What I Thought

I got the impression that the book was going to be taking a look at comic fandom and the role that comics play in our lives. Possibly a look at comics as a replacement for the stories, myths and legends our ancestors clung to. Stories of inspiration, hope and even tragedy. I don’t know how I could have been more wrong.

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Erec Rex: The Monsters of Otherness continues Erec’s adventures in Alypium. Can it improve on the strong beginning of the story found in Erec Rex: The Dragon’s Eye?

Story

Erec returns to the Kingdom of the Keepers when he learns that Balor Stain may become King. The only way to stop Balor is to return and perform the quests to become King himself.

It won’t be easy. Baskania has been hard at work in Erec’s absence. A cleaver PR campaign to cast doubt on Erec has taken hold. No one even believes that he is Erec Rex. What they do believe is that Erec cheated during the competition and that Balor Stain is the real winner.

How do you help people that don’t want your help?

My Opinion

How does The Monsters of Otherness stack up against The Dragon’s Eye?

Pretty darn well. The story moves forward and you start to get a look at the overall structure of the story. Kaza has said that part of the basis of the story is the trials of Hercules. The quests that Erec has to perform are certainly Herculean.

The first book, Erec Rex: The Dragon’s Eye, was a great introduction to the world of Erec Rex. The Monsters of Otherness is where the action really gets started. Not only do we get to see Alypium again, we also get to see some very different parts of the magical world.

Magical and mythological creatures were talked about quite a bit in the previous book. This time they’re a huge part of the story. The magical world of Erec Rex is expanded and explored. Erec’s history is expanded too. We learn a little more about his past and why he is so important in this book.

What I liked

Everything from the First Book. All the strong points of the first book are still there.

Mythological Creatures. I really enjoyed Kaza’s version of the creatures of myth and legend. There’s some pretty cool stuff going on in Otherness.

Snail Mail. I just found that funny. I guess it appealed to the geek in me.

Jam Crinklecut. The best butler ever.

What I didn’t like

Rosco Kroc. To be fair, I don’t think he’s supposed to be likeable. He seems affable and charming to some of the characters in the book, but I think the reader is supposed to be suspicious of him. That isn’t why he made the list though. He’s mentioned here because of my theories about him. I won’t leave any spoilers here, but I’ll start a discussion about it in the forum if you want to check it out.

Verdict

Erec Rex: The Monsters of Otherness is a great follow up to Erec Rex: The Dragon’s Eye. It not only retains the charm and action of the first book, it builds on it. It expands the magical world and ups the stakes for Erec.

I’d recommend this book to anyone who has read The Dragon’s Eye. I’d also recommend reading the Dragon’s Eye if you haven’t already, just so you can read this one.

I’m already looking forward to the rest of the books in the series.

: Fandoms, Books, Fantasy, Reviews, Kaza Kingsley, Erec Rex, Balor Stain, Jam Crinklecut, Rosco Kroc, Kingdom of the Keepers, Alypium, Otherness, The Dragon’s Eye, The Monsters of Otherness, Magic, Mythology, Greek, Roman, Celtic, Norse, Hercules, Quests

I’m interested in pretty much everything about comics, especially the old school stuff. When I got a copy of The Comic Book Makers for Christmas I was pretty excited. It gives you a glimpse behind the scenes of the early days of comic books. It’s written by Joe Simon, the creator of Captain America and writer/artist/editor for some true classics, with some extra material written by Jim Simon.

You Had To Be There

 The early days of the comic book industry was filled with drama. If you think the stories in the comic books were wild, you should hear what the people making them got up to. There’s plenty of stories that will shock and amaze you.

 This book was written by someone who was there for a few amazing stories himself. So you get to know the story from the inside. Even if you’re familiar with some of these, like I was, reading a first hand account of them puts things in a whole new light.

Covering All The Bases

The Comic Book Makers is filled with pictures and art. Covers from a wide range of comics, personal photos and even original character sketches of classic heroes.

 I expected a few pictures. This book is filled with ‘em. First appearances of different characters, iconic images as well as books and characters that never quite made it big.

 Seriously, I would have loved this as a comic art book, but it has more than that. There are pieces of non-comic art by Joe Simon and others. You get to see how truly talented these guys are.

 On top of all that there are pictures of some of the legends of comics. The creators themselves hard at work making the magic come to life. Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and of course Joe Simon.

Verdict

If you’re a fan of comics you need to check out this book. Not only will it give you insight into what it takes to make comics, it’s darn entertaining. Much like the comic books discussed in this book, it’s filled with the unexpected.

I loved reading this book. I highly recommend it.

I need your opinions

After the posts by Donna and myself, I’ve decided that I should make books a larger part of the site. I’d like to do more posts about books and reading. What I’d like your opinion on is the structure of those posts.

1. Should I review books I read?

Or

2. Should I open a discussion about a book?

I can see pros and cons for both of those. I’m just not sure what you’d rather see here. That’s why I’m asking you.

What’s the difference?

This is how I imagine these working. If you have other ideas please let me know.

Book Review

• I would choose a book, or let you vote on a book.
• I’d read it and take a few notes.
• I’d come back to the blog and write up a review. It’s pretty straight forward.

Book Discussion

• I would choose a book, or let you vote on a book. That’s the same.
• I’d write a post on the blog to announce what the book is.
• A reading deadline would be set. That way people know when the discussion will start, and will know when to finish the book.
• People that want to join in would, I hope, read the book.
• After the reading deadline I’d come back here and officially open the discussion. I would include some of my opinions and my questions about the book. It wouldn’t be a full review though.
• I would update the post with some, or all, of the relevant comments from the discussion for a period of time. This would make the relevant comments about the book easier to find and make things easier on people taking part. A long list of comments can be hard to follow sometimes.

What do you think?

Does this sound like something you’d be interested in? Do you have any other ideas? I’d appreciate your thoughts on this. I’d really like to make this site something we could all enjoy together.

: Fandoms, Books, Opinion, Blogging, Book Discussions, Book Reviews, Book Club, FanaticSpace

This is a guest article from Donna. Leave some comments and maybe we can get her to be a regular contributor.

Bibliophilia in Action

I’ll be the first to admit to having a long-standing obsession with books. As a child, I read Nancy Drew and The Chronicles of Narnia obsessively. I have traveled with Bilbo and Frodo to the Lonely Mountain and Mordor once a year, every year (starting on their shared birthday) since I was a teenager.

In high school, I explored many of the “classics” – Austen, the Brontes, Dickens, Dostoevsky, James, Joyce, Thackeray, Tolstoy, Twain – I tore through anything and everything I could lay my hands on. Thomas Mann intrigued me so much that I took two classes about his novels while in college, and even considered learning German just so I could read his work in the “authentic” language.

Since then, my tastes have grown much more pedestrian. In my late twenties, mysteries held a great appeal for me. Agatha Christie was a minor fixation for a while, but soon Ngaio Marsh took over. It was at that point that I formed the habit of reading an author’s works repeatedly in chronological order – from “A Man Lay Dead” (1934) through “Light Thickens” (1982), I spent 3 years of my life memorizing every nuance of Marsh’s Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn.

The Boy Who Lived

And then we had The Boy Who Lived. My obsession with the Potter universe outstripped all my other prior obsessions by a significant amount, and affected my life more profoundly than I would have thought possible. Admittedly, Jo Rowling’s writing is less than perfect (“the treetops were gilded with gold” still drives me up the wall – what else would they be gilded with?), but her sense of humor and the integrity of her storytelling are truly memorable.

Now that it’s over though, what’s a Potter-obsessed girl to do? I can, and will, continue to re-read the series, talk about it with my friends, and look back on some of the developments (especially in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”) with regret. Eventually however, there will come a time when I need something else to read.

I’ve started my search, and so far, have been sorely disappointed. Scott Westerfeld’s trilogy (“Uglies,” “Pretties,” and “Specials”) was nicely subversive and reasonably interesting, though I have to say I ended up feeling a bit disappointed with the ending. Good guys win, and bad guys really aren’t bad guys after all – not much subtlety there, and absolutely no re-read value.

Plum Bad

A friend recommended Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series as being entertaining. I’ve read a few, but to be honest, I have a hard time getting past her lazy writing and non-existent editing.

Though she gives credit to an editor, her writing shows all the signs of being slapped together with little thought for characterization, grammatical correctness, or even continuity. She frequently contradicts her own minor facts (A character starts eating cold leftover pasta in one paragraph, yet a few sentences later, he’s finishing up his sandwich?). Her characters are inconsistent, unbelievable, unintelligible caricatures (a tough-talking street punk with a ghetto vocabulary from the first book is a smooth, literate pillar of society later in the series). I find myself getting angry with her publishers for foisting this mess on the public. I am amazed that anyone can be getting paid to “edit” her work; I can only assume they’re afraid to kill the goose that laid the golden egg by correcting the egregious errors that crop up on almost every page she writes.

Worst of all, I cannot imagine anyone churning out this kind of sloppy, hackneyed garbage and not being heartily ashamed of herself. Is Ms. Evanovich so clueless that she actually thinks her writing is good? Yet she is apparently “working on” (I use the term loosely) the 16th book in the series, and if past sales are any indication, will make a tidy sum off of it.

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

This has got me wondering – what makes an author worth reading? And what does the author owe to the reading public?

Naturally, the story is of paramount importance. No matter how skillfully something is crafted or how carefully it’s edited, if the story fails to engage or move its intended audience, it’s not worth committing to paper.

Characters have to be believable. They have to be “real” enough to care about. That doesn’t mean, however, obviously fictional characters can’t be worthwhile. I’ve just finished reading Gregory Maquire’s “Wicked”, and his Elphaba is one of the most consistently sympathetic characters I’ve encountered. She’s just quirky enough to keep you guessing; it’s impossible not to get drawn into the story of her life.

It really boils down to integrity. If an author is focused on producing their best, if they concentrate on doing justice to their story, it will be worth reading. If, on the other hand, all they care about is churning out a product to make a quick buck, that will be obvious too. While I can’t presume to tell anyone else what to buy or not to buy, I can at least say that I intend to continue to patronize those authors who make an honest effort and shun those who are just in it for the money.

: Fandoms, Books, Opinion, Guest Post, Reading, Bibliophile, Bibliophilia, Authors, Austen, the Brontes, Bronte, Dickens, Dostoevsky, James, Joyce, Thackeray, Tolstoy, Twain, Thomas Mann, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, A Man Lay Dead, Light Thickens, J.K. Rowling, Rowling, Harry Potter, Deathly Hallows, Scott Westerfeld, Janet Evanovich, Stephanie Plum, Gregory Maquire, Wicked, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West