Battle Royale

When I was in high school, I watched the movie Battle Royale.  Those familiar with the Hunger Games should recognize the basic concept immediately, a bunch of children are forced to kill each other in an isolated area for the sake of competition.  However, Battle Royale came out long before the Hunger Games and was written in Japan.  The movie is more violent but also doesn't take itself quite as seriously.  I enjoyed the movie, even if it was a little morbid.

Years later, I was lent a copy of the book, which is pretty massive.  It is very similar to the plot of the movie but enjoys all of the traditional advantages of books over movies.  Because it is a book, all of the students get their own little time to shine and they definitely get more of a back story.  Even though it is blatantly obvious from the beginning who the protagonist is, the book gives each character at least a little page time to show off their quirks.

While the book was interesting, it was translated from Japanese and I feel that a fair portion of the elegance of the writing was lost in translation.  A lot of the time, I felt like certain paragraphs, with just a little tweaking, would have been significantly improved.  Also, I know that this is partially my fault because I am not very familiar with Asian names, but with more than 40 characters it became difficult to keep all the names straight.  It didn't help that there were multiple pairs of students whose names were extremely similar (Yumiko and Yukiko for example).

However, the themes that it explores about loyalty and psychology are definitely poignant.  The students that cooperate versus those who don't and their reasons for their choice are fascinating.  The book is a little gory but overall an enjoyable read.  It managed, with its rather simplistic use of language, to still be a fun read while still making the reader think.  Overall, I would give this book an 86%.

Star Wars: Deceived

I read Deceived immediately after I finished Revan.  While they are both part of the same series (the Old Republic) they take place 300 years apart and are very different reads.  Revan's goal was to fill in all the plot holes left open by the gaps between the various games while Deceived's goal was very different.  One of the first promotions for The Old Republic was (a very pretty) cinematic trailer called "Deceived".  This can be watched here for those who are interested.  Deceived was designed to attract people who's interest was piqued by that trailer.  It is essentially the back story and the aftermath of the events depicted in that trailer.

If that seems like a strange basis for a book, it is.  There were parts of the book where the author clearly was watching the trailer and simply writing down what it showed.  However, this somewhat strangeness was made up for with Kemp's no holds barred action scenes.  The book takes a little while to ramp all the way up but once it reaches its top speed it hangs out there for a good while.

Like many of Kemp's books, this is short.  Not because anything is missing simply because Kemp's writing style is such that he just slams everything into the reader and is done.  This is not a complaint, just a comment on style.  There are a couple of extremely memorable scenes though and the book is definitely a fun read.

Overall, I would give this book an 80%.

Star Wars: Revan

Revan was written for the gamers.  It is great at what it does, but that would not really appeal to a normal audience.  This book connects together the two Knights of the Old Republic video games and the new The Old Republic game.  The titular character is the protagonist of the first KOTOR game who disappeared before the start of the second one.  Many fans were somewhat miffed by the jarring transition between the two KOTOR games and have been waiting for something like this for a long time.  However, I am glad that they waited because this allowed them to tie together all three games very neatly and in a sensible way.  However, as you may have gathered, this book would not be the same if you had not played these games.

Don't get me wrong, Mr. Karpyshyn makes a noble effort to keep the reader in the know even if they haven't played the games, but there is so much depth missing if you have not played them.  Honestly, the author did a masterful job at tying together a large number of plot threads from the three different games and all that work will go unappreciated if you have played none of them (for the record I have played one of them completely and half of each of the other two). 

The story goes in a different direction than most Star Wars stories as, instead of rehashing the story of a game, it instead acts as a lead in to one.  This means that it ends a degree of cliffhanger that is uncommon for a novel without an intended sequel. The story is wrapped up, but many plot threads are left dangling because they are continued and wrapped up by The Old Republic.  I have to say that this book did rekindle my interest in the game (which was guttering) so it did accomplish one of its intended goals.  It was also an enjoyable read, but I feel that the domain knowledge hurdle might be a little high for those who have not played the game.

Overall, I would give this book an 80%.

Brave New World

When I was in high school I had to read 1984 for my English class.  It was an interesting book.  At the time I had never really read anything like it.  The ending was less than I desired but the book really did make one think about oppressive governments and the importance of history. Then, in college, I read We at the recommendation of one of my friends. We is basically a Russian version of 1984. It doesn't bludgeon the reader quite so much with the symbolism and allegory and I think it might be a better story. When I finished reading We, I was talking about it to some of my other friends and they were comparing it to both 1984 and Brave New World, a book I had heard of but never read. Fast forward a few years and I pick up one for cheap in a used bookstore. Fast forward a little further and I am reading it.

The book is not very long, less than 180 pages, but it is filled with poignancy. It was written in 1931 and, unlike many books written at that time, it still manages to hold up as a plausible future. The basic premise of the book is that people are divided into castes and their start taking place at conception. However, there is a drug, soma, that makes people happy and it is a fundamental part of everyone's life. Obviously, if this is the future it is still a long way away, but the basic aspects resonate well.

What this book also has that 1984 and We lacked is a sense of humor. It is by no means a comedy but it is not afraid to do something funny once in a while to lighten the mood. 1984 especially feels almost like it is weighing you down as you read it, with all its furtiveness and secrecy. This book takes a more lighthearted approach. The dystopia shown here is only a few degrees away from what could be considered utopia. That acknowledgement is perhaps a little scary, but surprisingly true. I can certainly say that I would be more comfortable living here than in just about any other dystopian future.

Overall, I would give this book a 89%.

Star Wars: X-Wing: Mercy Kill

The X-Wing series has been a series long beloved by Star Wars book fans.  Unlike many of the other stories, it barely features anyone from the movies and almost no use of the Force.  Before this most recent addition, the books came out over the course of three years over two different authors.  However, for more than a decade, the series laid fallow, until now...

Mercy Kill is the 10th book in a series where the 9th book came out in 1999.  It also serves as kind of an epilogue to a different 9 book series.  In other words, this book has a lot of history behind it.  Surprisingly, it doesn't really feel that way.  Despite being what is basically the 10th book in two separate series, it manages to stand on its own surprisingly well.  This book manages to require very little domain knowledge while avoiding the pitfall of explaining a bunch of previous plot points in a manner that is blatantly just filling new readers in.

Like many Aaron Allston books, this story, while being serious, has a multitude of humorous parts.  Some, especially those worked into the elaborate and stressful climax, provide such a perfect break, that they can have the reader howling with laughter. 

My biggest complaint with this book is that the title is not very accurate.  There is almost no space action in this book.  Almost everything occurs on foot.  There is not really a problem with this, I just feel that a book that has X-Wing in the title should have a little more action having to do with, well,  X-Wings.

The villain was physically not introduced until relatively late in the story but the author does a good job of making him seem like a bad guy without making him a caricature.  Just some of the little things he does really make it clear that the guy is not a paragon of virtue.

Overall, this book is surprisingly accessible and unsurprisingly funny.  I would give it a 91%.

The Mongoliad: Book 2

The second book of the Mongoliad is an interesting read.  It definitely continues the promise of the first book with vividly realized and described combat.  The historical era that the books cover is one that is rarely discussed in mainstream history, the point after Genghis Khan died but before the Mongol tribes splintered.  I like it for that reason too, the books make a rarely discussed era of history exciting.

Even though this is a collaborative work between many authors, it works very well.  It gives each character (or group thereof) their own unique feel without each section being jarringly different like some collaboration novels (I'm looking at you, Wild Cards).

I was totally understanding of the last novel ending on a cliffhanger, however, I was vastly less understanding of this one leaving that cliffhanger open for the first 80 pages.  Plus, I am sure that the storyline that took up most of those 80 pages will eventually tie into the ones introduced in the first book, but at the end of the second book it seems pretty mysterious how it is going to do so.

Since it had been a while since I had read Book 1, it was a little difficult to be sure that I was making all the connections I was supposed to be making.  The names are also not the type of names that are easy to remember and distinguish so that didn't exactly help.

Like in Book 1, the sword fighting was excellently written.  It was taken to a basically unique level of detail.  There was a little less of it in this book, but that is because the series is headed to (I believe) a big climax with much sword fighting and that takes some non-swordfighting plot bits to be set up.

After reading this I read a couple of short stories set in the Mongoliad universe before this main series.  They are short and don't cover what I want out of Mongoliad stories: swordfighting and cool insight into that era of history.  They are more character pieces, giving the reader a bit more insight into some of the characters.  I think together the two stories might come to 150 pages, so they are pretty short but fun little reads.

Overall, I would give this book an 88%.

This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch It

This Book is Full of Spiders is the sequel to a book I like very much entitled John Dies at the End.  Before even talking about This Book is Full of Spiders, you have to know a little about John Dies at the End. John Dies at the End started off as a collection of stories about the narrator (David, the author) and his friend John.  These stories were compiled and condensed into one novel.  While it still retains hints of its origin, the compilation works much better than many I have seen.  The book is a mixture of humor and horror, with a tidbit of science fiction thrown in for good measure.  If you haven't guessed from the titles, the books are a strange mix of taking themselves seriously and not.  For a further example, here are the covers of both books:

As you can see, the covers are... unique.  The books have been described as if Douglas Adams wrote Stephen King and I think that is a perfect description.  There are multiple parts of the book that are significantly creepy but there were many parts that made me laugh out loud.

Some of the humor is juvenile (suggesting communicating with smeared feces) while there are parts that really make you think.  The books revolve partially around a worldwide conspiracy and while parts of it are clearly fictional, there are some parts that make you question the direction the world is headed in.

I have never seen humor and horror blended as artfully as it has been in these books.  If you are a fan of either genre I would recommend these books.  Fair warning, however, they do lean more towards the humor than the horror.



Overall, I would give this book (is full of spiders) a 93%.



House of Leaves

House of Leaves is a truly unique and fantastic book.  From it's opening page that says simply "This is not for you" all the way to its conclusion that completely rerenders the reader's view of the story, this book blew me away. 

Describing the basic premise of the book makes it sound somewhat ridiculous.  It is about a man who finds and edits an exhaustive movie review.  This review is of a documentary (or perhaps horror) film called The Navidson Record.  However, as the man, Truant,  reads and edits the review things in his life tend to get stranger and stranger.  The Navidson Record doesn't exist within the world of the book (nor in real life) which makes the story all the more intriguing.  The main portion of the book is the review of the movie and the story of the editor is told in footnotes.

The book has a beautifully executed gradual ramp up to anything scary, in the beginning it is much more of a mystery than anything else.  As the histories of the characters are slowly revealed, one step at a time, the book really grows.

This book also, in the world of ebooks and pdfs, truly embraces the printed medium.  The book itself is such a critical part of the feel of the story, from the small touches like certain words being consistently printed in different colors, to the big touches like strange page layouts and multipage upside down footnotes. The very layout of the book tells part of the story.

The book is eccentric in other ways too.  It is over 700 pages, 200 of which are appendices and an index.  The appendices have random additional information, some of it relevant, some of it not.  The index is another beast entirely.  Some parts have interesting

I will say that the story of the editor did not interest me anywhere near as much as the story of the characters in The Navidson Record but it provided an interesting break from the main story and some of the most pervasive imagery, the parts that literally kept me up at night, were in the sections written by Truant.

I feel like there is almost nothing that I can say that will truly do this book justice, but I can say for a certainty, it is a unique literary experience.  This is my favorite book that I have read so far in 2012.

Overall, I would give this book a 98%.

The Dirk Gently Duology

Douglas Adams is famous (rightfully so) for his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, which was, as he called it, a trilogy in 5 parts.  However, many people forget that he also wrote other things.  While nothing can really top the Hitchhiker's guide in the niche it carved for itself, the Dirk Gently duology is an good read, especially if you like funny mysteries with a taste of sci-fi. 

The two books are called Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul.  They share almost no characters other than Mr. Gently and deal with completely different areas of science fiction.  You could read them almost in either order or one without the other (OK, so perhaps calling it a duology was a stretch).

I read them back to back after picking up the second book in Chicago and then months later finding the first in a used book store where I go to school.  They certainly have the trademark Douglas Adams' weird, funny, and slightly depressing dark humor.  Anyone who enjoyed Hitchhiker's will enjoy these.

The main character is a detective who believes in the interconnectedness of all things.  Acting upon these beliefs gets him into very silly situations and yet things always seem to work out for him.  I laughed out loud at some parts of this book.

A note of warning, don't go into this expecting a traditional whodunit.  This definitely has science fiction and fantasy elements and if you don't like those mixed with your mystery then these books will probably be a disappointment.

Overall, I would give these two an 83%.

Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith: The Collected Stories

The Lost Tribe of the Sith stories were released as free eBooks to promote Del Rey's publishing of other Star Wars works.  They were written by John Jackson Miller who is a history nerd and tries to weave all of the history knowledge bottled up in his head into science fiction, making for quite the enjoyable tale.  If you can ever hear him talk about what influenced him to write basically any plot point, it is sure to be interesting and probably have some grounding in world history.

The eBooks became quite popular and so Del Rey decided to publish them together in a collection as well as with a novella that followed after the last story and wrapped up the open ending of the last story.  The novella takes up about 3/8ths of the book, while the other 8 short stories take up the rest. 

The stories cover over 2000 years, so the reader can really watch the society evolve and change over time.  There are basically three trilogies with the novella making up the third part of the last trilogy.  The basic premise is that this group (tribe) of Sith crash lands on an unknown (lost) planet and must support themselves without killing each other, a tall order for Sith.

Each of the stories has a pretty clear protagonist and it is sort of interesting to think that the guy that you are rooting for could easily have been the villain in a variety of other tales.  Also, seeing a large group of ego-centric people try to get along is pretty humorous.

An issue with this is that (if you haven't done the math) not all of the characters get the same amount of screen time.  The final part in the time line takes up about half of the book.  While I didn't have a problem with this, I could easily see how someone could be miffed that they were stuck with characters they didn't like as much as those the author introduced 1000 years ago.

No one from the movies shows up in this story and it requires no real knowledge of the Star Wars universe to enjoy.  The book presents a unique perspective on Star Wars and while the marooned on an alien planet is sort of a sci-fi trope, I can't think of another story that follows the growth of the marooned civilization like this one does.

Overall, I would give this collection a 82%.

Star Wars: Scourge

Scourge is sort of a unique Star Wars book, it contains basically no characters from any of the movies.  However, unlike most Star Wars books, it is kind of a mystery, trying to figure out who the actual villain is.  It has some really fun action scenes and some unique characters.  It really doesn't feel like most tie in novels, mostly because it just expands the overall universe.

The main character is something that you don't see very often in Star Wars, a Jedi lacking in self-confidence.  Then when he is thrown together with other characters, some of whom are from stereotypes not often portrayed as protagonists, they really mesh and it makes for a good story.

The only downside is that it is very short.  It really doesn't take long to finish.  While I cannot point to any specific part of the book that I wish was fleshed out, it just seemed like it could have taken up a little more shelf space.  It was like those amusement park rides that are fun but over far too soon.

Overall, I would give this book a 79%.

Star Wars Reads Day

This post is one of the few posts that are not book reviews.  Today is Star Wars Reads Day.  This is a collaboration by everyone who publishes Star Wars books (Del Rey and Scholastic to name just a couple) to have a national day that celebrates both Star Wars and reading.  Since those two are both things that are near and dear to my heart, I have decided to write up this short post about them.

You might be thinking, "But wait, Star Wars is a movie, how can you read about it?"  While I do love the Star Wars movies, there is a whole universe beyond that in the form of novels, comic books, video games, and other multimedia items.  Unlike many franchises, all of these coexist together and tell one cohesive story  (at least much better than can be expected for something that has been going on for 35+ years under many different publishers and even more authors) streching across millenia of Star Wars "history".  This is a awesome boon for someone like me who has a hard time letting characters go.  I will follow a character basically as long as an author will let me.

While I will freely admit there are many bad books out there with franchise names emblazoned on their covers, there are many good Star Wars books.  I am obviously biased because it is something I like so much, but there is a real sense of connectedness to this universe.  Every book ties in to other books, it is really like reading a history of some undiscovered culture in novel form.  To me the movies are just a fraction of this larger universe.

Some of my personal favorites from this universe:

Revenge of the Sith by Mattew Stover:  This doesn't quite count because it is a novellization of a movie but it is different than almost any other movie novelization and due to the fact that it ties so closely to that movie makes it a great jumping off point for someone getting started in the series.  Here is the books version of the opening crawl and possibly one of my favorite introductions to any book ever: http://web.archive.org/web/20080529033558/http://www.starwars.com/episode-iii/release/publishing/f20050330/indexp3.html (It goes the whole page, not just the little bit in italics).


X-Wing: Rouge Squadron by Michael A. Stackpole (and the rest of the X-Wing books):  This is a book set after all the movies about some of the background characters, specifically the pilots.  Despite getting a dance party with ewoks, the war is far from over and this book and series detail some missions and show Star Wars from a different perspective than most of the movies because The Force plays a very small role in these books.  They are much more of the science fiction of Star Wars and much less of the fantasy.  Also, they can be side splittingly funny in parts.

Hard Contact by Karen Traviss: This is about a team of clone commandos behind enemy lines with some jedi action too.  Karen Traviss earned praise from fans (including those in the military) for her gritty and apparently realistic portrayal of what it was actually like to be fighting a war and being a soldier.

Path of Destruction by Drew Karpyshyn (and the rest of the Bane Trilogy): This book takes place a millenia before the movies and features a Sith as the main character. This makes for some really interesting story telling because it is hard to tell who to root for. It too is sort of a unique take on the saga. Showcasing some interesting ideas that are never really explored in the movies.

Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor by Matthew Stover: While this is also by Mr. Stover, this is a completely different story.  Its title and style are more meant to evoke the Star Wars novels of the 80s than the modern day ones.  It is a fun story, very serious but with lots of cool hero moments that really evoke the spirit of the movies.

Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn (and the rest of the Thrawn Trilogy): This is a classic.  It was the first adult star wars novel after a long hiatus.  People were not sure there was even going to be a market for Star Wars books but it sold like crazy when it came out.  It takes place a while after the movies but it is a great jumping in point because that is where many people jumped in.  The antagonist, the aforementioned Thrawn, is a really interesting villian.  (This also ranked 88 on NPRs top 100 Sci-fi and fantasy books)

There are also many other Star Wars books out there, these are only a token few (and some of my favorites).  In the coming months I will be putting reviews of Star Wars books up as I read them.

Liminal States

My introduction to Liminal States was having one of my friends tell me that they strongly disliked the ending but that I should read it because they would like to hear my opinion.  Oh, and it was a pretty good ride up until that ending.  Intrigued, I made some time in my reading schedule and gave it a try.

Zack Parsons wrote what is basically a trilogy in one book.  There are three clearly defined parts with the characters that do overlap having gone through significant emotional changes through the parts.  The first part is a western, and while it is a little unusual for the genre, it has a lot of the western tropes including a sheriff's posse and a train robbery.  The second part is a 1950's detective story, once again a little strange but with many of the appropriate cliches.  The final part is set in 2006 and is just basically an action thriller.

While I try not to discuss plot elements of the books I talk about on here, since the back cover gives away the following point and the book sounds very disjointed without it... One of the main characters in the book is an outlaw who discovers a secret way to be immortal.  Because he discovers this, and some of the other implications that this creates, lead to significant divergences from our timeline, so the book takes place in an alternate history, hence the science fiction label.

The book is extremely graphic in parts.  For example, in the aforementioned train robbery, the train gets derailed.  The book goes into detail describing how many on the train die.  In then goes on to talk about how the derailing upset a wasp nest and how those wasps go and sting the survivors.  The author just seems to enjoy writing about that sort of thing.  Though it makes certain sections seem like the literary equivalent to a Saw movie.

You are probably wondering how I liked the ending.  It was certainly unexpected. There is a point where, as the reader, you realize that there is no way that it can end up the way you had been expecting.  I do wish certain aspects of the end had been changed, but overall I was satisfied.  The real problem with it was that the third person limited narrative left a lot of things unexplained and beyond that, there seemed to be quite a few loose ends that were just dropped.  While this did make the book more unpredictable, it seems like there was a lot of narrative possibility that was just wasted. 

Overall, the book is certainly interesting and while it is definitely a lot more science fiction than it is horror, there are some horror themed aspects to it.  Honestly, there are parts of this that will appeal to fans of almost any genre.  However, as a whole, it would have benefited from a little more smoothing.  I would give this book a 84%.

NOTE: This book is part of a "alternate reality narrative" and there are a lot of multimedia things including a related short story (it takes place entirely before the book, but it does not matter at all to the plot until the third part) on liminalstates.com.

Time Enough For Love

I have said it before on this blog, and in the future I will probably say again, I like cohesive canons.  Time Enough for Love is (arguably) the final chapter in Hienlein's Future History series.  Most of the rest of which is collected in The Past Through Tomorrow which is an interesting read in its own right.  Most of the stories can be ignored, except for the last one which is basically a prologue to Time Enough for Love.

The main character of the book, Lazarus Long, is a very interesting man.  The basic premise is that he has been living for thousands of years and seen most of what humanity and the galaxy have to offer.  Basically, as sort of his last act before he gives up on life he tells some vignettes from his past.  In this way, the first half of the book is basically a collection of short stories.  It also contains excerpts from his "notebooks" which are insightful and humorous.

The book has a lot of sexual parts in it.  The main character practices polyamory quite a bit and (partially because he has lived so long he is related to most people) has incestuous relations as well.  This leads to a talk of "defectives" on multiple different occasions and Lazarus discusses his distaste for them and how he feels humanity should get rid of them.  That sort of talk makes me uncomfortable.  While I do think that eugenics has interesting possibilities, I would never have it enacted in such a way that people were killed to improve the gene pool (more of the Bene Gesserit style). 

If you can get past some of the less mainstream sexual bits and Lazarus' ocean of self-pity in the first part of the book.  This is a really fun read full of interesting quotes and tidbits.  It is almost unnecessarily referential to the story Methuselah's Children (which is the last story in the above mentioned collection) so it is probably a good idea to read that before you start in on this book.  I would give this book an 83%.

The Wind Through the Keyhole

When I was significantly younger, my uncle lent my mother a copy of Stephen King's The Gunslinger as an audiobook on the way back from New Jersey.  About 45 minutes in there was a sex scene and my mother shut it off (I cannot really blame her.  I am not sure that I would want to listen to a sex scene with my single digit age child).  However, the idea of a cowboy trekking across a desert stuck with me.  Then when I was in high school, I went through a phase where I would spend a lot of time at the local library reading whatever piqued my interest.  There I found The Gunslinger again and all the other books in the Dark Tower series.  I found the series greatly entertaining despite some of its flaws and the protagonist, Roland, was a hero I could get behind, especially in the fourth book Wizard and Glass which recounts an adventure from his younger days.  In addition, the way that the series ends in book seven was really, at the time, quite novel to me.

In March of last year, Stephen King, one of the most prolific authors, announced that he was going to be producing a book to come in between the 4th and 5th books in the time line entitled The Wind Through the Keyhole.  My initial reaction was excitement because I am a sucker for a continuing story.  My love of the Star Wars canon probably stems in a large part from the fact that it is one long continuing story.  However, that was overtaken by trepidation, was this just some publicity trick?  It has been a while since I read the series, but I don't remember much space between 4 and 5.  However, being the faithful fan, I preordered it and avoided most of the information about it.

When I finally read it, I realized that it had a very interesting format.  There is a frame story about the series' protagonists listening to Roland tell a story about his younger days.  However, as part of that story, he tells a story he heard as a child to someone else and the readers must dutifully follow him into a frame story within a frame story and then back out, one level at a time.  (kinda Inception-esque)  Not that this is bad, but I am not sure that I have ever read a book with (relatively long) stories three layers deep.

I thought that the story that was at the middle level was significantly better than the other two and wished that it had been fleshed out more.  On reading, it is pretty obvious that the deepest story is the one that he really wanted to tell but he wanted to tie it to characters that people would recognize from the other books.

If you are a fan of Stephen King in general and are picking this up to read something in his style, I would not recommend it.  It is more like his normal fare than the other Dark Tower books but it is certainly not horror or even suspense.  If you are hoping for a normal science fiction or fantasy story, however, this really isn't one of those either. There are a lot of things that go pretty much unexplained unless you have read the other books (and some that are weird even if you have).  However, if you liked the world of the Dark Tower, this a great reminder of what it was like.  Little things like the lexicon and the way that certain events happened were a great throwback to the last time that I read them and brought me many happy memories.

Perhaps this will get more people interested in the Dark Tower series but I cannot honestly believe that it will.  If someone was interested in reading the Dark Tower series, I would definitely hand them The Gunslinger first without even thinking about The Wind Through the Keyhole.  It is the difference between teaching someone to swim in a wading pool or in the deep end with weights on their legs.

In short, if you enjoyed the Dark Tower, you probably owe this a read.  If you are interested in the Dark Tower, read at least the first four books first, if not the seven who have come out before this.  I would give this book a 79%.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Around three years ago, I watched the movie Blade Runner.  I know that there are multiple different editions and I could not really tell you which one I watched.  I primarily watched it because it is a classic and stars Harrison Ford, one of my favorite actors.  I knew it was based on a book but I never really got around to picking it up until this summer.

This summer I was in an environment with a lot more used book stores than the town I currently live in and I went a little crazy.  I am unsure of exactly how many books I bought but shipping them home came to about 25 pounds.  I went in one bookstore that had more than 20 copies of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep which is the book Blade Runner is based on.  I snatched it up because, well, why not?  (Also, it had an abnormal cover for the book which I always like)

I have to say that I didn't notice this was a sheep until I got the cover for this post.  I just thought it was random blobs of color.  Suddenly, it makes way more sense.



While it has been a while since I have seen the movie, I felt that this book made more sense than the movie overall.  They definitely bring up the question of the difference between humans and replicants in different ways than the movie.  In addition, there is this whole strange religion that the movie basically ignores that allows the author to bring in some other concepts like the battle between entertainment and religion. 

Overall, this book uses its post apocalyptic setting to fit a surprising amount of metaphor, symbolism, and debate into its relatively short story.  There are certainly some parts that are strange, but if the reader can take those in stride, this book will give them a lot to think about.  I would give it an 84%.

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

I think that Charles Yu would have been a better choice to the sixth Hitchhiker's Guide book than Eoin Colfer.  I will admit that I have not read the latest edition to the series, but I have heard from others that it was not fantastic.  Unlike many series, I am perfectly happy to let that one rest as the trilogy in five parts that it was meant to be.

The reason that I think that Charles Yu would have done a better job is that this his book, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, is very similar to the later books in the series.  It has that same mixture of being humorous, meaningful, and slightly depressing.

The reason I picked up this book was the words "a novel" on the front.  At first glance I thought it was one of thise faux instruction books like the zombie survival guide.  Lured in by the promise of a real story and not lists of good things to remember if you travel back in time, I gave it a read.

The book is chock full of references to other science fiction works, some blatant some subtle, but all lovingly added.  There is a great section about when he was growing up how all the kids on his block wanted to be Han Solo.  Much of the book takes place in clearly science fictional locales but there is so much about his relationship with his father and his life growing up that I cannot help but wonder if it is at least a little autobiographical. 

This book has so many great quotes, I can almost flip through it and find one on every page.  There is an interesting discussion about the how there are many versions of who a person could be, but only one version of who a person ought to be (in relation to the many worlds theory of time travel).   Another really interesting part is when the author talks about how people, when given access to time travel, will travel back to the worst day of their lives.  I am not sure if I believe that everyone would do that, but I think a great many people would.

This book does have a fair amount of technobabble.  I think it is intended to be humorous, and in some places it is.  However, I feel that it might drive off some less tolerant readers.  Despite this it is overall a fun read.  If you like science fiction, philosophical musings, and humor, you will like this book.  I would give it a 81%.

Shane

My discovery of Shane was sparked by Wikipedia.  I was looking up information on the most recent Dark Tower book (which I will be reviewing soon) and I began wandering through Wikipedia as some people have a tendency to do.  I noticed that main character of the Dark Tower series, Roland, was partially based off of the titular character of the book Shane. I do so love origin stories and behind the scenes information, so I thought it would be worthwhile picking up.

When I did scoop it up at my local used book store, (it came out after 1923, so its copyright is still strong) I noticed that it was very short.  Like my the book I reviewed immediately before this one, it was probably 120 pages at the most.  I had noticed on Amazon that versions of the book had been edited to remove "words that might offend" and so I was a little hesitant to pick up a copy without knowing if it was the edited one or not but after a quick look at the copyright page I saw Bantam was kind enough to promise "It contains the complete text of the original hard-cover edition. NOT ONE WORD HAS BEEN OMITTED."  There were still times when characters said "By Godfrey" or something similar but I assume that that was in the original version.

What I read about this book would have me believe that it redefined the western genre; somewhat created the mysterious gunslinger archetype.  I would believe it, a lot of this book seems slightly cliche now but I can forgive that if it was creating those tropes.  This was Jack Schaefer's first book, and his most famous.  For a writer to come out of the gate with a book like this shows real skill.

The storytelling and pacing are excellent.  Living in this era, knowing that the mysterious gunfighter is the protagonist, most readers would be able to guess a lot of the plot just from that.  However, this story is told entirely from the view of an admiring kid, which does make it an interesting change from the norm.  The way that certain things are described, the book can really take you into the kid's head and show how he really looks up to Shane.

I am not a huge fan of the western genre, but I enjoyed this.  It was a fast, fun read with bona fide historical significance. Overall, I would give it an 87%.

The Uncommon Reader

When I was at the Connie Willis signing, one of the people in the audience asked her what books she would recommend to readers other than her own.  She suggested many books, several of them classics like Dickens, many of which went in one ear and out the other.  However, one lodged in my sulci and lingered in my thoughts.  She described The Uncommon Reader as a book for people who love books.  She summarized the basic plot as "The queen discovers a library at the kingdom's expense" and mentioned that there were many things in the book that would be almost in jokes to a regular reader.  This sounded like a book that I would like to read someday, so I made a mental note of it and told myself I would pick it up someday.

That very weekend, I saw it staring at me out of the shelves of my favorite new bookstore and, needing something that I would be able to finish in the few days before I was leaving town, scooped it up.  Not even a child would call this a long book, it is 120 pages at the outside, more of a novella than a novel but it delivers upon Ms. Willis' promise.

Anyone who is a voracious reader will easily emphasize with the queen as she reads her way across the kingdom, losing interest in some of the boring pomp and wanting only to talk about books.  Mr. Bennett manages to mention a great deal of writers, some directly and some indirectly, so this book has the quality of being more fleshed out the more you have read.

Near the end of the book, the queen says something really interesting: "Reading softens one while writing toughens one up".  I had never thought about reading and writing in those terms before.  I am not 100% sure I agree with the sentiment but it is certainly food for thought.

If you are someone who likes to read, you will enjoy this book.  If you fit into the preceding category and are well read too, then you will love this book.  Overall, I would give this book an 83% but if you can catch all of the references, which I know I didn't, it is probably more like an 87%.

The Windup Girl

The Windup Girl was an interesting journey in book form.  I was a fair way in before I decided that I liked it.  Immediately after I made that decision, the book killed my favorite character, which threw me back into indecision (not that I hold a grudge for books killing my favorite characters, he just kinda felt like one of the only things the story had story going for it).  However, when I turned the last page, I was disappointed that there wasn't more in the best possible way.  Looking back from the remove of having finished the book, I have to say that it was quite good.

The concept of the book is that in a world where almost all fossil fuels have been exhausted and engineered plagues have ravaged the globe, the most important things are calories and joules.  A place where they have automatic weapons powered by springs and elephants running conveyor belts is interesting indeed, and sort of a troubling look into the future.

This book has excellent concepts from the micro scale to the macro scale, but its weakness is its characters, basically none of whom are likable.  Some of them are interesting, sure, but I did not feel I had any one to root for.  It is interesting to see how a variety of personality types fit into the new world that Mr. Bacigalupi has so vividly imagined.

Overall, it is a good book, with only a few things standing in between it and being a great book.  It is worth reading for the ideas alone.  I would give it an 86%.

The Prince

machiavellian: suggesting the principles of conduct laid down by Machiavelli; specifically : marked by cunning, duplicity, or bad faith

How many authors get a word based on their name?  Not many, that is for sure. However, poor Machiavelli might have gotten his a little unfairly.  His book The Prince was meant to be an instruction manual for rulers of his time.  It does not really tell the leader to keep bad faith, though I think every leader ends up breaking promises.  Really, the book tells the leader how to be the best possible while still maintaining a ruling position in the country. While having never tried it, I imagine it would be rather effective in medieval Italy.  However, many of his directives would not be so effective in the modern day.

The most famous of these is generally paraphrased as "It is better to be feared than loved".  Machiavelli explains this by saying that fear is more reliable than love because the bonds of fear are stronger than those of love.  But he also points out that either one is preferable to being hated.  (Unlike Yoda, he leaves out the point about fear leading to hatred).  On multiple occasions he references how a prince should not let the women of a conquered country be molested (which is still good advice, mind you).  There are many other tidbits of wisdom as well, however, overall, the book is pretty dry and boring.

As much as it pains me to say it, this is probably not as enjoyable as a higher level summary of the book that makes the effort of relating it to the modern day.  Machiavelli does make a few good points but a lot of it is lost under things that don't pertain to modern reader.

Overall, I would give this book a 60%.

Blackout/All Clear

My introduction to Connie Willis was different from many of my introductions to other authors.  Last year, I was in my computer science class waiting for it to start and the professor was making small talk with the students in the front row.  I was, of course, reading.  Suddenly, something caught my ear and I looked up to see the professor on Wikipedia looking a the book Passage by Connie Willis and talking about how much he liked it.  He then went on to look at A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge and The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang.  Having read all three by now, I can authoritatively say that all three are good books.

A few weeks ago, I learned that Connie Willis was going to be giving a talk and signing books near where I live.  Since I had enjoyed Passage so much I thought she would be interesting to hear speak and it would be fun to have my book signed by the author.  A few days later, I was in Elliot Bay Books in Seattle (one of the best new book stores I have ever been in) and in their award winning science fiction section they had a Connie Willis book entitled Blackout.  Since I was already going to see her (and already going to spend a good portion of my paycheck at Elliot Bay), I decided to pick it up and try to read it before the signing. 

Upon starting it, I discovered that the book was actually part of a duology, the second part entitled All Clear.  The duology was meant to be one book but, unlike some authors I could name, Connie Willis has some sort of compunction about publishing 1000+ page paperback books.  It seems that the only people who make a distinction between the two books are publisher.  Everyone I have talked to about them, including her, refers to them as "Blackout All Clear".  The two books even read better as one, just pick up All Clear as soon as you finish Blackout.  I cannot imagine waiting in between these. Therefore, I am going against the usual format of reviewing books one at a time and am reviewing this duology as a single entity (that, and I couldn't put them down long enough to write a review about just the first book).

The story, like many stories before it, is about time travel.  The premise is that, in the year 2060 Oxford is sending historians back in time to study the past and report on it.  The story's three main characters are all sent back to England near the beginning of World War II.  It is a fantastic rendition of the war from a British civilians perspective.  However, you do not have to know about WWII to enjoy this book; the characters are marvelous and easy to relate to.

In the vast majority of books that I read, I am able to maintain a steady distance, I suspend my disbelief, but rarely do characters emotional trauma bother me after I put the book down.  This book was the complete opposite of that.  When characters in the book argued it would stress me out, let alone when they were put in life threatening situations.  I found myself crying at the (rather emotional) ending of the series.

I don't want to give away too much of the story, but I have to say that it is, so far, my favorite book of 2012.  There is something in this book for everyone, be they history buffs, sci-fi fans, character lovers, or what have you.  It was clearly painstakingly researched and well thought out.  Having met the author, I can say that she is also an excellent human being and I will be reading more of her books in the future.  When she signed my copies of the books she put little Brittish WWII slogans above the signature; stuff like "Keep calm and carry on" and "Do your bit!"

At the signing, there was also a question and answer session.  I don't remember the question that was asked to provoke this response, but she admitted that she had to rewrite the almost the entire story when she got halfway through because she decided that she had the wrong ending.  When she was signing my books, I asked her what the "wrong ending" would have been and she was gracious enough to tell me.

Overall, I would give this duology a 98%.

REAMDE

NOTE:  I know that a significant number of the books I have put up on here recently have been written at least in part by Neal Stephenson.  I have exhausted my supply of unread Neal Stephenson books so some new authors will be showing up.  Promise. 

REAMDE (a rearrangement of the letters of README), by Neal Stephenson is a whopper of a book.  The paperback edition clocks in at just over 1000 pages; many other authors would have been inclined to split this into two or even three books.  However, REAMDE is one of those books that is extremely difficult to put down, which is dangerous in a book of its magnitude.

A very simple explanation of the plot would be that it is a story about how a video game affects the world but that leaves so much out.  REAMDE is very much a character driven story and it just so happens that most of the characters are related to the video game in someway or another.  The vast majority of the book has nothing to do with video games, instead dealing with Russian gangsters, MI6 agents, Spetsnaz,  Jihadists, hackers, and Idaho gun nuts. 

What good is a character driven story with bad characters?  Not much, that's for sure.  Luckily, REAMDE has good characters in spades.  There are so many different characters that were just a pleasure to read about in this book that I am hard pressed to pick a favorite.  The book is also global in scope, from Seattle to China to the Philippines to Canada, this book sees its characters scattered all over the world and yet still manages to plausibly bring them together for the conclusion.

Speaking of the conclusion, it is basically a continuous, hundred page battle, jumping around between all the characters involved.  It is fairly predictable that the protagonists will defeat their foes, but who gets to defeat the main antagonist is a serious question right up until it happens.  It is very exciting and basically stole my Sunday afternoon.  The book is serious fun all the way through, with excitement, action, and a teeny bit of comedy.

I would recommend anyone who likes action or computer related fiction to pick up this book.  There is enough action and excitement to carry the book even if the reader does not care about the video game parts, but the experience will be improved by enjoying those.  Of all of Stephenson's books, this is probably the one that could be enjoyed by the greatest number of people.

Overall, I would give this book a 94%.

The Day of the Triffids

The Day of the Triffids, by John Wyndham, is a very traditional post apocalyptic story.  However, there are two things that set it apart from most of the other similar stories.  The first is the time that it was written.  In 1951, many of the horror and apocalypse tropes that are so common now were still new and original.  The second unique quality to The Day of the Triffids, is the nature of the apocalypse.  Instead of nukes or zombies, everyone in the world survives the apocalypse, but the vast majority of the population is rendered blind.  This situation is compounded by potentially intelligent, mobile, carnivorous plants.

Also, unlike many other such stories, this book follows the protagonists for years after the event, showing them planning for their future in such a world.  In addition, this book gives a glimpse into the various competing systems of government that I imagine would rise out of such an event, which was an interesting sociological touch.

While I have been emphasizing this books differences from typical world ending stories, many people who like to watch zombie movies will easily be able to guess most of the surprise plot twists.  I watched 28 Days Later while reading this book and there are definitely some serious parallels.  While this does not detract from the book's quality, it is harder to enjoy a book that you can easily guess what is going to happen.  It is a good story though, and not that long.  I would definitely recommend reading it if you like zombie stories or similar things.

Overall, I would give this book an 80%.

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell

Tucker Max is a self-admitted terrible person.  This book is a collection of autobiographical vignettes from his life.  They are HILARIOUS.  While he can be incredibly rude and mean to people in the stories, he tells them in a way that they are laugh out loud funny.

In all honesty, I just picked this up because it was really cheap and I remember some of my friends in high school thinking that it was funny and liking it.  Their opinion was definitely justified as this book had me cracking up throughout, even in public places.  While the author can be exceedingly unkind, he freely admits that he is so, and many times the stories poke fun at him just as much as the people he is with.  One of the stories is literally titled: Tucker Has a Moment of Self-Reflection; Ends Poorly.  Just that title alone had me laughing,  The stories are all short and that makes them easy to be read one at time during short breaks in your day.

My one real complaint with this book is that it is clearly collected from other stories, without much editing.  Certain introductions are presented multiple times, for example.  However, this does make it nice to pass around or to show friends a personal favorite story.  My personal favorite part was at the end, when the author is describing the book tour he went on for this book.  He includes an email that his friend sent him about his adventures trying to stay awake on the drive home from a book signing.  That doesn't make it sound exciting or funny but I was almost in tears laughing on the bus.

This book is really funny.  However, I recommend you do not get it if you are not a fan of bathroom/sex humor, because there is a lot of it; drinking stories, because there are even more of those; or swearing, because there is even more of that.

Overall, for the sheer amount of times it made me giggle like a crazy person on the bus, I would give this book an 80%.

EDIT:  I just finished Sloppy Seconds, which is sort of a postscript to this book.  Almost like deleted scenes from a movies.  If you liked this, you will like Sloppy Seconds.  The ebook version is free on Amazon.  The book is a fun little read, but probably not worth spending real money on because it is so short and all of his best stories have clearly been added to his full size books so these are the bottom of the barrel.

The Mongoliad: Book 1

The Mongoliad is a historical fiction novel written by Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, Mark Teppo, Erik Bear, Joseph Brassey, Cooper Moo, and E. D. deBirmingham.  This book may have more authors than anything I have read that was not a collection of short stories.  The reason this book has so many authors is that it was created by a group that Neal Stephenson rounded up after being dissatisfied with the quality of swordfighting in his Baroque Cycle (which I reviewed earlier).  These authors ended up getting together and learning a lot about swordfighting and the medieval era.  The website mongoliad.com is interesting, I recommend you check it out.

On to the book itself. It is the first part of a trilogy, and unfortunately not that long.  However, it makes up for it shortness by being packed full of action and interesting characterization.  In addition, as you would expect from a book with this creation story, the fighting scenes are all top notch.  One scene in particular shows a man with a pole arm dueling a man with a sword.  The fight alternates back and forth between their viewpoints, highlighting their individual strengths and weaknesses.  It is a great scene, in and of itself almost worth the price of admission.  With this many authors, a reader might be skeptical that it sounds like too many voices are clashing and ruining the story.  This is decidedly not the case.  There are certainly different styles, but I never felt that they were competing or hampering each other.

The only real issue that I had with this book was that it ended on a cliffhanger and the next book doesn't come out until September.  The last few series I have read, I have had the luxury of reading them all in a row and so it is somewhat frustrating to have to wait.

All in all, this is certainly worth a read, (free from the kindle lending library).  If you are a fan of swordfighting or historical fiction, I recommend you pick it up.

Overall, I would give this book a 87%.

The System of the World

Warning: While this post contains only minor spoilers for The System of the World, it does have more major spoilers for Quicksilver and The Confusion, the previous books in the series.

After the finish of The Confusion (which I reviewed here), I was excited to see where the series was going to go.  However, the series jumped forward a decade or two to the point after the prologue of the Quicksilver.  For the most part, the author just uses this time span to ensconce the characters in the positions that the reader saw them in at the end of the second book.

Basically, most of this book was build up interspersed with all the confrontations that readers have been waiting to see, some since book one.  A great many of these are fantastic, some highlights are a duel fought with cannons and a man being killed with a cello.  Unfortunately, a couple fall flat.  The great philosophical debate, between Newton and Leibniz, that has been foreshadowed from the first pages of Quicksilver, is unfortunately the most blatant of these.  While it does offer some interesting views into their philosophical ideas, it does not really work as a showdown.

As pervades all of his books, The System of the World is full of Neal Stephenson's sense of humor while not being a silly book by any means.  However, there is a fantastic scene that is somewhat complicated to explain but it suffices to say that one of the protagonists pretends to only be able parrot speech to great comedic effect.

Like the other books in the Baroque Cycle, The System of the World is divided into three smaller books.  Each of these have their high points and their low points.

• The climax of the first part was slightly difficult to figure out because it seemed the author was introducing extra characters needlessly (and perhaps he was)
• Jack (who was probably my favorite character of the overall series) was not a major player until the end of the first part and then was in the background for most of second part as well.
• The climaxes of the second and third part were fantastic.
• Caroline of Hanover was an excellent character, I almost wish the series would continue simply so that I could see more of Stephenson's portrayal of her.
• The epilogues that wrapped up the individual characters were all great and gave a good sense of closure to everyone (or at least almost everyone).

The one other beef that I have with book is with an issue that I completely understand why it occurred, I just do not really like.  The series covers more than 50 years, with basically the same characters throughout.  This means that by this book, they are all very old.  It is not a terrible thing, but I don't think I have ever before read a book where the main protagonist was 70 years old and many of the other characters are not far behind him. 

Overall, this was a fun book and series.  Was it fun enough to be worth reading ~2000 pages?  I will not presume to be able to dictate that for everyone, but I certainly enjoyed it.  I do like history and I do like Neal Stephenson's style of writing and storytelling.  Also, not knowing a great deal about 17th and 18th century Europe, the series was somewhat educational (though the author took some liberties with history in several places).  This series has some parts that will appeal to everyone: adventure, science, economics, politics, detective work, and humor.

Overall, I would give this book an 87%.

The Spirit Ring

I bought The Spirit Ring by Lois McMaster Bujold on a whim.  It was on sale, in a genre I generally enjoy (Sci-fi/fantasy), and looked interesting.  The book is set in a renaissance Europe with one minor change: magic is real. The ramifications of that premise, which is an interesting one, are not fully explored, though they are hinted at in interesting ways. 

The book works through the viewpoint of two protagonists, a male and a female.  The book somewhat toys with how cliche this dynamic is.  While it is clear that they are going to fall in love, based on the story telling formula, the book comes right out and tells you it is going to happen through a magic ring.  The story then changes from a relatively obvious will they/won't they dynamic to the more interesting how dynamic.

The most compelling character in the book though was the villain.  Unlike many books, this humanizes him, without redeeming him.  At one point the book talks about how angels weep for sinners (Side note: The book is very heavy with Christianity, however it makes sense for a story set in that time period) not for the evil, but for the good that is wasted in that evil.  I thought that was a pretty poignant remark.  If I remember anything from this book, it will be that.

The book does not raise any interesting philosophical questions and will not leave you awake at night worrying about the characters, but it is a fun read.  If you are looking for a fantasy book that is fun for all ages, I recommend  picking it up.

Overall, I would give this book a 83%.

The Confusion

Warning: While this post contains only minor spoilers for The Confusion, it does have more major spoilers for Quicksilver, the previous book in the series.

Last month, I posted a review of the first book in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, Quicksilver.  As I mentioned before, this is an eight book series collected into three books.  The Confusion contains books 4 and 5, named Bonanza and Juncto respectively.  However, like George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, books 4 and 5 take place at the same time.  Because of this, the book alternates back and forth between the two rather than displaying them in sequence, so the two books can be read as one ordered story.  While it did make the book a little confusing at first glance, I loved it.  It is exactly the sort of thing I would have endeavored to do anyway (and will endeavor to do with Martin's books when I read them again).

Bonanza brings back my favorite character from Quicksilver: Jack Shaftoe, the vagabond.  I was slightly worried that his disappearance in half way through Quicksilver meant that he was only meant to move some other characters to certain positions.  Luckily, that was not the case.  Bonanza contains a great gunfight in 18th century Cairo and generally hops around the globe, showing the reader interesting places as it goes.

Juncto is basically the dumping ground for every character in the series other than Jack and his companions.  There were a few things that made me laugh out loud, such as Jack's brother's commanding officer's (enough apostrophes?) tendency to refer to everything as a training exercise and the introduction of Tsar Peter the Great.  The book also does a good job of explaining how economics worked in the early 18th century.  While Juncto is certainly not as action packed as Bonanza, it is still interesting and entertaining.

I did notice, especially near the end of the book, if you were reading the entirety of Bonanza, followed by the entirety of Juncto, it could get a bit confusing.  Luckily that confusion is completely ameliorated by the construction of The Confusion.

This is a better book than Quicksilver but to find it so, you must put in the effort to read Quicksilver.  This is certainly not a series that allows you to skip around between books. I would definitely recommend this book, it is entertaining and educational.

Overall, I would give this book an 87%.

Richard Road: Journey From Hate

Richard Road, by Lud Gutmann, is a very interesting book.  I have the good fortune to know the author personally but I will try not to let it bias my thoughts.  This book is intended to be a memoir of the authors young life, something like Trevanian's The Crazy Ladies of Pearl Street.  Unlike Trevanian's book, this story is only slightly novelized, with all of the characters maintaining their real names and events as well as the author can remember them.
The book starts in Germany in the 30's.  The author's Jewish parents are becoming increasingly nervous with the Nazi regime.  This part of the book truly shines.  The harrowing experiences and all the things that happened could probably have filled their own book.  This is also the part of the book that is the most heavily novelized because the author was a toddler at the time and did not have his own memories to go off of.

However, that is not what the book is about.  The escape from Germany is simply prologue to real story the book wants to tell: what it was like to be a Jewish farmer in New Jersey.  Unfortunately, this subject matter did not interest me nearly as much as the earlier part of the book.  There were some funny parts and some sad parts and it serves as an excellent period piece for life in 40's and 50's New Jersey.

The real issue with this book is that it appears to want each chapter to be self-contained.  Information is repeated multiple times throughout the book, unnecessarily.  In addition multiple chapters go off on tangents near the end, which provide interesting information, but ruin the flow onwards to the next chapter.  All of this would be OK if the book was set up or billed as a collection of short stories but it is not.

Despite this, the book was interesting overall and it does an excellent job of painting the childhood of the author.  If the phenomena of Jewish farmers in New Jersey interests you (as it does some people) you will probably gobble this book up.  If stories of Jews in World War II interest you, this book will be enjoyable.  If biographies of early life are something that is enjoyable for you to read, then this is a fair sample of the genre.  Otherwise, this book is probably not for you.

I would give this book a 70% overall.

Those In Peril

I recently finished reading Those in Peril by Wilbur Smith.  He is a prolific author and has written over 30 novels.  The only other book by him that I have read, however, is the book Monsoon.  Monsoon is a novel about a family in eighteenth century Europe and their adventures.  I recall it being a good book.  One of the best parts about it was that it just kept going.  Many places, other authors would have stopped the story and continued it in a sequel but Smith just kept going.  It was a fun book; definitely a good beach read.

The same could be said about Those in Peril.  However, Monsoon is a much better novel.  Those in Peril has a few major flaws.  The first major flaw is the book is borderline racist against Muslims.  Almost every single Muslim in the book is a terrorist full to the brim with hatred for America.  There is even a scene showing life in a Muslim town with some people being punished abhorrently for crimes.  There is a throwaway line about how not all Muslims are like this and how this is just an extremely radical sect but it is halfway through the book and surrounded by atrocities.  The second major flaw is that there is very little shades of grey in the characters of this novel.  The protagonists appear to be skilled at everything: from being crack shots to wine connoisseurs to fly fishing experts.  Meanwhile, the antagonists heartlessly kill people, discuss the best way to rape their victims, and are pedophiles.  While this does make it easy to root for the good guys, I like my characterizations to have a little more depth.  The third problem, which is minor compared to the other two, is that the dialog seems a little unrealistic. There were multiple points where the lack of a contraction was jarring. On a similar note, the author uses single quotes instead of double quotes when people are talking.  I cannot really explain why, but I find that annoying.

This may sound a little silly after what I just said, but if you can put aside these issues the book is a fun read.  Smith is the expert of having his books have more than one climactic scene and some of the suspense is intense.  There is a well written scene about half way through the book where they have to fight some essentially feral dogs while waiting for a helicopter rescue.  In addition, when the good guys do win, it is quite the victory.

I would say that if you need a book to read on the beach this summer and you happen to come across this one, give it a try.  However, I would not go out of your way to read it.

I would give this book a 60% overall.

Quicksilver

I am a big fan of Neal Stephenson.  I am well on my way to having read everything that he has ever written.  My most recent read in his bibliography is Quicksilver, which is the first book in his Baroque Cycle, a historical fiction series.  The Baroque Cycle is a trilogy in eight parts (to paraphrase the Hitchhiker's Guide series) and as a whole spans from the 1660's to the 1710's, chock full of enlightenment era goodness.  Quicksilver contains the first three books of the eight: Quicksilver, The King of the Vagabonds, and Odalisque.  Of these three, I would say that the middle one is clearly the best.  It pains me to say so because I do enjoy mathematics and physics and much of the first and third books deal with a young Issac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz they did drag somewhat.  In contrast with that, most of the second book is told from the third person limited point of view of a vagabond.  The story flows better and is more entertaining for sure.

Like all Stephenson books, this has tidbits of humor sprinkled throughout, really lightening the mood and causing occasional chuckles (there is one part in The King of the Vagabonds involving cuckoo clocks that made me laugh riotously).  In addition, the characters are well formed and the setting is incredibly well executed.  The author uses some enlightenment era jargon ("phant'sy" instead of fantasy for example) and takes every opportunity to explain the origin of words and ideas.  While this novel does play a little fast and loose with the exact players, the historical events portrayed mostly accurate and shape the development of the characters.  Someone who doesn't know much about 17th century European history can still find the story engaging (and perhaps educational too) and those who do know about it will still be left guessing about how the events will shape and affect the characters in the story.

Overall, while the first part was lackluster (compared to Stephenson's other works at least) it was good enough to encourage me to persevere on to the second and that was a good story that was continued into the third.  I am currently reading the second book in the trilogy and do not yet regret my decision to give up on Quicksilver.  It is a large book but an enjoyable one.

While I would not normally divide a book into sections like this, the disparity between the first part and the rest of the book is significant.  I would give the first part a 65%, the second part an 85%, and the third part an 80%.

If you have not read anything by Neal Stephenson, I highly recommend Snow Crash and Anathem.  They are both exceedingly good books.

Snow Crash was written in the early 1990's and predicted many aspects of the internet fairly accurately.  Despite being written so long ago, the book holds up pretty well as a futuristic story.  The book is a fun read, being smart and humorous (the main character is named Hiro Protagonist), and I would recommend it regardless of your technological savvy.

Anathem was, without a doubt, the best book I read last year.  It is a really strange blending of the fantasy and science fiction genres but it is great.  About three quarters of the way through the book I looked back on the journey that brought me from the beginning to that point and was amazed.  I really cannot say enough good things about this book.  The one problem some readers might have is that the book has its own slang and titles (sort of like Clockwork Orange) and it takes 100 pages or so to get used to that.  That would be a bigger issue in a shorter book but Anathem clocks in at just over 900 pages, making it just a minor bump in the beginning.

Sherlock Holmes

The characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson have endured in the public mind for over a century, most recently appearing in a feature film and a BBC television show. Over the past year or so, I have been working my way through all of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. This comprises a total of 4 novellas and 5 short story collections. I have to say, while they are sometimes slightly repetitive and predictable if you take them all in at once, they are enjoyable reads. The short stories make excellent little things to read before you go to sleep or while you are waiting for the bus. The first two novellas, A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four (which has a boat chase!) could be considered complete books, one a sequel for the other but the second two novels, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Valley of Fear, are basically just longer versions of the short stories.

Instead of detailing my thoughts about all of the stories and novellas, I am just going to discuss my favorite in each of the categories in this post.  Perhaps I will come back to others at a later date.

My favorite of the novellas was The Study in Scarlet. This was the first story published and the characters of Holmes and Watson get some fleshing out that they do not get very much of in the later stories. However, what really made this novel shine for me was, unlike most of the other Sherlock Holmes stories, which are generally narrated by Watson in the first person, this one has an entire section on the criminal's background in the third person. This section could make a compelling, if short, western by itself and was a surprising bonus.

My favorite of the short stories was The Adventure of the Illustrious Client. This came from The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, which is widely declared to be the worst of the short story collections; however, I did not find it bad at all. In the Adventure of the Illustrious Client, like in so many other Sherlock Holmes stories, Watson is used as a distraction while Holmes does something else. Unlike those other stories, in this one Watson knows he is a distraction and has time to prepare for the role. Also, unlike many other Sherlock Holmes stories, in this one Holmes is not out to solve a mystery but to influence an opinion.

Overall, while there are some repetitive themes in the stories (Watson being a distraction, people believed dead being still alive, among others) each story brings something unique to the table and I am glad that I read them all, rather than just a selection of them.

While some of  the stories are good and others are bad (which is completely understandable considering the sheer volume of stories Doyle wrote) I would give the overall series an 80% with certain stories being all the way up to a 95% and some down to 70%.