Neverwhere – author’s preferred text by Neil Gaiman
I bought this book for Jamie a while back when a bought a copy of the TV series to re-watch, but I had never read it myself. So I borrowed it back off him and found it to be a great read, slightly different to the show as this is how the author intended it to be.
‘Under the streets of London there’s a place most people could never even dream of. A city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, knights in armour and pale girls in black velvet. This is the city of the people who have fallen between the cracks.
Richard Mayhew, a young businessman, is going to find out more than enough about this other London. A single act of kindness catapults him out of his workday existence and into a world that is at once eerily familiar and utterly bizarre. And a strange destiny awaits min down here, beneath his native city: neverwhere.’
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Men Who Hate Women)
- The Girl Who Played with Fire (The Girl Who Played with Fire)
- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest (The Air Castle Which Got Blown Up)
Initially this series passed us by, but we were recommended it by a family member. The writing is exciting, the translation superb and we enjoyed aspects of the narrative that exposed Swedish habits and traits different than our own. Some of the characters are frustrating, probably deliberately so, and some circumstances stretch the credibility, however that is minor criticism for an otherwise fabulous read. It is a shame the movie of the first book did not do the story or characters justice and I doubt we will watch the others or the American versions when they appear.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
'Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomqvist is hired by Henrik Vanger to investigate the disappearance of Vanger’s great-niece Harriet. Henrik suspects that someone in his family, the powerful Vanger clan, murdered Harriet over forty years ago.
Starting his investigation, Mikael realizes that Harriet’s disappearance is not a single event, but rather linked to series of gruesome murders in the past. He now crosses paths with Lisbeth Salander, a young computer hacker, an asocial punk and most importantly, a young woman driven by her vindictiveness.
Together they form an unlikely couple as they dive deeper into the violent past of the secretive Vanger family.
The Girl Who Played with Fire
'Lisbeth Salander is wanted for a triple murder. All three victims are connected to a trafficking exposé about to be published in Mikael Blomqvist’s magazine Millenium, and Lisbeth’s fingerprints are on the weapon.
Lisbeth vanishes to avoid capture by the justice. Mikael, not believing the police, is despairingly trying to clear her name, using all his resources and the staff of his magazine. During this process, Mikael discovers Lisbeth’s past, a terrible story of abuse and traumatizing experiences growing up in the Swedish care system.
When he eventually finds her, it’s only to discover that she is far more entangled in his initial investigation of the sex industry than he could ever imagine.'
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest
'Two seriously injured people arrive at the emergency ward of the Sahlgrensa hospital in Gothenburg. One is the wanted murderer Lisbeth Salander who has taken a bullet to the head and needs immediate surgery, the other is Alexander Zalachenko, an older man who Lisbeth has attacked with an axe.
In this third novel in the Millennium trilogy, Lisbeth is planning her revenge against the men who tried to kill her, and even more importantly, revenge against the government which nearly destroyed her life. But first she must escape from the intensive care unit and exculpate her name from the charges of murder that hangs over her head.
In order to succeed with the latter, Lisbeth will need the help of journalist Mikael Blomkvist. He is writing an exposing article that will shake the Swedish government, the secret service and the whole country by its foundations. Finally there is a chance for Lisbeth Salander to put her past behind her and finally there is a chance for truth and justice to prevail.'
I have not read the first part of Stephen Fry’s autobiography and only read this as I was given it as a present; I usually do not read biographies. I was somewhat surprised at the self loathing and poor self esteem he has and this did become wearing at times, but it did reveal a side of him that he knows himself is often hidden from the public behind his apparently fake appearance of confidence.
‘Thirteen years ago, "Moab is My Washpot", Stephen Fry's autobiography of his early years, was published to rave reviews and was a huge bestseller. In those thirteen years since, Stephen Fry has moved into a completely new stratosphere, both as a public figure, and a private man. Now he is not just a multi-award-winning comedian and actor, but also an author, director and presenter. In January 2010, he was awarded the Special Recognition Award at the National Television Awards. Much loved by the public and his peers, Stephen Fry is one of the most influential cultural forces in the country. This dazzling memoir promises to be a courageously frank, honest and poignant read. It will detail some of the most turbulent and least well known years of his life with writing that will excite you, make you laugh uproariously, move you, inform you and, above all, surprise you.’
‘Stretching from Fry’s success at Cambridge, where he met the comic love of his life, Hugh Laurie, to his first forays into television, this is one of the funniest, most generous, most daring pieces of confessional writing published in years. Most readers will want to close the book and give it a hug.’
This was a strange and very silly little book that does not pretend to be anything else. I like the Steampunk genre even though I have read little in it, and there were elements in this that a loved and had enjoyable imagery for me; however the silliness and violations of the fourth wall grated after a while.
‘This is Robert Rankin’s Far-Fetched-Fictional Steampunk sequel to The War of the worlds and, like the Japanese Devil Fish Girl herself, nothing quite like it has ever existed before… Nearly a decade has passed since Mars invaded Earth, and since wrecked, reverse-engineered Martian spaceships carried The Queen’s Own Electric Fusiliers to the Red Planet, Mars is now part of the ever-expanding British Empire and trade has been opened up with other planets. So what any less-than-scrupulous sideshow proprietor needs now is a sensational attraction that will pull punters in from all parts of the solar system. Something exceptional: like the most wonderful being in all the universe. The Japanese Devil Fish Girl. Professor Coffin’s quest to possess this ultimate showman’s exhibit will take him to realms as yet unchartered and cause considerable friction. Sufficient, in fact, to spark off Worlds War Two…’
This was recommended to me by a friend as a good read in the Steampunk genre, written for teenagers and including nice black and white drawings throughout. Some of the world details I found unusual and some were surprising in their freshness. The story was sometimes slow, but as a series it allowed for nice plot and character development.
‘Two opposing forces on the brink of war:
The Clankers, who put their faith in machinery, are squaring up to the Darwinists, who have begun evolving living creatures into tools.
Prince Aleksander, the would-by heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, comes from a family of Clankers, and travels the country in a walker, a heavily-fortified tank on legs.
Deryn Sharp, a girl disguised as a boy, works for the British Empire, crewing an airship made of living animals – the ultimate flying machine.
Now, as Alek runs from his own people, and Deryn crash-lands in enemy territory, their lives are about to collide…’
