After seeing some Doctor Who reruns on TV this past week, I couldn’t wait to pick up another Doctor Who book to dive back into that world and experience another Doctor Who adventure.
In this book, the Doctor (the ninth), Rose and Captain Jack are on a world that has been colonized by humans. But even though we are far into the future, progress hasn’t been made. The strangest thing is that dreaming, lying and fiction are illegal on this planet. At first they suspect a sinister ruling force trying to keep the human population dumb, but soon the Doctor figures out that the truth is a lot more complicated than that.
What can I say? Like the other Doctor Who books, this was another fun read, in the same vein as the show and the other books. I loved being back with the Doctor and Rose, and am glad I have a few more waiting for me. Four out of five stars.

One of the classics that has been on my wish list for a couple of years now is Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, and a few weeks ago, Sinterklaas brought the book with him for me. This is the first book I have read by Dickens, but of course I know his stories (especially A Christmas Carol) from other adaptions.
In this book we hear the story of Pip, an orphan raised by his sister and her husband. They are poor, and his sister isn’t very nice to Pip. But in his life several things happen that lead him to have great expectations. He meets a scary escaped convict on the marshes, he get called to a strange single lady called Miss Havisham (who I knew from the Thursday Next novels), he gets his apprenticeship as a blacksmith, he gets a great offer, he finds out who is who, and in the end, everything is connected.
Even though the story is flowing from one end to another, and the changes sometimes seem a bit random, I really liked this book. The descriptions were great, as was Pip. He has his flaws, but he knows this and admits this. I couldn’t put this book down, and am glad I finally read it. Four out of five stars.

This is the first story collection of Lovecraft that I have read, I am ashamed to say. While I recognize and know of Cthulhu, I have never read a story by Lovecraft about this mythology (I did read one by Neil Gaiman). This collection contained two, The Call of Cthulhu and The Whisperer in Darkness. They, and the other stories were all very good.
The stories, from the early twentieth-century show their age a bit. This is mostly because other writers later on have used the same tricks so often that I think for a modern writer most surprises can be seen coming from a mile away. The shocking reveal in the last sentence isn’t that horrific or shocking anymore. However, because the stories take place in the time in which they were written, there are no crazy predictions that turned out to be false (unless you count Pluto being a planet ;)).
A very good collection, and I cannot wait to read more Lovecraft stories. Four out of five stars.

Last summer I watched the BBC series “Faulks on Fiction“, where, through four themes (hero, lover, snob, villain) Sebastian Faulks talked about British literature. One of the books mentioned there, and which I have seen come up on LibraryThing every now and then, was Gormenghast, by Mervyn Peake. After spotting a nice hardcover illustrated edition last summer, I put it on my wish list, and dear Sinterklaas brought me the book a couple of weeks ago.
This edition includes ‘Titus Groan’, ‘Gormenghast’ and ‘Titus Alone’. The first two books take place in Gormenghast, a huge castle and landed area where the Groan family has ruled for 76 generations. The life on Gormenghast is filled with ritual and tradition, and change is impossible. In this world, Titus Groan is born as the seventy-seventh Lord of Gormenghast. The first book, while it caries his name as the title, covers just the first couple of years of his life, and is more about other people, like his sister Fuchsia, his aunts, his father, the famous villain Steerpike and the life on Gormenghast. The second book covers the teenage years of Titus, and also takes place on Gormenghast. The last book covers Titus away from Gormenghast, and the ‘outside’ world.
The writing style of Mervyn Peake was something I really had to get used to. The story seemed to be more about the setting of the mood, and there (initially at least) isn’t much action in the story. Many pages cover mere minutes, and the descriptions are very elaborate. After I finished I read online that this work can be described as surrealistic, and I can agree. But when I allowed the book to set the pace, instead of trying to rush ahead to find some action, I really enjoyed it. I have the feeling a lot of the story has an alternate meaning, which is confirmed by just reading the Wikipedia pages on these books), but just as a book, it is also very good. I give it four out of five stars.