"The Greenlanders"

The Greenlanders (Jane Smiley)

I feel bad not being able to get into this book; it's got excellent reviews, but when it came time to actually crack it open, I barely made it ten pages. I've read that it's supposed to be in the style of a Norse saga, but for me I just found it to be horribly dry, written in snore-inducing this happened, then that happened style. Here's a little taste (page 233):

Another thing that happened after this hunger was that Bjorn Einarsson Jorsalfari declared his intention of remaining year round at Thjodhilds Stead, which was in Kambstead Fjord, at the back of Hvalsey Fjord, instead of spending part of the year at one farm an part of the year at the other, for he hadn't enough men to make something of both farmsteads, and he preferred the location of Thjodhilds Stead, for it gave his ships easy access to the sea but also to Gardar and Brattahlid. For this reason it happened that Gunnhild Gunnardottir would be within a day's walk of her own home when she went to stay with Solveig for the summer...

Did you follow that? I didn't, because I fell asleep halfway through it. Maybe I've just read too many fast-paced novels, but it takes so long for anything to happen that I couldn't stop my attention from drifting away. I'm sure a more patient reader can find a lot to enjoy here, but for me it's going regretfully in the donation pile.

Grade: D

"The Damnation of Pythos"

The Damnation of Pythos (David Annandale)

I'll cut right to the chase here: This is not a good book. There's enough material here for a middling short story, and stretched out to novel length, it's a real slog; I only finished it out of some misplaced sense of devotion, and it was a struggle not to skip pages as nothing happened for the middle 80% of the book. Most of this is waiting for something to happen, which is exactly as thrilling as it sounds; when it does finally kick off at the end of the book, it turns into a long, sub-par action scene that just kind of fizzles out. I can't even recommend this to 40k superfans; there's much better books to spend your time and attention on.

Grade: D-

"The Dark Knight Manual"

The Dark Knight Manual: Tools, Weapons, Vehicles & Documents from the Batcave

Almost exactly what it says on the cover; this is a book about the, uh, tools, weapons, and vehicles Batman uses in the Christopher Nolan movies. The star of the show is actually the "documents" of the title, which are neat feelies (think of the letters from Griffin & Sabine, if you've ever read those); being able to flip through the police report on the Joker or Harvey Dent's hospital file is really neat.
My only caveat is that there's not a ton of material here; the MSRP of $40 is just a bit much, working out to $20 an hour if you're a slow reader (I finished the entire book in two bathroom breaks). Pick it up if you see it in the bargain bin, otherwise it's a little tough to recommend.

Grade: B