Book review: "The Dying Earth" omnibus by Jack Vance

I have been aware of Jack Vance, his opus and his fame for a long time, but I don't remember reading anything his before. When I saw the omnibus containing all his "Dying Earth" stories, I decided it was an opportunity to fill up my knowledge of older classics, and of course, to read something good.

"The Dying Earth" is not a novel. Even its parts are not novels, but a collection of short stories. First part, "Mazirian the Magician", is just a collection of short stories, with stories connected only barely with setting and some characters. The second two parts, "Cugel the Clever" and "The Skybreak Spatterlight", are novels (actually, fix-ups) telling stories of travels of Cugel, who travels the world trying to get home and exact revenge against a magician who sent him away. And the last part, called "Rhialto the Marvellous", is composed of three longer stories with common characters. Just to clear it up, these are mostly comic stories.

First, "The Dying Earth" is different from anything I have read so far. Maybe "Discworld" stories by Terry Pratchett are the closest thing to it. The world is full of magic, maybe even too full. It reminded me on old Conan stories. There is literally magic on every step: spells, creatures, objects... Vance doesn't even care to try to be realistic The "plots" takes place on Earth, but long in future, when the Sun is closing to its death and magic is again present on the world.

The style of the stories if definitely vintage, not something you would mistake for a modern fantasy. A bit pompous, you could say. Many concepts here looked familiar to me - and I realized that many modern fantasy writers copied Vance's ideas. I was there Chine Miéville got his idea for "The City & The City", and some other ideas used by new authors. If Vance patented his stories, every fantasy writer would have to pay him royals for using his book.

Since these are stories, you don't get to know the characters too much. This changes a bit in Cugel's stories, where we spend much time with him. But when Vance decides to focus on a character, he can do wonders (e.g. Drofo the worminger-sage). I found it unusual at first how everybody just keeps running all around the world; nobody stops to make any strategy. Women are mostly either victims or evil, or sometimes innocents in need of male guidance.

As of my impression. First part consists of six stories loosely connected. I can't say I really liked them, but they were OK and sometimes funny. Two Cugel novels were much, much better. They had a structure, a regular main character, an ultimate goal. And they were very funny! They are a bit long, but I didn't mind it at all. On the other hand, Rhialto's stories are not quite as good. Vance is obviously trying too much where he was effortless before, and I wasn't able to enjoy them. And even though you can't say that this book was planned to be consistent, these last three stories were even more inconsistent with previous...

But all in all, I had more good times than bad with this omnibus. "The Dying Earth" is definitely something that any real fantasy-fan needs to read, at least just to know where many of ideas came from. Maybe not a book to buy, but definitely a book to read.

Manga review: "School Rumble"

After some two weeks of reading, I have finished with "School Rumble" manga. I have watched the anime adaptation several years ago - it was one of the first anime I watched, and I still consider it as one of my favorite anime. This actually applies for the first two seasons - third one was composed of two episodes and left a bad aftertaste. So I had some great expectations from this manga, but at the same time I was dreading it would leave prove my memories false and diminish my experience of "School Rumble".

I can't say that "School Rumble" has any real plot. It is a love-polygon slapstick comedy following member of one class during their second high-school year. Two main characters are Tsukamoto Tenma and Harima Kenji: Tenma is a childish, clueless and not so good looking girl, while Harima is notorious and one of the toughest delinquents around - and he is hopelessly in love in Tenma. But Tenma herself is in love with Karasuma, a strange and expressionless boy from their class. He lead us to the second level of main-characters, which include him, Suou (one of three Tenma's best friend, beautiful and popular), Sawachika (another of Tenma's best friends, half-Japanese, blonde and also beautiful), Takano (yet another of Tenma's best friends, capable and elegant), Hanai (class leader, all proper and strict, but altogether a good guy) and Yakumo (Tenma's younger sister, one of the most popular girls in school, shy and capable). I won't list more characters because I would need several pages to mention all few dozen of recurring characters...

Main topic of the first several volumes are Harima's efforts while he try to express his love to Tenmna, while Tenma tries the same to Karasuma. Later focus changes more to the Tenma's misunderstanding (and she is full of those) where she belives Harima in love with Suou, Sawachika, Yakumo, Itoko (their teacher but at the same time Harima's cousin), Tae (a girl Harima meet during one of his frequent giving ups of life). All, all this is crisscrossed with love-problems of other girls (which may or may not include Harima) and other characters, and with short gags. Structure of the manga is such that every now and then there is a longer arc which describe a typical event like trip to beach (where Sawachika will see Harima naked), school sport festival (where Sawachika and Harima will save the reputation of their class), school culture festival (where Harima will be found in bed with Yakumo) and so on....

As for characters, there is really bunch of them. Since this is a shounen slapstick comedy, one cannot expect any real depth and complexity of them, but you can expect much hilarity. They usually have few distinctive characteristics that are used to draw laughter: Imadori like breast and Dojibiron (something like Power Rangers); Hanai is proper but can be challenged to extreme actions; Tougo is all extreme, Sawachika is a typical rich Princess, but has a surprising gentle side, and so on.

Appeal of "School Rumble" is coming from play between rooting that a guy finally gets a girl and rooting against him because you know that it's funny and if he ever catches it, then everything is over. The trick is in doing this but keep the originality and not irritating the reader - and it can't be said that "School Rumble" always succeeds in this. There are irritating parts (for me, most of the Tenma-Karasuma thing was irritating), but I liked most of it. I didn't like "trip to England" arc and found it really not funny. Also, I kept hoping for a different ending - I would be more satisfied if mange ended one or few chapters earlier. There are lots of slapstick jokes, misunderstandings, puns - I would usually snort at least once during the better chapters. And Harima can always cause an outright laugh ("Miko-chan...").

The art in manga is not really impressive, and the color covers were especially poor. But for such manga where its strength is in gags and dialog this is not so important. Dialog is often nonsensical and plot inconsistent, but they are hilarious. I had few occasions that I really couldn't follow the plot, like there were pages missing, but they are not often. Also, I noticed few differences from anime: like missing the explanation why Harima is in love with Tenma, although there is one in anime.

I really liked "School Rumble" mange and had a very good time with it. But all in all, I wouldn't recommend it - I would recommend the anime adaptation, and only first two seasons ("School Rumble" and "School Rumble: Nii Gakki"). Anime perfectly filters only the best parts of mange (the most it), it has a better art and it gives characters voices. But if you have watched anime and now are wondering what mange is like - it is good.

Anime review: "Daily Lives of High School Boys"

I am a little bit late with this post, for it was almost two weeks now since I have watched it. But I had a three-day trip to Germany, few days were spent on field, and so the time passed. It started to fade a bit, but good thing I have made notes.

Anyway, "Daily Lives of High School Boys" was a pleasant surprise. I didn't have any particular wish for watching this anime, but since there was not much out there to choose from and it had a fairly nice rating, I gave it a chance. It turns out that "Daily Lives of High School Boys" is a gag anime with no particular plot. Instead, it consists of several unconnected short "stories" in each episode, between four and eight. There is some timeline to it, but it is not relevant in any case. These short stories revolve around students of one class of all-boys high-school, plus several other boys and girls from other schools (so it is not solely about boys, contrary to the title). The cast is so pretty big, but the names are not really important, since it has different cast for most of the stories.

So, there is no plot, characters are unimportant, why would anybody watch this anime? Because if you are or ever were young, and especially if you are male, you will be able to relate with this anime and find yourself somewhere in it. This anime perfectly depict the mental state of high-schoolers: empty and sarcastic talk, worries about being cool, stupid ideas and wrong facts... But presented in such funny and lovable way. And jokes are just perfect: I watched this anime alone in my room, but kept giggling most of the time, and sometimes even laughing out loud. In spirit, this anime reminded me on "School Rumble", but without the romance part - there is absolutely no drama or angst in this anime. Another anime it reminded me of was "Lucky Star", just that this concentrate on boys and there is no moe.

Unfortunately, there are only 12 episodes. There is a mention of second season in anime, but no information about it on AniDB. Visuals are pretty good, voice acting great, and there is even some catchy music in it.

"Daily Lives of High School Boys" is probably the best gag anime I watched so far, and it is especially good for quick watch - stories last for few minutes each and you can stop whenever you want. If you have any fond memories of high school and like to watch comedies, just try watching the first episode. And remember, later ones are even better!

Movie review: "Man on a Ledge"

Few days ago I stumbled at my friend's home while they were watching "Man on the Ledge". Another friend watched in the movies some time ago and was full of praise for it. But to the rest of us, this movie was a big disappointment.

The premise is OK. An ex-cop escapes from jail, where he was put for stealing some big diamond. After weeks of hiding, he arrives to a hotel in New York, rents a room, and eats a fancy dinner, after which he steps out of the windows on a ledge, where he threatens to jump if police-negotiator Lydia Mercer doesn't attend to his wishes. But is a suicide his real intention?

As I said, a good idea, but the execution is poor. The problem is that this movie can't decide what it really is. Is it a crime investigation, or heist-movie, or action comedy? Elements are introduced to the plot just to be abandoned later. Also, the banter between the brother and his girlfriend, even though was intended to be funny, sound forced and irritating. And ending, it is first predictable, and second, using deus ex machina (with the receptionist real identity). Acting was also unimpressive, especially Ed Harris.

Even though "Man on a Ledge" is not a completely bad movie, it is not something I would recommend you to spend money or time on. But if you have nothing to do, it can serve...

Book review: "A Darkness at Sethanon" by Raymond E. Feist

With this book I finished my little re-read of Feist's books I have home. I actually have "Krondor: The Betrayal" also, but I have issues with this internal mini-series. Raymond E. Feist started to write this five-book cycle featuring Jimmy the Hand's rise and I remember that I really liked it. He finished three books and then got in some quarrel with publisher of video-game based on these books and never finished it. Anyway, I plan to get some more books before re-reading this one. Things also get a bit confusing about the order books should be read. "Krondor: The Betrayal" is happening shortly after "Riftwar Saga", but it was actually written much later; next book published after "Riftwar Saga" was "Prince of the Blood", which is something of a stand-alone novel. If you now include in this "The Empire Trilogy", which was actually written by Janny Wurts and is taking place on Kellewan in this same time, you get a pretty good mess. I resolved it by skipping "The Empire Trilogy" and reading "The Riftwar Legacy" (Krondor books) before "Prince of the Blood".

I tangled myself in description of reading order while I should be talking about the book... As in last post, there are some minor spoilers for previous books.

Events in "A Darkness at Sethanon" start off a year after those in its prequel, "Silverthorn". There were no new attacks by Murmandus or the Enemy for the past year, but now things are stirring up again. Nighthawks are again active in Krondor, so after some trouble with them, Prince Arutha and his old retinue is again joined by Martin and Baru and they start their travel to the North, looking for final confrontation with Murmandus. There they will find friends and enemies they never expected to see again. In the same time, Pug has finished his education with allies found at the end of previous book and is joined with Tomas, his oldest friend. Two of them will start a journey with ultimate goal of finding the one person who understands all this mess: Macros the Black.

This sounds like very simple plot; and believe me, it is. As before, plot is simple, straightforward and fast. This doesn't mean it's dull; Feist provides us with enough surprises and twists that it stays interesting. Also, considering pace with which events happen, reader doesn't have the time to stop and think much how plot is "easy".

Biggest complain can be directed to characters. While interesting and funny, they are just too shallow and already-seen. At times, I was feeling like I was reading some cheap love-novel, especially when Martin meets his love-interest (love at first sight, duty before love and all other clichés...). But as with plot, speed can cover a lot of mistakes. Also, this is where he really starts with recycling of characters.

On the other hand, world-building (or better said setting-expansion) works great. Feist is able to twist elements he introduced in "Magician" completely around and still sound plausible. This will happen continuously with his books, but he still has one of largest and interesting settings, which he can always return to and work the details.

The book ending was a bit too much "happy-end", but this is nothing that it shouldn't be expected. This book is quite larger than "Silverthorn", but it doesn't feel so; it is very easy to read.

All in all, "A Darkness at Sethanon" is a solid continuation in same tone as his previous book. Not a great achievement in fantasy genre, but a simple book with likable characters that is a great fun to read. Who was able to enjoy "Silverthorn" is certain to have fun with this one.