And now do not. 

 

What happened, bookshelf?

 

Or more likely, what happened self?

 

I'm semi-mad, but I'm more fond of my cyberpunk trilogy that he signed, so I'm not that mad at self. 

There’s a new threat in Portland – the Icy Touch, a criminal cartel made entirely out of brutal Wesen. The leader of which has a long standing grudge against Nick and his family

 

But how can the police face a criminal gang when they cannot be told about the wesen? And how can Nick fight as a Grimm when he is also bound by his work as a cop – and his own fear of what he is becoming?

 

 

 

This is a book based on a TV series which means it’s pretty much impossible to read it without contrasting to its source material. Not only that, I don’t think it’s intended for us to do so – especially with Grimm having so many seasons of world building and character development means that I don’t think you could read any of these books without having watched the show. There’s too much to recap and include to make this book stand alone

 

Though, I will say this book does a decent job of trying (albeit not very well) but I think it would be much smoother if it just expected all of its readers to watch the show – because I found some of the elements to make it stand alone to be… off. Like Nick can see Wesen as Wesen, including their type, even when they’re not woged which is a bit of a deviation. There’s also a lot more emphasis on some weird Grimm instincts. I did like how they managed to greatly explore the conflict between Nick the cop (often through Hank’s eyes) and Nick the Grimm. How he is often stepping outside the law and a lot of unsanctioned violence. This also couples with his own moral conflict since his actions are not only not ok for a cop, but are generally not acceptable anyway. I also liked how there was more of Juliette’s discomfort and distrust being analysed than we’ve really seen on the show

 

So, there are elements of moving above and beyond the show that do work and why have books of the show if you’re not going to develop them further?

 

However, I mainly think the adaption failed. There are some elements like Nick’s new powers that were just wrong.

But the most jarring to me is the voice of every character. All of them sound wrong to me. Hank sounds extremely whiny. Sergeant Wu has been written by someone with much less sense of humour but is still desperately trying to force his wit – so he keeps popping in, making bad jokes, then going away. But the worst are Renard – who is grossly autocratic and high handed and alien to everything on the show. And Monroe who… just bemuses me. This is not Monroe. It doesn’t even come close to resembling Monroe. My gods why would anyone write Monroe like this?!

 

 

This means that Monroe’s conflicts over being a Blutbad and his morality all kind of fall flat as well because I just can’t connect them to the character because his characterisation is just so terrible.

 

 

Read More

 

I have created a TBR list of horror. It's varied--classic and new, men and women, novels and short stories. The only common denominator is that I haven't read these particular works yet--and I ain't getting any younger, so it is time to begin, Gentle Reader.

 

Wanna play? http://booklikes.com/apps/reading-lists/267/horror-expansion

 

Nonexhaustive list of authors included:

Dan Simmons

Clive Barker

Joyce Carol Oates

Shirley Jackson

F. Paul Wilson

Richard Matheson

Harlan Ellison

Greg Chapman

Simon Clark

Bentley Little

Angela Carter

Chuck Palahniuk

Joe R. Lansdale

John Collier

Douglas Clegg

Ramsey Campbell

John Shirley

David V. Schow

Caitlin R. Kiernan

Poppy Z. Brite

Christa Faust

Graham Masterton

Robert W. Chambers

Elizabeth Massie

Kathe Koja

John Farris

Graham Joyce

Michael Slade

Fritz Leiber

Charles Beaumont

T. E. D. Klein

Peter Straub

Neil Gaiman

Gregor Xane

Jonathan Carroll

Steve Rasnic Tem

John Skipp

Francesca Lia Block

H. P. Lovecraft

Saki

So... kinda freaked out.   I met John Shirley.   He yelled at another panel in a convention.   To be fair, that panel was a vocal training panel that was paired next to an author reading; we heard some weird shit, and not all of it was Shirley's prose...

 

I wanted to tell them to shut up, too, so I felt that Shirley was right.   It was distracting for us as, as people who had come to hear Shirley.   It must have been far more distracting for him, which is why I blew off people telling me they'd heard this of Shirley. 

 

After reading the introduction, though, I'm starting to realize that Shirley is, or at least was...   I don't know.   Scary?   With the drug habits and the getting into bar brawls - although that may not be the case any longer.   He certainly wasn't tipping over tables or howling, like he used to do at cons.   

 

But more than that, I may be in for a more wild ride than I suspected when I bought this at Readercon.

There is all kind of crazy sh@t going on in this one. It starts off quick and does not let go, upping the ante of gore and slowly revealing the terror that is behind Wetbones.

Arrangements are made with the Akishra to grant pleasure, power and pain. There are only a select few that have the ability to “see” them and that can utilize their power to influence others. People have started disappearing and it is up to a small group of very interesting characters to try and save them before they become wetbones themselves.

Written well, with well developed characters and appropriate amounts of blood dripped on the pages. My first Shirley, but not my last.

I hear John frequents my favorite bookstore cafe in SF. I look for him every time I go, but unfortunately, don't get out there that often. One of these days I will run across him and buy him a cup o’ joe.