( 79 )
A little more introspective than other books in this series, BUT, it brought to a head issues that have been building for a while. As a reader it was refreshing to finally have Kate’s secrets out in the open.
I will say I ~totally~ could have done without the inclusion of zombies in Kate’s universe.
( 78 )
Queen Betsy, book 7
As always, a quick read. Thankfully Betsy is FINALLY starting to grow up, she’s been a bit annoying the last couple books. Honestly, this is total brain candy and I can’t think of a single meaningful thing to say about it tonight, lol.
( 77 )
I wanted to like this, I did. It was an ~okay~ but forgettable read. Probably not helped by the fact that it was Volume 6 of the bound Nightwing series and the first one I’d ever read.
I loved the art in the first half, thought the work on Sylph (?) was fantastic, if implausible, just gorgeous pictures. The rest of the book’s art was as forgettable as its plot, sadly.
Never heard of Nightwing? Check out what happens when the Boy Wonder grows up and comes out of the batshadow.
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Eek. Missed a typo in the post title last month, somehow. It say saying, “Bug Guns” which may or may not have been a more interesting plot?
( 75 / 76 )
There’s been a lot of graphic novels on here this year, but there’s a reason for that. I kinda like them, and, more importantly, my dh likes them. I like to see him reading and love to have our kid see him reading, so, yes, I’ve been bringing a lot of graphic novels & comics home from the library this summer.
I have a confession. I did read the occasional comic before I met my spouse. Heck, I even collected a few limited edition ones (mostly of Anne Rice’s novels–I was SO wannabe goth) in my early college years. Outside of Frank Miller’s Dark Knight, which I actually own in a fancy leather-bound edition, I was not much into the majors (Superman, et al).
Then I met my husband, and he’s a Marvel guy, X-Men in particular. I spent the first 5 years of our marriage learning to tell Phoenix from Marvel Girl even though they were the same person ( I gave up on Cable’s family tree though, geez!). I knew he was familiar with some of DC’s stuff, based on comments he’s made about things like the Batman movies over the years. I didn’t realize he had a near-encyclopedic knowledge of BOTH big houses, Marvel and DC Comics, til the superhero/comic-based movies started getting really big the last decade or so.
So I picked this up for him without knowing what it was. He didn’t either, since he has not read any new comics in a while, being a big serious grown up and all (*snort*). I can’t even imagine what it was like when it came out, since I cheated and read the bound editions. I’m pretty sure the real reason I never got INTO comics was that the serial nature of it would drive me nuts. I want a WHOLE story in one sitting, not just enough to piss me off and make me buy the next one…
So anyway… What it all boils down to is that this was a really great series! I enjoyed the heck out of it. It had tastes of characters I was familiar with, but the bulk of the plot revolved around characters I either didn’t know, or who were created and disposed of in the series.
I think the other reason I like the bound versions better is for the writer commentary. It’s geeky of me, but I love reading about the writers’ process.
Verdict: You should read these. But don’t let your kid get their hands on it. If you don’t let them watch R movies or play first-person shooters, you won’t want them reading this ~graphic~ novel.
( 73 / 74)
Wait for it – it’s a 4 volume graphic series, I’ll write more when I’ve finished the whole thing.
( 72 )
I saw this when it came out in the summer and didn’t even bother to pick it up, I was so annoyed with myself for actually reading all the vampire books she wrote–and even more annoyed because I knew I would read the 4th volume of the trilogy (hello~!) when it came out. A friend was letting me look at her Kindle and we talked about our disappointment in the Bella series and I saw this one on there, too. She and I have pretty different taste in books, but I respect her opinion and she said it was way better than the angsty stuff, so I decided to give it a try.
And went to work sleep deprived for two days because of it–thanks Lisa!
Without giving anything away, if I can help it, it was SO much better than Meyer’s YA books. I genuinely enjoyed this book. The characters were, well, deeply human, flaws and all (though Jeb was a little too heavy on the Patriarchal stereotype to be as believable as some of the others). It is character-driven sci-fi.
I read a few reviews complaining about the pacing, but, personally, I never had a problem with it. It was slow-starting, but that genuinely felt story-driven. If it had gone too fast it would not have been believable, the characters needed time to develop.
I enjoyed the fact that the ending constantly surprised me. Every time I thought I knew how it was going to go, or how I would end it in order to leave the reader feeling satisfied, I was proven wrong. And yet, while none of the choices were the ones I would have made as a writer, they all worked well.
I hope she continues to write like this and leaves the tweeny bopper vamp stuff behind.
( 71 )
My bookclub made me do it.
I think the author did a fantastic job taking us inside the mind of a high-functioning autistic teen, and it felt “true,” but I still didn’t like this book.
It was B O R I N G. It has no point. And the title is too danged long. And there is way too damned much math in it. Any book that has an appendix full of math stuff is SO not for me! Though it was odd reading the description of the math problem with the game show host a week after watching “21″ where the same math problem was a pivotal plot point…
Candy is gonna come after me for this, but while I admire the writing in this book, it is not something I will ever read again or recommend. To anyone. Ever.
( 70 )
Septimus Heap, Book 1
This surprised me. The language felt like a younger book, and this is, in fact, shelved in the juvenile fiction section at the library, but some of the darkness and violence surprised me. It was definitely more violent than HP, which surprised me.
It was young in that I knew (a) what happened to Septimus, (b) that the boy who thought he was Septimus was NOT and (c) the identity of the real Septimus before I was half-way through the book and spent the last half waiting for the characters to catch up with me. Maybe the clues would be subtler to a younger reader,but as an adult it was painfully obvious.
The reader was excellent, even in conversations without attribution you could tell “who” was speaking.
I’m curious to see where she takes it, since there are at least three more books in this series and, well, this one seemed to tie things up rather neatly, so I’m not sure how our intrepid heroes are going to get into trouble again.
( 69 )
His Dark Materials, Book 1
I get upset when people condemn a book without bothering to read. Someone in my book club, which is an offshoot of my local online mom’s group, posted the standard “Pullman is an atheist and this is gonna take our kids on a one way ride to Hell!” email that was circulating in the weeks before the film version of the Golden Compass came out. I’m in a children’s writers group and the topic was pretty thoroughly dissected there, with links to in-depth articles on both the author and the series, so I felt pretty confident in saying the Internet-panic email was hogwash.
But, I wanted to make a point. So, waaay back in January I chose this book for our online discussion bookm, so that people would be a little more openminded, I hope, before forwarding inflammatory comments that lead to book banning and burning.
Now that I’ve said all that, I made a horrible mistake with this book. I *gasp* watched the movie first. My 7yo wanted to see it, and I’m one of ~those~ moms, which means I had to watch it first. I didn’t find the material objectionable in a conceptual way, but the whole lower jaw of the ice bear flying at the screen (thank goodness it wasn’t 3D!) made me say NO to letting her watch it.
Unfortunately, watching the movie affected how I viewed the book. The book was, as almost always, better, but having the movie in my head made it easier for me to get into the book and through parts that several friends mentioned were hard to get into. I knew what was ahead, and pushed through.
Here’s where I make my big confession. I ama shallow reader. I may occasionally dig below the surface, but not too often. I’m not interested in the Miltonian influence in this book, or the paradigm of church vs. science. I read a book with an eleven-year old girl as the heroine and enjoyed it as an adventure story.
My overall impression of this book was DARK. There’s a reason it’s called “His Dark Materials.” There are no true, pure heroes in this story, with the possible exception of Iornek Bearnison — and he’s a drunk when we meet him.
The characters were pretty shallow, outside of Lyra. Some of that read as a child’s perspective of people around her, and some as lazy characterization.
More later, probably, as I delve into the discussion questions with my group.
