One day you will see that it is a mistake to love an empire, or a throne, or a crown, because those things cannot love. They only die.
Lev Grossman, aOne day you will see that it is a mistake to love an empire, or a throne, or a crown, because those things cannot love. They only die.
Lev Grossman, author of the surprisingly polarizing Magicians is back with a book that should annoy fewer people while still undoubtedly being written by him.
The Bright Sword tells the story of a young wannabe knight named Collum who arrives at Camelot to join the round table only to find that he's too late, author has died at Camlan alongside with most of his knights. And so The Bright Sword reveals itself to be a sequel to the classical King Arthur story. The king is dead, and so is almost every knight of the table excepting mostly just those were not at the battle for some reason. But they're alive and so they have to do something, and so Collum, alongside the ending knights as well as Merlin's apprentice Nimue all set out to find something to do, and to hopefully find someone to sit on the throne.
It's part The Three Musketeers and part A Game of Thrones , while being thoroughly a King Arthur story, although not the kind we always seem to see lately. This is the Arthur of myth with talking animals, angels, demons, monsters, fairies, magic and just weird stuff. At in Britain after the Roman occupation has ended and three first Christian king had died trying to find what its new identity is. And it's a post apocalypse story, a story about what happens after the curtains fall on tragic ending.
I hope it doesn't take Lev Grossman ten years to write his next book....more
If you were to ask me what my favourite comic is I would almost certainly answer with The Sandman , but, depending on myThis brings me no pleasure...
If you were to ask me what my favourite comic is I would almost certainly answer with The Sandman , but, depending on my mood, Locke & Key would probably be second. So, when I heard there was a crossover I felt baffled and confused, like Joe Hill and Neil Gaiman decided to get me a gift...
I wish they hadn't.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. This is a collection of five stories of varying length, about past events in the keyhouse. This does not include every written spinoff issue Hill has done, but rather only the ones focused on the family of Chamberlain Locke.
Small World
This and the second one came out, if I remember correctly, while the main comic was being written and released. It's fun. Chamberlain gives his daughters a dollhouse that can be operated by one of the keys allowing them to watch keyhouse in miniature. Unfortunately anything that goes in the dollhouse will be gigantic in keyhouse and a spider gets in...
Open the Moon
An undetermined amount of time later Chamberlain's eldest son is dying and no magical key can save him, so he makes him a key that will open the Moon giving them one last beautiful day together. I love this story. I have since it was first released. It's touching and magical and so very sad.
Face the Music
Just a bit of gruesome, yet whimsical fun. I suspect this must have been a free comic book day release because of how short it is, but I haven't checked because I'm lazy.
In Pale Battalians Go
Jack Locke steals the keys so that he can go and fight in WWI, but accidentally brings the fight home culminating in a Straw Dogs style home invasion. This is pretty decent, but it occasionally felt like it fell into a lot of modern misconceptions of WWI.
Hell & Gone
Okay, here's the main event.
At the end of "In Pale Battalians Go", Chamberlain receives a letter from Jack from Hell. Now ten years have passed and Chamberlain is dying so Jack's twin sister Mary decides to go to Hell and rescue her brother. To do so she has to talk to a dozen sandman characters as they all make references to other far better stories.
So, I really don't like this at all for a few dozen reasons. It works as a kind of unholy union between fanfiction and prequels. Every escaped dream escaped because of Mary, tons of the starting status of Sandman is because of Mary, the key to Hell only exists because of Mary (that bit was mildly clever). To avoid this becoming too much of a rant I'll attempt to explain my problem with the character of Fiddler's Green.
In Sandman Fiddler's Green has decided to walk to world for awhile and to do so has taken the persona of Gilbert Keith Chesterton, his whole appearance, name, and character is taken from Chesterton both in and out of universe. His love or paradoxes and original fairy stories, his appearance, his sword cane, his appearance, and his name are all borrowed from Chesterton, a thing referenced by him more than once.
In this he seems to take his human form much by accident and his personality is less Chesterton and more bumbling british man, his accompanying of Mary is explained with a silly reference to Rose, and worst of all his name is given to him as a reference to how he keeps grumbling. It's a total misunderstanding of the character based off of a fan's interest in him more than the author's intent.
This may seem like nitpicking but I think it's emblematic of how all the Sandman characters are treated and portrayed. Even when they aren't being fundamentally misunderstood they still feel off. The Locke and Key elements fair much better, but are drowned out by the weird misremembered versions of Sandman characters. Some here say that Gaiman co-wrote or at least developed this with Hill, but I don't buy it for a second
Unfortunately this muddled fanfiction is the ending of the Chamberlain Locke series, which really puts a damper on the whole thing and ends it on a sour note.
I really wanted to like this. I am absolutely the target audience, but in my opinion everything about this crossover was mishandled and sloppy....more
The second story arc begins here with Erica, having left the Order of St. George, trying to fight a powerful monster on her own. Meanwhile the order dThe second story arc begins here with Erica, having left the Order of St. George, trying to fight a powerful monster on her own. Meanwhile the order doesn't appreciate a loose thread and sends an agent to kill her.
This is mostly setup and laying ground work for the rest of the story but it's really entertaining setup....more
Now that the first arc is done it's time for The Secret Origins of Erica Slaughter! Before she was a monster hunter of the order of St. George, she waNow that the first arc is done it's time for The Secret Origins of Erica Slaughter! Before she was a monster hunter of the order of St. George, she was a frightened girl forced to watch a monster straight out of her imagination come to life and kill her parents and her best friend. Now she must control her rage and fear if she's going to complete her trails and join the House of Slaughter.
Not so much the beginning of a new arc as it is a breather between. A pause in which we look back at the past and answer some questions before we learn what the consequences of Erica's choices. But that doesn't mean it's slight, this is the darkest meatiest story yet. So far this book is really succeeding at getting progressively better with each volume....more
The end of the first arc, ties up all the threads in an appropriately darkly bitter sweet bow, and leaves just enough dangling to make me want to keepThe end of the first arc, ties up all the threads in an appropriately darkly bitter sweet bow, and leaves just enough dangling to make me want to keep going....more
Not a lot of new things to say about this one. Erica has killed the monster but it had babies and those babies are now loose in the town, plus she hasNot a lot of new things to say about this one. Erica has killed the monster but it had babies and those babies are now loose in the town, plus she has to deal with another member of her own order. It's as good as the first volume and nicely builds up to the third volume's climax....more
**spoiler alert** At some point after the original trilogy, the Brakebills staff decide to let hedge witches into the school as third years, without m**spoiler alert** At some point after the original trilogy, the Brakebills staff decide to let hedge witches into the school as third years, without making them make up courses or pass the entrance exam, an exam many of them have probably already failed. They also hire the leader of a coven to become a teacher at the school. For about a page or two, the students face prejudice. Then they discover the real reason they are there, (view spoiler)[to fight an ex-student who believes they need to stop a possible future in which climate change allows 98% of the human population to die to a flu like virus. (hide spoiler)]
This is better than >Alice's Story, but not by much.
The thing I become more and more convinced of the longer I read comics is that comics are next to impossible to pace effectively. I have become more and more impressed by those who can do it as I read many comics paced as badly as a netflix show. There's multiple different ways you can fail at effectively pacing your story, but this one falls into what I call Plot Summary Comics, which are comics that read like a wikipedia plot summary with some nice pictures. By the end of the comics I knew the characters about as well as I had when I started except for some defining characteristics such as the self destructive one, trans one, and the supportive one. Those are fine starting points but I should know more when the story is over than I could have learned from the back of the book.
I think there's a pretty good book here that explores outcasts, diversity, and affirmative action similarly to how the original explored privileged listless depression. But if that book was possible in a comic format then it was not delivered satisfyingly here....more
I've always kind of bounced off of American Gods even though I keep rereading it for some reason.
I don't know if it was that the book has aged well lI've always kind of bounced off of American Gods even though I keep rereading it for some reason.
I don't know if it was that the book has aged well like a wine, if I've just had a lot of time to make peace with the parts I don't like, if the comparison to the bad show really helps it, if the impressive audio presentation really improves it, or if it's a combination of all of the above but I liked it a lot more this time.
This is going to be less of a review and more of a series of thoughts. I've read American Gods three times now and I'm not sure I feel like reviewing it. I'm also rather tired and don't feel very clever.
The full cast audiobook is really impressive. It's halfway between an audioplay and an audiobook. I really like it.
A lot of this really reminded me how much I don't like the tv show.
Shadow is a really interesting character because he barely feels like a character for most of the book. He's a blank slate who blends into the world around him and follows the people who are near him obediently. And then Laura points it out and suddenly he makes a lot more sense. There's something deeply sad about him, how he never really felt alive or like he'd found a place in the world and just drifted through it like a shadow.
I enjoy how the ending feels like Shadow loaded his pre-end save and went off to finish some side quests. The structure is actually a lot like the structure of The Sandman, but for some reason it doesn't work as well for me.
There's obviously a lot of Americana in general throughout the book, but this time I kept noticing that there's something very American about the con artists who feel entitled to whatever they want and smugly remind people that the ones they con aren't saints either. Mr. Wednesday's plan feels very reminiscent of American Exceptionalism and wars started in the name of it. Wednesday think he's more deserving and righteous than anyone else and that he deserves power because of it.
I still don't love the book. It's never going to be my favourite Gaiman novel. But this is the most I've ever enjoyed it.
Maybe I'll try to turn this into a real review later. Probably not....more
Stop me if you've heard this one before. The children of a small American town called Archer's Peak are disappearing. The police have stopped looking Stop me if you've heard this one before. The children of a small American town called Archer's Peak are disappearing. The police have stopped looking and only the families still seem to care, except for a young petite blonde who comes to town. Her name is Erica Slaughter, and little do they know that she's a monster hunter empowered by an ancient and cruel secret society. She alone can stop the monsters imagined up and given form by children.
Okay, so it's essentially James Tynion IV's take on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but it's a good take on Buffy. Totally it's more like the episode that imagined what would happen if Buffy had never come to Sunnydale than the series proper. It's darker and grittier, but at its heart it's the same idea. It's also the best work by the author I've read yet. It's a little less ambitious than his other horror titles but that's not a bad thing when a story is this confident and fun.
I worry about Erica though. She's pretty much all alone in this monster filled world. She could really use a Scooby Gang....more
The Sandman is one of my favourite book series, but it is one that is very difficult to recommend as there are a fair number of growing pains in the fThe Sandman is one of my favourite book series, but it is one that is very difficult to recommend as there are a fair number of growing pains in the first few volumes that make it difficult for a new reader to get into it. It is especially difficult if that reader does not like horror or is sensitive to more nasty material. Sandman is, especially early on, often very nasty with mentions of subjects including rape, necrophilia, abuse, murder, kidnapping, self torture and other such undesirable subjects. Unlike the works of Garth Ennis it never feels like it's nasty on principal or for the sake of it, but rather to show the nastiness of the world that the characters inhabit. This is also reflected in the art which which is somewhat uneven and does not manage to keep an artist for long. All of that to say that I like this series a lot, but I get why it can be hard for people to get into.
Which is why I am excited for the new audio series which this is the first volume of. I really enjoyed my time with it, but I am more excited for new audiences to listen to it and discover the world of the Endless. This includes all the content listed above, but does so in a different medium that can be easier for people to handle. I am thrilled especially because for a lot of people I think volume 2 or 3 is when they quit, and hopefully this will help them get to some of the really good stuff late on. I just want to talk to people about The Kindly Ones; It's all I've ever really wanted from life, and finally I may have that opportunity.
I'm two paragraphs in and I haven't even mentioned anything about the actual production. The Sandman takes place immediately following a botched attempt to capture death itself that instead led to the imprisonment of her far more unpleasant little brother, Dream. Dream escapes and spends the first few handful of stories looking for his lost items and rounding up the dreams that escaped from the dreaming. This collection covers the first three volumes, Preludes and Nocturnes, The Doll's House, and Dream Country.
This is a very loyal adaptation that generally only changes things if they have to due to differences in the medium, as well as occasionally moving an issue around for, I assume, pacing issues. The final story in Dream Country is "Facade", but in this collection "Midsummer's Night Dream" ends out the collection, probably in order to end on a more positive note. Similarly "Men of Good Fortune" used to be placed in the middle of The Doll's House but has here been moved to the beginning. I approve of these changes.
The lack of changes are because while this is an audioplay it is also an audiocomic where the attempt is to do as close to a comic audiobook as possible. I think this is a far better way to adapt comics than the motion comics that they used to make which I wasn't convinced really worked, although I understand the impulse to keep the art.
As an audioplay it's good. The cast is great and well chosen. Gaiman has a calm voice that contrasts the horror that is taking place, James McAvoy is much better than I expected as it was not a role I could see him playing, and the rest are all very good. Overall, it's an excellent production.
I love this story and I suspect this is a good way to experience it for the first time. I hope that after people listen to it that they go and read the comics, but it's alright if they don't. I am looking forward to the next couple releases of this as I do really believe that these are the weakest Sandman stories and I am happy that more people will be able to experience the fantastic later volumes. Overall, a good adaptation of a very good book series that I recommend highly. ...more
In the book of Judges (Judges 11:30-40), Jephthah promises God that if he receives victory then he will sacrifice the first thing that greets him uponIn the book of Judges (Judges 11:30-40), Jephthah promises God that if he receives victory then he will sacrifice the first thing that greets him upon his return home. When he does finally come home victorious he is greeted by his joyful dancing daughter. He does as he promised. I thought of this story as I read about the law of surprise, a custom wherein a person after saving a life can demand a reward in the form of something in the indebted person's home that they do not know about. This usually takes the form of an unborn baby, and is often how witchers get babies to mutate into new witchers. Geralt, the eponymous witcher, does invoke this law at one point in this collection of stories, stating his hope that it will lead to another witcher. This seems to be a problem not only in the obvious ways, but because of how much Geralt seems to hate this life that was forced on him.
The Last Wish is a collection of short stories, most of which are dark twists on myths and fairy tales, all about Geralt of Rivia, a witcher. Witchers are monster hunters, mutated shortly after birth to give them better eyesight, some magic, and a body able to be altered more easily with drugs. They wander around looking for work, essentially a fantasy pest control. In that way this reminded me most of the Felix Castor books; a working class pest control version of a monster hunter.
Geralt has a moral code he lives by, one which often gets him in trouble. The Last Wish shines when it is criticizing Geralt and his world view. His refusal to interfere and choose a lesser evil leads to him committing a massacre and gaining his title "the Butcher of Blavikan". In other stories he'll take multiple jobs to deal with a "monster" in various ways, like a video game character trying to decide how he'll deal with a problem later. Many of the stories mostly involve Geralt talking to a monster or a person for a while, and the fantasy action one would expect because of that dragon on the cover is actually pretty rare.
Overall, it's good and it feels like dark fantasy with an actual point to get across. I hope the series maintains this quality as it becomes more story focused....more
The Magician's: Alice's Story is a retelling of The Magicians from the point of view of Alice. Unlike most people on this site I will not now explain The Magician's: Alice's Story is a retelling of The Magicians from the point of view of Alice. Unlike most people on this site I will not now explain to you that I hated the original book, or that I dislike Quentin with a passion, or that I like the show more. I really like the original book, I am very fond of all of the characters especially Quentin, and I am pretty indifferent to the show. The problem is that a lot of people seem to read The Magicians hoping for a story about Harry Potter in college and then they're upset when they get a story about privileged yet listless and depressed 20 somethings struggling to find any meaning in life. I don't know what people thought Harry Potter in college would be like, but that seems like a fair interpretation to me...
Retelling the original story from the perspective of Alice makes a lot of sense since Alice, not Quentin, in many ways is the hero. She is the one with the heroes journey that culminates in her sacrifice to defeat the beast. Quentin was just her cheating boyfriend. But it also doesn't make sense, because it's not like Lev Grossman made some kind of huge mistake and forgot how important Alice was. Quentin not being the hero of his story was kind of the point, and telling it again from Alice's point of view makes the whole thing a lot less interesting and a lot more boring.
I'm also fairly convinced that the story doesn't really work if you haven't read the book. A lot of plot points are breezed over. Others receive more time than they should. There's 3 pages about Julia half way through the book even though she was never mentioned before or again. Meanwhile characters like Josh and Elliot are in it so little that they barely have personalities, and Janet is just cold and villainous. Other details are also the same as the novel when they shouldn't be, such as the backstory concerning Alice's brother which we probably should have learned differently since Alice is telling this story.
Despite these flaws, I still mostly enjoyed my time with it because I really like this world and these characters. I wouldn't really recommend the book to anyone, read the original trilogy instead, but if you've read the trilogy and you want more... Well, it's not terrible.
EDIT: Never mind, I take it back; The show is good, but it is so removed from the books that I think it's somewhat irrelevant to a discussion of them.
Also, I didn't complain about the art, but I should have. Overall, I found it serviceable at best. ...more
The kind of bad writing that makes you wonder if Whedon was ever actually good. He was, but I personally consiBad book. Started bad, stayed that way.
The kind of bad writing that makes you wonder if Whedon was ever actually good. He was, but I personally consider this to be the beginning of his decline. And he had to go and drag poor Fray into it too.
At least it offers a brief reprieve from Georges Jeanty and all his identical noses....more
A serviceable story that is starting to show the cracks that will define the comic series later. Dracula appears and is even annoying than last time aA serviceable story that is starting to show the cracks that will define the comic series later. Dracula appears and is even annoying than last time and mostly is used for "funny" racism. Buffy sleeps with another slayer so the comic can make headlines (something that will be even more transparent in season 9), and Renee dies for no reason other than cheap tension and to make Xander sad. ...more
Origin ended with Buffy teasing that she would soon tell Willow and Xander about the time she and Pike ran away to Vegas, so of course this story is nOrigin ended with Buffy teasing that she would soon tell Willow and Xander about the time she and Pike ran away to Vegas, so of course this story is narrated by... Pike. Buffy and Pike fight conjoined vampire twins in Vegas, while Giles, Wesley, Gwendolyn Post, and Angel also appear. It's the most prequelly thing I've read in ages. I hate prequels....more
This is an adaptation of the screenplay of the movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer with the likeness of the tv show versions of Buffy and Merrick and withoThis is an adaptation of the screenplay of the movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer with the likeness of the tv show versions of Buffy and Merrick and without any of the bizarre line readings or miscasting. It's completely functional. If you really need an origin for Buffy then this does the job perfectly competently, albeit very rushed. Not a must read by any means, but doesn't hurt. ...more
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