Tiny Reviews
169. Deadline – Mira Grant [rating: 3]
paperback / library / read September 17, 2012
It’s been a while since I read Feed, but I had really high hopes for this sequel. Maybe it’s because my favorite character is dead in this book, maybe it’s because the conspiracy is so over-the-top ridiculous, maybe it’s because I could see the plot twist from a million miles away: whatever reason, I didn’t like this book. Yeah, zombies, yeah, reporters, but WOAH does this book have the second-book-blues. Blah.
171. Princess Academy – Shannon Hale [rating: 2]
paperback / library / read September 19, 2012
Almost a month after reading this, I can’t work up any kind of review beyond “it wasn’t terrible.” Which is a terrible thing to do, isn’t it! My non-enthusiasm is almost worse than me hating it, and now I feel really awkward so I’ll move on.
Currently Reading
I was actually reading like five books at the same time this week, but now I’m down to just two: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde and The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (read by John Lee).
The Eyre Affair isn’t the first Jasper Fforde book I’ve read this month; last week I read The Big Over Easy, which was a LOT of fun. It sort of reminded me of The Last Dragonslayer in that it’s more focused on fairy tale stuff and magical whatsits, although it’s not overtly a fantasy book like TLD is (it’s a mystery/police procedural/humor thingy, see). The thing about Jasper Fforde’s humor is that it’s got huge bits of absurdity to it, and sometimes that works for me and sometimes it doesn’t. For instance, it worked for me in The Big Over Easy. Giant eggs embezzling funds from criminals to pay for hospitals (or whatever)? Yes, please! 
In The Eyre Affair, it’s mostly not. I think it’s not working because the absurd stuff is (mostly) book-focused, so you’ve got Francis Bacon terrorists and people forging massive amounts of first edition texts and isn’t it really sad that I can’t suspend my disbelief for a society that cares that much about books and reading and authors and literature? It’s just TOO absurd. Sigh.
The Three Musketeers audiobook is REALLY REALLY long, even longer than my Moby-Dick audiobook (by about seven hours!), but I’m about 10 hours in and I think I’ll stick with it. I like the story (mostly) and I really want to watch the various movie adaptations now, but the narrator is getting on my nerves. He speaks the French bits well enough (pronounces the names correctly, I mean) and he mostly does different voices for each character, but his inflections for some of the dramatic scenes basically ruin them and it’s annoying. I think if I were reading this book I wouldn’t be as annoyed with Dumas’ melodrama like I am hearing this guy reading them. Maybe I should just switch to the text and give up on the audio? Hm.
What’re you currently reading?