Christina Widmann's Blog, page 23
March 5, 2019
Jim Butcher: Blood Rites
Dear Author,
I hoped we could get a good old criminal investigation again, like in book one. But The Dresden Files is still caught in a large story arc where the White Council of wizards is at war with the vampires. Harry Dresden is still chronically broke. His latest job is protecting a movie director from a curse (and finding out who cursed him). Dresden goes investigate at the set. It's porn.
In a different story line, black court vampires. Also, our wizard gets a puppy. And we find out more about his family backstory.
Another tight-packed novel that alternates tension with comic relief. You stay true to recipe: Each time we believe it can't possibly get any worse, it does. And then some. I'm looking forward to the next volume.
Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann de Fran
Blood Rites: Book Six of The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
published in 2004
ISBN: 0-4514-5987-3
Get your copy on Amazon.co.uk.
March 2, 2019
Jim Butcher: Death Masks
Dear Author,
Wizards and vampires are still at war. A vampire warlord wants to end it with a duel. He challenges Harry Dresden to single combat. A page later, a priest hires our wizard to find the stolen Shroud of Turin. And an eldritch monstrosity attacks him in a dark alley. It takes all three Knights of the Cross to save Harry Dresden from that. But it wasn't the only one of its kind in Chicago.
Mafia boss Marcone makes a few short appearances in Death Masks. We get to know Michael's two colleagues. And Susan comes back for a little fanservice. Another fast-paced book packed with chases, fights and witty remarks. But will this series return to good old criminal investigation some time?
An afterthought: If Ebenezar can do that, why isn't the war over yet?
Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann de Fran
Death Masks: A Novel of The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
published in 2003
ISBN: 0-4514-5940-7
Get your copy on Amazon.co.uk.
Ian McEwan: Atonement
Dear Author,
I guess Atonement is a book that depends on the mood of the reader. One must sit down cozy and let you tell a slow-paced story where one day takes up half the book. Misunderstandings, together with a future writer's imagination, destroy a man's future. His lover leaves her family, becomes a nurse and waits for him to come back, first from prison, then from the war. And the little girl, grown old, writes them the happy ending they deserved: a version where she takes back her erroneous testimony so he can be acquitted and they can be together. The truth, she admits, was different.
You take your time to explore all the parts of a family: siblings, parents, cousins who are staying while their own parents are getting divorced. You take your time to show how Robbie and Cecilia notice that their childhood friendship has changed into something different. You take your time to show all that Briony saw and misunderstood.
A slow tale and a sad one, of a mistake that couldn't be set right, of a futile attempt to change the past. A slow, sad song. One must be in the mood for it. Then it is sweet, bittersweet with an ending to let tears flow.
Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann de Fran
Atonement by Ian McEwan
first published in 2001
ISBN: 0-224-06252-2
Get your copy on Amazon.co.uk.
February 26, 2019
Jim Butcher: Summer Knight
Dear Author,
The vampires are at war with the wizards. At the beginning of Summer Knight, Harry Dresden must attend a meeting of the White Council. Dresscode: robes. Dresden wears a striped flanell bathrobe. The wizards hold their meeting in latin. Dresden speaks latin. Or so he thought.
"Well. First you said, 'I am a sorry excuse, Merlin, a sad long day held me. I need me a different laundress.' " I blinked. "What?" "That's what the Merlin said. Then you said 'Excuses to you for my being dressed and I also make lately.' "
My husband came in and asked what had me laughing so loud. After the comic scene, however, it gets dire. In this book, Harry Dresden is up against both Faerie courts. He has to investigate a murder that looks like an accident to the police. Somebody from his past comes back - to help? To betray our hero again? And all the while, assassins come jumping him in the supermarket.
The wizard is in more danger than ever, but he finally changed his inner monologue. A great volume in a good series.
Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann de Fran
Summer Knight: Book Four of The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
first published in 2002 with Penguin
ISBN: 0-4514-5892-3
Get your copy on Amazon.co.uk.
February 25, 2019
Jim Butcher: Grave Peril
Dear Author,
The binge read continues. This time Harry Dresden faces ghosts and vampires and his evil fairy godmother. He has help: Michael, a knight with a big sharp magic sword. His power comes from faith. And he tells Harry not to swear. Hell's bells.
The police make their appearance, but we don't see Marcone in this book. Bianca the vampire queen doesn't have his stye. I hope the mafioso comes back further down the series.
Dresden's inner dialogue is getting on my nerves. He's in over his head almost from page one. He's always at the end of his power, except there always seems to be enough left to do some impressive magic. Makes me want to shake him and tell him to stop whining already. Apart from that, I like the series.
Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann de Fran
Grave Peril: Book Three of The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
first published in 2001 with Penguin
ISBN:
Get your copy onAmazon.co.uk.
Jim Butcher: Fool Moon
Dear Author,
I liked Harry Dresden in Storm Front. Book two is more of the same: a murder investigation with supernatural suspects. This time, the victims were torn apart by something that forensics identifies as not quite a wolf or dog. A werewolf? Werevolves. Bob the skull tells us that four kinds exist. And we get to meet them all. Full score for research.
Harry Dresden trades witty remarks with our favourite villain, Gentleman Johnny Marcone, and has a serious communication problem with our favourite ally, Karrin Murphy. The four kinds of werewolves are more than he can handle, and soon his inner monologue is the same as in book one: "I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm so dead - wait, I can still..." It gets old. And we know he needs to be alive for the next volume. I hope there's something new in book three. I still like Harry Dresden after Fool Moon, but I'm afraid the series might get boring.
Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann de Fran
Fool Moon: A Novel of The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
first published in 2001 with Penguin
ISBN: 0-4514-5812-5
Get your copy on Amazon.co.uk.
February 21, 2019
Jim Butcher: Storm Front
Dear Author,
The Dresden Files get mentioned on TVTropes a lot. That's what made me have a look at the series. I like what I saw.
Storm Front doesn't start at the beginning of Harry Dresden's career as a wizard for hire. You hint at quite some backstory. But this book is about a murder mistery: The police have two victims in a hotel room full of blood. No ordinary weapon can make someone's heart explode out through the ribcage, so Special Investigations calls in the resident wizard. The resident crime lord, on the other hand, tries to bribe Dresden out of the case. And then there's Monica who wants the wizard to find her missing husband. This, too, must connect into the case, because if not, why would it be in the book?
Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden intrigues me. He's MacGyver with magic spells. His inner monologue for most of the book goes: "I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm so dead - wait, I can ..."
Dialogue consists of badass boasts, quick quips and not-so-innocent innuendo. All in all, an appealing mix. I'm going to read the sequel, Fool Moon.
Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann
Storm Front: Book One of The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
published in 2000 with Penguin Books
ISBN: 0-4514-6197-5
Get your copy on Amazon.co.uk.
February 14, 2019
Vernehmungsfähige Fische
Screenshot von der Arbeit. Der Verschreiber war zu schön, um ihn spurlos zu löschen.
Leigh Bardugo: Siege and Storm
The sign in the window advertised hot baths and tick-free beds in five different languages. Having sampled the bathtub and the bed, I knew the sign lied no matter how you translated it.
Dear Author,
What would ticks ever do in a bed? Ticks cling to grass or leaves. Did you mean bedbugs?
But never mind the missing research nor the bad translations into Russian. It's time you explained where Mal's abilities come from. In Shadow and Bone, it looks like he has a supernatural talent for tracking animals. It becomes even more supernatural in the prologue of Siege and Storm when he finds fish in the ever-waving sea that holds no track nor trace. All points to Mal being another unrecognized Grisha. He has the looks, too. And yet the Darkling says that Mal is ordinary, that he will grow old and die as fast as anybody else. And the Darkling would know whether or not somebody is a Grisha. Is there a second kind of magic in the Grishaverse? Ah, wait, the Darkling doesn't always recognize Grisha, at least not on sight. Which is strange since in book one you wrote that their beauty sets them apart in any crowd.
Why can't amplifiers be combined? Because it says so in the theory books in the palace library. And "so we don't get too powerful." That doesn't sound like a law of nature. It sounds like a law you made up to forestall a reader's question (If a Grisha can kill a bear and keep the claws to increase his own power, why doesn't he kill two bears? Or two dozen?). And the most powerful amplifiers in the Grishaverse do combine when you want them to.
How big is the sea whip? A whaling boat fighting a dragon gets more dramatic or less depending on the size of the monster. Is it as big as the boat, as big as a whale, as big as a mountain? Or is it just a scaly dolphin with a mane? You give little description. That was ok for the white stag because everybody knows what a stag looks like. But with the sea needle it's a disappointment.
“You certainly have a flare for the dire.”
Alina stays a pessimist. Even the characters have noticed how she finds a bad side to everything. (And you probably meant a flair.)
“What could I say? And when? I barely see you anymore.”
“I thought you wanted to go.”
“I wanted you to ask me to stay.”
After all they've been through, you'd think Mal and Alina would be mature beyond their age. Instead, they get childish and petty. Alina means to lead an army, but she grumbles like a third-grader over too much homework. And at the first opportunity, she slips away to a party. Maybe you meant to give her some endearing traits, but it just makes me wish she'd grow the hell up and Mal with her. Your Sun Summoner shows no initiative. You throw scenes and people at her like pebbles to make her move.
The potential love triangle from book one is gone. Instead, there comes a poor imitation of Captain Jack Sparrow and two princes who want to marry the Sun Summoner as a political alliance. Mal gets as jealous as we can expect from an immature, insecure Designated Love Interest.
The only character I like in this book is Nikolai, and he doesn't get enough pages to make up for the boring rest. I'm leaving after Chapter 19. The Shadow and Bone Trilogy is not worth my reading time.
Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann de Fran
Siege and Storm is book two of the Shadow and Bone Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo.
published in 2013 with Henry Holt and Company
ISBN: 9780805097115
Get your copy on Amazon.co.uk and visit the author on www.leighbardugo.com.
February 10, 2019
Leigh Bardugo: Shadow and Bone
Dear Author:
Here we are on our first trip into the Grishaverse where the towns have Slavic sounding names and people hang icons of the Saints on their walls. When the vampires got boring, Young Adult fiction turned to Russian mythology. Grisha, an abbreviation of the name Grigori, is your word for a wizard. The Grisha themselves don't use the word magic; they call it the Small Science.
All children are tested for Grisha powers. Those with a gift go to the capital where they train to serve the king in his Second Army. Alina, the main character, manages to suppress her power in the screening because she doesn't want to be separated from her only friend Mal. Mal has a gift, too: He is a hunter and tracker with abilities beyond natural talent or practice. How did he slip the net?
Baghra says the Darkling faked his death and came back to be his own successor. Several times. How did he fake his birth and childhood? Wouldn't it draw attention if Darklings only ever appeared as grown men? Who ruled in the intervals, when the Darkling was supposedly dead and hadn't yet risen to take back over? And what about Baghra: How did he get her to stay and train Grisha for him, knowing what she knows?
Despite these questions, I enjoyed the ride. My favourite character is the Apparat: Always whispering and smelling of graveyard. He's so cryptic and creepy he turns into comic relief. I hope to see him again in the second volume.
Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann de Fran
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
first published in 2012 with Henry Holt and Company
ISBN: 978-0-8050-9459-6
Get your copy on Amazon.co.uk or visit the author on www.leighbardugo.com.
