more book reviews
No spoilers.
The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy
This was a little to much of a man's book for me. Not the content, the style. It just read . . . very manly. For example, the entire first section of the book is about boxing, including vivid descriptions of boxing matches. It also read quite a lot like a movie, which makes me wonder how good the movie they made out of it was. One-line plot description: a cop and his partner become obsessed with solving the case of the Black Dahlia, a girl who was brutally murdered. This plot is full of twists and turns and definitely kept you guessing as to who the culprit was. I had a little trouble believing that so many cops could be so corrupt though. Overall I'd give this one average marks. It was just a little too . . . macho.
Melusine by Sarah Monette
I think if you liked the Kushiel books you'll probably like this one. It's a little grittier and less flowery though. Brief summary: Felix Harrowgate, a powerful wizard of the Mirador, is forced into taking part in the destruction of the Virtu (some sort of magical focus of the Mirador) by his abusive former master, and descends into madness, while Mildmay the Fox, a cat burglar, gets into trouble due to his unfortunate connections to various people. My absolute favorite thing about this book is the description of Felix's madness (first person), although at times it makes him a little too feminized or infantilized. Really the magic in this book is quite interesting -- there are different schools of magic who practice different types, and some of them think the others are heretical.
It does succumb to a couple fantasy cliches, like making up some name for a god and using it as a swear word a little too frequently, but not enough to really bug me. It was a little frustrating that there was no map in this book considering how many different locations they talk about, and there were a couple made-up words (like "cade-skiff", which I pretty much figured out but am not entirely sure) that I never did figure out what they meant. OTOH I would rather be left wondering about what a word means than have the author include a glossary!
This book had a few of my favorite things to read about: insane people, assassins, thieves, prostitutes, etc. How often in a fantasy book do you get to read about an insane asylum? Definitely goes on my "reread" list. Not the best book I've ever read or anything, but enjoyable, and far better than most of the stuff I read recently. I will warn you though that the book ends, but leaves about fifty million plotlines open. I'm planning on picking up the sequel soon.
The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy
This was a little to much of a man's book for me. Not the content, the style. It just read . . . very manly. For example, the entire first section of the book is about boxing, including vivid descriptions of boxing matches. It also read quite a lot like a movie, which makes me wonder how good the movie they made out of it was. One-line plot description: a cop and his partner become obsessed with solving the case of the Black Dahlia, a girl who was brutally murdered. This plot is full of twists and turns and definitely kept you guessing as to who the culprit was. I had a little trouble believing that so many cops could be so corrupt though. Overall I'd give this one average marks. It was just a little too . . . macho.
Melusine by Sarah Monette
I think if you liked the Kushiel books you'll probably like this one. It's a little grittier and less flowery though. Brief summary: Felix Harrowgate, a powerful wizard of the Mirador, is forced into taking part in the destruction of the Virtu (some sort of magical focus of the Mirador) by his abusive former master, and descends into madness, while Mildmay the Fox, a cat burglar, gets into trouble due to his unfortunate connections to various people. My absolute favorite thing about this book is the description of Felix's madness (first person), although at times it makes him a little too feminized or infantilized. Really the magic in this book is quite interesting -- there are different schools of magic who practice different types, and some of them think the others are heretical.
It does succumb to a couple fantasy cliches, like making up some name for a god and using it as a swear word a little too frequently, but not enough to really bug me. It was a little frustrating that there was no map in this book considering how many different locations they talk about, and there were a couple made-up words (like "cade-skiff", which I pretty much figured out but am not entirely sure) that I never did figure out what they meant. OTOH I would rather be left wondering about what a word means than have the author include a glossary!
This book had a few of my favorite things to read about: insane people, assassins, thieves, prostitutes, etc. How often in a fantasy book do you get to read about an insane asylum? Definitely goes on my "reread" list. Not the best book I've ever read or anything, but enjoyable, and far better than most of the stuff I read recently. I will warn you though that the book ends, but leaves about fifty million plotlines open. I'm planning on picking up the sequel soon.