Adam

As much as I enjoy books stealing ideas and remaking stories (like Fuzzy Nation or Orson Scott Card's Enchanted), Lev Grossman has soured me on the concept for a while.

I was not a big fan of the first book of this series, The Magicians. I thought it was really well written and had some great ideas. But I just did not like the characters. But I still wanted to read the second book. It was written so well, I figured the second would have to be better.

After having read it, I think this opening line from an Amazon review gets it exactly right. "Joyless, dismal, and cynically nihilistic--that was the first novel in this series."

This book I think is just as well written, but even more cynical. The characters have not learned anything. At least in the first book they were teens and might have some justification for being self centered. Now they are older. They are kings and queens in a Narnia like world where they have everything they could ever want. The economy is magical so everyone is prosperous. There is very little fighting or disagreement. And there is even the occasional quest to go on.

But Quentin, the main character, is never happy. In the last book he found everything he wanted, he was a magician, he had a wonderful girlfriend, he could get anything he wanted and he even found a way to Fillory, the setting of the series of magical books that he loved as a child. And he threw it all away because he thought that the next thing might make him happier. And it didn't. No surprise there.

In this book he is doing the same thing. He has everything he could ever want, but it is not enough. So he keeps risking things to get more. And nothing is ever satisfying for him.

The best part of the book was that it spent a lot of time on Julia's back story. Julia joined the last book right at the end. She was a childhood friend of Quentin's but she did not get into the magical school and instead learned magic on her own.

Hers is a story of depression, addiction, rejection of her family and pursuit of a goal as if nothing (including herself) matters. It is one of the better written portrayals of depression that I have read. But because it is Grossman, the story is cynical and lacks all hope.

Even the fantasy elements seemed missing in this book. There are lot of actions, like a war that includes dragons, but so much happens off the page. There is a quest (pretty much exactly like the Voyage of the Dawn Treader) but much of it happens while Quentin is gone and is dismissed in a couple of sentences. These powerful magicians seem to have almost forgotten that they can do magic in most of the book.

There is clearly a third book on the way because this book ended on a cliff hangers. But I would advice most people to just skip these first two books. There is so little redeeming value in them that if you have not started I would say don't. If you have read the first one, wait until the third one is out to see if it is any good before reading the second.

I also want to note that this book continues to be full of language, sex and a lot of drinking. There is also one graphic rape scene that came out of no where and I though added nothing to the story. This is just a book I would encourage most people to stay away from.

Short Review: Gaffigan is funny. My kind of funny. Simple stories about his life and how hard it is. He loves his kids, wife, life and his laziness. I can relate to all of it. The only thing that keeps me from rating it higher is that if you have seen Gaffigan live or on his tv specials you probably have heard about 20-25 percent of the book already. If you don't know Gaffigan, then it is probably a 4 star book. If you are a fan, then then this is probably a 3 star book.

My full review is on my blog.

I have been wanting to read a full length Ann Patchett novel since listening to her short audible exclusive on marriage a year or so ago.

But all of the subjects of her books are so tragic that I keep putting it off. So I finally picked this one up and it was all I had hoped it would be. Beautiful language, perfect descriptions, tragic results.

If you like contemporary fiction, this is a very good example of solid literary fiction with very good narration and very good story line.

But I will wait a while until I pick up another one of these beautifully tragic books.

I thought it was ok. The narration was good, but the actual story suffers from the problem of historical fiction where all of the heros are more modern than all the bad guys (which are hopelessly stuck in the old ways of doing things.)

But I listened to it the whole way through and enjoyed it. But I probably will not be reading the rest of the series

This series was recommended to me about 3 years ago by a friend but I didn't start reading it until the beginning of last month. Since then I have finished four book in the series and already picked up the fifth.

The first three I read on kindle, but when I saw this was whispersync enabled (and that I can get both the kindle and the audible version for just a little more than the audio version on its own, I bought it that way.

I listened to most of this, but read a little bit. The audio narration is very good. In the series this is the first (and only) narrated by someone that is not a clergy member.

The series could be called Christian Fiction. But I am hesitant to use that label because I usually hate Christian fiction. This is not the overly sentimental, knock you over the head with the gospel and all turns out ok in the end once everyone becomes a Christian type of Christian fiction.

Instead this is a type of fiction that takes seriously a real faith in God, the reality of sin, the weakness of humanity and the redemption of sinners (even if the results of their sin can wreck the rest of their life.)

The whole series is a bit on the heady side. Often using a real or imagined work of theology to guide the story. In this case it is the real 1960s book Honest to God by Bishop Robinson (which is playing a fairly similar roll as Rob Bell's Love Wins).

This book picks up about 20 years later from the end of Ultimate Prizes with Neville (now calling himself Stephen). He has continued to take 'scandalous risks' and continued his drinking and now has started an emotional affair with his daughter's friend (and the daughter of one of his best friends). The story goes further but I will not reveal more.

For a series that is not given to sentimental happy endings, this is even more bleak than the previous three books. But it seems honest.

I would read the whole series, it is worth it.

This is the seventh book of le Carré's that I have read in the last six months or so, most on audiobook. And it is definatly in the top half. Not sure the exact position, but le Carré seems to get the right balance of telling the reading what we need to know, but keeping us just enough in the dark to keep the mystery present.

Smiley's People is better than the Honorable Schoolboy and I think a great conclusion to the Karla trilogy.

For those that are interested in Christian history and/or Christian understanding of wealth and economics this new book by Peter Brown is well worth paying attention to. It is long, but detailed look at the late Roman Empire. There are several places where Brown is going against the common understanding of that time period, but I think he well documents them.

The narration is fine, although there are so many foreign words (ancient Greek, Latin, Italian, etc) and some of them are not pronounced the way I think is right. I may be wrong, but it was a bit irritating. But the reading was good and the book was worth reading.

Historic novel about the 17th century persecution of Christianity in Japan and a meditation about the Silence of God - A perfect book to read on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. This is a deeply morally ambiguous novel. It properly de-romanticizes persecution and martyrdom and at the same time explores the role of Judas as a model (not sure that is the right word) for us all. This is a book well worth reading, but I can understand why many are hostile or ambulant about its message.

This is not a book that has an easy message (Christian or not). Where is God in the pain? What does it mean to follow Christ? Can we reject God and love him at the same time.

The audio has some issues that I am not sure are intentional or not. Several times that are audible breathing and sniffing sounds that might be appropriate for the book, but feel out of place. The reader is fine, I am just not sure about the editing.

This is the best bio of Lewis I have read and one that is well worth reading. It is a popular biography and McGrath says he is going to do a more academic biography later, which I look forward to. This one is highly readable and hits all of the right notes. McGrath had access to newly released letters and that seems to have made a big difference. There are some new details that have come out as a result of this biography and some may take issue with them, but McGrath seems to have documented them fairly well. I do wish there was more about Lewis' spiritual development. Other than the Inklings he does not seem to have had a Christian community around him, or at least it was not well discussed. I also wanted more about his interaction with his stepsons before and after their mother's death. And connected with the spiritual development I wish there had been more discussed about this theology.

In spite of the areas that were lacking this is still a 5 star biography.

My full review is on my blog.

I would like to give this a 2.5 star review because I think it has potential. But it needs a good story editor and it needs to figure out what it is trying to do. Conceptually the idea is good. What if the world biggest comic book fan was given super powers. Lots of good science fiction potential. I am not a huge fan of making the guy an idiot, but I can deal with that. There are some issues with story telling because a lot of the story feels like filler and some of the filler stories introduce problems into the plot (like how are there other superheros).

The biggest problem is probably not a problem for everyone. But as a Christian, I am not a fan of Christian fiction that knock you over the head with salvation and then all the problems go away. I don't think that is how the real world works. This story is a superhero story and then makes a hard right turn into a divorce story of the superhero because he is a dufus that hasn't actually paid any attention to his wife and family and refuses to talk about the fact that he is now a superhero. Of course she is going to leave him. And the anti-marriage divorce lawyer also just minimize the potential of real problems instead of making the story better.

I like the potential. I picked up the second book in the series and I think I will read it eventually. But it was not a great book.

My full review is on my blog.

I read a lot of books. And this has continued to be my favorite book of the last decade. I have read it twice in paper and twice on audiobook. I love the audiobook. The alternating voices of the two leads really adds to the book.

I have no idea what the previous reviewer is talking about. This book is not marxist or anti-Christian.