Blue-Footed Musings

Now for the reading post you’ve been eagerly awaiting…

The Memory, Sorry and Thorn trilogy by Tad Williams
Grade: C+

I should have known from the get-go that it was a bad idea to read this trilogy. It’s just too damned long.

The Dragonbone Chair: 765 p.
Stone of Farewell: 569 p.
To Green Angel Tower: 1066 p.

Trilogy Grand Total: 2400 pages

But length is only a problem when the series is bad (I wouldn’t shorten Harry Potter or LOTR, would you?). It took me so long to acquire all three of the books for this series that I felt obligated to read them. I checked the online reviews before I started. They were positive, so I took the plunge. Yes, I allowed myself to be misled again by online reviews. So sad.

It didn’t take much reading to find other ominous signs: a servant boy as the main character, names containing apostrophes, names of things that are familiar but slightly different from real life (like the month called “Novander”). But I persisted and actually started to enjoy the book by its end. I paid much more attention in the second book but was ultimately disappointed. The third book almost killed me. I never would have finished had I not skimmed through large sections.

The story starts with a teenage kitchen boy who is always getting into trouble. Meanwhile a dark power is rising and only the union of the three great magic swords can save the world. Naturally, the boy leaves home, finds the swords, alters the fate of the entire world, and in the process becomes a man. You’d think he could have done that within half the page count.

On average I read about a page per minute. That means I spent something like 40 hours on this trilogy. That’s like the average person’s workweek so it doesn’t seem like a lot of time. But imagine how you’d feel if you reached the end of your life and were miraculously granted an additional 40 hours. You could live a whole lifetime in 40 hours if that was all you had. You could change the world for real within 40 hours.

Maybe changing the world is a lot to ask from 40 hours, but I think I could have done more with my time. So could you, so I can’t recommend this trilogy.

Both of these books were gifts from a dear friend. I hope she knows how much I appreciate the books that she sends my way.

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
Grade: A

The Goose Girl is a retelling of the Grimm tale with the same name. I’m not familiar with that tale, but I’m guessing Hale did a good job with it. It’s a beautiful story, well told. Its one weakness is that the princess’s victory is ultimately won through the use of a supernatural power. I think I might have liked it better if she won just because she was the stronger character. But that’s not how the story goes, as they say, so I suppose I shouldn’t complain. All in all, this is the best fantasy novel I’ve read in a long time.

The Mysterious Benedict Society
Grade: B+

The Mysterious Benedict Society came so close to being a favorite! I love the setup: children take a test, the purpose of which they do not yet understand. Four of them pass the test, each for a different reason. Reynie is a brilliant solver of puzzles, Sticky has a photographic memory, Kate uses tools and her circus training to achieve her goals, and Constance is stubborn as a mule. Together they would make a formidable team, says Mr. Benedict, the man behind the test, so how about joining together to save the world?

I think the book does a great job of showing how there are many different types of talents, and it encourages independent thinking. But in order to teach those lessons, you have to keep the story believable. That means keeping the details as real as possible, so that we might not pause to say, “But would that really happen?” There were several points where I doubted the details, and then at the end, the author pushed my credulity beyond its limits. I simply could not believe it.

And so my final judgment on this book is that it had enormous potential, and though it did not quite live up to its potential, some of the characters and situations made it worth reading anyway.

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
Grade: B

I used to own a different copy of this book. I don’t know what happened to it. I don’t remember ever reading it either, and that’s very strange. When I saw a copy at the Westerly book sale, I couldn’t resist picking it up.

Pippi Longstocking is a nine-year-old child who lives by herself. Her mother is dead and her father is missing. She has a bag of gold and plenty of determination, and so she continues to live in her old house, waiting for her father to return. In the meantime, she makes friends with the children nextdoor and introduces them to pastimes like rounding the kitchen without touching the floor, hunting through the neighborhood for discarded items, and climbing down the inside of a hollow tree.

I can see the appeal that Pippi would have for children. She ignores the rules, couldn’t care less about education, has complete independence, and always likes to play. What child wouldn’t want to live nextdoor to Pippi Longstocking?

But Pippi can barely read. She’s rude. And she does dangerous things, like playing with guns and dancing so close to an inferno that she gets burned. She’s not, in my adult opinion, a good companion for children. The book is also episodic, jumping from one short tale to the next. Some of the tales, such as “Pippi Entertains Two Burglars,” are entertaining, but most of them are lackluster.

Perhaps it was better in the original Swedish. Should I ever learn to read Swedish, I will let you know, but the English version is going to the Chopping Block.