The Garden of Discordia

So there's a preview of the latest Dresden Files book - Ghost Story - up at the publisher's site.

I click my way over there, feeling all happy and expectant and, yay, free sneak peek awesome! And then, ugh, it's formatted in Flash. Stupid flash at that, where I can't move the mouse without the entire page scrolling away, the pages don't respond to arrow keys or other keyboard short-cuts as I would like them too.

Dear Penguin. This is, what, six pages of a coming book? Would you kindly just throw them up as html pages and be done with it, I promise the evul e-pirates won't make off with all the loot even if you do. Thank you

On the content, though, it hooks me but good, hehe, I look forward to this book!

Okay, ehm, so I finished with my Dresden Files read-through. All of them: 12 books + 4 short stories + the RPG-books (although I didn't so much read those, as jump to the interesting characters). I still haven't gotten my hands on the (out of print) short-novel about Thomas, so if it's included in the collection that Butcher will release later this year, I will probably buy it.

I also have this big file with snippets about Marcone, magic and how stuff works in the Dresden-verse. One day, I'll try and fic some of it.

But it's darn hard to write something that takes places after Changes, because it really does change everything in the universe... and then it just ends! On a big, evil cliffhanger, so we don't know where anything stands or how Harry will go on! ( Minor spoiler for Changes: )

It's also interesting to see Harry's journey, it really contains more ups and downs than many of these long, urban fantasy series. He gets scarily close to the darkness sometimes, and then he starts traveling upwards, and then, BLAM - Changes. And we're only about halfway aaarghhh...

Anyway, the RPG book with the characters - Our World - is pretty good for ficish purposes. Lots of stats and condensed information in one place. And the little comments in the margin, written by Harry, Bob and the Alphas were really fun

(With unfailing precision, the internet died when I just hit "post" for this entry yesterday... so you get it now instead. Recycling = win, y/n?)

I don't have time to write proper reviews and whatnot right now, but I have the feeling that if I start putting my "book logg" off, it'll wither and die before February has passed. And at least two months I should manage, darn it.

So, on to the preview copies!

First off is Jim Butcher's latest Dresden Files, Changes. Oh, this one was a very intense page turner. I felt that the last book was too much plodding around and too little happening, until the very end when there was a huge mess of shit happening which could influence the overall outcome of the series - but by then, the book was mostly done so very little reflexion on those events could take place.

It's somewhat similar here, although the action is better paced and the foreshadowing works. The threads from older books, from the very beginning of the series up to much more recent events, are nicely (if somewhat predictably) picked up again. Oh, and this book does definitely change things around in Harry's world, on a both personal and more general level.

Good stuff. Less good is that Butcher now intends to carry the series into the "lower twenties" apparantly, because I want to get to the end some time :/ preferably before I'm tired of reading about Harry Dresden, thanks.

Then I read something-Sniegoski's Where Angels Fear to Thread, the next part in the Remy Chandler series. It's urban fantasy/mystery with an angel living on Earth as the main character. And that's probably where it fails the worst, because the fact that he's an angel doesn't matter one fucking bit for the plot. Remy/Remiel's Seraphim self is violent, threatens to "burn his humanity away" if he lets go of it and... is violent. That's it, basically. Oh, and Remy mopes about this a bit.

I tried to imagine what would have changed if Remy was a demon who'd somehow left hell and decided to be good, with a violent, destructive demonic side he supressed... Not a thing would be different as far as the in-book action. How people react to him, sure, somewhat but when he might as well have come from another planet or be his complete opposite without it messing up the plot. Nah, not good.

Otherwise the books are bland; a step up from most urban fantasy, which is horrible. That's why I keep reading them, so I can feel that I have some insight into the genre without having to suffer through the worst drivel...

Anyway, the books are bland, but not too shabbily written. There's a lot of old Bible characters running around, although, once again they don't feel very Biblical. I don't mean the story has to be preachy - for instance, in Angel Sanctuary, the characterization and plot are both very much driven by what the characters are, without it in any way being a respectful treatment of Christianity. I like that - I like Marianne Fredriksson's books, also, "Paradisets Barn" and whatnot, where there is also a feeling that, yes, these people don't just share names with someone from the Bible they are that person. They have met God, angels, demons etc, great otherwordly forces and that has in one way or another affected them.

I have also read Black Butler which is awesome. Yayness.

Of the books on my current reading list are:
- Uncle Dynamite by P.G. Wodehouse, something I borrowed from grandma
- Dwarves, a German fantasy book (though I read it in English, free copy from work) about... well, guess. Am almost finished, decent so far
- At the Mountains of Madness collection by Lovecraft. Have read the title story and The Case of Charles Dexter Ward so far, and yes, the old man knew how to craft his horror...
- Some African fantasy, a preview book I picked up because African fantasy is rare.
- Some shitty vampire romance book by J.R. Ward which I'm reading because it's part of a topic on the symposium. It is AWFUL!.