(no subject)
Received Bone Key today and, because I had time, already made my way through it.
I found it a significant improvement on Nevermore, I have to say with my main complaint for that one being that Dean was reduced so much to his surface characteristics, he ended up a shallow dimwit. Whereas Sam was Sue-ing it up.
With this new book I gotta say I felt things were much more balanced between the characters and both got to shine in various ways. Dean even got a few historical and literary references right away - always a welcome sight for me.
The case itself was building much better suspense and holding it then in Nevermore where it started out good but trickled into a non-finale. This time Sam and Dean both played a vital role in the defeat of this book's baddies, alternatively taking turns being saviour and damsel in distress. It was kind of interesting to see a "spirit"-fight or say spirits against demons and the humans coming out on top. Yay, baby, yay.
Now I've seen criticisms of the book too, some I agree with, some I don't.
1) Dean saying "well, that sucks" when Sam is being kept by the bad guy and walking off - Now when I read that prior to the book, my mind boggled. However in the story it plays it pretty much like in "Provenance" where Sam and Sarah are being trapped in the house and Dean walks off because he couldn't solve the problem right then and there. So, I had no prob with him going and dealing with the situation. All through the rescue his worry for Sam was clear.
2)The flirting being once more shown as him being easily distracted. Well, he didn't hit on the lesbian couple. The waitress gave him her phone number. He told Susannah, he would be interested in meeting with her after the job. And he did have a ONS when the job was done to celebrate. All perfectly okay with me.
3)Related to that, his promiscuity being played as bad.
There was someone lecturing him on using condoms and whatnot - that someone was some uptight demon chick who just wanted to get him riled up. If she is a prude, not his fault so I, personally, don't see it as negative commentary.
4)Dean adopting the bully persona in school and beating up on nerds? - THAT is a biggie because I can't see him Nelson Munz his way through school in any way. Probably he just didn't talk to anybody really. But he has shown to be bonding with the geeky and oddballs so no way he beat them up to be "kewl". Honestly, if he wanted to beat on nerds, he could have done that daily with Sam. If not, I doubt he bothered with other kids.
5)Dean lacking discipline. - Now I wasn't really clear on that part because it dealt with Asian martial arts - and I don't think John would have him enrolled in a dojo - in contrast to street-fighting. His fighting style is more street-fighting, yes, but character-wise he needed an iron discipline to tough it out with John when nobody in the known universe - not even easy-going Bobby - could do so.
6)Sam thinking about Dean as the bread-winner of their team in relation to the deal. - I could see it in another context but I don't think the thought would even enter in the "Dean will die"-question.
7)The OCs receiving too much attention - That's a yes/no-thing for me. I didn't care about them but I could pretty easily skip those parts too.
So apart from the "whaaa-aaat?" hiccup with the teenage bully thing, I thought it serviced the characters well enough.
I found it a significant improvement on Nevermore, I have to say with my main complaint for that one being that Dean was reduced so much to his surface characteristics, he ended up a shallow dimwit. Whereas Sam was Sue-ing it up.
With this new book I gotta say I felt things were much more balanced between the characters and both got to shine in various ways. Dean even got a few historical and literary references right away - always a welcome sight for me.
The case itself was building much better suspense and holding it then in Nevermore where it started out good but trickled into a non-finale. This time Sam and Dean both played a vital role in the defeat of this book's baddies, alternatively taking turns being saviour and damsel in distress. It was kind of interesting to see a "spirit"-fight or say spirits against demons and the humans coming out on top. Yay, baby, yay.
Now I've seen criticisms of the book too, some I agree with, some I don't.
1) Dean saying "well, that sucks" when Sam is being kept by the bad guy and walking off - Now when I read that prior to the book, my mind boggled. However in the story it plays it pretty much like in "Provenance" where Sam and Sarah are being trapped in the house and Dean walks off because he couldn't solve the problem right then and there. So, I had no prob with him going and dealing with the situation. All through the rescue his worry for Sam was clear.
2)The flirting being once more shown as him being easily distracted. Well, he didn't hit on the lesbian couple. The waitress gave him her phone number. He told Susannah, he would be interested in meeting with her after the job. And he did have a ONS when the job was done to celebrate. All perfectly okay with me.
3)Related to that, his promiscuity being played as bad.
There was someone lecturing him on using condoms and whatnot - that someone was some uptight demon chick who just wanted to get him riled up. If she is a prude, not his fault so I, personally, don't see it as negative commentary.
4)Dean adopting the bully persona in school and beating up on nerds? - THAT is a biggie because I can't see him Nelson Munz his way through school in any way. Probably he just didn't talk to anybody really. But he has shown to be bonding with the geeky and oddballs so no way he beat them up to be "kewl". Honestly, if he wanted to beat on nerds, he could have done that daily with Sam. If not, I doubt he bothered with other kids.
5)Dean lacking discipline. - Now I wasn't really clear on that part because it dealt with Asian martial arts - and I don't think John would have him enrolled in a dojo - in contrast to street-fighting. His fighting style is more street-fighting, yes, but character-wise he needed an iron discipline to tough it out with John when nobody in the known universe - not even easy-going Bobby - could do so.
6)Sam thinking about Dean as the bread-winner of their team in relation to the deal. - I could see it in another context but I don't think the thought would even enter in the "Dean will die"-question.
7)The OCs receiving too much attention - That's a yes/no-thing for me. I didn't care about them but I could pretty easily skip those parts too.
So apart from the "whaaa-aaat?" hiccup with the teenage bully thing, I thought it serviced the characters well enough.