Ryan read and liked Ren the Unclean's review of Watchmen:

"I had read this before, but decided to go through it again before the movie hits. My opinion now is about the same as it was before, in that I think this book is just good, rather than mind blowing and amazing as it is often described. It is defini...more I had read this before, but decided to go through it again before the movie hits. My opinion now is about the same as it was before, in that I think this book is just good, rather than mind blowing and amazing as it is often described. It is definitely worth reading, but not for the reasons I expected going in.

Characters in Watchmen are sort of hit or miss for me. Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan are both very interesting characters who are very well written. Moore does a good job of getting into their motivations and by the end you really understand the characters. Most of the other characters in the book are fairly uninteresting and underdeveloped. Night Owl and the Silk Specter are good examples. They do things to move the story along, but are just fairly generic comic characters. There are also a number of times when characters do things that either don't make sense or are not, in my opinion, sufficiently motivated. Like when Night Owl stands idly by as Rorschach casually tortures people in a bar. This seemed fairly out of character (for Night Owl) to me.

The plot of the Watchmen is essentially throw away, which is fine. It is more of a backdrop for the real goal of the book, which is to explore how costumed and super powered vigilantes would actually function and interact within a world like this one. This is mildly interesting, but in the end I just sort of don't care. Sure, war is bad, the individuality of human life is important, not everyone is what they seem, but most of the social issues Moore is trying to explore have been explored in better, more engrossing ways in other works.

The presentation in this book is probably the most impressive part. Almost everything in every panel has a purpose and helps drive the story along. The things that seemed inconsequential when I first read this definitely had more meaning this time. There are not that many artists and writers that put this much attention into how exactly they are telling the story and what the medium of comics allows them to do. The problem comes when it turns into less of a comic and more of a novel.
There are times when Moore has super long exposition that seem unnecessary or poorly done to me. For example, the second Mars section of the book is just long winded prose with pictures behind it. This is in contrast to the rest of the book, where the art is used to further the story. I get that Moore is trying to say something about humanity's possible future, but the rest of the book does so well with a combination of art and dialog, why can't this section? The 3-4 page solid walls of text between each issue also detract from the book in the same way. They are glaring examples of the fact Moore is a good comic writer but not a good novelist. They only served to take me out of the story, even though they explained a lot of the background for the characters. This would probably have been better if it was done in the context of the comic book as flash backs or whatever.

Maybe I missed something that would completely change my mind about Watchmen, but I doubt it. This book is worth reading because it has many examples of the comics medium used to great effect, but it is most definitely not without fault. (less) "

Ryan read and liked Eric's review of A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1):

"Ahh, just when Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series had lost its way, along comes this guy. He too has crafted a large world and story, if not so large as Jordan's, but it's grittier. The compelling thing about these books that jumps out fairly early...more Ahh, just when Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series had lost its way, along comes this guy. He too has crafted a large world and story, if not so large as Jordan's, but it's grittier. The compelling thing about these books that jumps out fairly early on is that the author kills good guys! It's unexpected each time - - you're like OHHH! - but after a while you try not to get too attached to the good guy du jour because you know his odds can't be good.

I love these books. Like Jordan's they mix war, politics, history, mystery, intrigue, comedy, culture, betrayal, rustic life, courtly life, heraldry, ocean-going life, food porn, and more, but Martin adds in more whores and sex and taboos and body functions and gruesome death. And more funny. He really does his homework, so the world is a mix of really authentic-sounding medieval feudal/aristocratic society mixed with a sort of buried-but-reemerging magic system. There are all sorts of wonderful little nuggets of backstory sprinkled throughout and referred to just casually enough to tempt and tantalize you into wanting to know more, so much so that you go online and try to hunt down clues and get other people's theories about what's going to happen. Get your nerd on.

There is one major subplot I could do without, involving the wandering exiled daughter of a deposed king, but it is unfortunately pretty well central to the whole plot, or will be in future books when she comes home. That's really the only weak point. The rest is great. I eagerly anticipate the next book.(less) "

Ryan read and liked Eric's review of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell:

"I so wanted to like this book. The idea is just wonderful. I was so pleased for a while to be in that world, a historical England. I love the dialogue and descriptions. And I love the idea of magic in an otherwise real setting, as though it were a n...more I so wanted to like this book. The idea is just wonderful. I was so pleased for a while to be in that world, a historical England. I love the dialogue and descriptions. And I love the idea of magic in an otherwise real setting, as though it were a normal part of our actual world. But it was so frustrating to read after a while. The footnotes, auuuugh, the footnotes. They were cute at first, because the book is written sort of like a history book from that period. But after a while they were just so long and so unrelated to the main story that they became seriously cumbersome. And just when the story would be getting involved, she'd fast forward 2 years or 10 years and the last part of the story, though unresolved, would be pretty much forgotten. Boooo!

The end was annoying, or rather the way the main characters reacted to it. It's fiction, it's fantasy, but when you're writing about basic human beings who have otherwise behaved consistently throughout the book, and then they react to something in a way you know isn't consistent and isn't how people would act, it pops the bubble of your suspended disbelief and sort of ruins the story. Another annoying thing is that we keep waiting to learn more about why Mr. Norrell acts the way he does, but we never do learn. He's just a pill and that's it. That's poor writing, No motivations for him, no insight into his character. So really he just serves a function in the book that could have been served by an inanimate object.

Overall the book is just filled with too many things that seem to have no point. It's not that they aren't interesting by themselves or couldn't have been made into something wonderful, it's just that they are tossed out there randomly and not connected to anything. In that way, the cold, dispassionate history book style disappoints, because what we really want is a story. We want to care about the characters and see resolution of some kind. Booo!

There will apparently be more books set in this world, but I won't be reading them. It's just too much of a time investment in a seemingly great idea that doesn't pay off.(less) "