Rating: 
Summary: More puns, more Peter David
Review: "Sir Apropos of Nothing" left me with a very bizarre feeling. I couldn't tell if I liked the book or not. It was funny, it was well-written, but it was so hard to sympathize with such a wretched main character, even as David made you WANT him to redeem himself.This sequel left me feeling much the same way. We start out with a very funny "Lord of the Rings" parody, but it doesn't really serve any purpose in the story other than to alienate Apropos from Sharee, the weaver who is his sidekick, unless he's her sidekick. The two of them wind up in a series of adventures, both together and apart, that leave you feeling that Apropos still has hope for redemption even while you're very disturbed at what he has wrought. I enjoyed reading this book. It was fun reading it. But again, at the end, I can't decide if I liked it or not. I suspect the third book, which I most certainly will read, will leave me feeling the same way. By the way -- the "revelation" in the last paragraph of the book? Saw it coming a mile away. It's a classic David twist.
Rating: 
Summary: The Woad Goes On
Review: A more enjoyable (and less unbearably cynical) tome than the original. The puns come fast and furious in the first half, but recede into the background in the second, as the action becomes more dramatic, and Atropos wry commentary strains against the evil he faces, and carries within himself. Good stuff.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing, but not bad
Review: After devouring the first book, Sir Apropos of Nothing, I was a bit disappointed by this book. While amusing in parts and certainly lacking nothing in wordplay, it lacked the edge of the absurd that characterized the first book. I hardly ever laughed aloud, which I did regularly before. It seemed to lack a great deal of the comedy of before, resorting instead to crudeness in the Lord of the Rings parody, followed by a very long-winded lesson in morality that was the rest of the book. Buy this first. Check this one out from the library.
Rating:
Summary: Loved It!
Review: Finally!! I really enjoyed this book. Once again Peter David put out another nonconventional book. Very interesting how Apropos became a villian, I can see how that would chaff normal fantasy readers (nb I hate characters who are so perfect and pure..."everyone" has something wrong with them) Apropos is my ideal hero. He learns from his mistakes and experiences.
Another thing about Apropos's adventures that impress me is that by the end Apropos gains a little bit of wisdom and knowledge. However, Apropos does not come by his knowledge easily it usually takes some kind of massive upheaval for him to make that final decision which pulls him back from his freefall.
Apropos kicks ass...he has almost no virtues or morality BUT but you will cheer for him. Even though he is a scoundral, even though he is pitiful, even though he is a liar and and a cheat...you find yourself wishing for him too get a clue, to make that vital last decision, to show some compassion or pity. And sometimes he will surprise you and do just what you want him to.
Rating:
Summary: Loved It!
Review: Finally!! I really enjoyed this book. Once again Peter David put out another nonconventional book. Very interesting how Apropos became a villian, I can see how that would chaff normal fantasy readers (nb I hate characters who are so perfect and pure..."everyone" has something wrong with them) Apropos is my ideal hero. He learns from his mistakes and experiences.
Another thing about Apropos's adventures that impress me is that by the end Apropos gains a little bit of wisdom and knowledge. However, Apropos does not come by his knowledge easily it usually takes some kind of massive upheaval for him to make that final decision which pulls him back from his freefall.
Apropos kicks ass...he has almost no virtues or morality BUT but you will cheer for him. Even though he is a scoundral, even though he is pitiful, even though he is a liar and and a cheat...you find yourself wishing for him too get a clue, to make that vital last decision, to show some compassion or pity. And sometimes he will surprise you and do just what you want him to.
Rating: 
Summary: Tossed it during the first chapter
Review: I am quite certain that the first chapter of this book is the worst example of published writing I have come across in all my years.
Rating:
Summary: Good - after chapter one
Review: I liked Wuin, but the first chapter was a bit over the top. The sexual parody of Lord of the Rings, while it played a part in the rest of the story, was just a bit too much. Maybe I'm just a bit too old for the target audience of high school/college boys (but I've been a fan of PAD since I WAS a college boy). Overall, though a decent, easy read.
Rating:
Summary: Can't put the series down
Review: I've searched for a novel that would catch my interested, and then keep my interest-this series does it for me. It only took me a couple of weeks to finish Book One and the second was no different. Apropos is one of the most unlikely heros one will ever see in a novel. He's selfish and cowardly yet his own battle between his conscience and his heart show he can be a hero if he wanted to be. The book begins where the last left off and goes directly into a quick and concise spoof of Lord of the Rings where Apropos finds the ring which "rules them all." After battling that he comes back to face his companion Sharee and to hopefully explain what happened but he finds out that she is attempting to strike him with lightening, being a weather weaver. His quest goes on and he settles nicely in Bugger Hall. That all ends when a Visionary (one who can see the future) comes in to tell him that his life will change very soon and someone would ask for his help. As the story goes on he is stuck once again, lost everything he owned, and is onthe run from a gargantuan man who is after something his friend stole. On the verge of death in the Tragic Waste he dies and then opens his eyes to realize something is very wrong. He is not dead and has just slain someone who had would naturally ran from in a heart beat. He has become everything he feared and has no clue how it happened. As the mystery of what happened to him while he was unconscious unravels the story begins to deepen and conspiracy is just a page away.
Rating:
Summary: Mixed Feelings
Review: Let me begin by saying: there is a reason this book has mixed reviews. It's fantastic, but at times it is absolutely appalling; in the course of the book, our blithe antihero becomes a violent, ruling tyrant. There is a point after "waking up" months later (with no memory of his cruel actions), when he is talking to the mistress he acquired during that time. He said he'd loved her at first sight. She said he'd beat her near to death.
-And the scene does, somehow, manage to be funny. An odd tribute to Peter David's talent.
Once past the amusing- and largely irrelevant- first chapter (an hilarious I-can't-believe-he-wrote-that! spoof of the Lord of the Rings), this is NOT a mere parody. It is a satire, and there really is a difference. David is unapologetic in his violence, making it somehow all the more chilling, all seamlessly interwoven with the truly comedic.
One of the other reviewers wrote of the first book: "I feel like someone mixed Victor Hugo with Dave Barry...we have discussions of Sir Umbrage of the Flaming Nether Regions amidst tales of a childhood upbringing that makes you want to weep. The combination doesn't work." The principle carries through to its sequel, and indeed, I almost put this book down at one point- but I finished it, and I'm glad I did. Despite the violence Apropos comes across, and commits himself...he really doesn't learn a moral lesson from any of it. Which is rather amusing when you think about it after the fact, but on top of that there's something here that's just more real, when things don't follow a path to make a moral point. Our antihero is generally as unapologetic as his writer, and there's something as equally human in Apropos, as in the traditional fantasy heroes of other sagas. Many of his faults are scarily common.
But despite the fact that this is more than just a parody, the one thing that carries through the story, from the very beginning, is that Peter David does NOT take himself too seriously here. Be prepared to be taken aback by the level of indifference Apropos can display, but he truly does have the potential to be a hero. He's just too cowardly, lazy, and selfish to want to be- and I love him for it. There's an air of the ridiculous through much of this book. It's absolutely wonderful, and I can't stress how much I enoyed it.
Rating:
Summary: Folks. I really tried to enjoy this book.
Review: Look, I'm a Peter David fan. I have copies of Imzadi and Sir Apropos of Nothing on my book shelf. He is an inventive and articulate writer. After you read/try to read The Woad to Wuin you will know what "because it isn't what they would expect" really means. Actually, I say that because David abuses the concept. Everytime I read it I envisioned the Airplane actor unplugging the lights to the runway saying "that's what they would expect us to do." It just seemed to me that David wanted to unload his cliches and puns he hadn't found a real venue for. Do yourself a favor. Read David's other books. This one is not an effort worthy of his top 10. The book nearly dies midway after a terrific start. I almost wanted my money back. Maybe the Apropos 3rd effort will redeem him...Apropos and David. KJH
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