**spoiler alert** This is my kind of book. Long, but not because no one edited it. Stephenson uses every word mindfully, to leisurely but with full fo...more**spoiler alert** This is my kind of book. Long, but not because no one edited it. Stephenson uses every word mindfully, to leisurely but with full focus tell a detailed, winding, never-out-of-control story. He casts his players out, disperses them, develops them, and finally draws them back together as you hang on every word to see where the latest turn of plot will take them, no matter how clear it is that somewhere, somehow, they will in fact all come back together. And it is in that journey that this book lies, not in the inevitable and fairly briskly-handled final scenes.
Few of the reviews of this book that I read really describe it well--they reach for the set of stock phrases in the "thriller" folder, make much of the MMORG that is the business of many of the characters, and fail to get that this is just plain, well-done writing. His descriptions, especially of the BC & Idaho terrain, are lovely and precise, evocative without showing off how many heady adjectives he can string together.
Is this a nerd's book? Undoubtedly so, albeit not so much for the tech in it as for the details of the wilderness trip and appreciation of the fine way the various weapons' characteristics play into the final scenes. The tech is essentially everyday stuff, and while it's delightful to see characters texting and pulling the batteries from their tracking phones and plying Google Earth for maps, no detailed understanding of how to use this stuff this is really required to follow the plot. No one needs to play an MMORG to follow the in-game sequences (and they are relatively few, reviews notwithstanding). Not a lot of authors have stepped up to the casual part these tech tools play in modern life, but Stephenson does it with absolutely no more demands upon the reader than when a character drives an unfamiliar car or a jihadist reaches for another weapon.
Ultimately, this is a thriller about international economics and terrorists, and although readers may need to be coaxed past all of the focus reviews and the cover flap place on the gaming, it will appeal to anyone who'd pick up a well-written book on those topics.(less)
Fairly good sense of place, decent writing, but unrealistic involvement of a civilian in a police investigation. Better than average in a crowded genr...moreFairly good sense of place, decent writing, but unrealistic involvement of a civilian in a police investigation. Better than average in a crowded genre, though. Also, I want that house.(less)
**spoiler alert** I enjoyed this, but somehow it's a slower-paced book than the amount of ground the plot covers would seem to imply. There's a lot of...more**spoiler alert** I enjoyed this, but somehow it's a slower-paced book than the amount of ground the plot covers would seem to imply. There's a lot of steady action and descriptive travel, a fair amount of character coverage and development by the two protagonists, and a nice steampunk/historical feel without it being overbearing. I'm not a big zombie fan, and I thought that they were handled with a nicely light touch as just one of the threats of this new Seattle. I would have responded more strongly to the book, I think, if there had been just one strong element in it that held a lot of plot tension, but even the survival of the protagonists didn't seem too much in question.
I suspect we won't get many teen readers for this book in the library, and am seriously considering that it might do better in the adult section in that the teens who would pick it up tend to read up anyway and this way the Seattle part might attract a few readers who wouldn't read "down" into YA.(less)
I may like this one even better than the Cecil Younger series. The sense of period is excellently-wrought, as is the marine atmosphere as they make th...moreI may like this one even better than the Cecil Younger series. The sense of period is excellently-wrought, as is the marine atmosphere as they make their way up the Inside Passage. And Straley's ability to portray the clueless and passive is marvelously done across all of the major characters. Does anyone do helplessly random better than he?(less)
**spoiler alert** Oh, I'm so glad I went with the reviews and we purchased this for the library: I think it'll be a great addition to our collection a...more**spoiler alert** Oh, I'm so glad I went with the reviews and we purchased this for the library: I think it'll be a great addition to our collection and popular with both girls and boys. It's heavily supernatural, but on top of that are great themes about maturing and family and friends.
For once, Clueless Kid doesn't instinctively save the world singlehandedly: he needs to be bailed out by the other characters and suffers badly for his lack of expertise, even though he clearly begins to master his capabilities as the book unfolds. There's hardly any of the insufferable I-know-I-shouldn't-do-this-so-that's-exactly-what-I'm-going-to-do that characterizes so many of this type of book (I'm glowering at you, Twilight series, amongst a host of others).
The characters are well-drawn and well-differentiated. The cast is spare, but that means the author isn't wasting a lot of time bulking the book up and can keep the plot moving forward at a fairly brisk pace. There are, however, some great incidental bits, like the flying cat/dragon and the attack of the lawn ornaments.
Also, it seems to be a stand-alone. What a pleasure in this day of series books (or single long books broken into installments) to see a plot wrap in a single modest volume. (less)
A simple book of salmon trolling in the commercial fishing fleet in the 40s in the Pacific Northwest. It's nicely written but dated in presentation an...moreA simple book of salmon trolling in the commercial fishing fleet in the 40s in the Pacific Northwest. It's nicely written but dated in presentation and lacks enough character realism to appeal to most of our kid readers. Some of our older fishermen will likely read it for the nostalgia, though.(less)
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