War and Peace Volume 1 by Leo Tolstoy
I tried to like this but it is not a good evocation of pre-revolutionary Russia. Lazy complacent people sit in drawing rooms doing wrenching laments. This may be highly regarded but I felt it had growing ineffectuality, like ‘Lord of the Rings’.
Best Lines:
“Always spoke languidly, like an actor repeating a stale part.”
“Crush the hydra of revolution.”
“The lofty destiny of our adored monarch.”
“Why, they are sending ambassadors to compliment the usurper.”
“He chose his friends badly,”
~
Queen of the Darkness: Book 3 of The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop
This 2000 novel sees many characters come to the finishing line of life. Also various characters with stupid names run around being violent and sexually inappropriate. There is fighting and women constantly call other women bitches. This wasn’t significant and the posturing symbolism was silly. This was ludicrous and why are millennia old magical creatures acting like teenagers?
Best Lines:
“To each is given what he gave.”
“The living myth. Dreams made flesh. But, oh, had any of them really thought about who the dreamers had been?”
~
Buffy The Vampire Slayer The Lost Slayer: Dark Times by Christopher Golden
This 2001 novella is part 2 of serial novel. Its five years in the future and Buffy must escape captivity from a custom dungeon and face the evil vampire king Giles. No really. This was ludicrous with excessive continuity nods, character changes, death and this was not prestigious just dumb.
Best Line:
“One slayer was dead. But what of the other one?”
~
Buffy The Vampire Slayer The Lost Slayer: King of the Dead by Christopher Golden
This 2001 novel is the 3rd part in the serial novel. Giles is an evil vampire and Buffy is a hard case. This was not strangely gripping just un-satisfyingly unthreatening.