Review: Willful Child

Willful ChildWillful Child by Steven Erikson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5 stars, rounding up.

I'm rounding up because I thought this was a successful break for Erikson from his Malazan series, and it was well written, for the most part.

But it got on my nerves. Part of that is my limited patience with comedy/parody. I like funny, but after the joke has been told I like to laugh and move on. When you stay on the joke for too long, it loses its funny.

As a Star Trek parody, this was pretty funny. If it had been the length of a novella, I would probably have liked it a lot more. As it was, it dragged on too long to keep me amused.

Though I did laugh at the battle near the end, (view spoiler) Some of the dialogue was pretty good. All in all, Erikson did a good job with his story. Not everyone can pull off the humor as long as Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams can.

View all my reviews

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Things Get Ugly: The Best Crime Fiction of Joe R. Lansdale

Image
Things Get Ugly: The Best Crime Fiction of Joe R. Lansdale by Joe R. Lansdale My rating: 4 of 5 stars I received an eARC of this title from the publisher through NetGalley... Joe R. Lansdale knows how to craft a story, with an instinctive grasp of character development. His language is such that he connects with readers and makes the task of reading an enjoyable escape. While all of the stories in this book fall into the "crime" category, this is a very loose grouping. There is such a mixed bag of offerings here, from the noir to the really freaking weird. As with most collections, some stories hit with me better than others, but there really aren't any duds here. View all my reviews
Read more

Review: Biography of a Phantom: A Robert Johnson Blues Odyssey

Image
Biography of a Phantom: A Robert Johnson Blues Odyssey by Robert Mack McCormick My rating: 5 of 5 stars I received an ARC of this audiobook from the publisher through NetGalley. I didn't know what to expect here, thinking it would be interesting to read a biography of blues legend Robert Johnson. This was more than that, though. Less too, but mostly more... No, this was more of a memoir of the biographer of Robert Johnson, in his quest to track down and speak with people that knew Robert Johnson. Mack McCormick had an interesting journey himself, and it was the mystery of Johnson's barely documented past that made this so intriguing.. Memoir, biography, mystery, and cultural study. All of that and more... View all my reviews
Read more

Review: Bookshops & Bonedust

Image
Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree My rating: 3 of 5 stars I received an audio ARC and ebook ARC from the publisher through NetGalley. This was an entertaining followup to the breakout novel, Legends & Lattes . While not as solid a story as that told in the first book, this prequel adds quite a bit of backstory to the main character of both novels, Viv. Although as a prequel this novel is set some years before the first published book, I would recommend reading Legends & Lattes first. It serves as a better introduction to the characters and settings. Also, this book has an epilogue that is set after the events of both books. On a final note, Travis Baldree does the audio reading of this book himself, and he is excellent at capturing the characters and keeping the story moving.... View all my reviews
Read more