Damn Fine Story, Chuck Wendig

Received to review via Netgalley; publication date 18th October 2017

If you want writing advice, this isn’t a bad place to stop. If you want advice on how to put a story together, this is a great place to stop. It has all sorts of anecdotes and examples about how good stories are put together, and sometimes about how well-known stories fail (think The Phantom Menace et al). It works just the same whether you’re talking writing a book, a screenplay, or sometimes even a good joke. Oral storytellers would benefit too — Wendig gives examples from his father’s oral stories too.

If you’re easily offended, though, maybe you want to avoid it. Wendig swears freely and relates stories his kid thinks are awesome, often scatalogical. He’s irreverent and sometimes he spoilers stories like Star Wars, or doesn’t but doesn’t in a way that takes aim at them, and… Yeah, just, if you have any sacred cows, you might want to avoid.

My main criticism is that sometimes the jokey asides just felt like filler. I enjoy Chuck Wendig’s humour and randomness at times on Twitter… it felt out of place in the middle of a chatty seminar on storytelling. Time and place, dude. Time and place.

Rating: 3/5

The Gods of Olympus, Barbara Graziosi

For me, there weren’t many surprises here in Barbara Graziosi’s analysis of the Greek pantheon and their afterlife. I already knew how they translated into the Roman world (thank you, Mrs Wilson, for many fascinating lessons in classics!) and I had some idea of how they translated into the medieval and Renaissance world as well (I believe thanks there must go to Richard Wilson, Martin Coyle and Rob Gossedge – I can’t untangle in my mind quite who was responsible for this, but I blame my degree all the same).

Nonetheless, it’s a good survey of the Greek pantheon and the enormous influence they had on religious thought and, in the end, literature. I could wish for a bit on modern paganism, since I have friends who have revived the worship of the Olympians, but that’s probably a little much to ask.

It’s an enjoyable read, though not a particularly enlightening one, for me.

Rating: 3/5

The Naming of the Shrew, John Wright

There’s a lot of hilarity to be found in the Linnaean species names, from Crikey steveirwini to the unfortunate Rubus cockburnianus (named in honour of the Cockburn family, of course – how can you doubt it). I figured a book digging into all this would be interesting, or at least entertaining enough to beguile an eight hour plane ride.

Not so much. The author is undoubtedly – and commendably – enthusiastic. He’s dug around in all the vagaries of zoological and botanical naming, and he’s found some gems. He also tries to explain exactly how these names are coined and accepted. Unfortunately, he’s rather longwinded about it, and it becomes a long list of funny names joined by some anecdotes. Some of them I’m glad enough to know, but I did get rather tired of the idea by chapter four, and started wondering when the light at the end of the tunnel was going to show.

Rating: 2/5