Instant love! I like how it's so quietly subversive. And the story. And the art. But mainly how this is more or less a mainstream comic with so many t...moreInstant love! I like how it's so quietly subversive. And the story. And the art. But mainly how this is more or less a mainstream comic with so many things which are not following the conventions. I just hope it continues as good as it started.(less)
So this book gets two stars - and still belongs onto my favourites & recommendations shelf. It is, objectively, not a good book. Moorcock is not a...moreSo this book gets two stars - and still belongs onto my favourites & recommendations shelf. It is, objectively, not a good book. Moorcock is not always a good writer and these are among the first stories he has written - far away not only from the genius of "Behold the Man" (read it, really, read it!), but even from the fun of the later Elric stories (and the comics).
Yet ... This is where things start. This is where the Chaos symbol is seen for the first time, this is where Eternal Champion takes his first steps, this is where Sepiriz tells Elric "Meaning, Elric? Do not seek that, for madness lies in such a course.", this is where the Ph'oorn (dragons and perhaps more) first appear, this is ... These are stories which started the change, stories which inspired so many people, so many stories to come after them. If you want to go back and find out where it all started, you'll have to go back to here. Don't expect them to be good stories - they are pulp. Don't expect them to be consistent. Don't expect the language to shine. But if you are like me: expect them too touch you, to stir something in you, to settle down deep in your soul, in your reader's and writer's mind. Expect them to change you.
(And if you have childhood memories of them - oh, expect all the bittersweet memories. And so much thankfulness for having experiences them when you did not recognize pulp for pulp.)(less)
Oh Mazikeen. Her "I have a need to blaspheme" scene is just so perfectly her. Ellaine is right, she is surly and scary. And just wonderfully written.
B...moreOh Mazikeen. Her "I have a need to blaspheme" scene is just so perfectly her. Ellaine is right, she is surly and scary. And just wonderfully written.
But what really sold this volume to me is the story of Thole and Martin. So sweetly sad.(less)
As good on the second read as on the first. An absolute recommendation, even if you haven't read Sandman (but if you haven't: what are you waiting for...moreAs good on the second read as on the first. An absolute recommendation, even if you haven't read Sandman (but if you haven't: what are you waiting for?) and in spite of the slight misuse of Hamburg (but I've seen it done far worse too often).(less)
That one took far too long to read, but only because the book is so heavy and I was travelling far too much. Surprisingly, I also liked it more than t...moreThat one took far too long to read, but only because the book is so heavy and I was travelling far too much. Surprisingly, I also liked it more than the predecessor - surprisingly, because I'm not even half as invested in the main characters of this book as of "A Feast of Crows". Still, things seem to come together in this book, things happen and seem not to just move but to have a direction to their movement. This may still be an illusion, but one I like to adhere to while waiting years for the next book in series (and a resolution to what happens to Jaime).(less)
I just realized why I cannot get into this book: it's terribly Terry Pratchett-esque (even if told in a voice of its own), from the not-so-subtle refe...moreI just realized why I cannot get into this book: it's terribly Terry Pratchett-esque (even if told in a voice of its own), from the not-so-subtle references with a bit but not enough bite down to the footnotes, which take the form of authorial comments in Lukyanenko's book. And I already don't especially like Pratchett ;_;(less)
Mal wieder: mir fehlt da der Biss und ich werde nicht warm für die Figuren; die Bücher werden von einzelnen, wenn auch tollen, Einfälle getragen, und...moreMal wieder: mir fehlt da der Biss und ich werde nicht warm für die Figuren; die Bücher werden von einzelnen, wenn auch tollen, Einfälle getragen, und das ist einfach nicht genug. Und dann sind natürlich die Ungereimtheiten Ungereimtheiten: in dem vorherigen Buch hassen sich Trolle und Zwerge bis auf den Tod, und jetzt arbeiten sie so ganz ohne Probleme zusammen? Von einer gewissen Inkonsistenz der Foigurenbeschreibung mal ganz abgesehen. Und schon wieder Dibbler? Das wird langsam langweilig und eine ähnliche Story gab es schon in "Making Pictures" ... Nunja, die Hörbücher bleiben nett, so nebenbei beim Sticken.(less)
I was so looking forward to the book, because Steven Harper's Silent Empire series is among my favourite books ever. Well ... I was disappointed. The...moreI was so looking forward to the book, because Steven Harper's Silent Empire series is among my favourite books ever. Well ... I was disappointed. The story is a wild mixture of things which don't really fit together, full of deus ex machina moments and plot holes which are more like plot canyons than actual holes and of little inconsistencies which make you constantly stumble (like: p.42 tells you, that perhaps on in a one hundred thousand of plague victims become a clockworker and clockworkers live for perhaps a yeas - so how comes that there are so many clockworkers in England? Or how do the poor survive to adulthood, if it's so easy to get the plague?). The characters are not believable. And I have a lot of trouble saying whether it is science fiction or fantasy. It pretends to hard to be science fiction and not fantasy (nothing against fantasy! it has it's own internal rules, but they are not the same as for science fiction) and in the end comes over as a badly done impostor. In short: go read Silent Empire and forget about this one.(less)
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