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I got distracted from the Maguire into children's fiction.
XV: Daniel Handler, writing as Lemony Snicket, The Hostile Hospital, London: Egmont (2003)
It's easy to O.D. on the traumatic adventures of the Baudelaire children, still pursued by Count Olaf who wants their inherited fortune. Here the hospital is second fiddle to a ludicrous library or anaemic archive which contains the vital information that someone may have survived the fire that killed their parents. I'm hoping we're not being set up for a happy ending. Perhaps a weaker volume - I have a copy of the next, so will read this soon.
XVI: Neil Gaiman, Odd and the Frost Giants, London: Bloomsbury (2008)
Gaiman's World Book Day book, and a brief folk tale of the lame Odd who travels to Asgard to save the gods. An assured piece of work, that never writes down to its audience as I fear the repeated archness of Snicket does.
XVII: Thomas M. Disch, The Brave Little Toaster: A Bedtime Story for Small Appliances, Garden City, New York: Doubleday (1986)
I saw the film when it came out, and I'm not sure whether the book was a con bag or something bought online. The film turns out to be reasonably faithful (though we are spared the songs) and even improves on the ending.
One of those Fantastic Journey narratives - one is even alluded to - in which disparate companions travel in search of their master. We have the toaster, an electric blanket, a vacuum cleaner, a lamp and a clock radio. The novella length (this first appeared in F&SF in 1980) doesn't give Disch enough space to develop his characters, and some times he talks down to the reader - although sometimes this feels ironic. Cute, but it knows it's cute, in other words.
XV: Daniel Handler, writing as Lemony Snicket, The Hostile Hospital, London: Egmont (2003)
It's easy to O.D. on the traumatic adventures of the Baudelaire children, still pursued by Count Olaf who wants their inherited fortune. Here the hospital is second fiddle to a ludicrous library or anaemic archive which contains the vital information that someone may have survived the fire that killed their parents. I'm hoping we're not being set up for a happy ending. Perhaps a weaker volume - I have a copy of the next, so will read this soon.
XVI: Neil Gaiman, Odd and the Frost Giants, London: Bloomsbury (2008)
Gaiman's World Book Day book, and a brief folk tale of the lame Odd who travels to Asgard to save the gods. An assured piece of work, that never writes down to its audience as I fear the repeated archness of Snicket does.
XVII: Thomas M. Disch, The Brave Little Toaster: A Bedtime Story for Small Appliances, Garden City, New York: Doubleday (1986)
I saw the film when it came out, and I'm not sure whether the book was a con bag or something bought online. The film turns out to be reasonably faithful (though we are spared the songs) and even improves on the ending.
One of those Fantastic Journey narratives - one is even alluded to - in which disparate companions travel in search of their master. We have the toaster, an electric blanket, a vacuum cleaner, a lamp and a clock radio. The novella length (this first appeared in F&SF in 1980) doesn't give Disch enough space to develop his characters, and some times he talks down to the reader - although sometimes this feels ironic. Cute, but it knows it's cute, in other words.
