I read another book a couple of weeks ago. I've started on three more since then, and I don't know that I'll get any of them finished before 2011.
The Great Hunt
by Robert Jordan
Tor Fantasy, 1990
585 pages
This is the second book in Jordan's Wheel of Time series (the first, The Eye of the World, I read a few months ago). As a writer, I find it a little depressing to read Jordan's epic because I realize I will never, ever, ever write anything anywhere near this good. A friend recently told me that this, Eye of the World, and the third book in the series (The Dragon Reborn) were originally intended to be one book instead of three. That would have been a very long book. However, it does explain why, in a lot of ways, this book felt like it was the middle of a story and not a story in and of itself. That isn't to say that it was bad or even unsatisfactory, because it was neither, but as a novel its structure wasn't quite as solid as Eye. The climactic final chapters felt a bit like they had been forced together and souped up a bit in order to bring the book to an exciting conclusion. (And, indeed, the ending itself is strong and launches perfectly into a new volume) As with Eye of the World, everything was solid. It's a thoroughly enjoyable fantasy reading experience, and while it's still not so convoluted that a casual reader can't keep everything straight, I can see where the larger story may be in danger of spreading itself a bit thin (a complaint I've heard from a few who've ventured further than I have).
In short, I enjoy the story, the characters, the mythology, and the tone of the narrative. One of the most fun fantasy stories I've ever picked up.
Currently thumbing through The Sacred Romance (a Christian nonfiction book about discovering the hidden yearnings of our heart), Relic (a murder/crime investigation novel that is apparently about some sort of monster, as the first two quotes on the back cover have compared it to Jurassic Park), and The Dragon Reborn (which will most likely be the first of these three books I finish). Got to get one of them done before New Years to boost my page total ever so slightly for the calendar year!
Merry Christmas, by the way. In the immortal words of Handy: "READ A BOOK!"
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Tuesday Update: "You Can't Spell Adventure Without 'Advent'" Edition
Thanksgiving holiday! I finished/read THREE books with my time off! It was awesome!!
The Grey Fairy Book
Edited by Andrew Lang
387 pages
Dover Publications, Inc., 1967
(An unabridged and unaltered replication of the work originally published in 1900)
One day, while stumbling around Wikipedia, I came across a bizarre little fairy tale simply titled The Bear. Long and short of it: a king loves his daughter so much, he locks her up and never lets her leave the castle. This makes her sad, so her fairy godmother or some such instructs her to ask the king for a bear's skin and a wheelbarrow. The fairy then places a spell on the wheelbarrow so it will take the Princess anywhere she wants to go. So, disguised as a bear riding in a magic wheelbarrow, the Princess escapes without drawing any attention to herself whatsoever. She's eventually captured by a Prince of another kingdom, who takes the amazing talking bear home to do chores for him. Eventually he falls in love with her (sans bear skin) at a party, and they get married.
Wikipedia told me this and other similarly strange, obscure fairy tales had been collected into a volume called The Grey Fairy Book, and I knew I had to read it. So I did.
These stories were collected from all over Europe and north Africa and it really showed, as the style and subject matter varied from demon ponies to fairy charms to thieving Jews to cannibals. Some of our heroes slaughtered people in gruesome ways due to a simple insult. In one story, a boy who could see two days into the future (more or less) killed his mother and father as well as an old woman, seven young boys, and his uncle's boss, mostly because his uncle was a fool. Many of these stories were just a random sequence of events that seemed to end only when the storyteller grew bored, at which point everything wrapped up in about three sentences. Just weird, weird stuff.
There were one or two tales I really did enjoy, however. And it was really very cool to get a glimpse at the many different types of fairy tale tradition. I don't know that there's a lot in here for me to adapt into a children's theatre format one day, but you never know. That delightful story where the sparrow tricks a carter into killing both of his horses before tricking his wife into cutting off his head because the man ran over her friend the dog is just screaming to be made into a musical!
The Green River Trail
by Ralph Compton
304 pages
St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2011
I'm not sure when this was originally published, but it wasn't 2011. Actually, the copy I read was an older print, but I don't have that publishing information at hand, so I'll just use the newer info.
I haven't decided yet if I like westerns or not. This is only my second, and I've enjoyed both of them, for what they are. It seems to me the strength of the western is generally the Wild West mystique rather than the story itself. Green River Trail was a pretty standard trail drive story. Four guys decide to drive some cattle from Texas to Utah. They buy horses, they take wives, they hire some cowboys, they drive to Utah. There are savage Indian attacks, desperadoes, crooked sheriffs, stampedes, and all that jazz. The women are tough, the men are tough, everybody's tough. And then they get where they're going. So if you're into that, pick up Green River Trail. It's a pretty entertaining little read.
Haroun and the Sea of Stories
by Salman Rushdie
224 pages
Penguin Books, 1991
For those who say I've completely abandoned my original reading project list, I submit to you Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Boo-yah.
This was a very clever book. Not necessarily in the popular "Wit-as-humor" way, but in the way the idea was plotted into a story and the care with which the idea was executed within the narrative. It's fairly silly, and the author knows and uses that effectively. It is a story written for those who love stories. Even if it's fairly obvious at times where the story is going, it's still a remarkably charming tale. And a quick read, too. I finished the first 75% of the book in a single sitting. (And I would have finished it, but it was after 2 a.m. and I had a rehearsal the following morning) So if you're looking for something that's altogether silly, charming, adventurous, light-hearted, and fast, then this is one I'd recommend.
Am currently reading The Sacred Romance (note: Also from the original reading list) and The Great Hunt, book 2 of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. For some reason, Green River Trail really made me want to re-read Eye of the World, but since that book's only available via interlibrary loan (until I one day own it) I figured I'd go with the more readily-available second book in the series.
The Grey Fairy Book
Edited by Andrew Lang
387 pages
Dover Publications, Inc., 1967
(An unabridged and unaltered replication of the work originally published in 1900)
One day, while stumbling around Wikipedia, I came across a bizarre little fairy tale simply titled The Bear. Long and short of it: a king loves his daughter so much, he locks her up and never lets her leave the castle. This makes her sad, so her fairy godmother or some such instructs her to ask the king for a bear's skin and a wheelbarrow. The fairy then places a spell on the wheelbarrow so it will take the Princess anywhere she wants to go. So, disguised as a bear riding in a magic wheelbarrow, the Princess escapes without drawing any attention to herself whatsoever. She's eventually captured by a Prince of another kingdom, who takes the amazing talking bear home to do chores for him. Eventually he falls in love with her (sans bear skin) at a party, and they get married.
Wikipedia told me this and other similarly strange, obscure fairy tales had been collected into a volume called The Grey Fairy Book, and I knew I had to read it. So I did.
These stories were collected from all over Europe and north Africa and it really showed, as the style and subject matter varied from demon ponies to fairy charms to thieving Jews to cannibals. Some of our heroes slaughtered people in gruesome ways due to a simple insult. In one story, a boy who could see two days into the future (more or less) killed his mother and father as well as an old woman, seven young boys, and his uncle's boss, mostly because his uncle was a fool. Many of these stories were just a random sequence of events that seemed to end only when the storyteller grew bored, at which point everything wrapped up in about three sentences. Just weird, weird stuff.
There were one or two tales I really did enjoy, however. And it was really very cool to get a glimpse at the many different types of fairy tale tradition. I don't know that there's a lot in here for me to adapt into a children's theatre format one day, but you never know. That delightful story where the sparrow tricks a carter into killing both of his horses before tricking his wife into cutting off his head because the man ran over her friend the dog is just screaming to be made into a musical!
The Green River Trail
by Ralph Compton
304 pages
St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2011
I'm not sure when this was originally published, but it wasn't 2011. Actually, the copy I read was an older print, but I don't have that publishing information at hand, so I'll just use the newer info.
I haven't decided yet if I like westerns or not. This is only my second, and I've enjoyed both of them, for what they are. It seems to me the strength of the western is generally the Wild West mystique rather than the story itself. Green River Trail was a pretty standard trail drive story. Four guys decide to drive some cattle from Texas to Utah. They buy horses, they take wives, they hire some cowboys, they drive to Utah. There are savage Indian attacks, desperadoes, crooked sheriffs, stampedes, and all that jazz. The women are tough, the men are tough, everybody's tough. And then they get where they're going. So if you're into that, pick up Green River Trail. It's a pretty entertaining little read.
Haroun and the Sea of Stories
by Salman Rushdie
224 pages
Penguin Books, 1991
For those who say I've completely abandoned my original reading project list, I submit to you Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Boo-yah.
This was a very clever book. Not necessarily in the popular "Wit-as-humor" way, but in the way the idea was plotted into a story and the care with which the idea was executed within the narrative. It's fairly silly, and the author knows and uses that effectively. It is a story written for those who love stories. Even if it's fairly obvious at times where the story is going, it's still a remarkably charming tale. And a quick read, too. I finished the first 75% of the book in a single sitting. (And I would have finished it, but it was after 2 a.m. and I had a rehearsal the following morning) So if you're looking for something that's altogether silly, charming, adventurous, light-hearted, and fast, then this is one I'd recommend.
Am currently reading The Sacred Romance (note: Also from the original reading list) and The Great Hunt, book 2 of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. For some reason, Green River Trail really made me want to re-read Eye of the World, but since that book's only available via interlibrary loan (until I one day own it) I figured I'd go with the more readily-available second book in the series.
Friday, November 19, 2010
It's been a month: How's about some awards?
It's been a month-plus since I've written in this blog. Sadly, it's been that longs since I've finished a book. I got crazy-busy with Winnie-the-Pooh and The Littlest Angel both going on at the same time--both plays, by the way, based on books!
I'm pesudo-back-on-track with reading now, and hopefully I'll have something new to put here soon. In the meantime, I'm overdue for some awards. So here's what I've read since we last gathered 'round the podium:
Cell by Stephen King
Gretzky's Tears by Stephen Brunt
The Baseball Codes by Jason Turnbow with Michael Duca
Powerless by Matthew Cody
Sometime Never by Roald Dahl
Me, Myself, and Bob by Phil Vischer
From Russia with Love by Ian Fleming
The Complete Tales of Winnie-The-Pooh by A. A. Milne
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
One Red Paperclip by Kyle MacDonald
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
The "Book That Had The Most Direct Impact On My Life the Past Two Months" Award goes to
Winnie-the-Pooh!
Obviously. Which means this book also wins the "Book That Won The Award With The Longest Title" Award
The Batman Bounce-back Award goes to:
Sometime Never!
Or, more specifically, to Roald Dahl. Much as folks thought the Caped Crusader would never bounce back after Bat-nipples, cold puns, and Alicia Silverstone, I don't imagine many would have expected Dahl to have the wildly successful career he had after reading this debut novel.
The "Most of this Didn't Have to Happen" Award goes to
From Russia With Love!
Which wasn't a bad book. The more I've thought about it, the more I realize that most of what occurred in the first half of the book was actually pretty irrelevant. However, it did introduce one of the greatest Bond support characters we've seen (up to this point in the series)
The "Coolest Interpretation of the Werewolf Mythos" Award goes to:
The Graveyard Book!
Though I don't think any of the rest of these books dealt with the werewolf mythos...nevertheless, I really liked what Gaiman did with it in this story.
The "What Have We Learned Song" Award goes to
Me, Myself, and Bob!
When it was done burying you in technical information regarding computer animation, this ended up being a really insightful and challenging read on dreams, faith, and growth. Like, uber challenging/convicting. Not bad for a book with a talking tomato on the cover.
The "Redemption of the Internet" Award goes to
One Red Paperclip!
Proof that, yes, good and worthwhile things do sometimes happen on the World Wide Web.
The "Holding Out Hope for a Sequel" Award goes to
Powerless!
A really fun, innovative story for kids that starts to feel (toward the end) that it's not so much telling a story any more as it is trying to set up a franchise.
The "Most Likely To Restore Your Faith In Baseball, Only To Potentially Dash It To The Ground" Award goes to:
The Baseball Codes
Which also gets the "Book That Won The Award That Supplanted That Other Award For The Title Of Award With The Longest Title Award" Award.
The "Oh, They'll Accept It All Right. They'll Accept It And They'll Like It!" Award goes to
Cell
Does it ever feel like Stephen King is just daring you to say, "Okay, now that's just a little too far-fetched"?
The "How Has Nobody In Canada Made This Into a Movie Starring George Clooney Yet?" Award goes to
Gretzky's Tears
Clooney wouldn't play Gretzky, but I think he'd make a dynamite Bruce McNall. Alan Thicke would play Alan Thicke.
The "Hands Down Favorite Book (Of This Grouping)" Award goes to
The Eye of the World
The award title is pretty self-explanatory. But the more I think back on this book, the more I like it.
The "I Can't Believe It's A Debut Novel!" Award goes to
Elantris
Quite the opposite of what I said about Roald Dahl with Sometime Never. I'm sure this one raised the bar sky-high on expectations for Brandon Sanderson's career.
And, done. Close to finishing a book of obscure fairy tales. That'll be a fun one to write about.
I'm pesudo-back-on-track with reading now, and hopefully I'll have something new to put here soon. In the meantime, I'm overdue for some awards. So here's what I've read since we last gathered 'round the podium:
Cell by Stephen King
Gretzky's Tears by Stephen Brunt
The Baseball Codes by Jason Turnbow with Michael Duca
Powerless by Matthew Cody
Sometime Never by Roald Dahl
Me, Myself, and Bob by Phil Vischer
From Russia with Love by Ian Fleming
The Complete Tales of Winnie-The-Pooh by A. A. Milne
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
One Red Paperclip by Kyle MacDonald
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
The "Book That Had The Most Direct Impact On My Life the Past Two Months" Award goes to
Winnie-the-Pooh!
Obviously. Which means this book also wins the "Book That Won The Award With The Longest Title" Award
The Batman Bounce-back Award goes to:
Sometime Never!
Or, more specifically, to Roald Dahl. Much as folks thought the Caped Crusader would never bounce back after Bat-nipples, cold puns, and Alicia Silverstone, I don't imagine many would have expected Dahl to have the wildly successful career he had after reading this debut novel.
The "Most of this Didn't Have to Happen" Award goes to
From Russia With Love!
Which wasn't a bad book. The more I've thought about it, the more I realize that most of what occurred in the first half of the book was actually pretty irrelevant. However, it did introduce one of the greatest Bond support characters we've seen (up to this point in the series)
The "Coolest Interpretation of the Werewolf Mythos" Award goes to:
The Graveyard Book!
Though I don't think any of the rest of these books dealt with the werewolf mythos...nevertheless, I really liked what Gaiman did with it in this story.
The "What Have We Learned Song" Award goes to
Me, Myself, and Bob!
When it was done burying you in technical information regarding computer animation, this ended up being a really insightful and challenging read on dreams, faith, and growth. Like, uber challenging/convicting. Not bad for a book with a talking tomato on the cover.
The "Redemption of the Internet" Award goes to
One Red Paperclip!
Proof that, yes, good and worthwhile things do sometimes happen on the World Wide Web.
The "Holding Out Hope for a Sequel" Award goes to
Powerless!
A really fun, innovative story for kids that starts to feel (toward the end) that it's not so much telling a story any more as it is trying to set up a franchise.
The "Most Likely To Restore Your Faith In Baseball, Only To Potentially Dash It To The Ground" Award goes to:
The Baseball Codes
Which also gets the "Book That Won The Award That Supplanted That Other Award For The Title Of Award With The Longest Title Award" Award.
The "Oh, They'll Accept It All Right. They'll Accept It And They'll Like It!" Award goes to
Cell
Does it ever feel like Stephen King is just daring you to say, "Okay, now that's just a little too far-fetched"?
The "How Has Nobody In Canada Made This Into a Movie Starring George Clooney Yet?" Award goes to
Gretzky's Tears
Clooney wouldn't play Gretzky, but I think he'd make a dynamite Bruce McNall. Alan Thicke would play Alan Thicke.
The "Hands Down Favorite Book (Of This Grouping)" Award goes to
The Eye of the World
The award title is pretty self-explanatory. But the more I think back on this book, the more I like it.
The "I Can't Believe It's A Debut Novel!" Award goes to
Elantris
Quite the opposite of what I said about Roald Dahl with Sometime Never. I'm sure this one raised the bar sky-high on expectations for Brandon Sanderson's career.
And, done. Close to finishing a book of obscure fairy tales. That'll be a fun one to write about.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Friday update: Feels Like Thursday edition
Yesterday felt like Friday ALL DAY LONG. Today somehow felt like Thursday. So I guess we're all caught up.
This is going to shock some people, but I read a book from my original list of reading suggestions. I know, I know. Whoa. However, it was one that I was really looking forward to because it had been recommended by TWO lovely ladies who I greatly admire both intellectually and artistically. Unfortunately, the Houston Library only seemed to have one copy. And it was missing. So eventually, they just bought a new one, and because I'd been on hold for months waiting for the missing copy to suddenly materialize again, I got to be the first person ever to read the new copy of Brandon Sanderson's Elantris. (This is because I rock.)
ELANTRIS
by Brandon Sanderson
Tor Books, 2005 (1st edition)
496 pages
Sanderson's debut novel is a fantasy, mystery, and political novel rolled effectively into one captivating story about one cursed city and one highly unfortunate one. Kae, the capital city of the country of Arelon, is ruled by a short-sighted and greedy opportunist who the subjects pretty much all hate. Fortunately, he has an incredibly virtuous, compassionate, and capable son. Unfortunately, the book opens with his son falling victim to a mysterious curse that banishes him to Kae's neighbor, the walled city of Elantris. For years, Elantris was a magical city ruled by godlike-humans with special powers. The Elantrians provided goods for all of Arelon. They provided protection from foreign powers, they healed the sick and injured, these men and women were pretty much awesome. Each Elantrian had been born a citizen of Arelon until one day (and with no discernible cause or pattern) they awoke transformed into an Elantrian and spent the rest of their days living as perfect beings in a paradise of a city. Then, one day ten years ago, something went wrong, and the Elantrians went from angels on earth to diseased wretches, stumbling along with blotches all over their skin, hair falling out, no heartbeat, no godlike powers. Their wounds never healed and their pains never abated until eventually they went insane. The city itself fell under some sort of supernatural sludge plague, and Elantris went from being heaven to a prison for these cursed creatures.
I know that seems like a lot of background, but this is where the book starts, and you get most of that within the first two chapters.
The story shifts between three separate perspectives: the fallen prince Raoden (living under a new identity as an Elantrian), his betrothed foreign princess Sarene (technically, due to some legality, they're already married, though they've never met, and since the king says Raoden is dead rather than telling the world he's become an Elantrian, she's technically-technically a widow before she arrived at Arelon), and the gyorn (that's like a high priest of one of the many religions in the book) Hrathen, who has been given the divine directive to convert all of Arelon to his religion before that religion's equivalent of the Prophet Mohammed sends an army to destroy the country. There is a lot going on in this book. Sarene joins up with a small group of Arelon's nobility (former followers of Raoden's) seeking to unravel the incompetent king Iodan's rule; Raoden spends all of his time trying unravel the mystery of what happened to Elantris ten years ago; Hrathen's executes a carefully calculated plan to capitulate the senior religion in the country, one of only two not currently controlled by the Shu Dereth religion.
Now first, the negatives: It took me a little while to get into this book. You might think it'd be hard to get in because there's so much information that's vital to understanding the story as it unravels, but no, I actually think the way the narrative handles the doling out of information is one of the book's many strengths. Rather, I think I just enjoyed the last half of the book so much better than the first because the beginning of the book just isn't as strong as the middle or end. It felt like we spent a lot of ink re-establishing certain character traits or societal prejudices that had already effectively been established. Also, I wasn't able to "buy" some of the characters in the early-going. I guess most of it gravitates toward Sarene's scenario. Early in the book, you have a lot of scenes that bring home the "Sarene is your headstrong heroine" and "People in Arelon had never seen a strong woman before" and "Sarene was much smarter than everybody else" vibe. You also had a lot of scenes where the narrative would outright tell you how smart someone had just been when I didn't feel like they'd actually done anything particularly witty. Seemed like there were a lot of secondary characters suffering from Frank Peretti syndrome ("I have to be stupid now for the story to advance"). Finally, some of the book's earlier episodes seemed kind of pointless, and as the book progressed it turned out some of them actually were. So a little--really, a tiny--bit of early trimming and I don't think I'd be able to say anything bad about this book.
Because once it took off, wow, did it take off. As the multiple story threads started interweaving, I found myself having more trouble putting the book away when it was time to do other stuff (like go to bed or return from my lunch break). As Hrathen's relatively droll chapters started getting shorter and Raoden's and Sarene's stories began to overlap, anything I hadn't liked about the first hundred and fifty or so pages corrected itself. The mysteries of Elantris, the political subversion in Arelon, and the religious aggression of Shu Dereth were equally compelling storylines. Every few pages offered another hint at the bigger picture; it's like putting together a puzzle where you've got most of the pieces but have never seen the finished product. The characters also became more lively and complex. The book is structured a bit like a roller coaster: a bit of a wait as you climb the first hill, but once you're over the crest you can only go one direction, and it picks up speed the further along you go. And of course, there are the surprise twists and turns. Unlike other fantasies I've read recently, however, the surprises come out of carefully disguised clues that you likely overlooked completely when you read them. See? It only feels like it came out of nowhere ;-) I will say that some may find the ending a bit rushed and/or hard to completely follow, but if you're willing to go with it anyway then Elantris is a highly satisfying read.
Now, who knows? It may be that the recommendations had hyped this book up for me a little much, so I was bound to be disappointed at first, but then the disappointment lowered my expectations which allowed me to appreciate the rest. Doesn't matter, I guess. I liked the book a lot. The writing has a few hiccups, but the idea (and the execution of the idea) is one of the best I've read this year. It's probably not a book that's going to rock your world, and if you're one who prefers fantasy novels full of epic quests and dragon-slaying, you'll probably be disappointed, but I found it a very satisfying read and a different take on a genre than I usually see.
THE GRAVEYARD BOOK
by Neil Gaiman
Harper Collins, 2008 (1st edition)
312 pages
Winner: Hugo Award, Newbery Award, Carnegie Medal, and Locus Award.
This book won a lot of awards.
I was intrigued by this book because A) I really liked Coraline, and B) I always find Gaiman's stories to be, if nothing else, really imaginative.
The target audience for this book is high school, and I can see this kind of story appealing to a lot of high school kids who are into fantasy books. Nobody Owens is a live boy being raised by ghosts in a cemetery. He doesn't really belong in that world, but he doesn't seem to fit in in the world of the living, either. Within this series of supernatural adventures is essentially a coming-of-age story of a boy trying to find his identity. Bod has all the struggles most kids have--he struggles to find suitable playmates, he has trouble focusing on his lessons, he has an episode with some school bullies, he even deals with girl troubles on one level. Of course, the consequences in Bod's world are different than the world in which the rest of us live. If we don't pay attention in school, we fail a quiz. If Bod doesn't pay attention, he might one day find himself being dragged away by ghouls to a very hell-like place and not know how to call out in the correct tongue for the benevolent flying monsters overhead to rescue him. But other than that, it's pretty much the same thing.
Okay, now I have to admit that long portions of this book bored me. And I realize I'm not that target audience, and I may be too far removed from some of these situations to enjoy these stories. More likely, however, is that I had trouble connecting the dots. It felt to me like a collection of short stories that happened to be about the same boy, and the last chapter was an attempt to tie all the threads together. (Turns out, after I read the acknowledgments, that was exactly what it was. Who knew?) The book opens with infant-Bod's entire family murdered by a character known only as "the man Jack," but little Bod fortunately happened to fall out of his crib and toddle down to a nearby cemetery, where his mother's spirit pleads with the ghosts to protect her baby. So they do. And the mystery of the murderer isn't really addressed again until the end of the book. (And, for my taste, the whole thing behind the man Jack ends up being kind of lame compared to the rest of the book)
Additionally, I also have to admit that I've got some prejudices here. Since I've had a couple of experiences with the supernatural in my own life, I sometimes find stories about spirits and the dead a little more difficult to enjoy. So, while this book stayed away from demons and hell and whatnot, that may have played a part somewhere in my disconnect.
That said, I really loved certain things in this book. The character of Silas, Bod's guardian, was probably the high point of the whole thing. I also really liked Gaiman's take on the "Hounds of God." I thought the chapter about the Danse Macabre was absolutely lovely. And the little bit near the end about the poet's revenge was actually laugh-out-loud funny. The Graveyard Book definitely had some moments and concepts that I really liked, and I can see where its intended audience may have latched on, but for my time, it's probably not a book I'm going to be picking up again anytime soon.
***
I've actually put myself on library book probation. I've got a stack of seven books I've borrowed from people, intending to get to them "sooner or later." Well, it's time to start giving them back, so the next seven books I read (barring the arrival of something I have on ILL, because you really only get one shot at those) will be books I've borrowed. Some of them are on my original list. Most of them will be a bit off the fantasy path, which is good because I'm getting into that "rut." Not that I don't enjoy the fantasy rut. But I want to keep expanding my horizons.
This is going to shock some people, but I read a book from my original list of reading suggestions. I know, I know. Whoa. However, it was one that I was really looking forward to because it had been recommended by TWO lovely ladies who I greatly admire both intellectually and artistically. Unfortunately, the Houston Library only seemed to have one copy. And it was missing. So eventually, they just bought a new one, and because I'd been on hold for months waiting for the missing copy to suddenly materialize again, I got to be the first person ever to read the new copy of Brandon Sanderson's Elantris. (This is because I rock.)
ELANTRIS
by Brandon Sanderson
Tor Books, 2005 (1st edition)
496 pages
Sanderson's debut novel is a fantasy, mystery, and political novel rolled effectively into one captivating story about one cursed city and one highly unfortunate one. Kae, the capital city of the country of Arelon, is ruled by a short-sighted and greedy opportunist who the subjects pretty much all hate. Fortunately, he has an incredibly virtuous, compassionate, and capable son. Unfortunately, the book opens with his son falling victim to a mysterious curse that banishes him to Kae's neighbor, the walled city of Elantris. For years, Elantris was a magical city ruled by godlike-humans with special powers. The Elantrians provided goods for all of Arelon. They provided protection from foreign powers, they healed the sick and injured, these men and women were pretty much awesome. Each Elantrian had been born a citizen of Arelon until one day (and with no discernible cause or pattern) they awoke transformed into an Elantrian and spent the rest of their days living as perfect beings in a paradise of a city. Then, one day ten years ago, something went wrong, and the Elantrians went from angels on earth to diseased wretches, stumbling along with blotches all over their skin, hair falling out, no heartbeat, no godlike powers. Their wounds never healed and their pains never abated until eventually they went insane. The city itself fell under some sort of supernatural sludge plague, and Elantris went from being heaven to a prison for these cursed creatures.
I know that seems like a lot of background, but this is where the book starts, and you get most of that within the first two chapters.
The story shifts between three separate perspectives: the fallen prince Raoden (living under a new identity as an Elantrian), his betrothed foreign princess Sarene (technically, due to some legality, they're already married, though they've never met, and since the king says Raoden is dead rather than telling the world he's become an Elantrian, she's technically-technically a widow before she arrived at Arelon), and the gyorn (that's like a high priest of one of the many religions in the book) Hrathen, who has been given the divine directive to convert all of Arelon to his religion before that religion's equivalent of the Prophet Mohammed sends an army to destroy the country. There is a lot going on in this book. Sarene joins up with a small group of Arelon's nobility (former followers of Raoden's) seeking to unravel the incompetent king Iodan's rule; Raoden spends all of his time trying unravel the mystery of what happened to Elantris ten years ago; Hrathen's executes a carefully calculated plan to capitulate the senior religion in the country, one of only two not currently controlled by the Shu Dereth religion.
Now first, the negatives: It took me a little while to get into this book. You might think it'd be hard to get in because there's so much information that's vital to understanding the story as it unravels, but no, I actually think the way the narrative handles the doling out of information is one of the book's many strengths. Rather, I think I just enjoyed the last half of the book so much better than the first because the beginning of the book just isn't as strong as the middle or end. It felt like we spent a lot of ink re-establishing certain character traits or societal prejudices that had already effectively been established. Also, I wasn't able to "buy" some of the characters in the early-going. I guess most of it gravitates toward Sarene's scenario. Early in the book, you have a lot of scenes that bring home the "Sarene is your headstrong heroine" and "People in Arelon had never seen a strong woman before" and "Sarene was much smarter than everybody else" vibe. You also had a lot of scenes where the narrative would outright tell you how smart someone had just been when I didn't feel like they'd actually done anything particularly witty. Seemed like there were a lot of secondary characters suffering from Frank Peretti syndrome ("I have to be stupid now for the story to advance"). Finally, some of the book's earlier episodes seemed kind of pointless, and as the book progressed it turned out some of them actually were. So a little--really, a tiny--bit of early trimming and I don't think I'd be able to say anything bad about this book.
Because once it took off, wow, did it take off. As the multiple story threads started interweaving, I found myself having more trouble putting the book away when it was time to do other stuff (like go to bed or return from my lunch break). As Hrathen's relatively droll chapters started getting shorter and Raoden's and Sarene's stories began to overlap, anything I hadn't liked about the first hundred and fifty or so pages corrected itself. The mysteries of Elantris, the political subversion in Arelon, and the religious aggression of Shu Dereth were equally compelling storylines. Every few pages offered another hint at the bigger picture; it's like putting together a puzzle where you've got most of the pieces but have never seen the finished product. The characters also became more lively and complex. The book is structured a bit like a roller coaster: a bit of a wait as you climb the first hill, but once you're over the crest you can only go one direction, and it picks up speed the further along you go. And of course, there are the surprise twists and turns. Unlike other fantasies I've read recently, however, the surprises come out of carefully disguised clues that you likely overlooked completely when you read them. See? It only feels like it came out of nowhere ;-) I will say that some may find the ending a bit rushed and/or hard to completely follow, but if you're willing to go with it anyway then Elantris is a highly satisfying read.
Now, who knows? It may be that the recommendations had hyped this book up for me a little much, so I was bound to be disappointed at first, but then the disappointment lowered my expectations which allowed me to appreciate the rest. Doesn't matter, I guess. I liked the book a lot. The writing has a few hiccups, but the idea (and the execution of the idea) is one of the best I've read this year. It's probably not a book that's going to rock your world, and if you're one who prefers fantasy novels full of epic quests and dragon-slaying, you'll probably be disappointed, but I found it a very satisfying read and a different take on a genre than I usually see.
THE GRAVEYARD BOOK
by Neil Gaiman
Harper Collins, 2008 (1st edition)
312 pages
Winner: Hugo Award, Newbery Award, Carnegie Medal, and Locus Award.
This book won a lot of awards.
I was intrigued by this book because A) I really liked Coraline, and B) I always find Gaiman's stories to be, if nothing else, really imaginative.
The target audience for this book is high school, and I can see this kind of story appealing to a lot of high school kids who are into fantasy books. Nobody Owens is a live boy being raised by ghosts in a cemetery. He doesn't really belong in that world, but he doesn't seem to fit in in the world of the living, either. Within this series of supernatural adventures is essentially a coming-of-age story of a boy trying to find his identity. Bod has all the struggles most kids have--he struggles to find suitable playmates, he has trouble focusing on his lessons, he has an episode with some school bullies, he even deals with girl troubles on one level. Of course, the consequences in Bod's world are different than the world in which the rest of us live. If we don't pay attention in school, we fail a quiz. If Bod doesn't pay attention, he might one day find himself being dragged away by ghouls to a very hell-like place and not know how to call out in the correct tongue for the benevolent flying monsters overhead to rescue him. But other than that, it's pretty much the same thing.
Okay, now I have to admit that long portions of this book bored me. And I realize I'm not that target audience, and I may be too far removed from some of these situations to enjoy these stories. More likely, however, is that I had trouble connecting the dots. It felt to me like a collection of short stories that happened to be about the same boy, and the last chapter was an attempt to tie all the threads together. (Turns out, after I read the acknowledgments, that was exactly what it was. Who knew?) The book opens with infant-Bod's entire family murdered by a character known only as "the man Jack," but little Bod fortunately happened to fall out of his crib and toddle down to a nearby cemetery, where his mother's spirit pleads with the ghosts to protect her baby. So they do. And the mystery of the murderer isn't really addressed again until the end of the book. (And, for my taste, the whole thing behind the man Jack ends up being kind of lame compared to the rest of the book)
Additionally, I also have to admit that I've got some prejudices here. Since I've had a couple of experiences with the supernatural in my own life, I sometimes find stories about spirits and the dead a little more difficult to enjoy. So, while this book stayed away from demons and hell and whatnot, that may have played a part somewhere in my disconnect.
That said, I really loved certain things in this book. The character of Silas, Bod's guardian, was probably the high point of the whole thing. I also really liked Gaiman's take on the "Hounds of God." I thought the chapter about the Danse Macabre was absolutely lovely. And the little bit near the end about the poet's revenge was actually laugh-out-loud funny. The Graveyard Book definitely had some moments and concepts that I really liked, and I can see where its intended audience may have latched on, but for my time, it's probably not a book I'm going to be picking up again anytime soon.
***
I've actually put myself on library book probation. I've got a stack of seven books I've borrowed from people, intending to get to them "sooner or later." Well, it's time to start giving them back, so the next seven books I read (barring the arrival of something I have on ILL, because you really only get one shot at those) will be books I've borrowed. Some of them are on my original list. Most of them will be a bit off the fantasy path, which is good because I'm getting into that "rut." Not that I don't enjoy the fantasy rut. But I want to keep expanding my horizons.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Monday Update: One Small Paperback edition
Currently reading 3 different fantasy books. Am in a fantasy rut. Which I like, but it's not good for broadening my horizons. Unfortunately, I know I can't finish Milne's biography before it's due, so I'll pick it back up later.
I did however, just finish up this little gem:
One Red Paperclip
(Or, How an Ordinary Man Achieved His Dream with the Help of a Simple Office Supply)
by Kyle MacDonald
310 pages
Three River Press, 2007
I kinda hope someone buys me this book for Christmas because A) it's a paperback and should therefore be cheap, and B) it's a book I'll probably recommend to a LOT of people over the years. A lot of folks have heard about the story in this book: Canadian twenty-something professional job-searcher Kyle MacDonald was looking for a way to provide some future and stability for himself and his girlfriend (who he was living with at the time) and so he decided to play the ultimate game of Bigger and Better. (I've played this awesome game once. In high school. My team lost. Another team came back with two kittens. It was a crazy day) He started posting trade offers on Craigslist, starting with--wait for it--one red paperclip (We have title!) in the hopes of eventually trading up to a house. Long story short, he does it in fourteen trades. Even more amazing, he gets it done in one year. And then he writes an awesome, funny, accessible, and uplifting book about it.
The book reminded me a lot of A Walk Across America in that it is more a story about people and adventure than it is about Kyle MacDonald and trading up to a house. That's a reflection of the author's character, as he turns down some corporate-minded shortcuts in order to keep the focus of the project to be about people; specifically, meeting interesting people and helping fellow dreamers. The result is an adventure that is stranger than fiction, larger than life, nuttier than a PayDay, and 100% real. It's also one heck of an encouraging book, and nobody's really writing those any more.
Well, I take that book: nobody's writing encouraging books that don't suck any more.
Except Kyle MacDonald.
*cough*
Anyway, Kyle's website is http://www.oneredpaperclip.com . I haven't spent a ton of time checking it out yet, but I'm sure I will. This is really a simple guy writing a simple story of what amazing things can happen if you'll allow them to. It's a reminder that there are "good people" out there--that, in fact, there are a LOT of good people out there. It's encouragement that dreams can happen, and you can actually play a pretty big role in making them come true.
Go read this book. It's not a hard read, and it's not too long. Even if you think the whole thing is total bunk, at least it's funny bunk. But I almost guarantee Kyle's story will leave you with a smile on your face. (Yup, that's cheesy. But sometimes, life is cheesy)
I did however, just finish up this little gem:
One Red Paperclip
(Or, How an Ordinary Man Achieved His Dream with the Help of a Simple Office Supply)
by Kyle MacDonald
310 pages
Three River Press, 2007
I kinda hope someone buys me this book for Christmas because A) it's a paperback and should therefore be cheap, and B) it's a book I'll probably recommend to a LOT of people over the years. A lot of folks have heard about the story in this book: Canadian twenty-something professional job-searcher Kyle MacDonald was looking for a way to provide some future and stability for himself and his girlfriend (who he was living with at the time) and so he decided to play the ultimate game of Bigger and Better. (I've played this awesome game once. In high school. My team lost. Another team came back with two kittens. It was a crazy day) He started posting trade offers on Craigslist, starting with--wait for it--one red paperclip (We have title!) in the hopes of eventually trading up to a house. Long story short, he does it in fourteen trades. Even more amazing, he gets it done in one year. And then he writes an awesome, funny, accessible, and uplifting book about it.
The book reminded me a lot of A Walk Across America in that it is more a story about people and adventure than it is about Kyle MacDonald and trading up to a house. That's a reflection of the author's character, as he turns down some corporate-minded shortcuts in order to keep the focus of the project to be about people; specifically, meeting interesting people and helping fellow dreamers. The result is an adventure that is stranger than fiction, larger than life, nuttier than a PayDay, and 100% real. It's also one heck of an encouraging book, and nobody's really writing those any more.
Well, I take that book: nobody's writing encouraging books that don't suck any more.
Except Kyle MacDonald.
*cough*
Anyway, Kyle's website is http://www.oneredpaperclip.com . I haven't spent a ton of time checking it out yet, but I'm sure I will. This is really a simple guy writing a simple story of what amazing things can happen if you'll allow them to. It's a reminder that there are "good people" out there--that, in fact, there are a LOT of good people out there. It's encouragement that dreams can happen, and you can actually play a pretty big role in making them come true.
Go read this book. It's not a hard read, and it's not too long. Even if you think the whole thing is total bunk, at least it's funny bunk. But I almost guarantee Kyle's story will leave you with a smile on your face. (Yup, that's cheesy. But sometimes, life is cheesy)
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Wednesday Update: Irregular Update Schedule edition
Work, writing, and church are all going better now. Which means reading is down. Nevertheless, I ought to post about the last couple of books I read.
The Eye of the World
by Robert Jordan
Published by Tor Fantasy, 1990
670 pages
My good friend Helena has been raving about the Wheel of Time series for pretty much as long as I've known her. I've actually tried to pick it up before, but I could never find the first book at any library. I assumed this was because they were so incredibly popular. Turns out, the Houston Public Library does not have the first book in the WoT series, so I ILL'ed it from Richmond, TX.
Very long, fantastic novel. I thoroughly enjoyed just about every element of it. The characters are clearly its strongest point, in my opinion, and the characters are generally the most important part of any story, fiction or non, in my mind. The book is amazingly clean, especially for a fantasy novel. I've become so accustomed to reading crass language or explicit sex scenes that I was a little discombobulated to pick up a GOOD novel for grown-up people with none of that. So, A+, late Robert Jordan.
Interestingly, there was nothing about this book that made my jaw absolutely drop. It was just a remarkably solid effort the whole way through. I found no glaring weaknesses and very few weaknesses at all. It's long (670 pages, and they are DENSE pages) but constantly engaging, and things happen at a pretty quick pace, which is also a plus for me.
If you're looking for a good epic fantasy adventure that you can commit a sizable amount of time to, Eye of the World looks to be a pretty good place to start. (I'd probably be able to write in better detail, but I actually finished this book something like three weeks ago)
The Complete Tales of Winnie-The-Pooh
by A. A. Milne
Collects Winnie-the-Pooh and The House on Pooh Corner
Dutton Children's Books, 1994
(Original books published 1926 & 1928)
344 pages
Yes, these pages are large type and some of them have pictures, but with Eye of the World ahead of it, I'm pretty sure it all evens out ;-)
I'm playing Winnie-the-Pooh in a children's play right now and picked this up as research. Turns out, it is one of the funniest things I have read in a long time. It's so charming and innocent yet chocked full of child-like wit and whimsy. You can really sense the love between the narrator and his own son, Christopher Robin, in the voice and the action of each individual story. As a father who makes up stories about zoo bears for his own son every night before bed, I freely admit that I started to tear up over the end of Pooh Corner, where Christopher Robin takes Pooh to a special place where they can always play and explore together, "no matter what happens" as life goes on.
Really, this book is just wonderful. The characters, the stories, the language, the miscommunications, the hijinks...I really think this one would've been a beloved classic even without Disney's help. (That said, I really like the early Disney cartoons and think they stayed very true to the intent of the author. But that's another blog)
The Eye of the World
by Robert Jordan
Published by Tor Fantasy, 1990
670 pages
My good friend Helena has been raving about the Wheel of Time series for pretty much as long as I've known her. I've actually tried to pick it up before, but I could never find the first book at any library. I assumed this was because they were so incredibly popular. Turns out, the Houston Public Library does not have the first book in the WoT series, so I ILL'ed it from Richmond, TX.
Very long, fantastic novel. I thoroughly enjoyed just about every element of it. The characters are clearly its strongest point, in my opinion, and the characters are generally the most important part of any story, fiction or non, in my mind. The book is amazingly clean, especially for a fantasy novel. I've become so accustomed to reading crass language or explicit sex scenes that I was a little discombobulated to pick up a GOOD novel for grown-up people with none of that. So, A+, late Robert Jordan.
Interestingly, there was nothing about this book that made my jaw absolutely drop. It was just a remarkably solid effort the whole way through. I found no glaring weaknesses and very few weaknesses at all. It's long (670 pages, and they are DENSE pages) but constantly engaging, and things happen at a pretty quick pace, which is also a plus for me.
If you're looking for a good epic fantasy adventure that you can commit a sizable amount of time to, Eye of the World looks to be a pretty good place to start. (I'd probably be able to write in better detail, but I actually finished this book something like three weeks ago)
The Complete Tales of Winnie-The-Pooh
by A. A. Milne
Collects Winnie-the-Pooh and The House on Pooh Corner
Dutton Children's Books, 1994
(Original books published 1926 & 1928)
344 pages
Yes, these pages are large type and some of them have pictures, but with Eye of the World ahead of it, I'm pretty sure it all evens out ;-)
I'm playing Winnie-the-Pooh in a children's play right now and picked this up as research. Turns out, it is one of the funniest things I have read in a long time. It's so charming and innocent yet chocked full of child-like wit and whimsy. You can really sense the love between the narrator and his own son, Christopher Robin, in the voice and the action of each individual story. As a father who makes up stories about zoo bears for his own son every night before bed, I freely admit that I started to tear up over the end of Pooh Corner, where Christopher Robin takes Pooh to a special place where they can always play and explore together, "no matter what happens" as life goes on.
Really, this book is just wonderful. The characters, the stories, the language, the miscommunications, the hijinks...I really think this one would've been a beloved classic even without Disney's help. (That said, I really like the early Disney cartoons and think they stayed very true to the intent of the author. But that's another blog)
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Thursday update: Labor Day 2010 edition
Bah, regular updates. Bah, reading lists. I think this is officially just another "What I'm Reading" blog, and I think there's nothing wrong with that. ;-)
From Russia with Love
by Ian Fleming
The James Bond Classics Library edition
MJF Books, 1997
253 pages
And, back to James Bond. This was a strange sort of Bond book; the first half of the book featured Russian spykilling organization SMERSH plotting and planning. That's it, just half a book of plotting and planning. The second half of the book is the plan that was plotted in execution. And even then, it was more positioning and lovemaking with a sudden burst of action in the middle and then a hair-raising showdown on a train at the end. Of the Bond books I've read so far, this one was easily the talkiest, with some "Bond going out for dinner" scenes thrown in for variety's sake.
Needless to say, I wasn't terribly excited by this book, though I thought the story was pretty good, and I actually enjoyed most of the new characters. It just felt (to me) like it took an awful long time to get going, and there wasn't much in the way of actual spy work for Bond to worry about. The conniving trap wasn't all that complicated, and the whole thing had already been spelled out for you in advance, so there wasn't a ton of intrigue until Bond was finally face to face with his executioner. Which was a good scene, don't get me wrong, but even that felt a bit more pulled-it-out-of-a-hat than usual.
That said, all the quotes on the back called this the most exciting book of the series, and it's well-documented that I'm in the minority of a lot of popular opinions, so it may just be me. Again.
Me, Myself, and Bob: A True Story About Dreams, God, and Talking Vegetables
by Phil Vischer
Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2008
260 pages
This book really surprised me. I knew the Christian children's entertainment mega-giant-hit-machine Veggie Tales had gone from humble beginnings to major empire in a time when computer animation was far from the norm. I also knew that, at one point, there were some money issues and bankruptcy going on. What I didn't know was that Vischer, the company's founder, creator, and owner, lost everything at the height of its popularity and was forced to sell the company. The story is startling and surprising, but Vischer's honest and contemplative look at the rise and fall of his Veggie empire is a profoundly challenging look at what it means to have and follow dreams, especially when you believe that the following of those dreams is God's plan for your life. How do you respond to failure when it felt as though your success was preordained by God Himself? Really beautiful story, entertaining and personable. There are times when the earlier chapters about the animation technology of the early 1990's may get a tad too technical to be interesting to the casual reader, but on the whole this is a book I'd recommend to just about anybody.
Sometime Never: A Fable for Supermen
by Roald Dahl
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1948
255 pages
Yeah. Good luck finding this book, because they never reprinted it after its initial release in either the U.S. or the U.K. Amazon.com has 4 used copies starting at $144. Interlibrary Loan had to go to the University of Oregon to find a copy for me. RARE BOOK.
So, why is this one so rare? Why was it never reprinted?
BECAUSE IT'S TERRIBLE!!!
This book has all of the bizarreness of one of Dahl's children's books with none of the charm. It's like he came back disillusioned from the war and had some issues to work out, and he did them all here. The book starts with strange gremlins that sabotage English planes during World War II. They eventually stop, though, deciding that eventually mankind will destroy themselves, since all they can do is invent more efficient ways of destroying one another. One hundred and fifty pages later, mankind finally dies completely, and the gremlins inherit the earth. A few days later, they disappear from existence completely. The end.
In the middle, there's lots of thinly-veiled social and political commentary as well as doomsday prophecies for every corner of the world, along with strange gremlinish things.
Of note: Apparently this is where snozzberries came from, because they're the only thing the gremlins appeared to eat. All righty then.
From Russia with Love
by Ian Fleming
The James Bond Classics Library edition
MJF Books, 1997
253 pages
And, back to James Bond. This was a strange sort of Bond book; the first half of the book featured Russian spykilling organization SMERSH plotting and planning. That's it, just half a book of plotting and planning. The second half of the book is the plan that was plotted in execution. And even then, it was more positioning and lovemaking with a sudden burst of action in the middle and then a hair-raising showdown on a train at the end. Of the Bond books I've read so far, this one was easily the talkiest, with some "Bond going out for dinner" scenes thrown in for variety's sake.
Needless to say, I wasn't terribly excited by this book, though I thought the story was pretty good, and I actually enjoyed most of the new characters. It just felt (to me) like it took an awful long time to get going, and there wasn't much in the way of actual spy work for Bond to worry about. The conniving trap wasn't all that complicated, and the whole thing had already been spelled out for you in advance, so there wasn't a ton of intrigue until Bond was finally face to face with his executioner. Which was a good scene, don't get me wrong, but even that felt a bit more pulled-it-out-of-a-hat than usual.
That said, all the quotes on the back called this the most exciting book of the series, and it's well-documented that I'm in the minority of a lot of popular opinions, so it may just be me. Again.
Me, Myself, and Bob: A True Story About Dreams, God, and Talking Vegetables
by Phil Vischer
Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2008
260 pages
This book really surprised me. I knew the Christian children's entertainment mega-giant-hit-machine Veggie Tales had gone from humble beginnings to major empire in a time when computer animation was far from the norm. I also knew that, at one point, there were some money issues and bankruptcy going on. What I didn't know was that Vischer, the company's founder, creator, and owner, lost everything at the height of its popularity and was forced to sell the company. The story is startling and surprising, but Vischer's honest and contemplative look at the rise and fall of his Veggie empire is a profoundly challenging look at what it means to have and follow dreams, especially when you believe that the following of those dreams is God's plan for your life. How do you respond to failure when it felt as though your success was preordained by God Himself? Really beautiful story, entertaining and personable. There are times when the earlier chapters about the animation technology of the early 1990's may get a tad too technical to be interesting to the casual reader, but on the whole this is a book I'd recommend to just about anybody.
Sometime Never: A Fable for Supermen
by Roald Dahl
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1948
255 pages
Yeah. Good luck finding this book, because they never reprinted it after its initial release in either the U.S. or the U.K. Amazon.com has 4 used copies starting at $144. Interlibrary Loan had to go to the University of Oregon to find a copy for me. RARE BOOK.
So, why is this one so rare? Why was it never reprinted?
BECAUSE IT'S TERRIBLE!!!
This book has all of the bizarreness of one of Dahl's children's books with none of the charm. It's like he came back disillusioned from the war and had some issues to work out, and he did them all here. The book starts with strange gremlins that sabotage English planes during World War II. They eventually stop, though, deciding that eventually mankind will destroy themselves, since all they can do is invent more efficient ways of destroying one another. One hundred and fifty pages later, mankind finally dies completely, and the gremlins inherit the earth. A few days later, they disappear from existence completely. The end.
In the middle, there's lots of thinly-veiled social and political commentary as well as doomsday prophecies for every corner of the world, along with strange gremlinish things.
Of note: Apparently this is where snozzberries came from, because they're the only thing the gremlins appeared to eat. All righty then.
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