50 in '11: #4
Jan. 30th, 2011 09:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sakon76Title: The Wish List
Author: Eoin Colfer
Length: 252 pages
So there's this trope that Hollywood has used to death. It goes a little something like this: someone dies untimely young, gets to the pearly gates, and discovers that s/he isn't quite good enough to get in... but also not quite bad enough to get sent downstairs. Cue a trip back to Earth to correct this situation of teetering right on the edge. And the deceased doesn't get along at all with the person they're assigned to help, but eventually makes good.
So if you've seen any of those kind of movies at all, you'll know how this book goes. Compared to Colfer's usual milieu (Artemis Fowl), this is a light read and goes very fast. The characters are tolerable and there are a few genuine surprises: the McGuffins (a pair of blue stones full of soul energy) don't get used in anything like the way I'd expected, and there's a great lesson in there about forgiveness and moving on. That said, the characters aren't very deep or well-developed, which is probably why it's a fast read. It was probably written for people in a slightly lower age range than the fantasy works I usually read.
Verdict: recommended if you're looking for something light and fast.
Author: Eoin Colfer
Length: 252 pages
So there's this trope that Hollywood has used to death. It goes a little something like this: someone dies untimely young, gets to the pearly gates, and discovers that s/he isn't quite good enough to get in... but also not quite bad enough to get sent downstairs. Cue a trip back to Earth to correct this situation of teetering right on the edge. And the deceased doesn't get along at all with the person they're assigned to help, but eventually makes good.
So if you've seen any of those kind of movies at all, you'll know how this book goes. Compared to Colfer's usual milieu (Artemis Fowl), this is a light read and goes very fast. The characters are tolerable and there are a few genuine surprises: the McGuffins (a pair of blue stones full of soul energy) don't get used in anything like the way I'd expected, and there's a great lesson in there about forgiveness and moving on. That said, the characters aren't very deep or well-developed, which is probably why it's a fast read. It was probably written for people in a slightly lower age range than the fantasy works I usually read.
Verdict: recommended if you're looking for something light and fast.
