Book Review: Smoke and Mirrors
Jun. 16th, 2005 01:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tigertoyToday's book review is Smoke and Mirrors by Tanya Huff.
This is the second of Tony's "solo" adventures in Vancouver. You probably could understand the story well enough if you just started with this book, but you might as well start at the beginning with Blood Price and read them all.
Before I continue, I feel that I need to explain that, while I do make some attempt to make these reviews objective, to a large extent I am reviewing the quality of my experience reading the book. When I'm feeling as listless, depressed, hopeless, blah, etc., as I am right now, any book is going to seem less shiny than it would if I were feeling better. It is very hard for me to control for this. When I read this book, it didn't have the zing that Tanya's books usually do for me; I suspect that's more because of me than anything wrong with the book but I can't say for sure. I can only talk about the subjective experience I actually had.
I like the characters in this book. The plot was as solid as you could ask for in a humorous sendup of a classic bad Hollywood horror movie plot, which is to say, if you try to think about what's going on it makes a lot more sense than the Hollywood movie. The supernatural goings-on are weird, but they're not any more weird than usual for Tanya's modern fantasy stories, which is to say they're no more weird than they should be. Tony grows as a person. There are some good laughs. In short, it seems like all the elements are there for the perfect story, but they never completely gelled for me.
It was a good book, when it seems like it should have been great. Maybe it's just me. 8 out of 10.
This is the second of Tony's "solo" adventures in Vancouver. You probably could understand the story well enough if you just started with this book, but you might as well start at the beginning with Blood Price and read them all.
Before I continue, I feel that I need to explain that, while I do make some attempt to make these reviews objective, to a large extent I am reviewing the quality of my experience reading the book. When I'm feeling as listless, depressed, hopeless, blah, etc., as I am right now, any book is going to seem less shiny than it would if I were feeling better. It is very hard for me to control for this. When I read this book, it didn't have the zing that Tanya's books usually do for me; I suspect that's more because of me than anything wrong with the book but I can't say for sure. I can only talk about the subjective experience I actually had.
I like the characters in this book. The plot was as solid as you could ask for in a humorous sendup of a classic bad Hollywood horror movie plot, which is to say, if you try to think about what's going on it makes a lot more sense than the Hollywood movie. The supernatural goings-on are weird, but they're not any more weird than usual for Tanya's modern fantasy stories, which is to say they're no more weird than they should be. Tony grows as a person. There are some good laughs. In short, it seems like all the elements are there for the perfect story, but they never completely gelled for me.
It was a good book, when it seems like it should have been great. Maybe it's just me. 8 out of 10.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-16 02:22 pm (UTC)I'm sorry that Sunday's mood didn't last longer for you tho :( Maybe sorting the pictures you took this weekend will respark some of it? *gentlehuggs* Hoping you kick the blahs soon...
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-17 04:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-18 12:11 am (UTC)I'm offline, have a good weekend