City of Bones is undoubtedly better than Twilight, and it’s better than Percy Jackson and the Olympians. In fact, it’s way better than those two series. But when you set the goal posts that low, it’s entirely possible for something to just lumber over them. And lumber this book does; it’s clunky and boring, with complicated exposition and simple characters. Its actual dramatic moments are overshadowed by its high school drama and love triangle. Also, one of the characters turns into a rat and instantly becomes more believable.
How do you deal with a book so unimpressive? The way we see it, you can either make it way better or way worse. That’s why we invented the game “Get Me Out Of Purgatory.” It’s like “One Change” meets “Race to the Bottom.” We also brainstorm on other fantasy series that we’ll probably have to read when they inevitably get published.
This week’s show is also a battle of the titans, as we are joined by rival podcaster Dan McCoy. He’s the producer of The Flop House, a remarkably similar podcast that might have copied ours, except that they came before us. Dan also has an animated web series, 9 AM Meeting, which is awesome.
I tried about two years ago and I couldn’t for the life of me make it through this… I couldn’t be bothered to really concentrate on what was written since it flew by in a blurr anyway and somewhere inbetween I realized that you had groups of three or more and the author didn’t bother to make it clear who gave the not-all-that-funny wisecraks at the end of each chapter or who was saying what anyway… It is also one of those rare cases where I couldn’t keep the protagonists apart… I stoped in the middle and forced that book on someone else to get rid of it… I seriously don’t see why you are doing this to yourselves… this has to be one of the worst books I ever tried to read…And I honestly don’t get why it is a favorit of so many people I know…
Jace is super slutty. Y’all called it. Other slutty heroes: most of the guys in historical romances, guys in the ‘Black Dagger Brotherhood’ series, Will in Cassandra Clare’s ‘Clockwork Angel’, Lucius in ‘Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side’.I look forward to Part 2 of this book.
There’s already a YA book series about Leprechauns – the Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer.
Really?!? I’m adding it to the list if it’s not already there.
Oh my gosh, yes! Please do Artemis Fowl! That would be awesome!