imperfectletter | Entries tagged with mt anderson

64. *The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Ghost House by Steven Cole, read by Elisabeth Sladen
Young Adult, Science Fiction, audiobook, 1h4m

65. Feed by M. T. Anderson
Young Adult, science Fiction, 320 pages

66. *Doctor Who: The Rising Night by Scott Handcock, read by Michelle Ryan
science fiction, audiobook, 2h16m

67. *Doctor Who: The Last Voyage by Dan Abnett, read by David Tennant
science fiction, audiobook, 2h14m

67 / 160 books. 42% done!
33 / 80 *new books. 41% done!
3 / 7 ^non-fiction. 43% done!
18079 / 48000 pages. 38% done!
Audiobooks: 31h51m

fiveforsilver

46. The Game of Sunken Places by MT Anderson
Young Adult, Fantasy, 260 pages

Brian and Gregory visit Gregory's uncle during a school break and end up caught in the middle of a magical game.

It's rather Jumanji-esque in some ways. The writing is great, I'd expect nothing less from the author of Thirsty and Feed, but it's far too open-ended for a book with no sequel.

fiveforsilver

Final books of July (yeah, I'm a bit behind) :

107. *Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd, edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci (403) YA/SF-Fan-Fic

Short stories about geeks and nerds of various stripes. Some of them are more-or-less realistic, some of them aren't realistic at all, most of them are hysterically funny. Authors include MT Anderson, John Green, David Levithan, Garth Nix, Cythia Leitch Smith, and Scott Westerfeld.

108. *Fathom by Cherie Priest (384) A/Fan

For an unknown purpose, a sort of earth elemental convinces a man to build a tower in a specific place. In pursuit of a way to awaken her father (Levithan), a kind of water goddes takes a drowning girl and changes her into something new. The girl's cousin is turned into a statue and set in a garden near the shore for reasons which we don't find out until much later.

The book follows a number of different threads and it's not obvious until far into the story how they relate and who is good or bad.

Actually, it's never entirely clear, but if I were a human living in that world, I know who I would want to win.

It's rare to find a book where not having answers is as fascinating as having them would be. But in this book, in which very little has concrete explanations and most of the characters aren't human (even if they once were), the story is more important than the explanations, and I loved it.

109. *Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich (320) A/Mys

Hey, more standard Stephanie Plum. Lots of crazy grandma in this one, a little more Morelli than Ranger as I recall, and some amusing computer geeks to add to the weird.

110. *Doctor Who: The Pirate Loop by Simon Guerrier, read by Freema Agyeman (2:20) A/SF

This one was odd (well, they're all odd, aren't they?) but fun.

110 / 150 books. 73% done!

61 / 75 *new books. 81% done!

3 / 10 ^non-fiction. 30% done!

31248 / 45000 pages. 69% done!
Audiobooks: 26h30m

fiveforsilver

May

56. *The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong (390) YA/F

When Chloe sees something that nobody else sees, she lashes out at the people around her as they prevent her from running away from it. This breaks her school's 'zero tolerance' policy regarding volence against faculty and she is sent to a sort of private school/group home with other "disturbed" kids who, she slowly discovers, have more in common with her than she could have imagined.

This novel had a well-written and extremely effective first-person perspective. We only know what Chloe knows and we find things out as she does, which means that much of the book, especially the first half, is confusing at times, which adds to the tension in the story. I am looking forward to reading the sequel, The Awakening.

57. *Thirsty by MT Anderson (237) YA/F

Another unusual take on the YA vampire genre. Thirsty is well-written and an entertaining read, although not as moving or thought-provoking as Feed. It's easy to relate to Chris' confusion and frustration and I reached the end of the book still "thirsty" for more.

58. *Doctor Who: Shining Darkness by Mark Michalowski(256) A/SF

Not bad, not bad at all. The Doctor and Donna were in character, they blundered about as usual, and things eventually got back the way they were supposed to be. Overall a fun book, but then I'm rather fond of Donna. My only complaint is that the whole thing ended rather quickly. Whoops, it's over, poof. That's all, goodbye, not really much wrapping-up or whatnot.

58 / 150 books. 39% done!

30 / 75 *new books. 40% done!

1 / 10 ^non-fiction. 10% done!

17349 / 45000 pages. 39% done!

fiveforsilver

38. *Feed by MT Anderson (320)

Excellent book. Absolutely not what I expected.

39. The Princess Bride by William Goldman (283)

I always forget how much less stupid book-Buttercup is than movie-Buttercup. Also, this is one of the few instances where I love both the book and the movie.

40. *My Own Kind of Freedom by Steven Brust (168)

Free e-book, Firefly novel. In character, fitting plot and motivations, enjoyable story. Available for download here.

41. *Magic or Madness by Justine Larbalestier (271)
42. *Magic Lessons by Justine Larbalestier (275)
43. *Magic's Child by Justine Larbalestier (291)

I bought these, but I sort of regret it. I liked them well enough, but now that I've finished them all, I doubt I'll ever read them again. I'll probably be passing them on soon.

44. The Android's Dream by John Scalzi (394)

Reread. I love this book. There's going to be a sequel sometime in the near(ish) future. I hope it lives up to TAD.

44 / 110 books. 40% done!

17 / 75 *new books. 23% done!

2 / 10 ^non-fiction. 20% done!

13294 / 33000 pages. 40% done!

Currently reading *Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest (285)

blue_ant

41. Thirsty by MT Anderson
Thanks to

fiveforsilver, I started reading vampire YA fiction. It's such a huge category and you never run out of stuff to read. All of the books share some characters (vampires, for example), but each one obviously deals with vampires in a different way. Thirsty is no exception. MT Anderson is an exceptional storyteller. Feed, one of his other books, was one of the best books I read last year. In many ways, Thisty is a lot like Feed, both are first person stories about boys whose lives are changing, and both are boys who like girls. But Thirsty is much darker, where Feed has a little bit of light to it. Of course, where Feed is science fiction, Thirsty is fantasy.

One of the things reviewers seemed not to like was how fast paced the book is. I don't think Anderson can be faulted for that. The whole concept behind the novel requires it to be fast paced. Chris is becoming a vampire and the story revolves around his race against the clock, as it were. Others stated that the end was a disappointment, and I can kind of see that. But Anderson's extremely good at the heartbreaking ending that you see coming without realizing it. He did the same thing at the end of Feed and I expected no less with Thirsty. This is an extremely good book and quick read, which enhances, rather than detracts, from the quality of both the story and the writing.

41 / 80 new reads. 51% read!

ETA: I have decided on the advice of a couple of people to change my challenge from 80 books to 120. Here's the new meter:

41 / 120 new books. 34% read!

One imperfect letter, one missing page

Where a book, once opened, may still be closed...

Entries tagged with mt anderson

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46: The Game of Sunken Places

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March 2022

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