Toys

James Patterson is, quite frankly, a glorified editor.  Let me explain.  You might have noticed that nearly every single book he writes is written by with a coauthor.  He has publicly stated that the coauthor write the first draft and he takes it from there.  This means that the entire story, including every major detail and most of the minor ones, is written by the coauthor, and James Patterson simply makes it look like his style.  I am writing a book.  I know how first drafts work.  Most of the information in a book will be conveyed in the first draft.  He does little more than spruce up (or down) a few details, italicize the important parts, and break the chapters into three pages apiece. 

Now, for James Patterson to have his name in big letters and Neil McMahon's name in letters that are a similar color to the rest of the cover, smaller, and near the bottom, one would think that he did a lot of editing of that first draft.  It should come out bursting with imaginative prose, subtle details, and all the other non-plot things that, though there in a first draft, really start to shine in later drafts in a book.  Not so.  It reads like, well, a first draft.  Details are nonexistant.  I wouldn't be surprised if James Patterson took out the details from Neil McMahon's first draft.  You're supposed to feel for some of the characters, especially the protagonist and Shana (Hey!  That's my name spelled differently!  Why'd you have to make her a slut?), and, I presume, get some real "evil" vibes from the Toyz company.  I certainly didn't.  This is a great book if you are used to flimsy worlds made of cardboard and need every point drilled into your head in blunt phrasing.  Otherwise, stay away. 

On an ending note, I just looked it up, and there is apparently a different cover available for Toys that says that James Bond and Jason Bourne have just been topped!  This is a falsehood.  I didn't put any quotes around this because there aren't any on the cover.  I presume the author himself said it.

This World we Live in

This World we Live in is an imaginative book with compelling imagery.  It may be only becaue I'm partial to dystopias, but I love this book.  The best part is when they find the man who'd been eaten partially by his dog.  The way Susan Beth Pfeffer tells it, you will never get that image out of your head -- which says a good thing for her writing, but it is not the most pleasant of images.

Stardust

Stardust seems not to have been written by human hand.  The words on the pages must have been originally forged by the creatures of Faerie, or even the stars in the sky, and simply dictated to Neil Gaiman.  The story has many interesting and original parts -- there is a boat that fishes lightning -- and seems to run on pure imagination and cause the reader to stop for wistful glances.  I would recommend this book.

Siddhartha

When you read Siddhartha, and you journey with the protagonist through a wild variety of lifestyles, it is unlikely that you will not find at least one part of Siddhartha's life that is not unlike your own.  Siddhartha is about a man who thinks he finds perfection in almost every chapter and seems to find it at the end -- but it makes me wonder if had there been more chapters, Siddhartha would have realized yet again that what he had thought was wisdom was really folly.  The English translation that I read had a quite poetic prose, saying several thoughts in a single sentence.  It was incredible to me that so many things could be expressed in a mere 157 pages.

The Metamorphosis

I've been wanting to read this one for a long time.  It's a book that I've heard much about, and I have before read its famous first line.  The Metamorphosis is beautiful and thought-provoking.  Even as he tries his hardest to make his ppresence better for his family, he becomes more and more something they would be happier without.  Shortly after his death, they happily buy a new apartment.  When he tries to keep his human nature, he doesthe things that disgust his family the most.  This dark tale s a must-read.

Pathfinder

 Pathfinder has its own special brand of logic.  In Pathfinder, things that do not happen influence things that do happen.  Umbo went back and warned Rigg.  Rigg changed his actions.  Umbo then decided that he actually now didn't need to go back in time, because something that had happened when the warning wasn't in place now didn't happen.  It was a bit confusing, but I got the feeling that it broke logic up a bit.  Besides that, it was very well written, with an original storyline and several original elements in said storyline.

The War of the Worlds

This book has been sitting around unread for a while, and I thought I'd finally give it some love.  The War of The Worlds is, even after decades of people writing about similar things, very original and imaginative.  Every paragraph is useful and memorable.  The imagery seems realistic and grand.  The decrease in humanity of everyone near the end is portrayed very well, and certainly much better than most modern books.  I love it.

Chuck Dugan is AWOL

Chuck Dugan is AWOL manages to be lighthearted, yet not blatantly comedic, throughout the whole book, eve in scenes of injury and gunfire. It's not often that you find a book like that. It suffered from every character being every other character -- if you meet somebody new in this book, there's a strong likelihood that they've been mentioned before. Other than that, however, it was a good book. It balances suspense and humor without overdoing either.

This was meant to be posted yesterday.  It did not get posted because of a glitch in the system.

Night

Night, in just over a hundred pages, manages to completely capture both darkness and optimism.  It is about a young Jewish boy taken to concentration camps during the Holocaust.  He is starved and beaten, and, at the very end, he watches his father die.  Night is made all the better by being an autobiography.  I do have a question though.  I mean no disrespect, but when they were starving within an inch of their life and people were dying of hunger consistently in the cattle cars, why did they not resort to cannibalism?  I mean no offense by this question; it just seems the logical thing to do in such a situation.  That minor detail aside, Night was an excellent book that gives a unique perspective on the most terrifying and horrible event in recent history.

Speak

Speak is about a girl who loses and then regains her desire to talk at all after becoming a rape victim.  She goes through high school like this.  I cried at one particulalry poignant scene, where her only friend deserts her to be with a more popular crowd.  There isn't much to really say about Speak, as reading it is really the only way to know about it, moreso than in many other books.

The Arkadians

This is a what could have been a quite complex and interesting story.  It was hampered by two things.  The biggest hindrance was the the writer.  Lloyd Alexander has a thing about the reader always knowing what the motivation of every character is for every action.  Now, that isn't that bad in itself.  An author could really have something like that either way.  It's how he shows each character's motivation that weakens the book: by speech.  Even in the most unlikely ties, the characters will say exactly why they, or in some cases, another character, is doing something.  They can also be quite fond of talking to themselves for the same reason.  The writing style itself also has a lot of room  for improvement, giving this little gem quite early on: "If I didn't know I was awake, I'd think I was asleep."

The second thing that makes this book bad is the ending.  The truly evil baddies are burned in an all-consuming flame.  Fronto, a donkey who takes the whole book up in his quest to be human, is also in that flame... but guess what?  The author stated earlier on that he could also turn back into a human by being burned.  So all is good for the good guys.  Can't have one of them harmed.  That would just be awful, wouldn't it.  There are no less than three mairrages arranged between prospective couples in the book in the last fifteen or so pages.  The almost evil guy who was only a victim of circumstance gets off easy, and the only good guy not mairred seems to be the I-can't-believe-it's-not-a-satyr kid, who is too young.  Honestly, can anything turn out better at the end?  Based on the rest of the book, the ending is completely unrealistic in how happy it is.  The second most ludicrous happy ending I've ever read, rivaled only by Eoin Colfer's Airman.  This book had a decent story, but it was by no means a good book.

Ishi

Ishi was the last of his kind.  What makes this so special is that this is non-fiction, and it shows the history and personality of the last of a Native American tribe.  Ishi went from stone age to the modern age overnight, and this wonderful book tells of both im and his tribe.

Brian's Winter

Brian's Winter, like most survival in the woods stories, is a string of lucky accidents that cause a kid to survive who would have been dead within days.  The whole thing would have been a lot more complicated, for example, had he not had that extremely accurate shot on that moose.  The prose, on the other hand, is excellent, and seems quite close to human thought without being hard to read.  Unfortunately, it doesn't really make up for the fact that he gets by mostly on luck.

M is for Magic

Neil Gaiman's book, M is for Magic is, like all short story collections, hit-or-miss.  However, it is mostly hit.  The Case of Four and Twenty Blackbirds was one of the misses.  Books with a serious or modern tone that use fairy-tale and nursery rhyme characters have been done before, and often.  This one used characters from far too many nursery rhymes to be a good read.  It was like reading the little stories at the back of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: a lot of references just thrown out there trying to sound cool or funny, but quite tedious for somebody who doesn't know every single one.  Troll Bridge was a masterpiece.  Though a tad vulgar, it conveyed a deep message.  It had a feel to it of taking place in a world many times richer and more soulful than our own.  Don't Ask Jack was unmemorable.  It had a plot that has been done by several authors several times, and Neil Gaiman's rendition of it didn't exactly knock me out of my seat.  In fact, though I read it only a few hours ago, I had to look it up to refresh my memory.  The plot of How to Sell the Ponti Bridge was fantastic and well-thought out.  The only problem was the frame story: the Rogue's Club could have been left out entirely and it would have made the story much better.  October in the Chair was fun.  This one had both a good frame story and good main stories.  Even though it was not the main attraction, I particularly enjoyed the small story about the airport security guard.  Chivalry was hilarious.  The little details about sir Galaad giving pony rides to the neighborhood children and how the apple felt to the old lady made the story all he better.  The premise was incredible and original as well.  The Price had an exciting premise, but it could have been told better.  It definitely should have been longer.  I think I'd have liked it more from the perspective of the cat.  I've read Gaiman's work before, and The Price has little of his way with details.  How to Talk to Girls at Parties was hilarious, though the main character's friend seemed unusually dark for a humorous story.  His rough way with girls was shocking from beginning to end.  I was fascinated by the girls' stories.  The story, though small, was bursting with ideas, as if Gaiman had hundreds of them and wanted to stuff in as many as he could, which was not a bad overall effect.  Sunbird was a good read.  It was better than the average short story, but was not a masterpiece for Gaiman.  The Witch's Headstone was beautifully written, and by the end, I still couldn't tell if the witch was good or bad.  Most of the elements were either completely made up or taken from mythologies that I am not familiar with, so it was wonderful to read something fresh that hadn't been done hundreds of times, like most books and short stories seem to be.  Instructions probably belonged in another book.  I don't know what to make of it.  I would review it similarly to The Case of Four and Twenty Blackbirds, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt by saying that it belongs in another book.

Abarat: Absolute Midnight

Hello.  My nme is Shannah McGill, and I read a book every day.  I've been reading a book every day for years.  This blog will review, every day, one book.  Enjoy!

Always remember before reading my review: I WILL put spoilers, if you were planning to read that book.

Today's book is Abarat: Absolute Midnight by Clive Barker.   I haven't picked up an Abarat book in a long time, so this one had to refresh me on all of the characters, settings, and problems of the last books.  It did so reasonably well, and without one of those "explanatory chapters" som series like to put at the beginning.  It also had none of the obvious "recap dialogue" which is another favorite of some authors.  What I love about the Abarat is the lack of werewolves.  Unfortunately, there are dragons, but those are pretty much the only creatures that have been thought of before.  Most books seem to love to use magical creatures that have already been invented centuries ago and are extremely overused.  The Abarat, on the other hand, has geshrats, orange humanoids with large flaps of skin on their heads and four small horns.  One of my favorite creatues is the Johns, a person with enormous horns sticking out of his head with eight speaking heads sprouting from them.  Absolute Midnight gave a lot more attention to my favorite character: Christopher Carrion.  I love the story of the tender-hearted soul who is the youngest of a great dynasty of evil.  Christopher Carrion looks fierce, surrounding the lower half of his head with a liquid in which nightmares swim, but this dazzling and fearful lord of midnight is softspoken when not in battle.  This book does have its problems, though: especially a certain problem named Gazza.  Many book series these days have fomed the ugly hab it of getting a wonderful story going and then wrecking it by putting romace in.  I do not read romance novels.  They are boring and revolting, filled with kissng and pet names and all of that junk.  When a normal novel gets a romantic subplot, I cringe.  It could be a wonderful adventure, but no.  Gazza has to be the love interest.  There is no reason for him to be a love interest, or for a love interest to form anywhere in the series for Candy.  The fact that Gazza starts out as a scoundrel pointing a knife at Candy makes it all the more ludicrous.  Another flaw is the similarity of Rojo Pixler beingtaken over by the Requiax and Zephario Carrion beingtaken over by the Nephauree.  What's the likelihood that within an extremely short time, TWO people will be taken over by Lovecraft-style evils that hate all life?  The author, I assume, thinksthat it would be good writing to have that happen and then have it as a "theme" where they are "contrasted", when all it really does is take away from the coherency of the beautiful Abarat. 

Despite those setbacks, Abarat: Absolute Midnight is a good book overall, with colorful chracters and unique pictures splashed throughout.