Llew's Reviews

I read this one less than a day after it had been released. Oh yes, I had to wait for a week while I stood inches away from boxes of the book before I could get my grubby hands on it to read it. The stress of having to be patient might have caused both ulcers and hives.

Scholastic and Rowling: expect to receive my angry missives in your mailbox soon!

I can’t believe I unwittingly got myself involved in another YA fantasy series – foiled again!

Also, it took me until the second book to realize the author must be LDS. Double-suckered – my book-spidey senses are failing me!

An incredibly crafted children’s story set in London, or rather, Un-London. With various wordplay and inventions it’s an incredibly clever tale. Almost too much so. If I were into clever, I would have never gone to school in Utah (bum-dum-dum).

I wonder if all of Mieville’s work is like this. I had wanted to try more of his novels which is normally geared toward adults, but this is my first delve into his work. I like his style overall but if it’s all so overly-stylized in turning words and ideas around I could see it getting tiresome in a Piers Anthony kind of way rather quickly. And if it’s one thing a fantasy author should strive for it’s being the Anti-Anthony.

As a bookseller, it gets tiring to hear every other book lauded as The Next Harry Potter. Whenever I read the fantasy section of the YA catalogs, my eyes are permanently set on “roll.”

And this one is not the next Harry Potter – but it sure is good. I still haven’t gotten my grubby hands on the second installment. However, the first one works well by itself and is a good recommended read – especially on the middle school level. Also, there’s no way I would drink unpasteurized milk from an overgrown cow – no matter what it allowed me to see.

At least it wasn’t a vampire novel! Although, I don’t know in the fantasy hierarchy where wolverines fall. Perhaps I was taking a step down after all.

A customer bought this book from me two years ago and then tried to return it. She explained to me it was a reading list book (huh?) from Mr. X. I know very well the AP English teacher never assigned this semi-tawdry tale, but I was so very amused and I generally like this customer. Thus, I accepted the return. Then, I read it for myself. It was fun – like the wolverine version of Robin McKinley’s “Sunshine” but not as great.

I finished this series, and I STILL don’t have my own armored bear. CHEATED.

A good side to being behind the times and getting to this series so late is that I could read them all at one time. If I had to have waited for months or years in anticpation for the trifle that book #2 was I would have cut someone in front of their own daemon. “The Subtle Knife” was just a slapped together stepping stone in between two really good books. I was really happy with how the story ended, even though (or maybe because) it wasn’t your usually Fairy Tale/Happily Ever After conclusion.

Before I started, I had heard this series detailed as the “Anti Narnia” which is quite the apt description. At first, I thought I would get annoyed with all of the incredibly obvious parallels but it didn’t turn out to be TOO preachy. It was more than I like, but not insufferable. I still don’t quite understand how it turned into such a bestselling series. It’s OK but I can’t see myself highly recommending it to anyone over something else.

Icy!

What a lame-o ending to an otherwise good story and series.

In honor of Harry Potter coming out I’m focusing most of my reading on YA series. I finally got off my duff and started this trilogy which I should have been done with ages ago. So far, it’s really good!

It was a little slow to begin with, but by the end I was smacking myself that I hadn’t already bought the second book in the series so I could immediately hop into the next novel. Of course, that would be the only time in my life I wanted to plunge myself into a knife, subtle or not.

Pretty good … for a Mormon.

I knew I finally had to get off my duff to read this one when my teenage niece was talking about how she read it “way back in” like she was a Nam Vet. At least I got it in before I turned 30 – whew.

They should have entitled this one, “The Suck.”

And I was so looking forward to it as well. So excited that when I bought my copy I was jumping up and down while clapping. Plus, I was EXPECTING a bad ending. I just thought it would be bad as far as the poor orphans, not bad as in the writing and lack of the usual wit.

I don’t even have the heart to tell others as I sell it to them at the store. It is the end of the series and people are going to read it no matter what I say so I just try to keep from looking miserable.