Wulf's Book Reviews

Favours by Benedict Jacka My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is a short story told from Sonder’s perspective, primarily featuring him and Caldera. Alex is only mentioned in passing. Nevertheless, this short story definitely makes you feel right at home back in the Verus universe. I never really liked either Sonder or Caldera and both their behaviours here just firmly cement this antipathy. Sonder is opportunistic and primarily worries about his future, whereas Caldera takes out her frustration on both Sonder and Anne whom the former pressures into service. Knowing the events in ” Risen ” I was able to mentally lean back and enjoy the show. Four out of five stars for a surprisingly good story. View all my reviews https://turing.mailstation.de/favours-alex-verus-6-1-by-benedict-jacka/?feed_id=1653&_unique_id=63d949bfe9e13

Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory (The Murderbot Diaries #4.5), by Martha Wells My rating: 4 of 5 stars This short story primarily focuses on Mensah (irritatingly called by her first name Ayda here) is nice enough but doesn’t live up to the standards of the rest of the series. Most disappointingly, Murderbot itself is hardly ever present and just at the moment when it got interesting, the story was at its end. https://turing.mailstation.de/home-habitat-range-niche-territory-the-murderbot-diaries-4-5-by-martha-wells/?feed_id=1646&_unique_id=63d7f83a5cef8

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow My rating: 4 of 5 stars In this modern spin of “ Sleeping Beauty ” we meet Zinnia “Zin” Gray who is suffering from a rare condition which usually leads to death before the 22nd birthday - and Zin has just turned 21… Since Zin is obsessed with the fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty” her best friend, Charm, throws her a themed birthday party during which Zin pricks herself with a spindle. As this is a modern spin, she doesn’t quite fall asleep but rather through the “multiverse” and in a trance-like state meets lots of other “Sleeping Beauties” until she steps out into one world in which she goes on an adventure with the resident “Beauty”, Princess Primrose, to, ideally, lift both their “curses”. Fortunately, this was a quick, short and amusing read because there’s simply not enough substance to either the story told here or the characters to sustain a longer novel. The one-hundred pages of this novella pretty much flew past and I was willing to over...

Tim und Struppi, Band 2: Tim in Amerika by Hergé My rating: 3 of 5 stars Entstanden in 1931 wurde dieser Band 1946 und 1973 jeweils überarbeitet. Mir liegt die 3. Auflage aus dem Jahr 1974 vor. Tim räumt mit der Chicagoer Unterwelt der 1930er-Jahre auf. Ein netter Band mit netten Ideen, aber sicherlich kein Höhepunkt der Reihe. View all my reviews https://turing.mailstation.de/tim-in-amerika-tim-und-struppi-band-2-von-herge/?feed_id=1632&_unique_id=63d554f8dd0ec

Save Her Soul by Lisa Regan My rating: 3 of 5 stars Well, I’m sitting here in front of my keyboard, thinking what to write about this book… Don’t get me wrong, it’s clearly Josie Quinn and I like Josie and I like the series… but… Anyway, we’re in Denton once more; this time under complicated circumstances: Flooding has hit the city and Josie is stressed out seeing her city sinking. Fortunately, she isn’t immediately impacted as her home seems to be on a hill or something. I forgot and it doesn’t really matter. Josie and Noah, probably soon to be declared patron saints of Denton, take in Misty - Josie’s dead ex-husband Ray’s ex-stripper lover - their, Misty’s and Ray’s, kid, Harris, and their dog in. (Yes, everyone and their dog…) Misty, starting to turn from bimbo to actual human being, immediately counters any kind of normal cognitive reaction by… excessive cooking. And here’s the “but” from the beginning: I feel I’m starting to tire a bit of the cast. Noah, the too-good-to-be-t...

Slow Horses by Mick Herron My rating: 2 of 5 stars Slow Horses by Mick Herron was excessively true to its name - it’s a very slow, half-dead horse that gets beaten and bogged down by its own limping pace. And I considered myself in danger of dying from boredom. The entire first quarter consists almost exclusively of introductions to the characters and their world. Until half the book was behind me, a person had been kidnapped and that was pretty much all. Lots of foreshadowing happens, e. g. “x is going to happen”, “y is going to happen”, etc. etc. and, yes, that’s usually technically true but also entirely irrelevant for the story and the entire novel. Also annoying were the excessively long chapters - the aforementioned 25% of the book are only three chapters… The pace very slightly picked up during the final third of this novel but it was way too late and by far not enough to keep my interest. It also didn’t help that I didn’t care about any of the characters at all. Only on...

Oystercatcher by Martin Walker My rating: 1 of 5 stars This completely forgettable shortstory has Bruno in it but he’s not even near his beloved Perigord. He’s out to catch oyster thieves and for some bizarre reason Isabelle actively engages in this tiniest possible case as well. Just skip this. I only read it for completeness’ sake. One star because there are words in this. View all my reviews https://turing.mailstation.de/oystercatcher-bruno-chief-of-police-12-5-by-martin-walker/?feed_id=1610&_unique_id=63d0018572465

Tales from the Folly: A Rivers of London Short Story Collection by Ben Aaronovitch My rating: 5 of 5 stars I was actually wary of reading this - I don’t generally enjoy short stories and, even worse, the latest instalment in this series , False Value , was a severe disappointment . Thus, I was happy to find out that these short stories feature the same dry humour and sarcasm that made especially the first books such a joy to read. » I’ve actually done controlled laboratory experiments that indicate that he can detect magical activity up to ten metres away, although false positives can be generated by cats, other dogs and the remote possibility of a sausage. « (About Toby, the supernatural police Wonder Dog) The writing is Aaronovitch at his best; in my favourite story “ A Dedicated Follower of Fashion ” his fantasy literally overflows, blooms and flowers and simply explodes in the best of ways: » I, on the other hand, found myself increasingly drawn to the cellar door. Especially...

... but the git statistics for Exherbo's repositories have been static for over a year. Since I found an easy way to revive them, they're back, live and updated daily: https://nginx.mailstation.de/egitstats/ https://turing.mailstation.de/you-might-not-even-have-noticed/?feed_id=1596&_unique_id=63cd5e6680166

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells My rating: 3 of 5 stars I seem to be the odd one out but this new Murderbot novella simply didn’t work for me. At times, it felt very slow while, at other times, the story raced along - a very uneven pacing, unfortunately. Mensah and the others hardly played any role and our beloved Murderbot pretty much acts as some random security consultant, trying to make sense of a murder. Apart from the (here rather superficial) xenophobia aspects, all the moral aspects of the previous books in this series were largely neglected. To be totally frank, most of the time I was actually bored reading this. Here’s to hoping for more than a “filler episode” next time and more exciting new adventures in the future. View all my reviews https://turing.mailstation.de/fugitive-telemetry-the-murderbot-diaries-6-by-martha-wells/?feed_id=1589&_unique_id=63cc0ccb75b21

Queen of Sorcery by David Eddings My rating: 3 of 5 stars " Don't think about it, dear," Aunt Pol said quietly as they left the village and rode south along the highway. "It's nothing to worry about. I'll explain it all later. " This second instalment of "The Belgariad" had a lot of dialogue like the above. Our young hero, Garion, is still on the road, travelling south in pursuit of the thief of an ancient artefact with his Aunt Pol, Mister Wolf and the others. Unfortunately, Pol tries to keep Garion ignorant for reasons partly eluding me and - for reasons completely eluding me - Garion sulks and pouts a bit about it but instead of simply refusing to move another inch till they finally tell him what’s going on, he pretty much accepts being kept in the dark. Very annoying and, at least in my experience as a father of three kids (and having been one myself!), not very truthful either. Plus: It’s simply annoying to me as a reader ...

Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews My rating: 2 of 5 stars I’ve read this book because it sounded a bit like Jim Butcher ’s “Dresden Files” which I like. And, indeed, there are similarities – the most important one for me was that I didn’t really like either series’ respective first book. “Magic Bites” was a confusing read much of which is due to the messy style of storytelling employed here. There’s a knightly order that’s supposed to help people in case of magic disasters which seem to happen due to weird alternating “cycles” of magical and technological “dominance” which in turn seem to have devastated the major cities but not everywhere (?). There’s a mercenary guild that somehow plays a role as well and of which Kate, our heroine, is part of. Somehow Kate is obviously “special” due to her father (?) but at least in this first instalment of the series we never get to know what the big deal is. Lots of things aren’t explained or so badly explained that I missed those explan...

Die Zigarren des Pharaos by Hergé My rating: 4 of 5 stars " Hurra, ich spreche elefantisch! " Der vorliegende Band, “Die Zigarren des Pharaos”, entstand im Jahr 1932 und wurde 1955 überarbeitet und koloriert. Dabei wurden auch geringfügige inhaltliche Änderungen vorgenommen, die aber der Geschichte keinen Abbruch tun. Tatsächlich ist dieser Band der erste, der eine konsistente und unterhaltsame Geschichte erzählt und nicht mehr die vorher übliche Ansammlung von mehr oder minder lose verknüpften Szenen. Erstmals tauchen auch die ersten altbekannten Figuren auf: Hier sind es die tollpatschigen Detektive Schulze und Schultze, die jedoch über weite Teile des Bandes Tim festnehmen wollen und ihm – im Gegensatz zu späteren Bänden der Reihe – nicht oder nur aus wenig altruistischen Gründen helfen. Auch eine Premiere: Dies ist der erste Band, der mich wirklich unterhalten und mir Spaß gemacht hat. View all my reviews https://turing.mailstation.de/die-zigarren-...

The Walking Dead, Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye by Robert Kirkman My rating: 5 of 5 stars In my youth, I loved comics. I regularly read Asterix , Spirou & Fantasio , The Adventures of Tintin and Gaston ; just to name a few. I still love those dearly, despite quite a few of them (especially Tintin) not aging very well because those comics are “children” of their time - they’re ranging from “culturally insensitive” to “fairly damn racist” which I realised when I started re-reading Tintin after all those decades. So, lesson number one: Be careful if you revisit the heroes of your childhood. Another thing I’ve learned long ago: I don’t like post-apocalyptic stories. Call me an incurable optimist but in spite of all the challenges we, as humans, face, I’m sure we will overcome those challenges and prevail. So, apocalypse? Go away. In 2012, I played Telltale Games’ adventure game “The Walking Dead”. Pretty much a post-apocalyptic interactive novel. The game - as its successors - focuses s...

One Day All This Will Be Yours by Adrian Tchaikovsky My rating: 1 of 5 stars In a post-apocalyptic time and space, mankind is practically extinct due to a time war. At the end of time a sole survivor - a former soldier - sits and gleefully murders any stragglers. In order to remain alone and to prevent another rise of humanity and, thus, another war, he also travels back in time and happily commits genocide or whatever it takes to eradicate the survivors’ communities as well. Yes, murder and genocide for good fun. And as if that wasn’t enough in itself: I didn’t find it funny in the least. When this novella wasn’t about (mass) murder, it was about the cheapest kind of trolling. One disgusted star out of five. Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam View all my reviews https://turing.mailstation.de/one-day-all-this-will-be-yours-by-adrian-tchaikovsky/?feed_id=1553&_unique_id=63c51478d7765

Über die See by Mariette Navarro My rating: 3 of 5 stars Für Denis Scheck war bereits nach der Lektüre des ersten Satzes klar, daß er “ Über die See ” von Mariette Navarro lieben würde. Ich hingegen dachte, “Oh, oh…”: » Es gibt drei Arten von Menschen: die Lebenden, die Toten und die Seefahrer. « Es geht um die Kapitänin eines Containerschiffes, dessen Mannschaft beschließt, sie würde gern einmal mitten auf dem Meer baden gehen. Darum gebeten, willigt unsere Kapitänin zu ihrer eigenen Überraschung ein und löst damit ein verworrenes Spiel um (Un)gewißheiten und vieles mehr aus - das Schiff verhält sich merkwürdig, die Kapitänin auch… Und das ist nur der Anfang; es wird zunehmend verworrener und verwirrender und dieses Buch war auf diese Weise ein ganz und gar merkwürdiges Lese-Erlebnis. Geprägt und getragen wird “Über die See” von Navarros merkwürdig abstraktem, geradezu metaphysisch anmutendem und leicht ins Esoterische abgleitenden Erzählstil. Ich bin mir insofern nicht sicher,...

The Housemaid by Freida McFadden My rating: 3 of 5 stars Meh! I was so looking forward to reading “ The Housemaid ” by Freida McFadden - a supposedly psychological thriller involving a mysterious housemaid, an eccentric rich couple and a huge mansion. What could possibly go wrong?! And at first, things were looking good: Ex-convict Millie gets hired by Nina whose sole occupation seems to be being wife-to-Andrew. During the first part of the book Nina comes across as one part weird, three parts excessively psychologically cruel and two parts unhinged. Mille, who has supposedly recently been released after 10 years (!) in jail is in dire circumstances, living in her car until she becomes Nina’s live-in maid/victim. Still, instead of being pretty much broken she unrealistically comes across as a pretty happy person… Cecilia, Nina’s child from a one-night-stand, is inconsistently portrayed as petulant and entitled in the first part but makes a miraculous and totally unbelievable “re...

No Exit by Taylor Adams My rating: 3 of 5 stars Thrilling, suspenseful – and completely over the top No great quotation comes to the rescue in this case which could actually be good because “No Exit” promised to be a fast-paced thriller with a highly interesting premise: Darby, a college student takes refuge in a rest/service area during a blizzard. There she meets four other travellers who are stranded. When she finds a girl, Jay, in a van in the parking lot, she knows she’s going to have an interesting night ahead of her… “ It was all really happening, right now, in vivid color, and a little girl’s life was really on the line, and tonight’s title match would be between a sleep-deprived art student and a human predator. ” This outset got my hopes up high – after several books that taxed capacity for prolonged complexity (especially during a holiday!) I just wanted some action-flick-look-alike of a book. And, admittedly, I got one. So, why only three stars out of five? W...

The Innocent Wife by Lisa Regan My rating: 3 of 5 stars Oh, well, here we go again - just when a mostly-meh year has ended and a new year begins, it begins with yet another meh novel… I usually like Lisa Regan's Josie-Quinn novels a lot - they’re usually very well paced, engaging and suspenseful. Josie and the entire team are interesting and everyone gets some time in the spotlight, e. g. in a recent instalment we learned a lot about Josie’s ever-angry boss. At another time Mettner, her colleague, fell in love with the press liaison, Amber, and so on. This time around in “ The Innocent Wife ” (what a cheesy title!) by Lisa Regan , there’s nothing but the plain murder mystery - and that is, indeed, rather plain. And bland, and boring. For about 80% we just follow Josie and colleagues around on a wild goose chase after the killer. Sadly, that chase is neither very interesting nor is the eventual reveal much of a result of police procedure but much of it is plain old luck - an...

Ich bin gebürtiger Niedersachse - sturmfest und erdverwachsen. Vor über 20 Jahren verschlug es mich hierher - und ich verfluchte mein Schicksal! Ausgerechnet die Pfalz! Mein “südliches Exil”, wie ich es jahrelang nannte. (Wobei “der Süden” bekanntlich südlich von Göttingen beginnt!) Die Menschen in der Pfalz sprechen seltsam. Jahrelang habe ich sie bitten müssen, langsam und deutlich zu sprechen. Denn “Pälzer” haben für ganz banale Dinge ganz merkwürdige Namen: “Grumbeer” sagen sie zur Kartoffel (und wenn sie nur genug aus ihrem “Dubbeglas” getrunken haben, sprechen sie auch schon mal mit ihren Grumbeern). (Und fangen wir gar nicht erst mit dem “Monnemerisch” jenseits des Rheins an…) Meinen Kindern habe ich jedweden Sprachfehler/Dialekt verboten und dies nötigenfalls mittels Strafe (meist blieb es aber bei Androhung derselben) durchgesetzt. Mit den Jahren wurde ich milder: Kleine Dialekt-Sünden wurden erst vergeben, dann übersehen. Dann begann, langsam, schleichend, ...

Find Her Alive by Lisa Regan My rating: 4 of 5 stars I had just read a somewhat mediocre book when I found out Lisa Regan (whom I always want to spell Reagan because whenever I read one of her books, I’m reminded of the late cowboy/ultra-conservative president) had published another of her Josie-Quinn thrillers . Regan’s books rarely feature something new and exciting but on the other hand, they rarely disappoint because Josie, a small-town detective, and her team are interesting to read about - and quite often the story unfolds at breakneck speed. This instalment in the series is no exception to either of those two sides of the coin: “ Josie stood in place, her feet concrete blocks. “We believe that Trinity was abducted by a serial killer.” ” What a way to break such news to the family… Josie’s long-lost twin sister, roving reporter Trinity, now fallen from her network’s graces, is abducted - and by a serial killer to boot. “ Josie’s heart ached for her twin. “That’s terrible.”...

Behind the Book: Making The Death of Dulgath by Michael J. Sullivan My rating: 5 of 5 stars I’m not even sure when I got this book. It probably was part of some Kickstarter campaign of Michael’s and Robin’s which I had the honour to participate in. So I simply had to read it! This “Making of” book was simply supposed to answer the age-old questions every author gets asked: » Where do you get your ideas? How long does it take you to write a book? How do you come up with the names? Do you write every day? « Michael J. Sullivan is one of my favourite authors and, thus, I was highly interested in these rather standard questions; I just didn’t expect answers as good as these: » In school, they may have learned about symbolism and metaphors, but no one said anything about which software program to use, how much of an outline to build before you begin writing, or what music to listen to while typing. « Starting with the initial questions, Michael explains how he works. This will like...

The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country by Amanda Gorman My rating: 5 of 5 stars I’m German. I’ve never watched an inauguration of an American president. The one of today’s President Joe Biden was no exception even though I was hoping for something better than what had come before… ("It seems to me that I have been dreaming a horrid dream for four years, and now the nightmare is gone.”) Amanda Gorman’s amazing poem hit the German news very quickly, though, and I got curious and looked it up, watched Gorman perform it at the inauguration. It hit me unexpectedly hard; so hard, in fact, I cried. Her presentation was so powerful, emotional, touching and uplifting; representative - to me - of all that is right and just about the United States. Gorman envisions a country “committed To all cultures, colors, characters, And conditions of man” and while, of course, she primarily addresses the USA, she also spoke to the world and of the world. If we, the peoples of the wo...

Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest by Stephen E. Ambrose My rating: 2 of 5 stars Recently, I watched the series “Band of Brothers” and was surprised by its quality. The often-used introductory statements of the former members of the 101st were very impressive and lent the series a lot of credibility. After having watched the final episode, I decided I wanted to read Ambrose’s book that served as the source material. Little did I know what awaited me… While the series provided me with a consistent, logical stream of events, the book simply adds anecdote after anecdote. There’s hardly any reflection on those anecdotes either and if Ambrose tries to add his analysis, it’s sadly lacking, simple-minded and features lots of “Hooray patriotism” that’s part of what actually caused the war he narrates about. At times, Ambrose tries to actually support his point of view by citing other works - unfortunately, they’re m...

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon My rating: 1 of 5 stars This is a strange book. From what its protagonist, Christopher, says about himself, it sounds like he’s somewhere on the autism scale. Once confronted with criticism about how he portrays Christopher, the author, Haddon, (from now on: The Weasel) takes the easiest possible way out: “ 2) curious incident is not a book about asperger’s. it’s a novel whose central character describes himself as ‘a mathematician with some behavioural difficulties’. indeed he never uses the words ‘asperger’s’ or ‘autism’ (i slightly regret that fact that the word ‘asperger’s’ was used on the cover). if anything it’s a novel about difference, about being an outsider, about seeing the world in a surprising and revealing way. it’s as much a novel about us as it is about christopher. ” That’s from The Weasel’s now-defunct blog but - thanks to Wayback Machine - you can find it here: http://web.archive.org/web/201808250...

Unsre verschwundenen Herzen , von Celeste Ng Meine Bewertung: 1 von 5 Sternen Ich hatte mich sehr darauf gefreut, Celeste Ng s neuen Roman " Unsre verschwundenen Herzen " zu lesen. Sowohl "Everything I Never Told You" als auch "Little Fires Everywhere" haben mir wegen ihrer hochinteressanten Geschichten, des ungewöhnlichen Erzählstils und der schieren Eloquenz von Celeste Ng sehr gut gefallen. Leider habe ich nichts von alledem in " Unsre verschwundenen Herzen " gefunden: Bird, der Junge, den wir gleich zu Beginn kennenlernen und der die erste Hälfte des Buches dominiert, bleibt blass und undeutlich. Abgesehen von der allgemeinen Empathie für ihn, der seine Mutter verloren hat und unter schwierigen Umständen mit seinem Vater lebt, habe ich nie wirklich mit ihm gefühlt oder mich emotional engagiert. Für eine Dystopie gibt es in diesem Roman auch nichts Neues oder Besonderes: Hass gegen alles, was "fremd" zu sein sche...

I always look back on the previous year of reading at the start of the new one. 2022 turned out to be a rather mediocre reading year - whereas I usually get to an average rating of 3.5, 2022 only made it to 3.3 - and that also feels about right. I like to start a new year on a positive note, though, so I will concentrate on my reading highlights of 2022. Early in the year, I read the final instalment “ The Untold Story ” of Genevieve Cogman ’s “ Invisible Library ” series. It is a brilliant finale to a series about Irene, secret agent of the Invisible Library, permanently caught between the Dragons (Order) and the Fae (Chaos)… A wonderful blend of spy thrillers, fantasy, high stakes adventure with great characters, I’ve loved this series from start to end. » And here in the Library, even if our outer layer is order, we have an inner heart of chaos. We read too much for it to be anything else. « Another highlight came in February by way of the most misunde...