In less than an hour! That was one of the smoother phpBB upgrades I've done. Very nice. If you were expecting amazing changes, sorry! It's just an upgrade. Fixes, security improvements, you know.
So I have finished another book in my slow and faltering quest to read 15,000 pages this year (at 3,302 so far!):
The Reluctant Sorcerer, by Simon Hawke. It was bad. Just really bad. There was one thing, which arguably was also a really bad thing, that I kind of liked for its uniqueness. There was a character who was said to be the most powerful wizard in the land (this book being a comedy fantasy, of course). He was so powerful that he was actually able to hear when the book was talking about him. It was very strange, but certainly a unique angle. All in all, the book is vastly heavy on description (nothing happens for pages at a time as it explains the backstory and description of stuff - I counted 5 pages from the start of one chapter to the first mention of something happening!), full of lame humor, and most punishingly, ends in an abrupt 'cliffhanger'. The air quotes are needed because it's not one. There's no danger at that point, nothing eventful happening (in fact, in the entire book, very little actually happens - the whole thing is really just introduction), the book just ends. The last page is literally an ad for the next book in the series, or as it should be more properly termed, the
rest of the book. That's just plain dirty. However, I'm not interested enough to go get it. Bah and away with you, sorcerer.
I have started on my next book,
Expiration Date by Tim Powers. I am not very far, but it's looking good.
That business with the narrator reminds me of a movie we just saw too.
The Movie Hero. Very strange and unique, and quite entertaining. It's about a guy who believes he's the star of a movie (which technically, he is, since the movie's about him). He talks to the camera, but not in a 'breaking the fourth wall' way - it's part of the movie. People around him think he's crazy, quite appropriately, because he's talking to thin air. His whole goal is to be interesting enough to be a good movie. It has a real 'meta' level to it, since you are actually watching this guy in a movie, and it's almost interactive, because you really are the audience he's talking to, and he does things like leave his audience somewhere, and there you sit, not following him anymore until he comes and picks you up again. It kinda makes you think, but not terribly much. Even messes with your head a little, if you really give it some thought. It's cool and interesting and clever and very funny, and I'm quite sure you haven't heard of it. So see it!
