For some reason, I’ve decided to read three urban fantasy books deep in their series without any context to see if I can understand them. I’m posting some semi-regular diaries about the experience on my TikTok.
I definitely will have some kind of essay going deep on the experience (probably at first for paid subscribers while I work out my thoughts). It’s been a fascinating experience so far and you can see some of my thoughts in the recaps below.
About halfway through this project, I’m pretty confident that you can read just about any UF book anywhere in its series and “get it,” if you want to. But that’s the key thing. You have to want to get it.
There’s this John Mulaney bit about amnesia that I’ve been thinking about a lot while doing this project:
This idea extends to our everyday life. We all (somehow) make it through the day interacting with people, places, and things that we have no context for without falling to pieces. But when it comes to media, if we think that there’s context and it hasn’t been given to us yet, we turn into the movie amnesia patients demanding “who are you?!”
As readers, if we fell back on our own experience managing ambiguity and understanding people through their behavior, I think we’d be in such a better place to enjoy media.
I recommend giving it a try, sometime. Grab a book somewhere in the middle of a series that you’re not familiar with and read it. Straight though, no Googling. But read it like you’re John. Pretend like you know what’s going on. Let your brain and your instincts guide you. Pick up on the clues the author is giving you. And if that works, well, perhaps even try that with the first book in a series. Did I just blow your mind?
On Repeat/Going Too Far with Music Videos
So, I love music videos.
Today we celebrate FKA twigs. “Cellophane” came on one of my Spotify mixes and sent into a deep memory hole, starting with the incredible music video.
This is an amazing music video, but if you also haven’t seen her Tonight Show performance, well, that’s also a must. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to see this live.
And thinking of the “Cellophane” music video and how good that is leads us to her awesome “Sad Day” (fight choreography and all).
FKA twigs became known to me because of an Apple advertisement, which if you haven’t seen, is really an achievement in short film.1
And if we’re going to watch Spike Jonze directing the inimitable FKA twigs in an Apple commercial, we have to round things out with one of the best music videos of all time, also directed by Jonze.
Finished This Week
City of Dreams2 by Don Winslow
Winslow’s second book in the Providence saga is such a winner. I cannot wait for the final book.
A Fistful of Charms by Kim Harrison
Oooof, this was up/down/up/DOWN/up for me. Let’s take it in fifths.
The first fifth was great. We had lingering team problems with Jenks from the last book and a new problem introduced with Nick (missing with one of Jenks’s kids up in MI with something relevant to werewolves). We even get some werewolf set up stuff with Rachel since she’s recently become the Alpha to David (for health insurance)3.
Part two: adventure in upstate Michigan! Rachel and embiggened Jenks infiltrate a werewolf colony on an island near Mackinaw Island. There’s adventure and intrigue and we find out that the artifact Nick has can create new werewolves, potentially shifting the balance of power between werewolves and vampires. Awesome.
Part three: slam the breaks, because now it’s time for over one hundred pages of refreshment scenes. Ivy is there to rescue Rachel, Jenks, and Nick. Lots of talking which leads to the emotional culmination of the book…
Part four: … Rachel lets Ivy bite her and she nearly dies. Now, slam the breaks again, because if you thought there was going to be more action with the weres, you were sorely mistaken. No, we have some random vampires who are introduced late in the book to help solve the problem. Old vamp wants to die, they can be used as a double for Nick to trick the weres into think he died, and the artifact was destroyed (Rachel will swap the power of the artifact with another object).
Part five: Do the plan. It fails. Because of course it does, it’s a book with drama. And in the process Nick dies! But no, it was a fake out and he has the swapped artifact! But double no because Rachel thought he’d do that and swapped it with some random thing. We all end up back in Cincy and have a good laugh, wondering what Kisten is going to think about Rachel spending all this time to rescue her ex-boyfriend while simultaneously letting her best friend suck her blood.
It’s tough, because like all of The Hollows series, I think this is too long and could be streamlined. But there’s something about how chaotic and all over the place it is that’s endearing to me. I liked it, but I didn’t love it, but I do love it anyway.
Frankenstein: The 1818 Text by Mary Shelley
It’s a classic and I get why: this is essential reading not merely for urban fantasy nerds like me, but also anyone with an interest in science fiction or fantasy. I think the writing is a bit staid and feels overly ornate at times, but it doesn’t hold back the storytelling which is top tier.
I particularly like this 1818 Text edition by Penguin which comes with a critical essay, timeline, and some particularly relevant snippets from Shelley’s contemporaries and her diary. The final page diary entry from her at age 17 is gutting.
Spelunking Through Hell by Seanan McGuire
So here are the first fruits of my weird experiment.
I loved Spelunking Through Hell. This made me want to bump up the InCryptid series in a big way. While I don’t think any author is thinking extensively about onboarding new readers deep in their series, McGuire hit a home run from that perspective with this one. Highly recommended.
So You Survived the End of the World by K.C. Cordell
A fun, fast palate-cleanser set in the post-apocalypse. I’d say it’s Firefly set in a burnt-out Earth, with some Becky Chambers Monk and Robot tossed in. It’s a quick read from a great indie author. Check it out.
Still Reading
Battle Ground by Jim Butcher
Wow, do I hate this book. I have some preliminary thoughts up on TikTok, I’ll have something more substantial somewhere soon.
Everyone in my TikTok comments told me not to read this book because it’s the second part of what was originally one book. What I’ve found is that isn’t really a problem. The problem I have is I hate Jim Butcher’s writing. It’s ornately snarky and pop cultural to the n-th degree in a way that deeply compromises the tone of this book. An extremely important character (I think) is killed at the midpoint of a book where Harry had just been cracking his dumb jokes. We great treated to flashes of children being murdered between these quips. It’s just bad.
What’s worse: I normally read about four or five books at a time, but I’m doing these books serially to give them my full attention (and read them fast). So, I have nothing to blunt the edge of this one. I can’t wait to finish and push Seanan McGuire’s InCryptid series even higher in UF reading list above Dresden Files. If I’m missing something great about these books, please let me know.
I think after five years, most people know that the this video is 100% practical, but if you didn’t know, now you know.
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Have I mentioned that I love these books.