Review: Ender's Game

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Aside from a nice twist right near the end, this book wasn't very interesting. Almost all the main characters are young children, which is fine, but they are implausible as such, and the author does little or nothing to make them plausible. The prose is sturdily unremarkable.

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Review: Middlemarch

Middlemarch by George Eliot
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What amazes me the most about Middlemarch is that its most powerful scenes take place in an eloquent ironic, silence, in which the characters can almost never say what they wish and often misunderstand each other entirely, while the reader looks on, fascinated and helpless.

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Review: The History of Middle-Earth Index

The History of Middle-Earth Index by J.R.R. Tolkien
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This isn't so much a review as it is a recommendation. If you are interested in using The History of Middle-Earth as a source for studying Tolkien, this book is an indispensable aid. It's hard to come by, but will make for a lot less work. Not that flipping from volume to volume isn't fun.

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Review: Perilous and Fair: Women in the Works and Life of J. R. R. Tolkien

Perilous and Fair: Women in the Works and Life of J. R. R. Tolkien by Janet Brennan Croft
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is an excellent contribution to the scholarly study of the role and importance of women in the works of Tolkien. The writing is clear and level-headed, and the editing is thorough and professional. Every article is good, and several are exceptional. There's a lot of fine work here, which will repay the scrutiny of fan, student, and scholar.

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Review: The Long Earth

The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This was not a bad concept, but a middling execution, and a disappointment after all the good things I've read by Terry Pratchett in the past. I don't know whether to put it down to a partnership that just didn't work (unlike the successful partnership with Gaiman in Good Omens) or whether Pratchett, stripped of the humor of the Disc World novels, just doesn't have much to say.

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