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The Fifth Season

March 13, 2017 by Ryan Leave a Comment

I don’t generally pay much attention to awards. At most, if I’m reading a book and I saw it won an award, I’ll think to myself, “Well, that’s cool.” I don’t think, at least as my memory serves, that I’ve ever chosen a book to read because it won an award.

But I was curious about The Fifth Season, the 2016 winner of the Hugo Award. It kept making best-of lists, and people really, really seemed to like it.

So I read it.

I found it to be absolutely amazing.

First off, it needs to be said that the writing in the story is beautiful. The language was direct and straightforward and perfect. Every word that was written seemed perfect for the scene. I was reminded at times of Neil Gaiman’s use of language, which I always hold to the golden standard of language in stories. This wasn’t quite that good, but it’s the closest I’ve seen in a long time.

Second, the revelations in this book always got me. Granted, when I try to read a story, or watch a movie, I don’t like to try and guess what is going to happen. To me, it ruins the enjoyment. I like to just dive in and see what happens next. I remember getting to one part of the book, putting down my kindle, and actually saying out loud, “Holy Crap!”

I’m pretty sure I woke up my sleeping baby, which made my wife pretty mad.

Mental note: be careful reading amazing fiction around sleeping infants.

Finally, there was the sheer imagination of the story. All too often, it seems easy to me to want to retell the stories we all know so well. Dwarves and wizards and magic and good and evil. But The Fifth Season avoids these traps and instead presents us with a fresh world, with magic that is grounded in thermodynamics.

I always find recommendations to be tough. Without knowing the person, it’s hard to know what they’ll like and what they won’t. So, instead, I’ll leave it at this. I really loved this book.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: fiction, neil gaiman, science fiction, the fifth season

How Graphic Novels are Changing my Life

September 14, 2016 by Ryan Leave a Comment

As many of you know, I love stories. It’s this love of stories which has always drawn me to writing, but it also makes me an avid consumer. I love movies and books and TV shows, and there’s always far more available than I have time to consume. It’s a great problem to have.

If there’s one way I’ve been a failure (and there’s actually been many ways – this is just the one I’m pointing out today), it’s been that until recently, I’ve not given comics and graphic novels enough of a chance.

When I was younger, I was always interested in comics as an idea, but I never was interested enough to figure out how to buy them. As a boy growing up in very small town in the 1980’s comics weren’t accessible. The small local library didn’t carry them, and I didn’t know how to convince my conservative parents that I should be reading comics and they should bring me places hours away where I could buy them. Complicating the fact was that none of my friends were comic fans, so I couldn’t rely on them either.

As I got older, I looked down on comics. They always struck me as something for kids, and I didn’t have time for kid’s stories anymore. It wasn’t until Watchmen (the movie) came out, that I decided to give comics and graphic novels a shot.

I fell in love. On one hand, they’re much easier reading than the huge novels I tend to read. You can speed through them, or better yet, page through and enjoy the brilliance of the artists who work on them. I’ve read the entire Akira series, Watchmen, Sandman, and a handful of actual comics, Batman and classic Spider-man.

Here’s what I love the most: when an amazing writer, like Neil Gaiman or Alan Moore, can use short, evocative prose that perfectly matches the artwork of a talented artist. It creates an emotional response beyond what words and pictures can easily say alone.

I’m hardly an expert on graphic novels. I’m only just getting started, and there’s much to discover. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.

Filed Under: Essays, Reviews Tagged With: alan moore, comics, graphic novels, neil gaiman, stories, watchmen, writing

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