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Bush Kangaroo
Nov. 17th, 2008 05:02 pmI'm sure there are at least a couple of you who read this blog regularly. Therefore somebody may have noticed that I haven't been writing about books in the last couple of weeks. That is pretty bad for somebody who charts their way through life by the use of books. Yes, it has been one of my periodic reading slumps.
The think is, I never stop completely. For example I tend to read more short stories. Also, in the past, I have picked a low impact book. Something that won't be too hard on the brain cells. This time I picked another of Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden stories. It was Dead Beat – a title from later in the series than Summer Knight which I'd read a little while back. I was curious to see how the series was progressing without the tedium of reading all the ones in between.
There was quite a contrast. Both books were based on the same basic model of Chandleresque hard boiled with added magic, the first book I'd read had been quite a pure rendition of that. The later book is bloated with extra complication, added violent bits and a plot that just kept on expanding. Not exactly a mess, but not clean either. While still perfectly readable, the later book didn't grab the attention as well – it was much easier to put down. There are several possible explanations for Butcher going "off mission" like this and I don't know which ones apply – I don't really care, I just see that it isn't as good.
One thing that is consistent is that Harry Dresden, the character, is just as annoying as he ever was. He may have grown and changed but I still want to give him a good slapping.
I wonder if this change in the books would have been as noticeable if I hadn't jumped forward a bunch of episodes. Heck, it may not even have been a problem if I had tracked through one story at a time.
The think is, I never stop completely. For example I tend to read more short stories. Also, in the past, I have picked a low impact book. Something that won't be too hard on the brain cells. This time I picked another of Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden stories. It was Dead Beat – a title from later in the series than Summer Knight which I'd read a little while back. I was curious to see how the series was progressing without the tedium of reading all the ones in between.
There was quite a contrast. Both books were based on the same basic model of Chandleresque hard boiled with added magic, the first book I'd read had been quite a pure rendition of that. The later book is bloated with extra complication, added violent bits and a plot that just kept on expanding. Not exactly a mess, but not clean either. While still perfectly readable, the later book didn't grab the attention as well – it was much easier to put down. There are several possible explanations for Butcher going "off mission" like this and I don't know which ones apply – I don't really care, I just see that it isn't as good.
One thing that is consistent is that Harry Dresden, the character, is just as annoying as he ever was. He may have grown and changed but I still want to give him a good slapping.
I wonder if this change in the books would have been as noticeable if I hadn't jumped forward a bunch of episodes. Heck, it may not even have been a problem if I had tracked through one story at a time.