Anthology I: The Other Side by Hamidah Gul

Title: Anthology I: The Other Side
Author: Hamidah Gul
Publication Date: April 20, 2012
Length: 122 pages

Note: I didn't finish this book, so this review covers only the first few stories.

Anthology I is a collection of short stories that are meant to be horror, but on the light and funny side.

The first story (in my copy; it seems to vary, judging by other reviews) was Come Home With Me. This story was really short, just a few pages. There seemed to be a ghost involved, who killed people. That's about all I could gather, because it was one of those short stories that has no explanation, just things happening, and then it's over, leaving me saying "uh, what?".

The next story was The Other Side. It's about a guy who has a near-death experience in which he travels to other planets and discovers that the Earth is going to be destroyed. Right at the beginning I got annoyed when he said two things: 1) He kept referring to Pluto as a planet. I mean, it's been years. I'm sorry, but Pluto is not a planet! 2) He says that we've visited all the planets but Pluto, which I'm fairly certain is not true, even if you count unmanned probes. After that, the story was fairly interesting, but seemed a bit stretched out.

What made me put this one down was not so much that the stories weren't interesting (at least the ideas seemed to have potential). The writing was just too hard to read. Hamidah Gul is writing in a language that is not her first, and that's made pretty clear. The phrasing is often awkward. Also, often people are speaking, but there are no quotation marks. I don't know if that's a mistake, or if she's doing it stylistically (which some authors definitely do), but either way, I hate it. I like to know when people are talking! If this book had gone through an editing process, that would have made a huge difference.

Full disclosure: Free ebook copy received from the author.

Talisman of El by Alecia Stone: DNF

Title: Talisman of El
Author: Alecia Stone
Publication Date: May 20, 2012
Length: 364 pages

Note: Various aspects of this book caused me to put it down without finishing it. Therefore, please keep in mind that this review has been written without any knowledge of the last half of the book.

Charlie is a boy who has nightmares that come true. Derkein is a young man who finds himself aging rapidly after being attacked by invisible beings. Alex and Richmond are just a couple of normal kids along for the ride. Together, they go off in search of Arcadia, a hidden world.

I really thought I'd like this one, but I ended up giving up on it. There were too many things irritating me about it. One big one was the info dumping. Once the kids got to Arcadia, and people started explaining the mythology to them, I quickly became lost, because so much was being explained so quickly that I couldn't follow. I didn't feel like it was being revealed in a natural way at all.

Also, the characters said and did things that were so annoying, I couldn't feel any positive feelings for any of them, except maybe Richmond. Sometimes. For example, at one point, Alex (a female character, mind you) says this:

"Hunter?" Alex said. "But she's a girl!" As though she remembered something, she shook her head and said, "But she's not a human girl, Alex. I need to write this stuff down."

Umm, excuse me? That same character is also randomly mean to other female characters, presumably because she likes Charlie? Or something? And she sees other girls as potential competition? I don't know. But I didn't like it.

And then there's Derkein. I don't know if his exact age was specified, but I got the impression that he was a young man, like maybe early 20s? But for some reason, he thinks this age difference (the others are in high school, I think) is enough for him to be in charge of them, to the point where he keeps telling them to go home while he goes on to Arcadia. He's bossy and annoying. Oh, and he has a stupid line, too:

“This will be the greatest discovery since the extinction of dinosaurs.”
“Assuming dinosaurs did exist, that is,” Derkein said.
Alex shook her head. “Couldn’t just let me have this moment, could you?”

That gave me the uncomfortable feeling that I was reading a book written by a creationist, of the variety that thinks maybe fossils were planted by God as a joke or something. The existence of dinosaurs is not up for debate. And this was just thrown into an otherwise normal conversation.

I won't give this book a rating, since I didn't finish it, and for all I know the last half is way better. But I did not particularly enjoy the first half.

Full disclosure: Free e-book copy received from the publisher through NetGalley.

Bandwidth by Angus Morrison: DNF

Title: Bandwidth
Author: Angus Morrison
Publication Date: 2010
Length: 232 pages

I didn't finish this one. It's not even that it was bad, I just wasn't feeling it. And goodness knows, with my TBR list, I don't need to spend time reading things I'm not really into.

I see this as personal growth on my part! I'm just learning to put aside something I don't really want to read. It's a good skill to learn.

Starrise at Corrivale by Diane Duane: DNF

Title: Starrise at Corrivale (Harbinger #1)
Author: Diane Duane
Publication Date: 1998
Length: 377 pages

I should have known I wouldn't like this one. Just look at the cover. It is the opposite of what I would call "so me". But it's by Diane Duane! And Diane Duane writes the Young Wizards books, which I LOVE! And this book was written when she was about halfway through that series, so it's not like her writing style would have changed.

I read about 60 pages. It took me days to get that far. Nothing was happening. So I gave up.

Also, the writing was bad. What the heck, Diane Duane?! What happened when you wrote this book?

I rarely give up on books, so it was tough. But I've got a TBR pile that never ends, so I can't waste time on duds.