Books
Before I begin I must first issue yet another apology to my readers. Always and Forever is remaining stubborn, but I've taken measures to ensure I persevere. I dropped out of NaNo and I'm skiving my math homework tonight to give me time to write (If Mr. Hurst asks I might honestly answer that I was too busy writing gay porn just to see his reacyion XD), with any luck I'll finish tonight or tomorrow and get it sent off to my wonderful beta.
Now, what I wanted to talk about: This weekend was supposed to be a chance for me to write, but instead I got entangled in the reverse: reading! I'm what you could call a bibliophile because I find it hard to not read books that catch my eye (Bad thing when you volunteer at a library) and over this weekend I finished reading The Amber Spyglass, Skulduggery Pleasant and The Butterfly Effect (The latter being a slash fic, but the point stands) so now I'm going to review all three and you can read on if you want but it's not going to make much of a difference either way :D
The Amber Spyglass
Northern Lights really drew me in from the start, I thoroughly enjoyed it and developed a strong affection for Lyra. The Subtle Knife didn't hold me as much and is still my least favourite of the trilogy (It did have to compete with Good Omens for my attention though), but I still enjoyed it overall. The Amber Spyglass had me slightly worried, The Subtle Knife was drawing further away from the somewhat innocent nature of Northern Lights and I was concerned about the direction, but as the plot deepened I was pulled in and as lame as it sounds when I'd read the final page I closed the book and hugged it tight. I feel so strongly for Lyra and Will, it's like in The Giraffe, The Pelly and Me at the very end where the monkey sings a song about how the friends you make in a book will always be there ready to share the adventure again, I really feel like I know Will and Lyra and that's why I care for them.
Story: 10/10 (And the Christians should really lay off about the blasphemy claims, it ain't that bad!)
Characters: 9/10 (While Will and Lyra are well fleshed out and a lot of the background characters have this aura of being more characterised than is shown feel to them there are still some who come off as rather plain to me.)
Writing Style: 8/10 (Not perfect, one or two little bits that bugged me and seemed off; but overall still a damn good book.)
Skulduggery Pleasant
Hanna told me this was good and just reading the blurb I agreed with her. It's really funny and the characters all work so well together.
Story: 6/10 (Nothing too special here, it's there as a driving force but in all it's not too intelligent or well thought out)
Characters: 10/10 (Despite the cliched bad guy Skulduggery and Stephanie are great characters with Tanith providing great support as a secondary character)
Writing Style: 8/10 (The style is quite similar to my own, the majority lies in dialogue with the actual action come across quite blunt with as little description as one can get away with.
The Butterfly Effect
This 33 chapter Tommy/Merton AU fanfic was written by Caroline Crane and I left it til the very last of all her fics. I started with the oneshots, worked through the various series and then read 'Ordinary Boy', I read the first chapter of The Butterfly Effect a while ago and wasn't impressed because Merton had lost a lot of his character during the transition to AU, but a few days ago I was thinking it over and decided that since Ordinary Boy was so well written and had real depth to it I should at least give The Butterfly Effect a shot. It's hard to tell they're by the same author; while Ordinary Boy removes the werewolf and magic element of the BWOC universe it keeps Tommy and Merton fairly intact as characters (Even if it does take some liberty with other characters, such as TnT). In The Butterfly Effect Tommy and Merton keep their very core essences but they're layered under new stereotypes of 'Army Boy' and 'Spoiled Rich Kid'. Another comparison is that Ordinary Boy aludes to the slash from the first chapter, establishes it at a good pace within about 10 or so of the 40 chapters and then covers the relationships highs and lows over a year or so, conversly The Butterfly Effect is lacking in any real slash, between lengthy chapters of plot there'll be the occasional paragraph of Tommy being unaware of his feelings and there is quite a lot of Tommy saving Merton's butt from bullies but there's more time devoted to an almost off-screen relationship between Merton and a boyfriend he has back in New York than between Tommy and Merton. For a slash fic I want more than 1/10 of the content to be about the relationship! Also, the story cuts off with Tommy and Merton kissing, it goes no further and leaves a few plotholes as to what will happen next, leaving me very in doubt of the longevity of their relationship which is not what I want at all because Tommy and Merton SHOULD be together forever!
Story: 3/10 (While I'll give it some flexibility for being both AU and original it's far too cliche ridden for my tastes)
Characters: 2/10 (Destruction of the main two characters and the fact that most of the secondary characters consist of 'Homophobic classmate' are the reasons for this low score. It would be 1 or even 0 if not for the redeaming factor of Lori who is a painfully transient character who appears via E-Mail and phone calls about five to seven times in the whole fic.)
Writing Style: 3/10 (Far, far too repetitive for my tastes. This was something else I picked up on during Ordinary Boy, while the characters worry they seem to fall back on the same fears time and again and seeing the same thought patterns repeated gets a little dull no matter how realistic it seems.)
Whoa, I was way too bitchy just then for someone who still hasn't finished the third chapter of a fic. I'm gonna go write Always and Forever now.