Cyberpunk is always challenged by cliche, and creating original, vigorous player opportunities is always a challenge. This book falls more than a bit Cyberpunk is always challenged by cliche, and creating original, vigorous player opportunities is always a challenge. This book falls more than a bit flat....more
Subsequent generations would come out with gorier, more essentially evil, more self-destructive people than the Kymerians, but I'll It sure is unique.
Subsequent generations would come out with gorier, more essentially evil, more self-destructive people than the Kymerians, but I'll simply put it this way:
Like it or hate it, a more boring author would have made Zorachus a redeemer.
He is. But not in the way I'd assumed. I'll have to give him that....more
I think that I couldn't have written this book better if I'd done it myself, but then I realized I was lying, and I used my time machine to go back inI think that I couldn't have written this book better if I'd done it myself, but then I realized I was lying, and I used my time machine to go back in time and write it, which makes this review a little self-referential, but at least it's true....more
While my own cameo in this book is hilariously non-flattering, this is a really well-thought-out, somewhat self-deprecating, funny, interesting horrorWhile my own cameo in this book is hilariously non-flattering, this is a really well-thought-out, somewhat self-deprecating, funny, interesting horror-comedy-music tale. I'd highly recommend it....more
So on the one hand, this book was pretty important in saving my life. And I should acknowledge that.
It made me feel like there was hope, that it was, So on the one hand, this book was pretty important in saving my life. And I should acknowledge that.
It made me feel like there was hope, that it was, indeed, possible to fight online hate.
On the other hand, I put it to someone this way:
Either Zoe was largely unaware of the kind of damage that could be done by online hate, in which case this book is a lie, or she deliberately used her knowledge to hurt (not necessarily to murder; I don't think she had either ability or desire to drive someone to suicide) - and now that she's back online, her words so far have made me feel: the book's not a lie, but she thinks that online hate only applies to "bad" people.
Which is inaccurate. And dangerous. And rather flies in the face of what she claims she's doing in this book.
While this book is, of course, intensely biased against Dark Lords, it is nevertheless an extraordinary and lyrical fantasy novel, arguably the prototWhile this book is, of course, intensely biased against Dark Lords, it is nevertheless an extraordinary and lyrical fantasy novel, arguably the prototypical modern fantasy novel.
The book has not only aged well, it has arguably aged into something more potent than it was when first written. It didn't just shape the genre; it still really defines the genre.
**spoiler alert** I hate one star reviews. I really do.
But it's hard to imagine what could possibly have gone on in Frank Miller's head outside of "We**spoiler alert** I hate one star reviews. I really do.
But it's hard to imagine what could possibly have gone on in Frank Miller's head outside of "We've now had several years of people on the Internet calling Mr. Miller a fascist."
The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Returns are both iconic for any number of reasons. One of them is that they didn't just address the problem of an aged Batman (he IS only human; we SHOULD consider portrayals of him as having physical difficulties of mortals, because his mortality is part of what makes him an abidingly meaningful hero)--they made the idea of this older Batman, changed by time and what he called "weight of years", into something resonant, something key to how Batman might view trying to save, or change, the world.
This book, on the other hand, makes it a point of killing Batman multiple times-- we perceive him as dead, very dead, really dead, in different ways and at different points in the book. The fact that he theoretically goes on living is pretty damn unimportant, because he's replaced, shelved, and destroyed, content to decide that his life's work was wrong and that younger, more enlightened heroes should take his place--not with his guidance, not with his help, but with the sheer power of their ultra-cool youthness.
I wish the book was more sophisticated than I'm making it sound. I wish it read like a story and not a screed. I sincerely believe that the Frank Miller of ten years ago wouldn't have written this story if you put a gun to his head, and I think that sure, a man can change his mind--but this isn't a change of mind, this is just an ugly sellout, a man who defined the modern Batman, and whose Batman changed an icon, trying to stretch an icon into ugly, ill-fitting shapes just to fit current fashions.
I could forgive all that. But at heart, this is not a good story. At heart, this story HAS no heart. And Batman without heart, without spirit, is like Superman deciding that Clark Kent is all he should ever want to be: it's just a weird parody of himself....more
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