A Hollow Series

A friend recommended that I read/listen to a series of books by Kim Harrison. The series is called The Hollows and features such Eastwoodly titles as A Dead Witch Walking, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly and The Outlaw Demon Wails. How could I not take a look?

Anyway, the series is set in a world where vampires, werewolves, witches, pixies, etc live openly among humans. The main character is Rachel Morgan, a private eye and witch. I managed to make it through the second book, all the while fighting a case of Heimlich Syndrome, also known as Snarky Fever. Almost every minute of the book I kept arguing with myself whether to stop or not.

The main problem is that I really like the setting. The world of Rachel Morgan is well developed, and actually engaging. Supernatural creatures do live side by side with humans, but are rarely trusted. Restaurants have ratings earned by various lengths of time without a human death, convenience stores sell charms and magical remedies, there's a lot to like. The books themselves are written well, the characters are well fleshed out and evoke real emotions.

This, unfortunately, is the series' downfall for me. I hate, HATE, HATE Rachel Morgan with the undying heat of a thousand suns. She's the whiniest, dumbest, most cowardly character I've ever read. While I'll admit this is great characterization, I'd argue that the protagonist of a story should have some good attributes. Rachel Morgan has none. Maybe she grows on you, like the taste of cheap gin. I wouldn't know, I hate gin and can't see the point of drinking it until I don't feel like vomiting from the taste. Why would I do this with a character of seven books? Or maybe the point of these books is to root for her slow, agonizing death. If so, then it worked for me. Though something tells me that I shouldn't be upset that she lives through the book, every frakking time.

It's sad, really. I want to like this series, I really do. I just can't get past the rising urge to kill that I feel every time the protagonist opens her mouth.

A very long sword

After more months than I care to think about, I'm finally finished with the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. Since I listened to the majority of the 11 books unabridged while driving, it's taken a while. I believe I've been working on this series for over well over 2 years, which speaks to the length of the books, since I spend a LOT of time on the road.

Overall it was enjoyable (obviously since I spent so much time on it), but not perfect. An epic story like this is never without its flaws and padding. While this series has nowhere near the padding as Jordan's, it does stretch things more than necessary. For example, overly convoluted magic discussions between characters that takes 20 pages is ridiculous. Any idea what, "The junction locked the azimuth to attach the proper parcels" means or what a "verification web from an interior perspective" is? Me neither and I actually read the damned series. I get the need to have certain magical effects explained to the reader, but listening to two characters debate the effect in extreme made up jargon is tedious.

Reading/listening to a series like this back to back does tend to highlight certain flaws in a writer though. Goodkind has a annoying habit of reminding the reader of certain prior events. Normally this is fine when the reader is being reminded of things that happened in other books. However, Goodkind apparently thinks his readers have the memory of a goldfish, since every book has multiple reviews of events that happened in the same book.

Despite these flaws, though, the series was pretty good. I became extremely invested in the characters, and there is some interesting social commentary there too. I have absolutely no questions about what Goodkind's opinions are on certain issues. There's a lot of preaching, which also becomes tedious at times. However, it's been especially interesting this year of all years. A lot of the themes are echoed in the current election.

Anyway, it's a little weird to be working my way through another book (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) after so long in the world of Richard Rahl. I'm very curious about the TV series that starts in November.

Drugged out

A few mights ago I started (and finished) a book recommended to me by my mother. It's called The Pandora Prescription, by James Sheridan. It's a book that supposedly went through a lot of banning troubles before it was published. I say supposedly because there's a lot of talk that the "banning" was merely a publicity stunt. While I can see this, it doesn't diminish the facts the book presents. I was told that the book was originally a non-fiction book that no one would publish. In order to get publishing, the author rewrote it as a fictional story. What I find interesting as that googling the book pulls a lot of sites that have been suspended or removed. However, this is possibly part of the "publicity stunt".

The book is about a medical conspiracy that's been happening for over 50 years. A compound called Laetrile was developed in the mid-1950s that showed promise of being an effective treatment for cancer. Laetrile is a processed version of a substance found in fruit seeds, namely apricots. This leads the pharmaceutical companies to cover it up, since no one can patent a fruit seed, and no money can be made from it.

The book is interesting (which led me to read it in one night), but not well written. The facts that are presented are very thought provoking, which is the main point of this post. It's painfully obvious though, that the book was meant to be non-fictional. The characters and writing are extremely forced. It's also apparent that the publishing house is in desperate need of a editor that knows English as their primary language. Many times I'd have to reread a sentence because it didn't make sense, only to realize a couple of key words were missing. There were misspellings, spaces missing between words and improper punctuation. If this was truly meant as a fictional adventure, I'd have burned the book. However, all of these "mistakes" lend more credibility to the facts presented. Again, it was obviously meant to be a different book.

And now for my rant. The cancer industry employs more people than that have or die from cancer. It's a multi billion dollar industry. It's no wonder that they would want a "magic bullet" cure covered up. The pharmaceutical industry is the leading powerhouse behind most cancer "research". Which seems like a conflict of interest to me, if cancer is cured, that's a huge chunk of most pharmaceutical companies income. What CEO would lose sleep over a few million deaths if it meant a higher profit margin for themselves and their stockholders? Not many.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a true conspiracy nut. I do, however, think it's naive to take the government at it's word. The FDA and AMA are constantly under fire for shady practices, and it wouldn't surprise me in the least that they're heavily influenced by pharmaceutical companies. When was the last time you watched TV (without Tivo Dr H) and didn't see an ad for some miracle drug or another? Cholesterol drugs have been shown for a while to cause more damage than they help, yet there are half a dozen different cholesterol drugs marketed to us every night.

The bottom line is that while I can't say that I believe everything that this book presents, I believe a lot of it. Just like the oil companies, the pharmaceutical cartel doesn't care about fixing us. It's about selling a drug that covers up the symptoms, that also happen to cause other "side effects" that can be "fixed" with more drugs. BRILLIANT!

End of rant, thank you for your time...

A Good Kind of show

The series of books I'm presently reading is apparently being picked up to be a TV series by ABC/Disney. It's a long series (eleven books) by and I've enjoyed it so far (Snarky, you'd like it). Plus I have the satisfaction of it being completed. The most recent book, Confessor was released last November.

Anyway, Sam Raimi is going to direct it and it's been greenlit for 22 episodes. Both are good things, so I should be excited. Should be. What makes me hesitant is that it's been picked up by CBS/Disney. It's not exactly a Disney type of book, what with the raping, betrayal, murder and such. So I find myself worried that it's going to be Disney-fied to the level of pure suckage.

Roland, please tell me I'm wrong to be nervous. Puhleeez?

You're joking

After seeing the preview for the upcoming Spiderwick Chronicles, I decided to check out the books. I didn't really feel like owning the series, so I started to listen to the audio book.

The books are read by Mark Hamill, and he does an excellent job. If you've ever watched the Batman cartoons, you know what a great voice actor he is. This fits perfectly with the theme of the book, every goblin, hobgoblin, elf, troll and brownie has a distinct voice. It's been a blast, Mark Hamill obviously had a good time reading it - which shows.

As far as what I thought of the book(s), they were entertaining if not spectacular. Much like the Unfortunate Events series, it's a kids series that has a little for adults too.

Now I'm curious how the movies will ruin the books...

The very bad Dr H.

My friend told me about the next Terry Brooks series The Genesis of Shannara. It links the Word/Void series to the Shannara series. What he failed to tell me was that it's a series in progress.

So now I've read the first only to find out that the second of the series has just been released. So basically Dr Heimlich is a very bad man. Especially considering that Terry Brooks loves mid trilogy cliffhanger endings.

On a brighter note, I started The Sword of Truth series a few months ago by Terry Goodkind. I went into this one knowing it's an eleven book series (unfinished at the time). I'm happy to announce that the last book Confessor, was just released. I really enjoyed the first book Wizard's First Rule, enough so that I would have recommended it but couldn't at the time. I now can do so with a clear conscience since the series is now complete.

Bad DrHeimlich, BAD!!!

Heroic eggs and a quest for milk.

I've been listening to Neil Gaiman's Stardust and so far I like it, as I have liked all of his works. The audio book is unabridged, but I'm not sure it should be.

My biggest problem with writers like Gaiman (King too) is that they sometimes go a bit overboard with the details of the story. I don't need an entire chapter devoted to the description of the town, or house or whatever.

At one point I got to listen to a family's grocery list. That's right, I was treated to about 45 seconds of Neil reading a gorram grocery list. I know 45 seconds doesn't seem like a long time normally, but try it while someone is reading a list off to you - one that you care nothing about. Is that necessary? I'm all for adding detail to immerse the reader in the world of the book, this seems a bit over the top.

Is it just me, or does it seem that some writers pad their stories with crap like this? No matter how good the book is, I will always remember the frakking grocery list...

Ms. Novik, you are a very bad lady...

To continue with my last post, I finished Empire of Ivory last night.

My final recommendation? It's a great book with one of the worst cliff hangers I've ever read. I'd say it's a second only to Stephen King's ending to The Wastelands.

This is the first book that's really had an ending this bad (but in a good way). I still say read the others and wait for the next book to come out before reading Empire, but do so with your eyes open to what awaits...

Napoleanic-Draconic Complex

Over the last year or so I've been reading a series called The Temeraire. It's a great series about the Napoleanic War with a twist. In the books, numerous dragon species are used to create an armed branch of the military, the Aerial Corps. The dragons are basically flying battleships, with full crews to assist in battles. The books are both well written and seem well researched (though I'll admit to knowing nothing about the Napoleanic War - except there was a short ego-maniac trying to take over the world.)

The series follows the dragon Temeraire and his captain William Laurence thru their adventures in the war. The series has four books so far, with an unknown number in the series (which is why I can't really recommended it to friends, despite it being a great series - and worth waiting for...) I'm almost done with the fourth book Empire of Ivory, and while it's not quite as action-packed as its predecessors it's still entertaining. So the dilemma is that I want to share it with friends that like this sort of thing, but don't want to get yelled at, disowned or killed.

The main reason I'm blogging about this is that I just found out that Peter Jackson has the option for the film rights to this series. This was announced over a year ago, so nothing may come of it, and I'm not holding my breath - but still excited. These books scream to be made into a movie and Jackson has proven that he can accurately translate a book into a movie.

Anyway, it's a good read that I am most definitely not recommending anyone pick up, yet. Plus, the author plays Guild Wars - so she's got me sold as a fan...

Brokeback Dumbledore

To add to the controversy of the Harry Potter books, J.K. Rowling announced that Proffesor Dumbledore is gay last friday. This adds a lot of meaning to the parts of Deathly Hallows when dumbledore talks about Grindelwald.

While I applaud her for mixing it up with her critics, I have to wonder if there aren't ulterior motives.

Why didn't she out Dumbledore in Hallows? My guess is that it would have effected (affected?) the sales of her final book. Or is it her final book? Could she intentionally be causing more controversy to help her out down the road?

Hmmmmm....

Big wheels stopped turning

Sunday night the author of one of my former favorite book series died. Robert Jordan passed Sunday after a long fight with cardiomyopathy.

Thank the gods I stopped reading the Wheel of Time series, because chances are it's done, never to be finished. This is a shame, because the series started strong and should have been done by now. The reason I stopped reading it was that Jordan apparently decided it was a great cash-cow and began to drag the story line out.

The last book I read was Crown of Swords - the seventh book. He was in the middle of writing book 12. All I remember of Crown (and the 2 before it) was that it was a 1000 pages of characters talking about what to do, and about 24 of them actually doing it. To make matters worse, he had started to alternate his writing between continuing the story and writing frakking PREQUELS.

I don't mean to sound insensitive, a good writer has been lost, but he lost my fanship when he obviously started to stretch the story as far as he could, regardless of the impact to the storyline.

My heart goes out to all the fans out there that doggedly stuck with him. I can only hope for those lost souls that Jordan had detailed notes of where the story was going, and the publisher can find a decent ghost writer. If that happens, and if they end it, I may actually re-read the series to see how it all pans out (maybe with the help of some online Cliffs Notes)...

...and he's....SAFE!

So I finished HP: Deathly Hallows last night.

Now I can stop avoiding everything online (which is way harder than I thought). Now I can actually get something done.

WOOT.

I really liked it (No spoilers here), and while I know this is the last Harry book, I hope that J.K. Rowling thinks about other books in the world she's created. Because frankly, I'm glad this is the last book about Harry. From book one, Harry has always gotten on my nerves, but I love the wizarding world the author has developed.

Oh, and literary/internet gods, I'll get started on those promises tomorrow...

Amusing

Found this comic strip while surfing. Don't worry no spoilers here (click to enlarge):

Prayer to the literary/internet gods

To the powers that be:

Last night I started Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. PUH-leez let me get through it without anything being ruined for me. If you allow me to read this book unspoiled I promise I'll read a super dull book (I'm talking Grapes of Wrath boring) and won't look at porn for a week.

I know I'm asking a lot, this is going to be impossible, probably not as impossible as some people I know (one that works in a book store and one in radio), but difficult nonetheless.

Which is why I'm willing to sacrifice so much time being bored and pornless (a great website BTW, boredandpornless.com - but I digress).

Anyway, please, please, PLEASE help me out here.

Sincerely,
Me.

Oh, I'd also like a pony and a plastic rocket...

Punny Side up

I recently finished Jasper Fjord's latest book, The Big Over-Easy: A Nursery Crime. The book is set in the world that his Thursday Next series resides in. It was apparently his first book, and his editor told him that no one would understand it without some back story.

The editor was right. I have read all the Thursday Next books and this one still had moments when I thought, "The Hell?"

However, in the end I liked it. It had his usual play on words (if you couldn't tell from the title), literature and life, all of which keep the book moving along well with humor.

The book is about Jack Spratt, a literary detective specializing in nursery crimes. This particular caper is about the death/murder of Humpty Dumpty. The murder mystery is nothing spectacular - typical suspects etc. This is intentional though, the literary detectives in this series all must follow certain guidelines for their cases and clues.

Anyway, it's a fun book, but not for those that haven't read the rest of his series. You may still enjoy it, but I guarantee you'll have no idea what's going on. I do recommend the others though (The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book and Something Rotten).

My "Z" Plan is ready...how about you?

Last night I finished reading The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks, also the author of World War Z. I loved World War Z (here's DrHeimlich's review) and The Zombie Survival Guide was pretty enjoyable too.

Written (obviously) as a "How-To" guide to survive a zombie attack, it's done in such a way that made me actually start considering what supplies/escape routes I had. I loved that I almost started to worry about how defensible my home is (not very - don't come here if the dead rise).

I think my parents' house would do nicely for a Class 1 or 2 outbreak, but not above that.

Told you it made me think seriously about my options, which made me really enjoy the book. I also really liked the last part, a chronological listing of various outbreaks around the world. Again it's written in such a way, and with just enough facts sprinkled in, that I could actually believe it's happened before.

Bottom line, a fun read and definitely a recommended book, though don't be surprised if you spend the next day looking for a machete and a M1 Carbine...

The name's Next, Thursday Next

I recently finished the second book of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series, Lost in a Good Book. This series was recommended to me by a good friend, and I'll admit I was skeptical. However, after finishing it I have to say I'm completely hooked.

This book follows Thursday's adventures in The Eyre Affair, and is set in an alternate reality England. It's a world where literature is king (there's a major Shakespearean political lobby), dodos, mammoth and neanderthals have been "re-engineered" and there's a "Toast Marketing Board". Thursday is an agent in a government agency called "Spec Ops", an organization that deals with everything from time travel to vampire/werewolf containment to botanical enforcement. Her specific department Spec Ops 27 - Literatech, is charged with Literary Detective work. Thursday's adventures in Eyre Affair involve her (among other things) jumping into the book Jane Eyre to save Jane from a criminal mastermind.

In Lost in a Good Book, Thursday finds herself in the media spotlight after her adventures in Jane Eyre. She finds herself enlisted by another agency called "Jurisfiction", an organization of fictional characters created to enforce the continuity and characters in books. Lead by such characters as Ms. Haversham of Great Expectations and the Chesire Cat, Jurisfiction adds a whole new dimension to the series.

I find myself excited to continue the series with the next book The Well of Lost Plots. It's a well written series that doesn't take itself too seriously. As I continue the series, I'll post my thoughts - as if any one is actually reading them ;)