Botulf's Stone Blog

This is a revised post from my old blog.  The original post can be found  here . Abstract:  Espionage meets philosophy in the midst of absurdity as a poet infiltrates an anarchist guild to undermine its plans and save England.  The thrilling plot clips along within beautiful prose, and unlike many mysteries, this story remains engaging even on a second read with all the questions answered.  The characters are pretty flat, but whether that is a boon or a doom for this story depends on the reader, and the ending might not sit well for first-time or inexperienced Chesterton readers. Content Warning (highlight to view):  violence, scary images, occasional language ——— The Man Who Was Thursday  is an odd little book by one of my favorite authors, G. K. Chesterton.  A strange tale, a spy-thriller of sorts, in which darkness breeds danger, but does not, in which an investigation into villainous peoples drives the plot, but does not, in which absurdity is...

This is a revised post from my old blog.  The original post can be found  here . Abstract:  Popcorn fiction with a philosophic glaze.  Pacing starts out horrible but improves, and the main conflict and the world are easy to invest in.  Katniss is frustrating, however, and the prose is more like watching a movie than reading a book.  Overall, it’s a fun, and eventually exciting book, though not deserving the level of praise it received. Content Warning (highlight to view):  violent imagery, swearing, alcohol, disturbing descriptions ——— I had planned this week to do a new book review, but I fell behind due to some things, so here we’ve got a return to my old not-friend:  The Hunger Games  by Suzanne Collins. Like most, I sped through this novel when I read it some years back.  The pacing is fantastic for most of this book (more on that later), and the concept is eternally intriguing.  Dystopia is the genre of our disenchanted age....

This is a revised post from my old blog.  The original of which can be found  here  for comparison. Warning: Contains spoilers for  The Chronicles of Prydain  and  The Lord of the Rings Endings are a linchpin in stories.  They are a little thing, often just the last tenth or less of the narrative, but how a story ends impacts everything that came before and the overall impression with which a readers leaves the story.  I did not especially enjoy reading  Where the Red Ferns Grow , but the last few pages hit me in such a way that I left the book satisfied.  On the other hand, as is evident in my posts on  All the Light We Cannot See , I was enjoying Doerr’s book a good bit, but the ending left me wondering how I should feel about everything that had come before.  They are the final  narrative consequence of everything that came before, and that’s what makes them hard to write and so important to discuss. I spent the  l...

This is a revised post from my old blog.  The original can be found  here  for comparison. Abstract:  Amongst children’s literature, this is a great series.  The world feels generic, but the characters are distinct and engaging, and Alexander managed to parallel Taran’s development with the developing themes, which alone makes this series worth reading. Content Warning [highlight to view]:   magic/sorcerer, mild cursing, some scary scenes ——— “Is It Good Enough for Children?” Madeleine L’Engle, author of  A Wrinkle in Time,  asked this question in a essay of the same name, concluding that “if a children’s book is not good enough for all of us, it is not good enough for children” (L’Engle 431).  C. S. Lewis voices a similar idea in his essay “On Three Ways of Writing for Children.”  With this conclusion, both authors confront the assumption that children’s literature needs to be what we might call “childish,” stories that lose most, if no...