The Books I Like

    2 Samuel 23:8 - These are the names of David's mighty men: Josheb-Basshebeth, a Tahchemonite, chief of the captains. He was called Adino the Eznite. He killed eight hundred men in one encounter.

    Now doesn't that just make you want to name your kid Josheb? Admittedly I don't really want my kid to go out and kill 800 people...But if God DOES call him to war I certainly want him to be the sort of man who could take down 800, by himself. So why do I bring this up? Because it's a perfect example of one of the reasons I like the books I like.

    (1) It needs some sort of heroes. Now I don't mean super man, or the fantastic four, or wolverine. While they all certainly did super human things, well, they're super human, is it really that impressive compared to a regular man taking down 800?
    Real Life Examples: David's Might Men, the battle of Thermopylae, the Alamo, and the battle of Mogadishu.
    Fictional Examples: The Chain of Dogs (Deadhouse Gates), the last march of Manetheren (Wheel of Time), and several points in the Silmarillion.
    Bad Example: The British battle at Singapore.

    (2) I don't know that I've liked any without well thought out histories. How can I truly empathize with someone's plight or cause if I know not the reason for it? Without proper historical backing absolute fiends can look like saints.
    Examples: The Middle Earth books, the Wheel of Time series, and the Malazan Book of the Fallen (actually several books).

    (2a) A few books have managed to do without a good history and still pull it off. However, I believe that this is only forgivable in thought provoking books.
    Examples: Starship Troopers (the book, I heard the movie was horrid) and another one I can't think of the name of, but basically a highschool survival training thing goes awry and they get trapped on another world for several years and form their own society.

    (3) All the normal good book stuff, good english, well written dialog, and a compelling reason for the story.

    This of course only covers things I expect out of fictional books. Real life books, such as Blue Like Jazz are held to a completely different standard.

    Well that's about it for today, I may write some more later about how WoW is going.

~joe/ish