Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Small Gods (Discworld, #13) by Terry Pratchett

Small Gods (Discworld, #13) Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book expands on the Discworld concept of gods. It also delves into belief, with the plot revolving around a god whose people live in a well established and complicated theocracy but nonetheless don't believe in him.

What's a small god to do when you've only got one believer left? I ended up liking this one a lot, and I'll smile all the more when I see turtles from now on.

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Monday, September 14, 2009

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Audiobook) by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Decided to listen to the last Harry Potter book. Jim Dale does an amazing job with narration, as I'd always heard was true. This is the first time to go back and re-read(listen to) this book since I read it when it first came out.

While the ending is amazing and does a great job wrapping up the series, I still can't say this is my favorite. I still feel you could remove about a third or more of this book and it wouldn't make much difference. From about the end of the wedding until they get the sword, the story seems to slow to a crawl for me.

I get the feeling that JKR had gotten to such a state of celebrity that no editor would dare tell here to trim it a bit. Also it felt like she was padding the middle a little to make the story last most of what would have been Harry's last year at school. A better tactic might have been having Harry at school for half the year, put the wedding around Christmas time, and then going on the run during the Spring... but hey, she didn't ask me.

But this is all arm chair author grumbling. Maybe when I write my own fiction series worth millions, someone can get all complain-y about what they think I did wrong. All in all, I loved the ending and all the Dumbledore stuff, so I think I'll just say it was great and leave it at that.

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Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Deldrimor Rank Title


 Finally got the Deldrimor Rank finished on Guild Wars. Ended up having to beat the finally boss in Eye of the North on Hard Mode to do it. Luckily Pain Inverter was my friend and the Great Destroyer did a number on himself. I was actually surprised at how fast he went down once I got across the lake of lava and started poking at him,

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Few More Books

So I got a few more books posted on this thing. I'll try and get some more done soon. On a side note I'm listening to the last Harry Potter book on CD right now. It's the second time through the book for me, the first being when I read it the weekend it came out. Long enough to forget almost all the details.

Some of my misgivings during the first read through have faded, but I still think the middle section where they're on the eternal camp out could be better. I'd almost rather be reading about what Ginny and the other Hogwarts students are doing that watching Harry and company scratching their heads. Seems like she could have interwoven the stories a bit... not being at Hogwarts for most of the book is my biggest reservation.

I was always bothered by how the trio were camping in the woods and happened to overhear a conversation between some wizards and goblins. To contrived that they'd just happen to hear key information while out in the middle of nowhere. If JK Rowling had them overhearing many conversations and then finally the one with the juicy tid-bits... that would've been more convincing.

I wouldn't mind it if someday she decided to go back and rewrite portions of the series from other character's perspectives. Longbottom, Ginny, and even Dumbledore would be great. I figure at some point she'll come back to it, because let's face it she's a one trick pony... unless she proves me wrong.

I'll do a proper post on Deathly Hallows once I'm done with it.