Showing posts with label myths. Show all posts
Showing posts with label myths. Show all posts

Wednesday, 24 January 2018

Book Review: Black Cairn Point by Claire McFall

Is Time Team still on TV?

Two Survivors, One Terrible Truth.

Heather agrees to a camping holiday with Dougie and his friends because she's desperate to get closer to him. But when they disturb a pagan burial site above the beach, Heather becomes certain that they have woken a malevolent sprit. Something is alive out there in the pitch-black dark, and it is planning deadly revenge. 

One year later Heather knows that she was very lucky to escape Black Cairn Point relatively unscathed, but she is still waiting for Dougie to wake from his coma. If he doesn't, how will she prove her sanity, and her innocence? 

Okay,  I'm not sure what this novel is trying to be. A horror thriller I guess.

This book is set in Scotland somewhere and it fun to guess where. They're leaving the city and going through Ayrshire countryside on the M77 and stop in Kilmarnock which is in East Ayrshire. The city has to be Glasgow because that's the only city on the West side of Scotland. Kilmarknock seems like a weird place to stop for booze if staying for the M77 a while longer so must be someone where before Ayr where the M77 stops and becomes the A77. Does anyone care? They going to Stranraer and if you got there in a hour from Kilmarnock you're probably be dead.

Random geography :Strangler isn't in Dumfrieshire.  It's in Wigtownshire. They not even next to each other. Also not a chance you could not successfully hitchkite to Glasgow, even to get to a town with decent public transport would take a while. He would have to find his way to Dumfries or get super lucky. There's are buses, but it's all nonsense.

Heather is bit too impressed by the ocean for someone who lives on an island. The ocean is an hour away and I haven't seen it for months either.

The boys became out being very dislikable, almost straight away...even the love interest. I didn't care much about the characters. I was mostly when do you all die and how?

The book is told in the POV of Heather, in Now and Then. This an affect to have an unreliable narrator in Heather. Except she not really. This is kinda spoilery so skipped if you don't want to be at all. It's just straight up lies and it's never clear what version of events we meant to be getting. It's not satisfying to be given account and then have the Twist on one page. There were meant to be hints, but not enough. It's just hur? I would want to have a proper recount of what actually went down, if this was what you're were going to do.

Overall, I give this book 3/5 stars for dumb fires. I own one of Claire McFalls's other books and still plan to t read it but I'm hoping it was better than this. This novel brings up a lot of questions, to give an obvious twist. It's just fine. 

Book Review: Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

Why can't any of the gods be faithful to one person?

This is a super pretty cover in real life.
BEFORE THE BEGINNING THERE WAS NOTHING - NO EARTH, NO HEAVENS, NO STARS, NO SKY: ONLY THE MIST WORLD, FORMLESS AND SHAPELESS, AND THE FIRE WORLD, ALWAYS BURNING.

From the dawn of the world to the twilight of the gods, this is a dazzling retelling of the great Norse myths from the award-winning, bestselling Neil Gaiman.

This is my sixth Neil Gaiman thing I've consumed, I've listen to a few audio things. Looking back at my past reviews of these encounters, it was okay but comes out on the negative side in review form. I like Neil Gaiman as person and his ideas, just the execution goes wary for me. Basically, I saw this in the library and was like why not see what everyone is raving about. I enjoyed this book very much.

My contact with Norse mythology is slack. It mostly comes from that episode of Disney's Hercules cartoon (ep34: Hercules and the Twilight of the Gods which I'm currently rewatching), random stuff when Vikings are mentioned and I guess Gaiman's American Gods but I don't remember any of that being new to me at the time.

It told in stories from start of the world till the end where a wolf will eat the sun. It works well, I wasn't confused much. (Why is there a Frey and a Freya?)

Overall, I give this book 4/5 stars for body parts floating in Wisdom. I like Gaiman's re-telling of things. I'm not sure really how to review this things as it a re-telling of a Mythology that I didn't know much about in detail. (Would that make my Viking forebears sad?)

(My review of Hercules and the Twilight of the Gods is that is it weird and mentions a bunch of myths and Loki is Hades for some reason).

Wednesday, 18 June 2014

Book Review: The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains by Neil Gaiman (and art by Eddie Campbell)

Because if a cave doesn't have skull on it, don't go in it.


You ask me if I can forgive myself?
I can forgive myself . . .


Guys in kilts with questionable morals go on a quest to find a cave filled with Treasure with terrible and sad things involved.

So this is a short story, accomped with illustrations. It's basically a picture book for adults so what not to love. 

The illustration really go well with the story. They're pretty and sometimes creepy. (To think I studied Art.)

Since this is a short story, I can't really say much without it being spoilerly. I liked it. It features family, murder and the Scottish Highlands. It well written and I really like the ending. It was sort of perfect and twisted.

Overall, I gave it 5 out of 5 stars for just deserts. It typical Neil Gaiman goodness with awesome illustrations. Also the action book production is nice with fabric on the spine.