The Lonesome Road

I am not a big fan of alternate modern earth fantasies (see my earlier post on this subject if you have the time to waste). However, the other day while I was at the library picking up a Steven Brust and a Michael Stackpole, I came across another series by Mark Chadbourn - the Age of Misrule Trilogy.

The basic premise of the series is that the Celtic gods have returned to Earth and the Age of Reason (read science and technology) is turning and giving way to the Age of Wonder (read magic and witchcraft). Now, the book follows the classic doomsday scenario - gloomy atmosphere, broken heroes (and heroines), and an evil too large to face. I managed to get through Book 1, but could not get past (or through) the second book.

To be honest, there’s nothing wrong with the books per se, but on a personal level the unremitting gloominess of the books just got me down. Give the protagonists a break - a little humor never killed anyone! One of the reasons that I picked up the books is that I’m a fan of myth and mythology from different cultures. Celtic mythology is one of the areas I hadn’t read much about. I did know about the Great Hunt (thanks to some D&D books) , but that’s where what I know stops. I was disappointed on that score as well. While the author does talk about Gods and the various names they take, he describes them more as “creatures” that are so much more advanced than us that they seem like Gods - with shapes and thoughts that are very different from our (as in human) own. And of course, there are two of them - to represent the “Angels” and the “Devils”. Of course, we all find out at the end of Book 1 that the Angels are not all that they are supposed to be.

Technically, the book is well written, but the author tends to use certain phrases repeatedly while describing the mood of the group. The story manages to move along at a decent pace - not too slow, but definitely not a page turner.

I would have rated the book higher if I had managed to finish the series, but as of it does not rank too high in my reading list.

Score: 2/5

All readers can assign blame to Anshul for this post!

Book that changed my life - Can’t blame a single book. It’s been a progression of books that have changed with my philosophy.

Book you’ve read more than once - Just about every book I own. Of course, the reason I bought them is because they are worth a re-read . To name a few names - The Day of the Jackal (Forsythe), Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less (Archer) among others.

Book you’d take to a desert island - This is a toughie. Does it have to be just one? If you twist my arm, I’ll say any of the Black Widower Series by Isaac Asimov.

Book that made you laugh - Any book by Gerald Durrell. I’ve been a fan of (and laughing while reading) his books for a long time now. Recommended books: My Family and Other Animals, Fillets of Plaice - basically just about every book he’s written.

Book that made you cry - Never really cried while reading a book. To answer this question - The Eyes of the Dragon (Stephen King) was one that just about managed to come close. It’s one of his few non-horror stories - and a damn good book at that.

Book you wish you had written - No book really comes to mind. I’m generally more envious of the way people write as compared to what they write.

Book you wish had never been written - I’m afraid I have to agree with Anshul on this. I hated Old Man and the Sea. Even today the lines “…the fish is my friend, but I must kill it” evokes the same feeling of dread it did a decade back.

Book you’re currently reading - Not one, but two! The Cell (Stephen King) and The Dragonbone Chair (Tad Williams).

Book you’ve been meaning to read - All my textbooks . Seriously - Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (Scott McCloud).

Well, there you have it. The tag is complete.

I’ve been a long time Stephen King fan. At one point in time, I owned around 30 books that he had written (I am counting those he wrote as Richard Bachman as well). Of course, this was before book worms decided that I had to many books and ate quite a few of them. When they finished their food, I had fewer than 10 left.

All that apart, I hated the first King book that I read. Technically, it wasn’t a King book, it was one of the Bachman books - Thinner. I was cribbing about the book to a friend and he dumped a copy of The Dark Tower II - The Drawing of the Three in my hand.

So, I took his recommendation that the book was good, and gave King a go with a clear mind. And boy, was the book great. The characters, the interactions and the plot were amazingly good. Of course, once I finished book 2, how could I not go after book 3 (The Waste Lands)?

Of course, a few things did not make sense in book 2 as I had not read book 1. Long story short, bought books 1 - 3 and re-read them in order. Book 3 ended in a cliff hanger - and I hated King for that. Of course, all this reading also introduced me to the other books that he wrote. If you are reading the Dark Tower series, it makes a lot of sense to read his other books - trust me on this.

After a long wait, Book 4 (Wizard and Glass) finally came out. The problem(?) with this book was that it dealt a lot with Roland’s past. It does a good job of providing the back story and the motivation of Roland’s quest, but at that time I was a lot more interested in knowing when Roland was going to get to the damn tower of his. Now that I have finished the series, I think I will give it another go.

The gap between books 4 and 5 (Wolves of the Calla) was longer than I anticipated. Also, by that time, I had moved on to other authors and different genres. When I finally got my hands on the book, I was disappointed. To be honest, of all the books in the series, this is (according to me) the weakest one. Why? Simple - it does not move the story forward. Well, not too much in any case. It felt like the entire novel was just to set up the ending. I did not enjoy slogging (yes, it wasn’t that good) through the book just to have the last 10 pages move the story forward.

Once that book was done, I gave up on the series. Well, gave up is a little strong - I just stopped bothering about it. For around 2 years. The other day, when I went to the local library, I saw the last two books in the series (The Song of Susannah and (duh) The Dark Tower) next to each other. After a lot of internal debate, I took them home - and fell in love with the series all over again.

The Song of Susannah had all the made the series great in the first place. Characters, plot lines, interactions - the works. And the story was moving forward - hurtling forward in fact. And the book was small - well, small compared to the other books in the series. It was so good that I finished it in a day.

That left only one book to go. The one where Roland achieves his goal (or does he?). Was it going to be the culmination of King’s work - or was it going to make me hate him forever? Let’s just say he ended it the only way he could. As he says, the ending just wrote itself - and I am not disappointed/upset by it. In the light of the end, quite a few things that happen in the book make sense.

Yes, there is nothing about the story, the characters or the plot in the post above. It’s simple. If anyone is inspired to read the series because they had the patience to read this article, I don’t them to have any preconceived ideas. Approach it with a fresh mind. Those who have read other King books will enjoy the series a little more. Here are some of the books you should try while/before reading the series : The Stand, Salem’s Lot, Insomnia, Hearts in Atlantis, and It.

In many ways, this series is King’s Magnum Opus. It almost feels like all the other books that he wrote were simply window dressing for this epic. This is his Grand Unified theory, bringing all his works under one umbrella. As an avid fan, I will not be disappointed if he bows out now and never writes another work. Book 7 - The Dark Tower is gift enough.
Khef, Ka and Ka-Tet.

Say thankya.

I’m a big believer that books do not translate well into movies. Of course, you are free to reject this notion as it’s based only on my opinion.

However, here is my reasoning: One of the major advantages in a book is that there is no time limit for the author. This allows him/her to develop characters, explain motivations and generally move the plot along. Film makers however, do not have this luxury. They have to tell the story in the span of two hours. Combine this with the fact that the average attention span of a viewer is 0.75 seconds (feel free to debunk this figure), the movie makers are forced to move things along pretty quickly.

Secondly, an author is free to take time to explain the thought process that a character follows. This gives the reader a little more insight into the players in the story. This is really hard to do in a movie. I mean, come on - won’t it be odd if an off-screen voice tells us what a character is thinking as (s)he stares into space?

Anyway, coming back to the DVC, I picked it up from the library as a friend recommended it. I read through it and thought it was a bad book. I won’t say it stinks, but it’s not exactly the masterpiece it was recommended as. I though Robert Langdon was a weakly developed character, the monk (who was into pain) was plain boring and the plot “twist” totally predictable. Now, the only things that were half-decent in the book were the puzzles. The initial ones were easy enough, but after a while, I was so out of the book that the puzzles no longer interested me.

Now, I usually give an author two books to prove themselves. You know, just in case the first book was a stinker. For example, my first Stephen King book was Thinner. It was crappy. Then I read The Dark Tower and I was hooked. Anyway, all that aside, I read Angels and Demons. If anything, this book was even worse than the DVC. Dull, uninspired and wordy are the words that come into mind when I recall my reading. Oh and Mr.Langdon falls of a plane (or helicopter - don’t really remember - was on autopilot) and lands safely without a parachute. Talk about divine intervention.

When I heard they were making a movie on the book, I was aghast. As I said, a bad book translates into a really bad movie. And it seems that the critics agree. Almost all of them have panned the movie. The best review that I have read is from The New Yorker - you can read it here.

For those who do not want to read the whole thing, here are some snippets:

A dead Frenchman is found laid out on the floor of the Louvre. His final act was to carve a number of bloody markings into his own flesh, indicating, to the expert eye, that he was preparing to roll in fresh herbs and sear himself in olive oil for three minutes on each side.

Our hero, needing somebody to trust, does the same dumb thing that every fleeing innocent has done since Robert Donat in “The Thirty-nine Steps.” He and Sophie visit a cheery old duffer in the countryside and spill every possible bean.

There is also Silas (Paul Bettany), a cowled albino monk whose hobbies include self-flagellation, multiple homicide, and irregular Latin verbs. He works for Opus Dei, the Catholic organization so intensely secretive that its American headquarters are tucked away in a seventeen-story building on Lexington Avenue.

As a rule, you should beware of any movie in which characters utter lines of dialogue whose proper place is on the advertising poster. (Just imagine Sigourney Weaver, halfway through “Alien,” turning to John Hurt and explaining, “In space, no one can hear you scream.”)

From now on, such penance will be simple—no lashings, no spiked cuff around the thigh. Just the price of a movie ticket, and two and a half hours of pain.

Anyway, you get the drift. I will stop here. Of course, this has not stopped the general public from flocking to the theatres and spending a whole load of money on the movie. Enough money to allow the studios to claim that the DVC is the “most popular movie - Worldwide”. I leave you, constant reader figure out how true their claims are.

In other news, Omen is being remade. I’m a big fan of good horror movies. I really liked the Omen as there is no blood and gore in the movie and there is a gradual escalation of terror throughout the movie. Awesome it was. Well, let us see what they do with the remake. I am scared..very scared

That’s all from me for now. Later all!