I need to start this review off with a disclaimer. This novel is part of Amazon’s serial novels and was released a chapter at a time over the course of five months. This killed me. I hate this format and I really don’t think the novel is suited to it at all. I am a fast reader, and two weeks between chapters means that there’s anywhere from 2-6 books between each section and it’s hard to maintain a complete hold on all the little details of the novel in […]
The stories are dying.
“It will be a very slow . . . apocalypse. Those who live by . . . imagination . . . will feel it first. But in the end . . . without story . . . without the ability to step sideways from fact . . . into hypothesis . . . human life is untenable.” You could be forgiven for thinking that after the max craziness of the last volume, where seemingly all the story-lines ended in a whiz bang of revelations and violence and […]
Holden Caulfield Goes to Hogwarts
Did you ever wonder about those white-haired, cynical wizards in fantasy stories? The ones that show up at strange times and disappear right when their magic would be most beneficial? Did you ever wonder what their backstory was? Me neither, but apparently Lev Grossman did. I wish I could take credit for the “Holden Caulfield goes to Hogwarts” thing, but I stole that from a friend of a friend. It’s fitting. The main character, Quentin Coldwater, is about seventeen at the start of the book. […]
Weird Tooth Fairy Story
This book is a bit different than most of the Gregory Maguire books I have read in the past, but is still a parody of a common fairy tale. In this case the book takes on the story of the tooth fairy in a quite original way. It is not my favorite of his books but was short enough and written in a fashion that kept me interested throughout. The story starts out with three overly sheltered siblings stuck in what they appear to think is […]
I’ve made a huge mistake
When I got into Robert Jordan last year, and read all 15 books of the Wheel of Time in a few short months, I told myself I wouldn’t allow myself to get sucked in again. Binge reading is bad. It leads to Vitamin D deficiencies, and a bad case of oh-shit-what-now-itis when you finish the set. I thought the pale skin ala the pre-religion Anne Rice books was behind me, and my foundation would no longer be a shade too dark. I was wrong. Since then, having […]
We All Need Gale Force Reading Glasses
Gale Force Reading Glasses, in the world of Fairy Tail, allow the reader to read two to thirty-two times faster, depending the on the quality of the book. Which, I think we can all agree, would be a godsend to all the cannonballers out there. This issue picks up in the middle of Natsu and Lucy’s first real guild mission. They’ve been sent in to infiltrate an arrogant millionaire’s household and steal back a book. Only Lucy doesn’t appear to be his type. So they […]