52/10-12: Philip Pullman, Neil Gaiman & Max Brooks

[maharetr]

10. The Subtle Knife, by Philip Pullman.

Nine pages into this one, I sighed and thought "Oh! That's better!" I could sympathise far more with Will's plight, and I was deeply grateful that there were very few 'fish-out-of-water' moments as they jumped between worlds. Seeing the movie of Northern Lights gave me a very vivid, beloved image of Lee Scoresby: the confident, laid back Texan drawl, and the attentive, intelligent daemon Hester, that I carried with me through the whole book, and kept me interested in what was happening in Lyra's world. I cried when he died, which is really rare for me.

The development of Dust was interesting, although the scene where the professor is typing to it stretched my belief. I liked The Subtle Knife far more than Northern Lights, although I'm less than 50 pages into The Amber Spyglass and I'm going to give it away for a while. So far I'm yet to feel that: "Damn, I have to do X, and I could be *reading*" moment with any of these books, which is a pretty strong indicator of my interest.



11. Death: The High Cost of Living, by Neil Gaiman.

The first 'part' of two Death stand alones. Death being mortal for a day, every hundred years. I read the second one (The time of your life) first, and I liked Time of your life better. This story didn't have Death being as competent and wise as I like. There are of course, gentle, fabulous moments, and the "Death talks about life" sex-ed section, complete with condom demonstration, is totally worth the price of admission. I like the way Gaiman carefully skirts pregnancy and quietly also inserts a badge onto pregnant Hazel's jacket: "I chose to have a baby, but I'm glad I had a choice." Also, potential movie! \o/.



12. World War Z: an oral history of the zombie wars, by Max Brooks

Oh, man! So much love. As the title suggests, it's a series of transcripts of survivors of the zombie apocalypse. From the first outbreaks in China, the Great Panic(s) around the world, through to how each country coped/didn't cope and what their situations are after the war. It's a good format, for a start, and Max Brooks pulls it off with particular flair. Each time the stories start edging into repetition, he ratchets it up and notch and you're off again. Creepy enough in one place that I wandered into black_samvara's room one night going "Hi, need to acclimatise to the real world. Talk to me!" What? I totally get swept up in good stories. *wry grin*