will_cherico's reviews
400 reviews

The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks

adventurous emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I'm shaking my fist and yelling "BROOKS!" As I write this because he wrote a fantastic one-half of a fantasy epic, and the other half is absolutely NOTHING! Wil and Amberle's quest is a neat concept and its conclusion is a fantastic culmination of both Allanon's standoffish manipulativeness and the idea that Elvish magic centers and amplifies the self. BUT, Wil and Amberle have no chemistry, Wil's arc is frustratingly similar to Shea's in the "believe in yourself" department, and it's just very uninteresting overall. Especially when compared to the story of Ander Elessedil, who is told "Your job is to hold back the demons as they flood in from the Forbidding; you have no way of winning, and many will die, but you know it's for a greater good." That is an incredible story, and I almost wish the entire book was just that plotline. Brook's potential is so there and I'll pick up the third Shannara book if I can find it, but God I wish he could be more consistent in his quality.

Haïta the Shepherd by Ambrose Bierce

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

It's a pretty straightforward, cynical morality tale about how we neglect what we have to try and pursue something else. Ignoring the first mention of Hastur, a lot more chill than he would later become, this one's pretty unremarkable except for the part where a woman makes a sexual advance on Haïta and he says "wow, I wish you were a man because we would totally be bros."

An Inhabitant of Carcosa by Ambrose Bierce

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I love reading the proto-proto Cthulhu Mythos. This is a pretty neat story. I like the idea of feeling so disconnected that you feel like a ghost personified, and I feel like there's certainly something here (as in many of Bierce's stories) about life after war. It's mostly just a man walking through some ruins and meeting some animals and a hunter, but it definitely feels like there's more to dig into underneath.

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

challenging tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I’m always impressed by thrillers that manage to confine their story to one or two settings, and Michael Crichton manages to do it in the context of a series of tests and studies. Crichton’s writing style keeps things exciting with admittedly slightly one sided characters that you can still root for, and most (emphasis on most, not all) of the concepts are explained in a way that’s relatively easy to understand. I love the “nonfiction” framing device, and I’m genuinely impressed at how Crichton is obviously interested in this topic. God what I’d give to have a government this competent. 

Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

The Weird of the White Wolf by Michael Moorcock

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

WOW. I was loving the Elric saga so far but this one cemented him as one of the best fantasy protagonists I've read. Ending the first story with his accidental slaying of Cymoril because of his naivete and desire for vengeance was an inspired choice, but ending the final story with him taking off after Theleb K'aarna out of a desire for vengeance? Fantastic. He's barely learned anything, and he's absolutely doomed. This entry in the series has served the best as the deconstruction of the high fantasy genre that Michael Moorcock intended. Elric as a hero is constantly torn between an addiction-like need for extreme violence (embodied by Stormbringer, which refuses to be sheathed until it ends a life) and a need for peace, love, and solitude. He's an intentional contradiction that perfectly reflects both the ultra-macho stoicism of Conan the Barbarian and the more emotional-yet-still-ruthless Aragorn. In Moorcock's mind they're all the same - commanded by the sword, a thing whose primary purpose is to kill. 
Moonglum is a nice addition to Elric's travels, in large part because he's a lot more positive to the angry prince. I also love Moorcock's subversions of the idea of a deus ex machina. Elric regularly calls on random gods and Chaos Lords to appear out of thin air, but it's never without a price. He's regularly destroying his reputation, killing allies, and the like. It perfectly showcases the extremely harsh world of the Young Kingdoms. This is the one that's got me all in on Elric. I'm with him until his inevitably tragic end.

The Sailor on the Seas of Fate by Michael Moorcock

adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Very mixed feelings on this Elric entry. On one hand, I was a huge fan of the first and third stories; seeing Elric sail with Dorian Hawkmoon and other incarnations of the Eternal Champion (as well as slowly beginning to figure out who they are and what their relation is to Tanelorn) was super fun, and the increasing sentience of Stormbringer as well as Arioch's threat to Elric that he's kickstarted something terrible is setting up later stuff really well. My big issue is how disjointed the book feels. Apparently Moorcock didn't really intend for these three stories to be published together as one book, and it shows. They're only loosely connected by the idea of voyages at sea, and while Moorcock's incredible setting definitely helps - the blind captain and mute steersman of the Dark Ship, the Boiling Sea, the Crimson Gate, etc. - but the nonlinearity made the stakes feel very low... that is, at least until the end of Sailing to the Past. Admittedly that does mean it made the ending all that much more shocking, so maybe my criticism is misguided. 
Furthermore, huge credit to Moorcock. His prose is such a good blend of poetic description and brutal realism, and it creates a type of fantasy setting that I don't think can really be replicated.

Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl by Michael Moorcock

adventurous dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

While I preferred the plot of the first book, Moorcock's writing style clearly improved in between these two stories. He works in ideas about willful ignorance driving a political system and expands on the ideas of addiction that Stormbringer represents in a way that feel more fleshed out than book 1, and his descriptions of the locations Elric and Oone pass by on their way to the pearl are beautiful. Knowing it was published after the rest of these stories, I'm curious to see how the writing style "regresses" with The Sailor on the Seas of Fate.

Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is a super intriguing book and a great introduction to the larger multiverse of Moorcock after finishing his Dorian Hawkmoon quadrilogy. Elric is a disabled philosopher emperor whose hedonist land of Melniboné makes for an incredible setting, supplemented by Moorcock's impressive and never intrusive worldbuilding. There isn't a bit of fat on this story - it's all the best parts of contemplative and pulpy fantasy, and the finale of Elric's chase after his evil cousin Yrkoon sets up the next entry perfectly.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

Twilight has been dragged through the mud in a way that no other series has (especially in a way no series made for BOYS has), and I really wanted to approach this book with an open mind when I read it. Let me say to begin with that I can absolutely understand that not only am I not the target demographic for this book in the slightest, but I can also absolutely see how this would be so popular with preteen girls. It's easy to read and it fulfills a very basic fantasy of what a relationship with a mysterious man would look like to someone who's never been in a relationship. Unfortunately, I thought this book was pretty disastrous. Edward's behavior towards Bella is genuinely sickening to the point where no part of the book works as a romance (not even as a dark romance, as we're expected to root for Edward unconditionally throughout). The characters are entirely one-sided, the plot doesn't kick in until the last third of the book, and the whole thing is oozing with this gross, hyper-conservative religious bent that peaks with Bella blaming herself for if she were to be raped (to which Edward agrees and the reader is expected to agree with). It doesn't even have enough so-bad-it's-good moments to call it a fun read. I suppose it's better YA fiction than anything Ernest Cline's ever written, but good lord is this awful.