**edit 11/26/13 "You find life such a problem because you think there are good people and bad people. You're wrong, of course. There are, always and**edit 11/26/13 "You find life such a problem because you think there are good people and bad people. You're wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides."
--Terry Pratchett
Summon up your own shadow and let it pull you into the Twilight, the liminal land of heartless greys and mysterious shadows, where truths cannot be hidden and where magic is real. But the Twilight's gift is two-edged. While it will grant you powers, it will also leech away your humanity, transforming you into an Other: an inhuman, immortal being who sees the world as inalterably divided into Light and Dark. If you walk into the Twilight, pray that you do so with a merry heart. Don't bring anger or greed or sadness, because that first moment in the Twilight will alter your fate forever. Walk in with laughter on your lips and you'll be a servant of the Light; step in with sadness and you'll be a creature of the Dark. ... Due to my disapproval of GR's new and rather subjective review deletion policy, the rest of my (rather verbose) review is posted over at Booklikes....more
Richard is an ordinary man with an ordinary past and an ordinary life, a man who takes comfort in the mundane and is content to be or**edited 12/04/13
Richard is an ordinary man with an ordinary past and an ordinary life, a man who takes comfort in the mundane and is content to be ordered about by his domineering fiancée. But when a terrified and injured girl stumbles into his path, Richard makes what might be his first independent decision, his first resistance against the ordinary flow of his life: he makes the choice to rescue and protect this unknown girl. Immediately, his reality begins to shatter, and in the cracks between the mundanity of his past life, he begins to discover the peculiar world of London Below. Catapulted into strangeness, Richard begins a quest into the magical and often grotesque environs of London Below to find the girl who shattered his peace and to regain his old life.
Neverwhere is an exploration of the fantastic, an adventure, an escape into the creative and bizarre and dangerous, and, perhaps above all, the story of a man discovering himself.
Aislinn has always had the Sight. She has always known that no matter how lovely the Fae may be, they are unpredictable. Dangerous. D**edited 01/27/14
Aislinn has always had the Sight. She has always known that no matter how lovely the Fae may be, they are unpredictable. Dangerous. Downright wicked. So when a fairy suddenly expresses interest in her, she's far more frightened than flattered. But how can a highschool girl escape when the Summer King of the fae is after her?
My enjoyment of this book really surprised me, because I generally detest romances. For me, even the shortest lovey-dovey moment of any book, is either mind-numbingly dull or embarrassingly squicky. And yet, despite its general YA/romance vibe, I found myself really enjoying Wicked Lovely. Maybe it's the way I felt this book broke the stereotypes. The typical romance plot channels a mixture of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Yes, I know they tend to think they're channeling Austen's Pride and Prejudice; they're not, but that's another rant for another day.
Central Park Knight has an exciting premise--an Indiana Jones style professor battling Lovecrafian monsters in NYC. But for me, the book just didn't doCentral Park Knight has an exciting premise--an Indiana Jones style professor battling Lovecrafian monsters in NYC. But for me, the book just didn't do it. The characters were flat, the action was nonexistent, and began to feel that the author should be fined for his repeated violations of "show, not tell."
For me, the book was disastrous both in terms of character and writing style, but flat characters are far too commonplace to earn my fiercest ire. The writing style, make me more and more furious with each successive page. I haven't seen so many dashes or such long sentences since I stopped reading womens' novels from the Regency and Victorian periods. The author's excruciatingly long descriptions and interruptions when moving ponderously towards the (short) action scene probably were meant to build up tension, but they just made me impatient. The writing was clunky and suffered from a bad case of "instant paraphrase". Whatever occurs in dialogue or body language, rather than building the story, is superfluous because the narration reiterates and every single fact and describes, in excruciating detail, every single thought and intention behind the words.
For example, choosing a section at random, I found these gems:
Smiling back at his guide, he gave her an exaggerated tilt of the head, letting the woman know how greatly he appreciated her bit of humor. Warming to her completely, the young man began asking questions" (78)
The young man bit at his lower lip, nodding his head several times to indicate that her information was correct while keeping from making eye contact with her. Rainert's obvious embarrassment let Danielle know instantly that he was telling the truth, and the tone in her voice revealed the extent to which she was obviously impressed. Looking over her charge in a completely new light, she clapped her hands together several times, tittering" (80)
The characters did not do much to save the narrative. Take Indiana Jones, strip away all of his humor, rip his humanity out by the seams, and expel every ounce of charisma from his character, and you have our hero, Piers Knight. Yes, that really is his name. Get used to seeing it five times or so on every page. Knight is apparently handsome, genius-level brilliant, famous, daring, coolheaded, and totally inhuman and unlikable. However, somehow he also has Indiana Jones' habit of being swooned upon--and hitting on--younger women. Women in the narrative are described by appearance first and character later--if ever. The standard for female intelligence and daring appears much lower than that of the male. It grated on me that the beautiful, red-haired Bridget is seen as something special and brave by our professor because she played the role of timorous damsel and then played assistant while he saved the world. Clearly, the role of women is to simper, console, and assist the menfolk. And the women aren't even good at passion. The characters are so wooden that the supposedly emotional scenes embarrassed me.
For example, here is our touching and ever-so-realistic love scene:
So tell me, as you look into my face, as you count the lines that were not there the last time we spoke; as you scan my head, enumerating the gray hairs that I did not carry when last we met, judging by how I have aged, darling, how long has it been since....well...since? ... "How long...'since,'" he asked her. "If I judge by the emptiness left in my heart when...when we were torn apart, it's been a hundred life times...If I were to judge the passage of time based solely on what I can read in your beauty, then I would be forced to admit that we must never have met, for you appear younger than ever." A shift came over Ms. Lu, one so abrupt it was obvious even she had not believed such was possible. As Knight allowed himself to soften, his defenses to drop, she did the same, the corners of her eyes moistening slightly. (88)
It gets worse, but the scene is so long and agonizing I can't type any more. This overblown, pretentious, clunky dialogue dehumanized the characters for me rather than giving them depth.
Our other protagonist is George Reinert. Reinert is obese, and Henderson just won't let us forget it. Any time Reinert steps onpage, some epiphet that distainfully describes his weight--"fat", "obese", "lumpish", "pudgy", "thick", "sagging", "overweight", "greasy", "unsightly", "awkward", "sausage-like fingers", -- is sure to be used. Maybe Henderson was trying to be tolerant, open-minded, and creative by having a fat protagonist, and that is admirable, but Reinert doesn't break stereotypes, he enforces them. Reinert is a pudgy, nerdy, tech genius who is completely socially inept, and it felt to me that the author's disgust and distain when describing his weight and his lifestyle soiled every description.
The author tells us he's smart, and we'll have to take Henderson's word for it, since Reinert doesn't display any glimmerings of it to the reader. Here's an instance of his vaunted intelligence. Upon meeting Knight, he says, "Pleased to make your aquaintance, your lordship." Knight's response:
His greeting also struck Knight as a trifle out of the ordinary. [Really?] If nothing else, the slight oddness of it gave the professor some hope. It had been clever, [clearly the prof and I have different definitions of clever] and certainly different--two things he appreciated in anyone when he found them." (57)
So he's never heard bad puns on his last name before, and this lame attempt was the best he's heard?
I really tried to like this book. I did. It seemed like something of a reimagining of Terry Pratchett's Guards, Guards!, where ancient dragons hidden in pockets of time are called out, not into Anhk Morpork, but into prosaic NYC, and it looked fun. But the writing style and flat characters murdered any enjoyment I could have gotten out of the book. I will admit that instant paraphrase probably bothers me more than other people, so maybe others will enjoy the book more. But with the number of truly deep and great books out there, I wish I'd spent my three hours and twenty-six minutes differently. ...more
Poltergeist was a refreshing read and good enough that I'm rushing to find the sequel. The premise is interesting and the story and c**edited 12/04/13
Poltergeist was a refreshing read and good enough that I'm rushing to find the sequel. The premise is interesting and the story and characters are reasonably engaging. The protagonist, Harper Blaine, a small-time PI in Seattle, died for two minutes and was revived with a strange power: she is able to see-sometimes inadvertently--into the Grey, the world of spirit and magic. She is pulled into a case where a poltergeist, created in a during an unusual sociology experiment, begins to go rogue and draws the other subjects into mystery and murder.
Wildwood Dancing may be, externally, a fairytale retelling, but on a deeper level, it is a commentary on feminism and the role of wom**edited 02/02/14
Wildwood Dancing may be, externally, a fairytale retelling, but on a deeper level, it is a commentary on feminism and the role of women. Jena, the main character, is strong and perceptive, but trapped and stifled by her role as a young girl, forced into dependence by the men around her. My feelings about the book are as mixed and torn as Jena is between her roles of subservience and strength.
I had this recommended to me as a story similar to Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, but personally, I found the story somewhat disappoint**edited 01/08/14
I had this recommended to me as a story similar to Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, but personally, I found the story somewhat disappointing. The world was fun and imaginative and the concept was engaging, but I couldn't relate to characters and found it simply impossible to suspend enough disbelief to get into the plot.
John Taylor, from the Nightside, is the hero. You can tell. He has a magic sword and he wears a white trenchcoat. So what if he kills tons of people with no remorse in the first 30 pages and decides to use their bodies to grow fruit trees? White duster. Magic sword. Seriously worthy good guy, clearly.
When I first started the book, I disapproved of the main character, James Stark, but I couldn't help liking him. He way way far to th**edited 01/31/14
When I first started the book, I disapproved of the main character, James Stark, but I couldn't help liking him. He way way far to the left of the antihero meter; after escaping Hell, emerging from a graveyard, and patting down clothes still smouldering with hellfire, his first action is to mug a guy for his wallet, jacket, and sunglasses (he left him his carkeys and credit cards). He's bitter, vengeful, and unapologetically so--but he's so phegmatic and wry that I found it hard not to like him.
Then the story started deviating from my expectations.
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