Book Review: The Neverending Story

I am shocked and appalled, but it appears that THE NEVERENDING STORY has joined my very short list of movies that outdid the books.

The book covers two linked but different plots: Atreyu's quest to find Bastian to give the Empress a new name, and Bastian's quest to rebuild Fantasia then find his way home. Unfortunately, Atreyu doesn't do much besides wander around, get into trouble, and get rescued; specific incidents are much less dramatic in the book than in the movie. Bastian, while he acts much more than Atreyu does, makes himself a nonsympathetic character so quickly and for so long that by the time he's redeemed at the end of the book, I didn't think he deserved it.

I truly hope that most of the trouble is with the translation and not with the writing.

2/5

New TV

It's that time again: time to peruse the programming lists, scream incoherently at the networks for scheduling things opposite each other or moving things to the Friday Night Death Slot, and begin programming the DVR. Here's the stuff I plan to watch (most likely a few days after it actually airs; thanks a lot, school) this fall:

Shit My Dad Says
Castle
Fringe
House
No Ordinary Family
Supernatural
The Walking Dead
Glee

I'm giving the new series--Shit My Dad Says, No Ordinary Family, and The Walking Dead--at least a three-episode shot.

I've been doing a lot of paring down in my life lately. My blogroll has gotten a lot smaller, I'm taking a break (possibly a permanent one) from playing games on Facebook, and I'm not frequenting as many forums as I used to. Hopefully this will help my time management so I can get my homework under control. If nothing else, this PhD thing is showing me what is really important in my life and what isn't. The same goes for the TV shows. I just asked W.E. (who's catching up on his shows right now) to go ahead and delete my recordings of The Gates, because I'm 7 or 8 episodes behind and not interested enough to sit down and watch that for 6 or so hours.

Having said that, I'm going to go work on my homework and hope the Excedrin I took to help the pain in my mouth (had 2 more root canals yesterday. Apparently I have extra canals in ALL of my teeth, which makes things take twice as long. A few weeks ago they did one of my molars and I had four canals instead of three. Yesterday they did two bicuspids and they had two each instead of one. Stupid teeth) kicks in soon.

Book Review: Dexter is Delicious

FTC Disclosure: Doubleday provided a free copy of this book for review.

In Dexter is Delicious, there is a definite sense that Lindsay has hit his stride with the character and the tone. After a shaky couple of books, this one shines in plot, characterization, and prose.

While the tone and style of this book is very similar to the previous books, the writing itself is higher quality, more polished, and funnier than the others. Dexter's odd sense of humor dominates the book, even when he's in the most sticky situation he's found himself in to date. I laugh ...more In Dexter is Delicious, there is a definite sense that Lindsay has hit his stride with the character and the tone. After a shaky couple of books, this one shines in plot, characterization, and prose.

While the tone and style of this book is very similar to the previous books, the writing itself is higher quality, more polished, and funnier than the others. Dexter's odd sense of humor dominates the book, even when he's in the most sticky situation he's found himself in to date. I laughed out loud during most of the first half of the book, before things got more serious, and constantly bugged my husband by reading chunks of the story to him--sometimes as much as a full page and a half, just to get the full set-up for a well-placed joke. Early on, Lindsay uses Dexter's quirky narration style in a new way as he contemplates giving up his life of murder and mayhem to become a family man and take care of his baby daughter.

The plot is nicely complicated, as well, giving us a more gruesome tale than the previous books managed. Every character is placed in the story for a purpose, and the loose ends are tied up in a nice but believable bow. Even when I expected a certain character's story to not wrap up in order to continue into the next book, that character managed to show up at the climax and make himself essential to said climax.

The characters, as usual, are believable and likable, even when they're not likable. Characterization is even stronger than in the previous books as we get to see different sides of characters rather than the same face we've seen in the last 4 novels.

This is easily my favorite of the Dexter novels so far, and I expect that Lindsay will continue to grow in his craft and provide us with even better stories in the future.

Two Down

"Talking to Dead People" has been rejected from Beneath Ceaseless Skies and The Absent Willow Review. Three left before I start submitting to the markets that don't accept simultaneous submissions.

Dexter Galley

Look what the nice Fed-Ex man brought me today:

That really small lettering under Dexter's butt? That says "Bound Galley - Not For Sale." So I may not have gotten a very advanced advance copy (the hardcover is on the shelves now), but I got a galley. So I'm still special.

Judging by the cover, I'd say we're going to deal with cannibals in this book. I can't wait.

In Which There is Yet More Giggling

W.E. and I went to Barnes & Noble tonight for our bi-weekly peek at what's on the shelves. He decided, in light of the lower prices and my looming preliminary exams and dissertation, that I needed one of these:



That's right. I has a Nook. BE VERY JEALOUS.

If It Makes Me Giggle for More than 15 Seconds. . . .

Look what came in the mail today!






Hehehehehehehehe.

"It's totally sonic! I am sonic-ed up!" -The 9th Doctor

Submissions by the Dozen

Okay, not dozen. Unfortunately, there aren't that many markets that accept simultaneous submissions. I sent "Slaymate" (now titled "Talking to Dead People") to Electric Spec, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Absent Willow Review, Alternative Coordinates, and Pedestal tonight. We'll see how this goes.

The ending was very difficult to nail down, and I finally ended up going back to a variation of the original, which a couple of people said sounded like the end of a chapter rather than a story. But there really was no other way that I could think of to end it without getting mushy, cheesy, or heading toward a bigger story than I wanted to tell. I'm also still not happy with the title, but anything's got to be better than "Slaymate," right?

Right?

Book Review: Fool Moon

In Fool Moon the reader can sense that Butcher is settling in to this new (to him) style of writing and becoming familiar with his protagonist and the world. There is a sense that he's spent hours figuring out the world and the characters, and there's always a bit more beneath the surface than we get to see, which keeps the intrigue moving from book to book instead of just throughout a single novel.

Butcher approaches werewolves in a slightly different way than I've seen before; each different word for a werewolf--hexenwulf, loup garou, etc.--denotes a different type of wolf, and he deals with four different types in this book. Dresden also wrestles with his responsibilities as a teacher, a mentor, a friend, and a consultant; how much is safe to tell any of the people in those relationships? What will happen if he doesn't tell them everything? Actions have clear and often devastating consequences, and Butcher does not shy away from them. This is not a happy book, but it is a good one.

4.5/5

Dexter is Delicious

Yesterday, I woke up to an awesome surprise. I've been entering for giveaways of ARCs at Goodreads and LibraryThing like a crazy person, putting in for anything that looked remotely interesting--and some things that didn't look interesting to me, but I thought friends or family might like. Every so often, a book I want so bad I can taste it comes up on the list. One of those is Robin McKinley's Pegasus (the drawing is tomorrow FINGERS CROSSED OMG), but another was Dexter is Delicious, the fifth book in the Dexter series. Seeing that book on the list is what made me realize Dexter by Design was out in paperback and I had BETTER GO GET IT, and of course I also put in for the ARC of Design.

So yesterday I check my e-mail and see that I have one from Goodreads saying Congratulations! Turns out, the very first book I win from one of those drawings is Dexter is Delicious.

I'm getting an advance copy of a Dexter book.

I win at life.

It's supposed to be here in a few weeks, at which point I will devour it and then review it so you all know you want to go get it, as well.