Review: American Gods

American Gods by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This is the fourth book by Neil Gaiman that I've read, and the only one so far that I've found disappointing, very much so in fact. This was quite a surprise to me given how I liked Stardust, and loved both Good Omens and The Ocean at the End of the Lane, and given how many people whose opinion I respected had told me good things about it. I found the basic concept of the book intriguing -- when immigrants bring their gods to a new land, and then stop believing in them, what happens to those gods? -- but was seldom charmed by, and often shook my head at, the execution.

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Review: The Great War and Modern Memory

The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is one of the very best books of literary criticism I have ever read, and I've read a few. It's not an easy book or a quick read, and it is an old school work of literary criticism that pays more attention to the facts of the text than to theories about the facts. But it is worth the effort, and you will learn a lot. If you're interested in WWI, read this book. If you're interested in the lost generation, read this book. If you're interested in 20th century poetry, read this book. If you're interested in the history of the 20th century and western civilization, read this book. If you're.... Need I go on?

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Review: Lyonesse: Suldrun's Garden

Lyonesse: Suldrun's Garden by Jack Vance
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jack Vance's work has many charms. His prose is smooth and, for the most part, stealthily beautiful. Then all of a sudden it isn't stealthy at all, and it lifts you up. His wit is quick, surefooted, and dry. And he will surprise you by turning the story on a dime in an unexpected direction, but what he does follows, and you can't believe he just did that. So he is quite sly, and entirely persuasive. Even when he introduces fairies that seem to be just like those annoying, cloying toy pixies of the Victorians, they're not. Oh, no.


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Review: Deep Roots in a Time of Frost: Essays on Tolkien

Deep Roots in a Time of Frost: Essays on Tolkien by Patrick Curry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A good and thoughtful book, knowledgeable and perceptive, though inclined to give much closer attention to the opinions of secondary sources than the evidence of primary.

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Review: Troilus and Criseyde

Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a very nice and useful edition, with the text of Boccaccio's Filostrato -- the source of Chaucer's poem -- on the facing page. This allows the reader to compare both texts closely, and to see where Chaucer departs from and expands, often greatly, on his source. In the second half of the book is a selection of scholarly articles on the poem. The only fault I can point to is one that this edition shares with too many editions of poems with explanatory notes -- that where a note is most needed, there almost never seems to be one. The story itself is marvelous, funny, sad, vexing, and enlightening. I look forward to re-reading Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida to see what he did with Chaucer's story.

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