Thursday, May 24th, 2012
Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
First off, I feel inclined to note that I gave the novel 3 stars, but I really wanted to give it 3.5 stars. I enjoyed it and would recommend it to others, but I just didn’t love it.
I decided to grab this from Audible after hearing rave reviews from Tom and Veronica on the Sword and Laser podcast. They really talked it up and it had a pretty interesting premise so it felt like a no-brainer. To give a little background, Bitter Seeds is an alternate history set in Europe during World War II. In this retelling however, the British employ warlocks and the Germans basically have soldiers with superpowers.
Overall, I did enjoy it, but it definitely left something to be desired. The story wasn’t bad nor were the characters, but they also weren’t amazing. I never felt that invested in the characters (on either side). They were realistic enough, but were just somewhat flat. It’s hard to describe, because they weren’t poorly written or unlikeable…they were just kind of bland.
My biggest gripe with the story was the ending. I don’t want to spoil anything, but let’s just say the climax fell short. I wanted big explosions and high excitement–it seemed like that’s where things were going–but that’s not how it played out and I was a little underwhelmed.
My only other comment is about the narrator, Kevin Pariseau. Mr. Pariseau has narrated a lot of novels and I expect that he’s pretty well respected, but he just didn’t feel like a great fit to me. Most of the novel takes place it the UK and it just stands to reason that a British narrator would have been selected. The accents of the characters would have been a bit more convincing and I think it would have increased my enjoyment.
That said, it was a pretty fun read. It’s not very long either so it’s no major investment.
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Monday, May 7th, 2012
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was a difficult novel to rate. There were definitely things that I liked about it, but there were also some things that bothered me. I gave it a 3, but I think I would really prefer to give it a 3.5. I wanted to like this novel more, but I had a hard time getting past a few things.
#1 – A large part of the novel takes place at a school for magicians. Although I believe that Grossman wrote this largely as a response to Harry Potter and many things are very different, the novel is still very derivative. There are just so many similarities and I found myself comparing the two constantly. It was impossible not to.
I found it particularly bizarre when the characters referenced Harry Potter in the novel. I didn’t know what to make of that, but it just seemed weird.
#2 – All of the main characters have read this fantasy series about the magic realm of Fillory as children and it’s obviously meant to conjure up images of Narnia. But why isn’t it just Narnia? Why invent this separate world? It’s difficult to reconcile as a reader. Once again, I spent a lot of time comparing Fillory to Narnia, instead of being absorbed in that world.
In the world of the Magicians, Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings exist, but apparently The Chronicles of Narnia do not? That just feels like a cop out.
#3 – As a Buffalo area resident, I can’t say I was thrilled when Grossman referred to the city as a “vision of the apocalypse.” But then I realized that Grossman could not have ever actually been to Buffalo when in the next paragraph he described the sun setting against Adirondacks in the distance. If Grossman had even been to Buffalo, he would know that’s just laughable.
So what did I like?
#1 – I liked the story. It was a little predictable at times, but it wasn’t your standard hero story and that was somewhat refreshing.
#2 – I liked the characters. Even though they were all thoroughly flawed, they were still somewhat likable. If nothing else, I could relate to them, or at least Quentin.
Ultimately, I did enjoy the novel. It grabbed me and kept me interested. However, if a novel is really good, you should get completely immersed in the world, not spend the whole time comparing it to other (greater) works.
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Tags: Lev Grossman, The Magicians
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