Review - The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville

I got a copy of the book through NetGalley.

From Goodreads: Former paramilitary killer Gerry Fegan is haunted by his victims, twelve souls who shadow his every waking day and scream through every drunken night. Just as he reaches the edge of sanity they reveal their desire: vengeance on those who engineered their deaths. From the greedy politicians to the corrupt security forces, the street thugs to the complacent bystanders who let it happen, all must pay the price.

This review will contain some spoilers because I found it very difficult to express some of the things I didn't like without actually saying what those things were. None of these spoilers are too big and I won't say how the book ends but they may answer some questions before you read the book.

This book is different from anything that I have read before. The clear (or not so clear) like between good guys and bad guys that usually more or less appears in most books is absent here. What you have is a main character and his antagonists.

One thing I liked is that the ghosts are not metaphorical. Fegan sees the ghosts that haunt him when he's awake, even though the rest of the people can't. While I liked that the ghosts are not just a way of explaining the main character's guilt, I thought it was a bit disappointing how unghosty they are. It's never really clear whether the ghosts are real or just in Fegan's head (although at one point someone else mentions one of the ghost as if she could see it), but even though they appear a lot, they never do anything. Sure, they are the reason for the plot, but other than this, they're just there.

What I did not like so much was that I never felt that there was any suspense about what was going to happen. By the time I reached the end of the book, I had the impression of having read about four hundred pages where not many things happened. The plot includes a lot of things, but because of the lack of intrigue, it can look like you have read a lot of pages where the plot did not move much.

The book is not bad and the premise is great, but after reading the summary, I was expecting something a bit different.

Book Blogger Hop 30/11-6/12

Sorry for the lack of posts. I've been very bussy with college and didn't have much time to read, but new reviews should be posted soon.

This week the host it: Anglers Rest

Question of the week: Apart from being readers, many of us collect books on a specific subject or by a particular author. What books or which author do you collect?

Answer: I don't really collect any books for the sake of collecting them. I get books that I like to read, whether it's an author or a series or a genre. I like thrillers, fantasy and science fiction and within these genres I like spy thrillers and Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms specifically. I also read books based on tv shows that I like, but these are usually of one of the mentioned genres too (Doctor Who, 24, CSI etc). Some authors I like are Tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum.

I guess you could call this "collecting", but I just get them because I like to read them and not because I have a checklist of things or anything like that.

Oct 2012 24-hour-read-a-thon

I had marked the date wrong, so I just noticed this had started. I missed the first 7 hours, but I'll do most of the rest. I have enough books to read that choosing the first isn't difficult.  

Introductory Questionnaire:  

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? 
Spain.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?   
The one I'm starting with: some stories by Edgar Allan Poe.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
I don't usually eat snacks.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself! 
I'm a student who likes to read thrillers and to watch and play football (soccer). 

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?
I don't think I'll do anything different. Maybe going a bit earlier to bed so that I have more completely awake hours of reading. 


HOUR 8-10 
Finished my first book (a book with several stories by Edgar Allan Poe).
I'm starting the second: a Burn Notice novel.

HOUR 10-12
Reading Burn Notice: The Giveaway.
Going to sleep now. Will ciontinue reading tomorrow morning.

HOUR 20-24
Woke up and I'm back reading Burn Notice. I hope to finish the book before the end of the read-a-thon. 
Also had to finish a project for class (which included a lot of reading, too, but not the fun, free time one).
Almost finished the book. I'll finish it today though.

END
Almost finished the second book. I had a few pages left so I finished it shortly after the last hour ended.


End of event meme:
1) Which hour was most daunting for you? 
Those past midnight (until I went to sleep).
2) Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? 
I think the books are different for each person, but anything you like to read works well.
3) Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? 
Put different starting hours, so that every read-a-thon starts at a different time. It's very difficult to stay awake for 24 hours starting at 2pm. Depending on where you live, you have to stay up for 30 hours unless you wake up past noon. Putting different starting times for each read-a-thon would mean that it's not always the same people who have a disadvantage.
4) What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? How many books did you read? 
I read two books (almost).
5) What were the names of the books you read?
One is a book with stories by Poe and the other is Burn Notice: The Giveaway.
6) Which book did you enjoy most?
Both are very good but I liked Burn Notice more.
7) Which did you enjoy least?
As I only read two books, it's Poe's stories. I did enjoy it a lot, but not as much as Burn Notice.
8) If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? 
I wasn't a Cheerleader.
9) How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again?
It would depend on when it is, but I want to participate in more.
10) What role would you be likely to take next time?
Reader, like the last two (three if I count this).

Book Blogger Hop 09/05-09/11

This week the host it: Soon Remembered Tales

Question of the week: Banned Books Week ends on the 6th. How do you feel about books being challenged to be banned from libraries or schools? Have you read any banned books?

Answer: I disagree with banning books. If a person doesn't want to read a book, that's fine, but I don't think anyone has the right to decide what books I get to read. Libraries are supposed to be places of knowledge where people can learn things. Banning books goes against that idea.

I've read many books that are on the banned list (a favourite of mine was the Goosebumps series). I didn't know people still banned or challenged books and when I learned that was still happening, my first thought was "Seriously? We're on the 21st century!". I don't know if people bann or challenge books where I live but I don't think so. Maybe some schools do that, but the school I went to doesn't and neither do public libraries.

Edit: When I first wrote this, I was thinking of normal books, the kind that you can find on the banned books list. Obviously I don't think that books like guides to commit crimes are ok.

Bloggiesta Sept '12

I've decided to participate in this autumn's Bloggiesta. I know I'm a bit late (it started yesterday), but better late than never. If you want to join, head over to There's a book.

My goals are:

• Tidy up the tag list. DONE
• Tidy up the review list and order it, so that it is easier to read.
• Figure out how to post a header I'm designing. DONE
• Change the design of the blog to something more book related. DONE
• Comment on all the posts (of this week) that are clogging google reader.
• Use twitter.
• Write the reviews of two books I've already finished.
• Shorten the to-read list on Goodreads DONE. It's gone down from about 300 to 123. I really don't need to have all the books from an author in the list. Just one is a perfectly good reminder that I still have books to read.

Review - Murder imperial by Paul Doherty

From Goodreads: It is 313 AD. Under the rule of Emperor Constantine, Rome finally appears to be emerging from its turbulent past. Under the guidance of his mother Helena, Constantine plan to consolidate his control by harnessing the power of the increasingly influential Christian Church. But his loyalties are brought into question when three courtesans from the Guild of Aphrodite—a guild Constantine himself frequents—are found dead. All three bodies have crosses etched on their foreheads and each cheek. Aiming at protecting her son’s future, Helena calls upon the service of an agente in rebus politicis—a spy. Claudia is the niece of a tavern-owner and is placed as a wine-server in Constantine’s household, but as it turns out, Claudia has secret motives of her own.

There is something unusual in this book: the spy and main character is a girl. I don't know if there were female spies in Ancient Rome, but there is a good explanation in the novel. Sometimes a girl has easier access to the information she has to find, for example if the person who has that information is a female servant and servants are usually overlooked. They're there but most people don't really pay attention to them. These things make it possible for Claudia to find out secrets unnoticed.

It is interesting to see how the more you read, the more you doubt everybody. All the people in the novel are hiding things and you never really know who they're really helping (or if they're helping anybody at all). Also, everybody has their own interests, so they may be helping somebody at one point and trying to make things difficult for them at another. This makes it difficult for Claudia to find the killer, but it also makes it difficult for us as readers to know who the bad guys are.

Claudia is also hiding something: her past. She is working as a spy for Constantine's mother to be able to find the man that killed her brother. All she knows is that the man had some sort of tattoo in his wrist but she soon learns that this just means that the man belongs to a certain group.

In the end you don't know how bad all the characters are, because while the most immediate problem is solved, half secrets have been revealed that are probably part of further novels (I haven't read the next books in the series, so I can't be sure, but it is strongly hinted).

Book Blogger Hop 09/21-09/27

Question of the week: What is one thing that your blog readers probably do not know about you?

Answer: I can't think of many things that anybody would be interested in reading. Maybe this: There are two things I'm a huge fan of. One is football (soccer, depending on where you live), specifically Real Madrid. I'm very happy that they're winning again after a not too good season start. The other is Westlife. That's a great music band that sadly most of my friends don't listen to (or have never heard of). There is actually a third thing. I'm a big fan of Doctor Who but that's probably obvious after reviewing some of the books based on the series.


By the way, I've been enjoying my last two weeks of holidays and my first week of classes (although not really enjoying that last thing), so I haven't been on much, but there should be a review tomorrow or on Monday.

Review - Run to Ground by D.P. Lyle

I got this book through NetGalley.

From NetGalley: What would you do if someone brutally murdered your only child, served only months in jail because of a technicality, and continually taunted, even threatened, you from behind bars? Could you hide your growing rage from family and friends? Could you gun the killer down as he left prison? Could you change your ID and leave behind your entire life - family, friends, jobs, house - and just disappear? Could Tim and Martha Foster do this? [...]

But the murder of Walter Whitiker is not as simple as it seems. Tim and Martha are not the only ones who want Walt dead. Someone has twisted the evidence to keep the hot light of suspicion on the Fosters. [...]

The detective character, Dub Walker, is not as you may expect. For starters, he's a consultant and doesn't carry a gun. He's divorced but has a very good relationship with his ex-wife, a journalists who also helps with the cases. Their relationship is so good that most of the time you wouldn't know they are not married anymore. As a former Medicine student, he has medical training and knowledge that he still remembers. This helps him understand things related to wounds and cause of death quicker than his colleagues.

The whole run away plan of the Forsters is explained and some chapters are written from their point of view. This gives the readers a better understanding of their situation and makes the turning point much more surprising, because you, as a reader, think you know everything that is going on. The important thing is that more people than you know are hiding secrets. A case that at first seems easy (for the reader; not so much for the police who don't know the Fosters' point of view) becomes more and more complicated the more you read.

Something I liked about this novel is that several lab techniques and important concepts (like GSR) are described. It's good if you already know what they are and how and when they are used, but if you don't, that won't stop you from enjoying this novel, because you get a short but very understandable explanation.

Review - Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer

I got this book through NetGalley.

From Goodreads: [...]When Artemis Fowl's mother contracts a life-threatening illness, his world is turned upside down. The only hope for a cure lies in the brain fluid of the silky sifaka lemur. Unfortunately, the animal is extinct due to a heartless bargain Artemis himself made as a younger boy.[...]

The rules of time travel are far from simple, but to save his mother, Artemis will have to break them all and outsmart his most cunning adversary yet: Artemis Fowl, age ten.

In this novel, another element is added to the plot: time travel. This had already been seen in the last book, but here we get more information about the way it works and about the consequences of it. Also, this time the time travel takes place between two points in time of the same world (in The Lost Colony the time travel was from one point in time of our world to another of the demon world and vice versa).

Probably the most interesting result of the time travel is that we see how Artemis was before meeting Holly and how he is now. We, as the readers, are not the only ones who see this. Artemis himself is surprised to notice how much he has changed in the last few years.

This book, like the last one, is lighter, although in a less childish way. One of the side effects of the time travel is that Holly is reversed to a younger self, a younger self that is the fairies’ version of a teenager. It is funny to see how she knows the reason behind her unusual feelings and thoughts but can’t do anything about it.

Better than the last one, but still not as good as the first four.

Review - The Oxford Murders by Guillermo Martínez

From Goodreads: It begins on a summer day in Oxford, when a young Argentine graduate student finds his landlady-an elderly woman who helped crack the Enigma Code during World War II -murdered in cold blood. Meanwhile, a renowned Oxford logician receives an anonymous note bearing a circle and the words "the first of a series." As the murders begin to pile up and more symbols are revealed, it is up to this unlikely pair to decipher the pattern before the killer strikes again.

The main problem I had with this book is that I found it difficult to believe that the murderer isn’t discovered sooner. It is true that the novel takes place in ‘93, so the police had less gadgets than they have now, but they seem to be rather incompetent even when it comes to the most simple tasks, like watching someone. Also, although it is not impossible to believe the plot, lots of things have to go wrong (or right, depending on the point of view) for the killer’s plan to work. There are also some coincidences that can’t be planed but are important parts of the plot. I can’t say much more about this without revealing too many spoilers though.

A good thing is that the different mathematical theories that are mentioned in the book are explained in a way that anybody with high school knowledge of Math can understand them. This is important because while the main characters know the subject very well, most readers will probably need these explanations.