Mini-Reviews: Volume 18 (right?)

Sure! Volume 18. That’s what we’re on.
I’m sure.

I’m really bad at this blogging thing. Don’t tell anybody.

Anyway! Onto the mini-reviews!

One Rainy Day in May (The Familiar #1)
by Mark Z. Danielewski

☆☆☆☆.5

    Goodreads thoughts –  I’m still not sure what I just read but I enjoyed it a lot. I’ll definitely be picking up the second book from the library next week. Wow.
Additional (and later) thoughts – Alright, having stepped away from this it is still incredibly difficult to talk about. The book follows quite a few different viewpoints but all seem to follow around a little girl who finds a kitten. The book ends on that, but spent the whole time leading to it in its own way. In this book the views can get overwhelming – in fact I made a summary of each chapter and how they interlink for myself in a notebook to keep track of. The style of the stories is different, some in dense prose, others in almost just dialogue, and some just like stream of consciousness. It’s bizarre but I think if you can stick it out it’s totally, totally worth it. I have never been so freaked out by a kitten, ever in my life.

Black Magick, Volume One: Awakening, Part One
by Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott

☆☆☆☆.5

    This was a fantastic graphic novel. I enjoyed the artwork, the story, and even the touches of character development. Just like most graphic novels the first volume is just a taste of the characters. A lot of history is teased, a lot of character personality is teased and touched on. I really liked what I saw though, I’m extremely excited to read the next volume – this one is high on my list of comic series right now.
Another note on the art – it’s amazing. If you have the opportunity to flip through this do it. The color schemes are gray based but the magic brings life and color. Our main character is a practicing Wiccan (with fairly accurate representation of what I remember in Wicca) and it I think shows a fascinating aspect to her that everything but her magic, her religion, is drab in the world. Definitely look at this one

Sourcery (Discworld #5)
by Terry Pratchett

☆☆☆☆☆

   This is probably one of the best ones I’ve read so far. The books have hit a stride with have a good stable plot and not too much meandering to them. This one did an excellent job showing just what would happen to wizards and the world if they were allowed A) to breed and B) rule the world. The madness that is seemingly kept at bay by wizards just being a bunch of old fussy men is pretty impressive. Let’s talk about how much I love The Librarian and  it also helps that Rincewind is probably one of my favorites – if not my favorite character so far. He and Death are pretty close for first right now. I’m definitely going to try and blaze through the next 4 to get to Eric, which is his next book.

The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria
by Carlos Hernandez

☆☆☆☆

  This was a great, consistent collection. Of the stories presented I think I only found one I didn’t enjoy as much as the rest. It was just a touch too clunky and didn’t flow as the others did. The rest were fantastic, and some were weird enough to send me into fits of ‘wtf did I just read’. These all had a culture theme to them as well, so definitely something to look at if you’re part of or interested in learning more and diversifying your reading. I enjoyed the story so much I went sniffing through the catalogue of other releases. If you like anthologies I would definitely pick this up and give it a try, it’s short and pretty consistently awesome.