In Series

After reading Sara Donati's Into the Wilderness, I started trying to track down a copy of the second book in an e-version. I looked and looked and couldn't find it so I when I finally stumbled upon it on the sony site (yay sony!) I started right into Dawn On A Distant Shore. Erin had told me that she started reading the series midway through and then read the first books afterwards and that the first one wasn't nearly as good as the later ones. She was totally right. The second book was much more interesting and a much better read. I found myself tearing through it. I had the third book all lined up and ready to go and was very interested in going right into it but decided to read something else in between.

I picked up Kiwis Might Fly by Polly Evans. The true story of a girl who goes to New Zealand to find a "realy Kiwi Bloke" who hadn't gotten soft with evolution, it sounded like a fun read. I still haven't finished it. I liked the writing style for the most part, but it just got boring. I think it would have been a hoot to read as a daily blog, but as a novel...meh. I finally gave up when I realized I wasn't reading because I wasn't interested. So I moved onto other things.

When I heard that Diana Gabaldon was creating a graphic novel of the first Outlander book I was nervous but somewhat intriqued. Then I saw some of the drawings that would come and I was mildly horrified and my anxiety was not alleviated in the least. The drawings were not only NOT what I had pictured the characters to look like, but they were so far from what I had pictured that I wasn't sure it was the same story. So when the graphic novel came out, what did I do? I went out and bought The Exile in hardcover right away! I read the story cover to cover and probably had a frown on my face through most of it. The story was ok, I guess, but I think the thing that worked best about Outlander (on which this book is told from one of the other characters and involves something of a side story) is the description and the emotion and the thoughts and internal dialogue of Claire. In a graphic novel that's pretty much non existent. For the most part Claire just looked annoyed and kept saying "Jesus H Roosevelt Christ". Sigh. It was suggested that I return the book as no one would know I had read it, but I do have the whole series and I think I want to give it one more try and study things a little more. But I certainly won't be expecting much.

After I gave up on Kiwis I decided to go for something that would most likely be a hit: the third in the Wilderness Series Lake In the Clouds. The second book in the series was better than the first and this was better than the second. I ripped through it in just over a week and in the times that I wasn't reading I found myself wishing I could be. That's the sign of a good story as far as I'm concerned. I was a bit confused to start with as the story started out several years after the second book ended and the author eluded to some pretty major events that happened between books but I double checked online and sure enough I hadn't missed a book in between. The story broadened and followed different characters who had grown up since the second book, making it a more varied story and more interesting. Plus, the move away from some of the main characters from the first two books was a good change as I wasn't terribly attached to them. I'm excited for the next book, though I've decided to take another break before starting it. I do have rather a lot of other books to read and I can see this series becoming fairly consuming.