Tom's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 03 Jul 2017 13:39:23 -0700 60 Tom's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The City's Son (The Skyscraper Throne, #1)]]> 13622204
When a devastating betrayal drives her from her home, graffiti artist Beth Bradley stumbles into the secret city, where she finds Filius Viae, London's ragged crown prince, just when he needs someone most. An ancient enemy has returned to the darkness under St Paul's Cathedral, bent on reigniting a centuries-old war, and Beth and Fil find themselves in a desperate race through a bizarre urban wonderland, searching for a way to save the city they both love.

The City's Son is the first book of The Skyscraper Throne: a story about family, friends and monsters, and how you can't always tell which is which.]]> 457 Tom Pollock 178087006X Tom 0 3.81 2012 The City's Son (The Skyscraper Throne, #1)
author: Tom Pollock
name: Tom
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/07/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The City's Son (The Skyscraper Throne, #1)]]> 13183921
When a devastating betrayal drives her from her home, graffiti artist Beth Bradley stumbles into the secret city, where she finds Filius Viae, London's ragged crown prince, just when he needs someone most. An ancient enemy has returned to the darkness under St Paul's Cathedral, bent on reigniting a centuries-old war, and Beth and Fil find themselves in a desperate race through a bizarre urban wonderland, searching for a way to save the city they both love.

The City's Son is the first book of The Skyscraper Throne: a story about family, friends and monsters, and how you can't always tell which is which.]]> 454 Tom Pollock 1780870078 Tom 5 3.72 2012 The City's Son (The Skyscraper Throne, #1)
author: Tom Pollock
name: Tom
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2012/03/19
date added: 2017/07/03
shelves:
review:
Well, I did write it... I'm pretty damn biased.
]]> Station Eleven 20170404 An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse—the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.

Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.

Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band’s existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed.]]> 333 Emily St. John Mandel 0385353308 Tom 5 4.05 2014 Station Eleven
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Tom
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2016/11/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Life: An Exploded Diagram 10794589
Can love survive a lifetime? When working-class Clem Ackroyd falls for Frankie Mortimer, the gorgeous daughter of a wealthy local landowner, he has no hope that it can. After all, the world teeters on the brink of war, and bombs could rain down any minute over the bleak English countryside - just as they did seventeen years ago as his mother, pregnant with him, tended her garden. This time, Clem may not survive. Told in cinematic style by acclaimed writer Mal Peet, this brilliant coming-of-age novel is a gripping family portrait that interweaves the stories of three generations and the terrifying crises that define them. With its urgent sense of history, sweeping emotion, and winning young narrator, Mal Peet's latest is an unforgettable, timely exploration of life during wartime.]]> 416 Mal Peet 076365227X Tom 5
In between chapters of Clem and Frankie racing to get their rocks off before the bombs start falling, and hilariously acute looks at Soviet and American strategic command, this book hares off down threads of lives connected to the leads, showing what was really at stake from a nuclear apocalypse.

A masterpiece, and I don't say that a lot. ]]> 3.70 2011 Life: An Exploded Diagram
author: Mal Peet
name: Tom
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/12/15
shelves:
review:
A working class boy and an upper crust girl fall in love in the shadow of the Cuban Missile crisis.

In between chapters of Clem and Frankie racing to get their rocks off before the bombs start falling, and hilariously acute looks at Soviet and American strategic command, this book hares off down threads of lives connected to the leads, showing what was really at stake from a nuclear apocalypse.

A masterpiece, and I don't say that a lot.
]]> <![CDATA[The Honourable Schoolboy (George Smiley, #6; Karla Trilogy, #2)]]> 18990 In this classic masterwork, le Carré expands upon his extraordinary vision of a secret world as George Smiley goes on the attack.

In the wake of a demoralizing infiltration by a Soviet double agent, Smiley has been made ringmaster of the Circus (aka the British Secret Service). Determined to restore the organization's health and reputation, and bent on revenge, Smiley thrusts his own handpicked operative into action. Jerry Westerby, "The Honourable Schoolboy," is dispatched to the Far East. A burial ground of French, British, and American colonial cultures, the region is a fabled testing ground of patriotic allegiances?and a new showdown is about to begin.

]]> 589 John Le Carré 0743457919 Tom 5 3.98 1977 The Honourable Schoolboy (George Smiley, #6; Karla Trilogy, #2)
author: John Le Carré
name: Tom
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1977
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/11/18
shelves:
review:

]]> Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy 18989 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy begins George Smiley's chess match of wills and wits with Karla, his Soviet counterpart.

It is now beyond a doubt that a mole, implanted decades ago by Moscow Centre, has burrowed his way into the highest echelons of British Intelligence. His treachery has already blown some of its most vital operations and its best networks. It is clear that the double agent is one of its own kind. But which one? George Smiley is assigned to identify him. And once identified, the traitor must be destroyed.]]> 379 John Le Carré 0743457900 Tom 5 4.04 1974 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
author: John Le Carré
name: Tom
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1974
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/11/18
shelves:
review:

]]> Cuckoo Song 18298890 The first things to shift were the doll's eyes, the beautiful grey-green glass eyes. Slowly they swivelled, until their gaze was resting on Triss's face. Then the tiny mouth moved, opened to speak. 'Who do you think you are? This is my family.'

When Triss wakes up after an accident, she knows that something is very wrong. She is insatiably hungry; she keeps waking up with leaves in her hair, and her sister seems terrified of her. When it all gets too much and she starts to cry, her tears are like cobwebs...

Soon Triss discovers that what happened to her is more strange and terrible than she could ever have imagined, and that she is quite literally not herself. In a quest find the truth she must travel into the terrifying Underbelly of the city to meet a twisted architect who has dark designs on her family - before it's too late...]]> 409 Frances Hardinge 0330519735 Tom 5 3.97 2014 Cuckoo Song
author: Frances Hardinge
name: Tom
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/05/23
shelves:
review:

]]> The Blind Giant 13497021 352 Nick Harkaway 1848546416 Tom 4 3.65 2012 The Blind Giant
author: Nick Harkaway
name: Tom
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/03/08
shelves:
review:

]]> The Machine 17316670
Now the machines are gone. The government declared them too controversial, the side-effects too harmful. But within Beth’s flat is an ever-whirring black box. She knows that memories can be put back, that she can rebuild her husband piece by piece.]]> 328 James Smythe 000742860X Tom 5 3.67 2013 The Machine
author: James Smythe
name: Tom
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/09/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Glass Republic (The Skyscraper Throne, #2)]]> 16045366
Then Parva is abducted and Pen makes a terrible bargain for the means to track her down. In London-Under-Glass looks are currency, and Pen’s scars make her a rare and valuable commodity. But some in the reflected city will do anything to keep Pen from the secret of what happened to the sister who shared her face.]]> 464 Tom Pollock 1780870108 Tom 5 4.04 2013 The Glass Republic (The Skyscraper Throne, #2)
author: Tom Pollock
name: Tom
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/08/25
shelves:
review:

]]> Jack Glass 13235961 Golden Age SF meets Golden Age Crime in this British Science Fiction Award winner for best novel, from the author of Swiftly, New Model Army, and Yellow Blue Tibia

Jack Glass is the murderer—we know this from the start. Yet as this extraordinary novel unfolds, readers will be astonished to discover how he committed the murders and by the end of the book, their sympathies for the killer will be fully engaged. Riffing on the tropes of crime fiction (the country house murder, the locked room mystery) and imbued with the feel of golden age SF, this is another bravura performance from Roberts. Whatever games he plays with the genre, whatever questions he asks of the reader, Roberts never loses sight of the need to entertain. Filled with wonderfully gruesome moments and liberal doses of sly humor, this novel is built around three gripping HowDunnits that challenge notions of crime, punishment, power, and freedom.]]> 373 Adam Roberts 0575127627 Tom 5 3.69 2012 Jack Glass
author: Adam Roberts
name: Tom
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/06/13
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Explorer (The Anomaly Quartet, 1)]]> 15818384
When journalist Cormac Easton is selected to document the first manned mission into deep space, he dreams of securing his place in history as one of humanity’s great explorers.

But in space, nothing goes according to plan.

The crew wake from hypersleep to discover their captain dead in his allegedly fail-proof safety pod. They mourn, and Cormac sends a beautifully written eulogy back to Earth. The word from ground control is unequivocal: no matter what happens, the mission must continue.

But as the body count begins to rise, Cormac finds himself alone and spiralling towards his own inevitable death � unless he can do something to stop it.]]> 264 James Smythe 0062229419 Tom 5
Also, it left you feeling something.

]]> 3.36 2012 The Explorer (The Anomaly Quartet, 1)
author: James Smythe
name: Tom
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/01/10
shelves:
review:
I don't review many books on here, but the Explorer warrants one because it's a combination of three things I really like - Elegant, expressive writing (with some cool turns of phrase), a fresh, insightful voice (Sounds wanky I know, but I can't think of a better way to put it.) and complex characters who feel like real people.

Also, it left you feeling something.


]]> Pantomime (Micah Grey, #1) 15797050 In a land of lost wonders, the past is stirring once more

Gene's life resembles a debutante's dream. Yet she hides a secret that would see her shunned by the nobility. Gene is both male and female. Then she displays unwanted magical abilities - last seen in mysterious beings from an almost-forgotten age. Matters escalate further when her parents plan a devastating betrayal, so she flees home, dressed as a boy.

The city beyond contains glowing glass relics from a lost civilization. They call to her, but she wants freedom not mysteries. So, reinvented as ‘Micah Grey�, Gene joins the circus. As an aerialist, she discovers the joy of flight � but the circus has a dark side. She’s also plagued by visions foretelling danger. A storm is howling in from the past, but will she heed its roar?]]> 392 L.R. Lam 190884437X Tom 0 to-read 3.89 2013 Pantomime (Micah Grey, #1)
author: L.R. Lam
name: Tom
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/11/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Ask and the Answer (Chaos Walking, #2)]]> 6043849
Fleeing before a relentless army, Todd has carried a desperately wounded Viola right into the hands of their worst enemy, Mayor Prentiss. Immediately separated from Viola and imprisoned, Todd is forced to learn the ways of the Mayor's new order. But what secrets are hiding just outside of town? And where is Viola? Is she even still alive? And who are the mysterious Answer? And then, one day, the bombs begin to explode...

"The Ask and the Answer" is a tense, shocking and deeply moving novel of resistance under the most extreme pressure. This is the second title in the "Chaos Walking" trilogy.]]> 536 Patrick Ness 1406310263 Tom 5 ya
Two young friends and possibly incipient lovers find themselves on opposite sides of a struggle between authoritarianism and terror. The book goes to some pretty dark places, dealing with the themes of humanity, loss of self and the crime of 'only following orders'. Unlike other recent YA hits, it doesn't flinch from having its young leads do seriously morally questionable things.

All of which is delivered by a 1st person voice which is a fresh and sharp as a winter wind on the eyeball. I loved it.

]]> 4.20 2009 The Ask and the Answer (Chaos Walking, #2)
author: Patrick Ness
name: Tom
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2010/12/07
date added: 2012/09/25
shelves: ya
review:
Not as fast-paced as the previous instalment. The Ask and the Answer is as intense and deeply felt as its predecessor while visiting even darker places.

Two young friends and possibly incipient lovers find themselves on opposite sides of a struggle between authoritarianism and terror. The book goes to some pretty dark places, dealing with the themes of humanity, loss of self and the crime of 'only following orders'. Unlike other recent YA hits, it doesn't flinch from having its young leads do seriously morally questionable things.

All of which is delivered by a 1st person voice which is a fresh and sharp as a winter wind on the eyeball. I loved it.


]]> The Gone-Away World 3007704 531 Nick Harkaway 0434018422 Tom 5 currently-reading 4.10 2008 The Gone-Away World
author: Nick Harkaway
name: Tom
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/04/19
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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