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So, since I last reported in a couple of weeks ago I've read some short stories plus...
Looking for Alaska by John Green. His first published book, this one about young adults trying to deal with loss and guilt. It was good, but too self-conscious I think. Something like a 3.5/5, certainly I preferred Turtles All the Way Down and The Fault in Our Stars.
Sacré Bleu by Christopher Moore. A mix of real 19th century artists, real art and colour history, with a fantasy tale woven through it. It is undoubtedly very very clever, but I found it quite hard work and lacking in the humour that Moore usually provides. (It wasn't totally without humour, just significantly less than usual.) It was okay, but a bit disappointing because I've come to expect better from Moore. I can only give this a 3/5.
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. It's really hard to describe this, or to rate it. The alternative history is generally light and humorous in nature (villains enjoying their villainy, puns and poking fun at current standards), but at other times is quite dark and serious (war and loss). Our protagonist, Thursday Next, is a literature detective, and it seems they take their literature very seriously in this alternative world. There is time manipulation, weird physics, characters falling in and out of stories. It is all such an a strange and apparently conflicting mix of things that it should be a mess, and at times it comes close to that, but somehow Fforde manages to push it all into a coherent and enjoyable story. I ended up giving it 4/5.
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