T
B+ The Little Friend 2002 Crime/Novel
C+ The Dark Griffin 2009 Fantasy
Slightest variation on a massively over-travelled route. Juvenile. 2D.
B An Iron Rose 1998 Crime
Early iteration of classic Temple Australian mythical hero. Enjoyable ingredients perhaps less subtly presented
B Dead Point (Jack Irish #3) 2000 Crime
Maybe good if I had have read in publication
order, but not when I’ve already done a lot of Temple
books and TV
B+ In The Evil Day (aka ‘Identity Theory’) 2002 Crime
B White Dog (Jack Irish #4) 2003 Crime
Capable, gritty quasi-mythical Australian characters with crime staples (e.g. beaten down sleuth comfortable in high or low culture, knight rescuing swooning damsels). Interesting cultural marker: saw it as a movie before reading it, villain had been changed from standard industrialist to Hillsong preacher – society’s new whipping boy
B+ The Broken Shore 2007 Crime
Feels pretty authentic Australian, if keeping to pretty dark territory
B Truth 2009 Crime
Intelligent, biting, capable – but perhaps only if you need a dark counter to recent overindulgence in things sentimental and twee
B Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living 2005 Novel
Detached narrative, effective historical setting, didactic moral
B Cloud Warrior (The Amtrak Wars: Book 1) 1983 SF
Boy’s own conflict between post apocalyptic pioneering/marine US, Amerindian and samurai Japan style cultures
B First Family (The Amtrak Wars: Book 2) 1985 SF
Boy’s own conflict between post apocalyptic pioneering/marine US, Amerindian and samurai Japan style cultures
B Iron Master (The Amtrak Wars: Book 3) 1987 SF
Boy’s own conflict between post apocalyptic pioneering/marine US, Amerindian and samurai Japan style cultures
B The Blackwater Lightship 1999 Novel
Well written, but depressing (and a bit preachy)
A+ The Hobbit 1937 Fantasy/Juvenile
Enchanting story, rich world
A++ The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings: Part 1) 1954 Fantasy
This one hardly needs an introduction…
A++ The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings: Part 2) 1954 Fantasy
This one hardly needs an introduction…
A++ The Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings: Part 3) 1955 Fantasy
This one hardly needs an introduction…
A The Silmarillion 1977 Fantasy/Juvenile
Potent, magical, epic
B Ordinary Heroes 2006 Historical Fiction (WW2)
Unconvinced by the frame, but some powerful characters and battle accounts
C- The Gryphon’s Skull (Hellenic Traders #2) 1975 Historical Fiction
Typical B-grade fantasy style characters: supposedly rough, capable, worldly commercial sailors in a dangerous trade talk like high schoolers
B+ The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 1885 Novel
First half powerful, funny, striking, but then slides into farce
C Searching for Caleb 1975 Novel
Disappointingly bland and loose intergenerational family drama
B The Accidental Tourist 1985 Novel
Good movie, can’t remember if the book was as enjoyable
A- Breathing Lessons 1988 Novel
Insightful, humorous, sad,
believable