Continuing on with my Agatha Christie marathon, I finished The Man in the Brown Suit. Published in 1924, its one of her earlier works and it really shows. To me, Christie's earlier works tend to be more poorly written in terms of characterization and having believable dialogue. Some conversations in this book are incredibly contrived to move a plot point. For example, our spunky heroine falls in love with a bad boy potential murderer with a single rude conversation and a bit of girl talk. One good thing about earlier Christie works is that they tend to be more inventive with their twists than later works, and this one was pretty clever as well.
One of Christie's most celebrated works is the Murder of Roger Ackroyd which is also one of her earlier works, written two years afterwards in 1926, and praised for its great twist ending. Unforunately people forget how boring getting to that ending was. It's the literary equivalent of The Usual Suspects, either the ending isn't enough of a reward for the monotony beforehand.
After a run of reading Jane Austen (P&P, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, S&S) and then The Road, I find myself pulled in by Snow Crash. It feels like everything that I imagined Neuromancer was going to be.
A Fire upon the Deep. Only about 100 pages in and it's blowing my mind. Space Opera to the max. And the writing is incredible. He assumes the reader is smart and just launches into it. Can't wait to see where this goes!
Yup! Next read A Deepness in the Sky. Avoid Children of the Sky at all costs, even if you think you want more Vinge and group-mind talking dogs.
It's the kind of book where once I start I dedicate 100% of my free time to finishing it. It's very addictive. Giving me a Pandora's Star vibe. The Blight is almost as scary as Morning Light Mountain and it's still yet to be revealed how badass this Perversion is!
Morning Light Mountain is one of my all time top evil aliens. Tines are one of my all time top not-evil aliens. And the evil Tines in A Fire Upon The Deep are pretty cool too.
Morning Light Mountain is one of my all time top evil aliens. Tines are one of my all time top not-evil aliens. And the evil Tines in A Fire Upon The Deep are pretty cool too.
The chapter from Pandora's Star, where Morning Light Mountain "interrogates" the two humans, is one of my favourite chapters from any book, ever. The evolution chapter of Morning Light Mountain is also pretty epic.
I thought A Fire Upon the Deep was most excellent. I was expecting it to be "book ended" by the insidious and malicious enemy. Perhaps that final paragraph was? If so, it was subtle. I was expecting something close to the opposite of the opening chapter. Great book!! I shall certainly read A Deepness in the Sky
PS: Can anyone explain that very last line in A Fire?
I'm just finishing up New York, by Edward Rutherfurd. It's a pretty cool look at New York City through the years, following one family line from the settling of New Amsterdam in the 1600s through 9/11. I'm enjoying it a lot, though I don't know if my not being so familiar with the specifics of NYC geography makes it more interesting, or less.
The next two books are more about advancing the in-world story, IIRC, rather than filling in the backstory - it's a shift into the more active part of the series.
I finished The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey the other day. I liked it quite a bit. Its sorta somewhere in between The Road and Enders game. Its overall theme is pretty similar to The Host (Stephanie Meyer, not the Korean monster movie) but its a lot better, and there is a lot less "He's so dreamy/which boy do I choose" though there is a little bit, but no more than the Hunger Games. The twists are pretty easy to figure out but still enjoyable. It definitely feels like a first book in a trilogy, with the end feeling more like the end of a chapter rather than the end of the book, but at least the second book is already out so its not that big of a deal. If you like dystopian alien post-apocalypse's then its worth a look.
The Martian is a pretty funny, hard sci-fi. It's really fun to try and solve the puzzles that the protagonist faces. The format of the book really meshes well with the communication challenges someone stranded on Mars would be faced with.
The Martian is really great. I listened to it as an audiobook in some car journeys with Juliane, and the puzzle solving element was what made it such an novel experience.
I read just the Gunslinger, and didn't feel there was enough there to either make me carry on, or review it for my podcast. It felt like reading a really long first chapter or prelude, it a full book in its own right.
Been a while since I checked in: Neuromancer, Burning Chrome, a fair chunk of the story paths/endings for To Be or Not To Be, JavaScript: The Good Parts, and currently in the middle of a reread of Lord of the Rings.
Taking a break from the Jackson bio. I'm learning so much about him, idk if I'll be able to boil it all down to an hour. Picked up some Hunter Thompson and a book on the wrecking crew to read instead.
I recently read Super by Ernie Lindsey. Basic upshot is that it follows the story of a guy who is an assassin of superheroes that has been sucked into a huge conspiracy. It wasn't half bad until about halfway through it when a random mention of other superheroes in the world includes "Clark Kent". That jarred me right out of the story, because in my mind it was no longer taking place in a world of the author's own creation, but in the DC universe. After that I started picking apart the story based on the typical tropes I knew that DC used, and my enjoyment of it just fell flat. Three stars, and that's being generous.
Honestly, it's not worth reading. I struggled to finish it. Erratic pacing that leads to no pacing, just empty(and worse, boring) world-building, stuffed with Author soapboxing and the most ham-fisted social commentary I've seen in my life(Of course presented as some profound revelation that changed the world), a bizarre obsession with Apple products. No joke, the product everyone uses? The ii, which is basically a contact lens smartphone built after Panachron - the big company in the book that controls time travel -acquired Apple. Every laptop is a Macbook, every named phone is an iPhone. Glass - basically the only non-apple tech product ever mentioned by name - is bought up only to be knocked with giant fists of ham. Boring, absurd commentary about reality TV - "Hey you know what's missing from entertainment nowdays? The real reality of reality TV of the 2010s, nudge nudge wink wink see how absurd I'm being ha ha ha?"
The twists don't read like twists, so much as the author remembering that he should actually have something happen in his book beyond mocking reality TV and non-Apple products. On the upside, it's never actually telegraphed anywhere, I guess?
The Arthashastra by Chanakya, translated and published by Penguin Classics.
It's an interesting read, a political treatise along the lines of The Prince except far, far older and written by someone who was a political success instead of, well, Machiavelli. It's this odd mix of sound political advice, vedic spiritualism (That's also political advice), and hilarious stuff that sounds like it's from some supervillain's secret plan (That is, again, also political advice). It's got advice on welfare and land distribution alongside a guide on hiding secret escape routes in your giant palace, layering defenses (Including a unit of loyal female archers) around your bedchambers, and performing magic rituals to ward off vipers. It's incredibly cynical, there's one part where he basically says 'Omens are complete bullshit, but you should know what they are so you can fake omens favorable to you whenever you want'.
It's an interesting read, but not really an exciting one.
The Magicians by Lev Grossman It's part Harry Potter, part teen/young adult coming of age story, part gritty angst. I agree with what Churba said about none of the characters being likable, but there was something real about them. The story takes a few sudden and dramatic twists and the pace is a bit slow at times, but it was entertaining.
Mage's Blood: Book 1 of The Moontide Quartet by David Hair. Sweeping cross-continental epic with lots of magic and grand political intrigue. There is a lot of character setup and learning proper nouns since it's the first book, but there are several very likable characters and a good cliffhangery ending that left me wanting to read the next book. Not an A+, but a solid B.
Oryx & Crake, The Year of the Flood, and Maddadam by Margaret Atwood. Heavily character driven and very well written trilogy about the fall of humanity and the post-apocalyptic future that has gene splicing, falls from grace, multi-colored demi-humans that get big blue, wagging erections, and a crazy guy who lives in a tree. I can't recommend this series enough. Atwood is a fantastic writer and the books are heavy with symbolism, foreshadowing, and tragedy, and it's all handled brilliantly. READ THESE BOOKS.
Comments
One of Christie's most celebrated works is the Murder of Roger Ackroyd which is also one of her earlier works, written two years afterwards in 1926, and praised for its great twist ending. Unforunately people forget how boring getting to that ending was. It's the literary equivalent of The Usual Suspects, either the ending isn't enough of a reward for the monotony beforehand.
Only about 100 pages in and it's blowing my mind. Space Opera to the max. And the writing is incredible. He assumes the reader is smart and just launches into it. Can't wait to see where this goes!
PS: Can anyone explain that very last line in A Fire?
I read just the Gunslinger, and didn't feel there was enough there to either make me carry on, or review it for my podcast. It felt like reading a really long first chapter or prelude, it a full book in its own right.
Honestly, it's not worth reading. I struggled to finish it. Erratic pacing that leads to no pacing, just empty(and worse, boring) world-building, stuffed with Author soapboxing and the most ham-fisted social commentary I've seen in my life(Of course presented as some profound revelation that changed the world), a bizarre obsession with Apple products. No joke, the product everyone uses? The ii, which is basically a contact lens smartphone built after Panachron - the big company in the book that controls time travel -acquired Apple. Every laptop is a Macbook, every named phone is an iPhone. Glass - basically the only non-apple tech product ever mentioned by name - is bought up only to be knocked with giant fists of ham. Boring, absurd commentary about reality TV - "Hey you know what's missing from entertainment nowdays? The real reality of reality TV of the 2010s, nudge nudge wink wink see how absurd I'm being ha ha ha?"
The twists don't read like twists, so much as the author remembering that he should actually have something happen in his book beyond mocking reality TV and non-Apple products. On the upside, it's never actually telegraphed anywhere, I guess?
It's an interesting read, a political treatise along the lines of The Prince except far, far older and written by someone who was a political success instead of, well, Machiavelli. It's this odd mix of sound political advice, vedic spiritualism (That's also political advice), and hilarious stuff that sounds like it's from some supervillain's secret plan (That is, again, also political advice). It's got advice on welfare and land distribution alongside a guide on hiding secret escape routes in your giant palace, layering defenses (Including a unit of loyal female archers) around your bedchambers, and performing magic rituals to ward off vipers. It's incredibly cynical, there's one part where he basically says 'Omens are complete bullshit, but you should know what they are so you can fake omens favorable to you whenever you want'.
It's an interesting read, but not really an exciting one.
It's part Harry Potter, part teen/young adult coming of age story, part gritty angst. I agree with what Churba said about none of the characters being likable, but there was something real about them. The story takes a few sudden and dramatic twists and the pace is a bit slow at times, but it was entertaining.
Mage's Blood: Book 1 of The Moontide Quartet by David Hair.
Sweeping cross-continental epic with lots of magic and grand political intrigue. There is a lot of character setup and learning proper nouns since it's the first book, but there are several very likable characters and a good cliffhangery ending that left me wanting to read the next book. Not an A+, but a solid B.
Oryx & Crake, The Year of the Flood, and Maddadam by Margaret Atwood.
Heavily character driven and very well written trilogy about the fall of humanity and the post-apocalyptic future that has gene splicing, falls from grace, multi-colored demi-humans that get big blue, wagging erections, and a crazy guy who lives in a tree. I can't recommend this series enough. Atwood is a fantastic writer and the books are heavy with symbolism, foreshadowing, and tragedy, and it's all handled brilliantly. READ THESE BOOKS.