Monday, December 29, 2008

December '08

WAR OF THE SPIDERQUEEN: INSURRECTION
-T. Reid-fantasy
-338- a group of drow go to another city to see if they too are plagued by Lolth's absence. They are and lesser houses are plotting to overthrow greater houses. Dwarven merc's are hired. The slaves revolt. The whole city is pretty much ruined. The group from the first city gets out at the end on their way to meet a priest who will hopefully help them find out why their god is absent. Sucks to be a drow, that is for sure. I'll read the 3rd book that I have, but that will be it. Not worth spending any more money on unless it is for a dollar or something.

ELMINSTER: THE MAKING OF A MAGE
-E. Greenwood-fantasy
-312-the beginnings of the mage known as Elminster. A huge hero in the forgotten realms lore, I gather. This book didn't so much read as it was almost a script for a D&D campaign. Given, Ed did make up D&D, but still. This was more 2D than a Terry Brooks book. So if you want a brainless magic read, this is the type of series for you. I shall be reading more Forgotten Realms to see if they are all like this. Might depend on the author I guess.

WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS
-S. Silverstein-children's poetry
-166-This had illustrations to go with it. Some of the poems would only make sense WITH the picture in fact. It was something silly to introduce the idea of poetry to children, imo. I'd read it to my kids.

STAR WARS: THE FORCE UNLEASHED
-S. Williams-fantasy
-319-based upon the videogame of the same name. A nameless secret apprentice of Darth Vader's ends up helping to create the rebellion. This book was yet another good reason why most games don't make good books. This read like a game. Go here, do this, go there, do that. The character development was pretty nil. The contradictions in this story were huge, imo. A sith apprentice who easily switches over to the light? He changed the course of a StarDestroyer for goodness sake, with darkside power. That should have twisted him beyond recognition. It was just one big piece of crap. I didn't enjoy reading it and am glad it is not the beginning of a series, for I would have to skip it.

LOOKING GLASS: VORPAL BLADE
-J. Ringo & T. Taylor-military scifi
-400- the Vorpal Blade is a converted sub for space travel. Weaver and Miller and Mimi and Tuffi are all on board. The whole purpose of the sub is to explore and look for Dreen presence. They come across a couple of planets, the last which was inhabited. This book was ok. Not as much action as Into the Looking Glass, and the action that does happen seems to be mainly in the last half or so of the book. I thought Into the Looking Glass was worth owning. This was worth reading. I don't know if the libraries have any more of the series though.

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
-L. Carroll-juvenile fiction
-144-young Alice is bored, so she follows a rabbit down a rabbit hole and ends up in Wonderland. She shrinks and grows and shrinks and grows and meets all sorts of interesting characters. Then her sister wakes her up.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
-L. Carroll-juvenile Fiction
-164-Alice walks through a Mirror and sees what is on the other side. It is a living chess board. She makes her way across the board and becomes a Queen. Then she wakes up. Both of the Alice books were a bit more on the light side than I'd remembered. Not bad, just I remembered them as having more of a "heft" than I found this time :-) Guess I am just getting old, hahaha.

WAR OF THE SPIDER QUEEN: CONDEMNATION
-R. Baker-fantasy
-344-the group tries to find a wizard of another god to help them. He does, but betrays them and allows his god to enter and try to kill Lolth. No real desire to read the rest of the series. I certainly won't be buying them. The drow are jut horrible. Backstabbing, no trust, no hope. No race could have gone on like that for real. It would have imploded or torn itself apart.

NOT FOR GLORY
-J. Rosenberg-scifi
-232-first, this author should not be confused with Joel C[!!!!] Rosenberg. Completely different guy. Writes about Israel though, go figure. Anyway, Israel was kicked out of the promised land and took over a desolate ball of a planet. Now they are mercenaries to support themselves. It was dedicated to a "Bob Adams". I'm going to find out if it is the Bob Adams I know. Wouldn't that be a kicker. Bleh story though. Grey describes it very well.

MISTBORN: THE HERO OF AGES
-B. Sanderson-fantasy
-572- the conclusion to the Mistborn trilogy. The power Vin released was Ruin. It was a force opposed by Preservation. Preservation made humans with some ruin so as to get an edge on Ruin. Ruin was trying to destroy the world, period. Preservation gave up its sentience to imprison Ruin. Vin freed Ruin in Well of Ascension but joined the mists and took on Preservations power. Fought with, and joined with, Ruin. Sazed took both those powers and became The Hero of Ages, basically a god watching over the world. Vin is no more and Elend dies to, so no loose ends. The story ends with Sazed fixing the world and keeping it safe for the remnant of humanity saved by the Lord Ruler's foresight. Definitely didn't take the direction I thought it would, but it was good none the less. Hope Sanderson does a good job on Memories of Light, the final Wheel of Time book.

ELMINSTER: IN MYTH DRANNOR
-E. Greenwood-fantasy
-378- Elminster goes to the Elven kingdom to learn lots of magic and help the elves open up their kingdom. Almost all the elves want to kill him so he ends up spending 20+ years apprenticing to some unknown elven sorcerer. Everything works out in the end with one elvenhouse swearing eternal vengeance against him, so as to make room for more books ;-) Blase writing but a good time killer. Light.

FRUITS BASKET 19 & 20
-N. Takaya-manga
-blah, blah. Kyo confesses he could have saved Tohru's mom but didn't. Tohru continues to look for a cure to the bond, which basically consists of her moaning about how unworthy she is. I just read these books without remembering a thing from 18. To many people who look alike and act alike. Everytime I am like "Ok, who is THIS character again?". Bleh.

AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND
-G. MacDonald-children's fiction
-292- a little boy gets to know the North Wind, which is basically an angel of death for children. Sees the world, has adventures with his family, and then goes to the Back of the North Wind at the end of the book, which means he died. Can't say I really understood this very well. Filled with poems, songs, etc that I just skipped over. In essence, it seems to be a story about a little boy who dies. But it wasn't really sad.

EON
-G. Bear-scifi
-412- humanity discovers an "alien" artifact in orbit around our world. Turns out to be from an alternate future in which the world almost destroyed itself. It appearing heightens tension between the Russians and the Americans and sets off what is called "The Death", the world almost destroying itself. Lots of humanity going digital. Assumes that that is possible. A pretty cool read. Lots of action with the Russians trying to take over the artifact. Bear wrote well, unlike his starwars stuff. He should stick to straight scifi.

ETERNITY
-G. Bear- scifi
-346-the sequel to Eon. Not nearly as interesting. Lots of junk about the future affecting the past to cause itself. Explored what humanity might become. Why does it seem that most evolutionistic authors assume that we will all become some sort of group mind meld? More likely we will kill ourselves off first. I didn't enjoy this nearly as much as Eon.

KARE KANO #4-5
-M. Tsuda-manga

VELLUM: THE BOOK OF ALL HOURS
-H. Duncan-fantasy
-463- profanity, obscenity, blasphemy, all these were what this book centered around. Humans become angels, the top angel became god, was overthrown. Angels, demons, whatever, are unkin. And a war wages between them all. The Vellum is under all, the "true reality" that can be rewritten. This book was very non-linear, almost like the author was on an acid trip or smoking pot when he wrote this. Duncan gloried in profanity and homosexuality, and a refusal to "choose" sides in a divine war. And it was just so full of emptiness, hopelessness and despair. Who would want that kind of world view? Ugh.

ONE PIECE #17-18
-E. Oda-manga
-reread 17 to orient myself properly for 18.

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