Timewaster's Guide Archive

  If it had just been a normal person, that would have been seriously underwhelming. 

That is the perfect way to put it, I think. If we'd been given a human killer in book two, after the powerful demon in book one, it woudn't have been nearly as enjoyable. One of the bug rules for sequels is to go bigger; a human killer wouldn't have been able to do that, unless they were truly, truly monstrous. Like, Ted Bundy, Albert Fish and HH Holmes combined and sprinkled with choice bits of Stalin. Anything less, really, would have been simply underwhelming.

I have nothing against Dexter. I've only read the first two books, but I loved them, and the TV show is my current favourite program. I don't want John to become like Dexter, because we already have an awesome Dexter. John is his own character and just as awesome and terrifying in his own right.

Spambot got into my Facebook, and sent everyone on my friends list that was currently online an IM that linked to a quiz of some kind.

The first recipient? Howard Tayler. x_x 

Stupid spambot.

You're permitted precisely 7.5 seconds of fanboy/girlism, but any longer than that and security will escort you out.

Once again, I am attempting to get caught up with the submissions. There's something about having homework that makes me want to procrastinate on it, and start doing other things I had been procrastinating on previously. Anywho, here we go...

Thoughts while reading...

• Misspelled Alexander's name in the first sentence.

• "The King’s room was in perpetual gloom and very warm.  " This line is very contrasting and a tad confusing; I realize that the gloom is in terms of the lighting and atmosphere, and the warmth is in terms of temperature, but the immediate response I had to this was that the room was simultaneously gloomy and cheerful. From the line right after, I can assume this was not the intent.

• " It would be difficult for anyone to overhear what went on this room when the doors were closed." This may seem odd, but this particular line feels too straightforward. If there's a way to show this, rather than tell it, I think it would work better.

• "the Empire was always inventing new technologies" This intrigues me. I'm immediately wondering what level of technology this world has, or, specifically, this empire.

• Following the last line, the rest of the paragraph feels a bit too info-dumpy, in my opinion. It's not infodumpy in a bad way, necessarily, but I'm wondering if this could be told more smoothly through dialogue between the war council.

• The empire must be truly massive, if it can afford to have an army in the millions. They'll need several million more people in order to grow the food and make the weapons to support such numbers.

Finished.

It's not bad, and I see some potential. The plot that's been shown so far - small country going to war against a vast empire - has the potential to turn out incredibly unique and interesting, or incredibly cliché and derivative. This type of story has been done many, MANY times before, and unless there's something different to make it stand out, I can see myself getting bored with the story. It's very difficult to make an accurate judgment based of a single chapter, though.

I found myself wanting to be shown more of the personalities of the generals. Some argument on strategy, clashing personalities - their nation is on the brink of war with a vastly more powerful and, from the sounds of it, more resourceful enemy, not to mention their king is very literally about to die. These men seem too calm despite all of this; I'd expected them to be tense, shouting at each other, arguing over what needs to be done. One of them must think they have a better idea of how they should fight, or even a better idea of who should rule the country. As it is now, most of them feel kind of flat. I'm given an inkling as to individual personalities, but not enough. I'm also wondering what these men look like.

The writing, throughout most of it, felt very sparse. It was good, but it was sparse. Personally, I prefer things to be more decriptive. You don't have to overload me with details, but a line or two about General #1's bushy mustache, or the maps on the walls of the council room - the little things that give me a clearer picture of what's going on, where it's going on, and who is making it go on. For me, it also adds to the immersion factor of the story.

Alexander, I thought, was written very well. I got a strong impression of the character from the first few lines, and I could feel his pain near the end of the chapter.

The pacing is very good. I felt everything flowed very well, and was easy to understand. (Just needed more detail )

In summation, there's a lot of good in this, but there is the strong potential that it could become derivative. I'd like to see more showing in several places - or maybe it's the lack of detail. I'm not certain. There weren't many places where I feel like I was being told things, yet it didn't feel like i was being shown them either...

Hope this was of some help. I look forward to the next chapter ^^

I won an ARC, or so I thought.

Then it arrived, and it turned out to be a giant boat, not a giant book.

Lame.

And in this corner, we've got the Mob. But over here, we've got a headless monkey on a hoverboard!

Y'a know, I'd hate to be the Mob goon trying to explain that they have all just been terrorized by a headless monkey.

Headless monkey on a hoverboard with a knife* The mob doesn't stand a chance.


_{*I know it's a scalpel.}

Reasons I disliked Turn Coat:
1) The guy pulling the strings was absurdly easy to spot.
2) The events from the prior novel, which involved one of the main characters getting nearly shot to death, are mentioned in passing.  Once.  In a "Hmm, that was unfortunate" kind of way.  What's the point of grievously injuring a main character if there are no tangible effects on the main characters.
3) Harry's ability to always "throw every last bit of emotion" into his magic to overcome the baddie.
4) Being that this was the half-way mark in the series, I felt it was cheap to undo several books worth of development with a casual wave of the hand.  Now we have to go through that development all over again over the course of several novels instead of having all new conflicts.  This is mainly noticed with Luccio and Thomas (this is where the magic reset button comes into play).  In addition, all the attention given to Morgan was wasted (we are going to take an under-developed character, give him some life, but not enough to actually make any difference, then get ride of the character), and as expected, was thrown out the window in Changes.
5) Murphy still pointlessly not taking up the Sword.  She wants to save everything, but won't take the one thing she knows will help her cope with the supernatural aspects that have nearly destroyed her over the past.  At this point, it's just used to have a filler-conflict that they can discuss at dramatic points in time.

There is more of course, but I feel like it isn't worth mentioning since Changes helped alleviate some of my fury over the direction of the series.  Turn Coat wasn't even close to books 7 and 8 in terms of quality and plot progression.  But hey, every series has a stinker or two.  And of course, many people felt Turn Coat was great, and who am I to judge.

Okay, having the specifics helps me make a bit more sense with that review. That's one of the downsides, I think, to spoiler-free reviews - I didn't know, going in, what the "magic reset" was, and was expecting to have been done to everything in the series. Harry back under the Doom of Damocles, Murphy not trusting him, etc. This might be why I loved it as much as I did - I was expecting something far worse, and was blown away when it didn't happen.

***Some possible spoilers below. You have been warned.***





I'll give you the first three points, but I think I have to contest the fourth and fifth. The character regression of Luccio and Thomas actually felt natural to me. What Thomas went through forced him to abandon what he'd been trying to do and give in to what he'd been repressing, and his reactions to it make a lot of sense. For Luccio, I could say the same. Not quite as traumatic (arguably) as Thomas, but it felt like a natural response to what she'd gone through. As for Morgan... seeing more of him definitely gave his final scene some incredible impact. It wouldn't have worked if we hadn't gotten to know him better, and while it would have been interesting to see what happened to him had he lived, I think it would have made the story poorer.

As for Murphy, I think it's just at this time she's not ready to give up on her career. Taking up the sword would mean, essentially, becoming a vigilante ( as I doubt they'd let her carry it around on the job), which is against the law. And Murphy has shown time and time again that she's a stickler for following the law. That's just the way I see it, and the point above, and I'm definitely not saying you were wrong or that I'm right. We just reacted to it differently (which I think is pretty cool).

I agree, though, that it doesn't match Proven Guilty or White Night, which were beyond amazing. Small Favor was good, but definitely not in the caliber of those two, or even, in my opinion, Turn Coat.

Anyway, to keep on topic... I'm slightly further in Gardens of the Moon now. It's not as complex or difficult to read as some make it seem, but it's still not as interesting either. But, since I had to get a copy of Changes from a different library, and it might be a few days before it arrives, I'm gonna make a big push to finish it.

Just finished Turn Coat, by Jim Butcher. Now, with all due respect to Elitist Book Reviews... I think they're dead wrong on their review of this book. It was amazing, one of the best I've read in the series. Now, it may be that I misunderstood their meaning behind the term, but I saw no indication whatsoever of a "magic reset button". What changes I saw in the characters and the story, to me, were the result of character development in some ways regressive, yes, but natural and honestly fitting with the events of the story.

I loved it. I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of Changes - which isn't out in paperback, so I can't buy it yet due to my rule of buying each book in a series in the same format. I have the others in paperback, so I must have all of them in paperback. If it compares to the other books in The Dresden Files, it would definitely be worth the price of hardcover, but then my OCD would flare up when it didn't look right on my bookshelf.