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%.