As you can potentially see by my sidebar, depending on when this is read, you'd see that I'm currently on book three of The Dresden Files series. It's taken me a long time to hop on board with these books, for a few reasons. I am very wary of the bulk of urban fantasy, even though I love the genre, because it's frequently crap. I like science fiction too, and shy away from it for the same reason. I'm actually least often disappointed by YA lit, which says something, though I'm not sure what. Also, about the same time I heard about the series, I also heard the words "Sci-Fi Series" and that immediately shot it down. The Sci-Fi channel does one good thing, which is playing episodes of Firefly.
Actually, that's unfair for me to say. I don't have TV.
But, a friend told me no, they're actually good, I should really give them a chance. I did. I'm glad I did. I'm not going to tout these as being incredible literature. They're not. They're fun fantastic escapism, and were just what the doctor ordered after finishing some Nietzsche.
There are a few things categorically wrong with the writing, if you ask me. For one, every chick is hot. Now, don't get me wrong here. I realize this is fantasy, pandering and shameless. But really, not every chick is going to be smoking hot. It gets to a distracting point, and you can't appreciate every individual smoking-hot-chick when she's just one in a number. Moreover, the whole shabby-guy-gets-hot-chicks thing? I've seen it before. Come up with a new shtick.
Also, I feel a bit abused with the constant cliffhanger writing. Every chapter ends with some sort of 'holy shit you just might die' moment, and forces you to keep going. Yes, great, it's a literary trick, I know, it's what you do to keep people coming back for more. But the thing about tricks is that you don't keep showing the same one over and over. It's like the Chekhov's gun in Harry Potter and the Generic Fantasy Reference - or perhaps I should say Chekhov's arsenal? You just start to feel a little knocked around.
I dig the campy noir thing it has going on, the dark settings with touches of dry detective humor. I worry a bit over what this says about me as a human, but well. Them's facts. This does get a bit over-the-top as well, but in general, it's just an over-the-top series. It makes no apologies about it, and it really doesn't need to.
Overall, good escapist writing. If you're getting tired of reading too much heady literature, dive in for a little while. Although I think after book three (of seven) I'm going to have to go read something intellectually redeeming, lest my brain muscles start to atrophy. I can already feel them shrinking, crying out, "Camus, Kierkegaard, save us!" It's annoying when you're trying to get some work done. Although they have a point: I never finished Sickness Unto Death.
Next I have to say something about Wicked. That book was just incredible.
2 comments:
Have you read "Something from the Nightside? by Simon R. Green?
I think you'd really dig it, hard.
-mE!
Actually, oddly enough, I read it before I read Dresden Files. I got into it for a bit, then got bored of it. The first book was... amateurish, but enjoyable (ending the book with the title of the book is the literary equivalent of a Backstreet Boys song). The series improved as it went (I got as far as Hex in the City). But then I came to find that Butcher did his stuff first and suddenly Green's stuff just read like Dresden Files fanfic.
Good fanfic. But fanfic ;)
Post a Comment