Reviews

A note on scores: I don’t really believe in giving books numerical scores, for reasons that should be self-evident, which is why I don’t do so in the actual reviews. But they can be useful to get a quick impression of what I thought about a book when scanning a list, so I use them on this page and this page only.

FICTION

Abercrombie, Joe
First Law trilogy
The Blade Itself – 7/10
Before They Are Hanged – 6/10
Last Argument of Kings – 7/10

Adams, John Joseph
Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse – 5/10

Adams, Richard
Watership Down – 7/10

Adiga, Aravind
The White Tiger – 10/10

Aldiss, Brian
Hothouse – 6/10
Greybeard – 7/10
(Editor) A Science Fiction Omnibus – 7/10

Amis, Kingsley
Lucky Jim – 6/10
The Alteration – 7/10

Amis, Martin
The Rachel Papers – 6/10

Asimov, Isaac
Foundation – 3/10
The End of Eternity – 1/10

Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid’s Tale – 7/10
The Blind Assassin – 7/10
The Year of the Flood – 7/10

Ballard, J.G.
The Complete Short Stories of J.G. Ballard, Vol. I – 5/10

Banks, Iain M.
Culture series
1. Consider Phlebas – 7/10
2. The Player Of Games – 7/10
6. Look To Windward – 7/10

Banville, John
The Sea – 4/10

Barker, Clive
The Thief of Always – 8/10

Barker, Pat
Regeneration trilogy
Regeneration – 6/10
The Eye in the Door – 7/10
The Ghost Road – 8/10

Barnes, Julian
The Sense of an Ending – 7/10

Barry, Kevin
City of Bohane – 5/10

Bear, Greg
The Forge of God – 7/10

Beckett, Chris
Eden series
1. Dark Eden – 8/10
2. Mother of Eden – 8/10
3. Daughter of Eden – 7/10

Birch, Carol
Jamrach’s Menagerie – 10/10

Bisson, Terry
Bears Discover Fire – 5/10

Bowles, Paul
The Sheltering Sky – 5/10

Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451 – 6/10

Bradley, James
The Resurrectionist – 6/10
Clade – 8/10

Brin, David
The Postman – 6/10

Brooks, Max
World War Z – 8/10

Buchan, John
The Thirty-Nine Steps – 6/10

Butler, Octavia E.
Kindred – 7/10

Calvino, Italo
If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller – 3/10

Card, Orson Scott
Ender’s Game – 7/10

Carey, Peter
Novels
Bliss – 5/10
Illywhacker – 9/10
Oscar and Lucinda – 9/10
The Tax Inspector – 6/10
The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith – 6/10
Jack Maggs – 8/10
True History Of The Kelly Gang – 9/10
My Life as a Fake – 7/10
Theft: A Love Story – 8/10
His Illegal Self – 5/10
Amnesia – 6/10
Short story anthologies
Collected Stories – 8/10

Carr, J.L.
A Month in the Country – 9/10

Carroll, Jonathan
The Land of Laughs – 6/10

Carroll, Lewis
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – 5/10

Carter, Angela
The Bloody Chamber – 7/10

Carver, Raymond
Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? – 5/10

Cather, Willa
Death Comes for the Archbishop – 9/10

Chabon, Michael
A Model World – 5/10
Wonder Boys – 6/10
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay – 10/10
The Final Solution – 8/10
Gentlemen of the Road – 8/10
The Yiddish Policeman’s Union – 9/10

Chambers, Becky
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet – 4/10

Christie, Agatha
And Then There Were None – 3/10

Christopher, John
The Sword of the Spirits
The Prince in Waiting – 6/10
Beyond the Burning Lands – 8/10
The Sword of the Spirits – 7/10
Other
The Death Of Grass – 9/10
The Guardians – 7/10
Empty World – 7/10
The Possessors – 8/10
The World in Winter – 8/10
A Wrinkle in the Skin – 6/10

Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey – 6/10

Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell – 10/10
The Ladies of Grace Adieu – 8/10

Coelho, Paulo
The Alchemist – 5/10

Coetzee, J.M.
Dusklands – 8/10
In The Heart of the Country – 3/10
Disgrace – 10/10
Diary of a Bad Year – 7/10

Connolly, John
The Book of Lost Things – 8/10

Crace, Jim
The Pesthouse – 6/10
Harvest – 7/10

Crichton, Michael
Jurassic Park – 8/10

Cronin, Justin
The Passage – 7/10

Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves – 5/10

Davidson, Rjurik
Unwrapped Sky – 4/10

Defoe, Daniel
Robinson Crusoe – Unable to rate

DeWitt, Patrick
The Sisters Brothers – 8/10

Dick, Philip K.
The Man In The High Castle – 4/10
Ubik – 6/10

Dickens, Charles
A Christmas Carol – 8/10

Doctorow, E.L.
Ragtime – 7/10

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – 6/10

Drury, Allen
Advise and Consent – 7/10

DuBois, Brendan
Resurrection Day – 6/10

Duncan, Glen
The Last Werewolf – 8/10

Edugyan, Esi
Half-Blood Blues – 7/10

Egan, Jennifer
A Visit From The Goon Squad – 7/10

Ellis, Brett Easton
American Psycho – 3/10

Ellison, Harlan
Dangerous Visions – 2/10

Ende, Michael
The Neverending Story – 8/10

Enright, Anne
The Gathering – 6/10

Eugenides, Jeffrey
Middlesex – 10/10

Faber, Michel
Under The Skin – 9/10
The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps – 7/10

Farmer, Philip Jose
Riverworld series
2. The Fabulous Riverboat – 4/10
3. The Dark Design – 0/10
4. The Magic Labyrinth – 0/10

Farrell, J.G.
Empire trilogy
Troubles – 9/10
The Siege of Krishnapur – 7/10
The Singapore Grip – 9/10

Fitzgerald, F. Scott
The Great Gatsby – 8/10

Flynn, Michael
Eifelheim – 9/10

Foer, Jonathan Safran
Everything Is Illuminated – 4/10

Frank, Pat
Alas, babylon – 8/10

Gaiman, Neil
American Gods – 7/10
Stories – 7/10

Garland, Alex
The Beach – 8/10
The Coma – 7/10

Garner, Alan
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen – 5/10

Gibson, William
Sprawl trilogy
1. Neuromancer – 10/10
2. Count Zero – 8/10
3. Mona Lisa Overdrive – 8/10
Bigend books
1. Pattern Recognition – 7/10
Other
Burning Chrome – 8/10
The Peripheral – 8/10

Golding, William
Lord of the Flies – 10/10
The Inheritors – 5/10

Gordon, Noah
The Physician – 8/10

Graham, David
Down to a Sunless Sea – 8/10

Graham, Brandon
King City – 8/10
Prophet: Remission – 9/10

Grahame, Kenneth
The Wind in the Willows – 9/10

Greene, Graham
Stamboul Train – 5/10

Grenville, Kate
The Secret River – 8/10

Grimwood, Ken
Replay – 8/10

Grossman, Lev
Magicians trilogy
The Magicians – 10/10
The Magician King – 9/10
The Magician’s Land – 10/10

Haddon, Mark
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – 10/10

Haggard, H. Rider
King Solomon’s Mines – 5/10

Hammett, Dashiell
The Maltese Falcon – 6/10

Heller, Peter
The Dog Stars – 9/10

Hemingway, Ernest
Novels
The Torrents of Spring – 6/10
To Have and Have Not – 7/10
For Whom The Bell Tolls – 8/10
The Old Man and the Sea – 6/10
Short story anthologies
The First 49 Stories – 8/10

Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough For Love – 4/10
Citizen of the Galaxy – 7/10

Herbert, Frank
Dune – 6/10

Hilton, James
Lost Horizon – 5/10

Hoban, Russell
Riddley Walker – 8/10

Holdstock, Robert
Mythago Wood – 5/10

Hollinghurst, Alan
The Stranger’s Child – 6/10

Homer
The Odyssey – Unable to rate

Hornung, E.W.
Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman – 6/10

Household, Geoffrey
Rogue Male – 6/10

Hunt, Stephen
The Court of the Air – 3/10

Hutchinson, Dave
Europe in Autumn – 7/10

Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World – 5/10

Ishiguro, Kazuo
A Pale View of Hills – 7/10
The Remains of the Day – 10/10
Never Let Me Go – 9/10

Johnstone, George
My Brother Jack – 10/10

Jones, Diana Wynne
Howl trilogy
Howl’s Moving Castle – 8/10
Castle in the Air – 8/10
House of Many Ways – 6/10

Joyce, James
Dubliners – 2/10

Kafka, Franz
The Metamorphosis – 9/10

Kelman, Stephen
Pigeon English – 6/10

Keneally, Thomas
Schindler’s Ark – 8/10

Kennedy, Cate
The Best Australian Stories 2010 – 8/10

Kerouac, Jack
On The Road – 6/10

Kibuishi, Kazu
Flight: Volume I – 7/10
Amulet: the Stonekeeper – 7/10

King, Stephen
Dark Tower series
1. The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger – 7/10
2. The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three – 9/10
3. The Dark Tower III: The Wastelands – 9/10
4. The Dark Tower IV: Wizard And Glass – 7/10
5. The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla – 7/10
6. The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah – 5/10
7. The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower – 5/10
The Bachman books
The Long Walk – 9/10
The Running Man – 7/10
Novels
Salem’s Lot – 6/10
The Stand – 10/10
The Dead Zone – 8/10
Pet Sematary – 9/10
The Talisman – 8/10
Cycle of the Werewolf – 7/10
11.22.63 – 6/10
Short story anthologies
Night Shift – 8/10
Nightmares and Dreamscapes – 7/10

Kingsnorth, Paul
The Wake – 9/10
Beast – 6/10

Kipling, Rudyard
Kim – 5/10

Lahiri, Jhumpa
Interpreter of Maladies – 6/10

Le, Nam
The Boat – 8/10

Le Carre, John
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold – 8/10

Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness – 5/10
The Tombs of Atuan – 6/10

Lee, Harper
To Kill A Mockingbird – 10/10

Lethem, Jonathon
Gun, With Occasional Music – 7/10
Amnesia Moon – 7/10
As She Climbed Across The Table – 7/10
Girl In Landscape – 6/10
Motherless Brooklyn – 6/10

Lewis, Jeffrey
The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against The United States – 9/10

Lively, Penelope
Moon Tiger – 7/10

Lowry, Lois
The Giver – 8/10

Macleod, Ken
The Night Sessions – 6/10

Mantel, Hilary
Wolf Hall – 5/10

Martel, Yann
Life of Pi – 10/10

Martin, George R.R.
A Song of Ice and Fire
1. A Game of Thrones – 9/10
2. A Clash of Kings – 8/10
3. A Storm of Swords – 9/10
4. A Feast For Crows – 7/10
5. A Dance With Dragons – 8/10

Marquez, Gabriel Garcia
The General In His Labyrinth – 4/10

McAuley, Paul
The Quiet War – 7/10

McCarthy, Cormac
Blood Meridian – 10/10
The Road – 10/10

McDonald, Ian
River of Gods – 8/10

McEwan, Ian
The Cement Garden – 6/10

McGuire, Ian
The North Water – 9/10

McHugh, Maureen F.
China Mountain Zhang – 8/10

McMurtry, Larry
Lonesome Dove series
1. Dead Man’s Walk – 8/10
2. Comanche Moon – 9/10
3. Lonesome Dove – 10/10
4. Streets of Laredo – 9/10

Melville, Herman
Typee – 4/10
Moby-Dick – 10/10

Mieville, China
Bas-Lag trilogy
1. Perdido Street Station – 7/10
2. The Scar – 7/10
3. Iron Council – 6/10
Other
The City and the City – 8/10

Miller, A.D.
Snowdrops – 7/10

Miller, Andrew
Pure – 7/10

Miller, Walter M. Jr
A Canticle for Leibowitz – 5/10

Mitchell, David
Ghostwritten – 10/10
Number9dream – 9/10
Cloud Atlas – 10/10
Black Swan Green – 10/10
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet – 10/10
The Bone Clocks – 10/10
Slade House – 7/10
Utopia Avenue – 7/10

Moore, Ward
Bring the Jubilee – 4/10

Murakami, Haruki
Kafka On The Shore – 1/10

Ness, Patrick
A Monster Calls – 8/10

Newitz, Annalee
The Terraformers – 3/10

Niven, Larry
Ringworld – 6/10

Nix, Garth
Sabriel – 5/10

North, Claire
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August – 8/10

Novik, Naomi
Temeraire – 1/10

O’Brian, Patrick
Aubrey-Maturin series
1. Master and Commander – 8/10
2. Post Captain – 8/10
3. HMS Surprise – 9/10
4. The Mauritius Command – 7/10
5. Desolation Island – 9/10
6. The Fortune of War – 9/10
7. The Surgeon’s Mate – 8/10
8. The Ionian Mission – 8/10
9. Treason’s Harbour – 9/10
10. The Far Side of the World – 9/10
11. The Reverse of the Medal – 9/10
12. The Letter of Marque – 8/10
13. The Thirteen Gun Salute – 8/10
14. The Nutmeg of Consolation – 9/10
15. Clarissa Oakes – 7/10
16. The Wine-Dark Sea – 8/10
17. The Commodore – 7/10
18. The Yellow Admiral – 9/10
19. The Hundred Days – 7/10
20. Blue at the Mizzen – 8/10
21. The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey – unrated

Okri, Ben
The Famished Road – 5/10

Ondaatje, Michael
The English Patient – 9/10

Palahniuk, Chuck
Fight Club – 8/10

Peake, Mervyn
Gormenghast trilogy
1. Titus Groan – 8/10
2. Gormenghast – 10/10
3. Titus Alone – 6/10

Pick, Alison
Far To Go – 7/10

Porter, Max
Grief is the Thing With Feathers – 8/10

Powers, Anderson
The Yellow Birds – 8/10

Powers, Richard
The Overstory – 9/10

Powers,Tim
The Anubis Gates – 5/10

Pratchett, Terry
Discworld series
1. The Colour of Magic – 8/10
2. The Light Fantastic – 7/10
3. Equal Rites – 8/10
4. Mort – 9/10
5. Sourcery – 5/10
6. Wyrd Sisters – 9/10
7. Pyramids – 7/10
8. Guards! Guards! – 9/10
9. Eric – 6/10
10. Moving Pictures – 7/10
11. Reaper Man – 7/10
12. Witches Abroad – 8/10
13. Small Gods – 6/10
14. Lords and Ladies – 9/10
15. Men at Arms – 9/10
16. Soul Music – 6/10
17. Interesting Times – 7/10
18. Maskerade – 7/10
19. Feet of Clay – 9/10
20. Hogfather – 9/10
21. Jingo – 8/10
22. The Last Continent – 7/10
23. Carpe Jugulum – 7/10
24. The Fifth Elephant – 10/10
25. The Truth – 8/10
26. Thief of Time – 6/10

Priest, Christopher
The Space Machine – 6/10
A Dream of Wessex – 6/10
Inverted World – 9/10
Fugue For A Darkening Island – 5/10
The Prestige – 8/10

Proulx, Annie
The Shipping News – 7/10

Pullman, Philip
Sally Lockhart books
1. The Ruby in the Smoke – 4/10
His Dark Materials
Once Upon a Time in the North – 6/10
The Book of Dust
1. La Belle Sauvage – 6/10
2. The Secret Commonwealth – 7/10

Reeve, Philip
Mortal Engines series
1. Mortal Engines – 10/10
2. Predator’s Gold – 10/10
3. Infernal Devices – 10/10
4. A Darkling Plain – 10/10
Fever Crumb series
1. Fever Crumb – 7/10
2. A Web of Air – 7/10
3. Scrivener’s Moon – 7/10
Railhead series
Railhead – 9/10
Black Light Express – 9/10
Other
Here Lies Arthur – 8/10

Reynolds, Alastair
Revelation Space series
1. Revelation Space – 6/10
2. Redemption Ark – 8/10
3. Absolution Gap – 6/10
4. Inhibitor Phase – 6/10
Stand-alone
Chasm City – 8/10
Pushing Ice – 8/10
House of Suns – 9/10
Terminal World – 8/10
Short stories
Galactic North – 8/10
Beyond the Aquila Rift – 9/10

Robinson, Kim Stanley
The Memory of Whiteness – 5/10
2312 – 7/10
Aurora – 9/10
New York 2140 – 6/10

Rodda, Emily
Rowan of Rin – 8/10

Rogers, Jane
The Testament of Jessie Lamb – 9/10

Rosenberg, Joel
D’Shai – 7/10

Rushdie, Salman
Midnight’s Children – 5/10

Russell, Karen
Vampires in the Lemon Grove – 8/10

Salinger, J.D.
The Catcher in the Rye – 6/10

Scott, Kim
That Deadman Dance – 7/10

Sebold, Alice
The Lovely Bones – 4/10

Sedgwick, Marcus
Revolver – 7/10

Shaara, Michael
The Killer Angels – 9/10

Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein – 5/10

Shepard, Jim
Batting Against Castro – 7/10

Simmons, Dan
Hyperion Cantos
1. Hyperion – 9/10
2. The Fall of Hyperion – 9/10
3. Endymion – 8/10
4. The Rise of Endymion – 7/10

Sleator, William
House of Stairs – 7/10

Smith, Zadie
The Book of Other People – 7/10

Smythe, James
The Explorer – 5/10

St Aubyn, Edward
Patrick Melrose novels
1. Never Mind – 8/10
2. Bad News – 8/10
3. Some Hope – 7/10
4. Mother’s Milk – 8/10
5. At Last – 8/10

Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash – 8/10

Stevenson, Robert Louis
David Balfour books
1. Kidnapped – 8/10
Miscellanous
Treasure Island – 6/10
The Black Arrow – 5/10
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – 5/10

Stewart, George R.
Earth Abides – 8/10

Stoker, Bram
Dracula – 6/10
The Lair of the White Worm – 2/10

Stone, Robert
Dog Soldiers – 6/10

Strahan, Jonathan
The Starry Rift – 5/10

Strieber, Whitley
Warday – 8/10

Tchaikovsky, Adrian
Children of Time – 8/10

Temple, Peter
The Broken Shore – 7/10
Truth – 9/10

Thompson, Hunter S.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – 10/10

Thompson, Sam
Communion Town – 4/10

Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Hobbit – 10/10

Tremblay
The Cabin At The End Of The World – 4/10

Turton, Stuart
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle – 5/10

Twain, Mark
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – 7/10

Unsworth, Barry
Sacred Hunger – 8/10

Updike, John
Rabbit, Run – 8/10

van Loon, Julienne
Road Story – 5/10

Vandermeer, Jeff
City of Saints and Madmen – 6/10
Shriek: An Afterword – 5/10
Finch – 6/10

Varley, John
Gaea trilogy
1. Titan – 5/10
2. Wizard – 6/10
3. Demon – 6/10
Metals trilogy
1. Steel Beach – 8/10
2. The Golden Globe – 10/10
3. Irontown Blues – 4/10
Miscellanous
The Barbie Murders – 7/10