The Magicians by Lev Grossman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is interesting, because it could have been awesome. Don't get me wrong, it's a good book, but I can't help thinking that if only the author had taken another turn somewhere, it would be a more poignant meditation on the dangers of growing up and imaginary worlds. As it is, it was great up to the third part, in which it kind of jumps the shark, and when the character is given a way out of the madness he's in, and it seems he has gotten over his childhood fantasy worldview which has brought him only despair, the author makes him forget all of that and jump right in the fray again. Which kinda undermines all the character work he did before. I haven't read the sequel yet, but it seems the author did a disservice to his own work by trying to turn it into a saga, and thus robbing this book of the emotional resonance it could have had. I would rather he had turned this into the best novel it could be, instead of a good novel that sets up even more stuff.

Also, the whole Fillory-as-Narnia is so overdone that it's kinda ridiculous. The magic element is played more or less straight for most of the book, and then WHAM! off to fairy-tale land we go. It doesn't work seamlessly.

All in all, I wish we had gotten to see more of Quentin's life as an adult magician out and about in the world, or taken a different direction at the end. There seemed to be a lot of story to mine from the setting the author created, so running off to Fillory seemed a waste of a good groundwork.

I'll go ahead and read the sequel and see if my opinion is tempered by a new perspective on the saga. Don't get me wrong, this is a good book and you should read it if you like fantasy, but it could have been a great literary work and not just "book 1" in what appears to be an attempt at a "Harry Potter for grownups".

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Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a wonderful book and one of those few cases in which I was sure I was going to love it even before reading one page.

The amalgam of genres is interesting in itself, but most of all, Clarke manages to make the whole reading consistently entertaining through her tone, which is delightful and funny. It exudes englishness in the manner of Conan Doyle most of all, I think, though it winks and nods at many other authors.

The mythology she sets up is well thought out and interesting in itself. The footnotes are well used and illuminating, and are often the better parts of the chapter they're in.

I also liked that though I knew where the story was going, there are a few twists and turns and things left completely in the dark that I didn't mind at all because the road to getting there was so enjoyable.

Alas, the bad thing about it is that I now long for more books in this vein, and for a more full mythology to be built up from this. The Raven King has got to be one of the more interesting additions to fictional English history that I know of, and would love to read a book about his exploits since his presence is so big and prevalent in this one that it makes one think of him as the unseen third protagonist of the book.


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The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Just when you think you've got it figured out, Brandon pushes one more curtain and reveals a twist or a secret that has been percolating since the first book. His world-building is awesome because of this same reason, because he'll probably keep digging into the same mythology of half-truths he built on the first book. That's why his books seem so organic. Most writers seem to juggle a lot of things and it's harder for them to keep up the tension in sequels to successful books. Not this man, he had it all figured out.
As a fellow author, I'm impressed. Even though this one isn't as good as the first book, in many respects (mainly because the first one reads as a great caper and has more tension), this one didn't have any less of an emotional punch.
I'm anxious to see how he caps it off with the third book, and I've already bought "The Alloy of Law" because I'm addicted by now.

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Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Mistborn is a great book. I read "The Way of Kings" (a later book by Brandon Sanderson) first and I could see the resemblances: impressive world-building and a magic system that is a "plot system" itself.

It's a great read, with no jarring passages, intense action and though some things were predictable, there were still a few twists I didn't see coming.

As a fellow fantasy writer, hat's off to Sanderson's skills.

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Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is full of marvelous phrases. You could quote it forever. But the thing that stands out most of this quite-short book, is the voice of the narrator. Vonnegut shrewdly stands aside from the main narrative, even though ostensibly this is based on his experience of being a POW and the bombing of Dresden. But he just appears at the beginning and the end, kind of framing the narrative in which he uses an absurd character as his protagonist, only implying here and there that he, too, was standing next to him and living much of the same experiences.
The amazing thing is how he manages to make such an anti-war manifesto from a narrative that is so humane and touching, without feeling sorry for himself or pontifying. He uses the absurd to remark on the absurdity of it all, and focuses on both awful and beautiful moments to make it all the more poignant.
Another high point is his use of flashbacks and flashforwards as an actual plot point, making his character go back and forth in time, illuminating different aspects of his story so as not to focus solely on 'the bad parts'.
It's a solid, solid little book, one which leaves you thinking and feeling different while establishing a voice that makes it a very personal affair.

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