Micro Mention "A Darker Shade of Magic"

After a bit of a slow start for me, this novel, "A Darker Shade of Magic," by V.E. Schwab, ramps up nicely and takes an interesting tact on parallel universes via the fantasy route instead of science fiction.

The atmosphere in this novel is probably its most gripping feature to me. The Londons are all very different places, but they all feel like threatening and dangerous places in their own ways. The sense of mystery and dread Schwab manages to instill in this book made it so that I couldn't stop reading it by about the middle.

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"The Plantagenets" by Dan Jones--Nonfiction Review

For this review, we’re taking a deep dive into English history with “The Plantagenets,” written by Dan Jones. It’s a book about early English Kings and the royal family that surrounded them.

What I love about this book:

This is the third book by Dan Jones I’ve read, and I absolutely adore how he tells history. He captured my attention because he’d taken the time to flesh out each historical figure with who they were, what their strengths and weaknesses were, what their ambitions were, and what their family was like around them.

He also takes the time to highlight how certain Kings were tied to popular myth, like Richard the Lionheart and his younger brother John, King of England. Both Kings were prominent side characters in most versions of the legend of Robin Hood—in some, Robin even goes crusading with Richard. John was presented as more of a vicious idiot in the myth. In the actual history presented by Jones, John was undoubtedly vicious but wasn’t exactly an idiot. He was more short-sighted.

A lot of this book reads like a generational family drama novel. Presenting the book that way, Jones helped cement for me who, when, where, and under what circumstances these people lived. I found it fascinating how the descendants of Kings had their lives shaped and directed by circumstances informed by their ancestors long before they ever took over and ruled for themselves. Then watching over the years covered in this book as they either rose to the occasion and ruled well or… not so well.

What I don’t love about this book:

Maybe this is because I’m an American and Jones is British, but I found him a little too enamored with his subjects—at times. The only Kings I like are in fantasy books, and in reality, I feel the only good King is a deposed King. For me, Kings and Queens, Emperors and Empresses, are just dictators who typically have God complexes. I’m vehemently against anything that sounds like a right to rule is a birthright and that some people are just super extra awesome because they had the right incestuous parents.

Narratively this book subtly shows its hand revealing a preference for one King over another and genuine like for some. The first part I can understand—I guess—the second not at all. 

A thing I just generally don’t like about history and isn’t specific with this book is how long we as a species played along with this game of; that some people, by virtue of their station in society, are just special. We, as the un-special, are not only required to regard them as such but to also love them. And we’re supposed to regard it as an absolute tragedy when their rich kid gets drunk with all his friends, crashes their expensive—yet poorly designed—white ship into some rocks, and drowns because they all wear stupidly heavy fancy clothes that just soak up the water. I know it’s vicious, and I’m not proud of the schadenfreude, but maybe that bit should have been in the “what I love about this book” section.

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Author's Website: http://www.georginacapel.com/our-authors/dan-jones/

Parting thoughts:

To me, it feels like some of us have vacillated back to the idea of admiration for “the strong man” of government. Without getting too far in the “well, both sides do it” navel-gazing, because I find when someone wants to tell me about how the left is just as bad as the right, they’re about to reveal that they don’t actually have any real ideas of their own on how to fix things. Yes, both sides of what is widely accepted as the political spectrum have engaged in propping up a “strong man” as head of the government and supreme authority in various places all over the Earth.

Now, that aside, a King is really the ultimate conservative ideal. A man—appointed by God himself—is bestowed magically through birth inheritance with all the skills and wisdom he will ever need to rule his lessers via divine providence. He may be a flawed instrument, but no matter what, no matter how many lies he speaks or how provably wrong he is shown to be, he has to be correct—because God sent him.

There are many, many reasons why I don’t like that prospect. Mainly though, it’s because it’s the same fucking story countless tyrants have told us about why they are in charge and why we, the peasantry, should be just THRILLED to send our sons and daughters to die in some distant land.

I agree with the founding fathers of the United States on this topic. No one should be King. In that name or any other. No one is special from birth. Though that last bit has been a point of lively debate over the years, so much so that we fought a bloody civil war over it.

"Off to Be the Wizard," by Scott Meyer--Fiction Review

So for this Friday, I thought I’d reign it in a bit and talk about some lighter fare. Today’s review will be of Scott Meyer’s “Off to Be the Wizard.” Every time I re-read this quirky science fiction novel, it never fails to put me in a good mood. 

***The Non-Spoiler part of this review***

What I love about this book:

It takes an existential concept, i.e., that reality is an illusion—like the matrix—and further points out that all of human existence is equally fictional, we’re not trapped in a simulation, but products of that simulation. All of which would be normally weighty and frightening and turns the concept on its head, and makes it funny. That idea is the very soul of comedy, taking an idea that is tragic and creating laughter.

Finding the computer file that controls all of reality inevitably leads to Martin trying to use it to make himself rich. This, of course, doesn’t go exactly as planned because you can’t just suddenly create millions of dollars in your checking account without someone, namely someone in law enforcement, from noticing. What I love about all of this is his back up plan is to use the file to time travel back in time to the dark ages in England and set himself up as a wizard. I’d do that—that would be me too.

Without spoiling too much—I love that the governing principles of the wizards in “Off to Be the Wizard” are as follows: be cool, don’t be a dick, let’s eat all the junk food we want because there are no consequences so long as you observe the first two principles. After all, we’re freaking wizards!

What I don’t love about this book:

Nerdy characters who are pathologically bad with women, to an unbelievable scale, is my chief dislike with this book. Martin himself is only moderately bad with women. Still, the other wizards with the possible exceptions of Phillip and Jimmy, are stock character terrible with them—and that’s a bit lazy characterization.  

The urgency of the pacing of this novel becomes sedentary once Martin starts his training to become a wizard. Mainly this part of the story is to immerse you in the world and give you the time to meet the other wizards, and this is all fine, assuming you like those things, but if you don’t, then the middle of the book is going to be a slog. I was unbothered by it, because other than the women thing above, I found myself liking most of the characters in this novel, so mentally “hanging” out with them for a while was good enough for me. But this means the whole book has that sandwich quality I’ve talked about before—all the vital action bits happen at the beginning and end of the novel. 

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Author's Website: https://www.scottmeyer.rocks/

***The Spoiler part of this review***

***Ye be warned to turn back now***