Too Many Curses-- A. Lee Martinez-- Review

Too Many Curses-- A. Lee Martinez-- Review

Too Many Curses is a fantasy puzzle novel. This means, Nessy, the main character must defeat the obstacles in the book using the help of her friends and her brain. There are not too many of this type of novel written. Another very good example of this kind of novel is Mary Brown The Unlikely Ones. This style emphasizes brains over brawn.

Nessy is a kobold servant of the evil, malicious wizard, Margle the Horrendous. One day, Margle gets accidentally eaten by the Nargle, a rather ridiculous monster who takes a liking to Nessy. Note the pun (Margle versus Nargle.) There is a lot of this kind of silliness in the novel along with rhyming.

With Margle gone, Nessy still feels the necessity to take care of the accursed denizens of the wizards castle. Feeding the monsters, sweeping the floors, and making sure everything is in its proper place. This is not easy, with Margle gone things start to unravel. Beasties and terrible things start to happen.

She seeks the help of the various denizens of the castle to help her out, Dangerous Dan the skeleton (I think this is a reference to Dangerous Dan McGraw), the sword in the cabbage, the hanged man in the library (I think this may be a reference to the board game Clue.), a hero turned into a fruit bat, a wizards parts in a jar, and others. If you pay careful attention there are many references to literature and popular culture.

Because she is short, furry, and practical she cannot defeat the problems with brute force. Often what happens is a series of pratfalls and Rube Goldberg like actions to defeat her foes. For example as part of defeating a hellhound she traps it in a living carpet. It is not a your typical fantasy novel. She also goes under the tutelage of the brain in the jar to learn spells.

Ultimately, like all good heros she saves the day, but not before she has many adventures. All of the creatures of the castle go back to their proper place and she can read her novel given to her by the monster under the bed.

I enjoyed this novel. It was hard to follow and a bit silly at times. I think the novel will be panned by reviewers because of its unusual style. It is written for a general audience, but the puns will hit right on with teenagers.

I think A. Lee Martinez could very well be the next Robert Asprin of fantasy writing. He is a very good author who deserves a solid following. I also enjoyed reading Gil's All Fright Diner, and I reviewed The Automatic Detective earlier. He has a website at: http://www.aleemartinez.com/

Long Day

A crowded day in Manhattan. Everything moves slow as molasses.

Long Day

Today has started out as a very long day. I went into Manhattan in a cab this morning and it was United Nations week, this made me very late to where I was going. Police were lining the streets directing traffic so it would not interfere with the diplomats. I could not stand it. It basically shot most of my morning. Cabs are for comfort in Manhattan. The subway is usually faster.

I read a little bit more of Too Many Curses. It is turning out to be quite entertaining. Many of the characters are based on different jokes, cliches, or literary allusions. There is a skeleton named Dan who is probably modeled after Dangerous Dan McGrew, there is the monster under the bed, the vampire king, and the hanged man in the library (think the boardgame Clue). The writing is light and full of puns and rhyming. It is fun but not very literary in nature. I rather like it. I am not sure it is something for the critics, however.

On the way in to work, I stopped at Posman books in Grand Central Terminal and took a few minutes to look at the computer books. I like Posman books because it is well lit, orderly, and easy to find books there. I noted some titles to order, but I only had a few minutes before my train came. Such is life.

Work has been typical, but boring. I did all of my daily tasks, weeding, ordering, sitting on the desk, ordering annual reports, and filing some looseleafs for the law. It is steady and monotonous. I am thinking of ordering books based on the major employees in the town I am working in; nursing, hvac, refrigeration, construction, social work, welding, and manufacturing.

Today seems like it is not going anywhere yet. I have to see. I had some soup and a buttered roll for dinner. Right now, I am sitting down and typing for a minute. Life goes on.

Good Afternoon

An old clipping from the New York Times.

Good Afternoon

Good afternoon. I was reading the New York Times Book Review this morning and I came across a very interesting title; James Galbraith The Predator State How Conservatives Abandoned The Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too. It seems to have very strong mixed reactions. We need to read something different than what is happening now. James Galbraith is John Kenneth Galbraith's son. Maybe we will get a little wind too blow away the smoke and mirrors. I put the book on hold.

Also, Too Many Curses by A. Lee Martinez came in for me to read. I cracked the book today.

A. Lee Martinez has a website for his books. http://www.aleemartinez.com/ . I am definitely a fan of his work having read Gil's All Fright Dinner, and The Automatic Detective. I find him to be a humorous but versatile writer. I would compare him to Terry Pratchett or Robert Asprin.

Life keeps on going doing the usual things. I weeded a bunch of books in social sciences again this morning. I cleared off the 9/11 display and put up a display of current computer books that are coming in right now. I am trying to include books on devices as well as computers, cell phones, ipods, blackberries, game machines, digital cameras, and all the peripherals (or tethered devices) that go with computers.

I hope I get a chance to do more of the law looseleafs as well as ordering annual reports. None of this is easy.

I did a brief time putting looseleafs in the law books. I always pace myself when I do this. I try to do a little bit every day for an hour a day so it does not overwhelm me. It is impossible to finish most of the tasks I am doing in one sitting. On that note, I also ordered more annual reports. It is a long task once it starts. I ordered one book oriented annual report today, The New York Times Company.

I also placed a short list of social science books to order.

I am going to order more computer books tomorrow. They are literally flying out the door. There is a tremendous demand for computer books. The most popular computer books are photoshop and digital photography books. After this, we get requests for web design and blogging. We could probably never order quite enough computer titles.

On a less solemn note, I did some more writing exercises from Writing Begins With the Breath by Laraine Herring. This is a short poem from one of them.

Writing

Pen moves rolls and dips

Releasing black ink on the page

Nouns verbs form stories

I like to think of writing as a metaphor of a ship sailing on a sea trying to reach a distant land. The oars write on the sea moving the ship forward towards its destination. I am not sure where this came from, but it is a recurring theme which I experience when writing short poems.

Morning Thoughts, Society of Midnight Wanderers, Afternoon Thoughts

A Bookcase

Morning Thoughts

The process has started. I spent a little time this morning discussing the idea of collection development with the new director. She made a few suggestions for me to follow. I think things could become very interesting shortly. Tomorrow we have a meeting to discuss collection development at noon with my department. I have been working up to this slowly. I hope it gives me the break which I have been seeking for a while. I already have been handed more collection development responsibilities. This is what I hope I get more than doing more programming. The least I am asking for is a partial change in title to Reference/Collection Development Librarian.

I also handed in a few books which I had read this weekend. I read some more of Ken McArthur's Impact. It gave a suggestion to write down every single skill which I could think of that I had. If it was a skill no matter how trivial, I should write it down. Also, it told me to focus on doing five things every single day towards achieving a goal. I did not have to succeed at them, I just had to try them. Again, the exercises and the daily suggestion make it leagues ahead of many business self help books.

I think I found another event to go to. Metropolitan New York Library Council is holding a networking reception with a tour of the New York Public Library Schomburg Center For Black Culture. I think it will be very interesting to go to.
http://metronylibrary.augusoft.net/index.cfm?fuseaction=1011&CategoryID=2&SubCategoryID=44

Society of Midnight Wanderers

I wrote my first post to the Society of Midnight Wanderers. It is a form of poem if you can call it that called Backward and Forward In Time.
http://midnightwanderersociety.blogspot.com/2008/09/backward-and-forward-in-time-thoughts.html

Afternoon Thoughts

A couple of books came in for me which I reserved, Stalking the Unicorn A Fable of Tonight by Mike Resnick, and Green Investing by Jack Uldrich. Also, the film Persepolis came in through interchange. I am really looking forward to watching Persepolis, the graphic novel of the same title was quite enjoyable. I often write these things down so I can know what I read at a given time.

I also requested Too Many Curses by A. Lee Martinez. It is humorous fantasy. Earlier, I reviewed The Automatic Detective on this blog. I like his writing. It has a strong sense of sarcasm and black wit to it. He also wrote Gil's All Fright Diner. He can write humor in fantasy, science fiction, and horror settings.