Bookish version of pdotb@todon.eu
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3% complete! pdotb has read 2 of 52 books.
For more than a thousand years, the adventures of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table have been …
For more than a thousand years, the adventures of King Arthur and his Knights of …
The first half of the book consists of pretty much a chapter per century, starting with the original sources and then walking through Geoffrey of Monmouth, Chretien de Troyes, Malory, and so on. This part seemed consistently excellent, to me. The second half is much more patchy, consisting of chapters on different themes in Arthurian literature, such as the relationship between Christianity and magic or the attempt to map the Arthurian legend onto the real geography of Britain. Some chapters are really interesting and others... less so.
Take Us to a Better Place is a collection of powerful, perceptive, and seamlessly crafted fiction that tells multiple truths …
Murderbot returns in its highly-anticipated, first, full-length standalone novel.
You know that feeling when you’re at work, and you’ve had …
Murderbot returns in its highly-anticipated, first, full-length standalone novel.
You know that feeling when you’re …
Such a fun read! Action-packed, almost breathlessly so, with much less of the exposition that I think slowed down the later novellas, still plenty of humour, but also deeper relationship-building. Murderbot (aka 'SecUnit', when it wants to be less, I don't know, murderey) remains easily the most relatable character in today's fiction.
Murderbot returns in its highly-anticipated, first, full-length standalone novel.
You know that feeling when you’re …
Then, at the end of the third cycle, when most of the humans were sleeping, I noticed it was following me around. I figured that was a sign it wanted to talk. I stopped in an empty corridor, faced the wall, and said, "What?"
— Network Effect by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)
Murderbot being endlessly relatable, as usual
Le Morte d'Arthur (originally spelled Le Morte Darthur, Middle French for "the death of Arthur"[1]) is a reworking of existing …
Le Morte d'Arthur (originally spelled Le Morte Darthur, Middle French for "the death of Arthur"[1]) …
TBH I'd be hard pushed to say I enjoyed this. It's the first time I've read anything in Middle English (though my understanding is that it's closer to Early Modern than, say, Chaucer) and it felt like a bit of a slog. Glad I've read it, but even more glad I've finished it!
Le Morte d'Arthur (originally spelled Le Morte Darthur, Middle French for "the death of Arthur"[1]) …
...and because thereof she commanded or she died that when I were christened they should christen me Tristram; and because I would not be known in this country I turned my name and let me call Tramtrist...
— Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory (Le Morte d'Arthur, #1) (62%)
A cunning plan that, remarkably, worked!
Hailed as a human-rights champion and political outsider, what sort of politician is Keir Starmer really, and what mark is …
Hailed as a human-rights champion and political outsider, what sort of politician is Keir Starmer …
Worth reading for the first chapter alone, which plots Starmer's move from a remarkably left-wing lawyer (I had no idea he was involved in the McLibel case, for example) to a marked authoritarian, starting with his involvement in Northern Ireland and ramping up during his time as DPP. How you feel about the second chapter probably depends a lot on how you feel about Lexit, though arguably there are patterns emerging here that remain through the rest of Starmer's career. The remainder of the book covers the period of Starmer's rise to leader of the party, and really continues the theme of moving towards greater authoritarianism and watering down any left-wing policies. Eagleton is obviously not a fan, and that rather mars much of the book, but the first chapter is pretty breathtaking as a character study.
Hailed as a human-rights champion and political outsider, what sort of politician is Keir Starmer really, and what mark is …
