[Herne the hunter]

Last night I finished The Magic Cottage by James Herbert.



There's not really much to say about it. It's without a doubt the blandest book I've ever read. Usually when I reach the end of a novel I get kind of an empty but satisfied feeling inside, like I'm sorry there's no more but happy that I know how everything worked out. When I finished this book, I literally just shrugged to myself, not because it was confusing but because it was just "meh". How it got such high reviews on Amazon I'll never know. It's not bad, but it's certainly not worthy of note.

Tonight I'm starting The Escapement by K J Parker.



It's the final book in a trilogy and I've been looking forward to it for some time (it only came out today, so I'm pretty pleased with myself about how well I timed my last book).

The first two volumes; Devices & Desires, and Evil for Evil (collectively known as The Engineer Trilogy) are quite simply the finest, most believable works of fantasy I have ever read. No monsters, no peurile magic quests, no Pong son of Pikestaff the Nerdy Faced Git, just science, politics and war. After reading the first book when it was fairly new I was so taken with it that I went so far as abandoning a book I was halfway through when the second volume came out. I've been waiting until I've read this to read both of Parker's other trilogies.

Detailed review soon to follow...