January 2007 DNF
Golden Witchbreen by Mary Gentle
The distant world of Orthe is littered with the spectacular remnants of its once great civilisation. Now the Ortheans have deliberately turned away from the technology which nearly destroyed them - and from anything that links them with their past.
To Orthe comes Lynne de Lisle Christie, envoy from Earth. Her assignment: win the confidence of the planet’s leaders. All too quickly, however, she finds herself at the centre of a conflict which threatens to explode into war - and which puts her own life in peril.
I read about 100 pages, but I just wasn’t all that interested in the story or the characters. The book has an interesting premise, and a very nice first-person narratorial voice, so I may pick it up again someday.
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
For Milo, everything’s a bore. When a tollbooth mysteriously appears in his room, he drives through only because he’s got nothing better to do. But on the other side, things seem different. Milo visits the island of Conclusions (you get there by jumping), learns about time from a ticking watchdog named Tock, and even embarks on a quest to rescue Rhyme and Reason! Somewhere along the way, Milo realizes something astonishing. Life is far from dull. In fact, it’s exciting beyond his wildest dreams.
Someone at the 50bc mentioned this in a thread about children’s fiction. It sounded like the kind of charmingly oddball, Lewis Carroll-ish kind of book that would appeal to me, so I put it on hold at the library. After nine chapters, I just wasn’t very interested in reading more. I can see why people like it so much, but since it’s not doing anything for me, I’m taking it back to the library. I probably won’t pick this up again.
Tags: DNF, Mary Gentle, Norton Juster
