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Books 10-12
Jan. 23rd, 2010 05:31 pm10) The Graveyard Book: the latest thing for which Mr. Gaiman is being hailed, I found this enjoyable, but my main response to it was wanting to read the Jungle Book (how I managed to read Kim and Just So Stories without reading Jungle Book I am at a loss to explain). I don't know why, but I am finding much of Gaiman's work of late to be, well, boring. I can so clearly see where he is going before he gets there that nothing he's done since American Gods other than Coraline has really stuck with me, and American Gods is feels suspect in my memory - I was quite happy that I had figured out where he was was going with some mystery bits before he got there, but then it took him forever with many many more hints before he actually got there. Maybe I'm doing him a disservice, but I was sued to putting more work into his writing than I have to now.
11) World War Z: Max Brook's follow up to the Zombie Survival Guide, I found this realistic take on the Zombie Apocalypse to be gripping reading. It was much less gory than expected (since Zombie movies usually don't stint on the gore), and that was a good thing to my mind. It did not, however, make me want to run an All Flesh Must Be Eaten game, but rather got me thinking about pitching a "disparate ordinary souls fight the apocalypse" story where I start the characters all over the continent and spend the first half of the campaign weaving them together. Said apocalypse might be zombies, or might be aliens, or might be something else. I'm afraid that it would end up feeling much too much Tom Burton's _Mars Attacks!_, which is a little more tongue in cheek then I'd like.
12) The Cavalier in the Yellow Doublet: The fifth of Perez-Reverte's Captain Alatriste novels, I had thought originally that this was to be the last of the series - instead there are more coming. It was another jolly good yarn and excellent depiction of the Spanish Empire in decline. This series has a strong influence on my Emirikol game in the importance theater in the social milieu and the swordplay (if not the politicking and intrigue), so I am happy to hear that more are coming. It might even make a good novel example of beat structures in serial fiction. Hrm....
11) World War Z: Max Brook's follow up to the Zombie Survival Guide, I found this realistic take on the Zombie Apocalypse to be gripping reading. It was much less gory than expected (since Zombie movies usually don't stint on the gore), and that was a good thing to my mind. It did not, however, make me want to run an All Flesh Must Be Eaten game, but rather got me thinking about pitching a "disparate ordinary souls fight the apocalypse" story where I start the characters all over the continent and spend the first half of the campaign weaving them together. Said apocalypse might be zombies, or might be aliens, or might be something else. I'm afraid that it would end up feeling much too much Tom Burton's _Mars Attacks!_, which is a little more tongue in cheek then I'd like.
12) The Cavalier in the Yellow Doublet: The fifth of Perez-Reverte's Captain Alatriste novels, I had thought originally that this was to be the last of the series - instead there are more coming. It was another jolly good yarn and excellent depiction of the Spanish Empire in decline. This series has a strong influence on my Emirikol game in the importance theater in the social milieu and the swordplay (if not the politicking and intrigue), so I am happy to hear that more are coming. It might even make a good novel example of beat structures in serial fiction. Hrm....
