Review: Lone Wolf & Cub Omnibus, Volume 1

Lone Wolf & Cub Omnibus, Volume 1 by Kazuo Koike

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I loved this! The artwork the beautiful! The story was great too. I love the premise. Don't have much more to say...

Basically it is a manga of a rogue samurai who travels with his infant son. He's incredibly strong and kills for payment. Sometimes he even uses his son to lure his prey.

Not a book for the kids.



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Review: Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I loved Elsewhere and it's on my to re-read list, so when I saw this was by the same author, I had to pick it up.

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac begins with of course, the main character being an amnesiac after falling down the stairs at her school. She must then figure out who she is and who those around her are while navigating a high school where everyone else knows who she is and is dealing with her differences. She learns things about her own life that come to a shock and says some things to people she no longer remembers which hurts them.

It was a fun read, interesting enough that it's a pleasure to read and therefore also a very quick read. It's very cute and I think the relationships between all of the characters worked very well. The one thing that upset me was that in the very beginning when she's going through her room she finds a food diary displaying disturbingly low calorie counts with smiley faces next to them. This is not only met with indifference, but is never again mention in the book and so why even put it there at all?



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Review: Pompeii

Pompeii by Robert Harris

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I heard that a movie was coming out called Pompeii. I've always loved Pompeii so I was really excited, and in the comments for the trailer, someone mentioned this book (which the movie is not based off of though there was talk years earlier of a movie which never happened).

So that's how I came to read this book. I really enjoyed it. The beginning is a little slow and I learned more than I ever though I would about aqueducts which I'm not upset about. Actually for all the research the author put into it, it would be a great school book. Learn a lot about a civilization through a story and characters you care about.

In the middle of reading the book, I watched a British documentary about how the bodies truly came to be, and on top of that, I've visited Mt Vesuvius, Pompeii and Herculaneum before so I think that really helped my imagination bring the story to life in the correct and detailed settings (and also makes me a little biased on my opinions for all things Pompeii).

I think if you're interested in Pompeii no doubt you'll like this book, but if you're not, the beginning might come across a little boring. On top of that, I had trouble keeping track of who was who because there were so many minor characters, many of them having similar names to each other.



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Review: The Long Earth

The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



The Long Earth occurs in a time and place when humanity realizes that there are and infinite number of shadow Earths that, via a device, can be "stepped" to. The novel follows a few characters, one special man who was born on a shadow Earth and who was left there for a few minutes all alone as an infant, a man who accidentally wandered there and lived there long before anyone knew they existed, a police officer trying to understand and control the new phenomena, and a few characters who learned of the Earths after instructions to create a devise were released to the public.

I love novels and stories like this. The anime Kino's Journey, old tv show Sliders, a few of the Foundation novels, and another few stories which I can't exactly remember right at this moment. We basically get to see a lot of "what could have been's." Not only in the potential alternate developments of Earth life, but also what kind of new communities can emerge from the result.

I really enjoyed how rounded the story was. You got perspectives from so many different angles. I'm really looking forward to reading the next book!



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