Blackness Tower
May 2, 2008 at 8:32 pm | In "B" Titles, "C" Authors, 2008, Once Upon A Time Challenge II, adult fiction | 3 Comments
Carl, Lillian Stewart. 2008. Blackness Tower.
Review by Becky Laney.
What can I say about Blackness Tower? On one hand, it did keep me reading. I didn’t read it all in one sitting, I read it in three, but it was always pleasant to get back to. I liked reading it. It wasn’t a not-that again experience. It held my interest for the most part. And I wasn’t ever bored with it. On the other hand, it was one of those almost books. Maybe you know the kind. There were some things I liked about the novel, but there was just something about it that kept me from loving it. Something that kept me from getting excited–really excited about it. It was almost a romance novel, but not quite. It was almost a fantasy book, but not quite. Okay, that last one isn’t really fair. But fantasy isn’t the right word either. It was all about the paranormal. Mostly. So it’s a paranormal-mystery-romance hybrid. An American woman comes to Scotland, comes to explore Black Ness Tower because she’s been having dreams and visions. There she meets three men. All seem to be attracted to her, seeking her out in some ways, but all three seem cloaked in mystery as well. All loosely-connected to the same mission she’s on. And then there are the spooky girl characters. Essentially the main character is confused and frustrated and has trouble figuring out who to trust and what’s really going on. As I said, it kept me reading. But somehow it was a bit disappointing over all. Not terrible. Not awful. But definitely just an okay read for me. I don’t regret reading it. I wanted to know what happened. But the way the mystery comes out, the way it all unfolds, it just left me personally a little empty. I think I started out connected with the characters, and then somewhere in the middle, I became slightly disconnected.
Your response, your reaction could be completely different than mine. Especially if you’re really into paranormal romances. Though it lacks smut. If it had been a true paranormal romance, then there would have been some smut.
© Becky Laney of Becky’s Book Reviews
The Worthing Saga–June’s Selection
May 2, 2008 at 6:59 pm | In Announcements and Schedules | 3 Comments
Becky’s Online Reading Group will be reading The Worthing Saga
by Orson Scott Card for the month of June. Orson Scott Card–as many of you know–is one of my favorite, favorite, favorite authors. And this book isn’t as widely known (and as widely read) as his Ender series. (Ender’s Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, Ender’s Shadow, etc.) I’m choosing this one because I love it, obviously, but also because I hope to encourage others to read it as well. You can read the first chapter online here. Discussions will be on Mondays and Fridays, except for the weekend of the 48 Hour Readathon. It will be one day early that week.
The Worthing Saga
by Orson Scott Card
Monday, June 2, 2008 Day One: Author’s Introduction – chapter 2 (roughly 1-37)
Thursday June 5, 2008 Day Two: Chapter 3 – chapter 4 (roughly 38- 92)
Monday, June 9, 2008 Day Three: Chapter 5 (93 – 119)
Friday, June 13, 2008 Day Four: Chapter 6 – Chapter 7 (120-153)
Monday, June 16, 2008 Day Five: Chapter 8 (154-205)
Friday, June 20, 2008 Day Six: Chapter 9 – 12 (206-271)
Monday, June 23, 2008 Day Seven: Chapter 13 – 15 (277-329)
Friday, June 27, 2008 Day Eight: Chapter 16 – 18 (330-401)
Monday, June 30, 2008 Day Nine: Chapter 19 – 21 (407-458 )
“This book brings together all the Worthing stories for the first time in one volume. In a way, the Worthing tales are at the root of my work in science fiction…”
…Orson Scott Card
t was a miracle of science that permitted human beings to live, if not forever, then for a long, long time. Some people, anyway. The rich, the powerful – they lived their lives at the rate of one year every ten. Somec created two societies: that of people who lived out their normal span and died, and those who slept away the decades, skipping over the intervening years and events, It allowed great plans to be put in motion. It allowed interstellar Empires to be built. It came near to destroying humanity.
After a long, long time of decadence and stagnation, a few seed ships were sent out to save our species. They carried human embryos and supplies, and teaching robots, and one man. The Worthing Saga is the story of one of these men, Jason Worthing, and the world he found for the seed he carried.
Copyright © 1990 Orson Scott Card
New to Becky’s Online Reading Group. See the ‘about‘ page to answer your questions about participation.
June’s Book: The Worthing Saga
May 2, 2008 at 6:40 pm | In Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Becky’s Online Reading Group will be reading The Worthing Saga by Orson Scott Card for the month of June. Orson Scott Card–as many of you know–is one of my favorite, favorite, favorite authors. And this book isn’t as widely known (and as widely read) as his Ender series. (Ender’s Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, Ender’s Shadow, etc.) I’m choosing this one because I love it, obviously, but also because I hope to encourage others to read it as well. You can read the first chapter online here. Discussions will be on Mondays and Fridays, except for the weekend of the 48 Hour Readathon. It will be one day early that week.
The Worthing Saga
by Orson Scott Card
Monday, June 2, 2008 Day One: Author’s Introduction – chapter 2 (roughly 1-37)
Thursday June 5, 2008 Day Two: Chapter 3 – chapter 4 (roughly 38- 92)
Monday, June 9, 2008 Day Three: Chapter 5 (93 – 119)
Friday, June 13, 2008 Day Four: Chapter 6 – Chapter 7 (120-153)
Monday, June 16, 2008 Day Five: Chapter 8 (154-205)
Friday, June 20, 2008 Day Six: Chapter 9 – 12 (206-271)
Monday, June 23, 2008 Day Seven: Chapter 13 – 15 (277-329)
Friday, June 27, 2008 Day Eight: Chapter 16 – 18 (330-401)
Monday, June 30, 2008 Day Nine: Chapter 19 – 21 (407-458)
“This book brings together all the Worthing stories for the first time in one volume. In a way, the Worthing tales are at the root of my work in science fiction…”
…Orson Scott Card
After a long, long time of decadence and stagnation, a few seed ships were sent out to save our species. They carried human embryos and supplies, and teaching robots, and one man. The Worthing Saga is the story of one of these men, Jason Worthing, and the world he found for the seed he carried.
Copyright © 1990 Orson Scott Card
New to Becky’s Online Reading Group. See the ‘about‘ page to answer your questions about participation.
Poetry Friday: Byron
May 2, 2008 at 5:44 pm | In poetry | 2 CommentsShe Walks In Beauty, Lord Byron
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
1% Well Read Challenge
May 2, 2008 at 3:10 pm | In 1% Well Read Challenge | 2 Comments
The goal of this challenge is to read 10 books in 10 months from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list. For you non-math people, 10 out of 1001 is approximately 1%, hence the title. The challenge will run from May 1, 2008 through February 28, 2009.
You may change your list at any time and cross-posting to other challenges is permitted. The only requirement is that your ten book choices must be on the ‘1001 List‘. Another helpful tool is an Excel spreadsheet by Arukiyoma that is found here.
Sign up is HERE at the 1% site.
Becky’s Official 10
1) Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
2) Evelina by Fanny Burney
3) Cecilia by Fanny Burney
4) The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
5) The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
6) Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
7) The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
9) David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
10)North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Becky’s Alternate 10
1) Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
2) Bleak House by Charles Dickens
3) A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
4)The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot or Middlemarch by George Eliot
5) The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes From the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
6) War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy or Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
7) The Awakening by Kate Chopin
A Room with a View by E.M. Forster or Howard’s End by E.M. Forster
9) The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
10) The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Becky’s Alternate Alternate 10
1) Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (if only I could find it not in the itsy bitsy teeny tiny print I might make it past the second chapter)
2) Pamela or Clarissa by Samuel Richardson (If I could find reasonably priced copies of either of these, it would be fun to try.)
3) The Monk by M.G. Lewis (Again, if I could find a reasonably priced, it would be fun to read this one.)
4) Mansfield Park by Jane Austen or Emma by Jane Austen
5) The Once and Future King by T.H. White
6) Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
7) Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte or The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte or Shirley by Charlotte Bronte or Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte or Vilette by Charlotte Bronte
9) Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
10) Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
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