Benjamin
read and liked
Miss Purl's
review of Bedazzled (Skye's Legacy #2):
"Oh my god. Bertrice Small. Why did I even try?
Um, it’s a Bertrice Small book. I went into it expecting it to be pretty bad. And it is. Bad and dated and full of revenge sex. Also, set in a harem, so there is this one scene that, had i...more "
"Oh my god. Bertrice Small. Why did I even try?
Um, it’s a Bertrice Small book. I went into it expecting it to be pretty bad. And it is. Bad and dated and full of revenge sex. Also, set in a harem, so there is this one scene that, had i...more "
Benjamin
read and liked
Julie's
review of Death and the Hubcap: A Trudy Roundtree Mystery:
"My rating on this book probably isn't exactly fair. There were a couple of fairly long gaps in my reading, so I had a tough time each time getting back into the swing of things. But the pacing seemed off and the ending was so anticlimactic I wonder...more "
"My rating on this book probably isn't exactly fair. There were a couple of fairly long gaps in my reading, so I had a tough time each time getting back into the swing of things. But the pacing seemed off and the ending was so anticlimactic I wonder...more "
bookshelves: currently-reading, humor, science-fiction
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bookshelves: science-fiction
Mind-blowing.
Like a lot of Herbert fans, I was introduced to Frank Herbert through Dune and its original quintet of sequels. And like a lot of Herbert fans, I kind of stopped there. It was only later, years later, that I bothered to read some of Herbert's other stuff. And while the Dune saga still represents his most complete vision and best storytelling (at least through the first four books), and is deservedly his best-known work, I've started to realize that some of his most truly impressive feats of imagination and intelligence lie within his books outside of the series. Destination: Void, with its penetrating insights on the nature of consciousness, is one such book. The Dosadi Experiment (actually a sequel to Whipping Star, but which I accidentally read first), which takes a much more detailed look than Dune at exactly how humans might evolve in a hyper-hostile environment, is another. And Whipping Star is absolutely in that same class.
Here's just one example of Herbert's genius: One thing that was shocking to me, in reading Whipping Star, is how deeply Herbert approached the idea of communication between humans and aliens. Extraterrestrial contact is such a basic staple of science fiction that it's amazing how little some SF authors seem to think it through. On the low end of the depth continuum you have the Star Trek and Star Wars universes, where the vast majority of aliens are just humans with weird bumps on their heads, and most of them happen to speak English as a second language for your convenience. Certainly there are cultural disconnects as humans deal with Klingons, or Wookiees, but they're roughly on a par with "Crocodile Dundee making his way through New York City" in their severity. Slightly better thought through than those examples might be Larry Niven's aliens in Known Space: clearly, they think differently than humans, and understanding is rarely perfect, but everyone seems to have magic translator boxes and once again, the real problem of interspecies communication is hand-waved away. Closer yet to a realistic treatment would be Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, where the Mars-raised human, Valentine Michael Smith, knew the words and syntax of English, but that was no guarantee of clear communication because his whole way of thinking and set of experiences was so vastly different to an Earthling's.
Heinlein is the first SF author who appears to have honestly thought the thing through, and Herbert takes it to a whole different level in Whipping Star. As the protagonist, Jorj X. McKie, attempts to communicate with the mysterious Caleban, the basic breakdown in understanding is evident, and the characters' frustration is palpable and believable. Herbert makes the reader think of what it would be like to deal with a creature that's as intelligent as a human, maybe more so, but not at all human. The dialogue between McKie and Fannie Mae alone makes this book worth the price of purchase, and the book is filled to bursting with other ideas besides that, in spite of being short and fast-paced. For one, it takes a unique and plausible stab at FTL travel and time travel.
An enormously impressive and enjoyable book. I give it four stars instead of five only because, much like Destination: Void, the story is a ramshackle thing, mostly meant to convey Herbert's ideas from Point A to Point Z. It's still more than worth the read, though, if you're into science fiction that makes you think. ]]>
W. Somerset Maugham was a master of the novel as well as the short story, and here he manages to cover the elusive middle ground. This is a very short novel, weighing in at a scant 209 Harry Potter-formatted* pages, and it reads like one. Not that that's a bad thing! Where other Maugham classics like Of Human Bondage develop slowly, refusing to be rushed, this book moves at a ripping pace.
Most of Maugham's formidable strengths are here, fully realized: an ear for authentic, snappy, gently funny dialogue; vivid powers of description; and above all, wonderfully believable characters. I think Somerset Maugham wrote female characters better than any male writer who came before him, not to mention many females who came before him and most males who came after. In addition, much like The Razor's Edge, Up At the Villa manages to poke a sardonic, yet affectionate finger at upper-class society. I think Maugham was the perfect author to chronicle the long, slow final decline of the British Empire.
All in all, this was a surprising, exhilarating, and very fun little book that I read in about three hours, and I highly recommend you do the same. It's an easy, worthy introduction to Maugham, or an excellent addition for someone who's already read one or all of his big three (Of Human Bondage, The Razor's Edge, and The Moon and Sixpence.)
* Huge typeface, huge margins, huge line spacing. ]]>
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by Frank Herbert
The first quote is almost Randian. ]]>
by Stephen King
If you broke the series apart and ignored the overarching storyline, this is the best book of the seven as a standalone novel, and it ain't even close. ]]>
bookshelves: humor, non-fiction
The first Bill Bryson book I read was A Short History of Nearly Everything, and I came away from it not really understanding the comparisons between Bryson and Dave Barry. A Short History had moments of humor, but was mostly a collection of gee-whiz facts and observations about Earth and the universe, put into perspective adroitly by the author. I loved the book, but high humor it wasn't.
About 20 pages into A Walk in the Woods, I said to myself, "This is more like it." I said that between loud laughs that were frankly embarrassing as I read on a crowded bus. To compare Bryson to Barry sells him short, I think: at worst, he's an erudite Barry, full of narrative and descriptive surprises, and sporting an impressive mastery of the language. This book was fast, hilarious without being unbelievable, and hit serious notes at all the right moments. I can't wait to read more of Bill Bryson's work. ]]>
"So far, this is funnier than A Short History of Nearly Everything. I've been cracking up."
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