davramlocke's Reviews (777)

It's difficult to separate the Dragon Age books from the Dragon Age video games, nor, do I think, the author intends them to be separate. After all, it feels as though they were written as a promotion of the games, obviously to increase sales and make some more publishing money. However, one of the core tenets of the video game series, and most series developed by BioWare, is that the decisions a player makes have impact on the world, so much so that one player's world will look markedly different from another's. Certain characters might die for me that wouldn't for someone else, etc. This makes writing a book about a variable world difficult, even if you're the lead writer for the series. Gaider had an advantage with his previous two works, The Stole Throne and The Calling because they were set even before the first game. Asunder is set after both games, and so has to attempt to tell a story set after the monumental events of two prodigious adventures.

Fortunately, it takes place in a different country, and while it stars characters from the first game, namely Wynne, Shale, and Leliana, Gaider manages to steer clear of anything too obvious from those prior tales. He alludes to "The Warden" at several times, but never calls the hero of the first Dragon Age by name, and he never mentions Hawke, the second game's protagonist, at all (though he does refer to Anders several times, which makes sense given the mage-centric plot of Asunder). Unfortunately, these moments of reference feel forced and artificial because of their lack of personal meaning.

Thankfully they don't spoil the book entirely. The central theme of Asunder revolves around a clash between the Templars, an order of anti-mage knights who keep the power of spell-casters under control, and the mages themselves. We follow the story of Rhys and Evangeline, a mage and a templar, set on opposite sides of a clash but connected by a mutual attraction and moral code of sorts. Also present is a young man named Cole who is invisible to everyone but Rhys, in a sort of grown up imaginary friend capacity.

The story itself sees these characters, along with some heroes from the first game's story, travelling to a blight-infested area to attempt to defeat a demon. It sounds like a pretty standard tale, but the mages and the demons in the Dragon Age world are unlike any in fantasy, and watching the dynamic of their relationships unfold is interesting.

Unfortunately, by the end of the novel there are too many loose ends and holes to fill, and I found myself annoyed by the lack of closure involved. I can understand leaving some things in the air because in many ways this book feels like a primer for the third game, and indeed a game set in Orlais with a backdrop of mage warfare seems like a great setting, if perhaps not as grave as a darkspawn infested Blight. However, given the origins of the world's lore, and the importance of magic users within it, it might be the best setting possible for what could be the final act in the Dragon Age trilogy.

For fans of the series of games and books, Asunder is actually a pretty good read, and will fuel your desire to go back and replay the prior games (I'm already debating it, despite the slew of new games I have on my plate).

This was entertaining enough to read, but some of the crap Vaughan tries to pull in the story is beyond ridiculous. A definite sore spot in the series in my opinion.

This was a joke. The series started devolving with volume 5, but 6 is a travesty of storytelling. What started out as a thoughtful series about a major "what if" moment seems to have slunk into realms more appropriate to pornography. In fact, some of the storytelling in...Girl on Girl (sigh) is reminiscent of those pizza boy delivery scenes so common in on-screen sex. I think I'm done with Y.

Despite earlier proclamations (mainly that I would never read another volume of this series because of the abortion that was Girl on Girl), I went back and read volume 7 and wasn't completely horrified. I guess most graphic novel runs have their ups and downs (though generally the downs aren't quite as down). Dolls wasn't bad though, and it kept its misogyny to a minimum.

This was quite a surprise. I picked it up on a whim, seeing a mention of James Joyce on the back, and read through it in one sitting. It's difficult to describe just what it's about. It's a biography of scholar and author Mary Talbot and illustrated by her husband Byran, who is well known in the graphic novel world. But it's also a parallel biography of James Joyce's daughter Lucia, and the narrative jumps from Mary's life to Lucia's, drawing similarities to the two upbringings throughout. Obviously Mary's life turned out much better than Lucia's, who ended up dying in a mental institution (a fate that this book would attribute to her unsupportive parents). The connection is initiated because Mary's own father is a Joycean scholar, one of the pre-eminent of his day, and in many ways his method of fatherhood mirrors Joyce's own (though Talbot's father's ideas are oddly different from Joyce).

This book actually brought to mind Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, a masterpiece of sorts in its own right, in its depictions of father/daughter relationships. Even the art style is similar to Bechdel's though I would argue its more "artistic" and actually more of a pleasure to look at.

Definitely recommend this. It's a short, neat history lesson and an interesting way to tell about one's life.

It would be hard for any librarian/book-lover not to be charmed by this book. It's a tribute to reading and to the memories we create while curled up with a great story. It's maybe a little dark, but even the darkness is tempered with this hopeful message about passing on legacies and what it means to love books. A short, quick read for anyone in love with words.

After reading Level Up I wasn't too prepared to enjoy anything by Gene Luen Yang, but American Born Chinese is in a different tier entirely and quite enjoyable. It also has a good structure, managing to veer around in time and space without losing a reader anywhere.

The story follows along three different plot paths that all converge at the end. One path is a Monkey God's trials and tribulations, told in humorous folklore style and highly entertaining. One path is Jin Wang, the book's true protagonist and a young man growing up as a Chinese-American. The third path is the story of Danny and his cousin Chinkee, which is a satirical look at a ridiculous stereotype. All three paths appear unconnected until the very last part of the book, when they all converge into cohesion. It's well done, and while you can see hints of each story feeding into the other, it's never obvious exactly how they're going to become one.

Anyway, it's a fun read, humorously drawn, and has a message to impart that doesn't beat you over the head.