Book 30: The Willows

Algernon Blackwood, contemporary of HP Lovecraft, wrote one of the all time creepy short stories.  The Willows really digs under the surface of what panic and fear feels like and it resonates, especially with anyone who had encountered odd sounds or sights in nature.  It's a bit tough starting, but short enough that once it grabs, it doesn't let go.  I strongly recommend making the time to read this in one sitting as the sense of dread builds slowly.

Book 29: The Song of Achilles

Okay, so the Political Correctness monitor in me is totally going apeshit, but it has to be said.  The first 60 pages of this book might be the gayest literature even published in English.  Sure, Folly of the World had some really graphic scenes, but whatever.  The Song of Achilles has young boys lusting after beautiful young boys.  Ughhh.  Fortunately, this eventually shifts and even sets a good stage for what happens later.  I'm going to do this book, which I actually thought was hauntingly beautiful and amazing in many ways, a really uncalled for synopsis that I'm ashamed to put to print.  So, here goes:

Gay son is hated by his dad for showing gayness early in life then accidentally kills another boy trying to sbe macho.  Gets sent to the greatest (if you're a straight guy trying to think what would be awesome if you were gay) and worst place (if you are actually gay and don't want to have people harass you) possible for a gay boy, a Greek all boys school of sorts.  Gay boy finds true love with gay demi-god (literally and I mean literally).  Gay demi-god gets all goo goo over only other gay boy.   Mom tries in vain to separate the two gasy after catching them on the beach.  Yes, the beach.  Sends demi-god Brad Pitt lookalike to live with manly centaur only to be joined by other gay boy.  Centaurs seemingly don't care one whit and he teaches the boys, well, nothing really for several years.  Mom hides gay demi-god from warring kings by stashing him in the worst (if you are a straight guy and thing all gay guys are total horn dogs) or most totally awesome (if you're one of those swishy RuPaul types) places, a glorified girls finishing school.  Gay demi-god gets to dress in drag, creating extreme jealousy in gay mortal who goes to rescue, proclaiming gay demi-god as his wife.  A couple of serious bears (Odysseus and friends) show up to spoil the party.  "This isn't fucking California.  You can't be married.  Get thee to Troy and kick some ass."  Gay demi-god, aka the best damn dancer this side of Anatolia, gets his butt in gear, taking little mortal guy dude with him.  Death and destruction ensue.  They pick up a cadre of fag hags along the way.  And just like a little queen, gay demi-god gets panties in a bunch over some perceived slights and takes his hardware (and incredible skill with his spear) elsewhere until everyone acknowldges that he's the fucking demi-god around here.  Gay lover gets fed up with demi-god's bitchiness and goes headlong into battle (replete with shimmering armor and hair), realizing that spearing people is much better than getting speared, but too late, as he reminds everyone "This is a fucking TRAGEDY assholes" and dies.  Demi-god realizes that he was being a punk, puts on more fabulous armor and fucks everyone up in a fit of rage.  Real gods get sick of his shit (really, they are threatened by his fabulousness) and kill him (well, it actually was the most fem guy of his age, the guy who snatched the original hawtie).  Even in death, they yearn to play with each other's spears and finally, Mommy finds it in her to do so.

Okay, that was wrong.  Sorry.  The book is really fucking awesome though.  Just gotta get through the really fruity parts.

Books 24 through 27: The Riftwar Saga

The Magician has been sitting on my table for getting near a year, but I've been daunted by it's sheer size.  I finally crack it open, and wonder of wonders, I love it!  Feist's world(s)building is almost unparalleled and his story telling is spectacular.  His prose can be clunky at times and the "mysteries" are obvious and the endings are predictable, but he takes us on such a special journey getting to these places that it doesn't matter.  The difficulties I had centered on the almost dopey characters that were fairly central as well as just too many easy outs.  But overall, the ride was just awesome.

Book 23: The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde

I needed an easy kill to start boosting my numbers and this well known Gothic tale registered a less than 24 hour doable 92 pages as freebie on Kindle.  It's very different that what I've come to expect based on the movies, though part of that is because it is so short and really only touches on some of the more unseemly characteristics.  I can see this as a great parable in its day and it still is quite enjoyable.  I actually enjoyed it's somewhat dated Gothic style and was relieved to be relieved of the sordid details.  Still, I would have liked a bit more of a payoff on some elements.  So, overall, excellent (and gratefully short) though don't expect a Stephen King tale as it's much more at the edges.

Book 22: Blood Song (only available in E-Book)

Amazingly, this stunning portrayal of a master swordsman and his journey was self published by the author and just recently picked up by a major publisher.  Blood Song is easily one of my top five fantasy books of all time.  It just has everything I want and never pulls punches.  Anthony Ryan expertly toys with the cliches and tropes of the fantasy genre, but never lets his novel devolve into them.  I can't recommend this book more.

Book 21: Dog of the South

Picked up this little ditty cause it was written by the same dude who wrote True Grit, which was great. 
Dog of the South has some interesting characters but seemed to make a big mistake in casting an ancillary character as the main character.  Basically, I wanted to beat the crap out everyone in this book for being so lame.  I just fundamentally didn't like anyone, mostly because they seemed more boring than anything.  I couldn't actively dislike anyone either.  They were just a bunch of kinda sad losers.  The writing is great and there are some genuinely funny moments, but I just didn't buy into it the way a lot of other people have.  The book actually reminded me a lot of Confederacy of Dunces in its revelry of people living at the margins of society, but without the stranglely lovable oaf at the center.  I really want to like this book better than I did as it has several elements that I tend to gravitate to.  But, for a character driven story, I just didn't like any of the characters.  In fact, they elicitied little more than apathy from me, though I found them well drawn and quite hysterical.

Book 20: Wonderful Wizard of Oz

What?  I didn't know that this was actually a book until several years ago.  And now I know why.  It's really not that great.  It's passable as a quick read and it certainly has some interesting elemants, but it's also got some odd diversions that add little to the story and not nearly enough of a few things.  The movie is so iconic at this point that I found it impossible to separate the movie version from the source.  And the movie is way way better.  In fact, I think the movie's superiority over the book exceeds any other adaptation I've seen.  This almost seems the opposite.  The movie isn't just better, it's far far superior.  I think these Oz books would have been largely forgotten if not for the movie.