the Fiction Demon

So I started with a terrible review, then did a mediocre review, and now I will do a positive review. Howl's Moving Castle is a very famous and popular young adult fantasy novel. It's been made into a movie by the Japanese filmmaker, Miyazaki. I've met people who claim not to like reading, but who will sing the praises of this novel, and with good reason. Howl's Moving Castle is about a teenaged girl who is cursed and turns into an old woman. She goes to live in a mysterious castle with the wizard Howl, to work there and try and get the curse reversed. I love the humor in this book. The first chapter, for example, is titled "Sophie Talks To Hats." The narrative voice is amusing and engaging, and the fantasy, fairy-tale feel is just great. The characters are fun and well-developed, and so are the relationships between them. Also, I want to talk about the title, because I think it's important to the book's success. Howl's Moving Castle is a wonder...

I like funny fantasy. I wish there was more of it. So I picked up this book because it sounded like it would be humorous, and it was. Some of the time. The Accidental Sorcerer is the first in the Rogue Agent series . Basically, the book is about Gerald, a very incompetent but goodhearted wizard living in a world with both technology and magic (the world is never explained very well). He gets fired from his job after playing a part in blowing up a magical factory and must find a new job, so he goes off to some other country with an insane king and becomes court wizard. Overall, this novel was mediocre. There were some great parts, particularly the beginning. I love the idea of a factory which makes wizards' staffs, and reading about it blowing up was even more fun. In general, I would have liked to know more about Gerald's word and how it operates, but instead I got dragged off to this unimportant little country which is still stuck in medieval times, like every other fantasy l...