Mystic and Dog Flight
Mar. 26th, 2008 12:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maribouMystic and Rider, by Sharon Shinn
So the problem with this book is partially a problem with me - ever since I started doing some role-playing, I have Major Issues with certain kinds of quest fantasy - the kind where everyone has a purpose for being in the party, and the plot very conveniently happens in exactly the way that makes the most sense, and there's Lots and Lots and Lots of Peril but somehow no one gets TOO hurt and there's a way out of every problem that is very specifically tailored to those particular characters, and it's all very bloody obvious and fairly predictable and there's not sufficient depth to make up for it, so it just doesn't matter how pretty the world is or how charming the characters are. Hm. Actually, that sounds like it's not just me that has the problem. It's a shame really, because this is the first time I haven't loved a Sharon Shinn novel. Of course, the cussed book had to go and get reallyreally good for most of the last 120 pages or so, after being decidedly mediocre for the first three hundred ... so now I will have to give the second one a go. Eventually. When I've taken off my crankypants about the first one.
(56/300)
21 Dog Years: Doing Time at amazon.com, by Mike Daisey
This isn't properly a memoir - most of it feels like someone putting on a show. Which I suppose shouldn't be surprising given that it was a one-man-show before it was a book. It has interesting bits, and insightful bits, and even some bits that are both. And then there were bits that made me sigh with frustration. Anyway, it was looking at amazon.com from an angle I hadn't looked at it before, and the prose was lively and fun to read, and sometimes it was very funny. I'd recommend it, with the caveat that that doesn't mean I necessarily buy all (most?) of it.
(57/300)
Flight: Volume 1, edited by Kazu Kibuishi
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manintheboat was totally right and this book was lovely lovely lovely. I confess a couple of the stories didn't quite cohere for me, but most of them are exceedingly sensical and breathtakingly gorgeous, all at once. I especially liked the story about the girl who woke up with wings, and the kite story, and the stories about Copper and Dog. heads up, vixyish - there are all kinds of people from that pantsketch community you got me watching in here, and I think you would find it keen.
(58/300)
So the problem with this book is partially a problem with me - ever since I started doing some role-playing, I have Major Issues with certain kinds of quest fantasy - the kind where everyone has a purpose for being in the party, and the plot very conveniently happens in exactly the way that makes the most sense, and there's Lots and Lots and Lots of Peril but somehow no one gets TOO hurt and there's a way out of every problem that is very specifically tailored to those particular characters, and it's all very bloody obvious and fairly predictable and there's not sufficient depth to make up for it, so it just doesn't matter how pretty the world is or how charming the characters are. Hm. Actually, that sounds like it's not just me that has the problem. It's a shame really, because this is the first time I haven't loved a Sharon Shinn novel. Of course, the cussed book had to go and get reallyreally good for most of the last 120 pages or so, after being decidedly mediocre for the first three hundred ... so now I will have to give the second one a go. Eventually. When I've taken off my crankypants about the first one.
(56/300)
21 Dog Years: Doing Time at amazon.com, by Mike Daisey
This isn't properly a memoir - most of it feels like someone putting on a show. Which I suppose shouldn't be surprising given that it was a one-man-show before it was a book. It has interesting bits, and insightful bits, and even some bits that are both. And then there were bits that made me sigh with frustration. Anyway, it was looking at amazon.com from an angle I hadn't looked at it before, and the prose was lively and fun to read, and sometimes it was very funny. I'd recommend it, with the caveat that that doesn't mean I necessarily buy all (most?) of it.
(57/300)
Flight: Volume 1, edited by Kazu Kibuishi
manintheboat was totally right and this book was lovely lovely lovely. I confess a couple of the stories didn't quite cohere for me, but most of them are exceedingly sensical and breathtakingly gorgeous, all at once. I especially liked the story about the girl who woke up with wings, and the kite story, and the stories about Copper and Dog. heads up, vixyish - there are all kinds of people from that pantsketch community you got me watching in here, and I think you would find it keen.(58/300)
