Normally I'd never take a book recommendation from NPR. Much like the New York Times, I'd expect public radio to encourage me to read agenda-driven dr...moreNormally I'd never take a book recommendation from NPR. Much like the New York Times, I'd expect public radio to encourage me to read agenda-driven drivel that bores the hell out of me. So, imagine my surprise when, circling a parking lot looking for a space, I hear the following premise on an NPR book review:
"The billionaire creator of the world's most widely used virtual reality system has died and left behind a series of riddles hidden throughout his virtual world. Whoever successfully solves these riddles will inherit his vast fortune. A massive hunt ensues."
And ... ZING! I downloaded the book and couldn't put the damn thing down all week until I finished it.
This book has all of the essential elements of serious ass-kicking: easy to read, a fast-paced plot, an underdog hero that you can't help but root for, a love story, explosions, humor, suspense, and lots of bad guys. The world of virtual reality, the references to the 80s, and the nostalgia for simpler times just add to the entertainment.
The best part? You don't have to be a computer nerd, a video game enthusiast, or a child of the 1980s to appreciate this book. This is simply a great story that transcends genre, written by a clever guy who always stays 20 steps ahead of the reader. It's about frickin time.
This is just Sparkles recycled,from the M-16 agents, the baddie Russians from the Finnish-Russian border, the names of desig...moreSame shit, different book.
This is just Sparkles recycled,from the M-16 agents, the baddie Russians from the Finnish-Russian border, the names of designer brands recognized by male characters (HA!), and the bizarre, unfitting descriptions of food which make me wonder if the author is simply a fat girl or has an eating disorder.
The main character is named Lola Montoya. There are such valuable descriptions throughout such as "straight as a ruler" and "dark as night." The Italian language used in the novel is full of errors. The plot was ridiculous. The dialogue was silly. Long exposure to the inept writing is likely to transform readers' brains to a pile of moss.
That's not to say I didn't like it. Despite my eye-rolling while reading, I >ahem< couldn't put it down. Shhh. Don't tell anyone. ;)(less)
I bought this book for $4.99 so I could try out my Kindle app on my BlackBerry (and it kicks ass, screw you, bookstore!) The book is a tad like Jurass...moreI bought this book for $4.99 so I could try out my Kindle app on my BlackBerry (and it kicks ass, screw you, bookstore!) The book is a tad like Jurassic Park except the dinosaurs running rampant on the island are actually replaced by the mentally ill.
I just can't get in to books like this where it's so clear they're written for the lowest common denominator. It was so poorly written that it literally read like a video game ... or felt like ol' gramps was telling me a campfire story.
Yet it still managed to creep me the hell out, make me jump every time there was a noise in the house, and the ending had me wanting to start over and reread the whole thing. Who knew?
The brilliance of Child 44 came from two simple and intertwined themes: the nightmare of Stalinist Russia which created an environment of mistru...moreSigh.
The brilliance of Child 44 came from two simple and intertwined themes: the nightmare of Stalinist Russia which created an environment of mistrust and betrayal. In Child 44, a child serial killer is running rampant, there's mystery the of the children at the beginning of the story, and the tyrannical government that turns its own people into traitors. To put it simply, the bad guys were nowhere and everywhere all at once, and you had no idea who was who.
And along came Khrushchev ... and along came The Secret Speech. The bad guys are no longer hidden in back alleyways with trenchoats and big fur hats, they're not former friends turned informants any more. Noooo, now the bad guys are in your face. We now have a boring, totally unbelievable female character who managed to live through some death camps, became the leader of an all-male gang, and seeks revenge (my God what an original plot twist! revenge!) on her former interrogator, the hero from the first novel. I suppose this could work if the book were well-written. It wasn't. I've read cereal boxes with better stories and comic books with better action scenes, and I'm pissed off that I found grammatical mistakes and spelling errors (no shit) in a book I spent the last 3 months waiting eagerly to read. The writing was rushed and some of these scenes I swear were stolen from movies. UGH. Waste of time.
Well, well, well. Now here's a thriller with a nice twist: a serial killer is on the loose in Stalinist Russia. Except that in Stalinist Russia there...moreWell, well, well. Now here's a thriller with a nice twist: a serial killer is on the loose in Stalinist Russia. Except that in Stalinist Russia there is no such thing as crime. Well, except for political crimes like reading banned litterature, looking at someone the wrong way, "plotting" against the state by working too close to a Western embassy, making a drunken joke about Stalin, etc. But murder? No, comrade. Not unless Siberia suddenly sounds good to you.
What you end up with is a fast-paced mystery about a desperate manhunt for a serial killer, and a flawed political system trying to stop it at all costs. What can I say? KICK ASS.
Cool story, ending a little too neat, but over all, ROCK! (less)
Oh God, it just NEVER ended! The first half of the book was good, until Salander disappeared from the story for a good 350 pages. You don't take the m...moreOh God, it just NEVER ended! The first half of the book was good, until Salander disappeared from the story for a good 350 pages. You don't take the main character away for a quarter of the book. Almost painful to read, was definitely skimming at the end.
In all practical theory, this book should be on my 'Sucked' shelf. It's a tale of the Middle Ages, the gross injustices of the time, and it truly amou...moreIn all practical theory, this book should be on my 'Sucked' shelf. It's a tale of the Middle Ages, the gross injustices of the time, and it truly amounts to a thousand-page Medieval soap opera. It hasn't got much to do with it's predecessor The Pillars of the Earth, except that it's in the same location 200 years later, with characters that are "descendants" of the Pillars characters. There's none of the complex building and architectural aspects found in Pillars, the graphic sex and violence has been toned down, several aspects of the plot are predictable, and the dialogue seems strikingly modern for a novel set in the 14th century. So, why is this book not on my 'Sucked' shelf? ...
Because it KICKED ASS.
With all of the above-mentioned problems in the book, it takes on hell of an author to pull off this kind of novel. Kenn Follett just plain rules. The story goes at a breakneck pace, the descriptions of the feudal system are fascinating, and the characters are complex and multi-faceted. For every (small) predictable plot twist, there are a million little shockers, and at the end, there are a few questions about the truth lingering. Frickin great.
I also found Follett's descriptions of the complete powerlessness of women and the ultimate authority of the nobles described with total intensity, and they are displayed over and over again through the stories of the characters. Equally interesting were the power struggles between the church, the people, and the nobility. Conflict everywhere! Love it!
Another great aspect of this book was the concentration on Medieval ideas about health and medicine, especially during the time of the plague. Given that monks are the only physicians, the best cures are blood-letting and applying goat-shit to open wounds to form a "healthy" pus. If you sit closer to the altar in the church hospital, you'll heal faster. [Although slight scientific advances are made in the book, the lingering affects of the church's bogus medical ideas seem to have transcended the centuries to live on in modern Italy: cover your stomach to avoid catching a cold, wait 3 hours after eating before you swim or you'll drown, sunflower oil is good for the flu, humidity causes low blood pressure, and canker sores are caused by indigestion. A complete aversion to all forms of medicine are also fundamental in this society. (i.e. Yesterday my French friend Sandrine had a headache. Italians don't like to take Aspirin because it will "destroy your liver," but Sandrine is French and has no problem with taking meds, so I offered her an Aleve. "If you don't want medicine, be Italian and kiss this," I said to her, holding up my pocket-rosary.)]
Anyway, great book, totally fascinating, very different from Pillars of the Earth, and written by a guy who truly is a master writer.
So I read "The Book of the Dead" -- the 7th book in this series -- first, and I found it gripping, terrifying, wonderful. So I immediately ordered Rel...moreSo I read "The Book of the Dead" -- the 7th book in this series -- first, and I found it gripping, terrifying, wonderful. So I immediately ordered Relic, the first book in the series, and I found myself just skimming it so I could finish it and move on with my life.
It's too difficult to jump from book seven to book one. In Relic, the characters aren't developed, and while the story is creative and unique, it's very similar to book 7, except book 7 is better. Relic just seemed like an experimental first novel, dated to the 90's and just ... meh, whatever.
I'm definitely going to read more books in the Pendergast series, though. Everyone needs at least one mass market paperback guilty pleasure read every now and then. (less)
Read this when I was stuck in an Italian hospital after an appendectomy when I was sixteen. Loved this and would love to reread it, plus the sequel. T...moreRead this when I was stuck in an Italian hospital after an appendectomy when I was sixteen. Loved this and would love to reread it, plus the sequel. Thanks to Nicole for introducing me to this one. :)(less)
I normally never buy NY Times bestsellers, as it's usually the morons of America that cause the shittiest books ever written to end up on this list. T...moreI normally never buy NY Times bestsellers, as it's usually the morons of America that cause the shittiest books ever written to end up on this list. The Book of the Dead was an exception I made. This time American readers got it RIGHT! I just finished this book and I'm still reeling.
This book is the way a thriller/myster should be written. It's full of complex, well-developed characters, it has an evil genius (part Hannibal Lecter, part Sideshow Bob) conspiring to ruin lives, a cooped-up mysterious girl living in a NYC mansion, seduction, explosions, hypnosis, prison escapes, murders, light shows, ancietnt Egyptian curses, a final showdown on a FRICKIN VOLCANO in Italy, AND A BOMBSHELL ENDING! Christ, this book RULES! -- and it's all written in such a fast-paced way that you NEVER get bored. Extra bonuses?
1) You can NEVER predict anything. Any half-wit could have predicted the ending of The Da Vinci Code, and elements of other great thrillers like Red Dragon and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo also have predictable parts. Not this one. The writers are too smart for you, and they stay 10 steps ahead at all times.
2) The two main characters KICK ASS. The evil genius isn't just bad, he's a meniachal nut-case that you almost have to admire for his psychotic brilliance. His brother, the equally brilliant FBI agent, gets his ass kicked just enough to make him believable, but not a wussy. ROCK ON.
3) I didn't even know until half way through the book that it's the most recent in a series. They give away nothing about the other books, so I can go back to number one and start reading without knowing what happened. WOOHOO!
4) Most importantly, this book isn't just a story. When a book is just a story, I get driven nuts. Good authors, like these ones, include other shit in their books because they're SMART and they know how to keep a reader interested. This book will have you googling shit, looking for places on maps, trying to find out more information about historical figures, downloading classical musicians you'd never ever heard of, and checking up on Oscar Wilde quotes, etc. THIS, to me, is what makes a novel great: elements of intelligence, and not just a stupid story. Think I'm wrong? Uhhh, two words for you: Ken Follet. Here are some more: A.S. Byatt. William Styron. Margaret Atwood. I can keep this up all day.
Anyway, AWESOME READ, am SO going to read this entire series. ROCK AND ROLL!! (less)
**Dude, I just watched the Swedish film "När mörkret faller" (When Darkness Falls), a crappy movie about violence in Stockholm. But it made me think b...more**Dude, I just watched the Swedish film "När mörkret faller" (When Darkness Falls), a crappy movie about violence in Stockholm. But it made me think back to this book, which constantly refers to stats about violence against women in Sweden. Something is seriously up in Sweden. Gives me the creeps even more than Swtizerland.**
Wow. 500+ pages and entertaining right up to the last sentence? Lingers in the mind long after the book is finished? Geez. I didn't think it could be done in today's fiction world, except books for the morons who feel the need to "research" The da Vinci Code. Time to create a new shelf for this one, entitled: kicked ass.
There are several mysteries going on in this novel, from the strange disappearance of a young girl decades ago, to financial scandals in the curious backdrop of Sweden. Definitely original. The characters are fascinating and the story, engrossing.
The book gets four stars for keeping me massively entertained for the better part of the week, but it loses a star for some small issues that drove me so nuts that they are worth mentioning:
1) All financial terms are reported in the Swedish kroner, which is fair considering that it's a Swedish book. However, the translator could have at least added the equivalent of Euros or Pounds or Dollars so that the majority of readers -- that is, people not familiar with the value of the Swedish currency -- don't have to go on xe.com to try to figure out just how much money we're talking about.
2) Uhhhh ... can we have an American translation, please? I TEACH ESL FROM BRITISH TEXTBOOKS, AND I STILL HAD TO TEXT MY BRITISH FRIEND AND ASK FOR DEFINITIONS. One word: Haberdashery? FABRIC STORE!!! Yeah.
3) The family tree in the first few pages helps, but the character names and places are so close that they're endlessly confusing if you're not Swedish: Henrik, Harold (who live in Hedeby near Hedestad, by the way), Harriet, Berger the lover and Birger the crazy relative, Gustav, Gregor, Gerda, Gottfried .... ARHGHG. Drove me nuts!
4) The codes in Harriet's notebook and the mystery of why Cecilia Vanger appears in every photograph = predictable. That being said, the rest of the book is such a nightmare explosion of "who the hell saw that coming?!" that it makes up for it.
5) "Left-wing media liberal" + "socialist/communist" Swedish dude (just quoting FOX News here) = our author, who saturates the novel with his politics. I'm a liberal, so I don't care, but when characters become the mouthpiece for your political views, you lose creativity points with me.
On the whole? A great guilty-please/summer-read. Kicked ass for the most part. Read it! :) (less)
Well, I waited six months for this book to come out on paperback (I live in Italy so €35 for a hardcover book is out of the question) and I actually f...moreWell, I waited six months for this book to come out on paperback (I live in Italy so €35 for a hardcover book is out of the question) and I actually found it to be the least impressive of the author's novels.
"Red Dragon" and the Hannibal series have long been my guilty pleasures, but this just wasn't that great. I appreciated only the author's knowledge of Euorope after WW2 (info that I could've googled myself, however) and the insights into Japanese and post WW2 culture in Russia.
Other than that, as usual, nothing spectacular about the writing style, and the story was banal and predictable. I still liked it though. Worth waiting for paperback, and worth the €9 I spent on it. ;)(less)
Read this in college for relief when I could no longer stand The Canterbury Tales and the other horrors that were revealed to me after I declared my E...moreRead this in college for relief when I could no longer stand The Canterbury Tales and the other horrors that were revealed to me after I declared my English major.
This book scared the living crap out of me, to the point that I couldn't read it unless my boyfriend was in my dorm room.
The best part? Unlike most thrillers, this one's not all's well that end's well. CHRIST it was scary. Loved it. (less)
La Petite Américaine
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