50 in '16: #1-3
Jan. 26th, 2016 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sakon76Title: Interim Errantry
Author: Diane Duane
Length: 542 pages
A self-published work filling the gap between the ninth and tenth Young Wizards novels, I originally bought this as an e-book. But then the author made it available in dead tree copies, and well, for reading, I prefer paper to pixels. There's something about the visceral feel of a book in my hand that something electronic can't duplicate. So Squiddle (via Wonderful Husband) gave this to Mummy for Christmas.
In any case, this volume is made up of two short stories and one novella. One Halloween-themed, one Christmas-themed, and one End-of-the-World/Valentine's Day-themed (there are, you have to admit, certain similarities....)
This is NOT a good entry point to the series. There are references throughout to characters and events all the way up to the last novel. If you haven't read A Wizard of Mars, you'll be confused.
That said, I enjoyed the hell out of this. The Christmas and Valentine's stories especially.
Verdict: Recommended for Young Wizards fans. Highly!
Title: Groundbreaking Food Gardens
Author: Niki Jabbour
Length: 243 pages
Not the usual novels I list here, but by George, I read every word, so I'm going to count it.
This is basically a gardening planning book, which was recommended on one of the gardening blogs I read. It specializes in food gardens, and has seventy-five different garden plans from seventy-five different contributors. And they're wildly different, varying from patio gardens to acreage, from using pallets and rain gutters to how to incorporate chickens into your landscape. One of my favorite anecdotes was from a gardener in Alaska, who has twelve-foot fences to keep the moose (not deer, moose) out of the garden!
Obviously, not every garden is for everyone. But this book covers such a range of situations that I can't help feeling that anyone interested in food gardening will be able to pick up something from it.
Verdict: If growing your own food interests you, check this one out of the library.
Title: Pacific Rim
Author: Alex Irvine
Length: 336 pages
Picked this one up at the thrift store, hoping it would shed some additional light into the world of the movie. Which it did. A little. And showed a slightly different background for Pentecost Stacker that explained a touch better why he went hunting for Raleigh.
But mostly this pissed me off. The scene changes were clunky and obvious. The characters whose heads you got inside were annoying. And basically it felt wooden and by the numbers. Which may be a problem with novelizations, period. The writer is given a script and has to write a book from it. But it may be a problem with Alex Irvine's writing; his Transformers novels, which is a world with 30+ years of history he could research to get into the characters' heads, were similarly bad. In any case, it's not until the last battle that I felt the narration actually flow.
Verdict: Skip. Go rewatch the movie instead.
Author: Diane Duane
Length: 542 pages
A self-published work filling the gap between the ninth and tenth Young Wizards novels, I originally bought this as an e-book. But then the author made it available in dead tree copies, and well, for reading, I prefer paper to pixels. There's something about the visceral feel of a book in my hand that something electronic can't duplicate. So Squiddle (via Wonderful Husband) gave this to Mummy for Christmas.
In any case, this volume is made up of two short stories and one novella. One Halloween-themed, one Christmas-themed, and one End-of-the-World/Valentine's Day-themed (there are, you have to admit, certain similarities....)
This is NOT a good entry point to the series. There are references throughout to characters and events all the way up to the last novel. If you haven't read A Wizard of Mars, you'll be confused.
That said, I enjoyed the hell out of this. The Christmas and Valentine's stories especially.
Verdict: Recommended for Young Wizards fans. Highly!
Title: Groundbreaking Food Gardens
Author: Niki Jabbour
Length: 243 pages
Not the usual novels I list here, but by George, I read every word, so I'm going to count it.
This is basically a gardening planning book, which was recommended on one of the gardening blogs I read. It specializes in food gardens, and has seventy-five different garden plans from seventy-five different contributors. And they're wildly different, varying from patio gardens to acreage, from using pallets and rain gutters to how to incorporate chickens into your landscape. One of my favorite anecdotes was from a gardener in Alaska, who has twelve-foot fences to keep the moose (not deer, moose) out of the garden!
Obviously, not every garden is for everyone. But this book covers such a range of situations that I can't help feeling that anyone interested in food gardening will be able to pick up something from it.
Verdict: If growing your own food interests you, check this one out of the library.
Title: Pacific Rim
Author: Alex Irvine
Length: 336 pages
Picked this one up at the thrift store, hoping it would shed some additional light into the world of the movie. Which it did. A little. And showed a slightly different background for Pentecost Stacker that explained a touch better why he went hunting for Raleigh.
But mostly this pissed me off. The scene changes were clunky and obvious. The characters whose heads you got inside were annoying. And basically it felt wooden and by the numbers. Which may be a problem with novelizations, period. The writer is given a script and has to write a book from it. But it may be a problem with Alex Irvine's writing; his Transformers novels, which is a world with 30+ years of history he could research to get into the characters' heads, were similarly bad. In any case, it's not until the last battle that I felt the narration actually flow.
Verdict: Skip. Go rewatch the movie instead.
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Date: 2016-01-27 08:44 am (UTC)::nodnod:: Irvine is ...not the deftest hand at characterization. One sort of gleans interesting ideas despite the books. ^^; I kind of wonder if his original stuff is less wooden?
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Date: 2016-01-28 03:15 am (UTC)