2017.10.?
I check the book out of the library, and place it prominently on my main bookshelf. I do not touch it.
2017.11.21
About once a week I see the book, feel a pang of guilt for not reading it, while I continue to re-new it.
Tonight I finally open it. Read the first 3 chapters. Its good. Draws you right in. Paints the world and characters fast, and if you're even a little familiar with D&D, the world feels comfortably familiar.
I'm not quite invested yet, but I can already feel it starting. The overtly RPG references are coming almost a little too thick and fast, as if the book is overly eager to try and establish its fantasy cred, but its earnestness is excusable in this short attention span age.
2017.12.01
Of course - why didn't I think of it before: geeksploitation. I've been calling it things like Nostalgia Chow, but a new word isn't needed. What else can you call it when a book references half the monsters in the Monster Manual in the first few chapters? Not only is it an exploitation of geek culture, but maybe even a particular era - kind of like Ready Player One was a like a nostalgia and geek exploitation engine, with the 70s/80s module loaded.
Not that I'm complaining, I just wanted to understand. I am the target demographic. I am in the right place.
Now if only I could get started reading again...
2018.01.27
Start over.
2018.01.31
Once I got started it was easy to keep going, until something from the Real World derailed me. After a day my head was still in the book, after two days faltering, after three days almost all inertia lost.
Spoilers coming up.
The band metaphor just keeps on building to the point where its getting hard to ignore. The book cover says "the boys are back in town" (a song from...lookup 1976), the back cover says "it's time to get the band back together" (a fairly old music biz idiom). Mercenary companies are "bands". Merc bands have bookers, or agents, just like music bands. In the band Saga, one of the characters is name Moog, fitting for the mage of the group. Clay Cooper doesn't ring a bell, and "frontman" Gabriel... Peter?
I know William Gibson used a little bit of this metaphor in Neuromancer, naming a few characters and situations after his favorite musicians and songs, but Kings of the Wyld is world building with it. If the references stopped here that would be fine, but they don't, so it maintains a constant level of distraction.
I don't mind the D&D geeksploitation, and I somewhat forgive the classic rock music industry references. I don't mind at all the map at the beginning of the book in the Tolkien map style - its a fitting tribute, actually. But when a character says "the cake was a lie" you are starting to actively annoy your reader. Even if it was an innocent mistake some proof-reader or editor should have told the author that you can't put this phrase here, its wholly owned by an entirely other property and it sticks out unforgivably.
Freddie.... Mercury?
And, halfway through the book, the band is back together.
2018.10.11
Stopped again for months. I have to finish this book this month... its been a year now.
The musical references keep coming, I'm over it, but when internet memes start dropping in ("kill it with fire") its knocks me right out of the story. I'm now convinced the previous meme ("the cake is a lie") was no boating accident.
I really like the friendly troll, but why give him precisely a Jamaican accent? Irie. Really?
I think I've finally got a handle on this book, its just like how I felt when reading the the Hitchhiker's books. There's a good story, good characters, some good dialogue and comedy, but you just have to put up with the author's eccentricities.
2018.10.13
For me reading seems to be a function of inertia. The more I read, the more I can, want, and need to read.
A clear pattern has emerged in this book, the tension is ratcheted one level higher, then release, over and over again. There's not much time to hang out or contemplate, as soon as one problem is resolved the kettle is set to boil again. Not sure how to feel about it, it is just the pattern.
In the last quarter now.
2018.10.18
Done.
*spoilers is always set to ON, but this your last chance*
If you're into fantasy, this is worth reading. It's a bit too self-aware with the non-stop D&D references, and its a bit too pleased with its non-stop music references, but its got heart, and some good action. There's a type of story telling that yanks the tension dial up to 11, then back down to 1, over and over, and its exhausting. Before long though you realize the good guys only gain ground, and everything's probably going to be OK. Despite that, the nearly impossible happy ending feels earned anyway. The way to sequel is left clear, but the prologue closes more doors than it opens.
And then one of my least favorite things happens, there are more and more endings. I love a book that just ends, leaving you to your own thoughts and questions. Acknowledgements, extras, meet the author, Author interview, next installment, plugging some other similar Orbit property - you can only diminish the impact of your story. I am grateful, however, that they color coded the DVD extras section gray, so I didn't think the main story had another chapter to go. That's the only reason I'm not mad about it, so thanks for that.
Reading the extras... the bit of the next book feels like it was written by someone else. A quick look on Amazon and... Bloody Rose (The Band) came out on Aug 28, 2018.
The epilogue left nothing to the imagination, the story of Saga is over. I don't care if the Winter Queen has been resurrected any more than I care about a new set of characters.
Skimming reviews, there is much gushing over the first book, but the second gets but a trickle. Not so much sophomore slump, but second album syndrome. Seems to be darker and less funny. Who knows, maybe I'll like it more. Maybe it can even get close to The Black Company.
Tuesday, November 21, 2017
Thursday, February 16, 2017
Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897)
2017.02.16
About a month ago I eagerly read about a third of this book over a day or so, then set it down and forgot about it for a month. It started out so promising as a travelogue, with a train trip into eastern Europe, enjoying the local cuisine and languages, but it didn't stay like that. The forced conceit of the book, that everything must be told after the fact from some form of journal, diary, etc. starts to wear heavy.
Its also a bit of a hurdle to get over that you know this story from countless retellings. Cliches are just worn out tropes that used to be new, so you just have to get your mindset back to when it was fresh. I am pleasantly surprised that the language hardly feels old at all.
Trying to start up again, familiarity with the story lets me dive right in. Go back a few pages and there's crazy Renfield awaiting the coming of his master, Mina's growing concern for her friend Lucy's increasingly odd condition, Van Helsing joining the investigation, Jonathan recovering from his ordeal in Dracula's castle. Its hard to shake the images of the movie (you know the one, all star cast, 1992), but the purple prose is actually helping me get back to the 19th century. Sometimes it reminds me of Lovecraft's writing, and that also helps me get back into context.
2017.03.07
I still really like this book when I pick it up, but I go days without thinking about it.
Up to about the part where Lucy is being finally put to rest, the book was mostly parallel to what I knew from the movies. Now its really starting to diverge. Where's the seduction of Mina? We quickly move from our heroes meeting and sharing information, to fighting Dracula off of Mina's body. Was all that vampire romance just from the movies? I think I like this creepier Dracula more, he's less relatable as a human, and more of a predator, but still cunning. And the heroes do hardly any bumbling at all. They communicate and plan, and their few mistakes are understandable. Even leaving Mina out of the council, at the cost of her getting caught up by Dracula, is explained reasonably well in the story, even as the author leaves hints that this is what is going to happen, and its their fault. To our heroes credit, they realized their mistake quickly.
2017.03.14
A snow day makes for a great reading day.
I can see the finish line in sight, and I am forcing myself to keep a steady pace, and not break into a mad dash. I take little breaks to give me some time to reflect on what I just read. I force myself to make food, but read while eating.
The extreme verbosity becomes really jarring as there are more and more action scenes. Characters are capable of remarkable half-page length soliloquies while a key turns in a lock, or one character moves from one room to another.
I'm surprised how much the last third is starting to feel like bits and pieces of all the role-playing games I've encountered over the years, as much as and at times moreso than even Lord of the Rings.
Only a millimeter or two of pages to go...
For a story that seemed to drag on for so long, the ending was non-stop action. As I turned the last few pages I thought perhaps this copy was defective and missing pages, as it seemed unlikely this story could wrap up this fast, faster even than the movie version. That makes sense as I consider what makes for movie action scenes compared to the action scenes in the mind's eye.
I don't think the "7 years later..." reunion, with obligatory child named after the fallen, was in the movie. I don't really remember the story ending this conclusively upbeat, but our heroes earned it. Even if we want the mythology of Dracula to keep going.
I like this book, and the story in it. It feels fresh and more alive than the movie version, but in some ways the movie makes for a better package. I guess the seductive powers of movie Dracula, and the tacked on romance revenge story, was just an update for modern sensibilities; if it was in the book it was submerged under many layers of Victorian lace. Nobody in the book wants sexy time with Dracula, he's simply a very smart - and very hungry - monster who can generate a little charm when needed, but is not even remotely likable as a villain.
Its a good and fun story, and would be an easy read if not for the often extreme prose diahrea. Still worth a read though, if for no other reason than to get the story straight. What other good things from the 19th century have I missed?
About a month ago I eagerly read about a third of this book over a day or so, then set it down and forgot about it for a month. It started out so promising as a travelogue, with a train trip into eastern Europe, enjoying the local cuisine and languages, but it didn't stay like that. The forced conceit of the book, that everything must be told after the fact from some form of journal, diary, etc. starts to wear heavy.
Its also a bit of a hurdle to get over that you know this story from countless retellings. Cliches are just worn out tropes that used to be new, so you just have to get your mindset back to when it was fresh. I am pleasantly surprised that the language hardly feels old at all.
Trying to start up again, familiarity with the story lets me dive right in. Go back a few pages and there's crazy Renfield awaiting the coming of his master, Mina's growing concern for her friend Lucy's increasingly odd condition, Van Helsing joining the investigation, Jonathan recovering from his ordeal in Dracula's castle. Its hard to shake the images of the movie (you know the one, all star cast, 1992), but the purple prose is actually helping me get back to the 19th century. Sometimes it reminds me of Lovecraft's writing, and that also helps me get back into context.
2017.03.07
I still really like this book when I pick it up, but I go days without thinking about it.
Up to about the part where Lucy is being finally put to rest, the book was mostly parallel to what I knew from the movies. Now its really starting to diverge. Where's the seduction of Mina? We quickly move from our heroes meeting and sharing information, to fighting Dracula off of Mina's body. Was all that vampire romance just from the movies? I think I like this creepier Dracula more, he's less relatable as a human, and more of a predator, but still cunning. And the heroes do hardly any bumbling at all. They communicate and plan, and their few mistakes are understandable. Even leaving Mina out of the council, at the cost of her getting caught up by Dracula, is explained reasonably well in the story, even as the author leaves hints that this is what is going to happen, and its their fault. To our heroes credit, they realized their mistake quickly.
2017.03.14
A snow day makes for a great reading day.
I can see the finish line in sight, and I am forcing myself to keep a steady pace, and not break into a mad dash. I take little breaks to give me some time to reflect on what I just read. I force myself to make food, but read while eating.
The extreme verbosity becomes really jarring as there are more and more action scenes. Characters are capable of remarkable half-page length soliloquies while a key turns in a lock, or one character moves from one room to another.
I'm surprised how much the last third is starting to feel like bits and pieces of all the role-playing games I've encountered over the years, as much as and at times moreso than even Lord of the Rings.
Only a millimeter or two of pages to go...
For a story that seemed to drag on for so long, the ending was non-stop action. As I turned the last few pages I thought perhaps this copy was defective and missing pages, as it seemed unlikely this story could wrap up this fast, faster even than the movie version. That makes sense as I consider what makes for movie action scenes compared to the action scenes in the mind's eye.
I don't think the "7 years later..." reunion, with obligatory child named after the fallen, was in the movie. I don't really remember the story ending this conclusively upbeat, but our heroes earned it. Even if we want the mythology of Dracula to keep going.
I like this book, and the story in it. It feels fresh and more alive than the movie version, but in some ways the movie makes for a better package. I guess the seductive powers of movie Dracula, and the tacked on romance revenge story, was just an update for modern sensibilities; if it was in the book it was submerged under many layers of Victorian lace. Nobody in the book wants sexy time with Dracula, he's simply a very smart - and very hungry - monster who can generate a little charm when needed, but is not even remotely likable as a villain.
Its a good and fun story, and would be an easy read if not for the often extreme prose diahrea. Still worth a read though, if for no other reason than to get the story straight. What other good things from the 19th century have I missed?
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