The Golden Compass was a revelation, with its alternate world building, daemons, armored bears - everything, really. That said, The Subtle Knife was mThe Golden Compass was a revelation, with its alternate world building, daemons, armored bears - everything, really. That said, The Subtle Knife was my favorite of the whole "Dark Materials" trilogy, (all three of which were far better than Pullman's on-going "Book of Dust" follow-up). That said, however, I just wasn't a huge fan of the artist's style here, and I would have been WAY confused - actually way MORE confused - if I didn't already know the story so well from the original book and Season Two of the excellent HBO series. Also, as the TV series was my most recent revisit to this tale, I had forgotten how blatantly anti-religion Pullman is (much removed by HBO to encourage a larger audience); and - even though he's not physically in this book at all - what an overall asshole the abusive and murderous Lord Asriel is.
Still, despite my philosophical disagreements with Pullman he is one hell of a writer, and so at this point I should just knuckle down and reread the original books again, ("DM" only; definitely not "BoD"). Accept no substitutes!...more
I read a fair amount of Conrad when I was younger and had more patience, and I enjoyed Russell Crowe's "Master and Commander" film. But that aside, I I read a fair amount of Conrad when I was younger and had more patience, and I enjoyed Russell Crowe's "Master and Commander" film. But that aside, I have zero interest in seafaring sagas, and so have never read any of O'Brian's "Aubrey/Maturin" or Forester's "Hornblower" books. However, I'd heard good things about O'Brian as a writer who does solid historical research, and this book sounded like an interesting outlier that fell more into my areas of interest.
Well, I probably should have read the other reviews first. This is firmly in the "boy's adventure" mold (what we'd call YA today); similar to things like Stevenson's Kidnapped and Treasure Island, or - even more accurately - a Tintin story without the pictures. Nearly every character is a caricature, and every plot point is telegraphed way in advance, ("there's a dangerous side valley/lamasery/patch of desert over there that we won't go to," so of course they end up going there later - that sort of thing).
The book's first quarter takes place in China, then the middle half in Central Asia, with the conclusion in Tibet - hence going on all three bookshelves. Not terrible but certainly not great, and not aging all that well. I'm rounding up generously to 3 stars, but can't think of anyone I'd recommend this to....more
Schweizer's first book in what looks to be a continuing series, so I'll cut him some slack and round up from 3.5 - but not nearly as good as his folloSchweizer's first book in what looks to be a continuing series, so I'll cut him some slack and round up from 3.5 - but not nearly as good as his follow-up, Last of the Legion, (although that may be partly due to my having much greater interest in the Foreign Legion and North Africa than in "Pirates of the Caribbean"). ...more
Excellent historical graphic novel written and drawn by Chris Schweizer, the illustrator behind the surprisingly good Mars Attacks Collection.
ArtistiExcellent historical graphic novel written and drawn by Chris Schweizer, the illustrator behind the surprisingly good Mars Attacks Collection.
Artistically, Mars was notable for Schweizer using a consistent line weight through the whole book, as if he drew it all with a single Sharpie. However, in Crogan he is all about the line, creating action, emotion and depth with an ever-varying thick-and-thin style - really nice. [image] Storywise, this is a surprisingly realistic - i.e., violent with a LOT of death (although no gore) - slice-of-life tale of Legion life just prior to World War I. I also learned a bit about the conflicting units of the French "Army of Africa," which included both Zouaves (French infantry) and Legionnaires (non-French, hence the "Foreign Legion" moniker which had somehow escaped me).
Special kudos also have to go to colorist Weiser - really nice work there. Our library had both the black & white and full color editions of this book, and this colored version blows the B&W one away. Unfortunately, the library only has B&W copies of the other two books in this series, so I'll look for the color editions online or at our used bookstores....more
The heartbreaking yet beautifully told and illustrated story of Ebo, a young Ghanaian boy who risks - and nearly loses - everything to escape the poveThe heartbreaking yet beautifully told and illustrated story of Ebo, a young Ghanaian boy who risks - and nearly loses - everything to escape the poverty of his homeland, crossing the twin perils of both the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Sea in search of a better life.
Along with similar YA books like Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree and A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story, such stories do an excellent job in humanizing the various humanitarian crises in West and Central Africa for a younger generation...which I can only hope will do more to address such problems than their parents did.
Kudos to author Eoin Colfer, of the much more commercially-aimed "Artemis Fowl" series - didn't know he had it in him!
Truly heart-wrenching book, right up there with the worst stories to come out of the 20th Century holocausts in Europe and Cambodia - except that at lTruly heart-wrenching book, right up there with the worst stories to come out of the 20th Century holocausts in Europe and Cambodia - except that at least with those events, we know how they ended; with Boko Haram, there sadly remains no end in sight.
Nwaubani's story takes up the bulk of the book, but it is Mazza's afterward that is the most depressingly informative. She argues (convincingly) that while BH is to bear the full blame for its atrocities, this situation would not have arisen without the long-term corruption and incompetence of the Nigerian government. So once again, we have two bad forces fighting for the title of "lesser of two evils," while it is the innocent people caught in the middle - a people, remember, who had survived for decades in multi-ethnic, multi-religious (relative) harmony - who suffer so greatly.
Beautifully written and well worth a read, but man, you are not going to feel good when you're done....more
Good story, beautiful cover, nice mix of cultures/genres/genders...so yeah, another strong Tor novella. That said, this would have worked better as twGood story, beautiful cover, nice mix of cultures/genres/genders...so yeah, another strong Tor novella. That said, this would have worked better as two chapters in a Binti novel, or one episode of a Binti miniseries. An apparent trend that (for me at least) started with Martha Wells' Murderbot Diaries as a series of linked novellas just goes a step too far here with this 90-page "book" (with small pages at that) - and perhaps both Okorafor and Tor realized that as well, since both sequels bump up to around 150+ and 200+ pages respectively. (And in fact, it looks like a non-Tor publisher has indeed published all three books in an "omnibus" edition which is only 370 pages long...so, y'know, a book.)
Our library didn't shelve this as YA, but it definitely had that vibe for me. I also have Okorafor's latest, Remote Control, waiting for me at the library, and so I'm anxious to see what she's up to now, having spent the years between Binti and the more adult-targeted Control largely writing Black Panther and Shuri stories for MARVEL....more
A "Miss Peregrine"-style home for children who've visited other worlds (think Narnia and Wonderland), mixed with...muuurder.
So 4+ stars for concept, bA "Miss Peregrine"-style home for children who've visited other worlds (think Narnia and Wonderland), mixed with...muuurder.
So 4+ stars for concept, but then just 2 for execution. Gave up on the audiobook after three (out of four) CDs and went to paper, just so I could skim ahead and see whodunit. Way too YA (almost MG) in terms of "teen yearnings" and "fitting in," and just too thin on plot. Definitely will not follow up with this series, despite the next book getting higher ratings....more
COMBINED REVIEW, BOOKS 2-6: Ok, so actually did go in and read them all. Surprisingly enjoyable, with a lot more backstory - and therefore sympathy - COMBINED REVIEW, BOOKS 2-6: Ok, so actually did go in and read them all. Surprisingly enjoyable, with a lot more backstory - and therefore sympathy - for many of the characters than in the film. And yes, these updated reissues are much better in color, even though the whole series was originally printed in just black and white and apparently did just fine. Comparing the first and last books, O'Malley continued to refine his style over the course of the decade it took to write all six volumes, so that by the end some of his drawings had a distinctively Skottie Young look, which is about as high praise as I can give.
If you've seen the movie, you know the (extremely oversimplified) premise of the whole thing is Scott's having to fight multiple ex-boyfriends to win Ramona as his girlfriend. So as the books wore on and the fights multiplied, O'Malley made the very clever decision to relegate more of these fights to the background of the 20-something angst going on around them - a particularly nice touch, as seen here:
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FINAL NOTE: I'm embarrassed to say that it wasn't until well into Book 4 that I finally got the joke about Scott's guitar-player - who is inexplicably named Stephen Stills - having a slightly younger roommate everyone called "Young Neil"...and if any of you don't get the joke, ask your boomer parents!...more
The movie "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World" popped up on a recent list of movies that tanked at the box office but deserve a second look, and as I vaguelyThe movie "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World" popped up on a recent list of movies that tanked at the box office but deserve a second look, and as I vaguely remember seeing this with my sons a decade ago, thought I would indeed give it a second chance. And then I figured "in for a penny," and so:
MY REVIEW: Nicely weird book turned into a nicely weird movie, and I enjoyed them both - and that there's the whole thing; you want more details, you can read/watch them yourself :)
MY USUAL IRRELEVANT THOUGHTS: This first book just covers the movie up to the bus ride where Scott and Ramona kiss - apparently there are six books in the series that cover all seven of the "evil exes" and hence the whole movie. The film - or at least this first part - was super-faithful to the book; doubt there were more than 2-3 lines of dialogue that weren't lifted straight off the page. In fact, the only main difference between paper and film is the characterization of Scott himself, who comes off as your basic cool dude in the book, but is played by Michael Cera on screen - so basically, the antithesis of your basic cool dude. So an interesting decision, but did add a bit more uncertainly to the whole "will-they-won't-they" part, since in WHAT UNIVERSE would a pink-haired Mary Elizabeth Winstead fall for a non-famous Michael Cera?
OTHER RANDOM MOVIE NOTES, EVEN THOUGH THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A BOOK REVIEW: Scott's ex-girlfriend "Envy" was played by a pre-breakthrough Brie Larson, while her boyfriend/bass player "Todd" was played by a post-Superman Brandon Routh, so nice that their careers intersected there for at least a moment; hope he took the opportunity to share some superhero do's and don'ts, such as "do" MARVEL, and "don't" DC. Speaking of, a pre-Captain America Chris Evans does a lovely, self-mocking turn as evil ex and "action star" Lucas Lee. And another strange overlap, Evans went on to star in the great "Snowpiercer" just three years after "Pilgrim," in which Alison "we are Sex Bob-omb!" Pill also had a small role as the train's murderous school teacher, (I hope Evans suggested her for the role; he seems like such a nice guy!)
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Finally, if you ever do want to watch the movie, don't watch it on TV - borrow from a library where you can watch the deleted scenes, because there is an excellent alternate ending where Scott ends up with Knives instead of Ramona, which is really how the story should have ended - they're just a much better couple (and Knives is my favorite character in the whole story).
May or may not ever look at the other books, but if I do I'll be sure to get the hardcover versions, as this library paperback was just B&W (boo!), and which is the only thing that kept this edition from earning a 4th star....more
So, my first "big" book of the year, and it was...just so disappointing! I don't think I've felt this let down by something I was really looking forwaSo, my first "big" book of the year, and it was...just so disappointing! I don't think I've felt this let down by something I was really looking forward to since Hannibal, Robert Harris' awful sequel to Silence of the Lambs.
I agree with many other reviewer comments on things like Lyra's general unlikability, the creepy inappropriateness of what's shaping up to be this series' main romance, and the totally unnecessary gang rape scene (with its echoes of the equally unnecessary near-rape scene in the previous Belle Sauvage - what's going on there, Phil?). These are well-covered elsewhere, and so I'll move on to the numerous other issues I have with this book:
LYRA: Other than being a pouty/angsty brat through much of this story, we're expected to believe that after reading one novel by some guy who doesn't believe in daemons, she now questions all the "magic" of Pullman's Dark Materials world in favor of "rationalism"? She, who hobnobbed with witches and angels and Gallivespians and armored bears; she, who visited both the world of the mulefas and the world of the dead...now she doubts whether any of that even exists??
Plus, she's just dumb. When she and Pan separate, she spends the book's whole second half trying to reach some"city of lost daemons," thinking that's where he went - when he clearly told her he was going to search for something she has lost that would obviously be in a completely different location. So the whole motivator for her endless journey east is based on once again not listening to what her daemon is trying to tell her...
And finally, from a literary point of view Lyra HASN'T AGED A DAY. Pullman keeps telling us she's twenty now, but she still acts and sounds exactly like she did at age eleven in the Dark Materials books, (unlike, say, someone like Harry Potter, who you can really see age and mature in each book).
MAGIC (or lack thereof): What made the first books for me was Pullman's amazing world-building: Lyra's original alt-universe Oxford, with all the aforementioned witches, bears, daemons, et al. But there's none of that here. Yes, there are still daemons (and one out-of-left-field dude near the end who cries fire), but otherwise there is the opposite of world-building here. Instead of going to war on an epic scale against god and angels themselves, Pullman builds his story around an all-too-earthly corrupt church looking to make a land-grab in Central Asia. So basically, he replaces biblical Armageddon with the Crusades - and if I wanted that, I'd rewatch Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of Heaven" (director's cut only!).
LENGTH (and plenty of it!): Said it before, and I'll say it again - if you can't tell a decent story in 600 pages, you're not a proper storyteller. Pullman here suffers from a serious case of "Potter-itis," that near-fatal malady which convinces an author that more is better, that quantity equals quality. In the original Golden Compass, he created a brand new universe and told a near-perfect story in under 400 pages. But here? After 600 pages the story just stops mid-page, as if Pullman's printer ran out of ink - setting us up for the the big finale, (which you can bet your daemon will be in the Deathly Hallows 700-800 page range; I'm also gonna call it here that the fundamentalist "men from the mountains" are in fact sponsored by the Magisterium, to give them an excuse to invade Lop Nor).
BOTTOM LINE: Hate to say it, but much like Lyra has lost her intuitive ability to read the alethiometer, I'm afraid that Pullman seems to have lost his innate ability to write an enthralling fantasy. So, then...why three stars? I'm not sure, really. Sentimentality? Because there are even more disappointing books out there? Maybe. Or maybe it's because I'm still enough of an optimist(-slash-idiot) to know that I'll still read the upcoming final book, if only to see if he can somehow pull out of this tailspin and bring back some of original magic that made his first trilogy such a marvel....more
Once you get past the slightly bizarro cover, this is another good overview of the "Great Bone War" between Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles MaOnce you get past the slightly bizarro cover, this is another good overview of the "Great Bone War" between Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh in the mid-to-late 1800's; very similar to Elizabeth Cody Kimmel's 2006 Dinosaur Bone War which I read around two years ago. However, Noyes' book does a better job of tying this story into the other scientific and political events taking place during the same time - Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution, America's western expansion and the resultant Indian Wars (including the Little Bighorn), and many others. It also provides a brief but serviceable overview of pre-Cope/Marsh paleontology, including a nice sidebar on Mary Anning, the subject of Tracy Chevalier's remarkable Remarkable Creatures.
Hard to believe that both dinosaurs and evolution have been a part of mainstream human consciousness for just 150 years, and that I've been an active follower of these topics for fully a third of that time......more
"It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea."
Ok"It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea."
Okay, so a solid 4-star kickoff for one of the best opening sentences in recent fantasy literature. But then, unfortunately, it's quickly downhill from there. I got through 3 of 7 CDs before giving up - it's not a truly bad book, but it's wonderful "elevator pitch" concept aside, it's just derivative of so many similar and better books; I realized I'd be much better off sending this packing and picking up The Golden Compass again.
Still, I was curious how the story might turn out, so went to Redbox and got the recent Peter Jackson-produced film version - except that also turned out to be a major disappointment in a number of ways: too much plot crammed into too little time; overblown action set pieces instead or real story-telling; and a tacky, tacked on "Luke, I'm your father" ending that wasn't even in the book. Granted, unless you're willing to go the TV mini-series or big screen trilogy route, these stories are always difficult to film - again, using "Golden Compass" as an example - but still...you're better than this, Peter. ...more
Very good if not-quite-great story about what happens when Southern California suddenly goes dry. Pretty darned realistic and pretty darned scary; I dVery good if not-quite-great story about what happens when Southern California suddenly goes dry. Pretty darned realistic and pretty darned scary; I definitely need to take a better look at my overall emergency preparedness, whether just a snow day or a couple days without power or...well, that's probably it, because anything more drastic than that I'm definitely hosed, (i.e., at the point where I send the boys out to stay with my survivalist buddy "Uncle Timo," after which Jennifer and I turn on the gas and go to bed).
I absolutely loved Shusterman's Challenger Deep, so maybe that's the standard I now hold him to. Plus, while I understand that this story is told through the first-person eyes of a number of teens, but I still found the overall writing to be unnecessarily simple. The fact is - and as much as I hate ever making "Harry Potter" references - J.K. Rowling really raised the bar on the level of quality writing that YA or even MG readers can absorb if the story is compelling enough. So now I guess I'm overly sensitive to "children's authors" who write down to their readers - I believe (or at least sincerely hope) that it's always a mistake to underestimate the abilities and comprehension of kids.
NOTE TO SELF: This was the last in my unintended trilogy of depressing post-apocalypse novels I took on my latest business trip. I'm home now and done with them all, and ready now for something way lighter......more
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