Quote:
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Originally Posted by Angua
Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett.  |
Upon my oath...!
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Recently read:
"The Laptop of the Gods" - Peter Chippendale.
The critic quotes say things like "This will appeal to Pratchett and Monty Python fans alike" and "[it] is Terry Pratchett before he became unreadable".
Well it's rather ironic because I don't consider Pratchett to *ever* have become "unreadable" (in fact he's become even *more* readable), whereas this book, for me, definitely *was* unreadable!
I got about 30 pages into it and just
gave up which is something pretty rare for me (about the only other book that ever caused that effect was the first Gormenghast book).
The problem is that Peter Chippendale doesn't seem to know when to leave a joke well enough alone and instead labours it on and on, taking what should be a quick one liner and dragging it out into half a page or more of tedious re-workings that's sadly reminiscent of "pun cascade" thread.
There just wasn't anything sufficiently redeeming to make me want to continue reading.
The Excalibur Alternative - David Weber
An English nobleman and his men are on their way to the Battle of Crecy when they are kidnapped by Aliens and taken off to fight for them.
At this point anyone who has read "The High Crusade" by Poul Anderson will be thinking "hold on, haven't I heard this somewhere before", well, yes you have.
Whether it was deliberate or not, there are certainly some very noticable similarities between the stories and whilst the plot ends differently (although not particularly surprisingly), there's a strong sense of deja-vu all the way through.
Still, even if you have read The High Crusade, it's a fairly entertaining and well written book and whiles away a few hours.