Book Logging
Sep. 20th, 2008 12:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckI am so behind on book logging. I think I'm going to have to post some titles with no comments. I'll wait a few more days before I do that, but I'll see how it goes and if I can write comments on some of the as yet unlogged stuff.
Bleach 23 - I think I may be reading the wrong series. I finished this volume and mumbled something about wishing they'd do something other than fight. That is, I had fun watching the various shinigami searching for places to stay but cared not at all about the big fights. I want to see the dangling story threads picked up without having to spend a long time wading through fights where each participant keeps pulling new and bigger special attacks out of...thin air.
On the plus side, I think I'm starting to track who some of the shinigami are. Maybe.
Chicago 2 - I wanted more of this. As far as I can tell, these two volumes are all there is. Pity. The set up was interesting and didn't pay off.
Basically, the heroes do a couple more rescues in this volume and find out why certain of their past tragedies occurred. There isn't really resolution on dealing with the big, bad organization that caused those tragedies. I got the impression that that would come later if the story continued. The end of the volume was told from the point of view of an outsider when the heroes disappeared. It wasn't clear that they were alive, but it was implied.
Fushigi Yugi 7 - I don't find Miaka as annoying as some people do. I'm not dreadfully fond of her, but I don't hate her. I can also see that she serves her purpose admirably by letting adolescent girls insert themselves into her role as they read. Making her more complicated, developing her into a full character, would interfere with that.
I had a hard time reading this volume because I knew that tragedy was due. Actually, I expect to have similar problems with the next few volumes. I like some of the characters who're going to die, and I have fairly severe problems reading about bad things happening to children.
Haber, Melissa Glenn. Beyond the Dragon Portal - I didn't finish this. I picked it up at the library while Cordelia was playing and read about the first five chapters and the last three. The main character's a practical eleven year old who decidedly doesn't want fantasy adventures. Then her little sister gets kidnapped. It turns out that her sister is the object of a prophecy for two warring species in another world. Whoever has the sister is destined to win the war.
The point of the novel seems to be to have the eleven year old realize that (a) war sucks, (b) that both sides have good points and bad points and (c) that the prophecy is a load of crap. The themes came across as nuanced, and I rather liked the main character. I just didn't feel like beating myself on the head with the misery that goes with making those points, so I dropped the book off on our way out of the building.
Hands Off! 1-2 - One of the three main characters here repeatedly does the thing that drives me crazy in relationship complications-- He won't talk to anybody about the problem. It fit with the way he was written, but it still made me want to beat my head (or, by preference, his) against the table.
Anyway, a cute boy who's often mistaken for a girl comes to live with his grandfather and cousin. The boy and his cousin used to be close, but now the cousin snarls at him and refuses all physical contact. The part the cousin isn't telling is that he has a psychic power that gets much stronger when he touches our hero. It's a power he resents because it got him into trouble when he was younger and didn't realize that he was seeing past events, things other people couldn't see.
There's another guy in the story who can see emotional auras. He also gets a power boost if he touches the main character and also doesn't bother to tell the main character what's going on.
Together, they have adventures. Sort of. I am looking forward to reading more, but I wish the brooding cousin would talk to the main character who's really hurt by the hostility. Yes, the problem's difficult to believe, but really, explaining would save a lot of angst and make me feel better about reading along.
Hikaru no Go 7 - I wish I had an easier time reading this series. I just keep dreading the next time that Hikaru says something without thinking. I'm not sure why it bothers me so much when he's not particularly upset about it. It also should help that I know the general story arc. I *know* that no monsters are going to rise out of the floor to devour anybody.
At any rate, I made some progress. I got to see Hikaru learning more. I can definitely see why this manga and the related anime make people want to learn to play Go.
Hikkatsu! Strike a Blow to Vivify 1 - I think my brain broke. I do like that hitting things often breaks them entirely rather than fixing them. It only makes sense. I want to see more about how the world works because the bits that are in this volume fascinate me.
Anyway, the basic idea is that, in a future world, machines are unreliable, often malfunctioning in crazy ways. The hero wants to create and master a martial arts style that will let him repair machines by hitting them. He fails a lot. The heroine is a girl who was raised by pigeons.
Last Hope 1-2 - I rather regret that there's not more of this out. I enjoyed the first two volumes. Of course, the premise would probably get old fast without more arc.
Basically, a group of teenagers is jumping from world to world with a device that can open gates but that is broken so that one cannot choose the destination. They have bad guys after them, hunting down the one of them who isn't from Earth (the one who had the device to begin with).
This is one of those titles that might be really good given enough space or might end up wasting the potential of the premise and characters.
Stewart, Trenton Lee. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey - First a complaint about the cover-- They white-washed Sticky! He's quite white on the cover. The internal illustrations still show his skin as being decidedly darker than the other children's, so I think this had to be a deliberate decision for the cover rather than the artist just not getting it, and I'm cranky about it.
This is a decent sequel. I enjoyed the puzzle solving aspects. I still have trouble taking the bad guys seriously. I find the parts with the bad guys to be the least interesting sections even though they're clearly meant to be dramatic and suspenseful. I think that my problem is that I'm most interested in the ways that the kids gather information, figure out what's going on and solve problems, the stuff that only they can do in the ways they do it. (Bear in mind here that I found the first book boring after the tests were over. I didn't enjoy the infiltration mission at all.)
The kids have been apart for quite a while when the book starts. Mr. Benedict has arranged for them to gather. He intends to lead them on a treasure hunt of sorts. When the children arrive, however, they discover that Mr. Benedict has been kidnapped. They set out to find him.
xxxHOLIC 12 - That was...surreal. Everything was disjointed. My impression is that that's quite deliberate on CLAMP's part and that it all Means Something. I just want to know what it means *now*.
Interestingly, the sections with Kohane seemed the most narratively coherent. I expect that that means something, too.
Bleach 23 - I think I may be reading the wrong series. I finished this volume and mumbled something about wishing they'd do something other than fight. That is, I had fun watching the various shinigami searching for places to stay but cared not at all about the big fights. I want to see the dangling story threads picked up without having to spend a long time wading through fights where each participant keeps pulling new and bigger special attacks out of...thin air.
On the plus side, I think I'm starting to track who some of the shinigami are. Maybe.
Chicago 2 - I wanted more of this. As far as I can tell, these two volumes are all there is. Pity. The set up was interesting and didn't pay off.
Basically, the heroes do a couple more rescues in this volume and find out why certain of their past tragedies occurred. There isn't really resolution on dealing with the big, bad organization that caused those tragedies. I got the impression that that would come later if the story continued. The end of the volume was told from the point of view of an outsider when the heroes disappeared. It wasn't clear that they were alive, but it was implied.
Fushigi Yugi 7 - I don't find Miaka as annoying as some people do. I'm not dreadfully fond of her, but I don't hate her. I can also see that she serves her purpose admirably by letting adolescent girls insert themselves into her role as they read. Making her more complicated, developing her into a full character, would interfere with that.
I had a hard time reading this volume because I knew that tragedy was due. Actually, I expect to have similar problems with the next few volumes. I like some of the characters who're going to die, and I have fairly severe problems reading about bad things happening to children.
Haber, Melissa Glenn. Beyond the Dragon Portal - I didn't finish this. I picked it up at the library while Cordelia was playing and read about the first five chapters and the last three. The main character's a practical eleven year old who decidedly doesn't want fantasy adventures. Then her little sister gets kidnapped. It turns out that her sister is the object of a prophecy for two warring species in another world. Whoever has the sister is destined to win the war.
The point of the novel seems to be to have the eleven year old realize that (a) war sucks, (b) that both sides have good points and bad points and (c) that the prophecy is a load of crap. The themes came across as nuanced, and I rather liked the main character. I just didn't feel like beating myself on the head with the misery that goes with making those points, so I dropped the book off on our way out of the building.
Hands Off! 1-2 - One of the three main characters here repeatedly does the thing that drives me crazy in relationship complications-- He won't talk to anybody about the problem. It fit with the way he was written, but it still made me want to beat my head (or, by preference, his) against the table.
Anyway, a cute boy who's often mistaken for a girl comes to live with his grandfather and cousin. The boy and his cousin used to be close, but now the cousin snarls at him and refuses all physical contact. The part the cousin isn't telling is that he has a psychic power that gets much stronger when he touches our hero. It's a power he resents because it got him into trouble when he was younger and didn't realize that he was seeing past events, things other people couldn't see.
There's another guy in the story who can see emotional auras. He also gets a power boost if he touches the main character and also doesn't bother to tell the main character what's going on.
Together, they have adventures. Sort of. I am looking forward to reading more, but I wish the brooding cousin would talk to the main character who's really hurt by the hostility. Yes, the problem's difficult to believe, but really, explaining would save a lot of angst and make me feel better about reading along.
Hikaru no Go 7 - I wish I had an easier time reading this series. I just keep dreading the next time that Hikaru says something without thinking. I'm not sure why it bothers me so much when he's not particularly upset about it. It also should help that I know the general story arc. I *know* that no monsters are going to rise out of the floor to devour anybody.
At any rate, I made some progress. I got to see Hikaru learning more. I can definitely see why this manga and the related anime make people want to learn to play Go.
Hikkatsu! Strike a Blow to Vivify 1 - I think my brain broke. I do like that hitting things often breaks them entirely rather than fixing them. It only makes sense. I want to see more about how the world works because the bits that are in this volume fascinate me.
Anyway, the basic idea is that, in a future world, machines are unreliable, often malfunctioning in crazy ways. The hero wants to create and master a martial arts style that will let him repair machines by hitting them. He fails a lot. The heroine is a girl who was raised by pigeons.
Last Hope 1-2 - I rather regret that there's not more of this out. I enjoyed the first two volumes. Of course, the premise would probably get old fast without more arc.
Basically, a group of teenagers is jumping from world to world with a device that can open gates but that is broken so that one cannot choose the destination. They have bad guys after them, hunting down the one of them who isn't from Earth (the one who had the device to begin with).
This is one of those titles that might be really good given enough space or might end up wasting the potential of the premise and characters.
Stewart, Trenton Lee. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey - First a complaint about the cover-- They white-washed Sticky! He's quite white on the cover. The internal illustrations still show his skin as being decidedly darker than the other children's, so I think this had to be a deliberate decision for the cover rather than the artist just not getting it, and I'm cranky about it.
This is a decent sequel. I enjoyed the puzzle solving aspects. I still have trouble taking the bad guys seriously. I find the parts with the bad guys to be the least interesting sections even though they're clearly meant to be dramatic and suspenseful. I think that my problem is that I'm most interested in the ways that the kids gather information, figure out what's going on and solve problems, the stuff that only they can do in the ways they do it. (Bear in mind here that I found the first book boring after the tests were over. I didn't enjoy the infiltration mission at all.)
The kids have been apart for quite a while when the book starts. Mr. Benedict has arranged for them to gather. He intends to lead them on a treasure hunt of sorts. When the children arrive, however, they discover that Mr. Benedict has been kidnapped. They set out to find him.
xxxHOLIC 12 - That was...surreal. Everything was disjointed. My impression is that that's quite deliberate on CLAMP's part and that it all Means Something. I just want to know what it means *now*.
Interestingly, the sections with Kohane seemed the most narratively coherent. I expect that that means something, too.
