Supply Limited, Act Now by Helen Marshall
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
My friend Pepper tipped me off to the Escape Pod podcast, and I've been enjoying the selection of short sci-fi stories they provide. "Supply Limited, Act Now" involves a group of adolescents coming of age at the height of World War II. Each of the children is struggling to deal with their slipping grip on the innocence of their childhood while also confronting the brutality, uncertainty, and fear of a world at war. It's a very nice piece and I'd easily recommend it to anyone with a bit of spare time for reading.
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Review: Supply Limited, Act Now
Review: Darkness, Be My Friend
Darkness, Be My Friend by John Marsden
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I've enjoyed this series, but this isn't a terribly strong entry. So little happens with regard to the overall story arc that you could probably skip it entirely and be just fine.
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Review: Equal Rites
Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
With Pratchett's recent passing I was motivated to try another discworld book. Equal Rites is set on the same works as established in the first two books, but deals with entirely new characters. You could easily jump into the series right here and not feel lost. The story follows Esk, a girl on a mission to become the world's first female wizard. The table is full of Pratchett's usual with and humor, but I was happy to find that it stayed fairly focused on telling the story rather than getting side tracked by zaniness. I did enjoy this book and would recommend it for a beach read, but it is ultimately forgettable.
As a side note, the digital copy I read from my library was flawed. The last 50 pages appeared early, so I wound up reading the book in the order beginning, end, middle. This was a petty big detractor in my ability to enjoy the book. I am not sure if this is a problem only with my library's digital copy, or if this edition is just flawed.
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