Book 1 of the Secret Histories series.

I enjoyed the Nightshade series by Simon R Green, so when Amazon suggested this book, I figured it would be a fun read.

Of course, I didn't realize that the series was already like twelve books long.

Still.

This book is a fun read. It's about Eddie Drood, of the Drood family, the secret entity protecting the world. Each member of the Drood family wears a gold-colored torc, a rigid "neck ring" made of metal, designed to be worn permanently. Wikipedia has a better description of torcs. The torc has the magical abilities to give its wearer extraordinary strength, protection from injury, and near impenetrability.

The book starts out with Edwin being given a task by the Matriarch of the family, after Edwin describes just how much he hated growing up in the family. Family is family, so he accepts the task offered, and is subsequently attacked by legions of enemies. He spends the rest of the book figuring out WTH is going on. In the middle of it, he finds Molly, and together they continue to figure out what is going on.

Like all modern fairy tales, OF COURSE they figure out what's going on.

I enjoyed the book, even if I guessed wrong on the true purpose of the Matriarch's task. I thought it was to take out the Drood family's strong enemies. It wasn't. Still, a fun read.

I've had this book forever. This is one of those books that one is "supposed" to read because, hey, it has this tragic story around it: the author writes the book, the author can't find a publisher, the author commits suicide, the author's mother walks the book from publisher to publisher, the author's mother finds a publisher, the book is published, the book becomes a hit.

Okay, so this book has some reason for becoming a hit, right?

Right.

I did not like this book. I understand the whole story around the book. I laughed a number of times while reading the book. I can understand why the book was published, it's not a bad book, but, eh, I really did not like this book.

I didn't like it for one reason: the main character, Ignatius J. Reilly.

The basic plot is "Ignatius J. Reilly is an educated but slothful 30-year-old man living with his mother in the Uptown neighborhood of early-1960s New Orleans. Reilly, in his quest for employment, has various adventures with colorful French Quarter characters." Yeah. And "Ignatius Jacques Reilly is something of a modern Don Quixote—eccentric, idealistic, and creative, sometimes to the point of delusion." WHICH IS COMPLETELY INACCURATE.

Ignatius J. Reilly is an ass, pure and simple. He's a jerk, He's lazy. He hides in his bedroom instead of working, forcing his mother to support him. He blames others for his actions. He denies responsibility for his own actions. He is a destructive force in a relatively normal world. He steals from his employers. He causes some seriously bad events to happen, letting an old lady take the blame for a relatively bad misdeed.

Even his mother knows the guy is an ass, eventually deciding to throw him head first into life by kicking him out of the house.