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Archive for March, 2010

Cynthia Weiner–“Aftertaste” (The Sun, August 2009)

Posted in Cynthia Weiner, Drugs, Nirvana, The Sun on March 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: NIRVANA-Bleach [Deluxe Edition Reissue] (2009).

I bought Bleach after I fell in love with Nevermind.  I liked it, but I think at the time I felt it was too raw, or maybe just less poppy than Nevermind.  But in listening to this remaster I’m inclined to say it’s better than Nevermind (although, granted I haven’t listened to Nevermind in a while now, either).

The disc is raw, and yet Cobain always had a knack for pop sensibilities (just disguised under noise and feedback).  You can see his love of pop by the choice of covering The Vaseline’s “Molly Lips.” And in a song like “About a Girl” (which they played on their MTV Unplugged show).

What’s amazing to me about this disc is how full the band sounds with just the three of them. Even when Cobain is soloing, it never sounds like the guitars are gone and it’s just a solo over a bassline.  Not bad for $600.

Of course, having said that about the poppiness of the band, there is still some pretty heavy, weird and ugly stuff on here. The heavy thudding intro of “Floyd the Barber,” the screaming cover of “Love Buzz,” the weird noises in “Big Cheese,” the wild bent notes in “Negative Creep” and the absolutely crazy feedback noise of “Paper Cuts.”

And the disc ends with the fantastic wordplay of “Downer.”  It’s really a solid collection of sludgy grunge songs.

So, famously, this disc was originally recorded for like $600.  I don’t know if the “remastering” has done anything.  I didn’t compare it to the original, although it seems like the vocals are a little clearer.  For $600, I’d think the original was all done in one take, and yet there must be overdubbed vocals (Cobain is the only one signing on “Big Cheese,” right?)

The real selling point here is what’s included in the second half of the disc: a concert from 1990 in which the band sounds tight, fast, and quite amazing.  It’s most of the material from Bleach, with a few extra tracks thrown in and it sounds fantastic.

There’s also a 40-some-page booklet which is good for a read, but nothing all that special.  Nirvana only put out 3 proper albums, so I’m not sure if you can say this was really overlooked, but it’s certainly worth looking into again.

[READ: March 3, 2010] “Aftertaste”

This was the second piece that I read in The Sun.  This one was fiction.  And it featured a recovering heroin addict as its protagonist.

Abby lives in Manhattan and goes, for the first time, to Gourmet Fair, the health food store around the corner from her house. As she’s walking out she runs in to Gideon.  Gideon lives nearby and owns the cafe across from her apartment.  They’ve never spoken before but she is aware of him from his cafe (and the elaborately hand drawn menus in the front window).

Oh yeah, and Abby is a former heroin addict. (more…)

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Jason Anderson–“Living on a Lighted Stage: Are We Finally Ready to Take Rush Seriously?” (The Walrus, March 2010)

Posted in Alex Lifeson, Ayn Rand, Books about music, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Chris McDonald, Essays, Funny (ha ha), I Love You Man, Jason Anderson, Rush, Suck, The Walrus, Vampires on March 10, 2010| 3 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: RUSH, obviously (1974-present).

I’ve loved Rush since seventh grade.  They introduced me to prog rock, Canadian accents, Lakeside Park and Ayn Rand.  They taught me how to play killer bass lines, wild guitar solos and to ponder the existence of washing machines on stage.

[READ: March 5, 2010] “Living on a Lighted Stage”

I don’t often write about non-fiction pieces in magazines, but because this one is about Rush, it seemed necessary to bring it up.

The rather humorous subtitle of the piece sets the tone here. Rush has been together since 1974.  They’ve been taken seriously by musicians and die-hard fans, but aside from that, the average person likes “Tom Sawyer” and that’s about it.

This article notes that Rush is appearing more and more in unexpectedly public places (to both the delight and consternation of fans).  From the Colbert Report (their first time on American TV in 30-some years), to appearances is movies, including appearing as themselves playing live in I Love You, Man.

In addition to all of this there are two new works that are designed to really delve into the history of Rush. One is a new book, an academic treatise that I am sure I never would have heard about if it weren’t for this article, called Rush, Rock Music and the Middle Class: Dreaming in Middletown by Chris McDonald (which I just received and hope to start reading shortly).  And, there’s also a new documentary coming out (possibly in the Spring) tentatively called: Rush A Documentary.

And finally, a new film coming out has Alex Lifeson (as well as about 100 other musicians) in a cameo (he plays a border guard). It’s called Suck, and you can see the trailer (which has Lifeson in it) at Rushisaband.com.

I can’t possibly explain the recent influx of Rush (“Tom Sawyer” even played a major plot point on Chuck not too long ago) except to suggest that maybe all the die-hard Rush fans have grown up and gotten jobs in some kind of prominence.

Some Rush fans bristle at the idea of the guys selling out (yeah, right) or, heaven forbid, having fun.  They’ve always had a silly side (read the liner notes, look at Geddy wearing a Devo pin in the late 80s), and it’s nice to see them showing that side off a bit.  And the thing is, none of this attention is going to make “Cygnus X-1” any more popular than it is.  But if it gets some new people into prog rock, well, where’s the harm in that?

I won’t be first in line when the documentary comes out, but I’ll certainly watch it!

This article is available here.

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Saïd Sayrafiezadeh–“Appetite” (New Yorker, March 1, 2010)

Posted in Blue Öyster Cult, Funny (strange), New Yorker, Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, Short Story, Work on March 9, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT-Mirrors (1979).

Lord only knows what happened to BOC on this disc.  It’s almost as if the mirror on the cover was indicating a weird backwards image of the band.  They had been flirting with pop tracks for a few albums now, but this one goes far over the edge.  Backing female vocalists!  Poppy ballads!  No weirdo titles!  And yet still no hits.

The title track is hopeless radio rock (but not even good radio rock). It’s hard to image them touring this album and incorporating these tracks with “Dominace and Submission” (or even imagining Eric Bloom decked out in his leather suit singing these songs).  And the less said about “Lonely Teardrops” the better.

That’s not to say that the album is a total wash.  The super sugary ballad “In Thee” is actually quite good, as ballads go (Allen Lanier has a knack for piano pop).  And “Moon Crazy” has an 80s rock feel mixed with some weird jazzy bits.  “The Vigil” and “I am the Storm” are also pretty good, but they may just stand out among the rest of the tracks.

It may be telling that when Columbia remastered and re-released all of their CDs, they didn’t bother with this one.  Hence, the rather embarrassing cover image above which is more about  Columbia music than Blue Öyster Cult.

[READ: March 1, 2010] “Appetite”

This is a strange little story about work frustration, grilled cheeses, and rain.

The main character is a cook.  He is planning to ask his boss for a raise, but when he goes into the boss’ office, the boss is distressed about the state of the restaurant, specifically the fact that several items were returned that evening.  How hard is it to make  grilled cheese after all?

When the story pulls back a bit the narrator muses about his graduation, where he was simply one of 500 being told about his future by the valedictorian (who clearly cribbed his speech from a book of speeches).   Some of you will go to college; some of you will go to the army; some of you will go straight to the workforce.  He was the latter.  And now, at 25, he can’t quite belive he’s still in the same place. (more…)

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Roberto Bolaño–2666 [Week 7] The Part About The Crimes (1 of 5) (2004)

Posted in Big Books, bolanobolano.com, Canadian Music, David Foster Wallace, Death, Eurhythmics, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Infinite Zombies, Jane Siberry, Laura Esquivel, Loudon Wainwright III, Martha Wainwright, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Natasha Wimmer, Neurotics, Patti Smith, Pink Floyd, Religion, Roberto Bolaño, Sex, Threats, Torture Porn, Translation, Violence, Yuck! on March 8, 2010| 5 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: MARTHA WAINWRIGHT-I Know You’re Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too (2008).

I’ve been a fan of Loudon for years.  I also rather enjoy Rufus.  So why not check out Rufus’ sister Martha and see how she stacks up in the family canon.  Actually, it’s not fair to compare because she is an entity all to herself.  And indeed, I feel that she sounds nothing like her family (maybe a weeeeee bit like Rufus, but not really).

In fact, I find that Martha’s voice rests comfortably between Mary Margaret O’Hara, Jane Siberry and, somewhat surprisingly, Patti Smith.

Lyrically, the title of the album pretty well tells you where she’s coming from: smart-assed and a little pissed off.  But the real question is what kind of songs does she actually write?  Well, the second song on this disc “You Cheated Me” is so strong and so catchy I was convinced it was a cover.

The rest of the disc is an exciting collection of styles: baroque arrangements, pop folk, and even straight ahead rock.  There are times when the songs are not so much difficult as cantankerous: with her vocals reaching extraordinary heights.  But it’s not just Martha showing off her range, the vocals work very well with the lyrics.

She also adds two covers on the disc: Pink Floyd’s “See Emily Play” which she takes some of the weirdness out of but which adds a bit of her own eccentricities to it.  (It’s a great cover).  The other cover is the Euryhthmics’ “Love is a Stranger” which doesn’t sound like a cover until the chorus kicks in.

I feel like the disc is a little long (somehow it feels like it should end after “See Emily Play”) but that’s not really that big of a complaint.  Even though Martha sounds like others, she is still quite a unique presence, and this is a worthy CD for anyone who likes quirky singer songwriters.

[READ: Week of March 1, 2010] 2666 [pg 353-404]

I was bracing myself for a horrific section here.  The Part About the Crimes is 280 pages of women being killed in graphic detail. Well, that turned out to be not exactly true.  At least so far.

Nevertheless, the Part is largely filled with crime scene details about the many many women who died in the Santa Teresa region between 1993 and the beginning of 1994.

For my sanity I’m not going to detail all of the young women who were killed in this Part.  I know someone on bolanobolano is detailing all of the deaths in the book, so I’ll assume that that is dealt with there. (more…)

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TV 2008

Posted in 30 Rock, Beverly Hills 90210, Chuck, Corner Gas, Fringe, How I Met Your Mother, Life on Mars, Mercer Report, New Adventures of Old Christine, Project Runway, Pushing Daisies, Robot Chicken, Robson Arms, Rush, The Big Bang Theory, The Mentalist, The Office, The Simpsons, Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job!, TV 2008 on March 7, 2010| 2 Comments »

I’m continuing to move all of the old TV Posts from my TV Tab to individual posts. So here’s some thoughts from the 2008 TV season.  There were some updates midway through on this one, but I’ll add some updated thoughts as necessary.

With the Fall 2008 Lineup mostly underway, I’m listing the shows that we are giving a chance this year.  There are some new ones, but mostly its a continuation of last year: (more…)

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Dan Martin–All Known Metal Bands (2008) [UPDATE]

Posted in Dan Martin, Decline of Western Civilization: Part Two: The Metal Years, Drinking, Drugs, Free Speech, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Ozzy Osbourne, Sex, The Dead Milkmen, Virginity (Loss of) on March 6, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years [movie] (1988).

I feel like this movie aired a lot when I was a kid.  I wish I could remember what I thought about it back then, because watching it the other night I couldn’t believe how dumb everyone looked.  Whether it was Steven Tyler acting profound talking about masturbating or Joe Perry and his sourpuss.  Or Paul Stanley lying in bed with 4 women strewn around during his interview.   Or bless his heart, Chris Holmes’ drunken antics in the pool in front of his mother.   I’m half certain that it was staged, as nobody is that dumb.

Or any of the nameless masses primping for the movie (I’d love to know where the guy with half black/half white hair is now).  Or when any of the people who were sure they were going to become rock stars gave up and got jobs.

The only people who come out looking clever are Lemmy, seeming calm and wise on a mountaintop (?); Poison, for the love of God, who admit to their failings yet seem rather reasonable (and make the best unintentional joke about blowing all your cash on a Le Mans), Dave Mustaine who seems the most intelligent person in the movie, and Ozzy Osbourne.

Ozzy gets the best cut of anyone.  In his bathrobe, he makes a delicious breakfast of eggs, very undercooked bacon (he should have started the bacon first) and spilt orange juice.  At this time in his career, I believe he was being managed by Sharon (who everyone knows from the reality show), but at the time, she was unknown.  And I have to wonder how much of the genius of that scene was her idea.  Not only does it make anyone who called him a Satanist look silly, he gets the biggest and best intentional laughs.

Watching this movie as a married 40 year old, with my wife sitting next to me, I was frankly embarrassed for the way these bozos were carrying on.  And I think I was more embarrassed for them than for me.  Ah, Odin and your buttless chaps.

Of course, I’ve been a metalhead forever so I’ve always been amused by nonsensical antics.  And I’ve always rebelled against people like the woman from whatever anti-metal group was in the movie.  What’s great about her scene is that Penelope Spheeris doesn’t mock her.  She doesn’t do any weird edits or goofy sound effects or anything.  She just lets the lady speak her version of the truth and allows the audience (granted the audience is metal fans, but any reasonable adult could tell) to realize just how weird and silly she is.  The idea that the Secret Devil Worship Sign (as the Dead Milkmen call it) is really three 6’s (even her demonstration pushing reality) and that it is three fingers down to deny the holy trinity (when in fact it’s actually two fingers down and one thumb across) is just inspired lunacy.  Especially when you hear Ronnie James Dio, who ostensibly brought the sign into metal in the first place reveal that it was a something his grandmother did to ward off the evil eye.   Ah, the days of 80’s censorship, which I got ever so het up about.

But it was just those people that encouraged bands to come up with more and more outrageous names and deeds.  So, when Sarah asks me what is wrong with a band for naming themselves (* see below the fold for my newfound favorite band name), I told her it was in response to people like that.  When people go looking for evil in the mundane, well, why not just be evil right in their faces and see what they do.

Sure, it’s childish, but it’s also fun!

I only wish they would show The Decline of Western Civilization Part One once in a while.

[READ: February 28, 2010]  All Known Metal Bands (D-E)

About eight months ago, I posted that I had started reading this book.  Obviously I am not reading it very often as I am only up to the E’s.  But I picked it up again the other day and found my two new favorite band names: (more…)

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Matthew Loux–Salt Water Taffy 3: The Seaside Adventures of Jack and Benny: The Truth About Dr. True (2009)

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Adventure, Barenaked Ladies, Boredom, Canadian Music, Children's Books, Death, Funny (ha ha), Geddy Lee, Ghosts, Gord Downie, Gordon Lightfoot, Graphic Novel, Lyle Lovett, Martin Tielli, Matthew Loux, Mystery, Ongoing, Rheostatics, Rush, Short Books, Summer, Supernatural, Trilogy on March 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BARENAKED LADIES-Snacktime (2008).

The Barenaked Ladies have always been like naughty kids.  So, it seems almost too obvious for them to make a kids’ album.  But almost as if they want to continue being naughty, this kids album is quite smart, not just a collection of cute kids songs.

There’s a wild mix of very specifically kiddie-aimed tracks and other amusing pop cultural commentary (or jokes from kiddies past).  For instance, the opening track “789” plays on the wonderful joke of why was 6 afraid of 7.

There’s also a lot of the more delicate sounding BNL songs that came to dominate their later albums: “Pollywog in a Bog” is a cute upbeat little ditty, “Here Come the Geese” is a pretty typical Kevin Hearn track (even his adult songs sound like children’s songs).

But I think the highlight comes from when Ed Robertson and Steven Page join forces.  Robertson is the king of the goofy guys and Steven Page’s songs are always wonderful, but typically less silly.  So “I Don’t Like” is a serious look at things we don’t like (salmon, heights), while the fantastic “Crazy ABCs” is a funny and clever look at words that start with silent letters: “D is for djinn E is for Euphrates F is for Fohn etc.”

I also enjoy Roberston’s solo songs like “There’s a Word for That.”  Robertson is clearly a fan of wordplay, and this song highlights that: “There’s a word for that…little dented skin between my upper lip and nose.”

My favorite song of the disc is “The Canadian Snacktime Trilogy.”  All kinds of famous (and non famous) people tell us what their favorite snacks are.  The contributors are listed here, and they include: Geddy Lee, barbecue potato chips; Lyle Lovett, watermelon; Martin Tielli, olives; Gordon Downie, peanut butter & crackers; “Weird Al” Yankovic, honey roasted peanuts and Gordon Lightfoot, pasta.  What fun!

It’s an overall enjoyable album for kids, full of mostly hyper songs and sounds quite a lot like a typical BNL effort.

[READ:February 27, 2010] Salt Water Taffy: The Truth About Dr. True

I have yet to mention the website for this series.  So, now I’m mentioning it, and I’m also mentioning Matt Loux’s page too.  It’s a great resource for all of the books and has many sample images and pages.

I adore this children’s graphic novel series.  Each story adds amazing depth to this seemingly quaint seaside town.  Eleven year-old Jack and 8-year-old Benny are on vacation at a boring seaside town.  But mysterious things are always coming up when the kids go snooping.

In this case Benny uncovers an ancient (empty) bottle of Dr. True’s magic elixir.  (I love that Jack sneers at Benny for digging in a garbage pile, when he would have really loved to be digging in it, too).  Dr True is the ancestor of True’s Taffy shop.

While this history of the island is unfolding, we also hear the history of another famous island resident: Captain Holister.  The captain is Chowder Bay’s real hero, with a statue of him erected in the town square and everything.  The boys’ favorite new friend, fisherman Angus is directly related to him.  (more…)

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Myla Goldberg–“That’ll Be Two Dollars and Fifty Cents Please” (Harper’s, March 2010)

Posted in Consumerism, Death, Feist, Harper's, Myla Goldberg, Short Story on March 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: FEIST-The Reminder (2007).

I came to Feist fairly late in the game.  This disc had been out for well over a year before I heard it.  And, like with her first disc, I’m really confused by the “indie” label that gets stamped on her.

There’s virtually nothing indie about this disc.  The music itself borders on Top 40 and pop R&B on most of the tracks.  The fact that she rescues it from being a boring pop album is a testament to her strong voice and good songwriting.  But that doesn’t stop the disc from being pretty far from indie.

And maybe she wasn’t trying to make an indie album, which is fine.  She traffics in all kinds of different styles on the disc, and I think the disc really takes off once the guitar comes in in the second half of “Sealion.”  The song, a cover of sorts of a Nina Simone standard is a little wishy washy, but when the guitar kicks in, it sounds like a rock song taking over (even if the guitar line is fairly simple, it stands out so much in this track).

She’s undeniably got a great voice.  I’m just not clear where she’ll wind up going on future discs: pop star or indie darling.  In the meantime, The Reminder works as an enjoyable disc for chilling out on a Sunday afternoon.

[READ: February 23, 2010] “That’ll Be Two Dollars and Fifty Cents Please”

I had recently read a piece by Myla Goldberg in the book State by State (to be posted about shortly). Right around when I was reading her state, Maryland, this story showed up in my mailbox.  So, I took it as serendipitous and decided to read it.

What I enjoyed about the story was the way it was set up: the narrator presumes that you know the story about the mythical figure at the center of her story.  So she’s relating events about it as if she’s just filing in gaps in well known and familiar story: the Birthplace of Little Darling. (more…)

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Chris Schweizer–Crogan’s March (2009)

Posted in Adventure, Blue Öyster Cult, Chris Schweizer, Death, Graphic Novel, History, Kansas, Travel, Violence, War, YA Books on March 3, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT-Agents of Fortune (1976).

After the release of their first official live album On Your Feet or On Your Knees, it’s unsurprising that the band would put a concert photo on the back cover of this disc (On Your Feet…was their first Top 40 disc).

What is surprising is the piano fueled second track “True Confessions” which is as delicate as the title suggests  (Eric Bloom even hits a falsetto note AND there’s a saxophone solo(!)).  Combine this with  “Debbie Denise” a tender (!) song about lost love (!) and you have quite a tender an un-heavy metal album.

Of course, the disc opens with “This Ain’t the Summer of Love” which is certainly a strong heavy track.  But that’s mostly it.  There’s a lot more piano/keyboard on “E.T.I. (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence)” although the guitars definitely come to the fore during the wailing solos.  And then, frequent contributor Patti Smith gets a vocal inclusion “The Revenge of Vera Gemini” (her voice works quite well with the spooky psychedelia of the band).  “Sinful Love” is an almost disco-ey dance track (the falsetto backing vocals are weird, to say the least!).

The later songs on the disc sound like 70s rock.  There’s rather little heavy metal involved at all.  In fact, “Tenderloin” comes close to sounding like Kansas.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s just kind of a shock coming from these heavy metal pioneers.

Oh, and I almost forgot, it also contains the biggest BOC song in the universe, “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.”  [When my friend Lar saw a BOC Greatest Hits disc he asked if it was just this song 12 times).  Of course, you probably know the song, but if you haven’t heard in a long time, it sounds even better than you remember.  I have to assume that that track alone absolved the band of all the mellow tracks on this disc.

The bonus tracks on the remastered edition include a truly bizarro version of “Fire of Unknown Origin” and a demo of “Reaper.”

[READ: February 22, 2010] Crogan’s March

I enjoyed the first book in this series so much that I couldn’t wait for number two.  And how lucky for me that it was already available!

The premise of this series is that the Crogan family (who live in contemporary America) are a fairly normal family: happily married, two young kids who squabble a lot, etc.  This family aspect of the story bookends the main body of action (their father tells them a story about one of their ancestors to prove a point or make an argument).

In this case, a fight between the boys is summed up by their dad: “Some people believe that everyone should be given the freedom to make their own choice and others that everyone should be held to the same moral standards.”  So, let’s hear the story of Peter Crogan, member of the French Foreign Legion circa 1912.

When I was a kid, the foreign legion was this sort of mythical entity.  The phrase, “run away and join the foreign legion” seemed to be bandied about a lot as a means of escape.  I don’t know why it was, or why it seems to no longer be, but suffice it to say that I haven’t thought about the foreign legion in twenty years.

So, this story about a legionnaire was a welcome surprise from the get go. (more…)

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Lars Brown–North World: Other Sagas (2009)

Posted in Adventure, Blue Öyster Cult, Death, Demons, Fantasy, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gods, Graphic Novel, Lars Brown, Magic, Oni Press, Short Story, Supernatural, Violence, YA Books on March 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT-Secret Treaties (1974).

With Secret Treaties, BOC moved into the stratosphere.  The first three tracks are outstanding. “Career of Evil,” again cowritten by Patti Smith, sets the tone: heavier, louder, more guitars and yet, no less of Allen Lanier’s piano.  “Dominance and Submission” is an absolutely classic heavy metal song (and live, it gets absurdly long).

“ME 262” is another of their heavy boogie songs (complete with “dit dit dit’s” in backing vocals (and the sound of bombs dropping!).  While “Cagey Cretins” features more ooh’s and backing vocals, which belie the sinister guitar riff.

They still haven’t lost their bizarro-ness with the delightfully titled, “Harvester of Eyes.”  But the highlight has got to be “Astronomy” a song so nice they recorded it twice (again in 1988 reworked for the album Imaginos).  It’s long, it tells a story, it has multiple parts, and it’s simply fantastic.

The disc  is totally worth investigating if you like psychedelic heavy metal.

[READ: February 22, 2010] North World: Other Sagas

I’ve enjoyed the North World series since the beginning.  This third volume is a short story collection about characters other than the major dude from the series.  And I have to say it’s engaging, funny and wholly enjoyable. I think it’s the most fun book of the three.

This is not to dismiss the main story line of the series at all.  However, now that the story of Conrad has more or less run its course, it would be kind of sad to keep bringing him back out of retirement (he should save that for like the 12th book or something).  So, this collection fleshes out North World, the city, by  showing other magical characters and the mini adventures they go on.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the premise, North World is a town that’s set in the 21st century. However, in addition to regular folks, it is populated by wizards, warriors, spell casters and sword wielders.  There’s also giant marauding animals (which gives the warriors something to fight).  So you have scenes like a cyclops giving away free kittens at the side of the road.  Or a viking raid in a pizza store.  There’s plenty of combat, plenty of action and plenty of humor.

(more…)

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