Lucas Blogs About Books

Tween witch romance? Kinda. So, what's this book's deal? Well, here we are, three volumes into Kamome Shirahama's Witch Hat Atelier .  Oh, that's that fantasy manga you've been reading . That it is. Anyway, we're up to volume three. The last volume ended on something of a cliff-hanger when Coco was taken into custody by the Knights Moralis. They're like witch police? They're like witch police. You see, what had happened was Coco and her cohorts accompanied Master Quifrey and Watchful Eye Olruggio to help in rescue efforts in a flooded village. Unfortunately, one of their spells accidentally ended up pulverizing rocks into sand and made the flooding worse. Fortunately, the KM didn't find out that Coco had accidentally petrified her mom. In any case, Quifrey is able to smooth things over and discovers that Coco's inkwell has been tampered with (remember, witches draw sigils to cast spells). I wonder if it has anything to do wi

Shiny! So, what's this book's dea—wait a minute, isn't this the sequel to that one book? I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about. You know, that one where you spent a not insignificant portion of the review complaining about the fact that it didn't say that it was the first entry in a series? Oh. That. Yes, this is the sequel to that book. Specifically, this is The Kingdom of Copper  by S.A. Chakraborty. The follow up to The City of Brass , and, as pointed out on the title page, the second book in the Daevabad trilogy. Depicted: A common courtesy. You're not going to harp on that again, are you? Not any more than I already have. So, this book's deal is that it's a historical fantasy set in a kingdom of djinn (also daevas). Here's a quick refresher: back in the day, these fire elemental beings called daevas used to prey on humans. That is until the prophet Suleiman forced them to submit to his will throug

I knew there was I reason I kept that tablet around. Okay! So, we all remember that weird adaptations series I wrote several entries of last year, right? Well, we're sort of resurrecting it. This is Badaptations, where I look at adaptations that suck, and talk about why. Expect SPOILERS  aplenty. A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) & The Tombs of Atuan  (1970) by Ursula K. Le Guin into Earthsea (AKA Legend of Earthsea ) (2004) dir. Robert Lieberman, written by Gavin Scott So, what got lost in translation when a tv producer decided to take a beloved fantasy series and adapt it as a cheap Lord of the Rings knock-off? The Original: Okay, so I've recently reviewed both Wizard and Tombs , so I'll try and be brief here. All right. Let's get cracking: Duny is the son of a village bronze smith on the isle of Gont. Like most Gontish men, Duny has reddish brown skin. Unlike most Gontish men, he displays an early talent for the Art Magic, learning a few simple spells fr

I feel like there's a Crocodile Dundee joke somewhere in this cover, but I'm sure I can put my finger on it. Happy 13th of the month, readers (both hypothetical and otherwise)! You know what that means: it's time for me to revisit another entry in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events! Sticking with that intro? Yes. All right. SPOILERS  ahoy! Now that we're officially into the series' back half, have we passed the point of diminishing returns? Are you talking about the book series by Lemony Snicket or the blog series by me? Either. Well, I have to admit the fact that I remember much less about the books after The Vile Village may be a bad sign. As far as the blog series. I suppose that yes, I am worried that I will run out of things to talk about. But let's not worry about that until after I've re-read Book the Eighth – The Hostile Hospital So do you remember anything about this book? Yikes. No. Um, if pressed I&#

Pretty sure something is getting DESTROYED with FACTS and LOGIC on this cover. So, what's this book's deal? Well, the deal with Give Them an Argument: Logic for the Left  is that it's a pamphlet by Rutgers University Philosophy professor Ben Burgis. And the deal of said pamphlet is . . .  That philosophy and logic should not be thought of as primarily tools of the political Right. You see, an extremely online person might be aware of a certain political commentator ( seen here demonstrating his ignorance of the adversarial interview technique and his interlocutor's political leanings ) who proclaims that, "Facts don't care about your feelings." A statement which, while true, tells you more about the speaker (it's Ben Shapiro, I don't know why I didn't just say his name outright, there's a cartoon of him being shushed by David Hume on the cover) than anything else. Less online people are probably at least tangentially aware of