![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Reviews en masse!
In the past however long (and I'm afraid I'm forgetting some here), I've read:
Mad Kestrel (I actually read the majority of this a bit ago then had to go back and reread it because I'd been interrupted.)
Blood Lite: An Anthology of Humorous Horror Stories
The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine
Mean Streets
The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle
Backup
Tales Before Tolkien (I'm rereading this because fantasy from the 1800s is always worth a second read.)
So, Mad Kestrel. Written by![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
madkestrel! I actually had a lot of fun with this book even as I was trying to figure the main character, Kestrel, out better when it came to her motivations. She made some choices that utterly baffle me and I wish I'd had a little more of a window into her head. Or maybe more of a consistent window because we do get really great glimpses of her sometimes. I love the tension she has with McAvery. I love that this book is really light and funny and fun - but it has very serious elements, too. I mean, it doesn't sugar coat the realities (like hanging) of being a pirate but it doesn't deny these pirates joy at life, either. And I love that. All in all, I'm looking forward to the next book.
Blood Lite, on the other hand, was a waste of my money. The Butcher story was pretty great - very consistent with the other Dresden Files, especially when it comes to tone. But everything else? BAH. I mean, seriously. I actively felt angry every time I'd finish a story because I had just wasted ten or fifteen minutes reading a shitty story. Gimmicks, gimmicks, gimmicks, followed by cruelty disguised as humor. For example! There was an Elvis the Vampire story. It was cute. But gimmicky. I was never for a second not aware that I was reading a story written because Oh! What If Elvis Were A Vampire? went over really well in creative writing class. There was also one, the title of which I have blocked out, about Smokey the Bear. And it was a piece of shit. Like, this would have been DEMOLISHED in my creative writing workshops. I don't generally sit around and ask, "How the hell did this get published?" but HOW THE HELL DID THAT GET PUBLISHED? Like, this dude winds up sitting next to Smokey the Bear on a plane. Smokey is full of talk about how much tail he bags. Also, he's smelly. He's a bear! In a hat! In first class! (GIMMICK) He's also a douchebag. And when the next leg of our traveling saleman friend's trip is delayed, he gets sucked along on an "adventure" with Smokey. Which involves getting drunk, having sex with prostitutes, KILLING THEM FOR THE HUMOR, and then high tailing it back to Smokey's ranger station. Where the only thing that truly horrifies our kidnapped narrator is the idea that he might have to get it on with Smokey. None of the killing bothers him. Even the idea that he might die isn't REALLY enough to motivate him to action. No, it's the mere thought of a "greased wienie pull" that sends him over the edge to kill Smokey and burn down the entire forest. NICE. ARGH. Suffice to say, I seriously hate this story. And it just doesn't get any better. There are a few stories I haven't read because I am so overwhelmingly grossed out by the bad writing every time I pick it up.
The Billionaire's Vinegar is fascinating. It's a bit dry (I will NOT make a wine joke, I will not make a wine joke), as a lot of this academic/journalist history style books tend to be in an effort to present TRUFAX. But overall, it was a very good read. I think you have to be into this sort of thing to really enjoy it, though. Like, I dig wine, I dig the history of unique objects, I dig cultural trends (like the outrageous rise of wine for the sake of collecting rather than drinking during the 80s), and so this book is perfect for me. If you aren't so much into it, you might just find it dull.
Mean Streets is a tidy little collection. I enjoyed all of the stories in it. Obvy, as demonstrated by Blood Lite, I'm willing to buy a collection for one story by an author I like, but I really liked this whole book. Noir, it's what's for dinner.
Welcome to the Jungle is a hardcover graphic novel set prior to the first Dresden novel. Murphy is in it, and it is, as ever, a non-stop sort of ride. Butcher has a very effective formula for the momentum of his stories and it works really nicely in graphic novels, too. The art is bright and slick. The story is not too complicated but fits the space well.
Backup is also by Jim Butcher, with art by Mike Mignola. Mike Mignola is AMAZING. There isn't a lot of art, so I don't think this counts as a graphic novel so much as a novella with sparse illustration. The illustrations are fantastic. I'm biased, though, because I love Mignola's style. The story here is actually really nicely different from most of the Dresden fare - because this is Thomas telling the story and Thomas, even in the midst of the action, has an interesting core of stillness that really suits his vampiric nature. I think this is the most rich and layered of the ancillary Dresden Files material.
Tales Before Tolkien is not QUITE that - the requirement is just that the story have been published before The Hobbit came out. But still. It's good stuff, but, again, it is... taste dependent. If you don't like 19th century literature, you are probably going to not like this. It's wordy and dense and very old-school. I love it. It's fun to wallow in it.
I just started The Name of the Wind and I'm really enjoying it. Hopefully, I'll finish it on the plane tomorrow!
Mad Kestrel (I actually read the majority of this a bit ago then had to go back and reread it because I'd been interrupted.)
Blood Lite: An Anthology of Humorous Horror Stories
The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine
Mean Streets
The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle
Backup
Tales Before Tolkien (I'm rereading this because fantasy from the 1800s is always worth a second read.)
So, Mad Kestrel. Written by
madkestrel! I actually had a lot of fun with this book even as I was trying to figure the main character, Kestrel, out better when it came to her motivations. She made some choices that utterly baffle me and I wish I'd had a little more of a window into her head. Or maybe more of a consistent window because we do get really great glimpses of her sometimes. I love the tension she has with McAvery. I love that this book is really light and funny and fun - but it has very serious elements, too. I mean, it doesn't sugar coat the realities (like hanging) of being a pirate but it doesn't deny these pirates joy at life, either. And I love that. All in all, I'm looking forward to the next book.Blood Lite, on the other hand, was a waste of my money. The Butcher story was pretty great - very consistent with the other Dresden Files, especially when it comes to tone. But everything else? BAH. I mean, seriously. I actively felt angry every time I'd finish a story because I had just wasted ten or fifteen minutes reading a shitty story. Gimmicks, gimmicks, gimmicks, followed by cruelty disguised as humor. For example! There was an Elvis the Vampire story. It was cute. But gimmicky. I was never for a second not aware that I was reading a story written because Oh! What If Elvis Were A Vampire? went over really well in creative writing class. There was also one, the title of which I have blocked out, about Smokey the Bear. And it was a piece of shit. Like, this would have been DEMOLISHED in my creative writing workshops. I don't generally sit around and ask, "How the hell did this get published?" but HOW THE HELL DID THAT GET PUBLISHED? Like, this dude winds up sitting next to Smokey the Bear on a plane. Smokey is full of talk about how much tail he bags. Also, he's smelly. He's a bear! In a hat! In first class! (GIMMICK) He's also a douchebag. And when the next leg of our traveling saleman friend's trip is delayed, he gets sucked along on an "adventure" with Smokey. Which involves getting drunk, having sex with prostitutes, KILLING THEM FOR THE HUMOR, and then high tailing it back to Smokey's ranger station. Where the only thing that truly horrifies our kidnapped narrator is the idea that he might have to get it on with Smokey. None of the killing bothers him. Even the idea that he might die isn't REALLY enough to motivate him to action. No, it's the mere thought of a "greased wienie pull" that sends him over the edge to kill Smokey and burn down the entire forest. NICE. ARGH. Suffice to say, I seriously hate this story. And it just doesn't get any better. There are a few stories I haven't read because I am so overwhelmingly grossed out by the bad writing every time I pick it up.
The Billionaire's Vinegar is fascinating. It's a bit dry (I will NOT make a wine joke, I will not make a wine joke), as a lot of this academic/journalist history style books tend to be in an effort to present TRUFAX. But overall, it was a very good read. I think you have to be into this sort of thing to really enjoy it, though. Like, I dig wine, I dig the history of unique objects, I dig cultural trends (like the outrageous rise of wine for the sake of collecting rather than drinking during the 80s), and so this book is perfect for me. If you aren't so much into it, you might just find it dull.
Mean Streets is a tidy little collection. I enjoyed all of the stories in it. Obvy, as demonstrated by Blood Lite, I'm willing to buy a collection for one story by an author I like, but I really liked this whole book. Noir, it's what's for dinner.
Welcome to the Jungle is a hardcover graphic novel set prior to the first Dresden novel. Murphy is in it, and it is, as ever, a non-stop sort of ride. Butcher has a very effective formula for the momentum of his stories and it works really nicely in graphic novels, too. The art is bright and slick. The story is not too complicated but fits the space well.
Backup is also by Jim Butcher, with art by Mike Mignola. Mike Mignola is AMAZING. There isn't a lot of art, so I don't think this counts as a graphic novel so much as a novella with sparse illustration. The illustrations are fantastic. I'm biased, though, because I love Mignola's style. The story here is actually really nicely different from most of the Dresden fare - because this is Thomas telling the story and Thomas, even in the midst of the action, has an interesting core of stillness that really suits his vampiric nature. I think this is the most rich and layered of the ancillary Dresden Files material.
Tales Before Tolkien is not QUITE that - the requirement is just that the story have been published before The Hobbit came out. But still. It's good stuff, but, again, it is... taste dependent. If you don't like 19th century literature, you are probably going to not like this. It's wordy and dense and very old-school. I love it. It's fun to wallow in it.
I just started The Name of the Wind and I'm really enjoying it. Hopefully, I'll finish it on the plane tomorrow!
no subject
no subject