Exo -- Fonda Lee
A young adult novel about an Earth 150 years in the future, long after humans lost a war with the alien Zri, and now Earth is a colony of their empire. Our hero is Donovan, an technologically enhanced super-soldier cop who is part of the larger society that cooperates with the aliens. Our hero is captured by human terrorists who want to take back their planet. In the beginning, I the book went a little How to Train Your Dragon 2 on me, so I thought it was going to be a bunch of cliches, but I was wrong. This is a really well written story. It presents an extremely thoughtful examination of all sides of the conflict, with way more political complexity than I am used to in YA fiction. It doesn't pull any punches, and it takes a hard look at the concept of colonialism. And the sci-fi is pretty solid. The world is layered and believable. I was hooked. Apparently there is a book 2 to the series, so I'll be checking that out soon.
Books we've read in 2021
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
Fortunately, the Milk -- Neil Gaiman
It's a children's book... by Neil Gaiman. The audiobook is an hour long. Check it out. It's a fantastically silly and clever sci-fi story that stars the milk. It's lovely.
It's a children's book... by Neil Gaiman. The audiobook is an hour long. Check it out. It's a fantastically silly and clever sci-fi story that stars the milk. It's lovely.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
Yay! I have a new review I’ll be putting up later!
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
Severance- Ling Ma. What a powerful book. I'll get into it in a second, but while I LOVED this book, I think some might find it extremely slow (or...GASP... boring!) or might feel misled by its summary. The premise on the book cover was essentially- A Chinese American woman finds herself trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic US where almost every person on the globe has been killed by a pandemic that originated in China (interestingly it was published in 2018). But that's not what the book is about at all. The book does tell that story, but tells it in parallel to her memoir and stories about growing up as a Chinese-born American that came to this country with her parents when she was six. That's what it's really about- it's about a memoir of the main character, which I suspect is largely autobiographical for the author herself. The title, Severance, refers to both the character's severance from the modern world after everyone is killed by the pandemic, but more importantly the Severance the main character feels from her own upbringing and family. The mirror stories of the memoir paired with the apocalypse is simply beautiful. While the beginning of the story feels like it will be nihilistic, it's actually a story about finding purpose and meaning in life and cutting through the illusions of what society tells us is important. Such a great read.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
Later -- Stephen King
A young adult novel from King. Jamie is 22 and is recounting his life from 6 years old to now. Jamie can see dead people. But not like in that movie (he says a couple times). He also tells us this is a horror story, and it is, but not mostly.
King is a great writer. He knows how to hook you. But he's a 73 year old trying to give voice to a modern gen Z kid, and it comes off as old fashioned. At 13 (in 2011, mind you) he refers to a girl in his class as "foxy" without irony. It's a well told tale, but there was just enough of that to take me out of it.
And the ending was unsatisfying, as horror tales often are. I tried to make sense of itby creating parallels between the supernatural story and Jamie's coming of age, but I couldn't do it without forcing it. Other than the horror stuff, the kid was just too level-headed and well adjusted to make his coming of age any kind of struggle outside the horror parts. There were elements there that COULD have made it work, but King didn't flesh those out in any significant way early on.
Not horrible, but also not spectacular. It's okay.
A young adult novel from King. Jamie is 22 and is recounting his life from 6 years old to now. Jamie can see dead people. But not like in that movie (he says a couple times). He also tells us this is a horror story, and it is, but not mostly.
King is a great writer. He knows how to hook you. But he's a 73 year old trying to give voice to a modern gen Z kid, and it comes off as old fashioned. At 13 (in 2011, mind you) he refers to a girl in his class as "foxy" without irony. It's a well told tale, but there was just enough of that to take me out of it.
And the ending was unsatisfying, as horror tales often are. I tried to make sense of itby creating parallels between the supernatural story and Jamie's coming of age, but I couldn't do it without forcing it. Other than the horror stuff, the kid was just too level-headed and well adjusted to make his coming of age any kind of struggle outside the horror parts. There were elements there that COULD have made it work, but King didn't flesh those out in any significant way early on.
Not horrible, but also not spectacular. It's okay.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
I read a truly excellent book for fun:
Lisa See's The Island of the Sea Women.
This book explores the life history and interior world of a woman diver from Jeju Island, where they have a long history of women divers performing astonishing work in the ocean. But since the history of her life also intersects with World War II, the Korean War, and the various historical atrocities visited upon the residents of Jeju Island, a lot of the plot is taking up with these issues in a way I will not spoil with spoilers. The main thread of the book is a long friendship between two women, but we hear everything from the perspective of our narrator and the voice shifts as you occasionally move from past to present, which is helpful.
I found it incredibly profound and moving and cried my way through most of it, but I think most people would just read it and find it really interesting and original and not have to have an emotional breakdown over how sad it is.
Lisa See's The Island of the Sea Women.
This book explores the life history and interior world of a woman diver from Jeju Island, where they have a long history of women divers performing astonishing work in the ocean. But since the history of her life also intersects with World War II, the Korean War, and the various historical atrocities visited upon the residents of Jeju Island, a lot of the plot is taking up with these issues in a way I will not spoil with spoilers. The main thread of the book is a long friendship between two women, but we hear everything from the perspective of our narrator and the voice shifts as you occasionally move from past to present, which is helpful.
I found it incredibly profound and moving and cried my way through most of it, but I think most people would just read it and find it really interesting and original and not have to have an emotional breakdown over how sad it is.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
I have heard good things before too (maybe from Kyle?)... thank you for reminding me. I have just checked it out from my library.Phoebe wrote: ↑Sat Jun 12, 2021 9:54 pm I read a truly excellent book for fun:
Lisa See's The Island of the Sea Women.
This book explores the life history and interior world of a woman diver from Jeju Island, where they have a long history of women divers performing astonishing work in the ocean. But since the history of her life also intersects with World War II, the Korean War, and the various historical atrocities visited upon the residents of Jeju Island, a lot of the plot is taking up with these issues in a way I will not spoil with spoilers. The main thread of the book is a long friendship between two women, but we hear everything from the perspective of our narrator and the voice shifts as you occasionally move from past to present, which is helpful.
I found it incredibly profound and moving and cried my way through most of it, but I think most people would just read it and find it really interesting and original and not have to have an emotional breakdown over how sad it is.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
My complaint about it is that I wanted about fifty more pages of the undersea experience described in further detail! But maybe an editor got ahold of it. Still, given the importance of this activity to the characters' lives, I wanted more play by play on shell locating, urchin harvesting, and so on.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
The Bible's Cutting Room Floor: The Holy Scriptures Missing from Your Bible- Joel Manuel Hoffman. So this is the third bible-related book I've read in the past couple of years- one of which was the Bible. The other one was similar to this- Who's Bible is It Anyways? I was disappointed with that book because, while I thought it was going to discuss different bibles and scriptures not included, it was really just an extremely detailed history of the various bibles and had little of what I was looking for. This book pleasantly surprised me. I was worried when the first half was again just another detailed history of the bible and it's translations- that part was still very interesting, particularly in the history behind the Dead Sea Scrolls and their various iterations. Even though the author is a historian, he did a good job of dumbing it down just enough to make the history much more accessible and enjoyable- particularly when discussing the writings of Flavius Josephus. (Although, if I don't ever hear about the history of the Septuagint again, I'll die happy.) But then the author dedicates the second half of the book to actually describing some holy books that were left out of the bible, and discusses why they would be omitted. Specifically, he talks about The Life of Adam and Eve, the Apocalypse of Abraham, and the various books of Enoch. It was interesting to see the different themes in these writings and how they undermined some of the basic principles that the people assembling the bibles wanted to emphasize. I'm not sure this kind of historical read is for everyone, but I found it extremely interesting and very well written.
SIDENOTE- This book was an emergency choice made at the last minute because I had started listening to a history of the peoples of Appalachia, but in the first five minutes, the author went on at length about how these people were from "the greatest and heartiest white stock available in America" and on and on. Dealbreaker. Had to shut that down and find something else.
SIDENOTE- This book was an emergency choice made at the last minute because I had started listening to a history of the peoples of Appalachia, but in the first five minutes, the author went on at length about how these people were from "the greatest and heartiest white stock available in America" and on and on. Dealbreaker. Had to shut that down and find something else.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
What a bunch of crap. Obviously the greatest and heartiest "white stock" of North America was Paul Bunyan, and he's not from anywhere near Appalachia, nor is his ancestry all that clear, what with his French name and all. White supremacists are always such failures at being white supremacists - they can't even get their own b******* right.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
white stock sounds like some kind of broth, probably made with milk.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
It's made from the tears of white supremacists, the blood of a turnip, and a dollop of ranch dressing.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
The Devil in Silver- Victor LaValle. I got this book because I had previously read Victor LaValle's novella, The Ballad of Black Tom, which is an awesome retelling of one of HP Lovecraft's most racist stories, and tells it from the perspective of one of the "scary" black people. This book, taken at face value, isn't a commentary on race... until you look a little closer. The story centers on a big dumb white guy named Pepper, who gets into a fight with a dude that he doesn't realize is an undercover cop. The cops, too lazy to book him at the end of their shift, take him for a hold-and-evaluation at a city psych ward. As you can imagine, Pepper ends up staying longer than the 72 hour observation period. Navigating the patients and his new prison, Pepper also discovers a monster that stalks the patients and that the staff can't see (the titular Devil in Silver). You can read this book from a straightforward narrative and get a horror story that takes place in a mental institution. And it's a pretty good horror story. But when you read closer, it's about much more than that.
The story is separated into three different books (there's a fourth epilogue book, but it's not really it's own separate thing). In the first book, the patients have a book club and someone suggests they read One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest- but then someone else points out that the book isn't actually about a mental institution, but rather about a generation's alienation from their roots and culture. Much like that, this book isn't either. Rather, the first book is really about living as a person of color in an oppressive system. And it's so smart that it's told from the perspective of the big dumb white guy who's into heavy metal and takes a lot of his life for granted, until it's all taken away and he realizes how the system is rigged against him. The second book actually is about the mental patients and the grossly uncaring, profitable business that houses them. The third book is the horror story and the fight against the Devil in Silver. And look- you could really read this as just a horror story and never think twice about it, but LaValle does such a great job of being true to telling a linear horror story, but contextualizing it into these other larger stories. I'd give concrete examples, or quote parts where I think he's showing his cards, but those would be spoilers. In the fourth book, which is the conclusion/epilogue, it gives a very satisfying closure to the whole story and multiple characters' arcs. It was all so artfully done. He's such a good writer and amazing storyteller.
I want to also point out that I really appreciated the handling of the patients in this book. They are mentally ill. But they're not "crazies" or stereotypical psych-ward psychos. They're real people with real complexities and they are portrayed with honor and dignity, which I thought added a depth to the book that was quite beautiful.
The story is separated into three different books (there's a fourth epilogue book, but it's not really it's own separate thing). In the first book, the patients have a book club and someone suggests they read One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest- but then someone else points out that the book isn't actually about a mental institution, but rather about a generation's alienation from their roots and culture. Much like that, this book isn't either. Rather, the first book is really about living as a person of color in an oppressive system. And it's so smart that it's told from the perspective of the big dumb white guy who's into heavy metal and takes a lot of his life for granted, until it's all taken away and he realizes how the system is rigged against him. The second book actually is about the mental patients and the grossly uncaring, profitable business that houses them. The third book is the horror story and the fight against the Devil in Silver. And look- you could really read this as just a horror story and never think twice about it, but LaValle does such a great job of being true to telling a linear horror story, but contextualizing it into these other larger stories. I'd give concrete examples, or quote parts where I think he's showing his cards, but those would be spoilers. In the fourth book, which is the conclusion/epilogue, it gives a very satisfying closure to the whole story and multiple characters' arcs. It was all so artfully done. He's such a good writer and amazing storyteller.
I want to also point out that I really appreciated the handling of the patients in this book. They are mentally ill. But they're not "crazies" or stereotypical psych-ward psychos. They're real people with real complexities and they are portrayed with honor and dignity, which I thought added a depth to the book that was quite beautiful.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
We Have Always Lived in the Castle- Shirley Jackson. When I was a kid, I would have Mike read my short stories. He was always kind, but when I reached about 12, I remember him telling me, "This is cool, but it's not really a story. It's a really cool scene. But it's not a story." This always stuck with me because he was right- I'd envision some really powerful scene, which you could imagine all the backstory that must have lead up to it-- and the world of shit it was going to lead to-- but at the end of the day, I'd only set the dinner table. I hadn't actually delivered an entire meal.
That thought kept coming back to me as I read this book (really more of a novella). You know Shirley Jackson even if you don't recognize her name. She's known for writing gothic horror stories in the mid 20th century. Haunting of Hill House (or the half-dozen other versions of the same story)? All based on her novel. So while I was aware of her and this novel, I'd never actually read any of her work. So I picked this up and listened to the audio book, which was only about six hours. The premise is that there's this creepy girl that lives in a manor house with her sister and uncle in the 50s. They are shunned by the "villagers" for a tragedy that happened several years earlier. The book focuses on the young girl and her view of this world, and how she reacts to being the "creepy outsider."
Let me start by saying that it's extremely well written. This is gothic horror at its best. The creepy characters who simply drip with rot in their souls and the sense of innocence made perverse- it's very masterfully laid out here. The problem is that it's not really a story. It's not a real narrative. Don't get me wrong- stuff happens. But there's no character arc at all to any of the characters. And I get that that's the point- they will forever be entrenched in their weird creepy isolation- but it's extremely dissatisfying. I kept waiting for something to happen; for some kind of development that was going to be meaningful, but it just wasn't there in a satisfying way. It was just a cool, creepy gothic setting. I really wanted this to be so much more.
That thought kept coming back to me as I read this book (really more of a novella). You know Shirley Jackson even if you don't recognize her name. She's known for writing gothic horror stories in the mid 20th century. Haunting of Hill House (or the half-dozen other versions of the same story)? All based on her novel. So while I was aware of her and this novel, I'd never actually read any of her work. So I picked this up and listened to the audio book, which was only about six hours. The premise is that there's this creepy girl that lives in a manor house with her sister and uncle in the 50s. They are shunned by the "villagers" for a tragedy that happened several years earlier. The book focuses on the young girl and her view of this world, and how she reacts to being the "creepy outsider."
Let me start by saying that it's extremely well written. This is gothic horror at its best. The creepy characters who simply drip with rot in their souls and the sense of innocence made perverse- it's very masterfully laid out here. The problem is that it's not really a story. It's not a real narrative. Don't get me wrong- stuff happens. But there's no character arc at all to any of the characters. And I get that that's the point- they will forever be entrenched in their weird creepy isolation- but it's extremely dissatisfying. I kept waiting for something to happen; for some kind of development that was going to be meaningful, but it just wasn't there in a satisfying way. It was just a cool, creepy gothic setting. I really wanted this to be so much more.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
I remember that story. That's how powerful an image it was. It involved some classically heroic fantasy type figure busting into a kid's room at night with a literal call to adventure.
And if that's not the one you're thinking of, then this was another one like it. Fantastic and compelling image that left the reader wanting the meat of the tale.
And if that's not the one you're thinking of, then this was another one like it. Fantastic and compelling image that left the reader wanting the meat of the tale.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
Yeah- that one was inspired by the Bloom County strip. But I was particularly thinking of a story I'd written about a dwarf being held prisoner somewhere with only a tiny ray of light through the door to see by. That's all I remember about the story.Mike wrote: ↑Thu Jul 08, 2021 1:15 pm I remember that story. That's how powerful an image it was. It involved some classically heroic fantasy type figure busting into a kid's room at night with a literal call to adventure.
And if that's not the one you're thinking of, then this was another one like it. Fantastic and compelling image that left the reader wanting the meat of the tale.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
Books my kid has to read for college keep showing up at the house so I just read them with breakfast because why not? I feel like I should not inflict my interpretive discussions of them upon her, at least not until she's read them, but I want to be ready, you know?? So this has led me to three recommendations:
Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing -
This is a very good novel. One of the things I like most about it is the rhythmic quality of the author's language, which flows and ripples and thus accentuates moments where the flow stops and punctuates stark observations. It's just an enjoyable book to read in terms of the language but the subject matter is heavy, so the two balance out a little bit in a way that is good for the reader.
It has occasional rough edges where the author's extra "commentary" intrudes on the narrative that ideally should be keeping you engrossed in the story instead of popping back out to reflect on book and author as such. Telling the story is enough, without anything that feels editorial or explanatory, and this does happen more than I'd like.
However, it's a good story and told in a somewhat unusual way, where you move from earlier generations to later generations of the same family and the only way you keep in touch with earlier characters is to revisit them again when they are grandparents or something, or being recalled as ancestors in the stories of a later person. I found this very cool although it does present an obvious difficulty in developing any one character in great depth. Once I realized I wasn't going to be getting that, and decided I was reading about the family as its own sort of character moving and developing through time, I enjoyed the reading more.
Since many of the people in this novel are forced into slavery, or otherwise involved in slave trading, it contains many horrifying scenes which are all the more horrifying because they seem fairly matter of fact and accurate in describing reality.
It's something for which one has to prepare mentally a little, and I found it necessary to take the book up and down in smaller pieces to have time to reflect on it.
There are a lot of really awesome philosophical nuggets tucked away here and there as well, in the form of various offerings of life advice or reflections on life and humanity.
Overall: interesting stories and glad I read it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homegoing_(Gyasi_novel)
Alison Bechdel, Fun Home.
This is a graphic novel telling the story of the author's teenage life and various traumatic incidents that occur. I don't want to give any spoilers about it because I think it's a lot better without any prior information, which is how I read it. Thus all the events were revelatory and I was able to take in the choices the author was making about how to present them. Every choice, I would say, was a great choice. She is a nimble writer who uses the form of the graphic novel to tell a story that would have been difficult to tell in this sparse and intense way without the graphics. Loved it.
Lisa Randall, Knocking on Heaven's Door.
I love many things about this book, which is the work of a physicist to explain the various levels of scientific reality that physics is trying to account for, and along the way to give the layperson some sense of the methodologies that make this inquiry possible. As a layperson who does not do physics, I found the physics related aspects of the book wonderful.
However, the book also contains a great deal of what I would call philosophy, and the mistakes in this region are so vast and elementary that even I was able to quickly detect them, and I asked myself whether this book even had a damn editor because it was THAT pathetic on this level. Just the most elementary possible confusions between things like necessary and sufficient conditions, between levels of complexity and epiphenomena and emergent properties. Like she could have read the Wikipedia entries on any of these things and gotten herself in a better position. But I really appreciate a brilliant physicist making things accessible for the lay person, so I would recommend this book anyway and I think people here would love it and probably wouldn't care as much about the conceptual confusions that bothered me intensely.
The thing is, another earlier version of this book already exists, called How to Talk about Physics with your Dog by Chad Orzel, and I would recommend that one every time before this one because Orzel is smarter and funnier and better grasps the ontological categories relevant to physical explanations. I guess I'm better off having read them both, so maybe read them both?
Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing -
This is a very good novel. One of the things I like most about it is the rhythmic quality of the author's language, which flows and ripples and thus accentuates moments where the flow stops and punctuates stark observations. It's just an enjoyable book to read in terms of the language but the subject matter is heavy, so the two balance out a little bit in a way that is good for the reader.
It has occasional rough edges where the author's extra "commentary" intrudes on the narrative that ideally should be keeping you engrossed in the story instead of popping back out to reflect on book and author as such. Telling the story is enough, without anything that feels editorial or explanatory, and this does happen more than I'd like.
However, it's a good story and told in a somewhat unusual way, where you move from earlier generations to later generations of the same family and the only way you keep in touch with earlier characters is to revisit them again when they are grandparents or something, or being recalled as ancestors in the stories of a later person. I found this very cool although it does present an obvious difficulty in developing any one character in great depth. Once I realized I wasn't going to be getting that, and decided I was reading about the family as its own sort of character moving and developing through time, I enjoyed the reading more.
Since many of the people in this novel are forced into slavery, or otherwise involved in slave trading, it contains many horrifying scenes which are all the more horrifying because they seem fairly matter of fact and accurate in describing reality.
It's something for which one has to prepare mentally a little, and I found it necessary to take the book up and down in smaller pieces to have time to reflect on it.
There are a lot of really awesome philosophical nuggets tucked away here and there as well, in the form of various offerings of life advice or reflections on life and humanity.
Overall: interesting stories and glad I read it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homegoing_(Gyasi_novel)
Alison Bechdel, Fun Home.
This is a graphic novel telling the story of the author's teenage life and various traumatic incidents that occur. I don't want to give any spoilers about it because I think it's a lot better without any prior information, which is how I read it. Thus all the events were revelatory and I was able to take in the choices the author was making about how to present them. Every choice, I would say, was a great choice. She is a nimble writer who uses the form of the graphic novel to tell a story that would have been difficult to tell in this sparse and intense way without the graphics. Loved it.
Lisa Randall, Knocking on Heaven's Door.
I love many things about this book, which is the work of a physicist to explain the various levels of scientific reality that physics is trying to account for, and along the way to give the layperson some sense of the methodologies that make this inquiry possible. As a layperson who does not do physics, I found the physics related aspects of the book wonderful.
However, the book also contains a great deal of what I would call philosophy, and the mistakes in this region are so vast and elementary that even I was able to quickly detect them, and I asked myself whether this book even had a damn editor because it was THAT pathetic on this level. Just the most elementary possible confusions between things like necessary and sufficient conditions, between levels of complexity and epiphenomena and emergent properties. Like she could have read the Wikipedia entries on any of these things and gotten herself in a better position. But I really appreciate a brilliant physicist making things accessible for the lay person, so I would recommend this book anyway and I think people here would love it and probably wouldn't care as much about the conceptual confusions that bothered me intensely.
The thing is, another earlier version of this book already exists, called How to Talk about Physics with your Dog by Chad Orzel, and I would recommend that one every time before this one because Orzel is smarter and funnier and better grasps the ontological categories relevant to physical explanations. I guess I'm better off having read them both, so maybe read them both?
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
This one is a great example of how comics can be literature. She also wrote Are You My Mother? which is similar. Both are quite different than Dykes to Watch Out For (also her).Phoebe wrote: ↑Thu Jul 15, 2021 12:03 pm Alison Bechdel, Fun Home.
This is a graphic novel telling the story of the author's teenage life and various traumatic incidents that occur. I don't want to give any spoilers about it because I think it's a lot better without any prior information, which is how I read it. Thus all the events were revelatory and I was able to take in the choices the author was making about how to present them. Every choice, I would say, was a great choice. She is a nimble writer who uses the form of the graphic novel to tell a story that would have been difficult to tell in this sparse and intense way without the graphics. Loved it.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
Yes reading wants me to make watch the story of how whether you are my mother. I know this isn't right but I don't know what to do to fix it so I think you'll get the point.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
The City in the Middle of the Night- Charlie Jane Anders. This is a science fiction book about worldbuilding, and the world being built is amazing, unique and beautiful. Unfortunately, past the creation of this world, the book left a lot lacking for me. The book focuses on a planet colonized by Earth many, many centuries ago. The planet has a side that always faces the sun, so there's a burning side and a frozen dark side. The civilizations settled in the middle temperate zone. There's entire class systems, economies and governments that sprang up in these environments and they're all fascinating. There's an alien species that is so well-thought out and fascinating, that it really makes the book for me. The book focuses on Sophie, a girl from a poor background who is oppressed to due her lower standing and is also almost mute (she speaks, but it's difficult for her). The other main character is Mouth, a smuggler whose community of nomads was wiped out, leaving her as the last of her culture. Through circumstance, their fates are intertwined as "bad things happen" to both of them. This book is about the characters struggling to find their voice, and thus their identities. It's also about other big-idea things that I can't discuss because they're spoilers (but if anyone has read this and wants to discuss it, let me know because I'd love to talk about it). It ends somewhat abruptly, clearly setting up a sequel.
The book is extremely well-written. Anders is a fantastic author whose work I've always loved and appreciated. I have two main problems with the book. The first is an annoying, minor quibble-- Anders is too on the nose with things. For example, the book is about these characters finding their voice-- how do you know that? One of the main characters is named Mouth and the other is a mute. To put an exclamation point on it, she also comes out and says it explicitly several times. And I had that issue in several places in the book (especially with the "big-idea" theme I can't discuss because of spoilers). As another example, Sophie is a mute because of her troubled upbringing, and through her memories, we learn about her complicated relationship with her mother. But in case you missed that connection, Anders makes sure you get the point by having Sophie explain it to another character explicitly. If this were a YA novel, then it wouldn't bother me because I think that explanatory narration is necessary for younger readers. But it's not a YA novel and I felt it was a little patronizing.
Here's my major problem with the book- there's no plot for the first 80% of the novel. And look, I get that worldbuilding is tough. I get that you have to explain everything from scratch, which is a lot harder to do when you don't have a stranger-in-a-strange-land to have it explained to them. But for the vast majority of the book, there's no through-line for the characters. There's no anticipation of what will happen next. Stuff just kind of happens to them and you read and go, "Okay. I guess that's cool." To be fair, this novel is more of a coming of age story than it is a sci-fi epic. But not knowing that coming into it, it was very off-putting.
All of that being said, I am DEFINITELY in for the sequel. Despite all these criticisms and my opinion that the novel was just "okay," I love this world. I love the characters. And I love Anders writing. Most importantly, this book sets up the plot and conflict for the sequel, which I'm now excited for. Even though I'm nonplussed with this book, I anticipate that the sequel (whenever it comes out) will be in my top three or four for that year.
The book is extremely well-written. Anders is a fantastic author whose work I've always loved and appreciated. I have two main problems with the book. The first is an annoying, minor quibble-- Anders is too on the nose with things. For example, the book is about these characters finding their voice-- how do you know that? One of the main characters is named Mouth and the other is a mute. To put an exclamation point on it, she also comes out and says it explicitly several times. And I had that issue in several places in the book (especially with the "big-idea" theme I can't discuss because of spoilers). As another example, Sophie is a mute because of her troubled upbringing, and through her memories, we learn about her complicated relationship with her mother. But in case you missed that connection, Anders makes sure you get the point by having Sophie explain it to another character explicitly. If this were a YA novel, then it wouldn't bother me because I think that explanatory narration is necessary for younger readers. But it's not a YA novel and I felt it was a little patronizing.
Here's my major problem with the book- there's no plot for the first 80% of the novel. And look, I get that worldbuilding is tough. I get that you have to explain everything from scratch, which is a lot harder to do when you don't have a stranger-in-a-strange-land to have it explained to them. But for the vast majority of the book, there's no through-line for the characters. There's no anticipation of what will happen next. Stuff just kind of happens to them and you read and go, "Okay. I guess that's cool." To be fair, this novel is more of a coming of age story than it is a sci-fi epic. But not knowing that coming into it, it was very off-putting.
All of that being said, I am DEFINITELY in for the sequel. Despite all these criticisms and my opinion that the novel was just "okay," I love this world. I love the characters. And I love Anders writing. Most importantly, this book sets up the plot and conflict for the sequel, which I'm now excited for. Even though I'm nonplussed with this book, I anticipate that the sequel (whenever it comes out) will be in my top three or four for that year.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
Elevation- Stephen King. This was a novella that King published a few years ago. The audio version I listened to also had a short story, Laurie, at the end. Elevation is fine. The premise is the typically weird "genre trap" that King uses and juxtaposes with another real life struggle. In this case, the genre-trap is that the main character, Scott, is steadily losing weight, even though his body looks exactly the same. Even when he puts his clothes on, or holds two twenty pound weights, it doesn't matter-- he still weighs the exact same as he would butt naked. And he's losing 1-2 pounds a day. The real life struggle is that he lives next door to a married lesbian couple that the small, closed community of Castle Rock, Maine cannot accept because they are gay. Both premises are fine. The real issue I have with the story is that it smats of "white man savior" complex. That this old white dude (even though he's only 42, you wouldn't know it from the way King writes his inner dialogue, you'd think he's in his 70s) is going to save the town, and the lesbian couple, from the scourge of homophobia. It's well intentioned, but comes off as a little tone-deaf. The thing that saves the story is that King is just such a good writer. He's just so damn good that even when I'm not really into the story, I'm into the story. I'm jealous of him.
The second short story, Laurie, was a throw away for me. It's about an old widower who gets a puppy and reluctantly learns to love it. It was sweet enough, but I also just didn't care enough. If I was reading this in a collection of short stories, I would quickly forget it.
The second short story, Laurie, was a throw away for me. It's about an old widower who gets a puppy and reluctantly learns to love it. It was sweet enough, but I also just didn't care enough. If I was reading this in a collection of short stories, I would quickly forget it.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
The House at the Bottom of the Lake- Josh Malerman. This was a really interesting, sweet short novel that I consumed in a single drive back from Houston- it was only four hours for the audiobook. The story revolves around a young couple (both 17) on their first date. They canoe to a secluded lake and discovery a completely submerged house in the lake, fully furnished and untarnished by the waters. Over the summer they explore the house together and their love blooms. Very well written, I don't think it's a spoiler to say that the exploration of the house is a metaphor for the young, passionate love kids experience with their "first loves." It's really a beautifully-told fairy tale of sorts. The characters are engaging and their relationship is raw and relatable. My only criticism of the novel is that in the very end, one of the character comes out and explains the symbolism of the entire book to the other- which is entirely unnecessary because the book is dripping with symbolism (wink- see what I did there) throughout. But it's a minor complaint. This was an enjoyable, refreshing story.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires- Grady Hendrix. At the outset, you need to know that I really did not enjoy this book. Billed by the publisher as "Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meet Dracula," I was excited for a southern-cooked, traditional horror novel. Here's the basic idea. In the late eighties in a suburb in South Carolina, a group of upper-middle class, white homemakers form a true-crime book club. Then a vampire moves into town. I'm thinking, "I can get behind this!" But then I couldn't. You can kind of guess how the general plot goes- with people not believing it, then some people do, then bad things happen. My problem with this book isn't the writing, which is adequate. And it's not even the plot, which is also adequate. It's that these characters are stereotypes of southern housewives in the worst way. And look- I was raised by a southern housewife in the 80s- I know what I'm talking about. The main characters, for over 80% of the book, are portrayed, and believe themselves to be, helpless housewives that need their husbands to run their lives and balance their checkbooks. They openly state many times, "Well what can we do about that? We're just housewives!" By the time they find their inner voice, you're already sick of all the bad decisions and "just go with what the man says" plot advancements. And I need to talk about those bad decisions. You know how when you're watching a horror movie and you say, "Oh no, sir. You just need to call the cops." You find yourself saying this about the characters the entire book. And they never do the obvious right thing, instead they make meek, subservient decisions that end up with terrible results. The way they overcome the vampire in the end is gross and incredibly sexist. And then-- hand to God, this is true-- two of the characters save the day by being incredibly good at cleaning house. Not good. And I get it- there's a message in the book that the southern patriarchy is a form of vampirism in its own right that drains the livelihood from good, strong women. I get it. But the message rings hollow when the women aren't strong.
Needless to say, this book was written by a white dude, who embarrassingly has a forward where he explains it's a tribute to his mother. But everything is so heavily dripping with the male gaze that none of the characters seem authentic. It's nothing like Fried Green Tomatoes or Steel Magnolias. Those were about strong women who were actually strong women in a world that viewed them as less than that. This book is about a group of women that are exactly what sexist men think they are, but still end up triumphing over a vampire. Yikes. Not a recommend.
Needless to say, this book was written by a white dude, who embarrassingly has a forward where he explains it's a tribute to his mother. But everything is so heavily dripping with the male gaze that none of the characters seem authentic. It's nothing like Fried Green Tomatoes or Steel Magnolias. Those were about strong women who were actually strong women in a world that viewed them as less than that. This book is about a group of women that are exactly what sexist men think they are, but still end up triumphing over a vampire. Yikes. Not a recommend.
Re: Books MIKE has read in 2021
So, I still haven't gotten to Ring Shout but I recently finished A Master of Djinn by Clark. It's kind of steampunk, but not in any pro-colonial way. Fifty years ago, A Sudanese mystic drilled a hole between worlds which let in djinn and magic. Northeast Africa was the first to take advantage of the changes and is fully independent. Cairo is among the most advanced cities in the world.
The book is a mystery, about a cop and her new partner solve a crime that threatens the city. Fatma the main character, is fun, always dressing in English suits and a bowler hat. All the character are nice. The book is a bit richer if you read two shorter pieces in the same world with the same characters, both of which are available as audiobooks and one is available for free on Tor.
https://www.tor.com/2020/06/08/read-p-d ... -in-cairo/
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
Vagabonds -- Hao Jingfang
This came highly recommended. I saw it on a couple of Best Sci Fi of... lists. Reviews are great. The translation is done by Ken Lui who is a fantastic author in his own right. Ultimately, it was just OK.
We're on Mars 100 years after the Martian war for independence. Earth is an even more exaggerated version of capitalism than the modern U.S., and Mars is a tightly controlled socialist world. There is an actual plot involving a group of 18 year old students newly returned from years on Earth and how their search for a meaningful place in society intersects with new negotiations between Mars and Earth to share technology, find common ground, and hopefully avert a new war.
The science was great. The world is incredible. The author knows her stuff and has clearly thought deeply about the whys and wherefores of every element of society. The philosophy is deep and thought-provoking. I'm glad I read it, but it was still just okay.
Reasons?
1. A bit of cultural divide. The main character is 18, and at one point, someone comments "Ah yes... just the age when she should be starting to be interested in boys." Weird. And there was an overall pervasive sexism in that men held all the positions of power. Men and women were supposedly equal, but men were soldiers and pilots and engineers and politicians, while women went into fashion and film-making and dance.
2. Everyone's a philosopher in this book. Every character has thought deeply about the morality and meaning of EVERYTHING, and the majority of conversations go back and forth with all participants being perfectly reasonable. It all felt very stilted and unnatural, like a series of manufactured Socratic dialogues designed for the 25th century.
3. Show don't tell. Show don't tell. Show don't tell. This may be another cultural difference in how Chinese audiences expect to be presented with new characters. There are two dozen ish significant characters, and most of them, before their first significant action get a half a chapter of "Here is Juan's history. This is how he was brought up. This was the most formative event of his life. Therefore, this is how he sees the world. This is how he reacts to things. Here's how he feels (or would feel) about interaction with that person." Again, it felt stilted and unnatural.
The obvious parallel here that Earth = America, Mars = China. And there's a lot of that, but it is also far more complicated and nuanced than that. There are insights here about how opposing sides view each other and why, about how environmental factors and necessity shape philosophy and government and even engineering and the search for knowledge. It examines meaning and purpose, growth and rebellion. It is fascinating, and yet slow and passionless.
I finished this a few weeks ago, and I only got to the review just now, because I wanted to like this book so much, and yet I was disappointed. And yet I still wanted to do justice to it in this review, because there's so much good in there... just not quite enough.
This came highly recommended. I saw it on a couple of Best Sci Fi of... lists. Reviews are great. The translation is done by Ken Lui who is a fantastic author in his own right. Ultimately, it was just OK.
We're on Mars 100 years after the Martian war for independence. Earth is an even more exaggerated version of capitalism than the modern U.S., and Mars is a tightly controlled socialist world. There is an actual plot involving a group of 18 year old students newly returned from years on Earth and how their search for a meaningful place in society intersects with new negotiations between Mars and Earth to share technology, find common ground, and hopefully avert a new war.
The science was great. The world is incredible. The author knows her stuff and has clearly thought deeply about the whys and wherefores of every element of society. The philosophy is deep and thought-provoking. I'm glad I read it, but it was still just okay.
Reasons?
1. A bit of cultural divide. The main character is 18, and at one point, someone comments "Ah yes... just the age when she should be starting to be interested in boys." Weird. And there was an overall pervasive sexism in that men held all the positions of power. Men and women were supposedly equal, but men were soldiers and pilots and engineers and politicians, while women went into fashion and film-making and dance.
2. Everyone's a philosopher in this book. Every character has thought deeply about the morality and meaning of EVERYTHING, and the majority of conversations go back and forth with all participants being perfectly reasonable. It all felt very stilted and unnatural, like a series of manufactured Socratic dialogues designed for the 25th century.
3. Show don't tell. Show don't tell. Show don't tell. This may be another cultural difference in how Chinese audiences expect to be presented with new characters. There are two dozen ish significant characters, and most of them, before their first significant action get a half a chapter of "Here is Juan's history. This is how he was brought up. This was the most formative event of his life. Therefore, this is how he sees the world. This is how he reacts to things. Here's how he feels (or would feel) about interaction with that person." Again, it felt stilted and unnatural.
The obvious parallel here that Earth = America, Mars = China. And there's a lot of that, but it is also far more complicated and nuanced than that. There are insights here about how opposing sides view each other and why, about how environmental factors and necessity shape philosophy and government and even engineering and the search for knowledge. It examines meaning and purpose, growth and rebellion. It is fascinating, and yet slow and passionless.
I finished this a few weeks ago, and I only got to the review just now, because I wanted to like this book so much, and yet I was disappointed. And yet I still wanted to do justice to it in this review, because there's so much good in there... just not quite enough.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
The Only Good Indians -- Stephen Graham Jones
Holy crap! Absolutely as good as Kyle said. This book blew me away. Read Kyle's review. I spent myself on the Vagabonds review above, and I have nothing left to add.
Holy crap! Absolutely as good as Kyle said. This book blew me away. Read Kyle's review. I spent myself on the Vagabonds review above, and I have nothing left to add.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
All Systems Red- Martha Wells. Awesome sci-fi. This is a sci-fi novella that is the first in a series of four (I think). Set in the far future, it is written from the first person perspective of a Sec Unit (short for security unit), which a combat construct that it manufactured with cloned human flesh and some organs. In a corporate dominated, hyper-captitalist society, companies and insurers require certain excursions to take Sec Units with them for protection. Sec Units are designed to throw themselves directly into the combat, knowing that they can lose up to 90 percent of their organic and nonorganic parts and still be able to be fully repaired. Sec Units all have a governor that eliminates any discretion or free will- it requires they follow their programming and rules. Our protagonist, who calls itself Murderbot, secretly has a hacked governor, so he actually isn't controlled by anyone. It's a free agent. On this mission, his scientist researcher crew encounters bad things. It chooses to protect them, even though it doesn't have to.
Something about this book really just perfectly clicks. The voice of the protagonist is compelling and complex. The story is concise, but the balance between plot, explaining the world and character development, is just right. I don't want to explain too much because it's a pretty short read and was a great experience. So just go read it. I liked it so much I'm going to read the entire Murderbot series before moving on (assuming I like the others like this one).
Something about this book really just perfectly clicks. The voice of the protagonist is compelling and complex. The story is concise, but the balance between plot, explaining the world and character development, is just right. I don't want to explain too much because it's a pretty short read and was a great experience. So just go read it. I liked it so much I'm going to read the entire Murderbot series before moving on (assuming I like the others like this one).
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
Artificial Condition- Martha Wells. This is the second novella in the Murderbot series. I'm not going to say much except that I loved it. You don't need the details. Read the review for All Systems Red and if it sounds like something you'd like- then read that and, if you enjoy it, read this. I discovered that the four novellas in this series have been collected in a book, but I decided to keep reading them separately because they are each their own single, encapsulated story. The book wouldn't really be a novel, in my opinion, but just a collection. In any case- this is great! Read it! I'm already halfway through the third!
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
The Space Between Worlds -- Micaiah Johnson
Fan-freakin-tastic! This is in my top 3 for the year so far.
This is a technologically advanced, post-climate crisis world. One company has a monopoly on travelling between parallel worlds. There are 380 known parallel Earths. And you can only safely traverse to worlds where you don't already exist. People of privilege therefore, can't travel between worlds, because they tend to survive and thrive almost everywhere. But our protagonist Cara grew up poor in Ashtown and didn't survive childhood in more worlds than not. That makes her a valuable resource in a city where she otherwise isn't wanted.
The world is beautifully realized. It is fleshed out and feels real and lived in, but it doesn't dwell on its history. Is this a future of our own world? Could be. It is a great story. I was heavily invested in the characters and the plot, and I had a tough time tearing myself away from it right up until the end.
And it was thought-provoking. The book had a lot to say about privilege and circumstance, about living in two worlds and never feeling a part of either. A lot of stuff. But the author is so good, that it feels like these topics are incidental to the story. This is the rare tale that was often subtle enough that I'd come to some big realization and think I was clever for making these connections, only to realize after that I'd just gone exactly where she led me while she convinced me that it was my own idea.
Great book.
Fan-freakin-tastic! This is in my top 3 for the year so far.
This is a technologically advanced, post-climate crisis world. One company has a monopoly on travelling between parallel worlds. There are 380 known parallel Earths. And you can only safely traverse to worlds where you don't already exist. People of privilege therefore, can't travel between worlds, because they tend to survive and thrive almost everywhere. But our protagonist Cara grew up poor in Ashtown and didn't survive childhood in more worlds than not. That makes her a valuable resource in a city where she otherwise isn't wanted.
The world is beautifully realized. It is fleshed out and feels real and lived in, but it doesn't dwell on its history. Is this a future of our own world? Could be. It is a great story. I was heavily invested in the characters and the plot, and I had a tough time tearing myself away from it right up until the end.
And it was thought-provoking. The book had a lot to say about privilege and circumstance, about living in two worlds and never feeling a part of either. A lot of stuff. But the author is so good, that it feels like these topics are incidental to the story. This is the rare tale that was often subtle enough that I'd come to some big realization and think I was clever for making these connections, only to realize after that I'd just gone exactly where she led me while she convinced me that it was my own idea.
Great book.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red -- Martha Wells
Kyle's right. This is amazing. The Murderbot voice is perfect. The humor is dry and surprising. The story is solid. I'm already reading book 2.
If you actually need more convincing, Tor Books has kindly shared the first chapter. All you need is the first paragraph...
Kyle's right. This is amazing. The Murderbot voice is perfect. The humor is dry and surprising. The story is solid. I'm already reading book 2.
If you actually need more convincing, Tor Books has kindly shared the first chapter. All you need is the first paragraph...
Love this book!I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites. It had been well over 35,000 hours or so since then, with still not much murdering, but probably, I don’t know, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed. As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
An oddly familiar character voice, lol! I have to order some of these.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
Rogue Protocol- Martha Wells. Murderbot Diaries #3. Read my review for All Systems Red. If that appeals to you, read the whole series. It’s great, as is this novella.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
Yes. Exactly right.
I'm binging. I'll be done with book 4 tomorrow, and then I'm taking a break. Book 5 is the first full length novel in the series and looks to be almost as long as the other four put together. Good time to cleanse the palette before diving back in.
Thank you so much for this recommendation, Kyle.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
I thought the book was just a compilation of all the novellas. Am I wrong about that? Oh- I hope I’m wrong about that.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
I AM wrong! Joy!
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
I will also be taking a break though.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
Book 4 is a fabulous way to wrap up this particular arc. All four novellas stand on their own as stories but are also a cohesive unit. Loved it.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
Cold in July- Joe R. Lansdale.
Warning, at the end of this review I will spoil things. You shouldn't care because you shouldn't read the book, but be warned. And honestly, read this review because this is a roller coaster ride.
FUCK THIS BOOK.
I thought that I'd been reading a bunch of Sci-Fi lately, so I wanted to change up the genres and try a "hard boiled" thriller. So I googled and found this book, that was made into a movie in 2014 starring Michael C. Hall, Sam Shepherd and Don Johnson. The premise is that a normal guy, our protagonist, shoots a burglar in his house, killing him. The next day the burglar's dad gets out of prison and bad things happen. There's a bunch of twists and turns that I'll spoil later (because they also ruined the book for me), but at least at the outset, this seemed like a compelling premise. Right away I was getting bad vibes from the novel because every woman was an object that was described by her body and behaved in a horribly sexist way (the protagonist makes his wife very angry, but she has sex with him twice because that's what good women do). I thought, "Oh right, this is why I don't read 'Hard-Boiled' novels." But about a fifth of the way in, the book starts having characters casually dropping the n-word and calling Hispanics "wetbacks" and it was very off-putting. I almost quit reading, but the story was compelling at that point. So I researched it and realized this wasn't a book written in the 2010s, it was written in 1989. And the main character did acknowledge how terrible those words were. So I decided to stick with it and see if it got better. It didn't. And quite frankly, the use of the term "wetback" isn't even really frowned on in this book, at least not by the amount of times it was used. But by the time I realized my mistake, I was already two-thirds through and only had a little left. But I want to be clear- the offensive treatment of women and minorities is enough that no one should read it. And I'm sure people will say, "but that was more acceptable in 89"- but that's not true. I personally remember scolding people in 1990 and 1991 about using the n-word, or using the term "beaner" and "wetback." So it wasn't okay then. You can excuse the whole, "It's a gritty story of men being men" but that's just horseshit.
But there's another reason you shouldn't read it and here's where I spoil it. So stop reading if you think this book is for you (and also unfriend me on social media if that's the case):
This book made no fucking sense. It turns out the burglar wasn't actually the son of the father that got out of prison and showed up. The police lied about who the protagonist shot saying it was prison father, but really it wasn't. So after the burglar's dad (who wasn't actually the father of the burglar) breaks into the protagonist's house and tries to kill him and his kid, they both discover that the burglar's dad's real kid is still alive. So they decide to work together to solve this mystery. Why would the protagonist do this? Because he killed a man, you see. And he can't live with himself until he knows who it was he killed. Okay. Fine. So bear with me. Then it turns out the BG's Dad's real kid (not the dead anonymous burglar) is in witness protection and that's why the feds faked his death with the guy Protagonist killed (wait what?). And when they try to locate the real kid, it turns out that while he's in witness protection, he's making snuff films where he rapes 15 year old Mexican girls and then shoots them in the head and then sells the videos. (Okay, but for real?) And it turns out the feds won't do anything about this because Snuff Film Dude (the real son of Burglar's Dad (who, please remember, isn't actually the son of the anonymous burglar)) is in witness protection (now hold on a second). So Protagonist and Burglar's Dad (who's not actually the father of the burglar, and is actually the father of Snuff Film Dude) agree with the private investigator that they've hired, named Jim Bob (of course he is) that they have to kill Snuff Film Dude (oh, I get it- this is just stupid). Now I know this has been hard to follow, but remember that Burglar's Dad is the real dad of Snuff Film Dude. So the three of them agree they have to kill the dude's kid- 'cause he makes snuff films and stuff. So what happens next? They do it! In a giant shoot out they murder Snuff Film Dude and six other bad dudes that were in the middle of making another snuff film. And even though they kind of get shot up, Protagonist, Burglar's Dad (not related to Anonymous Burglar) and Jim Bob all survive. And then at the very end of the book, Burglar's Dad drops by Protagonist's house several months after they committed murder together and says, "Oh yeah, Jim Bob found out the name of the guy you killed. It's X. You know him?" And Protagonist says, and get fucking ready for this bullshit, "Nope. Never heard of him. You know, I kind of forgot about that."
Get the fuck out.
So the whole reason you got involved in the dumb, convoluted scheme to murder people (cause he can't live with himself if he didn't know who he murdered), you just forgot about while you were murdering a bunch of people.
Because "sometimes men do what men have to do." The book actually fucking says that.
You know what I think? I think this stupid author said, "How can I create a situation to make an ordinary dude commit murder?" And then he came up with this. And then halfway through it, the author forgot what he was doing, and the character's motivations make absolutely zero sense. And at some point his editor looked at him and said, "Wait, Joe. Who was it he killed?" And he had to go back and add that garbaged-ass garbage at the end.
Fuck you, Joe Lansdale and fuck your stupid book.
Warning, at the end of this review I will spoil things. You shouldn't care because you shouldn't read the book, but be warned. And honestly, read this review because this is a roller coaster ride.
FUCK THIS BOOK.
I thought that I'd been reading a bunch of Sci-Fi lately, so I wanted to change up the genres and try a "hard boiled" thriller. So I googled and found this book, that was made into a movie in 2014 starring Michael C. Hall, Sam Shepherd and Don Johnson. The premise is that a normal guy, our protagonist, shoots a burglar in his house, killing him. The next day the burglar's dad gets out of prison and bad things happen. There's a bunch of twists and turns that I'll spoil later (because they also ruined the book for me), but at least at the outset, this seemed like a compelling premise. Right away I was getting bad vibes from the novel because every woman was an object that was described by her body and behaved in a horribly sexist way (the protagonist makes his wife very angry, but she has sex with him twice because that's what good women do). I thought, "Oh right, this is why I don't read 'Hard-Boiled' novels." But about a fifth of the way in, the book starts having characters casually dropping the n-word and calling Hispanics "wetbacks" and it was very off-putting. I almost quit reading, but the story was compelling at that point. So I researched it and realized this wasn't a book written in the 2010s, it was written in 1989. And the main character did acknowledge how terrible those words were. So I decided to stick with it and see if it got better. It didn't. And quite frankly, the use of the term "wetback" isn't even really frowned on in this book, at least not by the amount of times it was used. But by the time I realized my mistake, I was already two-thirds through and only had a little left. But I want to be clear- the offensive treatment of women and minorities is enough that no one should read it. And I'm sure people will say, "but that was more acceptable in 89"- but that's not true. I personally remember scolding people in 1990 and 1991 about using the n-word, or using the term "beaner" and "wetback." So it wasn't okay then. You can excuse the whole, "It's a gritty story of men being men" but that's just horseshit.
But there's another reason you shouldn't read it and here's where I spoil it. So stop reading if you think this book is for you (and also unfriend me on social media if that's the case):
This book made no fucking sense. It turns out the burglar wasn't actually the son of the father that got out of prison and showed up. The police lied about who the protagonist shot saying it was prison father, but really it wasn't. So after the burglar's dad (who wasn't actually the father of the burglar) breaks into the protagonist's house and tries to kill him and his kid, they both discover that the burglar's dad's real kid is still alive. So they decide to work together to solve this mystery. Why would the protagonist do this? Because he killed a man, you see. And he can't live with himself until he knows who it was he killed. Okay. Fine. So bear with me. Then it turns out the BG's Dad's real kid (not the dead anonymous burglar) is in witness protection and that's why the feds faked his death with the guy Protagonist killed (wait what?). And when they try to locate the real kid, it turns out that while he's in witness protection, he's making snuff films where he rapes 15 year old Mexican girls and then shoots them in the head and then sells the videos. (Okay, but for real?) And it turns out the feds won't do anything about this because Snuff Film Dude (the real son of Burglar's Dad (who, please remember, isn't actually the son of the anonymous burglar)) is in witness protection (now hold on a second). So Protagonist and Burglar's Dad (who's not actually the father of the burglar, and is actually the father of Snuff Film Dude) agree with the private investigator that they've hired, named Jim Bob (of course he is) that they have to kill Snuff Film Dude (oh, I get it- this is just stupid). Now I know this has been hard to follow, but remember that Burglar's Dad is the real dad of Snuff Film Dude. So the three of them agree they have to kill the dude's kid- 'cause he makes snuff films and stuff. So what happens next? They do it! In a giant shoot out they murder Snuff Film Dude and six other bad dudes that were in the middle of making another snuff film. And even though they kind of get shot up, Protagonist, Burglar's Dad (not related to Anonymous Burglar) and Jim Bob all survive. And then at the very end of the book, Burglar's Dad drops by Protagonist's house several months after they committed murder together and says, "Oh yeah, Jim Bob found out the name of the guy you killed. It's X. You know him?" And Protagonist says, and get fucking ready for this bullshit, "Nope. Never heard of him. You know, I kind of forgot about that."
Get the fuck out.
So the whole reason you got involved in the dumb, convoluted scheme to murder people (cause he can't live with himself if he didn't know who he murdered), you just forgot about while you were murdering a bunch of people.
Because "sometimes men do what men have to do." The book actually fucking says that.
You know what I think? I think this stupid author said, "How can I create a situation to make an ordinary dude commit murder?" And then he came up with this. And then halfway through it, the author forgot what he was doing, and the character's motivations make absolutely zero sense. And at some point his editor looked at him and said, "Wait, Joe. Who was it he killed?" And he had to go back and add that garbaged-ass garbage at the end.
Fuck you, Joe Lansdale and fuck your stupid book.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
I would like to submit this title for consideration - it's not autobiographical like the John Oates but I feel like it would be "good" in a certain specific way, and it's free:
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
There's nothing there.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
It should be a link to a book called Souls Stick Around: A Tale of the Black Hills and Maurice Gibb.
What else can one say? The title says it all.
What else can one say? The title says it all.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
The Future of Another Timeline -- Annalee Newitz
Great premise. Very well developed world. Lacking in execution.
This is a world very like our own, except that time travel has always existed. Early civilizations stumbled across The Machines... geologic formations that allow time travel when properly manipulated. Humans have always used them.
There are multiple interconnected plotlines. Teenage Beth in 1993 growing up in suburban California and dealing with normal teenage life in an abnormal family. Then there's the adult version in 2022 who has become a time traveling feminist activist and geologist.
Now, despite the negative things I'm going to say about it below, it is a book worth reading. It's flawed, but I'm glad I read it. Newitz shoots for the moon here and has some very evocative storytelling going on. So if you want to give it a shot, skip the rest of my review.
The operation of time travel here is not well justified. I have consumed lots of time travel media, and I get that I'm elitist about it, but this needed more explanation. You CAN alter past events, but the overall effect is usually negligible, except when it's not. And even when huge changes take place a century ago, and you are living under a completely different set of laws for decades, somehow you and most everyone you know still grew up about the same and still work in the same jobs with the same friendships. Newitz had lots of expository talk where characters theorized on history and time travel, so it would have been nothing to add a couple paragraphs about the possible self-healing nature of time or that maybe time travel has to preserve certain types of causality. But it doesn't do that.
But the time travel is a plot device. I'll suspend my disbelief to get to the story. Which is my second issue: there was just too much about this story that was too simplistic. The bad guys are one-dimensional misogynists whose stated goal is to manipulate history to force all women into a permanent and irrevocable state of subjugation. Like cartoonishly evil for a story that does so well at portraying teen angst and rage. And sometimes the motivations and reactions of side characters are unrealistically tailored to moving our plot forward and accommodating the main characters.
In the end is a greater lesson about how to change history in meaningful ways that is applicable to real life. I think it's correct and noble, but I don't know that I'm fully sold on its execution here.
So there was enough distraction to keep me from being fully immersed, but enough good to keep me reading. I will likely try other stuff by Newitz in the future.
Great premise. Very well developed world. Lacking in execution.
This is a world very like our own, except that time travel has always existed. Early civilizations stumbled across The Machines... geologic formations that allow time travel when properly manipulated. Humans have always used them.
There are multiple interconnected plotlines. Teenage Beth in 1993 growing up in suburban California and dealing with normal teenage life in an abnormal family. Then there's the adult version in 2022 who has become a time traveling feminist activist and geologist.
Now, despite the negative things I'm going to say about it below, it is a book worth reading. It's flawed, but I'm glad I read it. Newitz shoots for the moon here and has some very evocative storytelling going on. So if you want to give it a shot, skip the rest of my review.
The operation of time travel here is not well justified. I have consumed lots of time travel media, and I get that I'm elitist about it, but this needed more explanation. You CAN alter past events, but the overall effect is usually negligible, except when it's not. And even when huge changes take place a century ago, and you are living under a completely different set of laws for decades, somehow you and most everyone you know still grew up about the same and still work in the same jobs with the same friendships. Newitz had lots of expository talk where characters theorized on history and time travel, so it would have been nothing to add a couple paragraphs about the possible self-healing nature of time or that maybe time travel has to preserve certain types of causality. But it doesn't do that.
But the time travel is a plot device. I'll suspend my disbelief to get to the story. Which is my second issue: there was just too much about this story that was too simplistic. The bad guys are one-dimensional misogynists whose stated goal is to manipulate history to force all women into a permanent and irrevocable state of subjugation. Like cartoonishly evil for a story that does so well at portraying teen angst and rage. And sometimes the motivations and reactions of side characters are unrealistically tailored to moving our plot forward and accommodating the main characters.
In the end is a greater lesson about how to change history in meaningful ways that is applicable to real life. I think it's correct and noble, but I don't know that I'm fully sold on its execution here.
So there was enough distraction to keep me from being fully immersed, but enough good to keep me reading. I will likely try other stuff by Newitz in the future.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
Re: Annalee Newitz, I'm not a big fan of her work but have not read her first novel, Autonomous, and if I were going to like one it would probably be that one, so I won't judge until that's over. Anyway, another cool thing about her is this prescient and interesting interview. I think she's a bit too pessimistic about the short-term, given that she doesn't take into account mitigating factors against some of the challenges likely to arise. Outside of like, asteroids or global supervolcano crisis! But it's pretty cool to see what she had to say about a pandemic and the split between developing nations and others, before it came to pass:
https://chireviewofbooks.com/2017/09/28 ... rview/amp/
https://chireviewofbooks.com/2017/09/28 ... rview/amp/
Re: Books WE have read in 2021
The Haunting of Tram 015- P. Djeli Clark. So my disappointment with Ring Shout (also by Clark) was that it was a cool unique setting with complex characters that was just a novella and I wanted it to be a full novel. So now I've read this novella and have kind of resolved my feelings on this, because it's the same issue. This book is set in an early 1900s Cairo where, some years earlier, a leader freed the Djinn and now they have a technologically advanced society that works by incorporating Djinn magic. Our protagonists are two male agents in the supernatural investigations department (which is byzantine in its beaurocracy) tasked with investigating a haunted tram car. It is also set during a large movement in the city among the women fighting for their right to vote. It's all fascinating, well-thought out, and brilliant. Clark is great at creating these cool worlds that feel old and lived-in, without having to describe everything about them. Just like he did with the dramatically different world in Ring Shout. So I've changed my opinions here. I get what he's doing with these novellas and I really enjoy it and want to read more. They're great.
Re: Books we've read in 2021
An Ocean of Minutes -- Thea Lim
Another time travel book--except that it's not. It's a love story. I mean, there's definitely some time travel, but it's just there to get us to the meat of the story. I really liked this.
A pandemic is sweeping the world. In the midst of the worst of it, a company invents time travel with the goal of sending back a vaccine to stop it before it starts. When that fails, they instead use the technology to send healthy people forward 12 years to a time when the calamity has ended. Polly lives in 1981 and agrees to travel forward to 1993 in order to get health benefits for her boyfriend Frank, who is infected and can't go himself, and hopefully save his life. We gather all this in bits and pieces in the first chapter. Now the real story is what lies ahead for Polly on the other side of this journey.
It's incredible.
This was written in 2018 by Singaporean Canadian writer Thea Lim. There is a heaping helping of political commentary throughout--an indictment of much of American political philosophy--but never directly. Such things are always secondary to Polly's story. And Lim documents all of this in a very sparse, direct style that is incredibly effective at conveying the weight and emotion of a scene while pretending that it's just delivering objective facts and letting you draw your own conclusions
I thoroughly enjoyed this ride, and I was surprised to be satisfied with the ending. There were so many ways it could have gone off the rails for me, but Sim delivered a resolution that felt honest and real and earned.
Another time travel book--except that it's not. It's a love story. I mean, there's definitely some time travel, but it's just there to get us to the meat of the story. I really liked this.
A pandemic is sweeping the world. In the midst of the worst of it, a company invents time travel with the goal of sending back a vaccine to stop it before it starts. When that fails, they instead use the technology to send healthy people forward 12 years to a time when the calamity has ended. Polly lives in 1981 and agrees to travel forward to 1993 in order to get health benefits for her boyfriend Frank, who is infected and can't go himself, and hopefully save his life. We gather all this in bits and pieces in the first chapter. Now the real story is what lies ahead for Polly on the other side of this journey.
It's incredible.
This was written in 2018 by Singaporean Canadian writer Thea Lim. There is a heaping helping of political commentary throughout--an indictment of much of American political philosophy--but never directly. Such things are always secondary to Polly's story. And Lim documents all of this in a very sparse, direct style that is incredibly effective at conveying the weight and emotion of a scene while pretending that it's just delivering objective facts and letting you draw your own conclusions
I thoroughly enjoyed this ride, and I was surprised to be satisfied with the ending. There were so many ways it could have gone off the rails for me, but Sim delivered a resolution that felt honest and real and earned.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we've read in 2021
I'm 2 books into the MurderBot series, and Mike and Kyle are right: It's so fun!
Re: Books we've read in 2021
Right?
And everyone knows Tahlvin is incapable of lying, so it MUST be true!
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we've read in 2021
Bury What We Cannot Take -- Kirsten Chen
A story of a wealthy family attempting to flee Maoist China in 1957. Intense, emotional, dramatic. I loved it. Really really loved it.
I've rewritten this second paragraph four times, and it is never adequate to my task. Suffice to say that the historical details are fascinating and the personal and emotional portions are harrowing and heart-wrenching.
Maybe I'll have to do the Kyle thing and start ranking these... or at least posting my top 5 or something's ng, because this book would be right near the top of the list
A story of a wealthy family attempting to flee Maoist China in 1957. Intense, emotional, dramatic. I loved it. Really really loved it.
I've rewritten this second paragraph four times, and it is never adequate to my task. Suffice to say that the historical details are fascinating and the personal and emotional portions are harrowing and heart-wrenching.
Maybe I'll have to do the Kyle thing and start ranking these... or at least posting my top 5 or something's ng, because this book would be right near the top of the list
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.