We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
***THIS REVIEW IS FULL OF SPOILERS!***
How do you categorise a book like this? Is it horror? Yes, but it’s all in the mind of the reader. Is it a murder mystery? Not really, although everyone in the novel walks in the aftermath of a murder. Is it a psychological drama? If so, it’s one with lots of humour and irony.
It’s pretty easy … (Read more)
The Glass Town Game by Catherynne M. Valente
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“If dying really meant anything, then it wasn’t a game at all. It was just life.”
I’ll admit that I had a hard time getting into Glass Town until about one third of the book, although I will mainly blame it on not having much time to read in a row – this is a book that must be devoured in great quantities without distractions, rather … (Read more)
I’ve been playing the release version Secret World Legends, the reboot of The Secret World, for two weeks now. I come to the game as an old-time player of TSW (from open beta, so close to five years), a Grand Master since late 2015, and a beta player for SWL.
And let me tell you, the more I play SWL, the more I think everything good in it comes from TSW, and all the baffling choices come from the … (Read more)
“Lenta Conversazione”, il progetto fotografico di Stefano Anceschi, Gabriella Becchi, Ian Gazzotti e Barbara Leoni, verrà nuovamente esposto nella chiesa del Castello di Sarzano (Casina, RE) dal 7 al 21 maggio 2017, nell’ambito del Circuito Off di Fotografia Europea.
La mostra è curata da Cesare Di Liborio.
Orari di apertura
La mostra verrà inaugurata domenica 7 maggio alle ore 16:00 e osserverà i seguenti orari:
Summer in Orcus by T. Kingfisher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Will I ever stop adoring everything Ursula writes? Probably not.
This is a portal fantasy with a girl who is wise beyond her years but still gets scared and doesn’t know how to fight and has to rely on her friends and the goodwill of others for most things.
This is a story where the bad guy razes villages to the ground but also wants the time to … (Read more)
The Rise of Io by Wesley Chu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I wasn’t sure of this one at first. Ella seemed a bit of a stereotype at first, and her early relationship with Io hit a lot of similar notes as the Roen/Tao one. However both characters eventually grew up on me, and by the end of the book, I’m honestly excited to see where their story is going. (And hey, neither of them is Cameron, so they … (Read more)
Thin Air by Michelle Paver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A suspenseful, atmospheric horror set in the Himalayas in the 1930s. The story follows Doctor Stephen Pearce, a last minute replacement on an expedition to climb Kangchenjunga, back then believed to be the highest peak in the world.
A malaise seems to follow Stephen, in the beginning seemingly only due to the bad weather, his love/hate relationship with his brother Kits, and troubles he left behind in London. But … (Read more)
Basilicò by Giulio Macaione
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Uno spaccato di una famiglia palermitana, di una madre e dei suoi cinque figli, e delle assenze che minano i loro rapporti – in primis l’assenza del padre, sparito vent’anni prima. Ma Basilicò è anche un giallo, e un libro di cucina, e un salto nella memoria, il tutto legato appunto dal basilico di Maria Morreale, la figura che nel bene e nel male permea tutto questo volume.
Non si … (Read more)
Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette Kowal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really liked this book. I liked the characters, and the historical backdrop, and the plot, and the mystery, and the cyphers, and the cure for details (especially the importance of women and people of colour in the war).
And yet…
Ghost Talkers is not just a historical fantasy thriller, but also a love story. A love story in which one of the two lovers dies at the … (Read more)
Laser Moose and Rabbit Boy by Doug Savage
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Laser Moose and Rabbit Boy protect the forest with the power of, well, lasers, and unending optimism. Alas, they’re likely to cause as much trouble as they prevent.
The book contains three stories and a short adventure, full of improbable happenings and a mix of dark and goofy humour. It’s a very short read for adults, and I think kids will find it funny as well. … (Read more)
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Ninefox Gambit is the first full-length novel set in Yoon Ha Lee’s complex hexarchate universe, previously explored in several short stories. It’s also one of the best military sci-fi (heck, any sort of sci-fi) books I’ve read lately, sporting a compelling mix of espionage, intrigue, space battles, and ground fights.
In this universe, the hexarchate rules the day-to-day celebrations of its star-spanning empire with an iron fist, because … (Read more)
Viola Giramondo by Teresa Radice
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Meravigliosi i disegni di Turconi, ma devo ammettere che le prime due trame (il libro include tre storie) non mi hanno preso molto.
Sarà un po’ che “bambino incontra personaggio famoso e gli cambia la vita” è un tropo che ho visto fino allo sfinimento, o che il circo ha decine di personaggi di cui alla fine ne sono sviluppati solo tre, o la non sottile vena di esoticismo … (Read more)
Full Fathom Five by Max Gladstone
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I’m reading this series slightly out of order, though luckily the stories are mostly self-contained. Having just finished it, my feeling is that FFF is a better story than Three Parts Dead, though of course the first volume has the added weight of having to introduce world and characters from scratch, while FFF doesn’t bother too much explaining gods, Craft, and walking skeletons to first time readers. Only … (Read more)
The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home by Catherynne M. Valente
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Endings are tricky things. They don’t really exist, as the narrator helpfully reminds us, and yet, at the same time, the point where you do stop talking does create a rift between before and after, said and unsaid, known and imagined. September and her friends will have many adventures after this book is closed, but a cycle has been ended, a … (Read more)
Forest of Memory by Mary Robinette Kowal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The story plays with the themes of memory, recollection, and authenticity. Did something really happen if no one was there to record it? Is an account true if filtered by our fallible memories? If someone tells a story, can we ever be sure they’re not lying?
Some people found an anti-technology message in this story. I really don’t. It just asks some important questions about a technological … (Read more)