Wednesday, May 30, 2007

May '07

GENTIAN HILL
-E. Goudge-historical fiction
-317-the romance that grows between a young girl and a young man as they are separated and eventually come back together. Goudge likes to describe things in too much detail. I don't care how the elderberry bush looks as it waves in the wind next to the potted gardinias that are riot in full bloom in the 17th century pot that is pure white with an image from a legend about a Saint in the Crusades who... and on and on. I am thinking I will read The White Witch and then be done with her. Even still, I'm going to need a couple of months break before tackling it.

FRUITS BASKET #10-13
-N. Takaya-manga
-Tohru meets Akito. He appears to be severely warped, psychologically, somehow. He is scary.

ANGELMASS
-T. Zahn-scifi
-430-There is a blackhole that spits out particles, which come to be known as Angels, since they seem to "make" people good. About a spy/scientist, the Pax, the Empyerian and how the lack of Angels makes the blackhole a malevolent force.

FANTASTIC MR. FOX
-R. Dahl- juvenile fiction
-88-this was 88pages long only because the pages were half taken up with pictures, hahahaa. Should have been a short story. A fox outwits three men who are hunting him and his family.

DEATH NOTE #11
-T. Ohba-manga
-210-Near and Light are both positioning for the final Showdown. Near is flying to Japan to meet "L" aka Light. Next volume or the next will be the end. Looking forward to see how it all wraps up. Some of the "Rules" could make things really interesting, since they involve the shinigami.

LANDOVER: MAGIC KINGDOM FOR SALE/SOLD!
-T. Brooks-fantasy
-308-A man who is widowed, "buys" a Magic Kingdom because he has nothing left to live for. Ends up saving the Kingdom and himself. Isaac Demme pointed out that this Landover series was not good because there was no depth to the characters and that we only enjoyed the first one because it was all new. Since this is my 3rd or 4th time reading this, I was looking to disprove that. Sadly, I couldn't. A good read, as long as you don't read any of the following :-)

SHAMAN KING #12
-H. Takei-manga
-184-the team defeats 2 of Hao's minions, but come across a gang of Shamans known as the X-laws, who utilize some sort of "angel" overspirit and are on a mission to crush Hao, as they see him as the embodiment of evil. And crush whoever gets in their way. This does not sit well with Yoh. We shall have to wait to see if and when they battle it out.

ELEMENTAL GELADE #1
-M. Azuma-manga
-180-airpirate boy looks through a treasure, finds a "girl" who is some sort of superweapon and wakes her.

KARE KANO #1-3
-M. Tsuda-manga
-"perfect" girl meets "perfect" guy. Both discover the other is a fake, fall in love and try to balance school, being perfect and being themselves.

ONE PIECE #14
-E. Oda-manga
-186-Luffy beats Mr 3.

BLEACH #8-12
-T. Kudo-manga
-skipped volume 7 cause the library copy was damaged. So, Ichigo takes off to rescue Rukia in the realm of the Soul Reapers. To much fan service. I shall not being reading any more.

SKETCHES BY BOZ, part I
-C. Dickens-fiction
-421-part I consists of humorous sketches of different places in England.

RAVE MASTER #1-5
-H. Mashima-manga
-boy becomes next Rave Master. Rave is the opposite of the Darkbring. Cliched to the hilt, uninteresting, and very sketchy character development. Not a series worth continuing.

BLEACH #7,13
-T. Kudo-manga
-so I lied. The fanservice comes and goes. I will probably read as much as the library has. Anyway, Ichigo continues learning about his own inherent Soul Reaper capabilities as he battles up the the Soul Reaper Society Army Ranks, on his way to rescue Rukia.

TRIGUN MAXIMUM 1-8
-Y. Nightow-manga
-the sequels to the Collected Triguns volume 1 & 2. The artwork was packed, making it very confusing to tell what was going on and the storyline is still Vash whining about how he will stop Knives, but without killing anyone. So Wolfwood is always doing the dirty parts and Vash seems fine to let him do it. It is lame and preachy. I am glad the anime ended where it did.

TRAVELING WITH THE DEAD
-B. Hambly-fiction
-343-a sequel to Those who Hunt the Night. Didn't finish it. Didn't catch my attention and couldn't get me interested in the 105 pages I read. I am done with reading a whole book just to finish. It was boring political intrigue and the vampires played almost no part in the bit I read. I want action, no "oh, lets jump on THIS train and follow Count X blah, blah, blah".

BLEACH #14
-T. Kudo-manga
-200-Ichigo battles some really powerful guy, loses, is rescued and given 3 days to "Up" his powerlevel. No point in recaps on single volumes of manga really.

SKETCHES BY BOZ, part II
-C. Dickens-fiction
-465-sketches of humanity, mostly humorous.

BLADE OF HEAVEN #1
-Y. Hwang-manwha[korean]
-290-stupid. Whoever the translator was, they obviously weren't sticking to what the creators had originally written, as seen by the loads of american slang and ghetto talk. Nothing more needs to be said.

ICARUS HUNT
-T. Zahn-scifi
-362- I really liked this novel. An outlaw captain is hired to pilot a ship with a secret cargo with a random crew, with someone from within trying to sabotage them and an alien government without trying to get their hands on whatever the secret cargo is. This novel was like Zahn tried to be Alistair Maclean, and succeeded brilliantly in my opinion. Hints, clues, saboteurs, murder, shadowy criminal masterminds, supersecret agents, and all mixed with aliens, spacetravel and scifi goodness :-)