piece that is presented as such.

This is the main issue for me – as I have said before.

I love literature and everything to do with it, the good and the bad, I love that there is always something to learn. I also love teaching about literature, whenever I get the opportunity – to present arguments related to relevant text and give the ‘whys and wherefores’ and see someone piece something together in their head, and have a positive response. I also love to participate in discussions about personal opinions and feelings that have been evoked by various pieces of literature. Literature is an amazing gift and to misrepresent all of those things, to me (and this is very much my personal opinion) feels like a little bit of a tragedy.

The other issue that I have with the article is the wider misrepresentation. Not just in the case of the author or the particular piece, as I highlight above, but from a much larger perspective. Chris misrepresents, not just her article, but also what Mythcreants as a community is about. You can see the organisations principles HERE. The people who run Mythcreants (Ms. Winkle being Founder and Editor in Chief) not only write articles-a-plenty that are freely accessed on their website, but they actively charge writers for their services. These services include, but are not limited to content editing, something that is suggested in their FAQ as the best choice if a writer is asking for a critique of their work. A list of the services Mythcreants provide is HERE

I have never used the organisation for any services. I’ve skimmed a few other articles and looked at a few other topics listed, but that’s as far as I have gone, and would ever go. Nevertheless, based on just this experience, and given what I have seen (as per my response) I would not recommend or suggest Mythcreants as a professional service. To anyone.

Thank you for reading!

If you’ve got anything you’d like to say or ask, you know where to find me!