The Dresden Files are one of the best selling fantasy series on the market today, and as of a week ago I had avoided them at all costs. I did this because I was confident that I had already covered this niche in the genre. As a Glen Cook fan, I had read four of his Garrett PI series and that was more than enough for me. I figured that if I got bored of the way Cook covered detective in magical world, then Butcher didn't have a chance. Then my brother told me to give it a chance, so I did.
Title: Storm Front
Author: Jim Butcher
Format: Audio
Fun fact. I always assumed the name Butcher was pronounced with the French pronunciation, but it turns out that it's not. The benefits of audio.
Second fun fact. This is nothing like the Garrett PI series. The Garrett PI is a noir style detective who just happens to live in a magical fairyland. Storm Front, on other hand, takes places in our own world, albeit with magic and mystical creatures.
Harry Dresden is a wizard for hire. He even has an advertisement in the phonebook (the story is from 2000). The only problem is that this is the real world, where science can explain everything. Not only do few people have need of a magician, even fewer believe in magic. With his rent on the line, Harry is hired to find a shy woman's missing husband, and simultaneously contracted by the police to explain how two people's hearts exploded as though they were small bombs. Added to the mix is a street drug that can reveal the magic, some fairies, a vampress madam, and an air spirit trapped in a skull, and there are enough characters to keep everyone excited.
There are two main strengths to this story. The first of these is the world that Butcher creates. It is apparent from the first few pages that Butcher is not making things up as he goes along. He has a concrete plan of exactly who all his players are, many of which I'm sure we d not meet in this first book, and what their intentions are. This displays a mastery over the source material and Butcher's world that is rarely seen in writing. His world is different than ours, but in a well defined way, allowing the reader to suspend their disbelief and fall into the story.
The second and most important asset for the story is Harry Dresden. The story is told in first person, and so it is essential that we understand and empathize with our guide to the story. Butcher creates a wonderful balance of a character with great power, but also an inferiority complex. Dresden understands where he is on the magical food chain and that there are many things can end him. But as the book continues and we are able to watch our narrator instead of just listening to him, we see that an angry wizard is not a creature to be taken lightly. This allows Butcher to avoid cliches such as the overpowered superman while still allowing his readers to revel in badassery.
My main critique of the book would be that the world is actually too developed. There are many throw away references to other creatures or events that exist, but then nothing ever comes of it. We hear all about all sorts of creatures and the white council and "never never," but none of those are explored or developed (yet). It is a good tactic that leaves the readers wanting more and excited to continue the series, but it also leaves things a little unsatisfying.
Another problem: for such a complicated world, the plot itself was rather simple. I won't say too much, but it comes down to: there is a bad guy, he is very bad, and Harry is the only one able (for various reasons) to stop him. That summary is not quite doing the book credit, but the surprisingly banal story arc is excusable because the actions and characters are all fantastic.
The final problem: all the women are attractive. Very attractive. It's a little much.
I got nitpicky because I enjoyed the book. It was quick, only an eight hour audiobook, which is maybe 250 pages. Urban Fantasy fans should enjoy this, but wizard does not mean the same thing here as Harry Potter.
7/10
Showing posts with label vampires. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vampires. Show all posts
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Monster Hunter International
I listened to this book a few years ago, and noticed that the most recent book in the series had been getting some press. I was in between books, so I figured that I'd give it another listen.
Title: Monster Hunter International
Author: Larry Correia
Format: Audio
Time to Finish: 12 days
The book follows Owen Pitt, an accountant, whose boss transforms into a werewolf and attacks him. He barely survives the encounter and is recruited to join MHI, Monster Hunters International. They are a group of skilled monster hunters for hire. It turns out that monsters are not only real, there are a lot of them and there's good money to be made hunting them. The big enemies for this story is a powerful being known as the Cursed One, who has bent a number of master vampires to his will. It's up to a reluctant alliance between government monster hunters and MHI to stop him before he fulfills his prophecy to "breaks time" and ends the world.
Oof, this story does not hold up to a second reading. In all honesty, I only finished because I wanted an opportunity to write my first negative review.
That said, I actually gave some thought to why this book seemed terrible this time around and came to a few conclusions. The first is that this book is pure gun porn. Correia was a fire arms instructor before becoming an author, and I think it's safe to say he's a bit of a gun nut. This becomes apparent very early on with intimate, loving descriptions of every firearm imaginable. It's kind of cool at first, but for those who do not believe guns are man's greatest invention, the weapon worship becomes tiresome. The book would likely be forty pages shorter without that content.
The second thing I realized is that this the book equivalent of a B-movie. Not a good B-movie that borders on becoming a quality movie, just a story of simple characters doing very predictable things. As one would expect, it's chock full of corny lines and over the top action scenes, but there's very little substance or heart to the story. This didn't seem like a problem, especially as early on the book is a bit tongue in cheek about how ridiculous some of it is. Sadly, as the story progresses this self-effacing sense of humor disappears and all we're left with is a cheesy plot taking itself much too seriously.
Probably the worst aspect is the characters themselves. Rather than deep, meaningful individuals, none of them has any depth. Instead we are left with caricatures and mediocre ones at that. The women are beautiful the men are defined by one feature and the goodguy always gets the girl. We know all these things to be true, so there's no sense of risk or urgency at any point of the story.
Don't get me wrong, parts of the story were fun and enjoyable, those just didn't do close to enough to salvage the book.
4/10
Title: Monster Hunter International
Author: Larry Correia
Format: Audio
Time to Finish: 12 days
The book follows Owen Pitt, an accountant, whose boss transforms into a werewolf and attacks him. He barely survives the encounter and is recruited to join MHI, Monster Hunters International. They are a group of skilled monster hunters for hire. It turns out that monsters are not only real, there are a lot of them and there's good money to be made hunting them. The big enemies for this story is a powerful being known as the Cursed One, who has bent a number of master vampires to his will. It's up to a reluctant alliance between government monster hunters and MHI to stop him before he fulfills his prophecy to "breaks time" and ends the world.
Oof, this story does not hold up to a second reading. In all honesty, I only finished because I wanted an opportunity to write my first negative review.
That said, I actually gave some thought to why this book seemed terrible this time around and came to a few conclusions. The first is that this book is pure gun porn. Correia was a fire arms instructor before becoming an author, and I think it's safe to say he's a bit of a gun nut. This becomes apparent very early on with intimate, loving descriptions of every firearm imaginable. It's kind of cool at first, but for those who do not believe guns are man's greatest invention, the weapon worship becomes tiresome. The book would likely be forty pages shorter without that content.
The second thing I realized is that this the book equivalent of a B-movie. Not a good B-movie that borders on becoming a quality movie, just a story of simple characters doing very predictable things. As one would expect, it's chock full of corny lines and over the top action scenes, but there's very little substance or heart to the story. This didn't seem like a problem, especially as early on the book is a bit tongue in cheek about how ridiculous some of it is. Sadly, as the story progresses this self-effacing sense of humor disappears and all we're left with is a cheesy plot taking itself much too seriously.
Probably the worst aspect is the characters themselves. Rather than deep, meaningful individuals, none of them has any depth. Instead we are left with caricatures and mediocre ones at that. The women are beautiful the men are defined by one feature and the goodguy always gets the girl. We know all these things to be true, so there's no sense of risk or urgency at any point of the story.
Don't get me wrong, parts of the story were fun and enjoyable, those just didn't do close to enough to salvage the book.
4/10
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)