Blue

You know it was a good book when, as the last page turns, you are smiling.

Obligatory Movie Tangent: I had watched the Studio Ghibli animated film a very long time ago, so I couldn't really remember it while I was reading. So, reading the book was like a new experience. I then watched the movie again afterwards to compare the two. One thing that really struck me at the end was how different the book is from the movie. I will say, if you are reading one or watching the other, you do not have to worry about spoiling the experience. They're almost like two different interpretations of the same concepts...I actually really enjoy when a book and movie are different like that. I think it's a bit boring to adapt the book exactly as-is when making a movie, and I respect when a director takes liberties to try and give the movie an identity of its own.

Onto the book:

The book is wonderfully whimsical and refreshingly original. The characters are so fun to read about; the dialogue is witty and humorous, and each of the characters has their own quirks about them that make them very engaging. It doesn't take long to endear to each of the characters in their own special way. Sophie, as an old woman, is cantankerous without being too mean and quite clever. Howl was a great surprise; I actually much prefer him in the book versus the movie. He is the perfect match of coolness and childishness. He feels so human in this way, dressing up in beautiful suits while complaining about Sophie trying to clean his room. This was a book where I greatly enjoyed the whole cast of characters, including Michael and Calcifer.

I admit I can be cautious when I read older fantasy books. As much as I love fantasy, there's no denying that you can see the same trope throughout countless books and things don't age well. It was a pleasant surprise to see how original this book was. I didn't run into the same character tropes or predictable plot developments. This is not a story where you could easily slap the outline onto something else; the premise, the characters, and the execution were delightfully one-of-a-kind. For example, I completely expected Calcifer to have a plot twist of secretly being an evil demon while maintaining a falsehood of being friendly. I mean, isn't that one of the oldest tricks in the book? The obviously “evil” character in the cast (in this case, the fire demon) secretly pretending to be an ally until during the book's climax, revealing himself to be the villain. Jones completely subverted my expectations!

This book just has delight written all over it. There's no grimdark fantasy here or any heavy quest. It's about a group of magical people in a quirky world, dealing with problems both mundane and magical. I find those to be some of the best books of all. We don't need an epic 1000 page quest to get some merit out of fantasy literature. The characters are fun to read about, the world is fun to read about, and it's hard not to smile as you turn the pages.

Honestly, my only complaint is the ending part of the book. The pacing seemed to crank up by 1000x speed in the last two chapters and things were resolved so quickly, it was quite jarring after such a long and gradual journey of build-up. The climax of the book, the falling action, and the resolution really happen all in the last two chapters...but the ending does not dictate the journey, and it didn't dampen my enjoyment of everything leading up to it.

All in all, a wonderful and delightful book. I haven't read something that cheered me up this much in a while. If you are a jaded adult reader that is struggling to find wonder in books like you used to as a child, take heart from someone similar - it is still possible to be charmed.

Audibook Review: I listened to this book via audiobook. The audiobook was narrated by Jenny Sterlin, and was excellent. Sterlin is a great narrator, putting emotion into her words without it being overly exaggerated and comical. It really did give the feeling of having the story told to you by a master storyteller. Her voice is very soothing, smooth, easy to listen to and perfectly fitting for the atmosphere of the story. My only complaint is that her voice for Calcifer could be a little grating (but still fitting for his character, considering he's a fire demon) and her accent for Howl seemed to occasionally be off from time to time. These are minor complaints all-in-all, and listening to the audiobook was a fantastic experience.

"Worlds. The whole damn sky full of worlds. Places no one will ever see. Except me."

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Discworld is perhaps one of the most highly acclaimed fantasy series ever written. All I've ever read about this book from other readers has been the highest praise. People constantly rank the books among their all-time favorites. As a longtime lover of fantasy, this of course meant I had to put it on my own list.

But for the longest time, I was so horribly intimidated to actually start reading Discworld.

I am always wary when I gain an interest in consuming any piece of media that is critically acclaimed on the level that Discworld is at because then your standards are set so infinitely high that it's almost an unfair advantage against it. There have been too many times in my life where I've ended up ultimately disappointed in something highly reviewed because reviews for it were glowing and it ended up falling short of my expectations. I mean, when people say something is "incredible," "amazing," or "perfect," it's hard not to go in expecting something to blow your mind. And to be fair, I know with certain pieces of my favorite media, I think of them in the same above-and-beyond terms that I'm sure would turn others off if they were to read it themselves. It's just a part of being passionate about something, but it does dull the experience of some things for someone like me who comes into it at a much later date.

Along with that consideration, Discworld is one of those series that people like to tell you not to start with the actual first book, and everybody has different recommendations on where to start. Full disclosure, this is one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to any piece of media. I hate the idea of starting in the middle of something. I like going in order. It just feels good and right to me. Not to mention, nothing frustrates me more than when I feel like I'm missing out on some piece of exposition because I skipped a couple of entries. Even if that isn't an issue, the idea that I could be missing out on the satisfaction of watching how things developed and seeing the natural progression of how both the story and even the authors themselves have changed throughout the series also bums me out. Not to mention...nine out of ten times when someone says "Don't worry, you don't need to see the other ones to understand what's going on," it's a flat-out lie. Experience is a merciless teacher, and this has been one of her lessons to me.

But, I still felt like I was missing out on something by not reading Discworld. It just sounds so...fun and filled with whimsy. Those tend to be my favorite stories. I carefully tempered my expectations; I've heard before that Color of Magic should be considered more of a prologue to the saga of Discworld. I was also intrigued by the fact that Color of Magic looked to be a shorter story with a more fun and casual experience meant for the reader. I feel like those kinds of fantasy stories aren't very popular nowadays.

I'm happy to say it was a very pleasant experience throughout, even with my expectations purposefully lowered!

Color of Magic introduces us to the world of Discworld: a very unique setting where the world is a flat disc balanced atop four giant elephants who are in turn balanced atop a giant turtle swimming throughout the vastness of the cosmos. Like I said, very unique. Within Discworld exists extraordinary locales with equally extraordinary people and their cultures, great and powerful magic of all sorts that is a part of the very fabric of reality itself, and zany characters. The basic premise as introduced in the beginning pages of the book is that a group of scholars want to find a way to lower themselves past the edge of the rim of the world to see what sex the giant turtle is.

...But the focus of the story is on a wizard named Rincewind. What does Rincewind desire in life? He just wants to live a safe, comfortable, normal existence with a respectable amount of coin. Very relatable, but Fate has other plans in store for the wizard. Rincewind runs afoul of a strange man named Twoflower. He likes to travel to different places and capture scenes straight from light with his odd camera box that dangles from his neck. An odd chest filled with odds and ends such as clothes follows him around on many pairs of legs, and he calls himself a word that is unfamiliar to those in Discworld...something called a tourist.

And thus begins their adventure in the magical, whimsical world.

This was a fun book to read. Quite a delightful experience! I loved the mix of flowery, poetic prose grounded with lots of humanistic humor throughout. The premise, as described above, is just so much fun. It almost reads like a Dungeons and Dragon campaign with a group of quirky, fun-to-read-about protagonists going through different encounters and meeting all sorts of zany characters. The humor is written so well into the story and characters. How the situations are described and how the characters react to them is hilariously done. The fact that you have this high fantasy setting but the main characters, Rincewind and Twoflower, react to them in completely different but equally hilarious ways was so fun to read about. In fact, I'd say that Color of Magic is borderline absurdist with how wacky the setting could get but so many of its inhabitants are just so blasé about the whole thing.

The worldbuilding is legitimately very unique and fascinating to read about. There's not another world out there like the one Sir Pratchett has crafted here. And while some of the setting does feel like a tool to highlight the humor of the writing in the contrast it has to its relatively grounded character reactions, it never felt like it crossed that line too much. It never got so ridiculous and the reactions to the settings never got so downplayed that the whole of Discworld feels like a joke. While the initial setup is ludicrous--I mean, it is a flat disc on top of a bunch of elephants on top of a giant turtle--the writing never loses the sense of awe and wonder in the world. There's still some weight to the setting and describing it. With humor, I find it's very easy to go too far in one direction and make everything silly and thus feel kind of pointless, but Discworld has the right amount of balanced seriousness to make things still significant. I loved reading about the reality-warping aspects of magic, the weirdness inherent in it, and the quirks it causes to the world. Discworld has some cool rainbows (or Rimbows, I suppose).

Rincewind and Twoflower have become some of my favorite fictional characters after reading this. Rincewind, despite being a literal wizard, is by far one of the most relatable protagonists I've ever read about. He's down-to-earth. He's got a pessimistic streak. He wants to get through another day without having a near-death experience. The dude is tired of adventuring. Twoflower is his opposite, the epitome of an ignorant tourist. But instead of taking photos with his flash on in Paris, he's doing it in a place where there are literal dragons, trolls, and dryads. He's optimism incarnate, never bothered by anything in life, and always eager to see the next dangerous thing because it's something he needs to take a photo of. The "pessimist versus optimist" dynamic is one of the most common in fiction, but here, it's entertaining and written well and without enough of its own unique quirks to make it stand out with its own identity. They're the perfect kinds of characters you want to put through all sorts of crazy scenarios just to see how they'll react and get out of it.

One thing that gets me about Color of Magic is that it's perfectly balanced in how it executes the premise. It's humorous without being too lighthearted and thus losing any actual weight the story has. The prose switches from beautifully poetic to quipped in a very natural way that doesn't feel jarring. So many times, I see where an author has gone too much on one side and the book loses its effectiveness.

But now that I've done its praises, it's time to go onto what I didn't quite like about the book...Rincewind and Twoflower are the only characters that are really of any significance. Others get introduced that I kept thinking would have some kind of relevance to the story since they take a bit of the spotlight during portions of the book, but then it turns out to not be the case. I guess it is like a Dungeons and Dragons campaign in that way. You'll have temporary party members who look like they're gearing up to be of some value before the DM decides that it's time to move on and whisks the players away.

I don't consider this a spoiler since it happens at the beginning of the book: a meta-feature that occurs within the first few chapters is that there's a random footnote that acts as an add-on to the narrative going on. This happens once in the book to my recollection and just seemed...odd? Where everything else is so well-balanced and crafted, this one felt like a strange outlier to me. Perhaps it's supposed to be some kind of foreshadowing in future books, but I am one of those readers who really does not like it when books feel too much like extensions of each other. Each book in a series should feel self-contained enough that it's a solid piece of work when standing on its own merits. Some narrative tangents also felt too much like they meandered from the story and it left me a bit confused, but I guess it was an excuse to read more of Pratchett's excellent prose.

And then my usual complaint of "abrupt cliffhanger ending." I get it, it's part of a series and it is supposed to drive me to want to purchase the next book in the series (which honestly, I do want to). It's a case of me not liking books that feel like they end in the middle of something or very suddenly of out nowhere. I like books with a more natural-feeling ending. I guess that's just me, though.

If you are looking for a sprawling fantasy epic with story arcs and deep, involved character development, you've come to the wrong place. This is a short and sweet fun adventure in a unique setting with whimsy and wonder weaved into it. It was very refreshing to me for that reason...but also a very expertly crafted story and a fun adventure. I had a good time reading this book, and I do want to continue the series. I don't regret starting here instead of jumping ahead like a lot of people suggest. All-in-all, lots of fun to be had and I look forward to diving deeper into Discworld!

Final note: Rincewind is a bloke who'd I love to have a pint with.

I read one review of this book that said: “A very difficult read, but equally compelling.”

I have to agree.

I don't even know how I came across this book or how it ended up being checked out on my Libby app. I think it was a sample I compulsively downloaded, and then I couldn't stop reading it despite the tough subject matter.

It's hard for me to describe this book. I've heard it categorized as a thriller, which I think holds merit. It definitely has some thriller-esque properties to it. I feel like it's a book close in purpose to something like American Psycho (which I have never read but have heard about), where it's meant to act as a reflection of a dark part of society we don't want to acknowledge exists. It gave me the same kind of empty hedonistic pursuit. There's lots of drugs, sex, and partying in this book, but it's nothing glamorous. It's foul. Despite the difficult subject matter, the reason I kept going on was that I found the main conflict of the book between Kalu and Ahmed to be engaging enough to read on. The inner turmoil of the characters and how it reflected in their actions was intriguing to read.

I've read some people say that it sometimes feels like a laundry list of perversions in this book, which I have mixed feelings about. While I was reading, I never got any indication that the actions of the characters in the book were things to be celebrated. These were not characters you were supposed to admire. I admit, I get tired of hearing readers say that characters need to be “likable” or “relatable” to be good characters. It's something I strongly disagree with. Some of the most compelling books ever written feature the most unlikeable people ever to be crafted. These characters are not likable, in my opinion. Maybe some traits of them can be considered as such, and maybe they can be relatable, but for the most part, they aren't exactly heroes in a traditional sense. But their conflicts are still fascinating to read about because it's a reflection of the real world. People like this exist and make decisions like the ones these characters do in the book. Like I said before, it's simply a reflection of the real world.

The book does its best to wrap up everyone's conflict within one another so they're connected, and I feel it did with about 70% success rate. Aima's character arc seemed to have an unsatisfying and abrupt confusion. She was set up to seem like a major character, being the first character we are introduced to and have one-half of her conflict (her break-up with Kalu; not a spoiler since it's the very first chapter) act as a catalyst for the major event that drives a lot of the story. But it feels like right when her arc was getting ramped up, it dropped to focus on Kalu and Ahmed for 60% of the story before she comes back with a sudden conclusion. Focus in the latter half of the book felt like it was being put on other characters brought in late-game who suddenly felt like they commandeered the spotlight. In my opinion, the whole thing would have felt much less disjointed if the story perspectives were cut down to Aima, Kalu, and Ahmed, with the other characters being major secondary players.

Also, my usual complaint of the ending feeling very abrupt and unresolved. I feel like that's a complaint with 80% of the books that I read, so nothing to special there.

In the end, am I glad to have read this book? I mean, this is not the kind of book that brings you happiness. I feel like it has the same effect on me as Lolita by Vladimir Nobokov did. It was very hard to read, and it did not bring me any joy. This is not a book I read for enjoyment, but rather, for perspective. And despite the shortcomings in the book, I feel like perspective is always a valuable thing. Sometimes, we do need that mirror to be held up to our faces about the darker part of human living. I feel like Little Rot does a decent job of that.

2.5/5

Full disclosure, I mostly read this book because I was curious about cozy mysteries and the character is half Asian with an ethnic mom and a white dad, just like me.

I don't feel fair criticizing the things I want to be critical about in this book because most of them are staples of cozy mystery books. I don't want to sound like I'm shaming people for liking the things that these books are known for.

So, I'll just leave my short and simple thoughts right here: as cute and relatable as this book was, I unfortunately don't think it was for me. It followed what I perceived to be the usual cozy mystery formula with all of the usual cliches and tropes you can expect. There's nothing in this book that surprises or shakes things up. I think the main thing that makes it stand out is the fact that it's Asian. But there's nothing wrong with that! This is a funny, light-hearted, and easy read, and if that's what you're looking for, you'll enjoy this book.

I gave the book an extra half-star for how relatable the main character is to me and the fact that we share the same opinion on the word “oriental.”

🎵 Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me. 🎵

I was doing a marathon of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and when I got to On Stranger Tides, I was surprised to learn that it was based on a book--<i>this</i> book.

I actually haven’t heard of this novel, even though it’s a classic and winner of multiple awards. It’s inspired more than Pirates of the Caribbean; the classic point-and-click games from Lucasfilm, Monkey Island, were also inspired by Tim Powers’ fantasy story (according to Wikipedia, at least). After learning about this, I wanted to read it first before watching the movie. I didn’t know what to expect, to be honest. The only thing I knew about the story inside was what the official blurb told me. A complete blind dive into this book.

It was a delight through and through!

I was expecting a fun and solid adventure, and that's what I got! I didn't expect to be so enthralled with the adventure and even with the characters. I mean, some parts even got me a little emotional, and I was so surprised when it happened. It was a case of where I didn't even see it coming. I was listening to the story on the audiobook, nodding along and thinking "yes, this is all quite interesting. This is pretty fun to listen to." I wasn't expecting to get as emotionally invested as I did. Until the very last seconds of the book, I was on the edge of my seat and listening intently, begging and hoping that Jack and Beth would make it out okay.

The story has a great progression; it started as what you'd expect for a typical sea-faring excursion and then ramped it up with fantastical elements. I saw the skeleton pirate on the front of the first edition cover and was intrigued. When the heck does that come into play in this book, which seems like a jaunty old tale of a crew of misfits sailing the seven seas? And then when it did start happening...how exhilarating! The atmosphere, the tension, it all made for excellent listening. This book has all the great aspects of a good adventure story: action, thrills, a helping of magic, and a dash of romance.

I very much respect Powers' prose, too. His imagery was excellent; even listening to it painted such vivid pictures for me. The scene in the jungle...I won't say any more, but one of my favorite parts of the story. Incredibly chilling, creeped me out at certain points.

I have a huge soft spot for anything with a touch of whimsy in it, and On Stranger Tides is no exception. My favorite part is that there are a couple of points in the story that are borderline ridiculous, but because Powers still gives them weight, they don't come off as contrived or something made for simply a throwaway gag. There's a part with some puppet strings and an old magician...once again, I will not spoil it. But if you know, you know. It was equal parts hilarious and exciting.

Overall, the book is the hallmark of a classic adventure. I can see why it's been seen as a significant source of inspiration. "Fun" describes this book perfectly, in my opinion. If I have any complaints, it's that I do wish we learned a bit more about Elizabeth Hurwood, to get the same kind of devotion towards her that Jack does. There are things to admire about her, but in a book where a lot of characters get the chance to open up about their backgrounds, Beth was conspicuously blank to me. Admittedly, there are things in this book that I think haven't aged well. Some of the descriptors of the black characters in the book were a little weird. They're not outwardly malicious, and I would hesitate to say outright racist. With a little acknowledgment and introspection, it doesn't detract too much. Perhaps you could make the argument that because this book is set in the 1700s, it reflects the attitudes of the people during those days. And honestly, none of the black characters from what I remember are outright slaves and tend to be treated as equals to everyone else (if made fun of, but once again, they're not the only ones). One of these black characters I found to be a compelling character in his own right, and for a book set in the 1700s, I think that's neat!

Honestly, my biggest complaint comes from the audiobook reading of it. It was mostly fine, but some of the voices that the narrator did were very grating. Sure, it was immersive, but having to hear a screechy falsetto or hearing him anytime Shanks spoke wasn't a pleasant listening experience.

But a very, very fun book. Now, I'm a little sad. I feel like I made a mistake reading this book before watching the corresponding Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I'm sure I'll like the book much more and the movie much less.