Monday, December 01, 2003

Rapid Reviews - 26 November 2003 - Part III

Justice League: The Secret Society: Any time you end the first half of a story with the break-up of the title team, you've got the start of something good. Add in an intelligent supervillain team led by one of the best in the supervillain business and you've got a winner. And, unlike superfriends, this Justice League grows and changes. The problems they had with each other this time won't go completely away. A very strong episode. 4 starfish

Ruule: Ganglords of Chinatown #1: I came within inches of ordering this one, but didn't. Thus I was surprised to see it in my shop. Turns out the shop owner got some issues as part of a promotion. Good promotion, pity that the book isn't better. There's just a little too much gore and a little too little story. There were exactly four pages that I liked, the rest were just so much garbled nothing. There isn't anything here for a reader like me. 2 1/2 starfish

Dragon's Kin: by Anne and Todd McCaffrey. I pre-ordered this with my tiny amount of credit from my bookshop. I just couldn't resist a new Pern novel, and the credit almost covered the price of the book with shipping. My fascination with Pern goes a long way back, all the way to when I was but a wee lassie discovering that I really liked to read, and I read so fast that finding enough material suitable to my age level was difficult. My mother, bless her, also reads fast and was very good at directing my attention away from stuff that really was too advanced for me. I don't know who introduced me to Pern. It was probably my big brother. In any case, I quickly devoured every available tale, then waited impatiently for more. To my immense surprise, we learned that Anne McCaffrey herself was doing a signing in our hometown. We went down and got in line, and I met Anne and had her sign all my ragtag collection that I owned at that point. I still have those books, and read them every once in awhile.

Getting back to this book, like the last few Pern stories it's written at a lower reading level. It's not an adult book so much as a young adult novel. That doesn't bother me at all, but might bother other readers. In addition, the Pern books have developed a level of formula to them. While I would say that this one has a bit of that, it diverges enough, and has exploration of an unexplored theme, that I didn't mind it at all. Again, some people will no doubt find it annoying. This book is also set fairly early in Pern history, so you don't see any familiar faces from previous books. I can't say I was disappointed. I started the book soon after it arrived, then realized I needed to read it in one sitting. I stayed up last night until I finished it. 4 starfish

Still to review: Amazing Spider-Man, Superman: The Kansas Sighting, and Usagi Yojimbo.

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