I went to my first real book signing event. Got to meet David Mitchell, he signed my editions of Cloud Atlas, the Bone Clocks, and Slade House. Very nice guy, got to chat a bit about his latest novel… but obviously was ushered out quite quickly as the queue was getting large. 

Suffice to say, I’m a fan of his work. Have really enjoyed his novels, and will always be in the lookout for any new work.

In fact, I got to read an advanced copy of Slade House, courtesy of Netgalley. Here’s the review:

Slade House – David Mitchell

  
A short novel (novella?) from David Mitchell, set in the world of The Bone Clocks, one of my favorite recent reads. And for the most part, it’s excellent. The characters, the world-building, the story, all top-notch. Just till the end, it reads almost as a stand-alone. The ending however, links up very much to The Bone Clocks… to a point where I doubt the end makes any sense to those who haven’t read the other book. Would be curious to see how people who haven’t read The Bone Clocks react to the ending. Overall, a nice, quick read from an amazing story-teller. The ending, though, maybe could’ve been done a little bit better, I fear. 4 out of 5.

If you haven’t read The Bone Clocks or Cloud Atlas, I highly highly recommend them.

I’m well behind my target to read 40 books this year (nothing new there)… If you were wondering, I’ve read 26 so far… And with only 2 months left, not looking likely. 

But still, taking my role of reviewer quite seriously, so, here are a couple of reviews, courtesy of Netgalley:

Sorcerer to the Crown – Zen Cho

  
The marketing blurb for “Sorcerer to the Crown: reads for fans of Susanna Clarke. I enjoyed the book, I really did… but it comes nowhere near “Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell”, probably one of my favourite novels of all time. So… expectations set too high… doomed to fall short. This reads more like Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series, but with magicians instead of dragon riders. 

The world setting was well thought, the story interesting and compelling, but ultimately, the author strives more for style than substance, focussed a bit too much on capturing the Gregorian speech and customs which Clarke handled so well, and losing out on much needed character building and story development. Still enjoyable, but one can’t help but feel it could’ve been so much more. 

3.5 out of 5
Sleeping Giants – Sylvain Neuvel

  
This book is not out for a while, but got a well advanced copy courtesy of Netgalley. It’s described as “World War Z meets The Martian”… again another case of mismarketing, I’m afraid. Book was okay, a story of the discover of an old giant robot buried across the world, and the race to build it, understand it and use it., told mostly through interviews, logs and journals. That’s all I can say really… some interesting sequences and developments, but wasn’t that exciting, or compelling… just okay. 

3 out of 5.