Saturday, April 14, 2007

I can't find anything I like.

Fablehaven, by Brandon Mul. This one was good, actually. It was imaginative, but realistic enough. The writing was good, appropriate for the reading level. Hurrah for full sentences. By a Lady, by Amanda Elyot. I wasn't very impressed with this one. I felt the author was forcing herself to use language she felt was proper or appropriate for the genre, and it just felt unnatural. The plot line was predictable and all in all rather boring. Hattie Big Sky, by Kirby Larson. Although the story didn't have much of a climax and the last few chapters were a bit of a let-down, the book as a whole was good. It gave a better picture of the time and work without romanticizing or downplaying the less pretty parts. The writing was appropriate for its age group and hurrah for full sentences. The Voyage of the Continental, by Katherine Kirkpatrick. I wasn't such a fan of this book either. The high points in the plot that were meant to move it along weren't in fact very exciting for the reader; although I'm sure they were exciting for the main character, she is somewhat less rich in experience than your average 13-year-old. I didn't particularly like the writing style and sentence structure, but there is nothing wrong with it. Maybe the voice wasn't as well developed as it could be, but it was ok. Meridon, by Phillipa Gregory. This book took me forever, because it was pretty crappy and I didn't want to have to actually read it, I just wanted to know what happened. The writing was very poor: things happened that were out of character, characters said and did things because the author wanted them to and because probably other readers expected them to, but not because the story needed it.. There was not enough growth between a character's initial position and later action, and that rather ruined most of the second half. It would have been much better, much more in keeping with the characters how they were set up, and a much more original work, if the author had let the characters carry the story instead of stuffing what were otherwise good characters into a story they didn't really fit. The first half was pretty good, all things considered. The Vale of the Vole, by Piers Anthony. This looks like a long series, and in many ways the book was actually pretty good. It was imaginative, based on more traditional mythologies, but not clinging so closely that it loses its original feeling. The only thing is that there are places were the action is not described in as much detail as it could be, so the reader is left not really knowing what's going on.

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