Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

I have a confession to make. I am terribly in love with the Percy Jackson books. I might moan and gripe about Harry Potter books, but everything bad I see in them, I find the opposite is true in the Percy Jackson series.

We read this book on our road trip to Washington state last month and I wouldn't let Rebecca stop reading it to me. We read every night and every moment in the car and talked about it on our hikes and kept thinking about it all through the night.

This was the best Percy Jackson book so far, completely blowing out of the water both Sea of Monsters and Lightning Thief. While I agree with my sister that I was upset Annabeth wasn't around during most of this book (her quips remind me of being that age), I didn't ever forget about her being out of the picture - she was always on our thoughts and we wanted Percy to proclaim his affection for her.

Oh dear, I'm so wrapped up in Percy-land.

Trying to collaborate on something as complicated as a book is a tough thing to do. I know from the experience of collaborating on art projects that there are a few models to get you through this challenging exercise. They are as follows:

You can be a dictator, and make everyone slaves to your idea.

You can do your part, let someone else do their part and the compile the information into a final piece.

You can really join forces and create an unique beast which is driven not by singular interests, but by collective force. Often this is the most destructive of forces.

Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman opted to write this book using the second method, that of rotating collaboration. What resulted was a disjointed book that highlighted both author's characteristic styles, without being able to get beyond those styles.

Granted, this isn't all bad. I happen to like both authors and I have no complaints about a story which contains elements of both genius. Yet, it was lacking in that I felt cheated that neither author could go beyond what they had to offer.

My critique aside, I enjoyed this story and was impressed with the maturity of its message. We do all have decisions to make with our lives no matter what the fates may say. We aren't controlled by our destinies and we can choose to live our lives how we wish to. A charming novel throughout, Good Omens takes the Apocalypse and turns it into a tale about agency and the redeeming qualities which make us human.

While one of the more suspenseful Terry Pratchett novels I've read, this book doesn't take the cut as being one of his best told stories, along the lines of Men at Arms or Sourcery. I did appreciate the humor of affirmative action in a City patrol made of warring factions of races. I could laugh at the continuing puns that ran rampantly through this book. I even felt for the heartfelt and touching moments at the end of the book with Dorfl.

While not Pratchett's greatest work, definitely one to add to the collection of Pratchett books filling our bookshelves.

Jingo, by Terry Pratchett, is another in the City Watch series with all your favorite characters.

This book, however, was boring. I prefer the Patrician to be a sideline character, and not a principle adventurist. It wasn't as believable to have his character trekking across the known world to save the day when he should be smart enough to get other people to do it for him.

While the parallels between Sam Vimes character and the opposing force's captain were interesting, it made for a poor substitute for an interesting plot. And by this time, I've gotten really tired of everyone commenting on how Carrot is such an obvious leader. It gets silly, and not the kind of silly that made Rincewind a hilarious character to read about.

Two books from the Discworld's City Watch series. While Guards Guards wasn't my favorite book, I rank Men at Arms as being at the top of the Pratchett books I've read so far. I'm not sure if it could be considered better than Color, mostly because that would be comparing apples to oranges, or police to wizards. Or whatever. Fifth Elephant was also good, but good in a who-dun-it sort of way. Men at Arms was a brilliant novel.

Well, the Night Watch team is back. In both books. And like good coppers, they're solving mysteries. In Ankh-Morpork. Where it's better for you to run to another street if "all isn't well." But that's the joy of watching Sam Vimes and Carrot Ironfoundersson struggle with being good guys trying to do the right thing in a town which by all means is run by thieves, crooks and killers. Of course, they happen to have licenses to do said crookery, but nonetheless. Satire at its finest and wonderful characters that I have fallen in love with. However, I'm a bit bothered by the difference in Detritus' character from one book to the next. I imagine Pratchett has a very difficult time juggling his plethora of unique individuals from one book to the next.

I have also begun to understand how to better approach the Discworld universe. Some kind wikipedia editor has put up a list of proper reading order for the different Discworld series books.

I want to make it clear that Angua doesn't look like this and Carrot looks like an Olympic swimming medalist, not like this fan image of him. People like those depicted in this fan's renditions would get eaten alive, possibly with a side of sardines in the Ankh-Morpork I envision. However, Sam Vines does look like Pete Postlethwaite.

Go read Men at Arms. It's a good book. And that's all I have to say about that.