Craig Shaw Gardner

This is a first. I've subjected myself to some shit books in my time, but I generally try to go by the 10% rule--that is, if the author hasn't grabbed me in the first ten percent of the book, usually twenty to thirty-odd pages, then I'm out.

It's saved me a whole lotta wasted time.

But this one? It's weird, because I know I've read far, far worse writing. But just four pages in, by the end of the very first scene, I closed the cover and put the thing down. I will never pick it up again.

So I'm show more declining to even rate a book I finished something like a paltry 2% of.

What was so offensive, or so off-putting about these few pages? It comes down to a few things. I knew going in this would not be a fantastic book, but I had hoped for some chuckles, some unselfconscious turns to the reader and winking, whatever. Instead, in the first four pages, I had a guy holding a gun to another guy. That was it. He showed up, held the gun, told the guy not to talk and not to move, then after four pages of navel-gazing by both characters, all of which did its level best to be wry and sardonic but came across flat and unamusing, the gun holder disappeared.

Technically, I guess it set up a story question, but it was one that I simply didn't give a shit about, and the thoughts of another 200 pages of flat, unamusing pseudo-sardonic, faux-wry writing for a story that I already know wasn't going to be stellar? Nope.

I didn't come for the story. I came for some fun. And those first four pages were the opposite of fun. show less

Old school humorous fantasy from when the Earth was cooling and I was young. Enjoyed it quite a bit.

I got this in 2013 for dirt cheap from a thrift store, and years it's sat ignored on my shelf. I figured it would be a so-so read one day that would be dry - but it surprised me by being so fun and carried humor stronger than the movie did.

I'm not the biggest fan of Tim Burton's Batman flicks, but the second has always been my favorite of the director's work. Selina and Bruce's relationship was the cat's meow. I loved the dance scene where Bruce tries to explain they are the same - split show more into two and in contrary nature to themselves. Good thing she's got nine lives after all.

While the penguin was a mean little monster with some annoying parts that drove me slightly batty - he mainly was an amusing villain. There is humor in the text that came through to me more clearly than it did in the movie. Sure we miss out on the music and the shiny celluloid effects the film had, but this one stayed faithful. It was an easy, smooth read with simplified writing that flew by.

And yeah, Batman totally did kill that one guy. Just sayin'.

Maybe it's not worth hunting down or paying much for, but it's worth a read if you have it lying around. We don't get deep emotions or characterization or anything, look into deeper original Batman books for that sort of stuff - this one was a playful companion to the film and doesn't steer from the course to spread any creative wings. As I said, worth a read if you have it close by and handy. show less

I thought I had read this one a long time ago, but it's also entirely possible that I don't remember it, or didn't at all. There is a certain amount of nostalgia I have for these type of books, but there is also a bit of a misogynistic thread that possibly exist in the Myth series, certainly the Xanth series, and possibly others in the fantasy-humor genre that erupted about then. What I appreciate about this series is that Ebenezum is actually a respectable wizard, malady notwithstanding, show more unlike those in the Discworld series. Wuntvor reminds me a bit of a less-well-to-do Skeeve, with even more raging hormones. I know I learned the word "effluvium" from one of these series, but I swear it did not appear in this book. Anyway, I cannot recommend this book to anyone who hasn't been a teenage boy who had a bit of interest in the D&D worlds back in the mid-to-late-1980s. show less