Darkschunt 
Monday, June 25, 2007
Book Review
I've just finished reading two books that I've been wanting to read for some time: Jean M. Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear and Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon. Well, actually I got through perhaps halfway through both books and then I did something I usually never do - skip right through to the end to find out what happened.
I don't know why I didn't really enjoy both books - maybe it was just because I didn't feel like reading those kind of books at the moment but decided to borrow them from the library anyway because, well, I've always wanted to read them. Lol! Silly, no? Perhaps it was because in both books, all the women kept getting put down and beaten by the men. I really didn't enjoy it even though it highlighted how brave, courageous, indomitable, etc. the women were in spite of all their trials. What I really wanted was a heroine who would just stand up and kick some ass and teach those silly men what's what. And the one woman who got a man to listen to her (Guinevere in Mists of Avalon) had been dishing out bad advice. What bad luck!
Sidenote: This is the exact same reason why I don't enjoy certain romances. I really hate reading about men breaking women's spirits, even if I know the women are going to bound right back and the men will probably end up getting broken in the end (unless it's the hero and then he will bounce right back too). Thank goodness for those romances where the heroine is super-fiesty and doesn't required getting embarassed and dominated by the man to fall in love with him!
Nevertheless, for those looking for plenty of plot - these two aforementioned books definitely had it. There was plot everywhere, dozens of intrigues (mostly in Mists) and plenty of obstacles (abound in Clan of the Cave Bear). But I just couldn't get into either of these books. Oh, well. The first time I picked up Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, I couldn't get into it either. I put it down, then picked it up later and got way hooked. Same for Glenna McReynolds's Chalice of the Blade. And they're both interesting for their own ways - as a lot of people probably know, Mists of Avalon is the retelling of the King Arthur story and Clan of the Cave Bear has a lot of interesting stuff about prehistoric time and the ways of the Neanderthals. It says in the book, that Auel impressed a lot of anthropologists and the like with the extent of her research on prehistoric times, although I read on Amazon that the book, being written around 1980 isn't so accurate anymore since further research has disproved/proved lots of theories about those times. Still, I like the book for its information on botany - very interesting.
So - while I didn't feel very enthusiastic about these two books (which probably has more to do with just my particular reading mood at the present than the quality of these two books, which are highly-acclaimed bestsellers) I still recommend them to others. Read and tell me what you think!
I've just finished reading two books that I've been wanting to read for some time: Jean M. Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear and Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon. Well, actually I got through perhaps halfway through both books and then I did something I usually never do - skip right through to the end to find out what happened.
I don't know why I didn't really enjoy both books - maybe it was just because I didn't feel like reading those kind of books at the moment but decided to borrow them from the library anyway because, well, I've always wanted to read them. Lol! Silly, no? Perhaps it was because in both books, all the women kept getting put down and beaten by the men. I really didn't enjoy it even though it highlighted how brave, courageous, indomitable, etc. the women were in spite of all their trials. What I really wanted was a heroine who would just stand up and kick some ass and teach those silly men what's what. And the one woman who got a man to listen to her (Guinevere in Mists of Avalon) had been dishing out bad advice. What bad luck!
Sidenote: This is the exact same reason why I don't enjoy certain romances. I really hate reading about men breaking women's spirits, even if I know the women are going to bound right back and the men will probably end up getting broken in the end (unless it's the hero and then he will bounce right back too). Thank goodness for those romances where the heroine is super-fiesty and doesn't required getting embarassed and dominated by the man to fall in love with him!
Nevertheless, for those looking for plenty of plot - these two aforementioned books definitely had it. There was plot everywhere, dozens of intrigues (mostly in Mists) and plenty of obstacles (abound in Clan of the Cave Bear). But I just couldn't get into either of these books. Oh, well. The first time I picked up Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, I couldn't get into it either. I put it down, then picked it up later and got way hooked. Same for Glenna McReynolds's Chalice of the Blade. And they're both interesting for their own ways - as a lot of people probably know, Mists of Avalon is the retelling of the King Arthur story and Clan of the Cave Bear has a lot of interesting stuff about prehistoric time and the ways of the Neanderthals. It says in the book, that Auel impressed a lot of anthropologists and the like with the extent of her research on prehistoric times, although I read on Amazon that the book, being written around 1980 isn't so accurate anymore since further research has disproved/proved lots of theories about those times. Still, I like the book for its information on botany - very interesting.
So - while I didn't feel very enthusiastic about these two books (which probably has more to do with just my particular reading mood at the present than the quality of these two books, which are highly-acclaimed bestsellers) I still recommend them to others. Read and tell me what you think!
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