Read NZ

Otamatea High School

View schoolsView schools

Top 10 team members

  1. 1

    Imogen

    69,034 pts
    View this team member
  2. 2

    Alison OHS

    12,160 pts
    View this team member
  3. 3

    JonThorns

    4,396 pts
    View this team member
  4. 4

    ABarnesWright

    2,603 pts
    View this team member
  5. 5

    Ev Rippon

    4,162 pts
    View this team member
  6. 6

    TraceyC

    3,427 pts
    View this team member
  7. 7

    EvandenBerg

    1,702 pts
    View this team member
  8. 8

    Damon

    975 pts
    View this team member
  9. 9

    MR.Clarkson

    780 pts
    View this team member
  10. 10

    Lee

    1,468 pts
    View this team member

JonThorns

4,396 pts
(3,804 pages read)

  • Consider Phlebas

    By Iain M. Banks
    5 stars

    Brilliant, well before its time! Two galactic civilizations are battling, one is in support of sentient machines (AI), the other are a warrior people on a religious jihad. This is the second Iain M. Banks book I have read. I am not sure if this is just chance but again the protagonist is deeply flawed and does not live happily ever after.

  • The Farthest Shore

    By Ursula K. Le Guin
    4 stars

    Book 3 of the Earthsea series. Something (someone) is draining the vitality out of the world. Ged goes off on boat trip with a young prince to find the cause of this. The explores immortality and why it might not be such a good idea. An easy summertime read. My kindle version did not have the map, so I had to look it up online.

  • The Tombs of Atuan

    By Ursula K. Le Guin
    4 stars

    The second book in the EarthSea series. The female protagonist was forced into a role as a child, which had privilege and power but also massive restrictions of freedom. She meets a trespasser (Ged) and gets to make actual choices in her life. Short enjoyable read.

  • Wizard of Earthsea

    By Ursula Le Guin
    5 stars

    A classic book, a chapter or two in, I realised I'd read this book as a teenager, more than thirty years ago. I was watching YouTube and the algorithm suggested I read Ursula Le Guin due to her idealism and revolutionary philosophy. Fast paced for younger readers, alot packed into three hundred pages. Excellent traditional storytelling that has a message about human nature.

  • Use of Weapons

    By Iain M. Banks
    5 stars

    Excellent book, a warfare tactician is hired and kept alive by a supposedly peaceful empire that meddles in smaller civilizations affairs. He is hiding something from his past. The book has two time frames; the deeper past one is running backwards, whilst the current story runs forwards. Great storytelling, I'll be reading some more from this author.

  • Island of the Lost

    By Joan Druett
    5 stars

    With 2 groups of shipwrecked sailors on the Auckland Islands at the time (unaware of each other) the author compared the leadership, resourcefulness and humanity of the 2 groups. I was amazed at how skilled these men were, what they built and how they survived in atrocious conditions.

  • Every Witch Way But Dead

    By Kim Harrison
    4 stars

    I got tired of the author describing clothing. However the book had some fight scenes as Rachael the protagonist discovers she has talent as leyline witch. The romance with the bad boy vampire was a bit tedious too.

  • Forgotten Forest

    By Robert Vennell
    5 stars

    Like "Going on Bear Hunt" for adult nature nerds. We all know the majesty of our large trees, kauri, totara and Kahikatea...This book looks at the 'forgotten' but fascinating organisms of Aotearoa, the fungi, lichens, liverworts, mosses and slime moulds.

  • Life's Engines - How Microbes Made Earth Habitable

    By Paul G Falkowski
    5 stars

    About how the basic machinery of life evolved in single celled organisms and how we inherited this machinery when the eukaryotic cells evolved with the process of endosymbiosis. This is when a prokaryotic cell became engulfed within another prokaryotic cell to form eukaryotes. The engulfed cell is now the mitochondria, which have their own DNA. Eukaryotic cells and multicellular organisms have allowed specialisation of cells to create animals plants, us...

  • The Good, the Bad, and the Undead.

    By Kim Harrison
    4 stars

    Better than the first book, with Rachel investigating a string of murders where Leyline witches are being brutally murdered. Classic misdirection and more backstory is introduced in the second book of the series.

  • Dead Witch Walking

    By Kim Harrison
    4 stars

    A slightly more modern version of the Jim Butcher books (Dresden Files). The theme is solving crimes in a supernatural world. The protagonist is Rachel who is a witch, flatting with a vampire and a pixie. In this the first book she just needs to stay alive as a contract is put on her hand, all because she quit her job and went independent.

Add pages read