The Good Fairies of New York

I would say this book is amusing and cute. But after 50 pages in, I was not compelled to finish. Read Lonely Werewolf Girl, and wait for its sequel, instead.

Yes, I'll admit it, I only picked this book up because of the ringing endorsement by Neil Gaiman within its introduction. I mean, based on the synopsis on the back cover it sounded like the kind of thing I'd like, but without the Gaiman name on it, I never would have made it that far.

And, overall, it is a fairly enjoyable read. There's a lot of good ideas here - different races of fairies trying (and largely failing) to coexist in the boroughs of New York; fairies who are spirits, but at the same time very physical creatures, with the drinking, swearing, and screwing that goes with such a description; and the idea of a revolution of the fairie proletariat after they have been forced into hard, magical manual labour by an evil king.

At the same time, though, the telling of the story is the thing, and I'm not overly fond of the way that Millar told this story. It's awfully fast-paced, never really stopping to catch its own breath, and doesn't really feature all that much evolution in terms of character or plot within the work. Also, none of the characters (save one, Kerry) seem all that likable - I find myself largely not caring if they achieve their goals, because I've never really been given enough reason to care about them as individuals.

It's got some interesting ideas, and the start of some interesting characters, but I had to give up about half-way through. The writing just isn't very good, and I'm loathe to spend unnecessary time of a life already too short to read all the great works on things that aren't enjoyable.

shame that the Neil Gaiman intro sucked me in. Oh well.