The Dragonbone Chair is distressingly boring tale about a scullion boy with a bad case of attention deficit disorder wandering about a castle and doing ... nothing. The major forces in his life are the typically businesslike and fearsome Mistress of Chambermaids, the typically eccentric and brilliant Doctor Morgenes, and such compelling points of interest as bird's nests, suits of armour, bullfrogs, and inchworms. One might mistake the inchworm for a synopsis of this book, in fact, a brilliant and clever little metaphor. The thing takes a magnamious amount of effort to do absolutely nothing. One sees flashes of things and people who may possibly be interesting skittering around in the corner of their vision, but it's all so insubstantial it's more frustrating than intriguing. The book is a complete waste of time and effort.

This is what four of five people will tell you about this book, because none of them made it past the first 160 pages.

Fortunately for Williams, the one who did make it past will likely go on to hail him as one of the masters of the genre.

( The Dragonbone Chair (by Tad Williams) // Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn Book 1: Wherein a scullion becomes a hero and its far more original than it sounds. Mild spoilers, the cautious beware. )

The courtroom drama series "Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney" is like a cup of black coffee brewed by a master who you can't quite trust, and while you love every bitter sip you take, you dread getting to the bottom of that cup both because when you do, that same drought will never return, and because you're just waiting for that one disappointing gulp that will mar the bitter perfection.

I always start with a negative. That's my rule.

Phoenix Wright/Gyakuten Saiban 3 is, like its direct predecessor, not as good as the first installment of the series.

However ... it comes pretty close.

( Phoenix Wright - Trials and Tribulations/Gyakuten Saiban 3: Wherein a saga ends and Rosa tries to keep her personal feelings out of her review. Spoilers. )

x-posted to my personal journal, for the first and last time ever. comments on both content and style appreciated 8)

Top Ten Animes Ever, in No Particular Order:
(aka, if you think we have similar tastes, you should see these)

( it is long. )