Smoke and Mirrors

Smoke and Mirrors is an anthology from Neil Gaiman. I find I enjoy anthologies because they usually contain a wide variety of stories. Gaiman is one of my favourite authors so it's a treat to read him trying out various themes and genres.

The group starts out strong with "Chivalry". A story about the Holy Grail. It illustrates one of the things I really enjoy about Gaiman's work, taking the fantastical and making it ordinary. That the Holy Grail could be found in a thrift shop gives me the same feeling as when I looked for magical lands in closets when I was a child.

It also ends strong in "Snow, Glass, Apples" which is a story of Snow White. If only Mirror Mirror been half as good. I don't normally enjoy stories written in first perspective but I think it was very effective in this story.

That's not to say that I liked everything that was in this volume. Some of it was OK ("One Life, Furnished in Early Moorcock") and some I just didn't like ("When We Went to See the End of the World by Dawnie Morningside, Age 11 1/4") but the good far outweighs the bad.

Vampire Knight Volume 4

I don't trust Kaname. Nope, don't trust him at all. I'm firmly in "Camp Zero".

Vampire Knight Volume 3

So this one is more about the vampire society than about Cross Academy. (And Hino doesn't feel the need to remind you every few pages that the Day Class is human and the Night Class vampire). There's also a fair bit about vampire hunters in here too which was neat.

Naruto Volume 7: Orochimaru's Curse

So that's where it's going. I kind of figured it out part way through but I'm actually interested again. Sure, this volume is another long series of fights but that's pretty much what Naruto is. I'm curious about what's behind the door.

Naruto Volume 6: The Forest of Death

Yay! Sakura's not useless!

I'm not really sure where this is going. It sort of feels like it's going somewhere but then gets sidetracked by showcasing yet another fight scene. They're good fight scenes, but it would be nice to have a little character development.

Bleach Volume 8: The Blade and Me

I think this may be my favourite volume so far. It's essentially one long training montage but it does so much to open both the character of Ichigo as well as the world of Bleach.

Bleach Volume 7: The Broken Coda

Ichigo runs into something that he can't handle. I liked this one a lot. I really think that for a hero to grow they have to go through failure first. That was missing up to this point but here Kubo sends Bleach in an interesting new direction.