Neil Randall
Author of Roger Zelazny's Visual Guide to Castle Amber
About the Author
Neil Randall teaches multimedia design and critique, as well as the analysis of computer interfaces, as a professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
Works by Neil Randall
Associated Works
Pursuit of Glory : The Great War in the Near East — Desarrollador — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Randall, Neil F.
- Gender
- male
Members
Reviews
In a Nutshell: A literary drama about a young girl with an extraordinary ability and some humans with a limited moral compass. An original storyline, character-driven, whimsical and thought-provoking. Offers the fine balance between comedy and tragedy. Recommended if you are looking for something unusual and introspective.
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Plot Preview:
Isn't it great when books surprise you? Even when reading the synopsis of this story, I felt that this was a highly original story, one unlike anything I had read before. The actual content went further beyond my expectations, both in terms of plot as well as characters. Had it not been for the slightly weaker second half, this book might have earned all the stars.
Bookish Yays: show less
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Plot Preview:
Right from the moment Milica Stankovic was born, she wouldn’t stop crying. No matter what her parents tried, Milica kept yelling hershow more
lungs out, much to the annoyance of the neighbours and other townspeople. Her parents are loving and supportive, and never stop doing their best for their only daughter, whose sobs dwindle but never cease as the years go by. When circumstances go beyond their control, Milica’s father gets coerced into using her as a ‘professional mourner’, ensuring that her wails help other attendees at funerals release their grief. So successful is this endeavour that Milica’s fame soon reaches the higher echelons of government. But not for the right reasons.
The story comes to us via an unidentified omniscient narrator.
Isn't it great when books surprise you? Even when reading the synopsis of this story, I felt that this was a highly original story, one unlike anything I had read before. The actual content went further beyond my expectations, both in terms of plot as well as characters. Had it not been for the slightly weaker second half, this book might have earned all the stars.
Bookish Yays: show less
In a Nutshell: A literary drama about a young girl with an extraordinary ability and some humans with a limited moral compass. An original storyline, character-driven, whimsical and thought-provoking. Offers the fine balance between comedy and tragedy. Recommended if you are looking for something unusual and introspective.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Plot Preview:
Isn't it great when books surprise you? Even when reading the synopsis of this story, I felt that this was a highly original story, one unlike anything I had read before. The actual content went further beyond my expectations, both in terms of plot as well as characters. Had it not been for the slightly weaker second half, this book might have earned all the stars.
Bookish Yays: show less
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Plot Preview:
Right from the moment Milica Stankovic was born, she wouldn’t stop crying. No matter what her parents tried, Milica kept yelling hershow more
lungs out, much to the annoyance of the neighbours and other townspeople. Her parents are loving and supportive, and never stop doing their best for their only daughter, whose sobs dwindle but never cease as the years go by. When circumstances go beyond their control, Milica’s father gets coerced into using her as a ‘professional mourner’, ensuring that her wails help other attendees at funerals release their grief. So successful is this endeavour that Milica’s fame soon reaches the higher echelons of government. But not for the right reasons.
The story comes to us via an unidentified omniscient narrator.
Isn't it great when books surprise you? Even when reading the synopsis of this story, I felt that this was a highly original story, one unlike anything I had read before. The actual content went further beyond my expectations, both in terms of plot as well as characters. Had it not been for the slightly weaker second half, this book might have earned all the stars.
Bookish Yays: show less
A very tidy, well produced adventure for role players using the James Bond 007 system from Victory Games. It's got enough to intrigue new players and some elements to keep old hands interested. Completely set upon he island of Jamaica, a limited set of locations is one of the deficits which drops this from being a five star product, but then based upon the film as it is, perhaps this is understandable. Some elements of it have aged, and it would be well, I would think, for games masters and show more players to adjust to a 1960's setting and set it back in the early 60's with little to no modification. It could be updated but that would require a lot of work. The presence of TAROT as the backing organisation makes it less time specific however. Good NPC's, film based in the main, apart from the vacuous Honeychile Ryder, means that support can be offered to the player characters too. I think that this woul be a good start to a TAROT based campaign. show less
An average fantasy book all around. We have your dark outsider, your disguised royalty, your country bumpkin maturing into greatness, your forbidden magic saving the day, your evil and mysterious outlanders plotting the fall of civilization as we know it, your occasional lapses into horribly purple prose, and so on and so forth. By the end the plot gets a little contorted, what with characters suddenly warping between two major points of conflict and talking through psychic channels, which show more tore down the sense of isolation and urgency that one might expect in a book about a three pronged assault against a distant fortress at the edge of civilization. Inconsistencies like describing fire as the ultimate insult to the dead in one chapter and the ultimate honor in the next tend to pop up now an again as well.
While Lord of Cragsclaw is nothing special, it makes for a decent popcorn read, and its cast is sympathetic enough that I'll be spending a few hours to read the second book in the series. show less
While Lord of Cragsclaw is nothing special, it makes for a decent popcorn read, and its cast is sympathetic enough that I'll be spending a few hours to read the second book in the series. show less
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 27
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 805
- Popularity
- #31,684
- Rating
- 3.5
- Reviews
- 7
- ISBNs
- 39
- Languages
- 3