Dr. Horrible and Other Horrible Stories by Zack Whedon. graphic novel, superheroes, film-to-book adaptations, humor 80 pages
Considering how tiny this book is, I'm not gonna church it up and continuously call it a graphic novel. Zack Whedon's "Dr. Horrible and Other Horrible Stories" is a comic book. While the book is short (even among comic book standards), this isn't what makes it suck. This book sucks because it fails to follow the hype of an entertaining potential franchise by boring the audience with lame back story. Those familiar with the internet sensation, Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog, had a lot to look forward to with promises of sequels and/or prequels coming about every once in a while. What is delivered to readers is this pathetic attempt at satiation.
The story (if one can even call it that) is a series of 5-8 page minor arcs featuring every character from the popular web-movie. Readers will quickly be reminded of Dr. Horrible, Captain Hammer, Penny, and Moist, although each of their individual stories falls flat and fails to entertain. Anyone who's seen the movie recognizes that prequel stories about some of these characters would seem unnecessary considering their fates in the movie, but the fact that Whedon couldn't even come up with a somewhat entertaining plot for the MAIN CHARACTER is ridiculous.
I will concede that there were a few entertaining moments in the book, but they were definitely few and far between. The best parts came from the revelation of characters not seen in the movie, notably the barely-mentioned Johnny Snow and the members of the elite super villain collective known as the Evil League of Evil. All of these characters are present in only one story but this story manages to be the only entertaining one of the bunch. From what little mythology is provided from this book, readers learn that there are more superheroes and villains than just Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer, and we get to actually see the Evil League of Evil's members (in the movie, this view was limited to Bad Horse, the equine leader of the League). Some of the League's members are especially entertaining: Tie Die, an evil Hippie-Controlling flowerchild with a desire to destroy and Fake Thomas Jefferson, a Thomas Jefferson look-a-like whose powers are unknown but has somehow been granted membership to the League.
That being said, this book was, for the most part, as horrible as promised in the title. I expected a lot more out of an otherwise entertaining franchise, but I have been severely disappointed. Luckily, at 80 pages, if you waste your time with this, you won't be wasting MUCH time.
Showing posts with label horrible. Show all posts
Showing posts with label horrible. Show all posts
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Monday, February 28, 2011
The Iron Duke/Meljane Brook
The Iron Duke by Meljane Brook; romance, steampunk; 384 pages
If there is one thing I learned for this book, it's that I need to stop reading romances. I love a good genre book (fantasy or scifi, please) with strong romantic elements, so I thought I'd also enjoy a romance with strong genre elements. This one was advertised as a steampunk romance, so I figured I would love it. Oh, how wrong I was.
To be fair, I liked the world of this novel, and its premise: hundreds of years ago, Genghis Khan's Horde conquered all of Europe and Asia. They developed advanced nanotechnology, which they used to control the population, and to create half-metal half-biological beasts to keep them in line. And zombies, of course, which now roam the continent unchecked. Nine years ago, a rogue pirate ship lead the attack which drove the Horde out of England, and freed its populace. The captain of that ship was rewarded with a dukedom--and the title the Iron Duke. Now, in the late 19th century, a murder on the duke's estate sends Detective Inspector Wilhelmina Wentworth to investigate, and she and the duke soon find themselves tracking down a conspiracy that threatens all of England. Sounds great, right?
I could write you a small novel detailing why I didn't like this book: the choppy writing; the sketchy plotting; the abrupt conclusions to too many subplots; or the almost total lack of British-isms from the supposedly English (and Welsh) main characters. But the real bone of contention was the "courtship" between Mina and the duke. At first I thought it was just that the duke was too "alpha male" for me--but when the duke sexually assaults the inspector, with no repercussions, I lost it. I finished this book, but only barely.
If there is one thing I learned for this book, it's that I need to stop reading romances. I love a good genre book (fantasy or scifi, please) with strong romantic elements, so I thought I'd also enjoy a romance with strong genre elements. This one was advertised as a steampunk romance, so I figured I would love it. Oh, how wrong I was.
To be fair, I liked the world of this novel, and its premise: hundreds of years ago, Genghis Khan's Horde conquered all of Europe and Asia. They developed advanced nanotechnology, which they used to control the population, and to create half-metal half-biological beasts to keep them in line. And zombies, of course, which now roam the continent unchecked. Nine years ago, a rogue pirate ship lead the attack which drove the Horde out of England, and freed its populace. The captain of that ship was rewarded with a dukedom--and the title the Iron Duke. Now, in the late 19th century, a murder on the duke's estate sends Detective Inspector Wilhelmina Wentworth to investigate, and she and the duke soon find themselves tracking down a conspiracy that threatens all of England. Sounds great, right?
I could write you a small novel detailing why I didn't like this book: the choppy writing; the sketchy plotting; the abrupt conclusions to too many subplots; or the almost total lack of British-isms from the supposedly English (and Welsh) main characters. But the real bone of contention was the "courtship" between Mina and the duke. At first I thought it was just that the duke was too "alpha male" for me--but when the duke sexually assaults the inspector, with no repercussions, I lost it. I finished this book, but only barely.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Bullet/Laurell K. Hamilton
Bullet (Anita Blake series, book 19) by Laurell K. Hamilton; paranormal romance; 368 pages
If you asked me to tell you what this book is about, I don't think I could. It's not that I don't know what was going on, but more that there wasn't any kind of plot or central goal here. In fact, any scene in this book could have been clipped and inserted in or from any other recent volume in this series. The characters have grown stagnant, the supporting cast has grown to huge to keep straight, and I've mostly stopped reading these books and just started skimming for plot advancement. I guess I keep coming back to this series, hoping that it will return to the good old days of books 1-9. It hasn't, and I think it's time for me to give up.
If you asked me to tell you what this book is about, I don't think I could. It's not that I don't know what was going on, but more that there wasn't any kind of plot or central goal here. In fact, any scene in this book could have been clipped and inserted in or from any other recent volume in this series. The characters have grown stagnant, the supporting cast has grown to huge to keep straight, and I've mostly stopped reading these books and just started skimming for plot advancement. I guess I keep coming back to this series, hoping that it will return to the good old days of books 1-9. It hasn't, and I think it's time for me to give up.
Monday, May 17, 2010
The Witch's Boy/Michael Gruber
The Witch's Boy, by Michael Gruber; young adult, fantasy; 400 pages (about 7 hours, listening)
Horrible people doing horrible things to other horrible people: that's pretty much the content of this book. The main character is cruel and terrible, and manages to harm anyone who has ever cared about him. There's some attempt at redemption at the end, but it's too little too late. If I had to pick I high point of this book, it would be the retellings of classic fairy tales, often with the witch or wolf as the hero instead of the villain. Still, even that wasn't enough to make this book bearable. Not something I'm going to be revisiting. Also, avoid the audiobook: the narration is good, but somehow, having someone read the terrible things aloud just makes them worse.
Horrible people doing horrible things to other horrible people: that's pretty much the content of this book. The main character is cruel and terrible, and manages to harm anyone who has ever cared about him. There's some attempt at redemption at the end, but it's too little too late. If I had to pick I high point of this book, it would be the retellings of classic fairy tales, often with the witch or wolf as the hero instead of the villain. Still, even that wasn't enough to make this book bearable. Not something I'm going to be revisiting. Also, avoid the audiobook: the narration is good, but somehow, having someone read the terrible things aloud just makes them worse.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)