Comedy
Ish. Comedy-ish. I thought Phantom was funny, anyway.
The Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire, Neil Gaiman and Shane Oakley
This is silly, my friends. Like How to Talk to Girls at Parties, Forbidden Brides is a graphic novel adaptation of Neil Gaiman's short story, and it's just a delight. The original story skewered the conventions of Gothic fiction through the form of our narrator, a man living in a Gothic world trying desperately to write realistic, slice-of-life fiction. Every so often, though, he'll find a joke slipping into the narrative, or a character will react as if in real life, and it's just beautiful. Plus, the obligatory Edgar Allen Poe joke is really funny.
It's also a parable on "write what you love," as the narrator argues later in the book that he must write literature instead of fantasy, where his real heart lies. This is a good book. I found the illustrations occasionally somewhat hard to follow, which knocked it down a star, but the rest of the time they enhanced the text considerably. The adaptation also jumps around a bit; there were times I thought I was missing pages. But for all that, it's very entertaining, and I've read enough Gothic fiction to laugh at all of it. Would definitely recommend.
Fuck Fascists Factor: 2--fascists have slight problems. There's a prominent female character, but mostly I think they'd just be confused.
Phantom of the Opera, Gaston Leroux
Ah yes, Phantom of the Opera. The great-grandaddy of musical smash hits. I've seen the musical twice, and eventually I thought to myself that I had better just read the book.
Which I loved okay.
The Phantom of the Opera is a weird little almost tongue-in-cheek horror/thriller written by Gaston Leroux in 1909, starring the Paris Opera, with cameos by Christine, Raoul, the titular Phantom, and all those other characters we've grown to know through the musical. The story begins with frightened ballerinas telling each other about the Phantom, and switches to Raoul meeting up with his childhood friend Christine again. She's being stalked by a mysterious angelic voice. Contrary to the musical, we actually spend most of the book following Raoul around, with a wry omniscient narrator who's really telling the story.
I've seen the musical too many times to be surprised by anything in the book, but I actually found it really engrossing for all that. Leroux's narrator was a wiseass, which I enjoyed, and his little asides kept making me laugh. Then, too, the book itself is over-the-top and a great deal of fun. I think I would recommend this, even if (especially if?) you didn't like the musical.
Also, for those of you who have seen the musical, there's a lot of stuff that the book explains that I can only imagine Webber threw in as a nod to the book. For example, we learn why there's a lake underground, and where the heck that horse came from, and where Christine got the nickname "Little Lotte." Worth it.
Fuck Fascists Factor: 4--fascists have major problems. A major character is Persian, and in more of a fuck Nice Guys factor, the book deconstructs the Nice Guy stalking his love interest from afar.
Nine Goblins, T. Kingfisher
I think I actually encountered some of the characters from Nine Goblins on Kingfisher's LiveJournal, so I went into this already attached. That said...
Nine Goblins follows the titular goblin battalion as they accidentally get transported away from a war and into a random forest. They don't know where they are, or why they're there, or how they got there, or how to get home, so they're pretty screwed. At least, they are until they run across Sings-to-Trees, an elf veterinarian living not far from them.
Goblins and elves hate each other, at least in theory, but Sings-to-Trees and the goblins get along pretty well after a few linguistic misunderstandings-- well enough that when Sings-to-Trees finds an entire human village empty, they tag along to help him find out why. The ending is much more disturbing than the rest of the book; it kinda kicks it up a notch in the dark factor. But the whole book, underneath the humor, is a rage against war and hatred, and how useless they both are. Brilliantly done and another great read by T. Kingfisher.
Fuck Fascists Factor: 4--fascists have major problems. There aren't really any representational characters for the fascists to hate, but it critiques their entire worldview.
This entry is crossposted at http://bookblather.dreamwidth.org/423537.html. Please comment over there if possible.
The Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire, Neil Gaiman and Shane Oakley
This is silly, my friends. Like How to Talk to Girls at Parties, Forbidden Brides is a graphic novel adaptation of Neil Gaiman's short story, and it's just a delight. The original story skewered the conventions of Gothic fiction through the form of our narrator, a man living in a Gothic world trying desperately to write realistic, slice-of-life fiction. Every so often, though, he'll find a joke slipping into the narrative, or a character will react as if in real life, and it's just beautiful. Plus, the obligatory Edgar Allen Poe joke is really funny.
It's also a parable on "write what you love," as the narrator argues later in the book that he must write literature instead of fantasy, where his real heart lies. This is a good book. I found the illustrations occasionally somewhat hard to follow, which knocked it down a star, but the rest of the time they enhanced the text considerably. The adaptation also jumps around a bit; there were times I thought I was missing pages. But for all that, it's very entertaining, and I've read enough Gothic fiction to laugh at all of it. Would definitely recommend.
Fuck Fascists Factor: 2--fascists have slight problems. There's a prominent female character, but mostly I think they'd just be confused.
Phantom of the Opera, Gaston Leroux
Ah yes, Phantom of the Opera. The great-grandaddy of musical smash hits. I've seen the musical twice, and eventually I thought to myself that I had better just read the book.
Which I loved okay.
The Phantom of the Opera is a weird little almost tongue-in-cheek horror/thriller written by Gaston Leroux in 1909, starring the Paris Opera, with cameos by Christine, Raoul, the titular Phantom, and all those other characters we've grown to know through the musical. The story begins with frightened ballerinas telling each other about the Phantom, and switches to Raoul meeting up with his childhood friend Christine again. She's being stalked by a mysterious angelic voice. Contrary to the musical, we actually spend most of the book following Raoul around, with a wry omniscient narrator who's really telling the story.
I've seen the musical too many times to be surprised by anything in the book, but I actually found it really engrossing for all that. Leroux's narrator was a wiseass, which I enjoyed, and his little asides kept making me laugh. Then, too, the book itself is over-the-top and a great deal of fun. I think I would recommend this, even if (especially if?) you didn't like the musical.
Also, for those of you who have seen the musical, there's a lot of stuff that the book explains that I can only imagine Webber threw in as a nod to the book. For example, we learn why there's a lake underground, and where the heck that horse came from, and where Christine got the nickname "Little Lotte." Worth it.
Fuck Fascists Factor: 4--fascists have major problems. A major character is Persian, and in more of a fuck Nice Guys factor, the book deconstructs the Nice Guy stalking his love interest from afar.
Nine Goblins, T. Kingfisher
I think I actually encountered some of the characters from Nine Goblins on Kingfisher's LiveJournal, so I went into this already attached. That said...
Nine Goblins follows the titular goblin battalion as they accidentally get transported away from a war and into a random forest. They don't know where they are, or why they're there, or how they got there, or how to get home, so they're pretty screwed. At least, they are until they run across Sings-to-Trees, an elf veterinarian living not far from them.
Goblins and elves hate each other, at least in theory, but Sings-to-Trees and the goblins get along pretty well after a few linguistic misunderstandings-- well enough that when Sings-to-Trees finds an entire human village empty, they tag along to help him find out why. The ending is much more disturbing than the rest of the book; it kinda kicks it up a notch in the dark factor. But the whole book, underneath the humor, is a rage against war and hatred, and how useless they both are. Brilliantly done and another great read by T. Kingfisher.
Fuck Fascists Factor: 4--fascists have major problems. There aren't really any representational characters for the fascists to hate, but it critiques their entire worldview.
This entry is crossposted at http://bookblather.dreamwidth.org/423537.html. Please comment over there if possible.