Mini-Reviews: Ring, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, A Quick Bite

 Posted by Anastasia on September 3, 2010  No Responses »
Sep 032010
 
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173. Ring by Koji Suzuki
Publication: Vertical (April 25, 2004), Paperback, 288pp / ISBN 1932234411
Genre: Horror
Rating:
Read: August 2010
Source: Paperback Swap

Review

What can I say? You’re probably familiar with one of the movies, and so you know the basic premise. The book version is different, of course, way different than the American movie, but most the horror parts are similar enough that I was tense all throughout waiting for things to come to a head. Koji Suzuki is very good at inducing a state of tenseness in a reader, very good at creating an atmosphere and scaring the crap out of someone. The writing isn’t fantastic, more like a Stephen King sort of writing, maybe, except with more uncomplicated sentences. I had the idea that Mr Suzuki was saying things about Japanese culture that I wasn’t entirely picking up on, especially at the end with one of the characters that pretended to be something he wasn’t. I didn’t get that, and I wish I had. Maybe I need a decoder ring– I don’t know.

If you completely ignore the saying-something-about-society stuff it’s a decently scary horror book, although I think the movies are a little bit scarier because you actually SEE the scary stuff– Mr Suzuki’s descriptions weren’t enough to evoke the same reaction as the movie’s visuals had.

174. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
Publication: Penguin Classics (December 31, 2002), Paperback, 312pp / ISBN 0141181222
Genre: Fiction
Rating:
Read: August 2010
Source: Library

Review

I had to read this for one of my classes this semester– technically we aren’t reading it until November, I think, but I wanted to get a headstart– and so I had to read it without the expertise my prof no doubt has about the 1960s in America and the books written therein. However, I’m slightly familiar with insane asylums in the 1960s from books like Girl, Interrupted, and of course I know a bit about the 1960s in a general history sort of way. Anyway, I was completely surprised by this book. I was expecting it to be something like Woman On the Edge of Time only without the time-travel stuff, but it’s really not. It’s much better, and much MORE than just an asylum in the 1960s, and by the time I got the end I felt like I had just run a marathon.

175. A Quick Bite by Lynsay Sands
Publication: Avon (October 25, 2005), Paperback, 384pp / ISBN 0060773758
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Rating:
Read: August 2010
Source: Paperback Swap

Review

I don’t know why I do this to myself. I’ve hated almost ALL paranormal romances I’ve read, especially the ones with vampires, and I don’t know why I thought this one would be different. It’s got ALL the things I hate about romances, especially paranormal ones: soulmates, falling in love after THREE DAYS and basically getting married, nice vampires that are really just like humans with all sorts of benefits and no downsides, and stupid, stupid names. Add on to that busybody families on both sides, a heroine who has NO FLAWS (or at least none that can’t be fixed) as well as no personality, and Mr. Perfect Hero Who Does No Wrong, and I pretty much hated this book. I’m just not into the stuff I listed, though I know lots of other people are.

I will say it wasn’t completely hopeless. The heroine is a vampire for once, when usually I think it tends to be a male vampire wooing a human female. I think Ms Sands was trying to play with certain vampire lore aspects, like how Lissianna has a fear of blood (although she’s still able to drink it as long as she doesn’t see it). And the writing was very engaging, though I hated the plot.

The rest of the series has different characters starring, so I was thinking of reading the next book, because it wouldn’t have the Boringly Perfect Couple in it, but…I don’t know. I almost don’t want to chance it again.

I guess I’m just not a paranormal romance sort of person. Take this review with a grain of salt.

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 2/5, 4/5, Beach Reads, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Paranormal, Reviews, Romance, Translated, Vampires

Mini-Reviews: Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Magic Moon, Trinity Blood #1

 Posted by Anastasia on August 20, 2010  No Responses »
Aug 202010
 
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153. Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
Publication: Pocket (June 1, 1991), Paperback, 306pp / ISBN 0671746723
Genre: Sci-fi, Fantasy, Humor
Rating:
Read: July 2010
Source: Bought

Review

I had to read this for my summer class, and I’m glad I was forced to because I don’t think I would have made it past the first few pages if I didn’t expect for it to get better. Those were some boring first few pages. Ignore those pages. It does get better. It gets so much better I feel like slapping myself for having a copy of Dirk Gently for over a year and not reading it!

Honestly, I think I like it a little better than even the Hitchhiker’s Guide books. Possibly I just like Dirk Gently better than any other Douglas Adams character, but I also really like the themes in Dirk Gently. Think for yourself, don’t depend on someone else (or something else) to make decisions for you, and don’t make science into a religion? Those’re some good themes, and they’re cushioned in a humor so delicious I just want to cuddle the book close and never let it go. It’s wonderful.

If you haven’t already read a Douglas Adams book then this one might the book to start with. If you have read a Douglas Adams book before then you won’t be disappointed with Dirk Gently. Either way– totally worth reading!

154. Magic Moon by Wolfgang and Heike Hohlbein
Publication: TokyoPop (October 3, 2006), Paperback, 344pp / ISBN 159816452X
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, MG
Rating:
Read: July 2010
Source: Bought

Review

Oh my GOD I hated this book. Now that it’s been a few weeks since I read it I can look back and understand why, exactly, I disliked it so much, but at the time all I could think about was that I wasted three hours reading it. So here’s why I didn’t like Magic Moon:

1. Either the writing or the translation is very plodding. It doesn’t have a flow, it’s very choppy, and in some parts it feels like half the meaning of the words was missing. In other parts it’s like half the STORY is missing, and it got really annoying.
2. The characters are pretty stereotypical. Actually, the entire story is stereotypical. Young boy hero saves a fantasy world? That plot only makes me happy when it’s got something different going on in the details or a plot twist somewhere, or something Magic Moon doesn’t have anything like that. It’s just a typical wannabe-epic fantasy with all the standard epic fantasy characters. None of them have any depth– and if they did have depth I completely missed it– none of them are likable, and by the end I hated all of them.
3. The dialogue is horrible. Again, it might be the translation, but it felt like the characters were reading from a script from a particularly bad B-movie. Seriously cheesy stuff.

So basically, it’s a typical fantasy story with half-baked characters, bad writing, and an infuriating ending. I won’t talk about the ending because, y’know, spoilers, but if it had been the exact opposite of what it was I would have felt much less irritated than I did. GOD.

155. Trinity Blood: Rage Against the Moons #1 by Sunao Yoshida
Publication: TokyoPop (April 3, 2007), Paperback, 232pp / ISBN 159816953X
Genre: Horror, Action
Rating:
Read: July 2010
Source: Bought

Review

I read this immediately after finishing Magic Moon because I wanted something fluffy and almost totally different from what I just read. It could have been a disaster, because Trinity Blood is not the best written series– but it wasn’t! A disaster, I mean; it’s still not well written, but it is very enjoyable. It’s got vampires and a dystopian society with a weird version of the catholic church, lots of action scenes, a bit of sexuality, a killer android, a holographic nun, and a bit of steampunk thrown in for good measure. You know those silly TV shows that don’t have much depth to them but you enjoy watching them anyway, if you’re in the right mood and need something silly and relaxing to set your brain to? That’s what the Trinity Blood books are like. They won’t win any literature awards, but they’re a lot of fun to read!

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 1/5, Action, Adventure, Beach Reads, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor, MG, Mystery/Detective, Reviews, Sci-Fi, Translated, Vampires

Review: Playing With Fire by Derek Landy

 Posted by Anastasia on June 16, 2010  No Responses »
Jun 162010
 
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125. Playing With Fire by Derek Landy, read by Rupert Degas
Publication: Harper Audio (2008), Audiobook, 6h57min
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Action/Adventure, YA
Rating:
Read: May ?-June 1, 2010
Source: Bought
Summary from Amazon:

Meet Skulduggery Pleasant:

Ace Detective…Snappy Dresser…Razor – tongued Wit…Crackerjack Sorcerer…and Walking, Talking, Fire-throwing Skeleton…

…as well as ally, protector, and mentor of Stephanie Edgley, a very unusual and darkly talented 12-year-old. These two alone must defeat an all-consuming ancient evil.

The end of the world? Over his dead body.

Review

I read the first Skulduggery Pleasant book way back in September 2008, before I even started this blog, but I still remember how frickin’ awesome that audiobook was. It’s what introduced me to Rupert Degas, one of my favorite narrators (despite that unfortunate Cirque du Freak incident). It’s what introduced me to Derek Landy, who writes great movies as well as books. And it’s what introduced me to the wonderful world of Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain (aka Stephanie Edgley), my two new favorite paranormal detectives. I like them even better than Harry Dresden! Though maybe that’s because they aren’t woobies. (Well, maybe Skulduggery is a woobie. Just a bit.)

It took me so long to get around to this second book because I was, uh, kind of saving it. But now that the fourth book has come out, and the fifth book is coming out soon, I can let myself go ahead and catch up! And I had a lot of fun catching up in this book, lemme tell ya.

It does start off kind of slow, which is weird because it starts off with a chase/fight scene and you’d think that wouldn’t be slow, but it is. Kind of. I must have listened to the first five minutes at least four times before I actually had the patience to continue onward– maybe it’s better in the paper version. Dunno. But, after the first revving up of the “real” plot, the rest of the book doesn’t slow down for one second! I think there’s more fight scenes and action sequences in here than even in a Die Hard movie, and that’s a pretty big accomplishment.

It’s not all action, however (though action plays a big part). There’s some interesting character things, mostly concerning Valkyrie, who’s been ignoring her non-magic life in favor of the magic one. This means she’s been missing out on things like hanging out with her parents, her first kiss, talking to her friends, etc. It also means she doesn’t have to go to school or do homework, which is pretty awesome, but, personally, I thought she was going a little overboard with the “ignore everything but my magic studies” stuff. It’s important to have balance, especially when you’re young, and luckily Valkyrie starts to figure that out, with help from her friends and family.

One thing I really like about this series is that Valkyrie is so independent. Skulduggery may be her teacher and her boss, but she doesn’t overly depend on him to get her out of sticky situations (though he’s good at doing that). She’s learned how to fight for herself in this book, which is a considerable step up from the last book when she was basically helpless every step of the way. She’s getting really good at magic and physically fighting, and though she can’t beat every baddie she can at least outsmart most of them, and that’s pretty nifty.
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 Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Fiction, Paranormal, Reviews, Urban Fantasy, Vampires, YA

Review: Darklost by Mick Farren

 Posted by Anastasia on May 24, 2010  No Responses »
May 242010
 
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115. Darklost by Mick Farren
Publication: Tor Books (March 2000), Hardback, 412pp / ISBN 0312869797
Genre: Horror, Paranormal, Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Rating:
Read: May 9-13, 2010
Source: Bought
Summary from Amazon:

Los Angeles–City of Angels, city of dreams. But sometimes the dreams become nightmares.

Having fled New York, Victor Renquist and his small group of Nosferatu are striving to reestablish their Colony in Los Angeles. They have become a deeper, darker part of the city’s nightlife. And Hollywood’s glitterati are hot on the scent of a new thrill, one that outshines all others–immortality.

But someone, somewhere, is meddling with even darker powers, powers that even the Nosferatu fear. Someone is attempting to summon the entity of ancient evil known at Cthulhu.

And Renquist must overcome dissent in his own Colony, solve the riddle of the Darklost (a being brought partway along the Nosferatu path and then abandoned), and combat powerful enemies to save the world–of humans!

Previously: The Time of Feasting

Review

It’s been a while since I read the first Renquist book– in fact, The Time of Feasting was the first book review I ever posted here!– but I remembered enough to continue onward in the series with this second book. Now, unfortunately I didn’t like Darklost as much as I did the first book, mostly because of the Cthulhu thing which annoyed me for some reason. I can see that it was incorporating more classic horror stuff, but it was almost like namedropping, and so it was very distracting.

I did appreciate the vampires, who were real vampires that are scary and disgusting and who kill people, who don’t try to hide what they are and don’t apologize for being something other than human. They also still retain that weird attractiveness that makes people like vampires in the first place, so it’s not a complete dovetailing of modern vampire fiction dynamics.

I also liked the plot, kind of. Like I said, the Cthulhu thing was annoying and I think some other details in the book were sort of…dated, maybe? Darklost was written in 2000 but some details feel like those late 1980s/early 1990s supernatural novels that stuck in a lot of S&M/gothic stuff to make it more “exciting.” It sort of felt like The Crow mixed with an early Anne Rice book– in atmosphere, I mean, not in plot, necessarily.

Okay, that was confusing. But I hope I made myself at least a little bit clear? Anyway, Darklost starts off slow and doesn’t really pick up until somewhere around the middle, which is why it took me so long to read; I actually put it down for a few days and read something else. And though I wasn’t enamoured with the main storyline, the character dynamics changed so much within the course of the book that I’m still interested in finishing the series, mostly just so I can see what happens next with Renquist’s colony, which is really the best part of the whole series. I could do without most of the secondary characters, honestly.

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I’m never sure whether to count this series as sci-fi or not, since it has aliens in it but they’re more horror-aliens than anything else. Ugh, genre confusion~

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 3/5, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Paranormal, Reviews, Vampires

Review: Changeless by Gail Carriger

 Posted by Anastasia on May 18, 2010  No Responses »
May 182010
 
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111. Changeless by Gail Carriger
Publication: Orbit (April 1, 2010), Paperback, 384pp / ISBN 0316074144
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Mystery, Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Rating:
Read: May 1-3, 2010
Source: Borrowed
Summary from Amazon:

Alexia Tarabotti, the Lady Woolsey, awakens in the wee hours of the mid-afternoon to find her husband, who should be decently asleep like any normal werewolf, yelling at the top of his lungs. Then he disappears – leaving her to deal with a regiment of supernatural soldiers encamped on her doorstep, a plethora of exorcised ghosts, and an angry Queen Victoria.

But Alexia is armed with her trusty parasol, the latest fashions, and an arsenal of biting civility. Even when her investigations take her to Scotland, the backwater of ugly waistcoats, she is prepared: upending werewolf pack dynamics as only the soulless can.

She might even find time to track down her wayward husband, if she feels like it.

Previously: Soulless

Review

I said in my review of Soulless that while I enjoyed the plot/characters/etc I couldn’t help but be annoyed by the plot holes (or maybe “plot gaps” is a better term). Changeless doesn’t really fill in any of the gaps, but it does expand on some of the world’s details (like the technology!) and it was overall a so much more fun book that I’d say even if you didn’t particularly like Soulless you WOULD like Changeless. Which is just a rather confusing way to me to say this: Changeless is even more amazing than Soulless was.

Everything just seems so much better done in Changeless. There are less plot gaps, there’s more Alexia being awesome, more information about the Parasol Protectorate world and the people living in it (which is what I wanted), there’s a wicked interesting mystery with ANCIENT EGYPTIAN things in it (love!), and I even think the writing itself is a little bit better! I seriously couldn’t put Changeless down once I started reading it, and by the time I got to the end I felt like I was talking in capslock, that’s how happy I was reading it. Also, more exclamation marks!!

I rated both Changeless and Soulless 4 birds, but actually I enjoyed Changeless more than Soulless. It felt more solid, characterization- and plot-wise, and the plot itself was more fun. With twists! But not silly twists that just come out of nowhere (although they did sort of lean on the other side where you COULD see them coming, but just a bit). And even though it ends on a cliffhanger– which I tend to dislike– it ended in a way that the main plot, with the mystery, was solved and all that’s left to hang was the sticky personal relationships bit. Which, I admit, made my heart go “ow.” My heart went “ow” so much I actually read the bonus chapter from the third book that was in the back, and I never do that.

So, yeah, I loved Changeless. Can’t wait to read the third book!

And

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Other reviews: Dear Author | Stella Matutina | Outlandish Dreaming

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 4/5, Adventure, Alternative History/Earth, Fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Paranormal, Reviews, Sci-Fi, Steampunk, Vampires, Werewolves

Review: Soulless by Gail Carriger

 Posted by Anastasia on March 27, 2010  2 Responses »
Mar 272010
 
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63. Soulless by Gail Carriger
Publication: Orbit (October 1, 2009), Paperback, 384pp / ISBN 0316056634
Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Horror
Rating:
Read: March 9-12, 2010
Source: Borrowed
Summary from Amazon:

Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she’s a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire — and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.

With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London’s high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

SOULLESS is a comedy of manners set in Victorian London: full of werewolves, vampires, dirigibles, and tea-drinking.

Review

I borrowed this from a coworker who told me it was a historical fantasy mystery with steampunk and werewolves and vampires, and the vampires weren’t ninnies. You can see she knows my taste in books extremely well– probably because I complain to her whenever I have a problem with a book! I’m always telling her I want to see something different in fantasy books, not just the same old stuff rehashed and stuffed into a leather miniskirt. And Soulless turned out to be that book!

My coworker didn’t tell me Soulless was a paranormal romance, though, which was probably actually a good thing because I tend not to like most paranormal romances (humans with paranormal creatures just squick me, okay). However, the romance in this book was actually quite interesting and, well, romantic, and I really liked it! I think this is because Alexia is human but she’s got an edge over paranormal creatures, so it kind of…evens the odds? Something like that.

I really liked Alexia, because she kind of reminded me of Marian from The Woman in White, except she’s not actually ugly and only thinks she is because her family keeps telling her that. That’s horrible stuff, and I didn’t entirely understand why her own mother was so horrible to her, but then I often don’t understand when mothers hate their children. Anyway, Alexia is smart and brave and obviously restricted under the Victorian mores and morals of the time, and I can’t wait until she finally breaks free and starts actually doing investigative stuff. And I loved the other characters too, especially the werewolves. I never expected to like a werewolf, mainly because I’m so disinterested by them in general. But I liked them in Soulless!

The plot was really interesting, too. It’s sort of like in the Sookie Stackhouse books, when the vampires reveal themselves? Except in the Soulless world it’s vampires and werewolves, mainly, and I think they revealed themselves rather early on. I read somewhere that Ms Carriger created her world with the idea that the werewolves/vampires helped England become an empire and so on, and I find that idea really fascinating, as well. Plus there’s some steampunk stuff, although not as much as my coworker would have be believe, and it all seems to take a backseat to the romance bit, anyway. But still, really exciting stuff.
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 4/5, Alternative History/Earth, Fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Reviews, Romance, Vampires, Werewolves

Review: Dragonfly by Frederic S. Durbin

 Posted by Anastasia on March 24, 2010  4 Responses »
Mar 242010
 
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60. Dragonfly by Frederic S. Durbin
Publication: Ace (September 27, 2005) originally published 1999, Paperback, 336pp / ISBN 0441013384
Genre: Fantasy, Horror
Rating:
Read: March 8-9, 2010
Source: BookMooch
Summary from Amazon:

A young girl is drawn into the strange, spooky underworld in the basement of her uncle’s funeral parlor.

Review

Somehow I heard about this book, I think in a recommendations list for books with kids having adventures in fantasy lands that exist in a sort of side-slipped reality to ours. That’s exactly what Dragonfly is, and while I normally enjoy books like that, I didn’t entirely enjoy Dragonfly.

I didn’t dislike it. But it’s definitely not a YA book like I thought it was. I think that was the fault of wrong categorization somewhere, so don’t go assuming it’s like Artemis Fowl or anything like that. It’s more like The Book of Lost Things, if you’ve read that– it’s a kid getting into adult situations, with life and death hanging on a precarious balance and morally corrupt people running around everywhere causing trouble. It disturbed me multiple times, Dragonfly, not least because Dragonfly falls in love with a werewolf who a) kills people and eats them and b) is enchanting her into staying with him anyway while he siphons off her dreams. So in lieu of eating her flesh he eats her soul, basically.

That does not sound like a happy-go-lucky romance to me, and in fact it never actually seemed that Dragonfly was really in love with that werewolf. She was being enchanted! But everyone acts like it was this great thing, even the people that should no better, and that rubbed me the wrong way. Dragonfly’s constant crying and feeling sorry for herself rubbed me the wrong way, too. It was annoying, especially since se never seemed to do anything except get into more trouble. I suppose it was more realistic, because she was, after all, ten, and how good at being a hero can a ten year old be, really? But she was down there for several months, which was more than enough time to learn a new skill set, and she never acted like a ten year old anyway. It was just weird.

Anyway, that was basically my main problem(s) with Dragonfly. Everything else was fine. Heck, everything else was fantastic! I loved how creepy it was, and how it melded together several mythologies and urban myths, and made it all scary. It was more of a Halloweentown than Halloweentown was, and that was great. I think if Dragonfly had been a different sort of person I would have liked the book better, but as it is now I think I’m just mostly torn between loving the creepy and hating the rest, and I think that’s because I went in expecting one thing and getting another.

YA books shouldn’t be as creepy as this one, and because I was expecting a YA book it threw me for a loop. If I had been expecting an adult horror/fantasy book starring a kid, I would have been better prepared and might have even liked it more. Maybe. Probably? Who knows.

And

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Other reviews: Talien & Maleficent’s Reviews | Reviews Alone

This post brings up some interesting points about Durbin’s writing. It’s very strange in some parts, and it doesn’t help the ten-year-old sound anything like a ten-year-old. What ten-year-old says stuff like “when the chuckle-dark harvest moon shaped pumpkins in its own image,” anyway? Some people like stuff like that– even I go for it sometimes– but not when the narrator is so young. I think I’d go for realism over style, then.

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 Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Reviews, Vampires, Werewolves
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