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Flippin' 'Eck, Reader

losttourist@ramblingreaders.org

Joined 10 months ago

I live in north west England and particularly enjoy speculative fiction, although am happy to try most well-written books.

You can also find me elsewhere on the Fediverse using the profile @losttourist@social.chatty.monster

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Flippin' 'Eck, Reader's books

To Read (View all 17)

Samantha Shannon: Day of Fallen Night (2023, Bloomsbury Publishing USA)
Hannah Whitten: Foxglove King (2023, Orbit)
T. Kingfisher: Nettle & Bone (Hardcover, 2022, Tor Books)

Currently Reading

Keith Roberts: Pavane (2001)
Patrick Rothfuss: The Wise Man's Fear (Paperback, 2011, Gollancz)
Tom Chesshyre: Lost in the Lakes (2023, Summersdale Publishers)

Read (View all 18)

Courttia Newland: A River Called Time (Hardcover, 2021, Akashic Books)
Monica Potts: The Forgotten Girls (Hardcover, 2023, Random House)
Ann Leckie: Ancillary Justice (2013)

2024 Reading Goal

30% complete! Flippin' 'Eck, Reader has read 6 of 20 books.

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reviewed The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

Shannon Chakraborty: The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi (2023, HarperCollins Publishers) 5 stars

Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the …

This should be on every fantasy lovers book list

5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! What's not to love: it has pirates, monsters, the supernatural, sword fights, magic fights, and adventures galore.

I don't want to include any spoilers, but the plot revolves around Amina al-Sirafi, a retired female pirate captain living in 12th/13th Century Arabia. Due to ... events ... she is lured back onto the ocean for one last irresistable treasure hunt. Although, just like Jake & Elwood, first she has to get the band, or rather her crew, back together.

This book is filled with well-rounded and unforgettable characters, and takes the reader on a fantastic journey around the lands and peoples bordering the Indian Ocean of 800 years ago. With, as previously stated, a very hefty dose of magic and fantasy thrown in as well. Definitely worth a read.

reviewed The Inverted World by Christopher Priest (New York Review Books classics)

Christopher Priest: The Inverted World (Paperback, 2008, NYRB Classics) 3 stars

Inverted World (The Inverted World in some editions) is a 1974 science fiction novel by …

Rightfully a classic, but left me feeling unfulfilled

No rating

I've only read one book by Christopher Priest before, A Dream of Wessex.

This one, Inverted World, is not in any way related to that but has a similar quality in that you gradually learn about the strange world in which the narrator lives by following their own disoveries about that world.

By around two-thirds of the way through the nature of the world starts to become not just apparent but largely explained, although the reason for its existence don't get touched upon until the very final few pages of the story.

And the story felt ... truncated. I wasn't clear to me what the final resolution was or what Helward (the main character) was going to do, or indeed what any of the characters were going to do next. I honestly feel like it could have done with another 50 pages or so to tie everything up.

Still, it's …