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Book reviews
Oct. 3rd, 2014 01:35 amLet's see how much I remember about the books I've read in the past while!
Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone: This is a strange book. It's set in a industrial age world with gods and magic and... lawyers who do necromancy, ish? I didn't hate it, but it didn't exactly enthrall me either. It felt like there was a bit too much going on, as if the author had done a lot of world building and couldn't wait to show it off, but really, not all of it needed to be in this book. Towards the end it was also rather predictable.
Village of the Ghost Bears by Stan Jones: Huh, this book was significantly better than all the other ones in the series. I quite liked it - still a bit bothered by the main character's relationship, but the story was very good.
Feeling Good by David D. Burns: What was I doing reading a self-help book about depression? I don't remember, but it was on my list so I got it out. I read the intro and skimmed through the rest - mostly it told me that I do not have self esteem issues, unlike, apparently, a lot of depressed people. Also, if someone offers you a quiz to test your depression levels, it will almost always tell you that you are moderately depressed because if you answer anything other than "rarely" or "never" to their very generic questions (like, do you feel sad in a week), you fall into the huge "moderate depression" category. Mostly the author spent his time trying to convince you that the book might work for you. It felt like a placebo at best, a con at worst.
Junkyard Dogs by Craig Johnson: Aw, the Longmire TV show got cancelled this year. Oh well, at least I can still read the books! This one, as usual, was good - I enjoyed the scenery and characters around the scrapyard. The mystery was a bit contrived, though, and no one seemed like they reacted enough to the fact that this was a massive serial killer they were going after. Strange.
Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor: This is a young adult novel that's basically a kid magic coming of age story, with modern Nigeria as a background. I presume the magic system is based off of Nigerian folklore as well, though I didn't go and look it up. It was a fun enough read, didn't take too long.
Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson: This book/series came very oddly recommended to me. I was lent a copy with the comment that I'd probably like it, but that it was a pretty confusing read and that the recommender had never gone on with the series because of that... next a coworker told me that the second book was really good, and that the first book would eventually make sense... a similar comment came from my neighbour at band, who read it and felt like she should read it a second time to make sense of things (but she never had). So, uh, often recommended but not exactly highly?
With all that warning, I went through the first third of the book with it just sort of washing over me. There was a lot of different characters and not a lot of explanation as to why anything was happening. The next third introduced even more characters and pulled together some background into a bit more coherent of a world. The final third pulled all the characters physically together, unmasked a few things and was generally a let down. Yeah, that's right: the part that should have been the pay off was just disappointing. They built up a character the entire book and then took away what made her interesting without doing anything about it... I only ever came to care at all about one of the characters (out of a huge cast)... and frankly, there was just a lot going on for no real reason.
I think fantasy writers should learn something from mystery writers. It's great that you have a huge world in your head, but you don't have to shove it all down my throat. Subtlety makes for a way better payoff... I don't want to get to the end and be thinking "about damn time you explained that nonsense from the beginning", I want "oh my god, that was foreshadowed and I didn't even notice it at the time, you clever bastard".
Did I hate it? Nah. But I wouldn't recommend it either, it's just another weird-ass epic fantasy that leaves you at the end of 700 pages wondering whether you really got that much out of it. Also, the title of the book is a strange choice, and I was constantly troubled by the idea that there was a mobile "moon" that apparently didn't cause gravitational effects. Totally unnecessary as well.
Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone: This is a strange book. It's set in a industrial age world with gods and magic and... lawyers who do necromancy, ish? I didn't hate it, but it didn't exactly enthrall me either. It felt like there was a bit too much going on, as if the author had done a lot of world building and couldn't wait to show it off, but really, not all of it needed to be in this book. Towards the end it was also rather predictable.
Village of the Ghost Bears by Stan Jones: Huh, this book was significantly better than all the other ones in the series. I quite liked it - still a bit bothered by the main character's relationship, but the story was very good.
Feeling Good by David D. Burns: What was I doing reading a self-help book about depression? I don't remember, but it was on my list so I got it out. I read the intro and skimmed through the rest - mostly it told me that I do not have self esteem issues, unlike, apparently, a lot of depressed people. Also, if someone offers you a quiz to test your depression levels, it will almost always tell you that you are moderately depressed because if you answer anything other than "rarely" or "never" to their very generic questions (like, do you feel sad in a week), you fall into the huge "moderate depression" category. Mostly the author spent his time trying to convince you that the book might work for you. It felt like a placebo at best, a con at worst.
Junkyard Dogs by Craig Johnson: Aw, the Longmire TV show got cancelled this year. Oh well, at least I can still read the books! This one, as usual, was good - I enjoyed the scenery and characters around the scrapyard. The mystery was a bit contrived, though, and no one seemed like they reacted enough to the fact that this was a massive serial killer they were going after. Strange.
Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor: This is a young adult novel that's basically a kid magic coming of age story, with modern Nigeria as a background. I presume the magic system is based off of Nigerian folklore as well, though I didn't go and look it up. It was a fun enough read, didn't take too long.
Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson: This book/series came very oddly recommended to me. I was lent a copy with the comment that I'd probably like it, but that it was a pretty confusing read and that the recommender had never gone on with the series because of that... next a coworker told me that the second book was really good, and that the first book would eventually make sense... a similar comment came from my neighbour at band, who read it and felt like she should read it a second time to make sense of things (but she never had). So, uh, often recommended but not exactly highly?
With all that warning, I went through the first third of the book with it just sort of washing over me. There was a lot of different characters and not a lot of explanation as to why anything was happening. The next third introduced even more characters and pulled together some background into a bit more coherent of a world. The final third pulled all the characters physically together, unmasked a few things and was generally a let down. Yeah, that's right: the part that should have been the pay off was just disappointing. They built up a character the entire book and then took away what made her interesting without doing anything about it... I only ever came to care at all about one of the characters (out of a huge cast)... and frankly, there was just a lot going on for no real reason.
I think fantasy writers should learn something from mystery writers. It's great that you have a huge world in your head, but you don't have to shove it all down my throat. Subtlety makes for a way better payoff... I don't want to get to the end and be thinking "about damn time you explained that nonsense from the beginning", I want "oh my god, that was foreshadowed and I didn't even notice it at the time, you clever bastard".
Did I hate it? Nah. But I wouldn't recommend it either, it's just another weird-ass epic fantasy that leaves you at the end of 700 pages wondering whether you really got that much out of it. Also, the title of the book is a strange choice, and I was constantly troubled by the idea that there was a mobile "moon" that apparently didn't cause gravitational effects. Totally unnecessary as well.
