On Brian Jacques
Yesterday KJ and I went to Barnes & Noble to use a gift certificate. After wandering around the store for a while (during which a lady told me that I looked "just like" David Tennant -- partly, I suspect, because my bangs could do with a trim), we both settled down in the Fantasy area and I zeroed in on the shelf of Brian Jacques's stuff.
I became a fan around the age of 10-12 when I read the copy of Redwall in my parents' mini-library. Actually, I remember that I read the first chapter or two and was mildly interested, but left the book for other activities for some days or weeks before coming back and getting hooked. I promptly went through all the books in the series that the local library had, plus Jacques's other book, Seven Strange and Ghostly(?) Tales, and enjoyed them all to greater or lesser degrees. My parents bought several of the books for me at one point or another, and so I myself have half a shelf of Jacques's works.
The Redwall series is, at a guess, intended primarily for pre-teens or so. The books tend to have certain formulaic elements (although, in their defense, those elements are present because the readers like them, not because the author is incapable of writing without them). I haven't actually read any of the novels for several years. Despite all this, I count myself as a solid fan of the series and of Seven Tales.* I feel a little guilty whenever I hear or see a reference to one of the novels that I have yet to read.
I could talk about why the series is so enjoyable and natter on about my favorites and un-favorites among its books, but you don't care and I already know. So let's return to the bookstore.
There were three books that I had not yet read to choose from, plus one that I didn't own: Marlfox, High Rhulain, Eulalia!, and Doomwyte. M. I was interested in mainly because the title characters are so hilarious in a certain fanfic and I wanted to go back and see whether their personalities were defined very well at all. But I reminded myself that I knew I could get it from the library and focused on the other three. H.R.'s blurb on the back wasn't very enticing. E.'s blurb mentioned a would-be badgerlord with a ridiculously un-badgerlord-ish name like Garv or something. So that left Doomwyte, which apparently has nothing to do with the characters from Salamandastron. We'll see how good this one turns out to be.
*Castaways of the Flying Dutchman was good enough, but I was disappointed by the inclusion of a certain formulaic element from the Redwall series. I expected the book to serve as a chance for Jacques to tell a good yarn unhampered by pre-defined expectations, so when a riddle-in-rhyme appeared, as natural as its introduction may have been, I groaned.
I became a fan around the age of 10-12 when I read the copy of Redwall in my parents' mini-library. Actually, I remember that I read the first chapter or two and was mildly interested, but left the book for other activities for some days or weeks before coming back and getting hooked. I promptly went through all the books in the series that the local library had, plus Jacques's other book, Seven Strange and Ghostly(?) Tales, and enjoyed them all to greater or lesser degrees. My parents bought several of the books for me at one point or another, and so I myself have half a shelf of Jacques's works.
The Redwall series is, at a guess, intended primarily for pre-teens or so. The books tend to have certain formulaic elements (although, in their defense, those elements are present because the readers like them, not because the author is incapable of writing without them). I haven't actually read any of the novels for several years. Despite all this, I count myself as a solid fan of the series and of Seven Tales.* I feel a little guilty whenever I hear or see a reference to one of the novels that I have yet to read.
I could talk about why the series is so enjoyable and natter on about my favorites and un-favorites among its books, but you don't care and I already know. So let's return to the bookstore.
There were three books that I had not yet read to choose from, plus one that I didn't own: Marlfox, High Rhulain, Eulalia!, and Doomwyte. M. I was interested in mainly because the title characters are so hilarious in a certain fanfic and I wanted to go back and see whether their personalities were defined very well at all. But I reminded myself that I knew I could get it from the library and focused on the other three. H.R.'s blurb on the back wasn't very enticing. E.'s blurb mentioned a would-be badgerlord with a ridiculously un-badgerlord-ish name like Garv or something. So that left Doomwyte, which apparently has nothing to do with the characters from Salamandastron. We'll see how good this one turns out to be.
*Castaways of the Flying Dutchman was good enough, but I was disappointed by the inclusion of a certain formulaic element from the Redwall series. I expected the book to serve as a chance for Jacques to tell a good yarn unhampered by pre-defined expectations, so when a riddle-in-rhyme appeared, as natural as its introduction may have been, I groaned.