Elke

Those were five cracking good stories, this time a mixture of philosophy, psychology and fiction.
The stories follow one of the astronauts which are spread over the galaxy to man and maintain beacons. We get to know a person who is extremely lonely and the ways how a human mind can work in this situation.
I found those stories highly instructive and fascinating, sometimes funny, sometimes sad - even disturbing. I'm really glad that I've found those books and would like to recommend it to you all.

For this book I'd like to have the possibility to rate each story separately. I liked all of them, but those of Shevedieh and Javre were the most hilarious, especially "Two’s Company", where Javre runs into Whirrun of Bligh. Their conversion before they start ... well, whatever they do afterwards ... is so funny and comical, you shouldn't read that book in public as not to disturb your fellow men for laughing out loud. 5 stars for Shevedieh and Javre!

This book is the last one written but the first in the Foundation series. I’ve read it after the so-called trilogy (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation) and at some times it was like a spotlight directed at specific events in the trilogy - it gave the impression of „Ahh, that’s why it happened!“. The story itself developed quite slowly but nevertheless intriguing. The book ends with a really „cruel“ last chapter, where you’ll find an unexpected development and a basis for wild guesses for the future books.

Agreed, Ron :-)
This is a timeless masterpiece of science fiction and I’m looking forward to read all of the series.
What I liked most - aside from the great story itself - was to discover that other authors kind of re-used parts of the setup and inventions later on. Very nostalgic!

This is a fantastic book which contains not only sketches and paintings but also comments of Alan Lee.
His thoughts and remarks describe the story of Lord of the Rings from a different perspective - that of transferring J.R.R. Tolkiens descriptions and his own imagination into pictures - and further, into settings for the films.

It really is a shame that this anthology didn't contain Two Hundred and Twenty-One stories; I would have liked to read on and on because most of the stories were so inventive, creepy, peculiar and - above all - written with loving details. It wasn't much important which case Holmes and Watson had to investigate (although the cases too were sometimes quite weird), it was the surrounding what mattered.
Also quite cheerful and genial were the comments of Mr Moore at the beginning of each new chapter which point the reader in the right direction already without telling too much.

I hope that Mr Moore will go on with a search for authors who have already written or intend to write more of such stories. I'd love to continue reading!

Starting this book, I expected a bit of mouldy story (the book being published in the early 70's). As you can imagine: I was wrong. What a luck!
It is split into three parts where each of them is thrilling enough. However, I've liked the middle part best, where Mr. Asimov outnumbers every other description of an alien people I've ever read. The society he describes is at once foreign, weird and absolutely believable; what is more: it's amiable.
This is one of the best SciFi books I've ever read and so I'd like to recommend it to all other fans of marvellous Science Fiction.

This is my favorite book in the Peter Grant series so far. This time, the story line was more of a real, well-woven narration and Peter developed to a real person instead of a wizard's apprentice only.
Like in the previous books, police work means a lot of abbreviations. Finally, I've managed to memorize some of them - the funnier ones :-) - so that the flow in reading wasn't interrupted any longer.
It was a nice change to the first books of the series. I like crime stories very much, so I've enjoyed this Peter Grant story which didn't lay much stress on wizardry.

How very sad!
A very complex and moving story about ecology, father-and-son relationships (over 3 generations), animal rights, eco-warriors and their adversaries and - not to forget - bees.
Johanna Sinisalo tells her story well-worded and imaginative, lets the reader know only small pieces at a time which makes this book an intriguing read.

The dedication already makes clear, what’s to be expected from this book – and the reader won’t be disappointed ;-)
I was really glad to see that Joe Abercrombie returned to a more sophisticated structure of a story (after the quite weak “Best Served Cold”) – even if it wasn’t what you’d call a soothing bedtime reading. I don’t think, there were more than a few chapters (5 – 8?) without betrayals, men changing allegiances, massacres … in short: magnificent!

This book is quite straightforward compared to those of the First Law Trilogy (or at least it seems to me). The story has only one thread to follow and the characters are a bit too plain. I enjoyed it nevertheless as it has got an inkling of the former books in the matter of violence, betrayal and twisted story.