EoFF Book Club (April) - Howl's Moving Castle

[Del Murder]

Just finished it. It was ok. The anime was better. That usually doesn't happen, the movie being better. I liked the characters and they were portrayed well but a lot of it didn't make much sense and it felt rushed at the end. Specifics:

(SPOILER)
Sophie falling for Howl in the end was kind of awkward. I knew it was getting to that point but I didn't think it was all the way there when the end came.

The whole Miss Angorian/fire demon stuff was confusing and didn't make sense at times.

I still don't know what the connection between Wales and Ingary is, and how/why Howl is involved in both worlds, but I guess that is solved in a sequel.

It was a good read but nothing amazing.

[qwertysaur]

(SPOILER)I was not surprised at all that Ms Angorian was connected to the witch of the waste. From right when she was introduced I wanted to throw a live turkey at her.

[Araciel]

Not my kind of book, not by a long shot. I honestly didn't see the point in a lot of the little things, which I believe others are already mentioning. Like I said it was tough for me to chew through. There was a lot of stuff that just seemed to come out of nowhere for no reason like the witch thing... ugh. Looks like everyone agrees.

I really don't want to discuss that much about it :S

[Bastian]

Araciel: I'm curious what you mean by not seeing what the point was in the "little things" . . . I'm not quite sure what you mean, but my guess is why there's such a focus on cleaning the castle and little non-plot things like that?

This books and others like it (the Earthsea series, and The Forgotten Beasts of Eld) is intentionally atypical fantasy. Rather than a huge epic plot of kingdom against kingdom, they are more "a day in the life" of peasants who happen to live in kingdoms where magic is overly common. Which is exactly why I like to read something like this after reading The Death Gate Cycle or The Wayfarer Redemption or Harry Potter.

[Imperfectionist]

Okay just finished reading House of Many Ways last night, excellent book as well but i'm a bit confused. After reading posts about it on here, I was under the impression that the whole Wales thing was revisited in this book, but... it wasn't. I don't understand, have I made a big whoopsie and missed something?

[Bastian]

Imperfectionist: Yikes, I misspoke. I didn't mean literally. Just that there are references to it.

[Badge]

It'd be interesting to see how many people read the book before having seen the film, because having seen the film first, when I read the book, I was trying to comparing it to the story of the film and trying to somehow fit it in with it, clearly that isn't going to work as the film is simply an adaptation of the book, so technically it can bare no real resemblance to the book, just the characters/ideas etc. I couldn't see children reading the book as I do agree as it got confusing at parts, especially for such a short book.

[Imperfectionist]

Imperfectionist: Yikes, I misspoke. I didn't mean literally. Just that there are references to it.

Oh well see now i'm all dissapointed and it's your fault! I hope you're happy with yourself...

[Miriel]

I thought the film was sooo much better than the book. The book had some weird pacing issues, and there were parts that were confusing and I had to read over and over again. And it still didn't make much sense.

But it was a super light read. Probably not best for a book club type discussion. The next book should have like... lots of crazy going on so we can actually talk about it.

Apocalyptic books are usually good for that. Death! Zombies! CANNIBALS!

[Del Murder]

I agree.

[Bastian]

I love Miyazaki's film (and all of his films, actually) but I do NOT think the film is better than the book. It is too different from the book. I liked the sisters switching places and the Miss Angorian (or whatever her name was) stuff, and the Wales stuff. It had a whole lot more going for it. Of course, that made it a bit confusing, but more enjoyable, to me.