Review: I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The writing itself was pretty good, and the stories interesting enough, but I really can't get past the way he portrays and talks about women. All of his female characters are pretty terrible human beings (granted the men aren't any better, but I'm seriously getting tired of reading stories about evil plotting women, women who get raped but were asking for it/deserved it/wanted it, women who are faceless whores, etc.). And the author makes himself sound like a pompous ass in his introductions.

I can now say I've finally read some Ellison, since he's a Big Name in the SF genre apparently, but his is a world I don't think I'll be visiting again any time soon.

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Review: The Book of Kells by R.A. MacAvoy

The Book of Kells by R.A. MacAvoy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Too much talk about naughty bits and jerking off. All of it seemed incredibly irrelevant to the story. It was like the author was obsessed with pubes. The characters were all pretty much unlikeable (except maybe Ailesh and Snorri). And I hated the ending. The Book of Kells itself doesn't even feature into the story very much, only for a couple of scenes, that have absolutely no bearing on the actual events in the story. It felt like a bunch of irrelevancies muddled up in a semi-interesting plot. I didn't love it, I didn't hate it, but I probably won't read it again.

Two stars, but giving an extra one because I really liked Snorri and wish there was more of him in it.

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