![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snugglekittyThis is a quick catch-up post on what I've been reading recently.
Just finished the new Jim Butcher book, Death Masks. I mentioned Jim Butcher in my "better than Blake" post a few weeks ago. I love his Harry Dresden books. They're hilarious. Film noir meets vampires, werewolves, Sidhe... The hero is very gritty, very believable. A sucker for damsels in distress, who much prefers running away to fighting. He also has a wisdom spirit named Bob who likes to read romance novels and go on sorority panty raids in a skull in his basement. He's always in trouble and always digging himself deeper in. Plus, he makes puns! Really, what more could you want? Oh, yeah - lots of books in the series!! Death Masks was book five.
The Apocalypse Door by James MacDonald only wanted to be like the Dresden Files. The premise was hilarious - modern-day Knights Templar done in a film noir style. Unfortunately, it never quite stepped out of the Catholicism box and was pretty stuck in Satan vs. God, good vs. evil thing. It didn't have quite enough twists and turns in it to be excellent, although I liked Sister Mary Magdalen of the Special Action Order of the Poor Clares a whole lot. Not to mention the evil mushrooms. There was a short story featuring these characters first, and I liked it better, but unfortunately, I can't seem to figure out what anthology it was in. All I remember is that I was reading it while we were visiting Jim's folks in Michigan.
I also re-read The Dark Is Rising, as I was mentioning last week. This was the first time I noticed the holes in the plot and the lack of real opposition to the good guys. The enemy just didn't seem to have any plan of their own, besides "foil the plan of the heroes!" even though they were supposed to be evil, and evil is ALWAYS up to something. It didn't stand up to the re-read as well as the Alanna books did earlier this year.
Just finished the new Jim Butcher book, Death Masks. I mentioned Jim Butcher in my "better than Blake" post a few weeks ago. I love his Harry Dresden books. They're hilarious. Film noir meets vampires, werewolves, Sidhe... The hero is very gritty, very believable. A sucker for damsels in distress, who much prefers running away to fighting. He also has a wisdom spirit named Bob who likes to read romance novels and go on sorority panty raids in a skull in his basement. He's always in trouble and always digging himself deeper in. Plus, he makes puns! Really, what more could you want? Oh, yeah - lots of books in the series!! Death Masks was book five.
The Apocalypse Door by James MacDonald only wanted to be like the Dresden Files. The premise was hilarious - modern-day Knights Templar done in a film noir style. Unfortunately, it never quite stepped out of the Catholicism box and was pretty stuck in Satan vs. God, good vs. evil thing. It didn't have quite enough twists and turns in it to be excellent, although I liked Sister Mary Magdalen of the Special Action Order of the Poor Clares a whole lot. Not to mention the evil mushrooms. There was a short story featuring these characters first, and I liked it better, but unfortunately, I can't seem to figure out what anthology it was in. All I remember is that I was reading it while we were visiting Jim's folks in Michigan.
I also re-read The Dark Is Rising, as I was mentioning last week. This was the first time I noticed the holes in the plot and the lack of real opposition to the good guys. The enemy just didn't seem to have any plan of their own, besides "foil the plan of the heroes!" even though they were supposed to be evil, and evil is ALWAYS up to something. It didn't stand up to the re-read as well as the Alanna books did earlier this year.
