Ok... I read the second one. Same as the first one, interesting action sequences but I don't like that there's no overarching plot so things keep happening but I can't look forward to the resolution the events may bring. It's actually kind of annoying because he keeps introducing new characters, and have them start a plot for themselves but it doesn't mesh with the other plotlines until later in the book. It's like... long exciting action sequence, then long sequeway that doesn't really go anywhere.
This book starts about a week after the last book. Kylar has decided to give up the ways of the wetboy and run off with Elene and Uly (Durzo and momma K's daughter). They live in peace for awhile, but he isn't able to give up his calling. The Ka'kari won't let him, but Elene won't let him kill either so he's living a bit of a double life. Meanwhile, in Cenuria, the rebellion is in full swing because the Godking is a mother fucking bastard; Logan is still stuck in the hole; and Jarl becomes king of the underworld and realizes that he needs Kylar's help to bring down the Godking. Jarl goes and finds Kylar, Jarl get assassinated by his friend Vi (a wetboy who is a girl), Kylar runs off to help the rebellion for Jarl. Vi kidnapps Uly as a hostage, Elene goes after Uly, Vi and Uly get kidnapped by a wytch of some sort (Ariel who is a scholarly woman who wants to study Kylar), Kylar dies again, Vi runs away from Ariel, Ariel takes Uly to the Chantry where she will learn to be a wytch. Kylar comes back to life, gets to Cenuria, kills Hu Gibbert (traitor wetboy), rescues Logan, Logan leads the attack against the Godking's army, while Kylar is forced to team up with Vi to kill the Godking. Kylar dies again in the attempt to kill the Godking, and Vi magically binds herself to Kylar so she is able to break the spell the Godking has on her so she can kill the Godking. Godking dies, Logan wins, Elene is kidnapped, Kylar is depressed and finds out that Durzo is alive again....
A whole lot of other things happen that don't help the story, but occur and annoy me because they don't have a purpose or conclusion. Like Uly getting kidnapped, then what?! Is it a good thing, is it a bad thing, will Elene ever catch up, will the Chantry get what they want... or is this all some annoying ploy to make me read the third book. And there's no point for a third book to even exist. The main plot of the story is complete, the third book is only wrapping up the loose ends the author purposely added to the second book so there could be a trilogy.s Sigh... I will probably read the third book, just cause its convenient.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks
I haven't read anything this hard core into the Fantasy genre in a long time, and I was quite nostalgic reading it. It reminded me of my angst filled youth.
The Way of Shadows is an entertaining story, but by no means especially well written or with particularly interesting ideas. It's a story about a street urchin who leaves his abusive life on the streets by apprenticing himself as a "wetboy" or super assassin. The author never really explains why they're called wetboys, just emphasizes the fact that they are supposed to be better than mere assassins because they have magic powers or "Talent". The kid, Azoth (renamed Kyler after he becomes an assassin) has the usual moral issues, becomes good and starts killing people. Near the end, the climax of the story arrives in one big long arc where the King of Kyler's country is assassinated, and the neighboring GodKing invades. There's conspiracy and subterfuge, and this thing called a ka'kari that gives special people super powers that Kyler's master spent his life guarding and collecting. Of course, Kyler's one of the few people who can use a ka'kari, so it ends with Kyler getting super powers to work as a bit of a cliffhanger for the next book. The biggest cliffhanger of course is when it is revealed that Kyler's best friend, Logan, and natural heir to the throne is still alive but stuck hiding in jail with psychopaths - makes you wonder how twisted he will become when he gets out.
The story itself is not very interesting, but the background is. The world created for this story is very complex, but unfortunately not very well explained. The author almost assumes you know a bit of the world before you start, so the reader just ends up being kinda confused as names and histories are thrown at you.
The Way of Shadows is an entertaining story, but by no means especially well written or with particularly interesting ideas. It's a story about a street urchin who leaves his abusive life on the streets by apprenticing himself as a "wetboy" or super assassin. The author never really explains why they're called wetboys, just emphasizes the fact that they are supposed to be better than mere assassins because they have magic powers or "Talent". The kid, Azoth (renamed Kyler after he becomes an assassin) has the usual moral issues, becomes good and starts killing people. Near the end, the climax of the story arrives in one big long arc where the King of Kyler's country is assassinated, and the neighboring GodKing invades. There's conspiracy and subterfuge, and this thing called a ka'kari that gives special people super powers that Kyler's master spent his life guarding and collecting. Of course, Kyler's one of the few people who can use a ka'kari, so it ends with Kyler getting super powers to work as a bit of a cliffhanger for the next book. The biggest cliffhanger of course is when it is revealed that Kyler's best friend, Logan, and natural heir to the throne is still alive but stuck hiding in jail with psychopaths - makes you wonder how twisted he will become when he gets out.
The story itself is not very interesting, but the background is. The world created for this story is very complex, but unfortunately not very well explained. The author almost assumes you know a bit of the world before you start, so the reader just ends up being kinda confused as names and histories are thrown at you.
Friday, July 9, 2010
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
An English translation of the Swedish crime novel "the Men who Hate Women". The Swedish title says alot. It's a thriller based around two crimes, sadistic hate crimes against women and financial crime. Officially there are two plots running through the story, but they never overlap.
It starts off with Mikael Blomkvist, who is convicted of libel against a corporate magnate. He never defended himself during his trial because he knew he could not prove his innocence. After he is convicted, he is hired by an old man looking to solve the supposed murder of his beloved niece, Harriet, 30 years ago. Mikael agrees, not really expecting to find anything... but he does. He is joined by Lisbeth Salander, a delinquent investigative genius with a twisted view of the world. She is the other protagonist in the story and you become very sympathetic towards her when you learn of her background. Together, they find out that Harriet is alive and living under a different name in Australia after running away that fateful day 30 years ago. She'd run away because she'd been suffering sexual abuse from her brother, a sadistic serial killer who continued to practice his twisted hobbies with other women after his sister left.
After Mikael solves the case, he goes back to clearing his name of the libel conviction - which he succeeds.
This is a great book, the story is suspenseful and unexpected. The crimes are graphic and unapologetic. I don't think I could ever read it again, nor could I ever watch the film version.
It starts off with Mikael Blomkvist, who is convicted of libel against a corporate magnate. He never defended himself during his trial because he knew he could not prove his innocence. After he is convicted, he is hired by an old man looking to solve the supposed murder of his beloved niece, Harriet, 30 years ago. Mikael agrees, not really expecting to find anything... but he does. He is joined by Lisbeth Salander, a delinquent investigative genius with a twisted view of the world. She is the other protagonist in the story and you become very sympathetic towards her when you learn of her background. Together, they find out that Harriet is alive and living under a different name in Australia after running away that fateful day 30 years ago. She'd run away because she'd been suffering sexual abuse from her brother, a sadistic serial killer who continued to practice his twisted hobbies with other women after his sister left.
After Mikael solves the case, he goes back to clearing his name of the libel conviction - which he succeeds.
This is a great book, the story is suspenseful and unexpected. The crimes are graphic and unapologetic. I don't think I could ever read it again, nor could I ever watch the film version.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips
Really fun book. It's funny and interesting and well written. The summary on the book jacket only talks about Artemis, but the story involves all the Olympian gods and the mortals who come into contact with them.
The story is about the Olympian gods who moved to London, England, during the industrial revolution. Slowly, over the years the gods started losing their power because they were getting old and people stopped believing in them. In present day, Artemis is a disillusioned dog-walker, Apollo is a tv psychic personality, Aphrodite does phone sex, etc... to pass the time. One day, during a taping of Apollo's tv show, Aphrodite, who was angry at Apollo for something, convinced Eros to shoot one of his love arrows into Apollo to force him to fall in love with a mortal. The mortal, Alice, was already in love with a man named Neil, so no matter what Apollo did to seduce her, it didn't work. Finally, when Alice refused Apollo, he decided to take his revenge on her by having Zeus kill her by lightning. She dies, and Neil becomes the unlikely hero that brings her back to life and saves the gods from the pathetic life of useless boredom.
It's an interesting imagining of what old gods might be doing after they cease to be worshipped... but I would be even more interested to know if the Olympian gods interacted with other deities in other parts of the world. Like, what if Artemis was a good friend with Kwan Yin. Or Hades played tennis with Osiris... now that would be interesting. Although, if the other gods existed, then the world wouldn't end if Apollo fell into a coma, because a different god of the sun could pick up the slack... I guess that would have to be a different story then.
The story is about the Olympian gods who moved to London, England, during the industrial revolution. Slowly, over the years the gods started losing their power because they were getting old and people stopped believing in them. In present day, Artemis is a disillusioned dog-walker, Apollo is a tv psychic personality, Aphrodite does phone sex, etc... to pass the time. One day, during a taping of Apollo's tv show, Aphrodite, who was angry at Apollo for something, convinced Eros to shoot one of his love arrows into Apollo to force him to fall in love with a mortal. The mortal, Alice, was already in love with a man named Neil, so no matter what Apollo did to seduce her, it didn't work. Finally, when Alice refused Apollo, he decided to take his revenge on her by having Zeus kill her by lightning. She dies, and Neil becomes the unlikely hero that brings her back to life and saves the gods from the pathetic life of useless boredom.
It's an interesting imagining of what old gods might be doing after they cease to be worshipped... but I would be even more interested to know if the Olympian gods interacted with other deities in other parts of the world. Like, what if Artemis was a good friend with Kwan Yin. Or Hades played tennis with Osiris... now that would be interesting. Although, if the other gods existed, then the world wouldn't end if Apollo fell into a coma, because a different god of the sun could pick up the slack... I guess that would have to be a different story then.
Friday, June 4, 2010
The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon
Amazing book. This book is so well written that it both explains my complaints about The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane and crushes the other book with its superior quality as a book. Annabel Lyon writes in first person as Aristotle, so you get to hear his thoughts and you get to feel his impressions for people - you are never told that he is a manic depressive little man with a great mind, you see it and you feel it instead.
The story revolves around Aristotle's life as he begins teaching Alexander the Great as a child. You get a good sense of what life could be like in ancient Macedonia, and you get a distinct impression of Alexander and Aristotle's personalities. Both become great men in the eyes of history, but both were seen as wild and crazy and unusual in their time.
My one complaint is the amount of swearing included in the book. It's a little jarring when you read it for the first time, because you don't expect to see it in a historical novel. However, when you think about it, that is the language they would have used in a warrior society - not everybody spoke as eloquently as Shakespeare would have us believe.
The story revolves around Aristotle's life as he begins teaching Alexander the Great as a child. You get a good sense of what life could be like in ancient Macedonia, and you get a distinct impression of Alexander and Aristotle's personalities. Both become great men in the eyes of history, but both were seen as wild and crazy and unusual in their time.
My one complaint is the amount of swearing included in the book. It's a little jarring when you read it for the first time, because you don't expect to see it in a historical novel. However, when you think about it, that is the language they would have used in a warrior society - not everybody spoke as eloquently as Shakespeare would have us believe.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe
This book had a lot of potential, but it just didn't quite achieve it. The story is based around an American Colonial history PhD student who discovers a primary source that could potentially change the way the Salem witch trials are discussed. The idea being that if people believed in witches back then, then practicing witches must leave some documentation behind, not just fear mongering propaganda created by witch hunters. So Connie Goodwin goes on a hunt for this Physick Book, which she first gets hints about among her grandmother's things. She meets a boy, falls in love. The bad guy is her PhD supervisor who wants to use the book to prove that magic actually exists in the world, and create a real Philosopher's Stone. And of course, she can actually do magic once she gets her hands on some real spells.
When I first read the summary for the book, I immediately thought "Possession" by A.S Byatt. That was such a good book, with so much depth of character, and the reader becomes so involved with the story- and the story the characters discover. But this one, just doesn't compare. There is so much potential for this to be a great book, but you can tell right off that this is Howe's first book. There isn't much subtlety to the writing, and the main character feels flat. My biggest beef with Howe is that she doesn't quite grasp the technique of "show, not tell" with character development. The first chapter is her explaining how Connie is anal and uptight without really showing it. She tries, but doesn't quite succeed. She does a better job with Connie's mother, Grace, who is a minor character but has much impact on Connie's life. Most of Connie's character development comes from comparing herself with Grace... The main plot of the story is fairly obvious, and the interludes that jump back in time to show bits of Deliverance Dane's life is kind of weird. Where Howe chooses to add these interludes don't always make sense. And she doesn't stick with one character, she writes these interludes through several points of view. I think Howe should have kept with Mercy Lawson's (Deliverance Dane's daughter) character for all the interludes, because she is the most well written character in the whole book but she doesn't have any distinct ties with the present day plot of the story. Mercy Lawson is referred to once or twice in Connie Goodwin's story arc, but the focus is still on Deliverance Dane. If they'd switched the focus to Mercy Lawson, it would have been a better story. In my opinion anyways.
Not sure I like how Connie spontaneously does magic. It adds a nice twist to the story, but it doesn't need to be there. The story was interesting on its own without the magic. The magic would have been more interesting if Howe did more with it, or incorporated it in earlier in the story rather than make half assed cracks against new aged theology.
The story's Ok, but not sure I would ever read it again.
When I first read the summary for the book, I immediately thought "Possession" by A.S Byatt. That was such a good book, with so much depth of character, and the reader becomes so involved with the story- and the story the characters discover. But this one, just doesn't compare. There is so much potential for this to be a great book, but you can tell right off that this is Howe's first book. There isn't much subtlety to the writing, and the main character feels flat. My biggest beef with Howe is that she doesn't quite grasp the technique of "show, not tell" with character development. The first chapter is her explaining how Connie is anal and uptight without really showing it. She tries, but doesn't quite succeed. She does a better job with Connie's mother, Grace, who is a minor character but has much impact on Connie's life. Most of Connie's character development comes from comparing herself with Grace... The main plot of the story is fairly obvious, and the interludes that jump back in time to show bits of Deliverance Dane's life is kind of weird. Where Howe chooses to add these interludes don't always make sense. And she doesn't stick with one character, she writes these interludes through several points of view. I think Howe should have kept with Mercy Lawson's (Deliverance Dane's daughter) character for all the interludes, because she is the most well written character in the whole book but she doesn't have any distinct ties with the present day plot of the story. Mercy Lawson is referred to once or twice in Connie Goodwin's story arc, but the focus is still on Deliverance Dane. If they'd switched the focus to Mercy Lawson, it would have been a better story. In my opinion anyways.
Not sure I like how Connie spontaneously does magic. It adds a nice twist to the story, but it doesn't need to be there. The story was interesting on its own without the magic. The magic would have been more interesting if Howe did more with it, or incorporated it in earlier in the story rather than make half assed cracks against new aged theology.
The story's Ok, but not sure I would ever read it again.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Men of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong
Yes... I admit, I have an addictive personality. But this is the last Kelley Armstrong book for the next little while, because I won't have access to her next book for at least another two months.
I picked up this book because I was under the impression that I would get to read about how Clay and Elena first met. I was wrong. I misread the intro, the Clay and Elena story is published Stories of the Otherworld instead. Men of the Otherworld is primarily about Clay and Jeremy when they were growing up and a bit about Malcolm, Jeremy's abusive father. You get to read stories from Clay's point of view, so his eccentricities are shown from his POV - where they make sense. You also get to learn more about how Jeremy turned out to be so different from his father, and how he might be a supernatural mix of some kind. The secret of the runes Jeremy draws is revealed - sort of.
Good book, but not as interesting as the other ones I've read by her... although that could be just because I was expecting something else.
I picked up this book because I was under the impression that I would get to read about how Clay and Elena first met. I was wrong. I misread the intro, the Clay and Elena story is published Stories of the Otherworld instead. Men of the Otherworld is primarily about Clay and Jeremy when they were growing up and a bit about Malcolm, Jeremy's abusive father. You get to read stories from Clay's point of view, so his eccentricities are shown from his POV - where they make sense. You also get to learn more about how Jeremy turned out to be so different from his father, and how he might be a supernatural mix of some kind. The secret of the runes Jeremy draws is revealed - sort of.
Good book, but not as interesting as the other ones I've read by her... although that could be just because I was expecting something else.
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