Books read and other media of note: |
Rapture of the Nerds by Corey Doctorow and Charles Stross. I
read this because I've enjoyed the challenging SF visions of Charles
Stross, and was pleased to find the protagonist was a potter,
chosen by fate to save the human and machine world from
intergalactic censure (anhilation). The technology seems pretty
far fetched, but I've read enough about technology to realize that the
digital singularity is plausible, and much of the technology is just
extended from current research... The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon. I remembered watching this on TV in the 60's, and got it as a book on CD to help me through public radio's pledge week. As usual, the book is quite a bit more than the movie, although a lot of the plot gibes well between the two. In spite of its now dated setting, it works well as a spy thriller... Guilty Pleasures by Laurel K Hamilton Although I've enjoyed the Jim Butcher Dresden Files which were apparently inspired by the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series, this beginning book of the series didn't make me want more--too many characters, too visceral, too little sense about what makes a good or bad vampire. The Third Girl by Agatha Christie Poirot takes on the nefarious sixties with a surreal plot of an apparently crazy young woman who thinks she's murdered someone... Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter This book starts off feeling like an Italian movie from the 60's, and it soon becomes apparent why. In a clever conceit, the making of the Movie Cleopatra and the tabloid love life of Liz Taylor and Richard Burton serve as a backdrop for the tragic love and loss story of some commoners. It feels like great fiction, but the end's a bit cloying with all the tying up of loose ends, and I still think Citizen Vince is Walter's best work... Q Road by Bonnie Jo Campbell (library book) This is a sequel to Once Upon a River, written 10 years previously, with enough minor discrepancies to bother a Star Wars fanatic but tolerable when you're willing to concede this is fiction... This book is a slow moving train wreck of suburbia impinging on rural America, with lives slowly imploding from their own issues like pumpkins rolling off the back of a pickup... The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter About half way through I looked at the back flap to see more about Stephen Baxter, and was not surprised to see that he wrote a sequel to H G Wells' The Time Machine, since this book had the same long meandering path through parallel earths that Wells took through time... It was a wonderful coincidence to read it after The Cosmic Jackpot, that explains the possibility of infinite parallel universes which this novel riffs off of. The characters were all a bit stiff, and I can posit a million better plots, but this one will do. Cosmic Jackpot by Paul Davies (hardback) My nearly 90 year old mother read this first and slogged her way through the fairly technical explanations of why our universe is apparently geared for life (and intelligent life), and I was impressed by her enterprise. Although the author carefully avoided equations, he has worked in the arcane and highly mathematical world of cosmology, and does his best to fairly present the competing theories of who are we, where do we come from, and where is the universe headed.... Castle Barebane by Joan Aiken Although I've read nearly every Aiken book I could get my hands on, this one languished on our public library shelves till I bought it from the discards. I'd tried it years ago, and it took patience this time to read my way through her attempt to create a Victorian romance novel, waiting patiently for the "novel of suspense" alluded to on the cover. It was worth wading through, but not as fun as her young adult novels which were also historical but more highly adventurous... I think it was her personal attempt to be a "serious writer," although her juvenile works are far more enduring and valuable as literature, even her Mortimer the Raven books... Once upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell (library book). This touching story of a troubled teen coming to grips with her dysfunctional family and finding a way to adulthood is hard reading, but uplifting in the end... It reminded me of The River Why and Steinbeck... Lullaby Town by Robert Crais (library book). This isn't really a criticism, just an observation, in that if you changed the names to Spenser and Hawk, this would be a Robert Parker novel about helping a woman in distress against her ex husband and the mob... I like Parker, and I like Crais. This is still early in his career, so I expect his writing style to diverge later... Free Fall by Robert Crais (library book). In this novel Crais leaves behind the vigilante shoot em up tough guys mantra for the more nuanced study of an elite police unit getting bent and the human cost of their unraveling... Pines by Blake Crouch I've had broken ribs, and it bothered me how soon the protagonist in this series recovered from his broken ribs and other severe beatings so quickly to more grueling feats of derring do. But it was set in Idaho, so I enjoyed that.. The plot was equal parts action and befuddlement. Spoiler alert--it never made sense why the other agent that came to Pines was tortured to death, or why the town should kill anyone that wants to leave, when conditions outside take care of that... So, yeah, I had issues with it. The author said it was inspired by a tv series, and that makes sense--low bar of credibility in tv series... Break Down by Sara Paretsky (hardback 2012) VI Warshawski epitomizes the modern bull dog with a heart woman detective. The novels always include a believable personal life as well as labryinthine mysteries set in Chicago. It was good to read the latest, after 30 years... And All I Did was Shoot My Man by Walter Mosley (library book) Mosley puts the "black" in "noire" detective fiction, and is one of the best writers in the genre alive today. Leonid McGill has nothing but trouble, used to be nothing but trouble, and now has to make amends for his past by solving a major theft/murder... A Drop of the Hard Stuff by Lawrence Block (library book) The Matthew Scudder books read like an AA manual from the inside, but carry strong mystery plots as well... This one is written from the parenthesis of a modern aged Scudder telling a story to a mobster friend from the early days of his sobriety... I like the "Burglar Who" and Evan Tanner series better, but I enjoy most of Lawrence's writing... Stalking the Angel by Robert Crais If his first book was a tribute to Robert Parker, this one tips the hat to Raymond Chandler, like The Big Sleep, a study of a rich dysfunctional family with disappearances and underworld connections. |
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