Watching Trees Grow (which I'd read before many years ago) packs a lot of world-building into 80-odd pages and has an interesting premise (a murder investigation taking centuries with the investigator using newly invented technologies to go back to look at the case), although the characterisation was a bit flat and some aspects of the world-building were a bit under-explained.

Another SF detective story, The Demon Trap, was probably the best story in the collection, re-using some characters from Hamilton's Commonwealth books probably helped with the characterisation compared to Watching Trees Grow and it was probably the most interesting story in terms of the SF elements (although some of the ideas later got reused in his Void trilogy). The other two Commonwealth-set stories were also reasonably good with some nice cameos for characters from the novels, although the title story did feel a bit contrived in its attempt to shoe-horn Paula Myo into a plot that shouldn't really have had anything to do with her and is a bit unsubtle in the historical allegory it is using. Touched by an Angel, the final Commonwealth story, gives some interesting background to some of the events in the Void trilogy and has an interesting portrayal of characters doing horrible things in causes that they believe to be justified.

The remaining stories weren't anything special, If At First in particular was both dull and silly and almost certainly the first SF story to use R.E.M.'s Shiny Happy People as a major plot point.

Footvote is another fairly short story but has an interesting premise - a man opens up a wormhole to colonise a new world but sets a long list of rules about who he'll allow to emigrate, this has some predictably negative consequences and an interesting dilemma for the main character who has to choose between her political principles and what is best for her family.

The Forever Kitten is particularly short at only 1000 words, but shows that Hamilton is still able to describe an interesting SF idea in a very small number of words.

Overall, I'd say Hamilton's strength is mainly in the longer works but he's also a decent writer of short fiction.

Rating : 7 / 10

It's also a lot shorter than Dune, but Zelazny does manage to pack a lot into what by modern standards would be a very brief novel. The premise of a seemingly immortal man acting as a tour guide for an alien writer through the ruins of a post-apocalyptic Earth devastated by a nuclear war and abandoned by most of the human race does make for an interesting journey through an intriguing setting. Although a Science Fiction novel there's also a heavy influence from mythology, particularly Greek mythology, and some of the more unlikely plot developments and pieces of world-building make more sense in terms of a mythical story rather than a traditional SF novel. The plot does require a high tolerance for unlikely coincidences, but I don't think it really detracts from the novel. At first it can be hard to see where the plot is going and some things are initially puzzling, but the ending of the novel does manage to clear up some of the odder plot developments and it makes for a satisfying conclusion to the story.

The characters do initially seem to be archetypes, but do acquire some more depth as the story goes on as their initially hidden motivations become apparent. I'm not sure some of them are necessarily believable characters, but they are memorable and it's the kind of story which almost demands larger-than-life characters. The protagonist, Conrad, is the most interesting of them and feels like a prototype for later Zelazny heroes such as Corwin of Amber or Lord of Light's Sam.

Zelazny has always been a fantastic writer of prose, and while Zelazny's writing maybe isn't quite as assured as in later work such as Lord of Light or Creatures of Light and Darkness, it's still very well written with plenty of memorable and powerful passages of writing.

This might not be Zelazny's best novel, but it's still a very good read.

Rating : 8 / 10

The series was never particularly light-hearted reading but the final volume is particularly grim, starting off with a battle featuring a horrific and seemingly unstoppable new foe and then progressing through a series of battles and set-backs for Kaiku and her allies in the fight to save Saramyr. One disadvantage of this focus on conflict is that it means the last book is a bit lacking in the world-building that helped to distinguish Saramyr from the pseudo-medieval Europe setting of most epic fantasy series, but I suppose that might have been unavoidable given the plot. Throughout the series Wooding has shown he isn't afraid to kill off characters and this continues here, with several important characters getting killed, including a few memorable and fitting ends for some of them. If the first book in the series was maybe a bit too predictable at times, the ending of the story is a bit more original although I suspect I'd have been more impressed with one crucial plot twist if I hadn't anticipated it due to Guy Gavriel Kay using a very similar plot device in his Fionavar Tapestry series.

It does eventually come to a fairly satisfying conclusion with a good combination of action/battle scenes and character-focused scenes, although some aspects of the ending do seem a bit open-ended. The ending does have a bittersweet and somewhat cynical feel to it, which is appropriate given the rest of the series, a purely happy ending would have seemed a bit jarring.

Overall, this was a series that improved as it went on and although I've read better epic fantasy series in recent years and it was never quite as compelling as the exuberant adventure of Woodings' later Ketty Jay series, the Braided Path trilogy was an entertaining read.

Rating : 8 / 10

There is some decent character development here, and one of the new characters, Tsata, is one of the more likeable and interesting characters in the series. Although Tsata does provide an interesting outside perspective on Saramyr society through his conversations with Kaiku, he does feel a bit clichéd at times as well since his role seems to be the supposedly uncivilised forest dweller who could teach the more refined people of Saramyr a thing or two about how to live their lives using the ancient wisdom of his people. The Weavers continue to simultaneously be effective villains and unsubtle caricatures. More interesting is the Red Order which opposes them, their leader Cailin is a more complex and more interesting character than the Weavers, being nowhere near as unpleasant but still potentially as dangerous and ruthless as her opponents.

Whereas the first novel was often a bit predictable there are a couple of surprising plot developments here and the ending of the book did set things up for an intriguing finale in the last book of the trilogy.

The Skein of Lament is an improvement on the Weavers of Saramyr while still not quite being as compelling as the best of the modern epic fantasy series.

Rating : 7.5 / 10

The Weavers are entirely male (for reasons explained later in the book), on the other hand four of the five main characters in this are women. There is a good variety of characters, Kaiku is a naive young woman with magical abilities which are potentially very powerful but also dangerous to both herself and those around her, her noblewoman friend Mishani has no special powers but is adept at the manipulations and deceptions of Saramyr's nobility, Lucia is the otherworldly and almost angelic heir to the Empire whose abilities must be concealed from her Mother's subjects and Asara is 90-year old shapechanging assassin who is ruthlessly self-centred. The characterisation is generally good, Kaiku is a likeable protagonist despite being excessively foolhardy at times in her quest to avenge herself against the Weavers who killed her family, Mishani probably gets the most character development as she is forced to confront her assumptions and prejudices and Asara is an interesting antihero who finds herself on the 'good' side of the conflict for largely selfish reasons. The interaction between Kaiku and Asara is the most interesting relationship in the novel, they need to work together and they want to like each other but they also can't trust the other. Tane, the main male character in the story, is probably the weakest of the major characters since his motivations often seem to be a puzzle even to himself and the incipient romance between him and Kaiku never feels like more than just teenage infatuation.

Although the world-building is relatively original and some of the character motivations are varied and complex, the novel feels a bit too conventional when it comes to structure. From Kaiku's perspective it is fairly standard coming-of-age story as she deals with an early tragedy and starts to realise some of her potential power. Her attempt to make her way into a hidden Weaver monastery does have some elements of a conventional fantasy quest to it. However, there are enough original elements to avoid it feeling too clichéd as an epic fantasy story.

It is an entertaining read, although perhaps not quite compelling enough to really take its place among the great epic fantasy novels. There's nothing really particularly lacking about it, but there's also not much that really stands out about it and aside from the creepiness of the Weavers nothing is particularly memorable about it.

Rating : 7 / 10

This is a relatively unusual book, or at least it's not quite like anything else that I have read. The most obvious comparison is to another tale of rival 19th Century magicians, "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell", it shares that novel's languid pacing and carefully crafted prose although the actual writing style and plot progression is quite different.

The titular Le Cirque des Rêves is more than just the setting for the plot, arguably the book is more about the circus itself than it is about the rivalry and romance between Celia and Marco, and there are frequent interludes of second-person narration describing one of the circus' wondrous attractions. It is one thing to tell the reader that something is magical, enthralling, mystical and other-worldly and an altogether more difficult trick to actually show that it is, and the novel wouldn't work at all if the author didn't make the reader feel it is as fascinating as the characters think it is but I think Morgenstern does an excellent job of conveying why the circus is so special.

At the same time as showing how wonderful the circus is, there's also a (sometimes subtle) undertone of darkness and impending tragedy. The characters may largely be happy and proud of what they are doing but they also feel increasingly trapped as the story progresses and in the background lurk the two rival mentors of Celia and Marco who are sinister and intriguing in equal measure. As the novel goes on some of the circus' mysteries are revealed and the story becomes increasingly compelling in the later stages as Celia and Marco try to both save the circus and avoid their fate.

One area of the novel where I have slightly mixed feelings in the characterisation. There are interesting characters in it, the three main characters are all likeable and there are some memorable supporting characters (particularly the circus' eccentric patron), but at times the characterisation is maybe a bit too enigmatic. Given that Celia and Marco are meant to be trying to outwit each other and they're both magicians by trade who specialise in changing people's perceptions of reality it does make sense that some of their motivations may be concealed. This becomes a bit of a problem when the two of them falling in love is such a crucial part of the plot, but in this case it felt more that we were told they had fallen in love but we weren't really shown it convincingly. It also never really answers the question of why they don't try to rebel more against some of the harsh treatment they receive from their mentors.

Although it isn't perfect, this was an entertaining and fascinating book that was a magical read in more ways than one.

PS - they say that you should never judge a book by its cover, but the black-white-and-red colour scheme of the hardback edition including black-edged pages is very striking and fits in well with the novel's ambience. In this case I'm not sure reading the e-book edition would be quite the same experience.

Rating : 8.5 / 10

It's often a fairly grim read which sometimes make the earlier books in the series feel like halcyon days where the worst thing happening was a bunch of teenager being forced to kill each other in televised gladiatorial combat. Collins makes it quite clear that while it might be a just war, it's still a very bloody one and although the government's leaders continue to put most Bond villains to shame when it comes to villainy as the rebellions progresses the rebels themselves sometimes seem little better. In many ways this attempt at showing the costs and moral ambiguity of an armed rebellion is commendable, but it's also where this novel runs into its biggest problem. Throughout the series the world-building felt unsubstantial and not particularly convincing and that wasn't really a huge problem for the first couple of books because most of the world only served as a place for Katniss to stay in until she reached the arena, and its lack of depth was largely irrelevant. However, it does become more of a problem when the series moves away from being an escapist satire on reality television and starts trying to be a serious tale of a bloody uprising. The novel is trying to bring up some genuine moral dilemmas about how much violence would be justified in the fight against tyranny, but the setting and situations are so contrived that they detract from the attempts at trying to explore the novel's themes. It's difficult to really care about some of the battles and events when it sometimes isn't clear why they are being fought in that particular way and what the stakes really are.

Another problem is that the book is in a bit of a no-win situation with regards to how it shows the progress of the rebellion from Katniss' viewpoint. Katniss spends much of the novel in the relative safety of District 13, only hearing fragmentary information about the progress of the rebellion, which is frustrating for both her and the reader. On the other hand, some of the attempts to have Katniss on the front-line of the rebellion stretch credulity, a scene where Katniss and Gale try to shoot down incoming bombers using a bow-and-arrow is probably one of the silliest scenes in the series. The final part of the novel attempts to bring up similarities between the final assault on the Capital and the Hunger Games, but it feels contrived and some of the events are excessively manipulative even by the standards of the series.

This is a bold attempt to turn an entertaining escapist series into something with a deeper meaning, but not an entirely successful attempt. Sometimes it is a compelling read, sometimes a frustrating one and although it makes an interesting conclusion to the trilogy it is also the weakest book in the series.

Rating : 7 / 10

"The Hunger Games" worked reasonably well as a stand-alone novel, so its first sequel had a bit of a challenge in trying to add something new to the story. Superficially, the structure is similar to the first book, beginning in District 12, Katniss' relatively peaceful backwater home and ending in the arena of the 75th Hunger Games, but this time around more time is spent in District 12 and on Katniss' fractious relationship with the dystopian government who see her as a potentially dangerous rebel for her actions in the first book. The novel is good at portraying the idea that everyone who takes part in the Hunger Games is a victim, even if they happen to be one of the Victors, and at times Katniss' predicament in this book seems trickier than when she was being hunted by the other competitors. She can often be a frustrating character, particularly when dealing with the potential love triangle between her, Gale and Peeta, but her confusion and sometimes foolish actions are very believable for a teenage girl thrust into an impossibly stressful situation. For much of the novel she really is in a no-win situation.

As in the first novel, it's the Hunger Games themselves that are the most compelling part of the story and in some ways this exceeds the similar section in book one. The new arena is more imaginative, featuring a number of memorable traps, and since more is known about the different competitors this time around the secondary characterisation in this part of the story is better. There's also an interesting subtext as it becomes increasingly clear that aspiring rebels have their own plans to subvert the Hunger Games to their advantage (although it takes Katniss' narration quite a long time to catch on to this). The part of the novel in the arena does seem slightly rushed and nothing in it has quite the same emotional impact as some of the Katniss-Rue scenes in the first book, but it does build to a great conclusion that manages to tie together many of the book's themes and subplots.

The could have been the difficult middle novel in a trilogy but it does a good job of expanding on the first book, while also being a satisfying read in its own right. Arguably it's the best book in the series.

Rating : 8/10

This series has been getting a lot of hype recently, and although this book is not without its flaws I thought this was a very entertaining read. The basic premise isn't particularly original (it's especially reminiscent of the ultraviolent Japanese film Battle Royale), but it does make for a compelling story. The world-building leaves something to be desired, it's not very detailed or convincing and the bad guys are cartoonish villains, but this doesn't detract too much from the book since the core of the story takes place inside the Arena which is meant to be an artificial setting. The writing quality is acceptable, although unexceptional.

Katniss is a good protagonist, she's a believably flawed character and although not immediately likeable or conventionally heroic she does make a good hero for the story, facing her trials with quiet determination and it's difficult not to sympathise with her. Peeta is also an interesting character, although possibly more so when his true motivations haven't yet been revealed and Katniss' irascible mentor Haymitch is the most memorable of the supporting characters. Since the novel is from Katniss' viewpoint the rest of the supporting cast don't get much development, possibly it could have benefited from knowing a bit more about some of her other opponents.

It's quite a manipulative story, which makes sense for something based on an extreme version of reality television, although the will-they-won't-they romance is a little bit irritating at times. The build-up, including the first part of the Hunger Games, is relatively slow as Katniss largely tries to avoid her fellow competitors but it does become compelling as the contest moves into its final stages. The best character interactions come as she forms alliances with Rue and Peeta and there are a number of tense scenes towards the end of the novel as Katniss and her allies try to survive the increasingly sadistic arena.

In summary, The Hunger Games is perhaps not a great book, but it is an enjoyable and memorable read.

Rating : 8 / 10

As before, this is again a fairly standard fantasy story, although the plot isn't quite as cliched or predictable as that of the Belgariad (Eddings even shows some willingness to occasionally kill off a character) there are still more than a few clichés along the way and the Quest that makes up most of the first two books does seem a bit contrived. The overall tone is a bit darker and more grown up than before, there are even some mild horror elements at times particularly in the subplot dealing with an insane demon-worshipping noblewoman and the characters are generally more ruthless than before, particularly the scene where they abandon the defence of a large portion of a city to concentrate on the more defendable citadel in its centre, leaving most of the city’s population at the mercy of the invading army. Whereas the Belgariad was a coming-of-age story for its main character, here Sparhawk is already a veteran warrior by the start of the book and is much more cynical about the world than Garion was. There are some good battle scenes and some political intrigue in addition to the standard fantasy questing and it also features the best end confrontation of any of Eddings' series. Again, the characters are entertaining and the dialogue is fun and the overall quality of the writing is probably better here than in previous books.

In summary, another likeable fantasy series which is somewhat more original than the Belgariad, with a little bit more depth but a similar amount of entertainment value.

Rating : 8/10