The more one reads, the more one starts to see narrative similarities between books. Sword and sorcery and urban fantasy are particularly noticeable with how closely the stories resemble each other. You know what? That's fine, there's nothing unusual about it and it certainly isn't a measure of  quality in any way, shape or form, for good or for ( Read more... )

I return after a hectic month of birthdays, messes and meltdowns and find something to go “O RLY?” at. As many readers probably already know The Wall Street Journal had someone (Meghan Cox Gurhon) come out and say “Young adult fiction these days is just too dark and I don't like that because it wasn't like that in my day.” Or something to that ( Read more... )

I really must thank Gina Bellafante. I was having a really crappy day and by once again bravely hoisting herself from her own petard, she has brightened it somewhat. You see, gentle readers, after the inevitable backlash to her article (which I snarked here), it seems that she felt that a follow up was in order. Had I less of a trollish streak, I ( Read more... )

Ah the things I find to distract me...

Well it looks like some silly and underinformed person (namely Gina Bellafante) made the mistake of calling the upcoming HBO rendition of A Game Of Thrones something just for boys. The normal outrage has already occurred (and will likely have cooled off by the time I post this, but what the hey) and it's time ( Read more... )

After a largely disappointing middle section, I move on to the next installment in the Year of Rogue Dragons trilogy. Oh please let this be more like the first book...

--)--------
( I hope that someone brought the warm fuzzy boots. )

Yay, I have finished the second book. It feels rather uncannily like the end of an episode of Scooby Doo.

( They finally got the band back together. )

This will be a pretty short section. Actually, at 14 chapters plus prologue and epilogue, it's a really short book. In any case, apparently the plot did have a fire lit under its tail because it did gain some momentum through this section. Spoilers away!

( Move plot! MOVE I SAY! )

Right now, I think I'm in the middle of the doldrums of the book, possibly in the doldrums of the trilogy. I hate middle sections... As far as I can tell, no one really did anything through this section. Okay, okay, there were a few fight scenes, some intrigue... but really, NOTHING MOVED.

( Are we there yet? )

So to recap, the intrepid heroes have discovered that all the dragons periodically go loopy because of a massive ancient spell in place to prevent draconic empires from rising again. Apparently there was some decision to split up to search for more clues to how to fix this problem or failing that, prevent the Sammaster the slightly insane lich from ( Read more... )

Sorry for the late post, but my week has been slightly full of friends and good food. In any case, spoilers away!

( There's a jump to the left... )