Oh, so that’s what the Graveyard Book is about!

I didn’t realize that the Graveyard Book was Neil Gaiman’s version of the Jungle Book (only in a graveyard!) until the afterwards. Which is particularly funny since I found myself thinking that The Witch’s Headstone followed the structure of The King’s Ankus. (Yes, I’ve read the Second Jungle Book)

The Graveyard Book won lots of awards, even by Neil Gaiman standards. However, it somehow went over my head when it came out. Life has a way back of being complicated that way :P

I just finished the book up and I have a feeling that, as time goes by, I’m going to like and appreciate the book more and more. Rereading it knowing that it is a tribute to Kipling will probably really help. I might reread the two Jungle Books and then reread the Graveyard Book.

At the end of the book, I really wanted and didn’t want a sequel. (Although I understand The Ocean At The End Of the Lane shares a setting so that might count in some ways :P) Part of me wanted to know what happens next to Nob and more about all the mysterious and apparently epic stuff that happened off-screen. On the other hand, I think that would weaken the work a lot. Sometimes, what we don’t know makes us treasure what we do know.

When I was actually reading the book, I amused and I enjoyed myself. However, I didn’t find myself thinking that it was one of Gaiman’s greats. But, looking back, looking at the ways he subverted my expectations and restrained himself to keep the mystery alive, I think it is.

Yeah, this will get reread.

I wish there had been five Chase Magnus books

I hadn’t actually planned on reading the Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard trilogy right off the bat this year but I ended up doing it anyway.

I’ve now read four of Rick Riordan’s mythology series (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Kane Chronicles, The Heroes of Olympus and now Magnus Chase, plus some of the supplemental works) and I have to say that, if our son likes fantasy, he’s growing up at a great time. (Harry Potter is going to come first, though. Priorities)

And, yes, I clearly am having a lot of fun reading his books :D 

Magnus Chase was fun, although I still feel that the Heroes of Olympus is the strongest series (to be fair, it had a whole other series to help develop it before hand) It definitely isn’t a good place to start reading Riordan, since it has a lot of references to the Greek/Roman books, Annabeth from those books is Magnus’s cousin (which we learn right off the bat so I’m not spoiling anything)

I’m not going to go into the plot or spoil anything. The books fit Riordan’s formula of mixing the silly and dramatic with a road trip plot. (What is nice about his road trip plots is that everything ties together. There are no scene just thrown in and never referenced again) You know, it works and it works well.

Instead, I want to commit on how Riordan handles power creep and what I felt was the biggest flaw with the Magnus Chase books.

In Riordan’s universe, Percy Jackson is established as just about the most powerful demigod. But as new books come out and new protagonists are introduced... Percy is still the top of the heap. I found that interesting. I feel like Riordan makes a real point of creating contrasting characters.

Magnus, part of the dark and brutal Norse pantheon, is technically the wimpiest protagonist so far. In that he’s a worse fighter than Percy or Carter or Sadie or Jason etc. However, he has his own strengths with healing and insight and being just darn cunning. He’s a trickster hero.

(Also, to be fair, while Percy is the most powerful as far as beating stuff up, he’s also the densest of the heroes. Which is kind of necessary plot wise, since it means people have to explain stuff to him and the audience. It also makes him work well as a tool to Annabeth. He’s the Superman to her Batman)

While I really had a lot of fun with Magnus Chase, it has this major issue for me. Too many characters. By my count, there are eight characters who have meaningful character arcs and that’s just too many for three books. Some of those arcs just felt crammed in, leaving me wanting more. 

Admittedly, Riordan really left a lot of sequel hooks dangling so I won’t be surprised if we see these characters in future novels. There’s definitely more room the characters to grow.

Of course, he is also working on a third Greek/Roman series. And I would like to see more about Egypt and the Kanes. And, you know, an Aztec series would be fun...

Riordan is just a lot of fun to read. And I appreciate how he respectfully included LGBT characters (slight spoiler, very much so in the Magnus Chase books) since he knows he has young LGBT readers.

Actually, I have to comment on this. He has Magnus familiar with LGBT kids because he was homeless for two years. And that is truth is fiction. There’s a lot of homeless LGBT kids out there in real life.

Ultimately, my problem with Magnus Chase is I wanted more. So, I'm glad Riordan is still pretty young.

Pausing in the middle of Sin de Jour

I just finished Idle Ingredients, the fourth book in the Sin de Jour series.

I would have never even heard of the series, let alone started reading it, if Howard Tayler hadn’t recommended it on his Schlock Mercenary site. His recommendations get some extra grains of salt.

The elevator pitch is that the series is about a catering company that specializes in events for the supernatural community. However, the books are not nearly as wacky or as whimsical as that might imply.

The catering company works for the government and we are definitely looking at a Cancer Man-style government. One of their primary clients are literally demons from Hell and damnation is definitely a driving theme of the series.

Spoilers

Spoilers

Spoilers

I bought the first three books as a bundle so I knew I was getting into to at least read those books. The first book felt a little strained but it had a fair bit of world building to do. The second book involved a wedding party turning into rape lizards being treated as a spot of good fun, which I found distasteful. At that point, I was not sold on the series.

Until the epilogue of the second book, which I hadn’t cared for. The government liaison slices the head chef’s throat and sends his soul to Hell to show him that the government isn’t happy with him. In hat one scene, I felt like the series finally found its voice. It’s dark voice but it’s a clear voice. And with that, I was sold on reading the rest of the Sin de Jour books.

I have learned that there will be seven books, one for every deadly sin. And I’m not surprised after the third and fourth book, that this isn’t an ongoing series but a story with a definite end. Indeed, I won’t be surprised if not every character lives to the end. Actually, I won’t be surprised if it ends in a blood bath.

I’m lucky I bought the first three books as a bundle. That committed me long enough to get to the good stuff.

Roger Zelanzy’s Alien Speedway, a series that went off the track

I just finished Roger Zelazny’s Alien Speedway Trillogy, which wasn’t actually written by Roger Zelazny. He wrote the same introductions but I don’t know how much he had to do with the setting or plots.! It’s sort of been on my radar for years since, well, Roger Zelazny. But I never really heard anything about it, one way or the other. It apparently made that little an impact. But I finally got around to reading it.

And, to be honest, what I read justified their non-impact.

In short, it’s about how Mike, an orphan from Earth, breaks into the space racing world. 

The whole racing setup is kind of weird. The racers fly around in spaceships but not in space. Instead, they race in what are basically  hyperspace tubes built around a solar system at near light speeds. 

It feels too small and too big at the same time. On the one hand, spaceships flying in tubes seems so confining. I mean, they’re spaceships. On the other hand, the speeds they are going at are kind of insane. Particularly since the ships sometimes scrape against each other without destroying each other instantly.

I know the whole point of the exercise is to have car racing in space with all the fighting over lanes and drifting in turns and such. But the extent the writers had to go to justify that messes with my suspension of disbelief. And that’s kind of impressive.

The first book was written by Jeffrey A. Carver and the second two books were written by Thomas Wylde. And there’s a serious disconnect between their styles. The first book is basically your underdog sports story where the unknown rookie manages to prove that he has the hidden talent to be a star. The second two books are practically noir, with the characters suddenly flawed and desperate with lots of crime and corruption. 

I got the impression that the series was supposed to last longer than three books but got canceled. The last book feels like they crammed at least two books worth of plot into it. One supporting character drops into self-destruction without any warning. Alien artifacts almost unmentioned become major plot points and revise the setting. A dead character comes back, albeit in a well-justified way. A big bad in the form of a crime boss is suddenly introduced. If nothing else, it was a wild ride to end the series.

I found myself comparing the series to another series that came out around the same time, Isaac Asimov’s Robot City. Another series that wasn’t written by the guy who’s name was the biggest on the cover. Those books had clunky writing but the overall plot held together. In comparison, Alien Speedway had better writing but the plot was all over the place. The Robot City books ran their whole course and even got a sequel, basically because they were much better edited.

There were good parts in the books. However, even the two books written by Thomas Wilde felt they were written for different series. Add to that the fact that the space ship racing seemed so contrived and you end up with a series of books where the most memorable thing is Roger Zelanzy’s name on the cover.

Roll and move rears its ugly head

My son got a copy of 'If You Give A Mouse A Cookie' at the Tucson Festival of Books that came with a tear out board game. And, even though I knew better, I thought that was cool.

And, of course, it was a roll and move (surprise!)

(And, for the record, I know it was the version of Mouse that was in Happy Meals a while back. I was happy, from a parent-viewpoint, that it did have the original text and pictures)

And if you don't know what I'm talking about, you actually do. I talking about games where you roll dice and move that many spaces on a track. No choices or decisions. Just blindly obey the dice.

Roll and move is the bane of gamers. I know some people will argue that themed Monopoly or the Chick Tract Dark Dungeons is the bane of gamers everywhere but it's really roll and move.

In particular, I blame of the Game of Goose. 

It didn't invent roll and move. Oh no. Roll and move has been around thousands of years with games like Backgammon or Parcheesi. But those games give you multiple pawns so you do have real choices. Backgammon even lets you move multiple pawns in a turn so it goes from being mindless to really deep.

And I'm pretty sure the Game of Goose didn't even invent just having one pawn and no choices. (Oh, wouldn't that be Snakes and Ladders?) But it definitely helped popularize the idea and has been spreading the idea around since 1590. And it started out as a gambling game, not a game for kiddies :0

Of course, it has become the standard format for any cheap kids game, particularly one with some cartoon character slapped in it for theme. I've heard that it has gotten better in recent years and I'll be finding that out in a few years when my son gets older.

But, seriously, even Candy Land also teaches kids colors and how to stack a deck of cards. The best roll and move teaches is counting, taking turns and that life isn't fair. Frankly, roll and move is going to teach kids that games are boring and need to be avoided.

Of course, in this case, I still get to read my son 'If You Give A Mouse A Cookie'

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_of_the_Goose

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_You_Give_a_Mouse_a_Cookie

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2397/backgammon

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2785/game-goose