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Notes -
So, what are you reading?
I'm adding Voegelin's A New Science of Politics to my list.
The Noob Returns (Noobtown Book 9) by Ryan Rimmel. Haven't quite finished it yet but fuck, it's fun to return to this world after a decent stretch between books.
What the Hell Did I Just Read ended up disappointing me, mostly because Pargin ultimately only played around with the differing perspectives of the characters, leading to a pointless, dare I say ruined, climax and no real resolution. I was hoping with the way it was going that it'd be an Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade sort of situation but instead, it felt more like Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. And I can't help but notice that the original John Dies at the End has, overall, been funnier than the subsequent books combined.
All of Pargin's books have interesting titles but, from what I see on tvtropes, are filled with a type of humor I don't really care for. I'd see a new title on the shelf, start to pick it up and then go, "Oh, not him again. FFS."
Yeah, I can see that. Thinking about the humor angle specifically, there's definitely a strong thread of what I tend to think of as sophomoric humor in the style of Kevin Smith--sexual, crass, body-based humor, and this is consistent throughout all of the books. But there's also a strong thread of absurdist humor in the original John Dies at the End that, for me at least, works much better than the more juvenile humor does by itself. I found John's band, Three Armed Sally, with its three bass players and memorable introductory theater, to be hilarious in general and the lyrics to the song Camel Holocaust to be so ridiculous that they're utterly hysterical genius, for example, and that's just one part of the book. The closest thing that I can point to in the sequels is detective Lance Falconer from This Book is Full of Spiders, who is a great touch, but can't carry the book by himself.
Superior humor aside, in the more general sense, I think that the original John Dies at the End also benefited from its origin as a long-running serial fiction on Cracked.com and the long overall gestation period that it had. Not only is the humor better, but the jagged edges between scenes, characters, and overall narrative are sharper and drive the overall plot forward. The world it builds is fun, convoluted, and ripe for further exploration. The ending nails its aesthetic and completely sticks its landing. The sequels, by contrast, lack the additional subplots, polish, and humor of the original. Both end with at least a touch of glurge and lack the punch of the original. Worse, the world that the original built lies mostly untapped in the sequel and is, by the time of What the Hell Did I Just Read, completely vestigial. It felt to me like the literary equivalent of watching another episode of Scooby Doo instead of the rollicking, crank fueled bender through a modern Lovecraftian-inspired horrific universe that is the original. The sharp edges and social commentary of the original are largely missing and replaced instead by typical soy-based "humor" and, in the case of What the Hell Did I Just Read, a Very Special Episode feel as well.
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