Things I read during February
Mar. 29th, 2007 12:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
roadrunnertwiceTransmetropolitan, by Warren Ellis; vols. 1-4. The impression I got before checking Transmetropolitan out was that the reason to read it was for the pissiness and iconoclasm and misanthropy. This is not the case. The reason to read Transmetropolitan is for the sorrow, and for the beaten, defeated, heartsick sense of love. This series leaves me exhausted, angry, woozy, and hurt, and I love it.
Yendi, by Steven Brust. Better than Jhereg. Suspension of disbelief still stumbled a few times, but Vlad felt significantly more solid and real. Also, don't listen to anything I say about the "progress" of this series; this outing was published when I was two.
Bleach, by Tite Kubo; vols. 1-3. I don't know exactly why I started watching the anime on YouTube, but I actually liked it, so I got the manga from the library. (I really prefer reading to watching; it's a rare-ish attention-span disorder.) Anyway, it's really good! It's an established/clichéd genre,1 sure, but it's well-executed, and Kubo has a really good sense of characterization. I like the surly main character, and his younger sisters and stupid dad, and the growly de-powered Soul Reaper who has to show him the ropes.
I especially like that Rukia is totally believable as an immortal spiritual entity. Sure, she looks 20, but she has the fashion sense of a 50-year-old (Christ, did you see what she was wearing in the Don Kanonji episode?), and the perfect mix of vast perspective and total cluelessness.
Magic or Madness and Magic Lessons, by Justine Larbalestier. These are from a YA trilogy that everyone's been talking about. They're roughly as good as people say they are. The plot is based on the ugly tradeoffs that the magic system engenders: anyone born with serious magical ability has to use their magic at least once a week or risk a total mental collapse, but using magic uses you up; most users don't live to 25. The result is a nicely apocalyptic sort of milieu: no one understands the teenage protagonists, and they've no capacity to plan for any future further than next week, which, ultimately, is what being a teenager feels like in the first place.
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1. High schooler is recruited to fight forces of darkness, while trying to maintain a normal life on the side.
Yendi, by Steven Brust. Better than Jhereg. Suspension of disbelief still stumbled a few times, but Vlad felt significantly more solid and real. Also, don't listen to anything I say about the "progress" of this series; this outing was published when I was two.
Bleach, by Tite Kubo; vols. 1-3. I don't know exactly why I started watching the anime on YouTube, but I actually liked it, so I got the manga from the library. (I really prefer reading to watching; it's a rare-ish attention-span disorder.) Anyway, it's really good! It's an established/clichéd genre,1 sure, but it's well-executed, and Kubo has a really good sense of characterization. I like the surly main character, and his younger sisters and stupid dad, and the growly de-powered Soul Reaper who has to show him the ropes.
I especially like that Rukia is totally believable as an immortal spiritual entity. Sure, she looks 20, but she has the fashion sense of a 50-year-old (Christ, did you see what she was wearing in the Don Kanonji episode?), and the perfect mix of vast perspective and total cluelessness.
Magic or Madness and Magic Lessons, by Justine Larbalestier. These are from a YA trilogy that everyone's been talking about. They're roughly as good as people say they are. The plot is based on the ugly tradeoffs that the magic system engenders: anyone born with serious magical ability has to use their magic at least once a week or risk a total mental collapse, but using magic uses you up; most users don't live to 25. The result is a nicely apocalyptic sort of milieu: no one understands the teenage protagonists, and they've no capacity to plan for any future further than next week, which, ultimately, is what being a teenager feels like in the first place.
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1. High schooler is recruited to fight forces of darkness, while trying to maintain a normal life on the side.