false 25 22 22 true 5801713 read 0 true 1271451 currently-reading 0 true 1271450 to-read http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/73534205 Jacques's review of Appleseed
by John Clute

Well, you know, I'd heard of it. Jessica (who was sitting next to me at the time) had certainly heard of it and probably knows a thing or two about it, I dare say. It's true that I wasn't consulting a lot of outside sources; I doubt I'd have bothered much even if I hadn't been on a plane. Perhaps that speaks poorly of my willingness to meet the author halfway. But, I mean... he goes out of his way to define "azulejaria" and "mappemonde" for us in the frontmatter, at least in the edition I borrowed, and I don't feel like I would have missed out on any key plot points or identified less with the characters or gotten anything less out of the book if he'd led with the narrative. Impossible to say now, of course. I do agree that heavy use of imagery may have been part of the problem -- my problem, not his -- in the sense that his primary focus might not have been on telling a story. But I think I like the "crankiness" theory better.... ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/73534205 to: Appleseed (Hardcover) by John Clute
Brought a borrowed copy on a long plane trip and read the whole thing, despite the availability of other books, so that's something. I can sort of imagine liking it, but I didn't really. Well written, though I bet I could convince you otherwise by quoting from almost any page. Atmospheric, densely allusive, novel. Over-the-top flashy. The characters seemed static. The plot felt predestined. The anthropocentrism was tiresome. Maybe I was too tired and cranky when I read this! Who knows? ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/67559018 to: Accelerando (Paperback) by Charles Stross
The events in this book take place before, during, and after the Singularity, the hypothetical asymptote in the rate of technological progress beyond which all extrapolation is clearly futile. Sounds like a pretty bold premise to me, and I have to admit that I was half-expecting a trainwreck, especially never having read any Stross before, so this book came as a pleasant surprise. It was quite readable! Enjoyable, even. I can't recall ever being tempted to put the book down in frustration. I do think I would have enjoyed it much more if it had been more character-centric and less big-idea-centric. It tries to do that, which I appreciate, and it does succeed to a certain extent, but it's maybe not always a good sign when the omniscient narrator keeps telling us how so-and-so feels about what's happening now and how that's because of such-and-such traumatic childhood incident, you know? Speaking of which, if you skip over the frontmatter you might wonder at the amount of redundant exposition, but then again I don't think it was so artless that it would have tipped me off to the fact that each of the nine chapters was originally published separately. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/65492396 to: Un Lun Dun (Hardcover) by China Miéville
I've quite liked some of China Mieville's books and quite disliked others. I was skeptical of this one at first, I think because I was afraid it was going to be too much of a cutesy whirlwind travelogue oo look at me and all of my cool ideas and settings and political relevance -- which, granted, Mieville does better than anyone else I can think of just now -- rather than something where one might actually care what happens to the characters. Luckily it turns out that several of the characters are reasonably awesome. The main character, especially, gets bonus points for being willing to think outside the genre conventions. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/22929207 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (Paperback) by Dave Eggers
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/22929187 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Paperback) by Haruki Murakami
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/22928975 to: South of the Border, West of the Sun (Paperback) by Haruki Murakami
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/22928856 to: What Is the What (Hardcover) by Dave Eggers
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/22035433 Machine Vision Algorithms and Applications (Paperback) by Carsten Steger
Rather good, I thought! ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/22035196 The Dragons of Babel (Hardcover) by Michael Swanwick
]]>