I have read Colfer’s first Artemis Fowl and found it quite a fun read. The Supernaturalist was reasonably priced on Kindle so I decided to pick it up. Both the story (some nice twists and turns) and the characters appealed to me. I found Colfer’s world building to be excellent, too. His light, witty style reminds me a lot of Rick Riordan, whose series I also enjoy. This book isn’t going to provide you with much food for thought, but it will pass a few pleasant hours. I gave The Supernaturalist 5 stars out of 5
I have read Colfer’s first Artemis Fowl and found it quite a fun read. The Supernaturalist was reasonably priced on Kindle so I decided to pick it up. Both the story (some nice twists and turns) and the characters appealed to me. I found Colfer’s world building to be excellent, too. His light, witty style reminds me a lot of Rick Riordan, whose series I also enjoy. This book isn’t going to provide you with much food for thought, but it will pass a few pleasant hours. I gave The Supernaturalist 5 stars out of 5
What a surprise; Peter Jackson announced today on his Facebook page that The Hobbit movie is officially being split into three parts rather than the two previously announced. Now, I adored Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, and am very much looking forward to The Hobbit. He commented at ComiCon that these are movies made by fans for fans, and it’s clear to see that this is the case. Given the relative lengths of the books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, I have some concerns that to stretch The Hobbit to three movies there may be a lot of filler required and that the decision to switch from two two three is primarily financially based. On the other hand, I have tremendous faith in Peter Jackson and his team, and trust him when he says that he will be expanding The Hobbit universe to include material from other works of Tolkien as well as new material. I have been impressed in the trailer that they have managed to give each of the thirteen dwarves a unique look and personality. That is something that I’m sure extending the film will only help. I understand that some of the…
What a surprise; Peter Jackson announced today on his Facebook page that The Hobbit movie is officially being split into three parts rather than the two previously announced. Now, I adored Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, and am very much looking forward to The Hobbit. He commented at ComiCon that these are movies made by fans for fans, and it’s clear to see that this is the case. Given the relative lengths of the books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, I have some concerns that to stretch The Hobbit to three movies there may be a lot of filler required and that the decision to switch from two two three is primarily financially based. On the other hand, I have tremendous faith in Peter Jackson and his team, and trust him when he says that he will be expanding The Hobbit universe to include material from other works of Tolkien as well as new material. I have been impressed in the trailer that they have managed to give each of the thirteen dwarves a unique look and personality. That is something that I’m sure extending the film will only help. I understand that some of the…
As you might have gathered from my title, I have the Nexus 7 in my hand and have been playing with it for a couple of days now. i can’t believe how different my experience has been with this compared to my previous Android experience on the Kobo Vox. This machine is FAST. it is a Google sponsored product, so it comes with pure Android 4.1.1., Jelly Bean. The Google team has been focussing on lag in Project Butter, and although I can’t compare with anything other than the Kobo Vox, the user experience is silky smooth. In comparison to the Kobo Vox, when I changed screen orientation while reading a Kobo book, I was not faced with five seconds of white screen while the device caught up. Two things I was anxious to check out in Jelly Bean were the Google Search (a Siri equivalent) and Google Now. I have had great fun with Google Search – I was particularly impressed when it hooked up to my Rdio account and will play any song I tell it to play. I was also blown away by Google Now when I checked it and found my bus times without my having…
As you might have gathered from my title, I have the Nexus 7 in my hand and have been playing with it for a couple of days now. i can’t believe how different my experience has been with this compared to my previous Android experience on the Kobo Vox. This machine is FAST. it is a Google sponsored product, so it comes with pure Android 4.1.1., Jelly Bean. The Google team has been focussing on lag in Project Butter, and although I can’t compare with anything other than the Kobo Vox, the user experience is silky smooth. In comparison to the Kobo Vox, when I changed screen orientation while reading a Kobo book, I was not faced with five seconds of white screen while the device caught up. Two things I was anxious to check out in Jelly Bean were the Google Search (a Siri equivalent) and Google Now. I have had great fun with Google Search – I was particularly impressed when it hooked up to my Rdio account and will play any song I tell it to play. I was also blown away by Google Now when I checked it and found my bus times without my having…
Those of you who have read my blog know that I am an Apple fangirl, and that I had been very disappointed in my brieftime with the Kobo Vox ereading tablet. That had been my first experience with Android, and although I was very disappointed in the Kobo Vox, I realised that was due to the tablet itself not the operating system. I really liked the 7 inch size of the Kobo Vox, and I had been considering a more general Android 7 inch tablet. I had been seriously considering the Galaxy 2 tablet, but then I heard about the new Nexus 7 and was blown away by the presentation and reviews. Just looking at the specs of the Kobo compared to the Nexus I can tell already my experience is going to be completely different: Kobo Vox: Operating system custom Android 2.3 CPU 800 Mhz Storage capacity 8 GB Memory 512 MB RAM Display 7″ multi-touch FFS+ multimedia display; 1024 x 600 resolution Nexus 7: Operating system Android 4.1 Jelly Bean SoC Nvidia Tegra 3 (T30L) CPU 1.2 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 with additional low-speed companion core,[1] GPU 416 MHz Nvidia GeForce ULP with 12 cores Memory 1 GB…
Those of you who have read my blog know that I am an Apple fangirl, and that I had been very disappointed in my brieftime with the Kobo Vox ereading tablet. That had been my first experience with Android, and although I was very disappointed in the Kobo Vox, I realised that was due to the tablet itself not the operating system. I really liked the 7 inch size of the Kobo Vox, and I had been considering a more general Android 7 inch tablet. I had been seriously considering the Galaxy 2 tablet, but then I heard about the new Nexus 7 and was blown away by the presentation and reviews. Just looking at the specs of the Kobo compared to the Nexus I can tell already my experience is going to be completely different: Kobo Vox: Operating system custom Android 2.3 CPU 800 Mhz Storage capacity 8 GB Memory 512 MB RAM Display 7″ multi-touch FFS+ multimedia display; 1024 x 600 resolution Nexus 7: Operating system Android 4.1 Jelly Bean SoC Nvidia Tegra 3 (T30L) CPU 1.2 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 with additional low-speed companion core,[1] GPU 416 MHz Nvidia GeForce ULP with 12 cores Memory 1 GB…
****NB spoilers on A Game of Thrones and the Harry Potter series**** As most of my regular readers will know, much of my reading falls into the category of fantasy both epic and contemporary and young adult literature. It is my belief that this is a reaction to being forced to read and dissect to death so much heavy literature while at university. For many years after I graduated I found it difficult to enjoy reading for pleasure, and when I did so, I tended to gravitate towards easy, light reading. Indeed it’s only in the last two years since buying my Kindle eBook reader that I have rediscovered my deep love of reading. It seems that fantasy literature still has the reputation of being light and frothy, and that it has little to teach us, a reputation I feel is undeserved. I suspect this may be due to the thought that it would be more difficult to connect with a story or characters from an alien world. This was brought home to me recently. Last Christmas I gifted my old Kindle to my parents, leaving it on my account as they don’t have internet. I copied some of my…
****NB spoilers on A Game of Thrones and the Harry Potter series**** As most of my regular readers will know, much of my reading falls into the category of fantasy both epic and contemporary and young adult literature. It is my belief that this is a reaction to being forced to read and dissect to death so much heavy literature while at university. For many years after I graduated I found it difficult to enjoy reading for pleasure, and when I did so, I tended to gravitate towards easy, light reading. Indeed it’s only in the last two years since buying my Kindle eBook reader that I have rediscovered my deep love of reading. It seems that fantasy literature still has the reputation of being light and frothy, and that it has little to teach us, a reputation I feel is undeserved. I suspect this may be due to the thought that it would be more difficult to connect with a story or characters from an alien world. This was brought home to me recently. Last Christmas I gifted my old Kindle to my parents, leaving it on my account as they don’t have internet. I copied some of my…