Shawn > Recent Status Updates

I am enjoying the historical narrative, following characters lives, and observing the times through their lives. But there are some interesting grammatical errors, typos, I wish that the reading could be facilitated with more excellence, it’s like the editor did not really clean up the pages.

Very historical

90 minutes remain. It's been a journey, an adventure, & this book's done well to keep that. But the aimlessness is yawn-inducing. Being from So Cal, it's cool to hear about Anaheim, San Diego, the 91 & 15 fwys, Rancho Cucamonga, Temecula, & everywhere else around L.A.
Just disappointed that this book contains so much uneventful encounters. Dialogue's uninteresting & w/out spice, attitude, turmoil or tension.

Teddy had a glock.
Cool, this part's interesting, some imminent danger, & suspense. Will Teddy return? Surprising how many names Varley chooses to use. Some pop up out of nowhere. Are they're even necessary? Might be more effective to write "her" & "the tall guy," etc.
Varley's trilogy is worlds away from this book about the-world-falling-apart. "The White Plague" by Herbert = a true end-of-worlder.

He has yet to convey a visceral sense of danger. Horses, & two hospital trips, & a trailer full of goods. I'm confused. & the stereotypes! Southern Californians are familiar w/the word 'firebrand'--really? We're not. Yes, we've wildfires, but he tries to "make a thing" out of it. We don't say firebrand nor do we say embers. We say fire. & smoke. & wind. & why should I care about Addison's horse?! There's no objective

So boring! The scene w/dogs was sterotypical: big bad Rottweiler, vicious Pit-Bull, & the dumb scene w/lock-jawed Pit-Bull bite. Ugh. Then, the scene w/Afro father & son, Varley chooses to have the one looter be a black dude. Really? And everyone is categorized & typed by race. From a white man, this all comes off as shallow. The protagonist is a comedy writer. Terrible time sympathizing.

Nothing on the bacteria.

Getting a little more interesting, they're now on the move. Definitely dislike all of the cartography, would like more on the actual devastation. The dialogue all feels stilted and without characterization. No accents, no slang, even the women sound no different from the men. When they do speak, it sounds written out, rather than conversational & natural. Why Varley? This is so boring compared to the Wizard trilogy.

Desire to finish in three days (due date) but cannot measure the necessary stamina.

It's painful to learn about slavery. Zanzibar. Those who perished in the desert. Countless lives. Breathing, blinking souls. He puts together the case that slavery, in the U.S., wasn't racism. And that racism wasn't slavery. People will enslave like people all the same. It's this crux upon which many a "color-blind" liberal will be called to give testimony: in diagnosing the ill, & remedying it, art thou seeing true?

Boring

Sowell's research is interesting. His sources, & method for gleaning information. He's covering a wide swath of terrain. Histories of the Irish, Nigerians, Lebanese, Jews, Armenians, et al.
They are essays. I don't get the more smooth feel of a non-fiction book. Much of the writing is based upon describing how the weak are exploited by the powerful. For Sowell, power is intelligence, productive intelligence, & grit.

Sowell's research is interesting. His sources, & method for gleaning information. He's covering a wide swath of terrain. Histories of the Irish, Nigerians, Lebanese, Jews, Armenians, et al.
They are essays. I don't get the more smooth feel of a non-fiction book. Much of the writing is based upon describing how the weak are exploited by the powerful. For Sowell, power is intelligence, productive intelligence, & grit.

The dialogue doesn't match the scenario. People are giving speeches when I'd imagined them to be shouting more non-sensibly. Not sure that Varley has created the atmosphere of peril. & there's little to relate to: a father, two women, one his wife, the other his daughter. They've more supplies than the avg person. Also, Varley's gone overboard on cataloguing every geographic feature. Lists street names & moves on.

Kinda boring. Karen is uninteresting & seems coddled & privileged. Addison has a horse! In LA! And Dave, w/his posse, doesn’t appear to be at any disadvantages: he knew ahead of time, & had $ to prepare.