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%.