I’m late to the party with this, I know. This book/script came out over a month ago and everyone has already expressed their opinions on this. However, I needed some time to digest my thoughts on this book/script. I read it about a month ago and I think it’s high time I wrote my own thoughts down about it. So, let’s take a look. What exactly did I think about Harry Nutter and the Snot Nosed Brat…. Warning. Harsh language and fanboy anger ahead.
I’ve been wanting to make a series where I talk about my life for a while. The reason for this is twofold: 1) It gives those curious about my life some interesting information, and 2) I have a particularly awful memory so writing this stuff down will help me remember it better later. Basically, it’s a journal of my life experiences and things that made me the person I am today. But what to write about first? Some topics that came to mind: My experiences with bullying, my life as a child of divorce, my thoughts on romance and such. But no, those are all too heavy for my first entry into my life story. No, instead, let’s talk about something simple. Since it’s September and everyone is already talking about Halloween, let’s talk about something I love. Let’s talk about horror and, specifically, how I came to love it.
Time Travel, the plot line no Sci-Fi story has ever been able to get right in the history of time. Seriously, even the good time travel movies can’t keep their continuities straight. But, Stephen King is arguably one of the most influential writers of our generation. Surely, he can get it right… Right? This is 11/22/63.
Santa is supposed to be a man, just like any other man. Granted, he’s a magical man that can give presents to everyone in the world in one night, but he’s still a man nonetheless. Is it really so impossible to imagine him having a kid? Well, today’s story revolves around Santa’s rambunctious teenage daughter. This is Paul Dini’s Jingle Belle
Wouldn’t it be awesome to turn into any animal you wanted? To fly like an eagle? To swim like a fish? To run like a cheetah? It would be fun, sure. But what if those powers came with hefty price? What is that price? Stopping an invasion of mind controlling slugs. This is Animorphs.
Today’s book is a big blast from the past for me. It’s a book that I would often see in my school’s library but often didn’t have the courage to pick up and read myself. When I DID pick it up, all I would have to do is flip through it and see the strange, grotesque, disturbing pictures and I would put it right back down again. I considered it almost serendipitous when I discovered it cheap recently in a used book store. Upon seeing that infamous cover, I knew I just had to buy and read Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.
I don’t know much about the Oz stories. I’ve only ever seen the original hit classic, the kind of mediocre Oz: The Great and Powerful, and the AWESOME stage play Wicked. Still, one afternoon while browsing through a book store, I came across an interesting book: Dorothy Must Die. I was intrigued and, as I usually do with new authors, I decided to do research. It was in doing this research that I came across this prequel novella to the book, No Place Like Oz.
I’m a huge fan of the Urban Fantasy genre. The Dresden Files is one of my favorite series of all time… Wait… I feel like I’ve gone through this before. Oh yeah, it was part of my review of Syndicate by Lyle S. Tanner. If you recall, that was a set of short stories connected by the world that the author created. It was a gritty world full of magic, murder, and mystery. Well, that world is back in a new collection of short stories titled Backstreets.
WELCOME, FOOLISH MORTALS! It’s that time of year again. The sun is hot, people are flocking toward the beaches, and ice cream and soda pop are the foods of choice. You know what that means! Halloween in June is back, and this time, it’s out for blood. Or at least a paper cut…
I am a huge fan of the Urban Fantasy genre. The Dresden Files is one of my favorite series of all time. There’s just something about the mix of magic and mystery that intrigues me. Perhaps it’s because I love both magic stories and mystery stories. Putting the two together is a match made in heaven for me. It is because of my love of urban fantasy that I took a look at Syndicate: Tales from the Twisted Eden Sector by Lyle S. Tanner.
Syndicate isn’t really a novel in the traditional sense. Instead, it’s a collection of short stories brought together because of recurring themes, characters, and places. The stories, in one form or another, all revolve around the Syndicate. The Syndicate is a seemingly government run organization that deals in magic, both in protecting civilization from magical shenanigans and protecting the secrets of magic from the overall populace. Each story within this anthology deals with a different situation, while still seeming to follow a coherent narrative for the entire book.
You may remember that I’ve talked about this author before. Indeed, the short story I’ve talked about before from this author is the first short story presented in this anthology. The main draw of this book is the world in which these stories take place. The world and the atmosphere throughout the book are very gritty and magical. Honestly, I was reminded a lot of the Dresden Files in terms of this book’s atmosphere. The mix of the big city setting and dark magics behind closed doors felt very similar to those stories. Then again, this could be just a product of the book’s Urban Fantasy bend.
Despite the book having many different characters, each of them feels completely unique. Each story has its own voice ad personality, even down the the writing style of each story. I found it extremely creative and it felt like I was reading a book from a different author every time the book switched characters. From a purely technical standpoint, this book is fantastically written. Personally, my favorite characters were the Terror Twi… Uh… Di and Ezra. I felt like their characters were fantastic fun.
My biggest problem with the book had to do with its plot lines. That’s not to say that I didn’t like the plots of each story. In fact, I found them creative and, at many times, full of suspense. However, I feel that the characters sort of disappear once it seems like their stories are over. The stories lacked closure for me. One character is shot in the head and we never really found out why. If this is an ongoing series, I understand why the stories feel like they still need to be finished. However, as a stand alone book, this just felt jarring to me.
Despite that problem, this was a very good series of short stories. I would even call this a novel, as there definitely seems to be an undercurrent of a bigger story throughout all these smaller stories. If you like when magical stories take place in the big, dark city, you’ll definitely enjoy this. Until the next time, I’ll be eagerly waiting for the next series from this author. If only there was some sort of spell to make time go faster…
Richard's Weekly Journal 