Book Review: Fool Moon

Alright, onto another book review...Yeah, I know, I probably read a bit too much. But it's fun. haha This time, book two of the Dresden Files, Fool Moon.

The story itself was quite good. If you can't guess, paranormal book, moon in the title, werewolves play an important role. But unlike most books in the genre, Butcher takes a much wider and more interesting view of werewolves. And it was one of the things that I really loved about it. Different cultural perspectives on werewolves, and a fantastic combination of different themes comes together and works extremely well. Two thumbs way up to Butcher for his fresh take on a genre cliche.

Dresden also gets a good bit of character development. He still seems a bit flat at times, but is growing. His backstory begins to get fleshed out and I'm interested in seeing where it is going. I do love him though. He's a character that bleeds, that has limitations. There is room for growth, but it seems like Butcher is going to stay within the rules of his world so far. (Unlike some authors with their heroes. *coughHamiltonBlakecough*)

Yeah, I know, not the best review again, but I'm still working on getting back into writing. Give me some more time and I'll get back up to speed. :) Stick with me until then. But thumbs up to the book, looking forward to getting the next. Fun, entertaining, and pulls you into the story, that's what I look for in books generally and this one fills them nicely. If you like paranormal thillers, give it a shot.

Double book review

Alright, going to do something different and do two reviews at once. The books in question are "The Gathering Storm" and "The Towers of Midnight," which were originally intended to be one book. They are 12 and 13 in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan and the first two written by Brandon Sanderson after Jordan's death. They are amazing reads and probably my favourites of the series so far.

I won't try and explain the plots or what happens, but the tension that has been building for most of the last 3 books at least is finally resolved in a wonderful matter. I was actually surprised by some of the occurrences and the style it was written in was fantastic. Sanderson's writing is obviously different from Jordan's, but I thought that it flowed much better. Sanderson jumped between characters more often, which made it easier to remember who was where doing what, where, and with whom. The convergence of characters added to the sense of release as well as serving to build more tension for Tarmon Gai'don. Overall, they were a fantastic pair of books that really highlighted the skill of Sanderson as a storyteller and of Jordan's epic tale. Two thumbs way up above the clouds.

That is not to say that the books were perfect. The only real complain that I had was the chronology of the story was all messed up. In "Towers" particularlly, the story jumped back and forth in time with jumps between character. It was a almost impossible to tell what was happening when. It had me really screaming and pulling my hair out at times. Because the story was so enrapturing. I'm not sure if it was the author's fault or the editors, but that was the only real complaint I had at all.

Now comes the hard part. After over a year of reading, 13 books, and many dollars down, I finally have caught up in the series and have to wait 10 months till the next book comes out. lol Not the longest I've waited for a book in a series, but still, a bit frustrating. lol AT the same time, something to look forward to.

A slow week

I haven't written much this week, but it's been one of those weeks. The snow came Sunday evening a week ago, and have been stuck in the house since then. It has been hair pulling out crazy time. And nothing really has jumped out aside from that. Though it wasn't as horrible as it could have been. Bjorn was hilarious in the snow. So much at home with himself in a way that I wish I could be. But this is not my season, not my time. Hell, probably not even my place in a more philosophical view. But it was fun playing with the puppy. Otherwise, I've just been reading too much and staying by the fire to try and stay warm. lol Emphasis on try. Have I mentioned yet I hate the cold?

Timelessness

First week of a new year is generally one of reminiscence and this one has been no different. Sometimes good things, sometimes not so good, but this one has been one of the better times. Two coincidences got me seriously thinking about some serious and not serious things. Well, serious for nerds and dorks, not so much for others. But I've never claimed to be more than a nerd so... Firstly, BBCA began showing The X Files. Secondly, Ovation TV did Firefly all week. Two shows that I loved and were critically, if not popularly acclaimed during their run. But watching the first few episodes of the X Files just made me shake my head. Everything seemed so dated and out of touch, so different from the groundbreaking show of the time. Yeah, it was the only American Sci Fi on TV at the time so that made it stand out. But everything just seemed so bad looking back. Fun, but bad. On the other hand, Firefly is just as new, fresh and mind shattering as watching it the first time. This got me thinking about what the difference was in the two shows. Why does one hold up while the other show its age?

The first thought was the setting. The X Files starts in the early 90's and is very much set in that time. No cell phones, big bulky computers, no laptops....the devices of moder life that are so hard to imagine life without. Firefly is set in the future, space travel, all kinds of flashy stuff imposed over the old west...just crazy stuff. But then I discarded that from watching Buffy. Extremely time set, just as corny as the X Files, but somehow it holds up much better. MASH is kinda the same. Set in Korea, the lack of things is just as foreign, but most episodes are just as hilarious now as they were when it originally aired. So setting isn't the difference.

Writing then? Yeah, every episode of Firefly is a masterclass in writing and it took the X Files a while to reach their stride. Could it be that just good writing makes the difference? That's probably 99% of it. Those early episodes of the X Files were just not creative and pretty blahly written. But they tapped into something that had been untapped for such a long time. There were other bad sci fi shows out there when the X Files started, but none tapped a moment in time better than the X Files. And that moment then passed.

I guess that's 90% of what was going through my mind. Yeah, still working on getting myself better with words. I had this whole big idea in my head about what makes something good and bad and everything in between. But it all boils down to some things are just good and some things aren't. lol Oh well, hopefully with practice the loquaciousness will return. Feedback is always welcome.

Book Review: Storm Front

Finally picked up the first book of the Dresden Files. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. I was expecting another set of guilty pleasure books, but it was actually really good. The plot was well thought out and the characters just pulled me in. Dresden is a wonderful change up hero from most urban fantasy. First off, he's male. In a genre dominated by female sex pots, lesbian vampires, and teenage idiots, a male nerd hero is a nice change up. Secondly, he's just a damn fun character to read. Great sense of humour and seriousness, intriguing background and just all around an interesting character. Don't wanna give too much away, if anyone hasn't read it yet, but needless to say it was a fun story read.

Yeah, still working on getting my mind back to making words into sentences that make sense. lol But I will recommend the book highly. Two thumbs way up.

New Year's resolution

Alright, I'll be the first to admit, that the last year I was a horrible blogger. Swung back and forth between too angry to blog about some things and just too lazy and awful to blog about others. Changing that for this year and hopefully going to get back into the writing rhythm. So keep tuned for the usual political rants, book reviews, movie reviews and everything else in between. Mostly, the manic ramblings of this weirdo.

Happy new years and best wishes to anyone else who is still out there. :)