Comfort Reads: Villains by Necessity by Eve Forward

From Amazon's website:  "With the banishment of Evil from the realms, the final victory of Good is assured-unless a few stalwart antiheroes can save the world from a serious and potentially fatal imbalance. First novelist Forward explores the complications that arise from a surfeit of "goodness" in the world. The result is a skewed version of the epic fantasy that features an assassin, a thief, an evil sorceress, a dark knight, and an implacable druid as the villains-turned-heroes who must restore the delicate balance of opposing forces before their world disappears in a blinding flash of Goodness and Light. Fans of role-playing games will recognize many familiar conventions in this seriocomic fantasy adventure. A candidate for fantasy collections in large libraries."

Rather hilariously, I've already reviewed this book, and I hadn't realized it until I went to the Amazon page and saw my own review for it there!  I will paste my review in and add a few thoughts.

In a twist on the usual fantasy story, Forward's heroes are not classically good-hearted heroes, but instead villains. Including an assassin, an evil sorceress, a greedy thief, and a black knight, the main characters are likable and intriguing. They band together to save the world from destruction by the powers of good.

In the beginning, I found the characters one-dimensional. However, as the story quickly unfolded, I was fascinated to see that both character introspection and interaction developed their personalities to an amazing degree. After that, even minor, short-lived characters managed to grab my attention fully.

There are a number of sly digs at other fantasy works, which make Villains By Necessity an even funnier book if you're well-read in fantasy novels.

I wrote that review in 2000 when I apparently was unable to actually remember plot points or characters from the book.  Villains by Necessity does many things wrong.  I won't lie to you.  It's not extremely well written.  There are many plot holes if you think about it too long.  I think the author confuses the nature of good and evil with law and chaos (which is a no, no especially since the author is clearly a fan of early Dungeons and Dragons.)  However, it's still fun if you're well-read in fantasy. 

I can't really recommend that you buy it since it is rather expensive (having been out of print for ages), but if you know anyone who owns it, or if your library has it, try to read it if you like fantasy or Dungeons and Dragons.  It's take on concepts present in most fantasy novels is interesting and refreshing. 

I will admit that when I was younger, a particular favorite of mine included the skewering of Dragonlance that was more meaningful because I had just finished reading the original Dragonlance trilogy.  Nowadays, I enjoy Sam (the book's main character and an assassin) and relationships with the other villains around him much more.  The parody has become less enjoyable, but the things I considered boring at that time have become more.  Such is life. 

Comfort Reads: Dramacon by Svetlana Chmakova

From the author's website:  "When Christie settles in the Artist Alley of her first ever anime convention, she only sees it as an opportunity to promote the comic she had started with her boyfriend. But conventions are never what you expect and soon the whirlwind of events sweeps Christie off her feet and changes her life. Who is the mysterious cosplayer that won't even take off his sunglasses indoors? What do you do when you fall in love with a guy who is going to be miles away from you in just a couple of days?"

Fun fact:  when you get to link to a manga artist's website, it usually is a graphic beauty as opposed to the eyesore many an author's page can be.   Today, while perusing my list of read books, I decided to put up another comfort read, but a vastly different one than last time.  Instead of a much older, almost classic novel of a young woman, I wanted to tell you all about another weakness I have -- a love of mangas about teens. 

When I first picked this up, I wasn't too hopeful. It was an OEL (Original English Language) manga, and I had been biased to the Japanese mangas prior to reading Dramacon. However, Johanna at Comics Worth Reading highly recommended it and I so rarely disagree with her when it comes to manga that it seemed silly to not try it.

It was the most perfect manga I had ever read.  I hadn't even conceived of a manga possibly being as good as Dramacon.  Prior to reading it, I had decided manga was good for light reading and somewhat silly romances, but, after reading, I knew manga could tell a hell of a story if it wanted to.

Christie's adventures at an anime convention are easy to relate to even if you've never been to a con before (I never have).  Her first meetings with Matt made my stomach flutter, as it was easy to see that she could easily fall in love with this guy she had just met.  Both Christie and Matt are simply so well-realized.  Their interactions feel real and their feelings come across as legitimate.  After all, isn't it silly to get super attached to a guy you've just met, when he lives across the country?

The other people that Christie meets and befriends also come across as real people, not simply characters fulfilling needed roles. Quite truthfully, this is even better done in the second and third volume, but even in the first volume, it's obvious that Chmakova can write a believable character and their personality in just a few short panels.

To top it all off, the art is pretty good for this series too.  All the characters were easily differentiated and the scenes easy to follow.  God knows it's hard to say that about a lot of comics!  If you've never read a manga, I heartily suggest starting with this one.  Just don't fall in love too hard.  You're not going to find many of this quality.

Comfort Reads: The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

The book blog, Giraffe Days, had a wonderful entry about comfort reading. The blogger defines a comfort read as "...a book that, no matter your mood, you can snuggle down with. A book that you know, because you’ve read it before, has the power to absorb you, de-stress you, shine a little light on your soul for however long." I'm completely addicted to comfort reading. There are some books I reread annually, others I read whenever I'm slightly depressed, and still others I read when I've got nothing else that appeals to me. I was happy that Giraffe Days listed one of my own comfort reads in her top ten list of comfort reading, so I've decide to highlight it in my first Comfort Reads post. I'm not going to give a verdict on any of these books, but you can pretty much assume that the verdict is a ten, because, why else would I be reading these books at the drop of a hat?


I'm sure the majority of people who place a L.M. Montgomery book on their comfort read list will have named Anne of Green Gables.   While I've got nothing against that book, and it might even find its own way into a Comfort Read post, I've got to say that given my druthers, I'd always choose The Blue Castle.  I vividly remember sitting down with this book with no expectations other than perhaps an orphan being involved with the story (that Montgomery does love her some parentless characters), and I remember getting sucked into the story swiftly.

This novel of the growth of Valancy Stirling is astounding.  When I started the novel, I felt so incredibly mired by the things that are holding Valancy back.  As she lists injustice after injustice, I wanted to scream at the world to just be fair to her.  Her family is hideous and mean and incredibly shallowly vicious and they keep Valancy down in a variety of large and small ways that add up to Valancy's complete misery.  Her life looks completely hopeless and she's living with her mother who is, perhaps, the worst person in her whole family.  Then, the turning point of the novel, a trip to the doctor where Valancy learns that she is dying and that she won't live out a year.

It is completely exhilarating and awesome to see how Valancy acts when she learns this news.  Rather than being shoved down any further, this last blow frees her!  The Valancy that is hinted at in the first few chapters blooms quickly and brilliantly into the Valancy that continues from there on in.  At first, it's the small things that thrill.  The quick little snaps she takes at her uncles, the refusal to her humor her mother, and the way she tries to do whatever she feels like doing.  However, as it goes on, you get to see Valancy live the life she's always dreamt about.  I think this is where the novel differentiates itself from so many romance novels I've read.  In those, you see the struggles of the heroine to get the man of her dreams and, perhaps, her own dreams lived out, but you never see the heroine live the dream.  Here, Valancy does.  She fulfills her dreams, gets her guy, and lives a wonderful life.

Reading about how Valancy lives this last year makes me want to sing.  When she talks of her cats and her snow shoeing and her jalopy riding ways, I almost regret that I wasn't young during the 1920s and living in Canada!  Barnay Snaith, the dream guy in question, is awesomely sweet and when he finally declares his love for her, as you know he will, it's heaven.

I save this book for when I feel put upon by relatives, or when I just need to be reminded that sometimes it's better to fight against bad news rather than letting life bring me down.  We make our own luck, as it were.