Book Reviews

Ok this isn't spec fiction, but man, what a great book. I'm a history buff and so I was intrigued, and Bryson's writing is so good I had to try it.

After reading A Walk in the Woods I was determined to read more of his stuff. That's another great book btw, especially if you are interested in hiking. I just happened to move to Virginia and do a few day hikes on the Appalachian Trail right when my sister sent me the book, so the serendipity was cosmic.

Anyway, in A Short History he focuses on science: basic physics and recent scientific history. This was okay because I'm a scientist (engineer to be precise) but I was hoping to learn more about societies and countries and wars and such. This book doesn't touch those.

The opening hooked me immediately, where he describes how tiny we are and how fleeting our lives are, and how much of a fluke it was that we even exist. His descriptions and prose are amazing and amusing. Then he moves on to physics.

In the middle to end of the book he moves on to recent scientific history, where brings up hundreds of obscure and fascinating tales about early scientists and presents them in a hilarious way.

Many of those stories stuck with me -- like the guy who crusaded to get lead removed from gasoline, and the company who was making millions worldwide putting lead in gasoline pulled political strings and ruined the man's career. He kept at it, and after decades of toil he won. He protected the health of everyone on Earth and no one knows his name (I don't remember it either) or his story (I remember that).

I got this one (as an audiobook) because it was rated so highly on Audible. Everyone gave it five stars out of five, which I find bizarre. I didn't like it much. I guess it's a taste thing.

The writing is superb, the characters are very well done, but not much happens. It's all a bunch of odd characters in a bar swapping stories. There is a lot of humor but mainly in the form of puns, which is how all of the stories start. Then we get introduced to another strange character and learn his/her life story, then there is some kind of resolution to his/her problem. Then it's on to the next batch of puns and the next character.

If you are looking for an example of great characterization and flawless prose, it's here. However, I was looking for more in terms of plot. There is basically none.

I had a really hard time finishing it. Nothing really compelled me to keep reading, except the fact that I paid for it and I kept hoping it would get better.

Oh, there is almost no sf in it. The forewords by the author even admitted that. There is a lot of buildup and even a wind-down by the author, which seemed self-indulgent. I didn't mind it though, because it was quite interesting for me to hear a published author's experiences. In fact, I would say that was the most interesting part of the book.
:shock:

Okay, first off, this series IS sold as "intermediate/young adult fantasy" (seeing as I've been doing some writing in this field--Elevator to the End of the World--I better know what's out there.) However, these three books: 1) The Golden Compass, 2) The Subtle Knife, 3) The Amber Spyglass, have anything but a children's plot. The first book is good. The second is okay (get's you to the third). The third book, though, (so far--half way through) fantastic. This book, the Amber Spyglass, won the Whitebread Book of the Year in England (The best book in all of England spanning all genres, children and adult alike.) The scope of these books are as epic as Tolkien.

These books are very much a precursor to Harry Potter, with an even more amazing plot. Pullman has some serious hutzpah. If you're at all religous (as scifi/fantasy types tend to be less religious than most, though not always--covering my butt) stay a way from these. A number of Christian groups shun Harry Potter. If they had a whiff of this book, they'd be raising some serious "hell".

Anyway, if you got kids of the right age, or like reading children's fantasy (Harry Potter, Wizard of Oz, Narnia, etc.) then this series should not be missed. Besides the Golden Compass has a loveable, viscious, armored, bear, and all the inhabitants have "daemons", and their's an Aeronaut from Texas, and an evil golden monkey!

Now this one I liked. The premise was a bit hard to buy into at first but I always wanted to continue reading it. Which surprised me because it is mostly about interpersonel conflicts. But it did have conflict.

In brief Resnick's tastes and mine are very different. Two of the twenty stories in this volume were at best OK in my opinion. Many were what I call diaries. Sort of a this happened, then this happened, the end. No conflict, no conclusion.

I was on vacation for two weeks so I had a change to do a bit of reading. I picked this up to see what a main stream technology novel was like and on a drive from New Mexico to Colorado my wife and I listened to the DaVinci Code on CD.

Two things about this book. Technically it seems wrong to me. I'm not a cyptologist but like most tech shows on TV is seems that he just uses tech terms to try to show a knowledge of the subject. And he has the cooling to a super computer break down so the computer melts down. The other major iratant is his chaptering. It seems totally random. One chapter is half a page long and ends in the middle of a conversation that continues in the next chapter. Chapter 111 if you want to check it out.

The story is good, the execution of it seems poor.

I found this on slash.org Monday. The Hugo nominatins are out and can be found at: http://www.noreascon.org/hugos/nominees.html to vote on these you have to join NOreascon see: http://www.noreascon.org/memb/

The Nebula awards are being given out this week, see: http://www.sfwa.org/awards/2004/

And for fun see Gollum's Acceptance Speech at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards at: http://www.mtv.com/onair/movieawards/ma03/clips/

A pretty good story. He has definitely done his research. Even though the time travel part is a bit of junk science (which he admits in the afterword) it sounds convincing enough. He took some weird quantum theories and made some huge extrapolations to get time travel to work. The medieval setting was the best part, which is what the story really was about.

His writing was a touch amateurish at times, and the characters were not that interesting. The big Dutch guy (forget his name) ended up being Mr. Medieval and jousting and swordfighting and the whole nine yards. That seemed too convenient for me.

Anyway it was worth a read just for the medieval parts. I read it as an audiobook. I think I'll get Prey next.

Just finished it, as an audiobook. An excellent piece of sci fi, kind of like cyberpunk, set in a kind of near future or alternate present. His style aggressive and laden with similes and vivid descriptions -- very neo-American. The characters are interesting and the plot is adeqaute, but its the world he set up and the story background that sucks you in. When he talks about an online universe I can relate, having played an MMORPG for a year.

I bought this as an audiobook and I'm about 1/3 of the way into it.

It is a little dated, although not as bad as I thought it would be. There could still be an advanced civilization on Mars, we don't really know yet. What dates the book more is what is missing from it -- email, internet, wireless, nanotech.

That aside, the writing is wonderful. Heinlein's dialogue is some of the best I have ever read and the characters are fascinating. The plot immediately pulled me in. Heinlein has created a convincing alien civilization and reveals it slowly.

I can't comment further, yet...