American Gods

American Gods: A Novel happens to be my second Neil Gaiman novel and neither of those has been the novel I was planning to read of his. I've been meaning to pick up Coraline since purchasing and enjoying the movie. It was a cute but freaky kids story that shouldn't be shown to kids under a certain age unless they are incredibly morbid. The movie takes me back to a Grimm's Fairy Tales type of dark story. Anyways, the first reviewed book with Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch which was humorous and just a delightful story. American Gods falls into a different category.


In American Gods, a storm is brewing throughout America and somehow a seemingly normal ex-con has a pivotal role. You're greeted with plenty of mythology from the beginning that is carried on until the end. I found it amusing that you had a chance to see all types of different old god/s mythologies including Norse, American Indian, and other odd fairy tales to go along. What Gaiman didn't touch base on was Christianity, for the most part, and Santa. I'm not sure how he would have fared, but I'm assuming that he left those out so as not to alienate a good portion of his readers. The story is quite engaging and well written. He reminds me of a cross between Chuck Palahnuik and Stephen King. The way he writes dialogue was amusing.

I wasn't happy with the amount of smut that he decided to write about in the first hundred of so pages. There were three sex scenes and one was a homosexual scene. It didn't really bring the story along in any way. I felt that it took away from what could have been a story for multiple age groups. I was also happy that we weren't inundated throughout his book with the same type of imagery. I believe that I would have put the book down had that happened. It still affects my rating and recommendation in a not-so-good way.

Rating: 5 CBs - I can't recommend this b/c of the sex stuff at the beginning. If I wanted to read a romance novel then I'd go pick up one. I have a feeling that he was somewhat tamed by having a co-author with the first book I read of his. I will attempt to read a couple other books by Gaiman in the near future hopefully with better results. reader beware.

-D

Merry Christmas!

Now I know it's Christmas Eve, but I might not be up to writing tomorrow. We'll see. But I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and to enjoy the time with the family and your friends. While we have a good time opening presents and sharing a good conversation let's not forget that we have a Saviour that came to us so that we might be removed from our old life and given a new one.

“Behold , the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son , and they shall call His name Immanuel ,” which translated means, “God with us .”

 -D

After Midnight, we're going to let it all hang down...

We had some big news happen in the world of Fantasy last month. TOR released the second to last Wheel of Time novel. Towers of Midnight (Wheel of Time) is basically the first half of the last book, but Jordan (and now Sanderson) has been one to write incredibly long novels so this isn't to be unexpected. One of the nice items that's been picked up since Jordan's unfortunate death has been the expediency in releasing the final few books of the series through Sanderson. The last two books were a year apart..... we're all hoping that the final chapter will be released in a year. It's bittersweet to see the end of a series that's been going for two decades, but it's also created a ton of anticipation to find out what happens. But enough about the release of the book and onto the actual book.

Towers of Midnight is the latest chapter in The Wheel of Time epic. Brandon Sanderson brings his own feel to the story, but also leaves much of Robert Jordan in this next selection. It's a fast paced novel compared to the last few. Considering that we're one book away from the Final Battle, it would make sense that we can feel the pace quickening from one about the daily struggles(and fashion) of the realm and into the unpredictability of the Dark One's touch on the same continent. If you've been struggling to finish the series, continue to hammer through and you'll get to this point. It's worth the battle.

I do have a little concern about this book. It mostly hinges on the title. Now, any Robert Jordan fans out there that need to correct me may do so, but I believe I'm correct in this. The title would suggest that Rand, the main protagonist, would be going to Seanchan(another continent that's vital, somehow, to the end game) and fulfilling the prophecy of the Dragon. But, you won't find that story in this novel. The main plots surround two other key plots. You have Perrin and his decision of leading an army to the Last Battle, and Mat, Thom, and Noal going to the Tower of Ghenji to save Moraine(an character from the first few novels). Now, wouldn't it be nice to have a book title that matters to the story at hand? I would have preferred Towers of Ghenji over something that really isn't applicable. And Sanderson throwing in a few lines at the beginning of the story to attempt to tie in the title is just rubbish. There's also one other plot point in the book that feels pretty contrived, but I don't want to give away anything. It might have been major at some other point in the timeline, but it feels minor. Perhaps the final book will bring it more perspective.

Rating: 9 CBs - It's highly entertaining and action-filled. After midnight, were gonna chug-a-lug and shout.
Were gonna stimulate some action; Were gonna get some satisfaction. Were gonna find out what it is all about

-D

Modern Day Shakespeare?

So you know how there are many common words and phrases coined by the great Bard bandied about in everyday conversations, whilst those who utter them are oftentimes oblivious to their auspicious origins?  This was the thought in my mind as I read my most current book.  Many of the most "quotable" phrases that have followed me throughout childhood and into adulthood were written by a man I likely would have never heard of and barely know anything about.  Nonetheless, he wrote the most amazing lines!(e.g. "I do not think that means what you think it means;" "To the pain," "Inconceivable;" and "I'm not a witch, I'm your wife!")
For those of you who haven't gotten it by now (where have you been since the 80's?), the book I speak of is The Princess Bride.  The constant favorite since the day it premiered as an 80's movie with the guy from Robin Hood: Men in Tights, is based on a much older manuscript by one S. Morgenstern.  Apparently the only way a modern, American reader should take his masterpiece in is by reading the abridged version by William Goldman (screenwriter, egotist, Fred Savage doppelganger).  This shortened version (as we are constantly reminded by the editor) cuts out all the boring stuff and gets to the real adventure. 
But back to the reason for this post - I was shocked by the lines written by none other than S. Morgenstern.  I would think Mr. Goldman, being such a successful screenwriter, would have been the one to put all the words into the character's mouths.  I mean they got ALL the words right.  And what screenwriter wouldn't love to gets his hands on a great work of genius if only for the purpose of ruining it with his own ramblings.  But, no! Morgenstern had it all! 
Or did he?
Rating: The book: 7.5; Goldman's ego: 10

Book Lovers Unite

Well, so much for trying to get some things done on this blog lately.  We have had quite the past couple of months and heading into the holiday season leaves little room for blogging, but I saw something today that I had to pass along to all our book loving readers. 

One Kings Lane (an entirely outrageous mostly home decor vendor) has a deal on books every once and again.  For the next 24 hours they are running a sale on Random House Classic Book Sets.  They have a lot of great book sets at decent discounts. 

If you are interested in checking out more of this sale, you have to sign up to receive their emails.  But wait, if you sign up under our account, you get $25 to spend however you like.  Please leave a comment (with a way to contact you through email) and I will send in a request for you to sign up and you will get $25! 

These are great gift ideas for the holiday season, if you can handle giving them away.

-L

the Icewind Dale Trilogy - oldie but goodie 2

Here we are, about December, and still a massive amount of reading to be done. I think it's achievable if I set my sights a little lower. I've been doing so the last few books - sticking with 300 pages rather than talking the big guys. Problem is, the next Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson book has hit the shelves. If you haven't purchased it yet, head on over to Amazon and pick it up - Towers of Midnight (Wheel of Time). Let's just say that I'm almost 300 pages into that one so far. Fortunately, I've done some reading prior that I haven't blogged about.

The Icewind Dale Trilogy happens to be the books prior to my last blog in publication date, but happen after the timeline of Drizzt's beginnings. They follow Drizzt and his few friends through a few adventures starting with a barbarian raid. After that it continues down a path of remembrance and new challenges. It's pretty much the same writing that you would expect from R.A. Salvatore, but maybe a little more green. In the previous trilogy he was able to massage a character's back story to help give you an idea of how he got to where he is in this story. It doesn't all line up though. There are a few areas where you can tell that the books need to be edited to match with The Dark Elf trilogies origin stories. 

I was telling my wife that I consider this smut fantasy..... which makes it sound horribly gross and me incredibly creepy. These are fantasy books, without the copious descriptions of lust like a Fabio covered novel, and it's smut b/c it's just an easy-to-read good versus bad story. You aren't expecting a hundred twist and turns. The characters go through a few different tales, but you expect the same from them. It's a nice book to pick up when you're wanting to get lost, but only for a little while. 

Rating: 6 CBs... it's still a "D" favourite even though I have found better authors since then. I also don't think I have the time or the patience to read through every Drizzt story. I am sure there are 15+ at the moment. You can also pick these up pretty cheap through a used book store. They've been around for a long while.

-D

The Dark Elf Trilogy - oldie but goodie

I need to get back up to speed on our reviews, but I also dont want to bore our readers (and myself)  by giving a review of each book in a trilogy that im reading back to back. To help alleviate the problem I read through the entire trilogy and will do one review. The Dark Elf Trilogy was written by R. A. Salvatore. I'm not sure when I picked this series up, but it's one of my first Fantasy novels. You can purchase it as a singular book as the previous link will direct you to, or purchase them separately. I have them from years and years ago and ,while I would love to have a nice, new book, they'll do this way.

The Dark Elf Trilogy Gift Set (Homeland + Exile + Sojourn) - This is probably the best way to pick up the origins story for one of my first fantasy trilogies. The story follows a dark elf by the name of Drizzt. You learn that he is far from a normal dark elf. His race is a malicious group that is really about killing just about anything and everything that gets in their way, including other dark elves. Salvatore takes you from Drizzt's birth to his escape from the oppression of the dark elf life.


R.A. Salvatore writes a good piece of fantasy, but isn't what I would say as one of the great Epic writers. He certainly has a huge number of books based on Drizzt, but they don't have the same cohesiveness that you would expect from Glen Cook or Robert Jordan. That's not to say that they aren't worth reading, but they are the type that you can pick up, read in a couple days, and move on to the next group. I always liked that I could get through about 9 or 10 of his books before getting bored and having to move on to something else. I'm also inclined to wonder if a conclusion will ever be had. I've seen Cook's story end(although I think that he's releasing another Black Company novel) and we're two more novels away from the conclusion of the Wheel of Time. As readers, do we expect to have a real ending? maybe... maybe not....

Rating: 6 CBs... 300 pages is easy to read through.