Tag Archives: book reviews

(book) Cixin Liu – ‘The Three-Body Problem’

Dugo već namjeravam početi trilogiju ovog hvaljenog kineskog sf autora, dobitnika nagrade Hugo 2015.godine. Ovo se govori da je najambicioznije sf djelo u zadnjih nekoliko desetljeća, što nije daleko od istine. Dakle, riječ je o mješavini filozofije, znanosti, poglavito fizike i astronomije, međuljudskih odnosa, povijesti, te dobroj staroj invaziji aliena i propasti svijeta. Neke stvari u knjizi sam se morao vraćati natrag i pročitati nekoliko stranica ponovo, jer mi nije bilo znanstveno jasno što je autor želio reči, no, kada sam se jednom uhodao u knjigu i uspio pohvatati sve što je trebalo pohvatati, knjiga je postala zbilja pravi kako Ameri kažu ‘page-turner’. Ako očekujete akcijsku knjigu prepunu bitaka i nekih epskih scena i junaka to nećete naći. Junaci ove knjige su obični ljudi, znanstvenici, sa svojim strahovima i svojim osvetama, neispunjenim snovima, mogućnostima i željama da uspiju obraniti planetu od prijetnje, kako god se čini da smo zaslužili nekada da svi nestanemo iz ovog univerzuma. Ovo je odlična sf knjiga, nabavite, isprobajte, možda se neće svidjeti svakome. No, meni se svidjela i bacam se na čitanje drugog dijela trilogije.

(book) Adam Nevill – ‘Cunning Folk’

As promised, here is the review for Adam Nevill‘s book which completes all his books that I have read until now. This is one of his latest works and this is a folk horror mastery like we are used to from this author. Married couple Tom and Fiona, along with their daughter Gracey and their spaniel dog move into decrepit country house where previous owner killed himself six months ago. At first, they love it there. Tom does all the work in repairing the house to make it home, while Fiona works at the bank and Gracey is happy. But, then they meet their neighbors Magi and Medea who are not what they seem to be. Gracey starts having voices calling her from the near woods and strange things and curses begin to happen and Tom starts to suspect neighbors have something to do with it. This is another intense and masterful tale of horror master Nevill, happening to ordinary folk who could be me or you, that is what makes it even more scary. There are enough grisly gore parts of the story to satisfy gore hellhounds among you, but also to me best part of Nevill’s storytelling is folk horror part, the fear of ancient and unknown rituals, ancient mages and druids, people who should not be messed up with. In all, each and every one of us had at one time neighbor from hell, isn’t it true? So, all of us should have at one time deal with the problem. Or did we?

(book) Adam Nevill – ‘The Vessel’

Those who read this webzine from its inception, know that Adam Nevill is one of my favorite newer generation horror writers. This is his latest work, a bit shorter than previous ones, but king of folk horror works his magic here too. The story evolves around Jess, young mother with daughter Izzy, who starts to work at old people vicarage tending to the older lady called Flo. Her ex husband Tony is around, but acts strangely and you dig that something really terrible happened between those two. As things go, Flo is in wheelchair, suffers from dementia and is at first look and ordinary old lady. But, at night, when Jess’ shift starts, strange things start to happen and Flo walks, wanders and is driven to the nearby pond and all other inhabitants around the vicarage are strange too. Jess starts to suspect that something is at play, and scary and eerie things start to happen. Not to discover just all, so not to spoil your reading of this beauty, you will see that folk horror is in fact so beautiful and scary read because it can happen everywhere and to everyone of us, old gods and beliefs are still out there before plague called christianity soiled this earth and forced upon us their new deity stolen and based upon old beliefs. Now I digress. Well, there is not too much gore in this one, but tension builds as in all Nevill’s works from page to page making it hard to put down page turner. I read all of his books except ‘Cunning Folk’ until now, but I plan to read this one too and of course you will read my review here!