The Rest of the Book Logging
Jun. 10th, 2008 04:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckAgain, discussion is more than welcome.
Kingdom Hearts 3 - I keep wanting something from this that isn't superficial, but not only does the story not lend itself to that but also, I suspect, it's aimed at people who can bring the depth of prior knowledge to the story.
Law of Ueki 9 - I like this twist-- Ueki can't afford to win the competition himself. His current king candidate is evil. He needs to make sure, instead, that someone he trusts wins. I wasn't expecting that. And I never thought I'd say this, but... Poor Robert.
It's still annoying that Margaret is male. Not that I want a female king candidate who's a villain necessarily. I'd just have liked an indication that there *are* female king candidates.
If I were more academically inclined, it'd be interesting to take some of these shonen fighting-to-be-king manga and compare them. Reading this and Zatch Bell close together makes me want to chart the similarities and differences. (Shaman King also interests me that way, but it's got things going on that make me want to throw the books at the wall, so I'm less likely to do a compare and contrast with it.)
Law of Ueki 10 - Another ally. Another good king candidate to be rescued. Friendship. Personal growth. Yes, yes, yes. Hitting all the expected points. Not a bad volume, but nothing new/unexpected happened. That's okay. I wasn't looking for surprises.
Mouryou Kiden 2 - ::blinks:: I think there was eye sacrifice here. Backstory about mystical sacrifice causing change in eye color (something that comes across so clearly in black and white. Not). It also apparently sucks to be a sibling in this world as one sibling gets all the power. Beyond that, I'm not sure I know what's going on. I'm curious, and there's only one volume left, but I'm not sure I have any clue at all.
Mulvany, Catherine. Shadows All Around Her - I finished a romance novel! ::dances happily:: That said, I can't claim that I finished it due to it being extremely good. It was decent, but it wasn't spectacularly memorable or anything that I'll keep. I suspect that part of what worked for me was that the relationships were kind of perfunctory. They were there but didn't require work or development or lots of delving into the psyches of the characters. I could take the relationships as given and focus on the other plot elements.
The rest of the plot involved an island monarchy, a mysterious disease, a stolen manuscript and a kidnapped step-father. The heroine has a rohypnol rape in her past that I'm not sure was really necessary. It wasn't a source of tremendous angst or trauma for her, so far as I could tell, and it didn't seem to have a plot function that couldn't have been filled by something else. I feel like rape is overdone as part of romance characters' backstories.
Negima 12-13 - I think I'm starting to sort out the characters. Maybe. Okay, probably not. I'm bad at that, but reading volumes close together makes it a little easier. I definitely haven't sorted out all the agendas. I don't think it matters, though. The agendas cross in and out and back in often enough that I don't need to remember them to have fun.
I do wish for fewer panty shots and fewer occasions involving clothing destruction on young teenage girls. It doesn't pass the level that I can handle, but it's tedious.
Negima 14 - It's creepy to see 14/15 year old girls deciding to cultivate the cute ten year old boy with the idea that he'll be an acceptable boyfriend in a few years. I'm not saying that they wouldn't. It just bothers me. Aren't there interesting guys who are a bit older? Of course, Negi is a teacher and a mage and generally sweet.
I feel some sympathy for the girl with the crush on the grown up teacher. Knowing a little of her backstory makes the teacher's response to her make more sense. He still has and cherishes drawings she made for him when she was (judging by the quality) about five years old. I had noticed that he didn't respond to her like an attractive male teacher who's dealt with years of adolescent girls. That he knows her from a different context explains that. Of course, I think she doesn't remember that part of things. There's some amnesia involved on her part.
Oyayubihime Infinity 1-2 - Weird birthmarks and past lives connect several characters in this manga. I'm pleased by the fact that most of the characters put their current circumstances ahead of their past lives. I'm a little scared of the dynamic between the heroine and her sister. I think it's going to blow up even more spectacularly in later volumes. I also think it *needs* to blow up. It's not healthy for either of them.
Prince of Tennis 12-15 -Tennis with superpowers. ::laughs:: I keep thinking that I know who the characters are, and then someone else shows up who I don't remember (and I'm not even talking about the new teams). I think I've reached the end of my run of borrowed volumes, so I'll be going back to the library. In a way, that's better because due dates help me finish books.
Princess Ai 1 - I could tell from seeing Ai's clothing that I was not part of this manga's target audience. I was more interested in Ai's amnesia and in the folks hunting her than in her singing career or potential romance. I think I'm just too old.
SM Visions - Some stories in this anthology worked better for me than others, but none of them really worked well for me. I suspect that I've simply got different taste in erotica than does the editor. Ah, well. I'm sure someone will take it on BookMooch eventually.
Those Who Hunt Elves 1 - I'm not sure I can accurately describe the utter ridiculousness of this. Fortunately, it's deliberately silly rather than accidentally so-- Three crazy folks running around and forcing elves to strip so that they can find the lost pieces of a spell-- Nothing at all cracked about that, right? I find myself wondering if they tried bribery before resorting to force.
I do love the tank, though. It's sweet.
Walden, Mark. H.I.V.E. Higher Institute of Villainous Education - This kids' book was a fast read and reasonably fun. I plan to look for the next installment in the series. Basically, a bunch of kids get kidnapped (some with their parents' consent) and taken to a school that will turn them into villains. There are four tracks, henchmen, alpha, technical, and political/financial. The book focuses on characters in the alpha track as they try to escape. My impression is that most of them want to escape more because they object to being stuck for six years in a place where people are telling them what to do than because they object to becoming supervillains. It's not clear if there are superheroes out there, too, or how they might be trained if there are. I'd like to know.
There's no great depth here, but I wasn't looking for that.
X-Day 1 - I picked this up because I like After School Nightmare, another work by the same manga-ka. It's different from that manga but has some similarities. Four people who hate high school (including one teacher) decide that they want to blow up their school. Without hurting anybody. Their plan is, at best, half baked, and they sort of seem to know it without wanting to admit it. The plan gives them an excuse to spend time together.
I did find the notion of alienation and isolation as an impetus for group bonding between strangers amusing.
X-Day 2 - This completes the story and even has an unrelated (and extremely depressing) short to fill out the volume. The conspirators pair off in this volume. That does mean teacher/student, but it bothers me less here than in many series because I don't have the impression that he was ever her teacher or that they necessarily have sex and because she seems to be very near graduation. I do like the general message of the story which is that a lot of unbearable things become less so with friends to bear witness and to help.
The short kind of needs warnings. I read it right before trying to fall asleep and found it not restful. It didn't give me nightmares or severe anxiety, but it also didn't help me feel in the right frame of mind for sleep (I'd probably have read something else if it hadn't been so late). It's set in a future in which meat animals died out and were replaced with intelligent 'cows' engineered from human DNA. There's a hugely creepy feeling to a society where it's okay to have conversations with a cow one day and eat him or her the next. Do I even need to add that this doesn't end happily?
YuYu Hakusho 13 - Hooray for the end of the Dark Tournament! The kidnapping and rescue plot amused me because I enjoyed seeing the hero kidnapped. With luck, the next story arc will be fun.
Zatch Bell 14 - I'm enjoying the character development here more than I thought I would because it often doesn't lead characters in the same direction. I won't claim that the series plot has great depth, and the volumes tend to be one fight after another, but I'm still having fun. I like characters who keep going in spite of being afraid and who have to rely on being clever to some extent.
Kingdom Hearts 3 - I keep wanting something from this that isn't superficial, but not only does the story not lend itself to that but also, I suspect, it's aimed at people who can bring the depth of prior knowledge to the story.
Law of Ueki 9 - I like this twist-- Ueki can't afford to win the competition himself. His current king candidate is evil. He needs to make sure, instead, that someone he trusts wins. I wasn't expecting that. And I never thought I'd say this, but... Poor Robert.
It's still annoying that Margaret is male. Not that I want a female king candidate who's a villain necessarily. I'd just have liked an indication that there *are* female king candidates.
If I were more academically inclined, it'd be interesting to take some of these shonen fighting-to-be-king manga and compare them. Reading this and Zatch Bell close together makes me want to chart the similarities and differences. (Shaman King also interests me that way, but it's got things going on that make me want to throw the books at the wall, so I'm less likely to do a compare and contrast with it.)
Law of Ueki 10 - Another ally. Another good king candidate to be rescued. Friendship. Personal growth. Yes, yes, yes. Hitting all the expected points. Not a bad volume, but nothing new/unexpected happened. That's okay. I wasn't looking for surprises.
Mouryou Kiden 2 - ::blinks:: I think there was eye sacrifice here. Backstory about mystical sacrifice causing change in eye color (something that comes across so clearly in black and white. Not). It also apparently sucks to be a sibling in this world as one sibling gets all the power. Beyond that, I'm not sure I know what's going on. I'm curious, and there's only one volume left, but I'm not sure I have any clue at all.
Mulvany, Catherine. Shadows All Around Her - I finished a romance novel! ::dances happily:: That said, I can't claim that I finished it due to it being extremely good. It was decent, but it wasn't spectacularly memorable or anything that I'll keep. I suspect that part of what worked for me was that the relationships were kind of perfunctory. They were there but didn't require work or development or lots of delving into the psyches of the characters. I could take the relationships as given and focus on the other plot elements.
The rest of the plot involved an island monarchy, a mysterious disease, a stolen manuscript and a kidnapped step-father. The heroine has a rohypnol rape in her past that I'm not sure was really necessary. It wasn't a source of tremendous angst or trauma for her, so far as I could tell, and it didn't seem to have a plot function that couldn't have been filled by something else. I feel like rape is overdone as part of romance characters' backstories.
Negima 12-13 - I think I'm starting to sort out the characters. Maybe. Okay, probably not. I'm bad at that, but reading volumes close together makes it a little easier. I definitely haven't sorted out all the agendas. I don't think it matters, though. The agendas cross in and out and back in often enough that I don't need to remember them to have fun.
I do wish for fewer panty shots and fewer occasions involving clothing destruction on young teenage girls. It doesn't pass the level that I can handle, but it's tedious.
Negima 14 - It's creepy to see 14/15 year old girls deciding to cultivate the cute ten year old boy with the idea that he'll be an acceptable boyfriend in a few years. I'm not saying that they wouldn't. It just bothers me. Aren't there interesting guys who are a bit older? Of course, Negi is a teacher and a mage and generally sweet.
I feel some sympathy for the girl with the crush on the grown up teacher. Knowing a little of her backstory makes the teacher's response to her make more sense. He still has and cherishes drawings she made for him when she was (judging by the quality) about five years old. I had noticed that he didn't respond to her like an attractive male teacher who's dealt with years of adolescent girls. That he knows her from a different context explains that. Of course, I think she doesn't remember that part of things. There's some amnesia involved on her part.
Oyayubihime Infinity 1-2 - Weird birthmarks and past lives connect several characters in this manga. I'm pleased by the fact that most of the characters put their current circumstances ahead of their past lives. I'm a little scared of the dynamic between the heroine and her sister. I think it's going to blow up even more spectacularly in later volumes. I also think it *needs* to blow up. It's not healthy for either of them.
Prince of Tennis 12-15 -Tennis with superpowers. ::laughs:: I keep thinking that I know who the characters are, and then someone else shows up who I don't remember (and I'm not even talking about the new teams). I think I've reached the end of my run of borrowed volumes, so I'll be going back to the library. In a way, that's better because due dates help me finish books.
Princess Ai 1 - I could tell from seeing Ai's clothing that I was not part of this manga's target audience. I was more interested in Ai's amnesia and in the folks hunting her than in her singing career or potential romance. I think I'm just too old.
SM Visions - Some stories in this anthology worked better for me than others, but none of them really worked well for me. I suspect that I've simply got different taste in erotica than does the editor. Ah, well. I'm sure someone will take it on BookMooch eventually.
Those Who Hunt Elves 1 - I'm not sure I can accurately describe the utter ridiculousness of this. Fortunately, it's deliberately silly rather than accidentally so-- Three crazy folks running around and forcing elves to strip so that they can find the lost pieces of a spell-- Nothing at all cracked about that, right? I find myself wondering if they tried bribery before resorting to force.
I do love the tank, though. It's sweet.
Walden, Mark. H.I.V.E. Higher Institute of Villainous Education - This kids' book was a fast read and reasonably fun. I plan to look for the next installment in the series. Basically, a bunch of kids get kidnapped (some with their parents' consent) and taken to a school that will turn them into villains. There are four tracks, henchmen, alpha, technical, and political/financial. The book focuses on characters in the alpha track as they try to escape. My impression is that most of them want to escape more because they object to being stuck for six years in a place where people are telling them what to do than because they object to becoming supervillains. It's not clear if there are superheroes out there, too, or how they might be trained if there are. I'd like to know.
There's no great depth here, but I wasn't looking for that.
X-Day 1 - I picked this up because I like After School Nightmare, another work by the same manga-ka. It's different from that manga but has some similarities. Four people who hate high school (including one teacher) decide that they want to blow up their school. Without hurting anybody. Their plan is, at best, half baked, and they sort of seem to know it without wanting to admit it. The plan gives them an excuse to spend time together.
I did find the notion of alienation and isolation as an impetus for group bonding between strangers amusing.
X-Day 2 - This completes the story and even has an unrelated (and extremely depressing) short to fill out the volume. The conspirators pair off in this volume. That does mean teacher/student, but it bothers me less here than in many series because I don't have the impression that he was ever her teacher or that they necessarily have sex and because she seems to be very near graduation. I do like the general message of the story which is that a lot of unbearable things become less so with friends to bear witness and to help.
The short kind of needs warnings. I read it right before trying to fall asleep and found it not restful. It didn't give me nightmares or severe anxiety, but it also didn't help me feel in the right frame of mind for sleep (I'd probably have read something else if it hadn't been so late). It's set in a future in which meat animals died out and were replaced with intelligent 'cows' engineered from human DNA. There's a hugely creepy feeling to a society where it's okay to have conversations with a cow one day and eat him or her the next. Do I even need to add that this doesn't end happily?
YuYu Hakusho 13 - Hooray for the end of the Dark Tournament! The kidnapping and rescue plot amused me because I enjoyed seeing the hero kidnapped. With luck, the next story arc will be fun.
Zatch Bell 14 - I'm enjoying the character development here more than I thought I would because it often doesn't lead characters in the same direction. I won't claim that the series plot has great depth, and the volumes tend to be one fight after another, but I'm still having fun. I like characters who keep going in spite of being afraid and who have to rely on being clever to some extent.
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no subject
Date: 2008-06-10 08:48 pm (UTC)The HIVE book sounds like a lot of fun. I like how 'henchman' is in its own category.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-10 09:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-10 10:14 pm (UTC)