Joyland

Stephen King is one of those authors that I would read any of his books. They are, while not particularly dense, certainly entertaining. Joyland is no exception. While it was not a serious or science fiction-y as the last Stephen King book I read (11/22/63), it was still a fun, vacation style read.

The book takes place at an amusement park and, in traditional Stephen King fashion there is a certain amount of the supernatural. Though I thought that the supernatural bits were unnecessary and the story would have been better and perhaps even scarier without them.

I found the main character pretty likable with his mixed bag of failures and successes but really the most enjoyable part of the book was simply the setting. It is clear that the author put in a lot of time researching carnivals and amusement parks for the writing of this book. Just like 11/22/63, the research clearly shows in the attention to detail of the carnie lifestyle. Parts of the book don’t even feel like a Stephen King story; they could have been in some sort of carnival novel.

I think one of the main things that I will take away from this book is how adaptable a writer King is. He has put out a huge number of books but the last couple of his that I have read show a huge amount of effort and care put into them. The fact that one of the bestselling authors of all time does this shows how much he cares about writing as a craft.

Overall, I would give this story an 82%.

The Hitman's Guide to House Cleaning

Frankly, I picked up this book because the title was interesting and the digital version was only two dollars.  The book was an entertaining read, if a little cliche.  The book is not actually a guide to house cleaning, as the title might imply, though the protagonist is a hitman.  The story follows the hitman as he is laying low after a hit gone bad, showing what he does and the misadventures that befall him.  The novel is written with a somewhat irreverent tone and manages to not take itself too seriously without the negatives that normally entails.

The book is written by an Icelandic author but he translated it himself so it lacks the rhythmic issues that a lot of translated books have.  Which is good news for this book because I think that a subpar translation would have ruined its darkly humorous tone.  There were several parts that made me laugh out loud.  There were also some exceedingly violent parts (he is a hitman after all) but that is not really what the book is about.

I did feel like certain parts of the book would have been funnier if I lived in Iceland and had better context for some of the commentary on the lives of the people who lived there.  It is far from unfunny, but I feel like the jokes would just all be slightly more poignant.

The book does a good job of fleshing out the character and showing why he is the way he is but there are certain parts of the story I felt deserved a lot more attention and certain parts that I felt could have used a little less detail.  The book also ends on a serious cliffhanger (depending on how you take the last sentence) which is generally annoying.

Overall, I would give this book an 87%.

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%.

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%.

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.