Not So Good Prince

It was a long trip to Origins this weekend, made worse by the Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin DOT's. The prize for best blockage of traffic goes, however, to Indiana. We spent 2 hours going 6 miles on the way from Chicago to Indianapolis. This was parking lot, turn off your engine, have a picnic speeds of travel and reminded me of why not having a car isn't always a negative. It did however give me a chance to get some Fables out of the trunk where it had languished in my backpack.

I've been picking up the trades of Fables since I can no longer find a steady supply of comics in the downtown Madison area. I get to catch up on that exiled communities foibles and follies every six months or so. The latest edition sets up the end game for the series however, showing the preparations for conflict and the creation of a magical kingdom of peace and happiness that the Adversary can't conquer. It was smarmy.

The best of the series comes from forcing the placement of all these fables together and having them have to deal with outside grievances and amusing issues. The naming of the adversary, and the near immediate destruction of his power base was poorly executed in a series that relies much more on it's characters for readability than on its plot. And this was the issue. The Good Prince sets out to give a mystical transformation and a redemption story arc for the lowly frog prince, but all it does is alter him without showing the transformation as it happens. One second he's a confused janitor and the next he's off with Obi-wan on some damn fool idealistic crusade.

Done right it could have been done well. If we'd followed the prince as he had to make real choices or real sacrifices. Instead he's granted near invincible power, a lack of needs or conflicting desires and goes off to save the world. It's like using the bat signal to stop a shoplifting 13 year old. Yeah, batman can find out who it was, but do we really care about that pack of gum? No I didn't think we did. The interesting thing in the story arc is what was hinted at, and barely shown. How the fables in Fabletown reacted to the news. That would have been my preferred way to see this play out. The fable community watching through the magic mirror and having them deal with the issues being brought forward. Instead we focus on the dull predictable plot.

A simple example: the mirror shows what happened to everyone dropped down the wishing well. It's hellish. And we get a moment of the fables saying "that's awful, we can't do that again" but then it moves on. An interesting issue would have been seeing Fly drop down there, and then watching the news of the discovery ripple through Fabletown. How would the once again 3 bears react to their son being down there? More speculation about the no-show of Baba Yaga would have been interesting too. Those types of moments could have conveyed the events in Fly's story much more forcefully and without making the reader lose their interest in the eventual outcome.

Earthclan

I picked up the Book Club version of Earthclan in my foray into half price books. All told I think I now have 2-3 copies of these books floating around my parents and my house. I picked this one up specifically so I can hand it off to people without the trauma of having to chase down a stack of paperback books.

Brin is a wonderful author, but I think that Earthclan and it's prequel Sundiver are his best works of fiction. They aptly blend 'real' physics with futuristic space travel, and take a good look at what contact with aliens could be like. Products of the mid 1980's, they offer an interesting view of what life on Earth would be like as it evolves, and how life in the galaxy would view us. The best part is how the universe feels the same, even when alien science alters things, because Brin shows humanity's flaws and triumphs reflected in each of the races that he creates. And by the combination of all of these, he shows us ourselves.

Bonanza

I finished The Confusion last night. I can admit now to having had doubts about it when I began - mainly from worrying about the faults of it's precursor. I was pleased to see that the sophomore work dispatched with the frame story, and alternated between the two strands of the plot. This was aided by the reliance of both strands on events from the other, and the whole book felt like a single work. That feeling redeemed the series for me. I'm looking forward to grabbing the third installment shortly to find out the conclusion of the work.

As for a plot synopsis, the book follows up on "Section Three" of Quicksilver as well as following the adventures of Jack in captivity. Beyond saying that, at this point I really must recommend actually reading the books. They are worthwhile and well written, and I'm restraining myself from having the last one overnighted to me. I'm not sure that I'll be able to.

In other news, Neil's got Coraline coming to the big screen. I'm not sold on Dakota Fanning as the voice of the protagonist, but we shall see.

Keeping things Practical

I find that I can not escape from Half Price Books without spending $50+. My latest trip did, however net me some new material. I've picked up The Confusion, which should please the hza, and a lending copy of The Uplift War and Startide Rising. But at the end of the day I wonder if I'm going to end up needing a new apartment just to store books in.

While taking some time off from The Confusion I reread Practical Demon Keeping mainly because I pulled it off the shelf while putting other books up. I have an advanced readers version from my family's days running a bookstore, and I've enjoyed his books ever since. This first one sets up the story of his fictional California town, Pine Cove, and tells the story of what happens when a demon is brought by for a visit. While this isn't as refined a work as Lamb, it delights in jokes about the quirky people who make up the town and the insanity of the perfectly ordinary. Also, this is Moore's only book that doesn't reuse a character from an earlier piece. Which is saying it's his first novel.

Query

I'm annoyed. Pissed off. I want to smash things. With this frame of mind what can I go and read? I really can't think of anything that's the literary version of playing Unreal Tournament against bots until my anger is soothed. As an avid reader, this realization is troubling. I'd like to think that there's something I can read that will both help me vent my anger and my calm me down. I picked to wrong week to give up [insert drug of your choice here].

American Gods

In keeping with my self imposed rule here, I'm not reviewing American Gods. Whats to say that isn't going to come out gushing in fan boy induced glee? I like Gaiman's work. I enjoy his ability to craft stories, and his willingness to insert pieces that are less than normal. At the end of the day I'm not sure that I'm able or willing to perceive the faults that may lie in his books, and so I can't do more than say:

I read American Gods again.

And I'm sorry Mr. Norrel, I'm getting to you as swiftly as my free time will allow. Please don't turn me into a newt. The history of English magic lends me confidence that I would get better, but I'm not sure about the time frame, or if I'd enjoy spending time with Gussie Fink-Nottle.

Always an even trade.

Due to various circumstances that were entirely within my control, I've not been reading much until just recently. However I did finally sit down and peruse Reaper's Gale. And much to my chagrin, I found it lacking the level of completeness that Erikson infused into his previous volumes.

Partially this is the nature of his books. He has two competing story lines, which didn't touch each other until this book. While those stories were tied together by the same adversary, previously books dealt with one set of (mortal) protagonists and a set of deities that remained the same. The first three books Gardens of the Moon, Deadhouse Gates, and Memories of Ice all dealt with the same group of protagonists. These books felt polished and had a level of refinement in story that was easy to read. When thread split off, or new characters were introduced, there was time and effort spent on incorporating them into the story as a whole.

The second three books, House of Chains, Midnight Tides, and The Bonehunters delved into the machinations of the Crippled God, who is the main antagonist for the series to date. These books moved the protagonists from the first books into more powerful and less involved roles. Their appearance presaged a major shift in the direction of the story, or the coming to head of some major plot point. The second three books also began to introduce more characters and civilizations that had not been touched upon directly. These groups were usually within their own story lines, and developed without interaction with the main protagonists. This allowed for the creation of a similarly rich back story for the new characters.

The came Reaper's Gale. Where most of the various plot lines converged into a mess. There was easily two books worth of material here, books that could have introduced many of the characters that we learned about for 10 pages and then never heard about again. There were loose ends of plot at both ends of the book, people in places without explanation, (and often these people were not know characters, but generic.) There were also groups of people who were added at the last seconds, like a teaser for what will occur next. And throughout the entire book to many people were simply added without the character creation that marked the first books.

The book was good. It advanced the plot quite a bit. But it didn't feel like it was as well written as it could have been. And with so many other books in the series to compare it to, that's a fatal flaw.