classics Archives - The Y Logs

Yzabel / May 16, 2016

Review: The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories

The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories by Otto Penzler

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

Presenting Edgar Award-winning editor Otto Penzler’s latest anthology, The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories, the largest collection of Sherlockian tales ever assembled—now in a deluxe hardcover edition, perfect for the collector and gift markets.

Arguably no other character in history has been so enduringly popular as Sherlock Holmes. From his first appearance, in Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1887 novella A Study in Scarlet,readers have loved reading about him—and writers have loved writing about him. Here, Otto Penzler collects 83 wonderful stories about Holmes and Dr. John Watson, the majority of which will be new to readers. Among these pages are tales by acclaimed Sherlockians Leslie S. Klinger, Laurie R. King, Lyndsay Faye and Daniel Stashower; pastiches by literary luminaries both classic (Kenneth Millar, P. G. Wodehouse, Dorothy B. Hughes) and current (Anne Perry, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman); and parodies by Conan Doyle’s contemporaries James M. Barrie, O. Henry, and August Derleth.

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.]

A huge collection of Sherlock Holmes-related short stories—as is made obvious from the title—written by various authors: some who were Doyle’s contemporaries, some from the late 1990s or even 2000s, and some from the 20th century. Mostly two kinds of stories are represented: “serious” Holmes adventures, and humorous ones (the latter ranging from light pastiches to ridiculous ones).

Breaking down this collection into separate commentary for each story (there are 83!) would be too long and time-consuming, so I won’t do this here, and keep to a more general commentary. As in every anthology, there are good things and less than interesting ones; as the editor himself wrote in the introduction, some of those are worth a shot because they were never reprinted, and were only published in obscure magazines in their time. In my case, I realised that I didn’t really care about the comical Holmes stories: I guess I like my Sherlock somewhat “serious”, although I’m also known for liking heroic sociopath versions of him (see Thomas Day).

Among the most memorable ones for me:
* “The Case of the Unseen Hand”, which goes back on the Dreyfus affair. (And that was *quite* a big deal in late 19th France).
*“The Martian Crown Jewels” — one the rare really different takes on Sherlock Holmes here (considering it’s science fiction).
* “A Case of Mis-Identity”, both quite amusing and clever, in presenting different points of view about the same situation.
* “The Startling Events in the Electrified City” — a plot against President McKinley’s life.

While I still think a lot of these stories had an interest only as quirky little examples of what was once done regarding the Holmes & Watson corpus, this is a collection still worth borrowing, for want of actually buying the book.

Yzabel / March 6, 2016

Review: The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

A powerful tale of forbidden love, shame, and revenge comes to life in Manga Classics: The Scarlet Letter. Faithfully adapted by Crystal Chan from the original novel, this new edition features stunning artwork by SunNeko Lee (Manga Classics: Les Miserables) which will give old and new readers alike a fresh insight into the Nathaniel Hawthorne’s tragic saga of Puritan America. .Manga Classics editions feature classic stories, faithfully adapted and illustrated in manga style, and available in both hardcover and softcover editions. Proudly presented by UDON Entertainment and Morpheus Publishing.”

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

Caveat: the ARC copy I got was backwards, which doesn’t make it too easy to read on a Kindle or tablet. This won’t be an issue with the paper copy, though—and readers not used to manga format won’t be too lost, since this is explained in the book.

This isn’t the first manga in this series I read, and like the others, while obviously not dealing with every single detail of the novel from which it’s adapted, overall it provides an accurate enough reading of said novel, making it easily accessible. (Even though I haven’t read Hawthorne’s “The Scarlett Letter” in 10 years or so, and my memories of it are fairly fuzzy.)

While quite a few things are omitted, this is likely for the best. The novel is ripe with dialogue and descriptions that wouldn’t sit too well in comics format, and condensing the story was the only way to go. The stifling atmosphere of Boston when it comes to Hester living there after she got her “A” letter is depicted fairly accurately: townspeople shunning her for her sin, their hypocrisy when they nevertheless buy her embrodery and use her works daily, how they do so while telling others “don’t accept her works because she’s a sinner”, etc. Pearl’s wild streak is represented through her relationship with the forest, where she is presented as free, at ease, playing with wolves, and through her slightly slanted gaze, a bit mysterious, a bit like some kind of “witch-child”.

I wasn’t sure about a couple of things that were shortened, though. Chillingworth’s slow revenge, for one: I don’t think all the little things he did to make his “victim” more sick were so obvious in the manga. And some of the characters’ psychology—it would’ve been interesting to see more of Hester’s relationship with Pearl’s father.

The artwork, as usual in this series, is really good, with emphasis placed on clothing and on keeping the panels clear enough. The “A” letter is the only note of colour in the whole manga, a graphic choice that allows its weight to constantly bear on the characters no matter what they do.

Conclusion: As expected, it doesn’t and wouldn’t be able anyway to encompass everything Hawthorne included in his novel. However, I think this manga summarises “The Scarlet Letter” well enough, and could very well make a reader potentially interested in going further and reading the original story.

Yzabel / September 12, 2015

Review: Great Expectations (Manga Classics)

Manga Classics: Great Expectations by Stacy King

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

Great Expectations has it all: romance, mystery, comedy, and unforgettable characters woven through a gripping rags-to-riches tale. Naive Pip, creepy Miss Haversham, beautifully cold Estella, terrifying Abel Magwitch, and the rest of Dicken’s fantastic cast are perfectly envisioned in this new adaptation in this 300-plus page volume featuring artwork by artist Nokman Poon. Manga Classics editions feature classic stories, faithfully adapted and illustrated in manga style, and available in both hardcover and softcover editions. Proudly presented by UDON Entertainment and Morpheus Publishing.

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

This series of classics turned to manga remains interesting. I read Great Expectations some 9 years ago, so I admit I forgot a lot of details, and it’s difficult now for me to properly decide if this adaptation is faithful enough or if it culled through a lot. However, I think that for someone who never read Dickens’s original story, this manga version covers the essential parts: Pip’s feelings towards his class as he grows up and moves up the ladder, his relationship with the beautiful but cold Estella, and the mystery about his benefactor. For those who have read Dickens, well… it’s a good reason to read him again, I say.

The artwork is similar to that of the other adaptations in this series: not by the same artist, but nonetheless quite pleasant to look at. Miss Havisham’s dress is plain gorgeous, and her dusty, spiderweb-covered room definitely creepy. Estella’s posture and attitude reflect the way she was brought up. Joe isn’t like the character in the novel, physically, yet no matter what his design still conveyed that he’s a good man. Actually, it’s easy to detect who is “nice” and who is “evil” from their features—and while it may be considered a graphic shortcut, it also quickly allows the reader to picture who does (or will do) what, something that would be more difficult to achieve here anyway than in the original prose form.

The pace was rushed in places, though, especially when it comes to how Pip’s take on life, people and events changed: it was wrapped up a little bit too fast, and as a result, Pip mostly came off as bratty most of the time (which he is, alright). And as the format demanded the story be restricted to 300 pages, some of its depth was lost along the way; the novel left room for more development, whereas in the manga, most characters felts rather one-dimensional.

Still, I would recommend it if only for the artwork and for its ability to make one want to (re)read Great Expectations itself. 3.5 stars.

Yzabel / July 4, 2015

Review: City

City by Clifford D. Simak

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

Intelligent canines in a far-future city preserve the legends and lore of their absent human masters.

Thousands of years have passed since humankind abandoned the city—first for the countryside, then for the stars, and ultimately for oblivion—leaving their most loyal animal companions alone on Earth. Granted the power of speech centuries earlier by the revered Bruce Webster, the intelligent, pacifist dogs are the last keepers of human history, raising their pups with bedtime stories, passed down through generations, of the lost “websters” who gave them so much but will never return. With the aid of Jenkins, an ageless service robot, the dogs live in a world of harmony and peace. But they now face serious threats from their own and other dimensions, perhaps the most dangerous of all being the reawakened remnants of a warlike race called “Man.”

In the Golden Age of Asimov and Heinlein, Clifford D. Simak’s writing blazed as brightly as anyone’s in the science fiction firmament. Winner of the International Fantasy Award, City is a magnificent literary metropolis filled with an astonishing array of interlinked stories and structures—at once dystopian, transcendent, compassionate, and visionary.

Review:

[I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

A hard one to rate, for sure. 3.5 stars?

On the one hand, it’s one of the classics of “old science fiction” I’ve always wanted to read—I only recently linked its English title to the French one. And, like many stories written several decades ago, it retains a quaint charm. Science that was prominent in minds at the time (atomic power…). Themes of a better world, of Man evolving into better beings, renouncing the old ways of killing, even of living in cities. Openings towards strange, new dimensions, even though reaching for those would involve a complete change of perception. But also sadness: the end of a world, of several worlds, humanity devolving into solitary creatures, then nothing, leaving Earth into the “hands” or dogs and robots. A sort of paradise, untainted by the concepts haunting human beings… yet here, too, a solitary one, for while the dogs developed their own society, they, too, were haunted by the idea of Man, kept alive by Jenkins, the faithful robot who served the Webster family.

On the other hand, I have to admit that a lot of those were painfully outdated for a 21st-century person. I’d probably have appreciated these stories more if I had read them when I was much younger—in other words, especially when it came to all those “atomic” thingies, back when I still had recollections (although heavily filtered through my child’s eyes) of Chernobyl, and a vague fear of the Cold War. I would’ve missed other themes, for sure, but maybe some of the “scientific” ones wouldn’t have struck me as so wobbly. Granted, this was unavoidable; a lot of SF classics would suffer the same fate. It did bother me to an extent, and that was really too bad.

The biological side of science here didn’t make much sense either: mutants; people turning themselves into creatures adapted to life on Jupiter; ants developing a kind of clockwork/steam power; dogs being given words and voice while still forced to rely on robots for want of hands (why would surgery on vocal chords translate into heavy genetic changes in just a few generations?). And generally speaking, the Earth described in “City” was just too big, too empty, to justify the maintainenance of robots as a whole (no factories were mentioned, for instance), with the passage of thousands of years emphasising the “how did they manage to last for so long?” question.

And yet, I cannot deny these stories, as well as the way they are linked, a certain power. Not in the writing itself, not in the obsolete or weird science, but in how they conveyed strong feelings. The despair of one man, whose fears doomed humanity to lose an important philosophical theory that could’ve changed the world forever. The end of a city, abandoned by people who preferred to live in the country, an echo of the suburbian dream. Men left behind and choosing to dive into endless sleep in the last surviving city, forever enclosed within countermeasures long forgotten, for there was no point to staying awake anymore and kill their boredom with hobbies become meaningless. Robots performing tasks even after their owners had died and gone. Dogs keeping a promise, passed down from a long-dead ancestor, a promise the meaning of which had been somewhat lost. Man, both the god-creator and a legend in which dogs only half believed.

It *is* definitely strange, for the human characters were not particularly striking. I guess the book managed to tell what it had to tell through other means, among which the dogs and Jenkins?

So I could not wrap my mind around the nonsensical science… but the feelings were here, and kept coming back at me, along with reflections on what it means to be human, on what humans could d/evolve into. And although this wasn’t my favourite read of the year, it will stay with me for some time no matter what, and I would still recommend it.

Yzabel / November 15, 2014

Review: Krabat

Krabat by Otfried Preußler

My rating: 3

Summary:

Krabat, a fourteen-year-old Wendish beggar boy, is summoned in a dream to a mysterious mill. When he awakens, an irresistible force makes him seek out a mill near the village of Schwarzkollm where he becomes apprenticed to the master. He soon discovers that the mill is actually a school for black magic and that he and the mill’s journeymen are virtual prisoners. During the week they do the normal work of the mill, but on Friday nights, the master initiates them into the strange rituals of the Art of Arts. The very first Friday, the master turns Krabat into a raven, a trick the boy quickly learns to do himself.

Krabat completes his apprenticeship, becomes a journeyman and the master’s star pupil in necromancy. But the power his new skills endow him with does not compensate for his loss of freedom. And the more he learns of the mill’s dark secrets, the more determined he becomes to escape from the master’s bondage.

The Satanic Mill is set against the colorful background of seventeenth-century Germany. The story of Krabat’s captive apprenticeship and ultimate victory over the master is an unusual, tension-packed thriller that readers of all ages will find difficult to put down until the last page is turned.

Called a masterpiece by reviewers in Germany, The Satanic Mill was awarded the 1972 German Children’s Book Prize.

Review:

(I got a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

I liked this story well enough: it has the definite markings of a fairy tale, somehow reminding me of old legends from my home area. (I’m not German, but we do have our own tales dealing with similar themes, such as clever journeymen who manage to outsmart supernatural beings, etc.)

There was magic in the atmosphere here—no pun intended: though sorcery was obviously a strong theme, indeed, events and descriptions themselves, even of daily activities, always seemed to have been touched by something out of the ordinary. We get to discover this at the same time Krabat does, wondering more and more about his surroundings and why things are the way they are.

The writing style was fairly simple, easy to grasp and prompting imagery in an efficient way. Probably suffering from a “lost in translation” syndrome, though, as it sometimes felt a bit dry. (I tend to avoid judging harshly in such cases, since I wouldn’t be able to compare with the original version.)

The downside (of sorts) is that, as in most fairytales, the characters aren’t too developed, and used more to carry the story on their shoulders than as people with their own lives. For instance, we never get to know the singer’s name[the singer’s name (hide spoiler)], which makes her appear as a symbol more than as a real person. The way the relationship develops is clearly a device, and not believable in terms of “falling in love the natural way”. Also, Krabat and the other guys don’t question the Master’s motives that much, even though they live in fear during a certain period of the year.

It probably works better as a story for younger readers: frightening in parts, but not gory, with darker aspects but “appropriate” morals. However, at the same time, it left me longing for more. The ending was rushed, in my opinion,, and I would have wanted to learn what happened to everyone else afterwards.

Yzabel / August 30, 2014

Review: Les Misérables (manga)

Manga Classics: Les Miserables by Stacy King

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

Adapted for stage and screen, loved by millions, Victor Hugo’s classic novel of love and tragedy during the French Revolution is reborn in this manga edition.

Review:

(I got an ARC of this manga through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

Though I’m a native speaker and have studied a lot of French classics during my high school and university days, I must admit, and not without shame, that I’ve never read Les Misérables—not the full version, that is. I only ever laid my hands on parts of it many, many years ago, mostly Cosette’s early life story, as well as Gavroche’s, and those were adapted for younger readers. In other words, I can’t pass judgement on this manga adaptation’s faithfulness regarding Victor Hugo’s original work. However, I can tell that it should at least make a lot of readers want to pick the actual book, and get to know the characters and the missing side stories better. It sure made me.

Because some side stories are missing, and the script writer’s bit at the end of the manga confirmed this. I do remember, for instance, that there was a part about Fantine’s lover/Cosette’s real father, and why they were separated. The same way, Gavroche’s story was shortened. There just weren’t enough pages available in manga format to properly put those in. Now, considering the original stories’ complexity, I still think the adaptation was well-done and interesting. The essential story lines remain, and all tie together as they should.

The drawings, too, seem to reflect the characters fairly well. Negative characters such as the Thénardiers are easily recognisable to their features. Cosette is cute, as she should be. Fantine’s drop from a beautiful woman to a destitute one is clearly shown as well. And the more ambiguous ones, such as Javert and Valjean himself, appear with serious features that allow the illustrator to depict their emotions, especially when they go through rethinking their purposes in life. Overall, the illustrations were really pleasant and fitting.

As an adaptation, it might seem a little light in places to someone who already knows the whole work. On the other hand, someone discovering it, or only knowing part of it, would likely be drawn (no pun intended) to pick Hugo’s books later on. It’s a pretty good thing in my opinion.

(Beware, though, of the ebook format—which is the one I got, as an ARC: the PDF reflects the order of the printed pages, which means you have to go to the end of the manga first, and then scroll your way back to the “beginning”. I’m used to doing this, so it didn’t matter much to me, but it can be surprising and annoying at first.)