Highly recommended to anyone who lived and enjoyed the 80's. It's impossible not to have a great time reading this b...moreSo much fun!!! What a geekfest!!!
Highly recommended to anyone who lived and enjoyed the 80's. It's impossible not to have a great time reading this book and remembering what it was like to live that part of computer/music/films/you-name-it history! I want an OASIS account now!
Oh, and I can't wait for the movie! Please WB, pretty please, with sugar on top, don't miss this opportunity to create a classic movie. Learn from recent movie industry mistakes and go search your 80's movie stack and see how it was done.
I'm exhausted after so much geek pleasure... As someone I know would say: 'Get a room!'.
Great book, great compilation. The book goes from good to simply astonishing. Each story is better than the previous ending with two great climaxes.
Hi...moreGreat book, great compilation. The book goes from good to simply astonishing. Each story is better than the previous ending with two great climaxes.
Highly recommended. There's a lot more in this book that simply Robots.(less)
I read Four Past Midnight, more specifically 'The Langoliers', when I was about fourteen years old. It was the first story I ever read by Stephen King...moreI read Four Past Midnight, more specifically 'The Langoliers', when I was about fourteen years old. It was the first story I ever read by Stephen King and his views on time traveling, or Time itself, shocked me and I still treasure that story as one of my favorites, so when I heard he was going to write another book on time traveling I was really excited and anxious to read it.
Mr. King has a way of dealing with characters that I've seldom seen anywhere else. It, The Stand, Under the Dome come to mind when it's about creating a believable-charming-terrifying-intense atmosphere. Some call these kind of books "Character Books" because they are more focused on the characters than on the story itself. In this King is, no doubt about it, one of the greatest.
11/22/63 is a great example of a book that is more focused on the setting, the characters and their interactions and emotions that on the story itself. So yes, we know Oswald is going to shoot Kennedy, and most of the plot is so known in advance that all is left is 800 pages to fill, and with what? A (sad and intense) love story.
There is no terror in this book, at all. There are a couple of bloody-gore moments and some scenes that get you to the edge of the seat but that's about it. The rest is about the late fifties and sixties, how different it was from now, and if it was better or worse.
The time-traveling stuff is handled correctly, nothing new though. It helps the plot, obviously, but it plays a minimal role. I would have expected a bit more of a reaction from Mr. Amberson to the idea of the whole time-traveling psychological effects, but everything seems to be accepted pretty easily. Also, at the end, Mr. King dedicates a couple of pages to explain why time-traveling is possible. Was it necessary? I don't know. If you are going to try to explain the possible consequences of time traveling maybe prepare something a little bit more intense, or equally terrifying... I don't know. All that part left me a bit disappointed. I love the harmonious side of it though, well thought.
All in all, a good book, quite predictable but good. A bit to sweet for my taste though.(less)
Not as good as the first... that'd be 3,5 stars. I really think that the whole trilogy could have fitted just fine in two books. We'll see how it all...moreNot as good as the first... that'd be 3,5 stars. I really think that the whole trilogy could have fitted just fine in two books. We'll see how it all ends on the third volume.
I can't avoid comparing this trilogy to the Commonwealth Saga (Pandora and Judas) which, IMHO, was more focused on the plot, the characters were far better defined and all in all it was much more enjoyable. Let me eat my words when I finish the Night's Dawn Trilogy.
Refreshing sci-fi from the first page to the last. I did enjoy it a lot.
This book is a straight-forward sci-fi adventure without taking to much time i...moreRefreshing sci-fi from the first page to the last. I did enjoy it a lot.
This book is a straight-forward sci-fi adventure without taking to much time into explaining this or that. The final star I did not give it is precisely because of that. I would have loved some more philosophical stuff. I can't believe that with so much discovered in so little time the characters don't have some kind of breakdown or something, I'm sure I would. :-)
Okay, since GR doesn't allow half stars I'll have to say here that I rate it 4,5 stars. 5 stars would be too much because there are some parts of the...moreOkay, since GR doesn't allow half stars I'll have to say here that I rate it 4,5 stars. 5 stars would be too much because there are some parts of the plot I simply couldn't believe and, also, some parts were way too slow. On the other hand, 4 stars would be too little because it wouldn't reflect how much I enjoyed this book, above all the philosophical/big ideas part of it.
Put together A Canticle for Leibowitz, Contact, Sophie's World and some (only a bit) 'Harry Potter' and you'll get close to what this book is about. Some of you have classified it as Fantasy, well I couldn't disagree more. This is classic (philosophical) Science Fiction, period. ;-)
I wish my philosophy teacher had had the option to make us read this book when we were 16. I can already see the faces of most of my classmates: 'Say what!? O_o'. To be honest I had this book on the shelf since it came out. That's like almost four years (yeah, a lot of dust). Every time I was going to start it I would read the preface and put it down again. I was scared of the whole diferent-but-similar-to-ours-world-with-diferent-vocabulary setting. Well, I was wrong, there was nothing to be worried about. It is true that the book starts slowly and there's a lot of exposition just to get you in place, but once this is over, like 300 pages into the book, everything starts flowing much better.
Towards the end I was hoping for a greater-than-life resolution which would have granted the fifth star but, sadly, it wasn't so. Some people say that Stephenson has problems with endings, I think I'm starting to see why. The other books I've read, Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer or Snow Crash all seem to suffer of the same: great plots, awesome buildups and suddenly a less than satisfying resolution. Anathem, equally so.
All in all an awesome read, a wonderful world/setting and one of the most inspirational/realistic science fiction plots.(less)
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