Middling entry in the Asterix canon with the humour coming mostly from over-forced wordplay, perhaps a bit of lazy thesaurus-based translation.*
It's better than most of the late Uderzo solo efforts but is pretty unmemorable.
*Translation error: page 30, the druid is referred to by his French name Panoramix, rather than by the English version Getafix.
It's better than most of the late Uderzo solo efforts but is pretty unmemorable.
*Translation error: page 30, the druid is referred to by his French name Panoramix, rather than by the English version Getafix.
Felt like a mashup of TV scripts, a wikileaks story that went nowhere, and a genuinely interesting alien contact story. It was a real struggle to work through this combination, and I'm surprised I got to the end, but it took months of picking it up and putting ut down, and skimming pieces.
MAP MAGAZINE MAGAZINE 5/6 MOVEMENT AT KAI KAVAFI
(Liverpool Science Fiction Texts & Studies)
A plot overburdened with allegory that doesn't rise to the challenges it sets itself. Some lovely writing on the page, but neither plot nor characters connected with me. A lot of it felt like a plea for a screenplay adaptation to action movie.
I did wonder through the course of the book what happens with werewolves around the the rest of the globe, as aside from minor mentions of nations bordering the Lycan Republic and Chinese debt, the international community may as well not exist. I was split between wondering whether alternate treatment of Lycans elsewhere was just too complicated for the book, or whether this simply echoed much of the US' terrorist/AIDS sufferer/ experience which is to simply ignore what the rest of the world thinks and does.
I did wonder through the course of the book what happens with werewolves around the the rest of the globe, as aside from minor mentions of nations bordering the Lycan Republic and Chinese debt, the international community may as well not exist. I was split between wondering whether alternate treatment of Lycans elsewhere was just too complicated for the book, or whether this simply echoed much of the US' terrorist/AIDS sufferer/ experience which is to simply ignore what the rest of the world thinks and does.
Conceptually it's Stranger than Fiction meets Galaxy Quest, although surprisingly not nearly as funny as either. I was expecting to love this and find the humour of Scalzi's Agent to the Stars or Old Man's War, but it was not the LOLfest proclaimed by the four cover blurbs, producing more of an occasional smile. The story is handled competently enough but this book is just going to be a redshirt against the leading players in my Scalzi library.
Entertaining enough but there are only so many stories of drunken errors and escapades that I can read in one sitting or lifetime. More interesting for me in fleshing out some of the early days around the folks in the current UK comedy establishment from the Comic Strip, French & Saunders etc.
Copyeditor needs to learn difference between phase & faze.
Copyeditor needs to learn difference between phase & faze.