Review: Arthur Rex by Thomas Berger

Arthur Rex: A Legendary Novel by Thomas Berger
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I read this book in High School, I had a fond memory of it being a new and interesting take on Arthurian legend. Well, this book did not age well at all. While the story loosely followed the well known adventures of the Knights of the Round Table, the characterizations were terrible. Virtually every major character was made out to be not just flawed but so terribly flawed that their flaws out shined their good attributes, the things that made them heroes. The character who took the worst hit was Guinevere.

The representation of Guinevere was terrible. She was represented as a complete bitch, she was shallow and cared for no one except for herself. She did not love either Arthur or Lancelot and made both of their lives miserable. I much prefer the older versions of her, where she loved both men and was eternally torn between them. Lancelot did not fair much better, being characterized as a bitter, miserable man being held hostage by Guinevere. This was not a beautiful if doomed romance, but rather an abusive relationship between two broken people. Arthur himself was nothing more than a buffoon where most all of the events of the books happen in spite of him, rather than because of anything he did or said. The author probably could have made him a minor side character and it would have made no difference to the story.

If you are looking for a good modern retelling of this tale, Arthur Rex is not it. I wish I had left this on the shelf as a memory from my teenage years.

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Review: Misfit Magic by Niall Teasdale

Misfit Magic by Niall Teasdale
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a mixed bag for me. There were some really cool ideas and some interesting world building, I liked the idea of a society of dragons, socially stratified by color. There is a lot of potential story telling in this world. Unfortunately, the story itself fell a little flat for me, it wasn't terrible, but neither was it particularly ground breaking. The characterizations were very two dimensional, with little or no character growth, with the exception of one character, who was not the protagonist, but rather one of several sidekicks, this characters story arc, was actually more interesting than the protagonist.

One thing I do have address is the sex. Please don't get me wrong, I am no prude, I am all for good sex in a good story, especially lesbian sex. However, in this book it felt a lot like fan service. The author knew his primary readership was going to be horny teenage boys and wanted to throw them some hot babe sex to keep them reading. This did not in anyway contribute to the story, the relationship between Krys and Trudy could have easily been addressed with out the graphic sex scene.

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Review: The Zero Blessing (The Zero Enigma, #1)

The Zero Blessing by Christopher G. Nuttall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This books was better than I thought it was going to be. Usually young adult fiction is is not my thing, although there are some really good ones out there. The Scythe series for instance is a really good series and the fact that it is YA is a side note. I came into this series with some low expectations, I was thinking "Okay, yet another Harry Potter clone", but I was pleasantly surprised. While it is standard fare The Chosen One goes to wizard school, there are some interesting twists in the story. I am usually pretty good and figuring out plots twists before the characters in the book do, but in this case, the author fooled me completely until the main character figured it out herself, which pleased me, I enjoy it when an author gets one over on me. Good book, well worth the read, especially if you like YA stories.

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Review: Angels' Blood by Nalini Singh

Angels' Blood by Nalini Singh
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As an action adventure story it is pretty good, there is not a lot of deep character development, but the story is fairly interesting, with a couple of good fight scenes. I like the book enough that I may read some of the later books, but I did not like it enough to move anything down my reading list to make room for it. I did like the setup for the next book, although the author did telegraph the plot of the next book.

My biggest issue with the book was the setting, the inclusion of vampires was out of place and the idea that angels make vampires felt like an editor told the author "Vampires are cool and popular, so add vampires.". I understand this is supposed to be an alternate earth with different cultures and histories, but it just did not make a lot of sense to me. This setting was too much like our earth, I am pretty sure if humanity were ruled by immortal arch angels, society would look nothing like it does today.

Over all, a decent book, but up front I would like to say, I do not care for Urban Fantasy or Modern Fantasy, depending on who you ask. I like it better than Steampunk though, so there is that. However, I would suggest this book to anyone who does like the genre, you will probably not love it, but it is a good time sink and a mildly enjoyable read.

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Review: The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Okay, I am going to be honest here and it is probably going to make some people gasp, but I liked the NetFlix series better. The NetFlix Series was pretty close to this book, except for the Ciri parts, which were not in the book and with the exception of one single story. Normally, I much prefer the books to the movies, mainly because we get better characterizations and with a book, we are getting only one persons vision of the story, where are in movies we are seeing the vision of the screenwriter, director, the producer, the actors, etc. In this case, having seen the show first, I noticed the flaws in the book, that were not there in the story.

First off, this is a good, almost great fantasy novel, Geralt is not a pretty man, but truly a world weary soldier who does what he does simply because he knows no other way, Yennifer verges on being a villain in her own right and Dandelion is the best best friend Geralt could ask for. These characters are intense, well written and play off of each other masterfully. The book itself is more of a series of loosely told short stories, basically giving us the backstory for the later series. It is well put together and entertaining.

My problem with the book is more technical than anything else. As I read the book, I had this feeling that something was lost in translation, that it would have somehow been much better had I read it in its original Klingon. The translation was not perfect, there seemed to be places where the sentences were not quit right, odd words being used slightly out of context, minor things like that. I think some people would tell me this was just his writing style or a way to differ speech in this fantasy world, but it really did not feel that way to me.

Overall, a good read, if you liked the show, you will like this book. If you hated the show, you will hate this book. I suggest reading the book before before seeing the show. I would definitely suggest this book to any who like high fantasy stories.

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Review: The Deed of Paksenarrion

The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When I started this book, I did not realize I had purchased a bundle of the first three books, so it took me much longer to finish than I had anticipated. However, I am glad I read all three stories together, had I just read the first book, I would have been somewhat disappointed. The best parts of the story do not come until the second and third books.

This is a pretty standard fare heroes journey story, while it is well written and has some interesting character development and world building, it relies too much on medieval fantasy tropes to be a truly great book. In fact this book read a lot like a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, which does not particularly bother me, but the author seems to go out of her way to describe in story the powers a Paladin has in the game and at times this felt awkward to me. Elizabeth Moon knows how to write a good fight scene, this to me is a big plus for me, however she also knows how to write a good torture scene, which does not particularly appeal to me at all, thankfully she skips describing the rape in any detail.

Overall a pretty good book, I am not sure I would recommend it to everyone, but if you are a D&D player and want a good story about the rise of a Paladin, this will suit you very nicely. In fact reading the book makes me want to play a Paladin in the campaign I play in.

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Lancelot and Genevieve

I like this picture, I am not sure if it is meant to be Lancelot and Genevieve or not, but it certainly invokes that feeling for me. The world has turned against the lovers, the happy times are behind them and the road ahead is nothing but darkness, but still he protects her the best he can for as long as he can.

Edit: Yes, he is totally looking at her cleavage.

Review: Ralph Bakshi's Wizards

Ralph Bakshi's Wizards is one of my favorite movies. It is a classic heroes journey tale told by a 1970's stoner. The movies detractors complain that the animation is awful, the story is uneven, silly characters and it is terribly dated. I agree with only one of these things, the movie did not age well at all. However, I do not think this is a bad thing. Many movies made decades ago are now dated, but still considered classics. The animation of this movies was and is actually very good, it has bright colors and made good use of the tertiary color schemes. The retroscoping was definitely a low point, but really only because it was so different from the rest of the movie.

The story on its surface was simply about good versus evil, two brothers hashing out their differences. However under the surface, we see a world that has been devastated by war, pollution and excesses of greed. A world which is once again on the brink of destruction. While much of the movie is in fact a bit goofy, but there are many iconic scenes that pointed to deeper issues. For instance the scene where Blackwolfs army goes to the church and asks the priests to take the prisoners of war, the priests say "Patience. We must first observe sundown and pray." and then promptly danced and prayed for hours before the soldiers finally killed the prisoners. This draws attention to how often religion does nothing in the face adversity, preferring instead to pray and let god sort it out, rather than taking action. The classic "They killed Fritz" scene is another good example, it is a satirical look at soldiers dying from friendly fire. The whole movie is a commentary on the dangers of war and unrestrained industrialization.

While I am talking about iconic things, many of the characters are very iconic. Avatar, the wise cracking, cigar smoking hero. Weehawk, the brave and fierce elven warrior. Blackwolf, the most evil man in the world. Necron 99/Peace, the assassin turned good guy. Then of course there was Elinore, I am pretty sure Elinore played a big part in my life during puberty. I can remember at least one conversation at the time about how sexy Princess Leia was and my comment was, "Yeah, I'd do Princess Leia, but I would be thinking about Elinore.".

In spite of what anyone says Wizards is a great movie, every time I watch it, I see something new and laugh at gags I have seen a dozen times, because they are still funny.