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July 19
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Matt
gave
 
to:
The Protector's War (Paperback)
by S.M. Stirling
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Matt said:
"I want badly to like this series, but unfortunately I can't. It reminds me a lot of The Years of Rice and Salt in a way - a grand epic idea, that could be absolutely terrific but fail...more
I want badly to like this series, but unfortunately I can't. It reminds me a lot of The Years of Rice and Salt in a way - a grand epic idea, that could be absolutely terrific but fails miserably in the actual story telling. It's really too bad.
First, the actual writing is extremely awkward. There's a weird series of flashbacks and forwards, with a nonsensical dream sequence tossed in the middle somewhere. One of my criticisms of the first book in the series was that Stirling did a terrible job of describing battle scenes. I do think he was improved in this area for this book. The Wicca stuff is even more over the top than the previous book, or maybe I just got tired of it. I enjoy learning a bit about religions I knew nothing about. But the constant, "Oh Lord....", "By The Horned Lord.....", "Lady be good!", etc, just wore me out. I just skipped the long passages focusing on the religion. I'm sure not much was missed, since the passages I did read I rarely had any idea what they were talking about. Much of the terminology was never explained.
Stirling's writing, and this is a criticism for nearly all fantasy writers, lacks subtlety. I don't know why these writers feel the need to bludgeon their readers over the head with the same developments. We get it - those two are flirting (awkwardly), that guy doesn't like being called Lord, that guy is really evil, etc, etc.
He does cover some interesting societal changes in the first couple books. The ensuing chaos was well done. But the building of a new culture is completely ridiculous. I do agree that in a catastrophe, some fringe beliefs may become more popular. But are we really to believe that thousands of people are going to stop wearing pants and start wearing kilts because guns stop working? That Elvish will become a used language? That people will abandon their prior religion and embrace something as different as Wicca so easily? I realize that this is Science Fiction, and the book develops from the idea of "What if guns and electricity no longer work?" But an explosion in Kilts doesn't seem to me to be a viable answer - pants have proven to be a pretty solid idea.
One additional small criticism. The title is the Protector's War. There's no war in this book.
I may read the final book in the trilogy, I don't know. I'm a guy that once I've got time invested in something I like to see it through to the end. And like I said, I'm trying really hard to like this series. Stirling deserves credit for developing a wonderful, engaging idea. I'm really hoping he can develop a good book out of it at some point....less
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July 13
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Matt
gave
to:
Dies the Fire (Roc Science Fiction)
by S.M. Stirling
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my rating:
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Matt said:
"This book is a pseudo-post apocalyptic story, with the added twist that explosives no longer work, as well. Some sort of "Change" occurs, rendering all electronics and gunpowder/explosives (and steam power, oddly) completely ineffective, p...more
This book is a pseudo-post apocalyptic story, with the added twist that explosives no longer work, as well. Some sort of "Change" occurs, rendering all electronics and gunpowder/explosives (and steam power, oddly) completely ineffective, plunging the world back into medieval periods. 1998 humans running around in swords and shields. Fun concept.
The first half of the book really delivered for me. I dug the reconstruction efforts, people trying to revert to an agricultural lifestyle, quick culture changes, roving bands. I don't think Stirling did it as well as, say, Lucifer's Hammer, but it was entertaining.
The second half of the book gets into battles and war. It really slows down, and I don't think writing this sort of stuff is really a strength of Stirling's. It's really hard to write convincingly of battles and war, and have the stuff make sense to the reader. Stirling struggles here, the battles are jumbled and confusing. Things occur without any real explanation.
In addition to that, the second half of the book shows a group of people making ridiculously fast gains - much faster than seems possible. Within a year they've got casks and casks of mead, for example. Really? That fast? There weren't other priorities? It just really seems like they had too much success too soon. I know we're talking science fiction here, but at least make their building seem feasible.
Stirling did a good job writing about luck, and the necessity of it in a world like that. I'm glad he took that on later in the book, as early on, his two main characters have way too much of it. "Hey, we need a doctor," one character says to another. 3 pages later they trip over one. This happens repeatedly. I think a more interesting book might result from a group that doesn't constantly find people with ideal skillsets. For example, there appear to be a huge amount of people in Idaho that appear to know how to make bows.
The second half was really poor, I'd give it two stars, but the first half was a quite a bit better. It appears Stirling turned this idea into a series, so while the first book was uneven, I'll give the second a try....less
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July 08
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Matt
gave
to:
The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature (Hardcover)
by Steven Pinker
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Matt said:
"Somewhat inconsistent for me. Some sections were really interesting and I blew right through, others were a struggle. Oddly, those two categories were the exact opposite of what I expected when I thumbed through the book at first. I expected to mu...more
Somewhat inconsistent for me. Some sections were really interesting and I blew right through, others were a struggle. Oddly, those two categories were the exact opposite of what I expected when I thumbed through the book at first. I expected to muddle through the sections dealing with verbs (how we learn them, learn how to use them correctly, and categorize them), and counting nouns, and they were the most interesting. I also expected to like the sections dealing with metaphors, naming, and cursing, and they didn't really hit a home run for me.
It's a pretty varied book, with vastly different sections. Pinker says that the book brings together two different trilogies he had previously written. I'd definitely be interested in reading more of his work on specific types of verbs, that was the most interesting section to me. Someone more into linguistics might have a better score for the book than I did, I just picked it up on a lark and didn't know anything about the subject going in. It might resonate better with someone else.
The book is very well written, though. I definitely had to read some paragraphs two or more times, but it never felt terribly over my head. Pinker writes with good humor, and it certainly never felt like a textbook....less
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June 27
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New comment on Amy's review of
The Omnivore's Dilemma
reply to this comment
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Matt
gave
to:
The Omnivore's Dilemma (Hardcover)
by Michael Pollan
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Matt said:
"Really well written look at 4 different meals, covering both their history and the emotions and ethics surrounding them. I hope that I took a lot away from this book, as it certainly gave me a lot to think about.
Pollan constructs and deconstru...more
Really well written look at 4 different meals, covering both their history and the emotions and ethics surrounding them. I hope that I took a lot away from this book, as it certainly gave me a lot to think about.
Pollan constructs and deconstructs 4 meals - an industrial meal by way of McDonalds, an industrial-organic meal from Whole Foods, a "true" organic/locally grown meal from the farms of Virginia, and finally a meal that he hunts and gathers himself in California. Along the way he discusses how each of those meals got to where they are, both the broad history (say of corn, or the history of organic farming), and the more short term. He covers various ethical and political questions raised by each, as well has his personal feelings as a sort of everyman. He deals with each subject intelligently and elegantly. This book was really well written, and it really challenged me. I highly recommend it, although there may be some aspects of this book that can be unpleasant. Reader beware....less
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May 25
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Matt
gave
to:
Resurrection Day (Hardcover)
by Brendan DuBois
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Matt said:
"Alt History Thriller based on the premise that the Cuban Missle Crisis wasn't averted and that the US and Russia had engaged in a nuclear war. The author builds a really credible world, good depth. I think he did a great job with the setting. Real...more
Alt History Thriller based on the premise that the Cuban Missle Crisis wasn't averted and that the US and Russia had engaged in a nuclear war. The author builds a really credible world, good depth. I think he did a great job with the setting. Really, it should have been the focus of the book. Unfortunately the "thriller" side of the story isn't put together as well, and I think in the last 150 pages or so it drags the book down a bit. I think that the author just tried to make the mystery too large, which really wasn't necessary. The setting made the book, and should have been the main course. It reminded me of the last few M. Night Shyamalan films, great setting and mood, but the "mystery" bites off a little more than it can chew and ends up being a disappointment.
Still, an enjoyable, quick read that I think anyone who enjoys playing historical "what ifs" would enjoy. I also appreciated the author being a New Hampshire man himself, although writing this was unnecessary:
"He had never particularly liked New Hampshire. It seemed a mean-spirited, money grubbing Yankee state in the truest sense of the word. They had no sales or income tax and made their money selling cheap booze and cigarettes."
Ouch....less
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May 23
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New comment on Matt's review of
A Darkness at Sethanon (The Riftwar Saga, Book 4)
(see all 2 comments)
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May 22
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Matt
gave
to:
A Darkness at Sethanon (The Riftwar Saga, Book 4)
by Raymond E. Feist
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Matt said:
"A severe disappointment. I've really enjoyed this series, and unlike many others in the genre, I've felt it may have improved as it has gone along. I thought the 3rd book in the series was the best, and had high hopes for this, the 4th. Unfortunat...more
A severe disappointment. I've really enjoyed this series, and unlike many others in the genre, I've felt it may have improved as it has gone along. I thought the 3rd book in the series was the best, and had high hopes for this, the 4th. Unfortunately it was terrible. Not everything has to make sense in a Fantasy series, but most should. Here, little does. It seems like Feist kept writing himself into a corner, then coming up with something convenient (and ridiculous) to get him out. Combine that with the silly "love" stories (at times it reads like a bad Melrose Place script), and this book really misses the mark. I really enjoyed the first 3 books in the series, so I may give another Riftwar book by Feist a try....less
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May 18
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Matt
gave
to:
Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries (Hardcover)
by Neil Degrasse Tyson
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Matt said:
"I've always enjoyed deGrasse Tyson's television work, and have been wanting to read a book of his for a while. This is a collection of his essays (40 or so, averaging about 8 pages) from magazines. He touches on nearly all topics related to astroph...more
I've always enjoyed deGrasse Tyson's television work, and have been wanting to read a book of his for a while. This is a collection of his essays (40 or so, averaging about 8 pages) from magazines. He touches on nearly all topics related to astrophysics and cosmology, ranging from the ancient history of Ptolemy to current research. Some of it is stuff that would be familiar from high school physics or college introductory astronomy (good refresher), but Tyson introduces a good deal of stuff I hadn't read before as well. He's a very talented writer. As it's a collection of previously published essays, however, previously covered material is rehashed (in some cases several times), and he reuses several jokes. No big harm. Great book to refresh and expand knowledge in astrophysics, without reading like a textbook.
One thing I found particularly odd was his repeated railings against television. Strange for a guy who does as much TV as he does....less
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May 13
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Matt
took the never-ending book quiz.
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