Mini-Reviews 1: And now for something slightly different

This is a collection of three short reviews of books, because I don't have enough to say to make a macro-review out of any of them.

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel

This may seem like a steampunk book, but it's actually more of a hydrogen-punk book. Or, if it is steampunk, we never actually see any steam. (It does mention ornithopters a couple times.)

The cover blurb makes it sound like the book is about trying to find a bunch of mysterious flying angel-bird-things. It isn't. The book is actually about an airship  (with its passengers) which gets attacked by pirates.

The hydrogen substitute that keeps the book's airships aloft is called "hydrium". My brain could not seem to wrap itself around that word; it kept saying "hygrium" (which doesn't mean anything) or "hydrargyrum" (which is Latin for mercury).

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: A stern T for some swearing and mildly suggestive material. Nothing untoward is ever actually going on between the main character and love interest, but adults keep thinking it is. This could be a fairly fun videogame in the right hands.

3 stars. The thing that made it get T was also annoying enough to me that it didn't get 4.

Tags for this one: 3-star, adventure, a kissing book, rated T, steampunk

A Royal Guide to Monster Slaying by Kelley Armstrong

I think this was a bit below my general reading level. This could have been a really good book if it had been YA instead, and the main character was actually doing monster slaying instead of monster befriending.

Which... I can understand books about monster befriending, too. But this one should have at least been honest about its subject. Out of like ten, one monster is ever actually slain in this book.

I really shouldn't complain about the book being written for people a lot younger than me when I am looking for books in the kids' section. Oh well.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for fantasy violence and spiders. If you made the slaying an actual integral part of the story, I might play a videogame of this. But as it now stands? Not really.

3 stars. Not terrible, just boring.

Tags for this one: 3-star, adventure, fantasy, rated T

 

 

 

The Threads of Magic by Alison Croggon

 

Meh.

 

Which basically describes my feelings on this entire book. 

T.

3 stars.

Tags for this one: 3-star, fantasy, lame, rated T

(Endnote: This is also a place that occasionally spawns macro-reviews when I discover I have more to say about a book than I thought I did.)