| Guilty pleasures vs. books that would be if I didn't I hate them too much |
[Jun. 12th, 2010|03:05 pm] |
I really need a snappier title.
My guilty pleasure author is Simon R. Green. He has an urban fantasy series (10 books right now), a secondary world fantasy series (10 books if you count the ones that are all connected), a science fiction series (10 books), the Secret Histories series (4 books so far, which does the "hidden all-powerful but highly dysfunctional family protecting the world from evil" shtick while parodying James Bond), and a couple books that don't fit in anywhere else (like the novelization of the movie Robin Hood that he was tapped to write). Ideas come a mile a minute. Infodumps are everywhere. People randomly fall in love, and there is at least one heroic sacrifice per book. The style doesn't vary depending on genre; it's half gore, half one-liners, layered with mawkish sentimentality and psychotic killers. Trying to take Simon R' Green's writing seriously, for me, is like trying to take the claims of potato chips to be a health food seriously. And I get the impression that he knows this, and is having a hell of a lot of fun. I read him when my brain wants a vacation because I know they're silly, and to get a good feeling for what he's like, look at the second cut with spoilers for the latest Secret Histories novel.
But a lot of other "fun" books, I've read, particularly urban fantasy, try to be dark and brooding- it doesn't help that a lot of them are getting some of their DNA from noir mystery, except that there's no sign the authors have ever read Chandler- and in doing so, they become worse than silly: they become laughable.
Spoilers for Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series and Seanan McGuire's October Daye series.
( If I could reach you, I would shake you )
( Spoilers for the latest Simon R. Green Secret Histories novel ) |
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| Kage Baker, Race, and Gender (contains mild spoilers for the Company series) |
[Feb. 24th, 2008|05:41 pm] |
Warning: Some comments to this post contain major spoilers.
It's bothersome. I already bought all ten books in the Company series, and I really do like the style of humor and the narrative drive behind the plot, so you'd think I'd zip right through them. But I'm stuck in the ninth one.
( Brief introduction to the Company series )
( Race and gender issues )
It's too bad, because I really do like the plot in these books. It moves along! It's connected! It's complex and ties back to itself! (I value that all the more because it's one of the qualities I read epic fantasy for, but other qualities inherent to the epic fantasy genre keep me from liking those books now). But the race and gender politics bother me to the point that I haven't felt like picking up Gods and Pawns in a week- and since I'm in the middle of a story where Mendoza and a white male character investigate the secrets of a native Bolivian tribe, I'm not really sure I want to finish. |
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| Quick book review |
[Oct. 3rd, 2007|05:30 pm] |
Just a quick book review; there are many, many more coming if I ever get back up to speed. *looks in despair at enormous piles of books, both read and unread*
( Red Seas Under Red Skies, Scott Lynch ) |
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