Category ArchiveFiction
Fiction 24 Dec 2007 04:52 pm
A Fire Upon the Deep
Fiction 01 Oct 2007 03:11 pm
JPod
JPod
Douglas Coupland
The back cover of this book proclaims it is “Microserfs for the Google generation”, and it might well be… but I feel it was badly done if that was the intention.
The odd thing is, it looks like “Microserfs”, but the magic is simply not there. I’m not sure whether this says more about me or about the author, though. The basic story is similar: a group of young geeks working together for a company interact with each other and with their families, and mature (somehow) in the process. It is much more surreal than “Microserfs”, however… it feels much less connected to reality, and it loses much of its appeal because of that. The characters do not feel real.
And a few things were plainly annoying. To begin with, the characters live in Vancouver but refer to temperatures in Fahrenheit instead of Celsius. And there are several references to “56K floppies”, which simply do not exist (there are 56K modems). And the first time there are tens of pages filled with digits, it’s interesting; the third time, it’s irritating. Plus, using the author as a character was even more irritating, especially when the other characters keep comparing themselves to “characters in a Doug Coupland novel”; I mean, can you be any less subtle?
In a word: disappointing. But perhaps I had set my expectations too high.
Fiction 20 Sep 2007 02:48 pm
Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living
Fiction 05 Aug 2007 09:25 pm
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
J. K. Rowling
Word of advice: this post has spoilers after the fold (after the link to “read more”). I will discuss fine points of the plot and the ending. You have been warned.
I have to say that I really enjoyed this book. I was honestly worried that it would not live up to the hype, but it does. Every last plot point is very well finished, all the mysteries are solved and everything fits together perfectly. Not only that, but details from all previous books (even the first two) are relevant to the story and to the conclusion; it seems that J. K. Rowling did know what she was going for from the beginning, and she got to the end in the best possible way. A co-worker of mine even joked that she should get a job with the producers of Lost, now.
There one minor annoyance, which I will discuss in the spoilers session below; nothing too serious, though. An advice to anyone who hasn’t started it yet: go re-read book 6 beforehand. I had read book 6 soon after it came out, and didn’t touch it since; that was a mistake, as I started reading book 7 with just a vague recollection of the previous events, and there was no “previously on Harry Potter” at the beginning… it took me a while to remember what, exactly, was a horcrux, or what relevance that locket had.
I did a long “stretch” to finish the book; I read the final 150 pages or so in a single sitting, and I was exhausted at the end. There is so much going on, so many details to keep track of and so many mysteries being solved that you end up physically tired at the end. Worth it, though, and I almost started reading it back from the start right away. I decided on starting from the beginning, though, and I’m going through the audio version of “Philosopher’s Stone” now (from the library; these audiobooks are unbelievably expensive); Stephen Fry’s narration is wonderful. And, by the time I finish the first 6, the audio version of book 7 should be available.
In short: great book. Spoilers to follow.
Fiction 24 Apr 2007 11:43 am
Mercury
Mercury
Ben Bova
I was somewhat disappointed by this book. I started reading it expecting a sci-fi novel, and what I got was a love-triangle novel set in the future. To be fair, the plot does have several interesting sci-fi threads: a space elevator (”skytower” in the book), a mission to Mercury to harvest solar energy, passing mentions of the discovery of life in several solar system bodies etc. etc. But the main plot is no more than a classical love triangle: man loves girl, other man loves same girl, one man betrays the other, the betrayed seeks revenge. Science and space are merely the setting and play not important part in the story.
Interestingly, many of the science-related issues in the book seem to be “borrowed” from the Red Mars series by Kim Stanley Robinson: the space elevator, the crash of said elevator, life-extension treatments, severe crisis on Earth… A bit too close for comfort.
I also got the feeling that maybe I should have read other books by the same author before; this is apparently book 4 in the “grand tour” of the solar system (preceded by Venus, Jupiter and Saturn), and I believe that some of plot points mentioned just in passing are actually fleshed out in the previous books (or, in case of the “asteroid wars”, in other series altogether). Still, if the other novels follow the pattern of this one, I’m not sure I want to read them.
In short: there are sci-fi novels that actually use science-related subjects in the main plot. This is not one of them.
Fiction 28 Mar 2007 03:35 pm
Storm Front
Storm Front (Book One of the Dresden Files)
Jim Butcher
I was driven to read this book by the recent SciFi channel version of this series (”The Dresden Files”). I watched the first episode of the TV series, then I went to the library and grabbed the first book of the series (which is not the same story as the TV episode).
My thoughts: it’s a bit of “Buffy”, a bit of “Harry Potter” and a bit of “Magnum, P.I.”. Our hero, aptly named Harry, is a wizard that manages (just barely) to earn a living by acting as a free-lance consultant to people in need of magical expertise; this can mean people who need to find something or the police looking for a murderer. Harry is, in fact, the only wizard listed on the yellow pages in Chicago; you’d expect business to be better. In this first book, Harry is hired by a worried wife to look for a missing husband, and by the police to look for the person responsible for a particularly gruesome double-murder.
The premise sounded good; good enough to make me interested in reading the book, anyway. The execution… not so much. Everything feels a bit “cliché”, the characters are very predictable (as are some plot threads) and the language is a bit overdone.
Still, there’s some promise there, and there seems to be some back story for the characters waiting to show up; also, maybe the author will find his footing in the next instalments. I plan on giving the book series one more chance, but I’m not so sure about the TV series.
Fiction 31 Dec 2006 10:16 am
Lisey’s Story
Lisey’s Story
Stephen King
I’ve read several reviews of this book saying that it is significantly different from other of Stephen King’s stories, but I don’t agree: I think his style is very clearly still there, and there are more similarities than differences to his other books.
The main plot, in short, is: Lisey, the widow of a famous writer who died two years ago, finally starts cleaning up his old office and deciding what to do with his papers. This brings a flood of memories of their time together, including memories of events of their past that she’d rather not remember. It turns out that the writer, Scott, had a very, well, interesting childhood (for lack of a better word), and his adulthood was not exactly normal either — nor was his death.
Everything that you’d expect from a Stephen King novel is there: supernatural, terror, graphic violence, long descriptions of settings, lots and lots of made-up words, phonetic spellings of regional accents… Some themes seem to come right out of other novels: the Territories (from The Talisman and Black House) are back, in a way, and the whole “deceased partner reaching out from beyond” seems eerily reminiscent of Bag of Bones (which is one my favourite SK books, by the way).
One can’t help but think about how much of this novel is sort of autobiographical, especially considering the close brush with death King had a few years ago. He claims that not much is, though.
I’ll agree that it’s not exactly a typical SK novel, but it’s not that much of a departure from his regular style. The way Scott’s story unfolds will break your heart, but it’s not a sad story; it’s even kind of uplifting, if you look at it the right way.
