Book #21 of 2021: Nice Dragons Finish Last | DNF: The Ghost and the Greyhound, With Ice and Sword

[thistlechaser]

Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron. Well now. I wanted to look at a list of her books in published order, but her website, http://rachelaaron.net/books.php, redirects to some spam site. That's not handy at all. Anyway. I'm not sure if Nice Dragons Finish Last is her first published book or just the first book set in this world. The last three books I read by her, the DFZ trilogy, were the latest books she wrote in that world. I loved the trilogy so much, but Nice Dragons felt like a rough draft of the ideas. It wasn't bad, I didn't hate it, it was just something of a slog to get through. Nice Dragons felt heavy handed, while the trilogy felt polished. Even things like the ideas were more mature in the trilogy.

For example, in both Nice Dragons and the trilogy, there were two schools of magic, (I forget the first one) and shamanism. In the trilogy, those two schools are equal -- just two different ways of doing things. In Nice Dragons, shamanism was this goofy knockoff of hippies.

I didn't hate Nice Dragons, and I even enjoyed some parts of it. If I hadn't read the trilogy, I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more. Not going to keep reading the series of books that comes after it.

The Ghost and the Greyhound by Bryan Snyder. Sometimes it's just the wrong time for a book. I had finished Rachel Aaron's trilogy and wanted to move on to Nice Dragons Finish Last, but I only thought I bought it. So, since I needed something else since it wasn't on my Kindle yet, I started this one. It wasn't bad, just kind of juvenile (not surprising, it's meant for young teen readers). The plot was about talking animals who decide to take a kid to a magic world to fight to save it. DNF 7%

With Ice and Sword: Warhammer The End Times by Graham McNeill. Ugh. Someone (another reviewer?) said you could enjoy this book even knowing nothing of Warhammer. The plot sounded interesting to me, and since there are roughly fourteen hundred million Warhammer books, if I could get into it, it would open up whole libraries of new books to read. Unfortunately whoever said you didn't need to know Warhammer was wrong. It was like reading a story where half the words were in another language. It was the most odd experience! I could follow part of the sentences (simple English words like to, the, at), but all the nouns/important parts were game terms. Plus the writing style was really hard to follow (maybe the game has some archaic form of in-world language?). DNF 2% (and it was only 48 pages long!)

Partial book credits:
Point reached in DNF books: 7% + 2% = 9%
Previous abandoned book total: 497%
New total: 506% (five books)

Comments

[jeane nevarez (from livejournal.com)]

Is the Warhammer one based on some kind of videogame, then?

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I think it's a "mini fig" (tiny metal figures) tabletop game? But I know it's spread far and wide, with a ton of books, campaigns, and stuff. It seems like something I'd be interested in (giant battles in spaaaaaace with tons of religions and worldbuilding?), but maybe the learning curve is steep or maybe this book just wasn't a good starting place.

The book I'm reading now is SO good, a perfect match for both of us! https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250224552 Alice's Farm. Talking animals (rabbits) that are so perfectly rabbits. The author's voice is so wonderful, too. You can tell it's written for younger readers, but somehow it makes it more sweet for adult readers. I'm only a few pages in, but I love it.

[jeane nevarez (from livejournal.com)]

Ha, looking at that cover- Aice's Farm- I doubt I would have picked it up for myself. It just looks like it would be very juvenile and sweet. Interested to hear what you'll say about it!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I shouldn't recommend things when I'm only a few pages in, heh. It's not bad at all, but the focus shifted to the kid character instead of the rabbits. I thought it might alternate chapters, but most of them are about the kid. The author writes him accurately, he has no idea what's going on with the adults, but to me that's frustrating — I'd much rather know what's going on with the adults.

I'm still enjoying it, but a lot less so than in the first chapter.