Saturday, June 27, 2009

June '09

INUYASHA #27
-R. Takahashi-manga

THE BRONZE CANTICLES: MYSTIC QUEST
-T. & L. Hickman-fantasy
-453-the saga continues, in 3 stories again. Deals with a new set of people, mostly the children or relatives of those from Mystic Warrior. The human world is about a group of mystics trying to find the original city of the gods. The elven world is about a group trying to find an artifact in the capital city of the Kyree. The goblin story is about a goblin sent to spy out on a trollish city and discovers a whole library of books. Overall, I actually liked this better than the first. More going on, and a better understanding of everything. Not sure how the 3 worlds coming together is going to work out, interesting to find out.

THE SWAN'S WAR: THE SHADOW ROADS
-S. Russell-fantasy
-433-the conclusion to The Swan's War trilogy. Alaan, Elise and their respective groups face off against Hafydd and his. Death, also known as Meachi, is trying to get free from the spell that walled him in from the living. Everything comes together quickly in the end and Death is walled in again, Hafydd goes back to the river and Alaan and Elise go their ways. The groups all go back to their ways of life, forever changed. To be honest, it seemed a bit to pat and quick. I enjoyed the ending, but with such humble beginnings[the feud between the Will's and the Renne's], to escalate things to Death himself trying to walk the earth again, it just seemed almost anti-climactic. Well written, well thought out though. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this trilogy and am looking forward to re-reads already :-)

VAMPIRE HUNTER D
-H. Kikuchi-fantasy
-238-the first novel in the Vampire Hunter D light novel series. A young woman is bit by a local Noble and hires D to kill the Noble to free her. A local human thug, some mutant rebels and other demons all come together to make life hard for D as he just tries to do his job. Obviously a first novel. Descriptions go something like this "The wind snarled like a beast across the barren sky". It is like using fingerpaints to do a portrait. Gets the job done, but kind of makes you groan at the amateurishness of it. No real character development, but since I'm guessing D is the only character common in all the books, not surprising. A nice light read.

STAR WARS: THE BOUNTY HUNTER WARS: THE MANDALORIAN ARMOR
-K.W. Jeter-fantasy
-387-2 stories. One taking place around New Hope and the second during Return of the Jedi. About Boba Fett. First story is about Fett taking down the Bounty Hunters Guild. The second story is what happens to him after being eaten by the Sarlacc. Not really sure how canon this is, considering all that Traviss has written about the Mando and Fett himself. I'm enjoying it though. No jedi, lots of assassins and bounty hunters though. Looking forward to the next 2.

FAHRENHEIT 451
-R. Bradbury-science fiction
-190- in the nebulous future the masses are entertained with mindless drivel and books are banned, hunted and burned when found. One man discovers how empty everything is and goes on the run from the authorities and finds others like himself. Ends with the US being nuked and the premise that these "book rememberers" will help rebuild civilization. I can't say I really enjoyed this book. The writing style was annoying, too dramatic, over the top, when describing the internal struggle felt by the protagonist. And a culture that allows the youth to grow up to be cattle, it couldn't survive very long. The kind of people needed to make a culture survive that was described couldn't grow up in the culture described. It doesn't fit.

THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
-Sir A.C. Doyle-mystery
-174-a series of short stories about the cases Holmes solves. Slowly but surely working my way through The Complete Sherlock Holmes.

THE BRONZE CANTICLES: MYSTIC EMPIRE
-T. & L. Hickman-fantasy
-391-the conclusion to the Bronze Canticles trilogy. The goblins get a rift gate to the human world and invade. The Shuraj[dead magic] elves are going to be destroyed by the Kyree and get a gate to the human world. The elves make alliance with the humans and work together to close the gates. The gates are closed and the goblins are hunted down. The end. I really didn't care for this ending. The story was cool and all the action was nice. But the whole point was the "Binding of Worlds", which never happened. The Hickman's just let it slide for a later time. Bleh to them!

INUYASHA #28
-R. Takahashi-manga

AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS
-J. Verne-fiction, classic
-287- an englishman takes a bet that he can go around the world in 80 days. With his french manservant, he takes off. He saves an indian woman, is pursued by the police as a suspect in a huge bank robbery, and has lots of adventures. Gets home and to the Club exactly on time. Marries the girl and gets the bet money and the real robber is apprehended. This was a good read. Exciting, informative [for the time] and not real long either.

FRONTIER MAGIC: THIRTEENTH CHILD
-P.C. Wrede-fantasy
-344-Wrede turns her hand to the Americas, and specifically the Frontiers. Taking place in the mid 1800's, this is about a girl, whose brother is the 7th son of a seventh son, and she is the 13th child. Grows up thinking she is somehow bad because of being unlucky number 13, until the family moves west to help expand a college town. This is the pioneer story, like Caddy Woodlawn or Laura Ingals Wilder, with magic. This story ends with Eff, the girl, saving some pioneers by using a non-conventional way with some magic in dealing with some magical bugs. Sounds kind of funny, but this was a good book and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the series as it comes out.

CAT-A-LYST
-A.D. Foster-fantasy
-206-super beings, that are catlike, watch over earth to let it grow up at its own pace. A rogue SB tries to ruin everything. Humans end up setting things straight. This was a stupid novel and I don't have anything good to say about it. Might have been a good short story though.

STAR WARS: THE BOUNTY HUNTER WARS: SLAVE SHIP
-K.W. Jeter-fantasy
-324-having 2 different storylines at different time periods is confusing when trying to write a review. Boba Fett does this, Boba Fett does that. It is just reading adventures about Boba Fett that have a very thin connection.

NIGHT ANGEL: THE WAY OF SHADOWS
-B. Weeks-fantasy
-661-a young boy becomes the apprentice to the cities top wetboy [super duper assassins] and grows up. Lots of intrigue and politics and the city falls to a northern kingdom. Turns out the Wetboy had a magical item and it ends up bonding with the apprentice, allowing him to become the next Night Angel, a creature that is a balance to 6 other magical creations. It was a bit brutal and graphic. I'll be reading the next 2, but have no desire to own them. Really well written for a first novel though.

STAR WARS: CORUSCANT NIGHTS: PATTERNS OF FORCE
-M. Reaves-fantasy
-288-the conclusion. A young force adept, very powerful is found and hunted. Hooks up with the Pavan group. There is a confrontation with Vader and bota [from the Medstar books] is used. Vader has a bad "trip on bota" and the good parts of the group escape. Jax learns his father loved him and I5, the sentient robot, ends up getting a "soul", or something that can be sensed in the Force anyway. This series almost seems to make light of how the hunt for the remaining Jedi went. This was a mediocre series that wasn't interesting. Not anything like the MedStar duology, sadly.

INUYASHA #29
-R. Takahashi-manga

FIREBIRDS
-S. November, editor-fantasy
-420-an anthology of scifi and fantasy. A bunch of short stories. Some were good, some were simply mediocre and some I thought were stupid. Not a bad collection to introduce to a YA though.

NO NEED FOR TENCHI! #1-12
-H. Okuda-manga
- this takes place after Episode 6 of the OVA. Lots of enemies popping up and bothering Tenchi and the girls. Or silly side adventures. Way too much shojo stuff. Nothing really like the anime. It wasn't very funny and it wasn't very moving. I'm thinking about getting rid of them now.

COREAN CHRONICLES: CADMIAN'S CHOICE
-L.E. Modesitt, Jr-fantasy
-510-the second book dealing with Dalyn and Mikel, an Alector and a Cadmian. Rogue Alectors are transferring in and it is up to Dalyn and Mikel to navigate the political hidden agendas and figure out what to do and how to do it semi-safely. This was annoying. The politics are as confusing to us the reader, probably more so since we don't have prior experience and knowledge, as to the main characters. Keeping track of what Alector is supposedly supporting which Duarch and Highest and all the military ranking, it is confusing and does not make the read interesting.

YU-GI-OH! #4-7
-K. Takahashi-manga
-the final volumes of the original Yugioh manga. I enjoyed it, but at times the way the badguys were allowed to cheat and get away with it was almost eye-rolling. I mean, Kaiba kidnaps Yugi's Grandfather and displays him dying in a cage in front of a huge crowd of kids and everyone is like "Yeah, Kaiba, you're the coolest" while Yugi's group is "We believe in you Yugi, you can DO it". A little to much sometimes. The final 2 books, dealing with Bakura though, were pretty cool.

THE DARKWAR SAGA: FLIGHT OF THE NIGHT HAWKS
-R. Feist-fantasy
-UNFINISHED

THE ALL-NEW TENCHI MUYO! #1-10
-H. Okuda-manga
-I think I actually liked this better than the original manga series. More action and fighting and less Sasami rescuing little animals and being cutesy. Ends and I don't think that there will be any more. Enjoyable.

THE LAST RUNE: THE KEEP OF FIRE
-M. Anthony-fantasy
-593

THE LAST RUNE: THE DARK REMAINS
-M. Anthony-fantasy
-643

THE LAST RUNE: BLOOD OF MYSTERY
-M. Anthony-fantasy
-579

THE LAST RUNE: THE GATES OF WINTER
-M. Anthony-fantasy
-565