7 - Crown of Swords and 8 - Path of Daggers
I finished Path of Daggers before I got around to writing about Crown of Swords, so here they are together.
The pace of the action is starting to pick up over these last two books. Everything still runs together; I can't remember what happened in which book. I briefly tried to pick up a different series for a little bit but I felt compelled to keep working at the Wheel of Time.
I normally like to say something about each of the main characters, but there are so many of them and so much to say that I don't know where to start. Jordan keeps at these particular themes with the main characters and it really makes them well developed and vivid, but at the same time some of it gets a little repetitive. I suppose since they all came out several years apart maybe that's a good way to refresh someone's memory of what each person feels like.. but since I am reading them all back to back now it's a little much. Those recurring themes do evolve over time as the characters grow and gain experience, but slowly. I guess the word "evolve" came to mind for a reason.
There are so many characters that the minor ones really get lost in the shuffle. There are long passages - sometimes whole chapters - from the point of view of characters that I know he's introduces and grown over the previous 6,000 pages or so, but it's a shame I can't remember what they were like. There's just too much for me to follow sometimes.
..and, it seems, too much for the author to keep up with. He leaves one of the MAIN main characters in very dire straights at the end of the CoS and just leaves him there for all of PoD. Light, man, what happened to Mat? Maybe they'll get the band back together in the next one.
I almost - damn me - find myself wanting to go back and read them over again from the beginning. I hear there's a graphic novel. Maybe that's the way to go if I want to pick it back up someday. All in all, it's really good. He's not one for much flowery language, but the adventure and plot are so deep and broad and the characters so well done that the story really works (..and works, and works, and works).
9- Winter's Heart
I feel like we've made some good progress here. Good job, Rob.
This book felt balanced. All of the characters progressed here, most of them quite significantly. Mat has been found and his plot line is really good. He doesn't get a heck of a lot done in the world but he's brought to a very significant moment. Perrin didn't do a whole lot, but you can feel her and his significant other are getting somewhere - especially Falie.. and not where she wants to get.
Rand is betrayed again, is saved again and almost dies again. That seems to be a constant for him.
Egwene and Elayne are kicking ass and taking names. Nynaeve seems almost humble and helpful now. I really like this new character Cadsuane that you get to know so much better in this book. All of these Aes Sedai witches are sassy, but she has extra spice. Cadsuane suffers no fools.. except when she has to teach fools how to not be so foolish.
I also totally dig the new venue in this book. Far Madding is a really neat town where magic does not work. It makes it unique and separate from the whole rest of the world in that way. It was interesting to see the characters have to rely on their wits and their martial training to overcome challenges instead of just using The Power for everything.
Again: good job, Robert Jordan.
CoS
p248
"But here we will take care. It is the enemy you underestimate who kills you."
p464
Across the room , Julian paused with his hand over the stones board, giving her a look of outraged innocence. "How often must I say so?" Outraged innocence was one of the things men did best, especially when they were guilty as foxes in the henyard.
PoD
p 205
Quicksilver. A kingfisher flashing by faster than thought. Certainly faster than his thoughts. It would never have occurred to hide so.. flagrantly. But he could see the sense. It was like concealing the fact that you are a murderer by claiming to be a thief. Yet it might work.
P359
"Give up?" Siuan laughed. "I'll be giving up nothing." Her back straightened, and then passion. "The oaths are what makes us more than simply a group of women meddling in the affairs of the world. Or seven groups. Or fifty. The Oaths hold us together, a stated set of beliefs that bind us all, and a single thread running thru every sister, living or dead, back to the first to lay her hands on the Oath Rod. They are what makes us Aes Sedai, not salidar. Any wilder can channel. Men look at what we say from six sides, but when a sister says "This is so," they know it's true, and they trust. Because of the Oaths, no queen fears that sisters will lay waste to her cities. The worst villain knows that he's safe in his life with a sister unless he tries to harm her. Oh, the White Cloaks call them lies, and some people have strange ideas about what the Oaths entail, but there are very few places that an Aes Sedai cannot go, and be listened to, because of the Oaths. The Three Oaths are what it is to be Aes Sedai, the heart of being Aes Sedai. Throw that on the rubbish heap, and we'll be sand washing away in the tide. Give up? I'll be gaining."
p590
And these were Rand's rooms; the comfort of that alone outweighed any amount of oppression. An irritating thought. This was Rand's room if her ever deigned to return.
A very irritating thought. Being in love with a man seemed to consist largely of a great many irritating admissions to yourself.
WH
p660
Great captains earned their reputation not just by laying brilliant plans, but for still being able to find victory after those plans began to fall apart.
P697
She is wrong, Lews Therin murmured in his head. Battles can alter history. He did not sound pleased with it. The trouble is, you can not say how history will be changed until it is too late.
p966
"You can never know everything," Lan said quietly, "and part of what you know is always wrong. Perhaps even the most important part. A portion of wisdom lies in knowing that. A portion of courage lies in going on anyway."
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Saturday, September 30, 2017
#94 The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
True to form, Asimov wrote a book that actually fits another genre better but takes place in a futuristic setting. This is detective murder mystery novel set set in New York several thousand years hence. Humanity has spread to the starts, yet the people that have remained on earth have turned suspicious of their celestial brethren, seeing them as haughty and elitist. Earthlings generally stay on earth and the one Spacer town, located right next to New York, is called called "Space Town". Yep.. just Space Town. Way to stretch for that one, Isaac.
There has been a Murder in Space Town and New York police detective Elijah Bailey is tasked to solve it with the help of an unusually human looking robot partner R. Daniel Olivaw. The problem is Earthlings not only dislike Spacers, they fear and distrust (but still use) robots. The suspect couldn't possibly be a spacer because they are above such silly things like murder, but humans almost never venture outside of their completely encapsulated giant cave like cities. ..so whodunit?
It's a good book, but nothing terribly moving. I think that's been my reaction to all of Asimov's works. If I give it just a B+ grade is that a sacrilege? Will I be cursed by the Sci-Fi gods forever? Would the Sci-Fi gods see the irony in using such a Fantasy device as a curse? We'll see, I guess..
Introduction
Even as a youngster, though, I could not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presented a danger, the solution was ignorance. To me, it always seemed that the solution has to be wisdom.
p21
The government called it growing pains. It shook it's collective head sorrowfully and assured everyone that after a necessary period of adjustment, a new and better life would exist for all.
P133
"Because the human form is the most successful generalized forem in all of nature. We are not a specialized animal, Ms. Bailey, except for our nervous system and a few odd items. If you want a design capable of doing a great many widely various things, , all fairly well, you can do no better then to imitate the human form. Besides that, our entire technology is based on the human form...
It is easier to have robots imitate the human shape than to redesign radically the very philosophy of our tools."
There has been a Murder in Space Town and New York police detective Elijah Bailey is tasked to solve it with the help of an unusually human looking robot partner R. Daniel Olivaw. The problem is Earthlings not only dislike Spacers, they fear and distrust (but still use) robots. The suspect couldn't possibly be a spacer because they are above such silly things like murder, but humans almost never venture outside of their completely encapsulated giant cave like cities. ..so whodunit?
It's a good book, but nothing terribly moving. I think that's been my reaction to all of Asimov's works. If I give it just a B+ grade is that a sacrilege? Will I be cursed by the Sci-Fi gods forever? Would the Sci-Fi gods see the irony in using such a Fantasy device as a curse? We'll see, I guess..
Introduction
Even as a youngster, though, I could not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presented a danger, the solution was ignorance. To me, it always seemed that the solution has to be wisdom.
p21
The government called it growing pains. It shook it's collective head sorrowfully and assured everyone that after a necessary period of adjustment, a new and better life would exist for all.
P133
"Because the human form is the most successful generalized forem in all of nature. We are not a specialized animal, Ms. Bailey, except for our nervous system and a few odd items. If you want a design capable of doing a great many widely various things, , all fairly well, you can do no better then to imitate the human form. Besides that, our entire technology is based on the human form...
It is easier to have robots imitate the human shape than to redesign radically the very philosophy of our tools."
Wednesday, September 13, 2017
#90 The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock entry 2 of 2
I already posted about the first two books several weeks ago and I really liked them. I couldn't find book 3 and I just finished number 4 - The Vanishing Tower, and number 5 - The Bane of the Black Sword. I think there is another three, but I'm calling it here. No mas.
It took me way too ling to trudge thru those short books (175 and 157 pages respectively) because ot just got to be a chore. Book 4 pretty much caught me up on what I missed in book three - which is the same as books 1, 2, 5 and probably all the rest too. Super powerful dude kills people with super powerful sword and when he is in a bind, he gets help from super powerful elementals and gods and stuff.. over and over again.
The charm of the hero being mighty instead of meek is lost on the rehash of the same old story. If anyone reading this can attest to the notion that it gets better in the later books please comment. If that is indeed the case maybe I'll go read them too.. If not, we're done here.
TVT
p130
The sand rippled as the wind blew it so that the dunes seemed like waves in an almost petrified sea. Stark fangs of rock jutted here and there - the remains of mountain randes that had been eroded by the wind. And a mournful sighing could be heard, as if the sand remembered when it had been rock and the stones of cities and the bones of men and beasts and longed for its resurrection, sighed at the memory of death.
TBotBS
p85
Framed in the doorway stood the King from Beneath the Hill.
The long-dead monarch had been raised by Veerkad whose own blood had completed the work of the resurrection. He stood in rotting robes, his fleshless bones covered by tight, tattered skin. His heart dod not beat, for he had none; he drew no breath, for his lungs had been eaten by the creatures which feasted on such things. But, horribly, he lived..
It took me way too ling to trudge thru those short books (175 and 157 pages respectively) because ot just got to be a chore. Book 4 pretty much caught me up on what I missed in book three - which is the same as books 1, 2, 5 and probably all the rest too. Super powerful dude kills people with super powerful sword and when he is in a bind, he gets help from super powerful elementals and gods and stuff.. over and over again.
The charm of the hero being mighty instead of meek is lost on the rehash of the same old story. If anyone reading this can attest to the notion that it gets better in the later books please comment. If that is indeed the case maybe I'll go read them too.. If not, we're done here.
TVT
p130
The sand rippled as the wind blew it so that the dunes seemed like waves in an almost petrified sea. Stark fangs of rock jutted here and there - the remains of mountain randes that had been eroded by the wind. And a mournful sighing could be heard, as if the sand remembered when it had been rock and the stones of cities and the bones of men and beasts and longed for its resurrection, sighed at the memory of death.
TBotBS
p85
Framed in the doorway stood the King from Beneath the Hill.
The long-dead monarch had been raised by Veerkad whose own blood had completed the work of the resurrection. He stood in rotting robes, his fleshless bones covered by tight, tattered skin. His heart dod not beat, for he had none; he drew no breath, for his lungs had been eaten by the creatures which feasted on such things. But, horribly, he lived..
Monday, July 31, 2017
#72 A Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
I definitely liked it better than 20,000 leagues under the sea. He does spend a full two pages talking about how coal is formed, but there's not as much of that as in the other one. Harry, his uncel Professor VonHardwig and the mighty Hans climb up a volcano in Iceland after reading a several hundred year old text someone claiming it lead them to the center of the earth. Hilarity ensues.
Well, not really. It is a bit drawn out in parts but rather good overall. I feel like he hit the mark more with capturing the dramatic episodes in this book. The best part is the crushing loneliness and dark despair when the party gets separated.
P127 Lost! Lost! LOST!!!
Lost at a depth which, to mu finite understanding, appeared to be immeasurable. These thirty leagues of the crust of the earth weighed upon my shoulders like the globe on the shoulders of Atlas. I felt myself crushed by an awful weight. It was indeed a position to drive the sanest man to madness!
I tried to bring my thoughts back to the world so long forgotten. It was with the greatest difficulty that I seceded in doing so.
...
They were before me, but now unreal. Under the influence of a terrible hallucination I saw the whole incident of our journey pass before me like the scenes of a panorama. I said to myself that, if in my position I retained the most faint and shadowy outline of hope, it would be a sure sign of approaching delirium. It were better to give way wholly to despair!
In fact, I did but reason with calmness and philosophy, what human power was there in existence able to take me back to the surface of the earth, and ready, too, to slot asunder, to rend in twain those huge mighty vaults which stand above my head?
p129
I tried to cry aloud, but hoarse, hollow, and inarticulate sounds alone could make themselves heard through my parched lips. I literally panted for breath.
In the midst of all these terrible sources of anguish and despair, a new horror took possession of my soul. My lamp, by falling down, had got out of order. I had no means of repairing it. Its light was already becoming paler and paler and would soon expire.
...
At last, one final trembling flame remained in the lamp; I followed it with all the power of my vision; I gasped for breath; I concentrated upon it all the power of my soul, as upon the last scintillation of light i was ever destined to see: and then I was to be lost forever in Cimmerian and tenebrous shades.
Well, not really. It is a bit drawn out in parts but rather good overall. I feel like he hit the mark more with capturing the dramatic episodes in this book. The best part is the crushing loneliness and dark despair when the party gets separated.
P127 Lost! Lost! LOST!!!
Lost at a depth which, to mu finite understanding, appeared to be immeasurable. These thirty leagues of the crust of the earth weighed upon my shoulders like the globe on the shoulders of Atlas. I felt myself crushed by an awful weight. It was indeed a position to drive the sanest man to madness!
I tried to bring my thoughts back to the world so long forgotten. It was with the greatest difficulty that I seceded in doing so.
...
They were before me, but now unreal. Under the influence of a terrible hallucination I saw the whole incident of our journey pass before me like the scenes of a panorama. I said to myself that, if in my position I retained the most faint and shadowy outline of hope, it would be a sure sign of approaching delirium. It were better to give way wholly to despair!
In fact, I did but reason with calmness and philosophy, what human power was there in existence able to take me back to the surface of the earth, and ready, too, to slot asunder, to rend in twain those huge mighty vaults which stand above my head?
p129
I tried to cry aloud, but hoarse, hollow, and inarticulate sounds alone could make themselves heard through my parched lips. I literally panted for breath.
In the midst of all these terrible sources of anguish and despair, a new horror took possession of my soul. My lamp, by falling down, had got out of order. I had no means of repairing it. Its light was already becoming paler and paler and would soon expire.
...
At last, one final trembling flame remained in the lamp; I followed it with all the power of my vision; I gasped for breath; I concentrated upon it all the power of my soul, as upon the last scintillation of light i was ever destined to see: and then I was to be lost forever in Cimmerian and tenebrous shades.
Wednesday, June 28, 2017
#24 2001 A Space Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke
The biggest revelation here is that the book is actually based on the screenplay for the film. Clarke and Kubrick collaborated on this from the start.
And just like the movie, the book almost gets too big for itself. Clarke's other works seem to expand in scope until they reach a point where the mind can't comprehend what is being imagined. I guess that's the point really. To illustrate how really small we are in the vast possibilities of the universe.
Naturally, being married fro the start, the book and the film follow quite closely. I understand the thoughts behind the monolith at the dawn of man. I understand it's prompting of the man-apes to evolve and use the brain.
Then skip the next three million years.
The monolith found on the moon sets in motion the voyage whereon the monolith reaps the bounty of the progress of human intelligence.
Hal is actually not really integral to the overall plot. It is entirely a side story. A good one, but Poole was already going to rendezvous with the monolith, even if Hal didn't wig out.
P xvii
Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. Since the dawn of time, roughly a hundred billion human beings have walked the planet earth.
Now that is an interesting number, for by a curious coincidence there are approximately a hundred billion stars in out local universe, the Milky Way. So for every man who has ever lived, in the Universe there shines a star.
P107
Sometimes, during lonely hours on the control deck, Bowman would listen to this radiation. He would turn up the gain until the room filled with a crackling, hissing roar; out of this background, at irregular intervals, emerged brief whistles and peeps like the cries of demented birds. It was an eerie sound, for it had nothing to do with man; it was as lonely and as meaningless as the murmur of waves on a beach, or the distant crash of thunder beyond the horizon.
And just like the movie, the book almost gets too big for itself. Clarke's other works seem to expand in scope until they reach a point where the mind can't comprehend what is being imagined. I guess that's the point really. To illustrate how really small we are in the vast possibilities of the universe.
Naturally, being married fro the start, the book and the film follow quite closely. I understand the thoughts behind the monolith at the dawn of man. I understand it's prompting of the man-apes to evolve and use the brain.
Then skip the next three million years.
The monolith found on the moon sets in motion the voyage whereon the monolith reaps the bounty of the progress of human intelligence.
Hal is actually not really integral to the overall plot. It is entirely a side story. A good one, but Poole was already going to rendezvous with the monolith, even if Hal didn't wig out.
P xvii
Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. Since the dawn of time, roughly a hundred billion human beings have walked the planet earth.
Now that is an interesting number, for by a curious coincidence there are approximately a hundred billion stars in out local universe, the Milky Way. So for every man who has ever lived, in the Universe there shines a star.
P107
Sometimes, during lonely hours on the control deck, Bowman would listen to this radiation. He would turn up the gain until the room filled with a crackling, hissing roar; out of this background, at irregular intervals, emerged brief whistles and peeps like the cries of demented birds. It was an eerie sound, for it had nothing to do with man; it was as lonely and as meaningless as the murmur of waves on a beach, or the distant crash of thunder beyond the horizon.
#90 The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock 2 of 8
Now THIS is high fantasy. I haven read a book quite like these. It is fast moving, grand, and epic in every aspect. It only take a few pages for you to understand Elric and his surroundings. He is the emperor of a nation that ruled with ultimate and fierce authority over all of the world for time out of mind. But he is the lesser son of a not as great father of a line that is failing of a society that has gotten complacent. He is a warrior with magic armor and sword. He is a wizard with powerful potions and control of the elements.
He is everything that the meager "little guy" heroes of all the other fantasy books are not. And that's nice for a change.
The story sweeps right along as he vies with his would be usurper cousin who is after his throne. He sails his fleet of gigantic golden ships out to destroy raiders. He speaks with elementals. He comes back from the dead. All in 180 pages!
In the second book he cavorts with more elementals, sails to wondrous new planes of existence, merges with other powerful warriors to destroy a pair of minor gods, resurrects the soul of a colossus that his ancestors once fled from before they became rulers of the rest of the world.. in a mere 160.
Some books you are barely getting to get acquainted by page 340. I lipke it!
P19 - book 1 Elric of Melinbone
"He will not be happy until you are destroyed, Elric."
"Or is destroyed himself, Cymoril... Your brother is inclined to absolutes, is he not? How the weak hate weakness."
P45 book 2 The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
The sword flung back, its blade slicing through tens of thousands of dimensions and drawing their power to it. Then it began to swing back. It swung and black light bellowed from its blade. It swung and Agack became aware of it. His body began to alter. Down toward the sorcerer's great eye, down towards Agack's intelligence pool swept the great black blade.
He is everything that the meager "little guy" heroes of all the other fantasy books are not. And that's nice for a change.
The story sweeps right along as he vies with his would be usurper cousin who is after his throne. He sails his fleet of gigantic golden ships out to destroy raiders. He speaks with elementals. He comes back from the dead. All in 180 pages!
In the second book he cavorts with more elementals, sails to wondrous new planes of existence, merges with other powerful warriors to destroy a pair of minor gods, resurrects the soul of a colossus that his ancestors once fled from before they became rulers of the rest of the world.. in a mere 160.
Some books you are barely getting to get acquainted by page 340. I lipke it!
P19 - book 1 Elric of Melinbone
"He will not be happy until you are destroyed, Elric."
"Or is destroyed himself, Cymoril... Your brother is inclined to absolutes, is he not? How the weak hate weakness."
P45 book 2 The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
The sword flung back, its blade slicing through tens of thousands of dimensions and drawing their power to it. Then it began to swing back. It swung and black light bellowed from its blade. It swung and Agack became aware of it. His body began to alter. Down toward the sorcerer's great eye, down towards Agack's intelligence pool swept the great black blade.
#51 Hyperion by Dan Simmons
It was OK. Good but not great.
Your stereotypical semi-retired space captain has to come out of retirement to accompany a group of grudging pilgrims as they head to the dangerous world of Hyperion. There is a god on Hyperion - the Shrike - who is entwined in the stories of all seven of the group of which The Council is one. The council has a name too somewhere, but nobody ever calls him by it. He goes solely by the odd title of council. Maybe he's not so much of a "captain" but more of a public servant of some sort... I didn't really get his backstory and it didn't seem to matter. It was probably there, but I don't honestly feel like I missed much. Apparently it wasn't all that gripping..
On the voyage to the planet and the march thru the dangerous wasteland haunted by the Shrike they take turns telling their stories as to why they need take this perilous journey in the first place. The priest's story is the best, but It's not even HIS story. He id following in the footsteps of another priest who came as a missionary previously. Why THIS guy needs to come himself.. I don't really know.
The Corporal's story is interesting too. I think he is haunted by the ghost of an ex lover or something. Again, I think I missed something there.
The poet's story makes more sense. He used to live on Hyperion and his writing has some connection with the Shrike slaughtering people. I don't know why he in on the journey, but at least I see the connection.
The private detective; I cant remember why she is involved either. She fell in love with a computer reincarnation of WB Yeats. Neat concept. Pertinent how?
The ship captain just seemed to be along for the ride.
The best story - and the one that firs best for plot - is the professor and his daughter. His baby used to be a scientist investigating mysteries on Hyperion when she was exposed to something that makes her age backwards and forget everything of the days she has lost. It's actually a really cool part of the story. She is an infant now and soon she will progress back to before she was born and ..die?
All in all I think I missed a lot, but I don't feel inspired to go back and figure it out.
Eh.. oh well.
P155
He thought briefly that such an anticlimax would be the universe's fitting verdict on his martial pretensions: the brave warrior floating off in to near-planet orbit.. He would end his life as useless and harmless as a child's runaway balloon.
P192
"Words are the only bullets in the truth's bandoleer. And Poets are the snipers."
P249
Another friend, a child psychologist from the college, once commented that Rachel at age five showed the most reliable indications of true giftedness in a young person: structured curiosity, empathy for others, compassion, and a fierce sense of fair play.
Your stereotypical semi-retired space captain has to come out of retirement to accompany a group of grudging pilgrims as they head to the dangerous world of Hyperion. There is a god on Hyperion - the Shrike - who is entwined in the stories of all seven of the group of which The Council is one. The council has a name too somewhere, but nobody ever calls him by it. He goes solely by the odd title of council. Maybe he's not so much of a "captain" but more of a public servant of some sort... I didn't really get his backstory and it didn't seem to matter. It was probably there, but I don't honestly feel like I missed much. Apparently it wasn't all that gripping..
On the voyage to the planet and the march thru the dangerous wasteland haunted by the Shrike they take turns telling their stories as to why they need take this perilous journey in the first place. The priest's story is the best, but It's not even HIS story. He id following in the footsteps of another priest who came as a missionary previously. Why THIS guy needs to come himself.. I don't really know.
The Corporal's story is interesting too. I think he is haunted by the ghost of an ex lover or something. Again, I think I missed something there.
The poet's story makes more sense. He used to live on Hyperion and his writing has some connection with the Shrike slaughtering people. I don't know why he in on the journey, but at least I see the connection.
The private detective; I cant remember why she is involved either. She fell in love with a computer reincarnation of WB Yeats. Neat concept. Pertinent how?
The ship captain just seemed to be along for the ride.
The best story - and the one that firs best for plot - is the professor and his daughter. His baby used to be a scientist investigating mysteries on Hyperion when she was exposed to something that makes her age backwards and forget everything of the days she has lost. It's actually a really cool part of the story. She is an infant now and soon she will progress back to before she was born and ..die?
All in all I think I missed a lot, but I don't feel inspired to go back and figure it out.
Eh.. oh well.
P155
He thought briefly that such an anticlimax would be the universe's fitting verdict on his martial pretensions: the brave warrior floating off in to near-planet orbit.. He would end his life as useless and harmless as a child's runaway balloon.
P192
"Words are the only bullets in the truth's bandoleer. And Poets are the snipers."
P249
Another friend, a child psychologist from the college, once commented that Rachel at age five showed the most reliable indications of true giftedness in a young person: structured curiosity, empathy for others, compassion, and a fierce sense of fair play.
Thursday, April 20, 2017
NOT ON THE LIST The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss
I didn't find this book at all odd until reading the author's notes in the afterward. He points out how there is just ONE character and one of the main things she accomplishes in the book is making soap. The soap covers about 8 pages.
The last time soap making was an activity in anything consumed for entertainment purposes was Fight Club. Tyler Durden and Auri. That's a more fun compare / contrast than I realized until I typed that just now. One quietly sets the world right, the other seeks to upset every apple cart ever made. Perhaps if Auri never found solace in the Underthing she might have gone that direction.
The preface is a warning by the author almost telling you NOT to read this book. It is a warning that - if you do - you should first read his other books (Kingkiller Chronicles) or you might be a bit lost jumping right into Auri's story. I did happen to have come to this book after having read the other two, but I almost wish I could see what I thought if I hadn't. I think I would have enjoyed it on a whole different level. Would I have been more shocked and impressed to find out that she is a gifted intellectual? How would I have pictured her expectant visitor? Would I have thought that the name she dropped was that of an esteemed Professor? Would I have placed the story in modern times? Or olden days? Or a fantasy realm? I wonder..
Auri puts so much personality into the object that she collects that these "things" take on a person-hood. She worries about their feelings of her blanket. She wants her leaf to be comfortable. She wants a cup to not be lonely. Once she finds the right place to set the broken cogwheel (that she almost drowns trying to rescue) it balances her world so much that she names it Fulcrum. She is too selfless to taker care of herself so she imbues items with her own emotions.
Patrick says that he didn't write this book to publish and sell it. He needed to get the story of Auri out of his head. He needed to explore more about her and find out who she really was. He did it mostly for himself not ever really intending or needing others to read it. ..kinda like this blog. I write it for me. If YOU like it, that's great. I just want to be able to remember what happened in all of these books.
My friend Michael Mallen wrote a review of this book too. He is a professional psychologist. His review - and the recommendation of everyone that has read the book - made me add it to the 100 book list. I'm really glad I did.
Pat says that : "This story is for all of the slightly broken people out there. I am one of you. You are not alone. You are all beautiful to me." It reminds me of the Police song Message in a Bottle. 100 million bottles washed up on the shore. I guess no one is alone in being alone. ..good luck trying to tell that to someone who feels alone though.
p30
Some places had names. Some places changed, or they were shy about their names. Some places had no names at all, and that was very sad. It was one thing to be private. But to have no name at all? How horrible. How lonely.
p116
She looked down at her shaking hands. Was she all full of screaming now? Again? No. No no. It wasn't her. Not just. It was all everything. All everything unravelding and thin and tatter. She could not even stand. The light was jagged, scraping like a knife against her teeth. And underneath it was the hollow dark. The nameless empty everything was clawing at the fraying edges of the walls. Even Foxen wasn't even nearly. The stones were strange. The air. She went looking for her name and couldn't even find it flickering. She was just hollow in. Everything was. Everything was everything. Everything was everything else. Even here in her most perfect place. She needed. Please she needed please..
One last thing..In the end note Pat points out that the name of his world is Temerant and asks "Did you catch that?" I hadn't at first but now I wonder.. Kvothe knows the name of the Wind. Does Auri know the name of the World? I have to go back and find it now..
The last time soap making was an activity in anything consumed for entertainment purposes was Fight Club. Tyler Durden and Auri. That's a more fun compare / contrast than I realized until I typed that just now. One quietly sets the world right, the other seeks to upset every apple cart ever made. Perhaps if Auri never found solace in the Underthing she might have gone that direction.
The preface is a warning by the author almost telling you NOT to read this book. It is a warning that - if you do - you should first read his other books (Kingkiller Chronicles) or you might be a bit lost jumping right into Auri's story. I did happen to have come to this book after having read the other two, but I almost wish I could see what I thought if I hadn't. I think I would have enjoyed it on a whole different level. Would I have been more shocked and impressed to find out that she is a gifted intellectual? How would I have pictured her expectant visitor? Would I have thought that the name she dropped was that of an esteemed Professor? Would I have placed the story in modern times? Or olden days? Or a fantasy realm? I wonder..
Auri puts so much personality into the object that she collects that these "things" take on a person-hood. She worries about their feelings of her blanket. She wants her leaf to be comfortable. She wants a cup to not be lonely. Once she finds the right place to set the broken cogwheel (that she almost drowns trying to rescue) it balances her world so much that she names it Fulcrum. She is too selfless to taker care of herself so she imbues items with her own emotions.
Patrick says that he didn't write this book to publish and sell it. He needed to get the story of Auri out of his head. He needed to explore more about her and find out who she really was. He did it mostly for himself not ever really intending or needing others to read it. ..kinda like this blog. I write it for me. If YOU like it, that's great. I just want to be able to remember what happened in all of these books.
My friend Michael Mallen wrote a review of this book too. He is a professional psychologist. His review - and the recommendation of everyone that has read the book - made me add it to the 100 book list. I'm really glad I did.
Pat says that : "This story is for all of the slightly broken people out there. I am one of you. You are not alone. You are all beautiful to me." It reminds me of the Police song Message in a Bottle. 100 million bottles washed up on the shore. I guess no one is alone in being alone. ..good luck trying to tell that to someone who feels alone though.
p30
Some places had names. Some places changed, or they were shy about their names. Some places had no names at all, and that was very sad. It was one thing to be private. But to have no name at all? How horrible. How lonely.
p116
She looked down at her shaking hands. Was she all full of screaming now? Again? No. No no. It wasn't her. Not just. It was all everything. All everything unravelding and thin and tatter. She could not even stand. The light was jagged, scraping like a knife against her teeth. And underneath it was the hollow dark. The nameless empty everything was clawing at the fraying edges of the walls. Even Foxen wasn't even nearly. The stones were strange. The air. She went looking for her name and couldn't even find it flickering. She was just hollow in. Everything was. Everything was everything. Everything was everything else. Even here in her most perfect place. She needed. Please she needed please..
One last thing..In the end note Pat points out that the name of his world is Temerant and asks "Did you catch that?" I hadn't at first but now I wonder.. Kvothe knows the name of the Wind. Does Auri know the name of the World? I have to go back and find it now..
Sunday, March 5, 2017
#18 The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss (2 of 2..waiting for 3rd)
The Name of the Wind
This is a great story. One of the best I've read in a while. It is sorry of Kvothe dictating his life story to a man that is referred to primarily by title - Chronicler. Kvothe (Quothe) was a gifted child that could almost instantly learn anything very quickly. His wonderful life as the son of the leader of a band of traveling entertainers take a bit of a turn for the worse when his entire troop is murdered by a demon that is supposed to only exist in a storybook. This first book in the series him telling the story of his childhood to about age 15 or 16. Life alone in the woods, on the streets of Tarbean and eventually at the University. The recounting of the tale is punctuated by breaks in the conversation that flash forward to present time sitting at his inn - The Waystone - where he is in hiding under an assumed name. The very little bit of the story that takes place in the present is full of action at the very beginning; calm and colorful narration thru the body of the book; and shocking and intriguing at the very end.
AS SOON AS I FINISHED IT, I ran out - while hungover - to buy the second book : A Wise Man's Fear.
I literally can't wait to start it.
p114
Ben took a deep breath and tried again. "Suppose you have a thoughtless six-year-old. What harm could he do?"
I paused, unsure of what sort of answer he wanted. Straight-forward would probably be be best. "Not Much."
"Suppose he is twenty and still thoughtless, how dangerous is he?"
I decided to stick with the obvious answers. :"Still not much, but more than before."
"What if you give him a sword?"
p203
"All storied are true." Skorpi said. "But this one really happened, if that is what you mean."
He took another slow drink, then smiled again, his bright eyes dancing. "More or less. You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way. Too much truth confuses the facts. Too much honesty makes you sound insincere."
p281
Plainly said, he was giving me enough rope to hang myself with. Apparently he didn't realize that once a noose is tied, it will fit one neck as easily as another.
p422
Go out in the early days of winter, after the first cold snap of the season. Find a pool of water with a sheet of ice across the top, still fresh and new and clear as glass. Near the shore the ice will hold you. Slide out farther. Farther. Eventually you'll find a place where the surface just barely bears your weight. There you will feel what I felt. The ice splinters under your feet. Look down and you can see the white cracks darting thru the ice like mad, elaborate spiderwebs. It is perfectly silent, but you can feel the sudden sharp vibrations thru the bottom of your feet. This is what happened when Denna smiled at me.
p484
I smiled, "Deoch, my heart is made of stronger stuff than glass. When she strikes it she'll find it as strong as iron bound brass, or gold and adamant together mixed.. It's she who should take care, for when she strikes, my heart will make a sound so beautiful and bright that it can't help but bring her back to me in winged flight."
p716
"It's like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story"
The Wise Man's Fear
You tried to warn me.. Where's the next one, dammit?? Please, Pat, WRITE!!
This is one of the best new things I have read since I started on this list. Totally wow.
The Dungeons and Dragons nerd in me is in full on natural 20 RPG dork overload here..
Kvothe the MULTICLASS! He starts the first book as Bard level 1 at least, then picks up 1st level in
Wizard from Abenthy. Hiding in the woods doing nothing but playing the lute immediately after his troop is killed must be worth a level in Bard or two. Then three years on the streets of Tarbean gets you a couple levels in Thief. At least two more levels in Wizard at the University. Two more Bard levels at the Eolian and Anker's. Level 1 Ranger from tracking bandits in the Eld and finally level 2 Fighter from the Adem. So.. Bard 6, Wizard 3, Thief 2, Ranger 1, Fighter 2.
There may be some levels in other things too with the training he got in the Fae.. ifyaknowwhatImean.
Speaking of the ladies, I'm not so sure I like Dena. He needs to get over her. They didn't pay off the mention they made in the first book that Bast saw her once. Of course she is tied to this big event they are leading up to that shakes up the whole world. I assume at some point that Kvothe kills the king. Its probably Kvothe's mistake directly involving Dena. Has to be..
That's one of the things that resonates so well with this story. Kvothe - for being a level 14 Genius - is sure a fuckup. For all of his patience he is still hasty. For all of his care he is still reckless. For all of his appreciation of what he has gained he still tempts fate. As a character he is very well flawed.
I also must write down my thoughts on the Adem culture. It is brilliant, really. A warrior culture, where every child learns how to fight is going to have some major differences. Females fight as-well-as or better than men. This means the culture knows no rape. They have no nudity taboo. All sex is casual. Their society has not even worked out medically that babies come from sex. They think that a woman naturally ripens. There is no sense of "paternity" at all. ..just wait till Kvothe's girlfriend Penthe has a red haired baby. There must be some element of their society that understands mating.. no livestock are ever described but they do eat meat. A farmer would know for sure. I suppose it could all be imported or hunted. Nit picky rambling over. Sorry Patrick.
From a Q & A session with Mr Rothfuss in Feb 2017: Describe book 3 in one word: SOON.
p247
"Eld Vintic poerty is thunderous. It pounds at you."
"Sought we the Scrivani word-work of Surthur
Long-lost in ledger all hope forgotten.
Yet fast-found for friendship fair the book-bringer
Hot comes the huntress Fela, flushed with finding
Breathless her breast her high blood rising
To ripen the red-cheek rouge-bloom of beauty.
"That sort of thing," Simmon said absently, his eyes still scanning the pages in front of him.
I saw Fela turn her head to look at Simmon, almost as if she were surprised to see him sitting there.
No, it was almost as if up to that point, he'd just been occupying space around her, like a piece of furniture. But this time when she looked at him, she took all of him in. His sandy hair, the line of his jaw, the span of his shoulders beneath his shirt. This time when she looked, she actually saw him.
p541
Most secrets are secrets of the mouth. Gossip shared and small small scandals whispered. The secrets long to be let loose upon the world. A secret of the mouth is like a stone in your boot. At first you're barely aware of it. Then it grows irritating, then intolerable. Secrets of the mouth grow larger the longer you keep them, swelling until they press against your lips. They fight to be let free.
Secrets of the heart are different. They are private and painful, and we want nothing more than to hide them from the world. They do not swell and press against the mouth. They live in the heart, and the longer they are kept, the heavier they become.
p549
It's like Tecam said, nothing in the world is harder than convincing someone of an unfamiliar truth.
p853
"Vashet," I said. " It occurs to me it would be nice to fight someone whose ability is somewhat closer to my own."
Vashet laughed, shaking her head. " That is like throwing two virgins into a bed. Enthusiasm, passion, and ignorance are not a good combination. Someone is likely to get hurt."
The Wise Man's Fear
You tried to warn me.. Where's the next one, dammit?? Please, Pat, WRITE!!
This is one of the best new things I have read since I started on this list. Totally wow.
The Dungeons and Dragons nerd in me is in full on natural 20 RPG dork overload here..
Kvothe the MULTICLASS! He starts the first book as Bard level 1 at least, then picks up 1st level in
Wizard from Abenthy. Hiding in the woods doing nothing but playing the lute immediately after his troop is killed must be worth a level in Bard or two. Then three years on the streets of Tarbean gets you a couple levels in Thief. At least two more levels in Wizard at the University. Two more Bard levels at the Eolian and Anker's. Level 1 Ranger from tracking bandits in the Eld and finally level 2 Fighter from the Adem. So.. Bard 6, Wizard 3, Thief 2, Ranger 1, Fighter 2.
There may be some levels in other things too with the training he got in the Fae.. ifyaknowwhatImean.
Speaking of the ladies, I'm not so sure I like Dena. He needs to get over her. They didn't pay off the mention they made in the first book that Bast saw her once. Of course she is tied to this big event they are leading up to that shakes up the whole world. I assume at some point that Kvothe kills the king. Its probably Kvothe's mistake directly involving Dena. Has to be..
That's one of the things that resonates so well with this story. Kvothe - for being a level 14 Genius - is sure a fuckup. For all of his patience he is still hasty. For all of his care he is still reckless. For all of his appreciation of what he has gained he still tempts fate. As a character he is very well flawed.
I also must write down my thoughts on the Adem culture. It is brilliant, really. A warrior culture, where every child learns how to fight is going to have some major differences. Females fight as-well-as or better than men. This means the culture knows no rape. They have no nudity taboo. All sex is casual. Their society has not even worked out medically that babies come from sex. They think that a woman naturally ripens. There is no sense of "paternity" at all. ..just wait till Kvothe's girlfriend Penthe has a red haired baby. There must be some element of their society that understands mating.. no livestock are ever described but they do eat meat. A farmer would know for sure. I suppose it could all be imported or hunted. Nit picky rambling over. Sorry Patrick.
From a Q & A session with Mr Rothfuss in Feb 2017: Describe book 3 in one word: SOON.
Please Hurry. I'll slide the non-Kingkiller Rothfuss book in next even though it is not on the list. Slow regard of silent things: here I come.And then I’ll follow that up with the Aslan quote: “I call all times soon.”
p247
"Eld Vintic poerty is thunderous. It pounds at you."
"Sought we the Scrivani word-work of Surthur
Long-lost in ledger all hope forgotten.
Yet fast-found for friendship fair the book-bringer
Hot comes the huntress Fela, flushed with finding
Breathless her breast her high blood rising
To ripen the red-cheek rouge-bloom of beauty.
"That sort of thing," Simmon said absently, his eyes still scanning the pages in front of him.
I saw Fela turn her head to look at Simmon, almost as if she were surprised to see him sitting there.
No, it was almost as if up to that point, he'd just been occupying space around her, like a piece of furniture. But this time when she looked at him, she took all of him in. His sandy hair, the line of his jaw, the span of his shoulders beneath his shirt. This time when she looked, she actually saw him.
p541
Most secrets are secrets of the mouth. Gossip shared and small small scandals whispered. The secrets long to be let loose upon the world. A secret of the mouth is like a stone in your boot. At first you're barely aware of it. Then it grows irritating, then intolerable. Secrets of the mouth grow larger the longer you keep them, swelling until they press against your lips. They fight to be let free.
Secrets of the heart are different. They are private and painful, and we want nothing more than to hide them from the world. They do not swell and press against the mouth. They live in the heart, and the longer they are kept, the heavier they become.
p549
It's like Tecam said, nothing in the world is harder than convincing someone of an unfamiliar truth.
p853
"Vashet," I said. " It occurs to me it would be nice to fight someone whose ability is somewhat closer to my own."
Vashet laughed, shaking her head. " That is like throwing two virgins into a bed. Enthusiasm, passion, and ignorance are not a good combination. Someone is likely to get hurt."
Sunday, January 22, 2017
#16 I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
I was TWO pages from the end of the book (..like, just a few minutes ago from reading to typing) and I was going to give it a solid "Meh.." review. It was interesting, good in parts but dragged in other spots. Good, but not great.. but then.. Asimov ties it all together right at the end. I shouldn't have doubted you Isaac. Wow.
Clearly you were building up to this the whole while. Maybe I should have seen it, but I didn't. I needed you to explain it to me.
The whole story is set up as a series of interviews with 80 something year old robotics expert Susan Clark. She tells the interviewer how we got from the beginning of robotics -in the early 1980's- to someplace totally different - in 2064. Asimov was a little optimistic on his predictions on our advancements. He saw us go from the Wright Brothers in 1903 to Chuck Yeager in 1947 so, naturally, he thought we would be mining asteroids with robots by now. It is odd to read a story that is set in the present time-span but is totally futuristic.
The basic premise is that we make better and better robots to make things easier and easier for ourselves. Our robot "servants" discover that the best way to serve us is to save us from.. ourselves.
It is a memoir of the person that best understands the robot brain - Dr Susan Calvin, robot psychologist. .. NOT Will Smith. I see no character in the book for Will Smith to have played. I have not seen the movie, but I imagine it is TOTALLY different.
introduction xiv
"Then you don't remember a world without robots, There was a time when humanity faced the universe alone and without a friend. Now he has creatures to help him; stronger creatures than himself, more faithful, more useful, and absolutely devoted to him. Mankind is no longer alone. "
p177
"Now a human caught in an impossibility often responds by a retreat from reality: by entering into a world of delusion, or by taking to drink, going off into hysteria, or jumping off a bridge. It all comes to the same thing - a refusal or inability to face the situation squarely. And so, the robot."
p197
Something broke loose and whirled in a blaze of flickering light and pain. It fell - and whirled - and fell headlong - into silence! - into death! It was a world of no motion and no sensation. A world of dim unsensing consciousness; a consciousness of darkness and of silence and of formless struggle. Most of all a consciousness of eternity.
Here was a tiny white thread of ego - cold and afraid.
Thursday, December 29, 2016
#76 Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke
Captain Norton of the space ship Endeavour is ordered out to make contact with an alien vehicle coming into our solar system. Humans have spread thru the local planets, but have never met life that didn't come from Earth - until now.
The shrewd and level headed Captain takes his crew thru docking on the ship - dubbed Rama - and leads the exploration of its interior. The interior is a world built on the inside of a gigantic tube that -at first - appears to be frozen and inert. At first, anyway.
It is odd to me to have so much adventure in a story, with not that much excitement. There is some drama, but no real grandiose tension. Clarke Norton and the crew of the Endeavour too careful and sober for that. Any leader worth his salt in Clarke's eyes would not put his crew at a greater risk than need be. Any loose-cannon types would have been off his ship long ago. They all work together as a trusting and tight-knit unit. ..and that is exactly the way a good outfit of genuine spacers would need to be.
I enjoyed the play between the planetary councils. He calls it the United Planets and the people from the different regions have different attitudes. Permanent habitation has long been established on the Moon, Mercury, NOT Venus (too harsh), Mars and several moons of Jupiter as well as colonies in the further reaches of the solar system. They consider their OWN worlds home and do not consider themselves "Earthlings". You especially have to watch those Hermians ( people from Mercury ). They are hot blooded and untrusting souls.
p115
"Suppose that we do find that Rama is -active- and has these capabilities. There is an old saying in military affairs that capability does not imply intention."
p156
He paused at the last spot where he could hear it, like a faint throbbing deep in his brain. So might a primitive savage listened in awe-struck ignorance to the low humming of a giant power transformer. And even the savage might have guessed that the sound heard was merely the stray leakage from the colossal energies, fully controlled, but biding their time.
p173
The crab showed no reaction whatsoever, nor did it slacken its pace. Ignoring Jimmy completely, it walked straight past him and headed purposefully into the south. Feeling extremely foolish, the acting representative of Homo Sapiens watched his First Contact stride away across the Raman plain, totally indifferent to his presence.
He had seldom been so humiliated in his life. Then his sense of humor came to his rescue. After all, it was no great matter to have been ignored by an animated garbage truck. It would have been worse if it had greeted him as a long-lost brother.
The shrewd and level headed Captain takes his crew thru docking on the ship - dubbed Rama - and leads the exploration of its interior. The interior is a world built on the inside of a gigantic tube that -at first - appears to be frozen and inert. At first, anyway.
It is odd to me to have so much adventure in a story, with not that much excitement. There is some drama, but no real grandiose tension. Clarke Norton and the crew of the Endeavour too careful and sober for that. Any leader worth his salt in Clarke's eyes would not put his crew at a greater risk than need be. Any loose-cannon types would have been off his ship long ago. They all work together as a trusting and tight-knit unit. ..and that is exactly the way a good outfit of genuine spacers would need to be.
I enjoyed the play between the planetary councils. He calls it the United Planets and the people from the different regions have different attitudes. Permanent habitation has long been established on the Moon, Mercury, NOT Venus (too harsh), Mars and several moons of Jupiter as well as colonies in the further reaches of the solar system. They consider their OWN worlds home and do not consider themselves "Earthlings". You especially have to watch those Hermians ( people from Mercury ). They are hot blooded and untrusting souls.
p115
"Suppose that we do find that Rama is -active- and has these capabilities. There is an old saying in military affairs that capability does not imply intention."
p156
He paused at the last spot where he could hear it, like a faint throbbing deep in his brain. So might a primitive savage listened in awe-struck ignorance to the low humming of a giant power transformer. And even the savage might have guessed that the sound heard was merely the stray leakage from the colossal energies, fully controlled, but biding their time.
p173
The crab showed no reaction whatsoever, nor did it slacken its pace. Ignoring Jimmy completely, it walked straight past him and headed purposefully into the south. Feeling extremely foolish, the acting representative of Homo Sapiens watched his First Contact stride away across the Raman plain, totally indifferent to his presence.
He had seldom been so humiliated in his life. Then his sense of humor came to his rescue. After all, it was no great matter to have been ignored by an animated garbage truck. It would have been worse if it had greeted him as a long-lost brother.
Sunday, September 25, 2016
#22 The Dark Tower series by Stephen King (1 of 4?)
I was in the middle of yet another 900+ page Wheel Of Time book when my wife and I went on vacation last week. Not wanting to lug around a 3 inch deep tome, I decided to bring something more portable. The Gunslinger. This is my FIRST book by Stephen King that I have ever read.
In the afterward, King says he wrote the book over the span of several years and you can kinda tell in how different it feels at the beginning versus the end. The weariness and depressing persistence of the "chase" brings you well into the head of the man you find out a couple hundred pages later is named Roland. He coldly recounts how the town of Tull went from a frontier town to a ghost town to a lone settler who is equally as unaffected by the horrible tale as he is in telling it. It partly feels like a confession, but without the seeking of absolution. Just an admittance, rather..
Then the boy, Jake, comes into his life. Jake's sorry is odd and sad and depressing. It feels like he was there to serve a purpose, but it didn't really fell like he did... other than to briefly show the Gunslingers capacity for humanity and compassion- at least a remembrance of it anyway.
Meeting the MIB was really an anticlimax. The resolution of that interaction even more so.
Maybe those turn out to be NOT yet totally resolved in the next books.
All in all, parts of the writing were very good, but the overall story is not great. Not yet anyway.
p37
He suddenly became aware that the room had gone silent again, and he tasted thick tension in the air. He turned around and stared into the face of the man who had been asleep by the door when he entered. It was a terrible face. The odor of the devil-grass was a rank miasma. The eyes were damned, the staring, glaring eyes of those who see but do not see, eyes ever turned inward to the sterile hell of dreams beyond control, dreams unleashed, risen out of the stinking swamps of the unconscious.
In the afterward, King says he wrote the book over the span of several years and you can kinda tell in how different it feels at the beginning versus the end. The weariness and depressing persistence of the "chase" brings you well into the head of the man you find out a couple hundred pages later is named Roland. He coldly recounts how the town of Tull went from a frontier town to a ghost town to a lone settler who is equally as unaffected by the horrible tale as he is in telling it. It partly feels like a confession, but without the seeking of absolution. Just an admittance, rather..
Then the boy, Jake, comes into his life. Jake's sorry is odd and sad and depressing. It feels like he was there to serve a purpose, but it didn't really fell like he did... other than to briefly show the Gunslingers capacity for humanity and compassion- at least a remembrance of it anyway.
Meeting the MIB was really an anticlimax. The resolution of that interaction even more so.
Maybe those turn out to be NOT yet totally resolved in the next books.
All in all, parts of the writing were very good, but the overall story is not great. Not yet anyway.
p37
He suddenly became aware that the room had gone silent again, and he tasted thick tension in the air. He turned around and stared into the face of the man who had been asleep by the door when he entered. It was a terrible face. The odor of the devil-grass was a rank miasma. The eyes were damned, the staring, glaring eyes of those who see but do not see, eyes ever turned inward to the sterile hell of dreams beyond control, dreams unleashed, risen out of the stinking swamps of the unconscious.
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
#60 Going Postal by Terry Pratchett
That was a fun book. Moist von Lipwig is a con artist that gets caught, condemned, hanged - but not killed - then is offered the job as Postmaster of the city of Ankh-Morpork. This is not a good gig because the last several postmasters have gone insane due to the mountains of undelivered mail that are stuffed into every corner of the post office. They WANT to be delivered.. and they drive you mad.
The other characters are plucky, but not terribly involved. This is a one man story. Just Moist.
Yep, Moist. He knows it is a weird name but since he spent most of his life a s a con man up till the hanging, he rarely used it. He had every grift in the book; from forgeries to 3 card Monty to passing off a cheap 1$ ring as a 1000$ ring and getting someone to think they are swindling him by selling it for 100$. He got away with it for so long because he know what people wanted to see. He made sure everyone remembered the suit he was wearing - not the man in the suit. He was a real people-person.. in a sense. He could really work a crowd.
He uses this to get the post office up and running again. The forgery experience comes in great when designing (inventing) stamps. His promotional and crowd working skills get people quickly very interested in the post office and they thankfully will not notice him outside of his golden winged hat and gold suit. See the suit, forget the man.
The other main communication network of the world notices him too, and are not too keen on having competition. The "clacks" - a network of semaphore towers - is the only game in town for local and long distance communication. That lack of competition has made them inefficient and corrupt, but people have just gotten used to poor service. Pratcehtt is going for some socio-political commentary her I am sure, but it is subtle enough to be able to take it as-it-comes. He does not bludgeon you with it as so many other authors do. I found that refreshing.
The other denizens of the post office are interesting, but ultimately just in the background. His would-be girlfriend is rather forgettable too, but I did like Mr Pump. Mr Pump is a golem. He is both Moist's assistant and his parole officer. Oddly, the un-fleshed character seemed the most fleshed out. Maybe it just seems that way because he is so simple. He was created to be a tool, but his is a liberated and possesses a sense of "personhood". People didn't like the thought of golems being like salves, so they gave them rights.. but they were designed to be "living" tools.. so all they do is work. Again, a social commentary that is at a take-it-or-leave-it level. Nice.
p313
Neverthless, he picked up a piece of smashed chair. It had splintered nicely, and the thing about a stake thru the heart was that it also worked on non-vampires.
p378
Always remember that the crowd that applauds your coronation will also be the crowd that applauds you behading.
p458
"But I'm going to have my hands more than full with the Post Office!" Moist protested.
"I hope you are. But, in mu experience, the best way to get something done it to give it to someone who is busy." said Vetinari.
The other characters are plucky, but not terribly involved. This is a one man story. Just Moist.
Yep, Moist. He knows it is a weird name but since he spent most of his life a s a con man up till the hanging, he rarely used it. He had every grift in the book; from forgeries to 3 card Monty to passing off a cheap 1$ ring as a 1000$ ring and getting someone to think they are swindling him by selling it for 100$. He got away with it for so long because he know what people wanted to see. He made sure everyone remembered the suit he was wearing - not the man in the suit. He was a real people-person.. in a sense. He could really work a crowd.
He uses this to get the post office up and running again. The forgery experience comes in great when designing (inventing) stamps. His promotional and crowd working skills get people quickly very interested in the post office and they thankfully will not notice him outside of his golden winged hat and gold suit. See the suit, forget the man.
The other main communication network of the world notices him too, and are not too keen on having competition. The "clacks" - a network of semaphore towers - is the only game in town for local and long distance communication. That lack of competition has made them inefficient and corrupt, but people have just gotten used to poor service. Pratcehtt is going for some socio-political commentary her I am sure, but it is subtle enough to be able to take it as-it-comes. He does not bludgeon you with it as so many other authors do. I found that refreshing.
The other denizens of the post office are interesting, but ultimately just in the background. His would-be girlfriend is rather forgettable too, but I did like Mr Pump. Mr Pump is a golem. He is both Moist's assistant and his parole officer. Oddly, the un-fleshed character seemed the most fleshed out. Maybe it just seems that way because he is so simple. He was created to be a tool, but his is a liberated and possesses a sense of "personhood". People didn't like the thought of golems being like salves, so they gave them rights.. but they were designed to be "living" tools.. so all they do is work. Again, a social commentary that is at a take-it-or-leave-it level. Nice.
p313
Neverthless, he picked up a piece of smashed chair. It had splintered nicely, and the thing about a stake thru the heart was that it also worked on non-vampires.
p378
Always remember that the crowd that applauds your coronation will also be the crowd that applauds you behading.
p458
"But I'm going to have my hands more than full with the Post Office!" Moist protested.
"I hope you are. But, in mu experience, the best way to get something done it to give it to someone who is busy." said Vetinari.
Wednesday, July 6, 2016
#79 Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
It was hard to get thru this, but I had many distractions. I feel like I've started one of these off this way before.. Stupid nursing school.
Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway. Neighbors, best friends, 13 year old boys, lightning rod purchasers. These carefree boys first meet a traveling salesman who gives a warning that the coming days are going to be as unlucky as their ages. He gifts them a lightning rod woven thru with spells and charms to ward off not only natural lightning, but the more metaphorical storm they are bound to get caught up in on this mid October evening. The circus is coming to town, and that is bad news.
The boys quickly recognize that something is just not right with the supposed entertainers as they spy on them while they set up shop. The curiosity, daring and invincibility of pubescence gets the best of them as they investigate and it is quickly known to the devious Mr Dark that someone knows their evil secret.
They fend off some assaults on their own, but in the end, can't do it all alone. The mopey-yet-intrepid Charles Halloway - Will's dad - is eventually enlisted as well.
The writing is WONDERFUL. Almost too wonderful. You can almost say that Ray wrote a 230-odd page poem. It is beautiful. It is whimsical to the extreme. Flowing, imaginative, rambling - yet still on track. The character's grasp on reality seems as tight as that of a child reaching for the brass ring on a merry-go-round.
This is one book that I need to buy and keep as opposed to borrowing from the library. I can easily see picking it up and reading a few pages here and there just to get a dose of that spooky Bradbury flavor..
p191
For those beings, fall is the normal season, the only weather, there be no choice beyond.
Where do they come from/ The dust.
Where do they go to? The grave.
Does blood stir in their veins? No: the night wind.
What tickles in their head? The worm.
What speaks from their mouth? The toad.
What sees from their eye? The snake.
What hears with their ears? The abyss between the stars.
They sift the human form for souls, eat flesh of reason, fill tombs with sinners. They frenzy forth. In gusts they beetle-scurry, creep, thread, filter, motion, make all sullen, and surely cloud all clear-run waters. The spider-web hears them, trembles - breaks.
Such are the autumn people. Beware of them.
Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway. Neighbors, best friends, 13 year old boys, lightning rod purchasers. These carefree boys first meet a traveling salesman who gives a warning that the coming days are going to be as unlucky as their ages. He gifts them a lightning rod woven thru with spells and charms to ward off not only natural lightning, but the more metaphorical storm they are bound to get caught up in on this mid October evening. The circus is coming to town, and that is bad news.
The boys quickly recognize that something is just not right with the supposed entertainers as they spy on them while they set up shop. The curiosity, daring and invincibility of pubescence gets the best of them as they investigate and it is quickly known to the devious Mr Dark that someone knows their evil secret.
They fend off some assaults on their own, but in the end, can't do it all alone. The mopey-yet-intrepid Charles Halloway - Will's dad - is eventually enlisted as well.
The writing is WONDERFUL. Almost too wonderful. You can almost say that Ray wrote a 230-odd page poem. It is beautiful. It is whimsical to the extreme. Flowing, imaginative, rambling - yet still on track. The character's grasp on reality seems as tight as that of a child reaching for the brass ring on a merry-go-round.
This is one book that I need to buy and keep as opposed to borrowing from the library. I can easily see picking it up and reading a few pages here and there just to get a dose of that spooky Bradbury flavor..
p191
For those beings, fall is the normal season, the only weather, there be no choice beyond.
Where do they come from/ The dust.
Where do they go to? The grave.
Does blood stir in their veins? No: the night wind.
What tickles in their head? The worm.
What speaks from their mouth? The toad.
What sees from their eye? The snake.
What hears with their ears? The abyss between the stars.
They sift the human form for souls, eat flesh of reason, fill tombs with sinners. They frenzy forth. In gusts they beetle-scurry, creep, thread, filter, motion, make all sullen, and surely cloud all clear-run waters. The spider-web hears them, trembles - breaks.
Such are the autumn people. Beware of them.
Friday, June 10, 2016
#48 Neverwhere by Neil Gaimen
Upon finishing the book my first thought was simply "Delightful!" The general idea of the plot: a simple man taken out of his element and having to bumble his way thru a strange new world: is very familiar. Many authors go with it because it just works. Neil, naturally, works it well here.
Richard is a boring man living a humdrum life in a totally plain existence in a "present day" London. Gaiman was ?intentionally? vague about technology and it feels like that "present day" feel won't be outdated for a while. Richard almost literally trips over a woman fleeing from killers pursuing her from her wold of "London Below". The denizens of London Below are a part of the real world, but are pretty much invisible to the people of London. They are people that you pass by on the street and - if noticed at all - are instantly forgotten. They walk thru our world without really interacting with us at all. Being a very ordinary man with no real family and few friends, Richard still finds it hard to be suddenly unnoticeable after having helped Door, who - surprise - turns out to be a princess. Shocking, I know.. I've heard that one before too. But hey, it works!
With the help of the brash, roguish and handsome ( again! ) Marquis de Carabas, she tries to escape the cruel Mr Croup and the brutish Mr Vandemar who were hired to get her. There are plenty of very interesting and colorful minor characters like the Rat Speakers, the bird man, the Earl of Earl's Court and Door's bodyguard named simply "Hunter". The Marquis is a fantastic character but I was most intrigued by Hunter. I want to know more about her past.
I liked the clever progression of Richard's self assurance thru the story. As he gains confidence he starts to introduce himself to new people with more certainty. When he first is introduced to Door and the Marquis he mumbles and stumbles over saying his own name. So much that they misunderstand what his name actually is. By the meets new people toward the end of the book, he introduces himself simply as Richard. I thought that was a nice and subtle way to see the progression of the character.
I do think that I would have gotten more oft of the book if I were a Londoner. Several of the locations in the book are familiar locales to people who know their way around the Underground. If I ever make it to London maybe I'll take a "Neverwhere" tour. That has to exist, right?
p85
There was no moon, but the night sky was a riot of crisp and glittering autumn stars. There were streetlights, too, and lights on buildings and bridges, which looked like earthbound stars and they glimmered, repeatedly, as they were reflected with the city in the night water of the Thames. Its a fairyland, Richard thought.
p175
Mr Croop smiled like a snake with a crescent moon stuck in its mouth and his resemblance to Stolen Cadavers numbers 1 and 30 was, if anything, increased by this.
p176
"You see," explained Me Croop, in a voice like rancid butter, Right now we're just here to worry you." Mr Vandemar's voice was like a night wind blowing over a desert of bones "Make you suffer," he said. "Spoil your day."
p205
Mr Croup began to laugh. it sounded like pieces of blackboard being dragged over the nails of a wall of severed fingers.
p335
For a moment, upon waking, he had no idea at all who he was. It was a tremendously liberating feeling, as if her were able to be whatever her wanted to be; he could be anyone at all - able to try on any identity; he could be a man or a woman, a rat or a bird, a monster or a god. And then someone made a rustling noise, and he woke up the rest of the way, and in waking found that he was Richard Mayhew, whomever that was, whatever that meant. He was Richard Mayhew and he did not know where he was.
Richard is a boring man living a humdrum life in a totally plain existence in a "present day" London. Gaiman was ?intentionally? vague about technology and it feels like that "present day" feel won't be outdated for a while. Richard almost literally trips over a woman fleeing from killers pursuing her from her wold of "London Below". The denizens of London Below are a part of the real world, but are pretty much invisible to the people of London. They are people that you pass by on the street and - if noticed at all - are instantly forgotten. They walk thru our world without really interacting with us at all. Being a very ordinary man with no real family and few friends, Richard still finds it hard to be suddenly unnoticeable after having helped Door, who - surprise - turns out to be a princess. Shocking, I know.. I've heard that one before too. But hey, it works!
With the help of the brash, roguish and handsome ( again! ) Marquis de Carabas, she tries to escape the cruel Mr Croup and the brutish Mr Vandemar who were hired to get her. There are plenty of very interesting and colorful minor characters like the Rat Speakers, the bird man, the Earl of Earl's Court and Door's bodyguard named simply "Hunter". The Marquis is a fantastic character but I was most intrigued by Hunter. I want to know more about her past.
I liked the clever progression of Richard's self assurance thru the story. As he gains confidence he starts to introduce himself to new people with more certainty. When he first is introduced to Door and the Marquis he mumbles and stumbles over saying his own name. So much that they misunderstand what his name actually is. By the meets new people toward the end of the book, he introduces himself simply as Richard. I thought that was a nice and subtle way to see the progression of the character.
I do think that I would have gotten more oft of the book if I were a Londoner. Several of the locations in the book are familiar locales to people who know their way around the Underground. If I ever make it to London maybe I'll take a "Neverwhere" tour. That has to exist, right?
p85
There was no moon, but the night sky was a riot of crisp and glittering autumn stars. There were streetlights, too, and lights on buildings and bridges, which looked like earthbound stars and they glimmered, repeatedly, as they were reflected with the city in the night water of the Thames. Its a fairyland, Richard thought.
p175
Mr Croop smiled like a snake with a crescent moon stuck in its mouth and his resemblance to Stolen Cadavers numbers 1 and 30 was, if anything, increased by this.
p176
"You see," explained Me Croop, in a voice like rancid butter, Right now we're just here to worry you." Mr Vandemar's voice was like a night wind blowing over a desert of bones "Make you suffer," he said. "Spoil your day."
p205
Mr Croup began to laugh. it sounded like pieces of blackboard being dragged over the nails of a wall of severed fingers.
p335
For a moment, upon waking, he had no idea at all who he was. It was a tremendously liberating feeling, as if her were able to be whatever her wanted to be; he could be anyone at all - able to try on any identity; he could be a man or a woman, a rat or a bird, a monster or a god. And then someone made a rustling noise, and he woke up the rest of the way, and in waking found that he was Richard Mayhew, whomever that was, whatever that meant. He was Richard Mayhew and he did not know where he was.
Monday, April 25, 2016
#12 The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan (4-6)
THE SHADOW RISING
It took 2 months to read, but I finally got thru. I read it at a leisurely pace.. which seems to match the pace of the series. There is some really good action, some good plot developments, the characters are starting to know their own power.. but it felt slow.
Rand travels thru the waste to get in touch with his Aiel heritage. He feels like he is getting too powerful already and we are still early in the series. I like that he has grown some confidence and has his own agenda. He remains humble and manages his superpowers well. He also has an Aile girlfriend, though he does not realize it.
Mat plays tag-along with Rand. The only thing that changed for Mat is he realized he speaks the old tongue and he gets a costume change. He has the spear and the hat now.. but is still just Mat. He needs to get away from Rand to start making his own waves in the pattern.
Perrin does get super awesome. Falie snares him and they get married. He saves his people and fends off the trollocks and fades. Faces down the white cloaks. He is granted the title of "Lord" by the Two Rivers people and answers to the name "goldeneyes". I suppose that is the best way to pick a ruler. Just decide it is so and start calling him by the title that you have granted. Even if he doesn't really want it. I can't wait to see where he goes from here.
Egwaine goes into the waste with Rand, but not much happens to her. She is a dreamwalker in training.
Min stops playing the Elmindreda game at Tar Valon and escapes the takeover of the tower with Siuan. I am interested to see how Siuan handles the fall from Amyrlin Seat to muggle.
Elayne and Nynaeve's bit is fun. They make friends with a Seanchan. They hunt down some Black Ajahs. Nynaeve kicks some serious forsaken ass. I do like that her massive power is tempered by not always being available to use it. It keeps her in check.
p253 Nayneve and Lan
"I will not be manhandled [kissed] in this fashion for the whole world to see. I will not!"
"Not the whole world," he replied. "But if they can see, they can hear as well. You have made a place in my heart where i thought there was no room for anything else. You have made flowers grow where I have cultivated dust and stones. Remember this, on your journey you insist on making. If you die, I will not long survive."
p421
Voices whispered in Perrin's head, a thousand babbling mad voices clawing at the inside of his skull. Bitter blood. Blood so bitter. Drink the blood and crack the bone. Crack the bone and suck the marrow. Bitter marrow, sweet the screams. Singing screams. Sing the screams. Tiny souls. Arcid Souls. Gobble them down. So sweet the pain. On and On.
THE FIRES OF HEAVEN
Wow this one dragged. People warned me that it got a bit slow around here but DAMN.
I got four or five hundred pages an and they.. walked out of a desert.. others walked to a river.. some other people walked somewhere else. ugh.. There were little flashes of action, but reading about all that walking made me feel like i was being dragged along unwillingly. When you finally get to the big army battle it is rather ho-hum. Mat is coming to grips with being a skilled, yet unwilling leader. Rand is getting comfortable with his power. I think Min felt like she was just tagging along - just like the reader. The dream world is quite interesting and the end battle is a fitting farewell to a BIG character, but it took its time getting there.
It feels like I was reading that book forever. I actually read another book-and-a-half while reading this one because it was to big - in physical size - to pack with me when I went to Chicago and up north.
The next ones better start moving more quickly. This is starting to feel like a chore.
p281
"You are a dirty fighter." she muttered. Melaine quirked an eyebrow, "Do we fight? If we do, then know that in battle, there is only winning and loosing. Rules against hurting are for games..."
p577
"I always say, if you must mount the gallows, give a jest to the crowd, a coin to the hangman, and make the drop with a smile on your lips."
LORD OF CHAOS
Yes, still a bit slow. The whole world is gripped in an extreme heat wave and drought, and the book has the feel of an afternoon spent laboring in the sun. It finally picked up about 400 pages in and the last 200 actually moved rather quickly. Hundreds upon hundreds of pages of planning and plotting. I like that Loial and Min are back, but they are mostly just background.. except for Min making Rand randy. Nyneve and Elayne sneak around in the dream world and try to tell the real Aes Sedai how to do it. The renegade Aes Sedai make a surprising choice for the new Amerlyn Seat. Someone that everyone else thinks is dead scheming to SLOWLY maneuver her self into a better spot. Mat marches.. that's about it. Perrin makes Falie jealous, but not on purpose. Rand wrestles with the voices in his head. Rand setting up and inspecting not one, but TWO schools. F'ing riveting I tell ya.
Then FINALLY a kidnapping, a chase and a rescue.
I hope all this setup keeps paying off.
p437
A Cairhienin playing the Game of Houses was usually easier to understand than a woman making no effort to be enigmatic at all.
p512
"When you wish for so long that you could hear something," he said slowly, "and then suddenly, without warning, you do, it is like a lightening strike and rain on parched ground at the same time. You're stunned, but you can't hear enough.
p751
We are always more afraid than we wish to be, but we can always be braver than we expect.
Monday, February 15, 2016
#73 The Legend of Drizzt (Dark Elf trilogy) by R A Salvatore (in progress)
This one was all right. I'm one book in and it is good, but not fantastic. It is set in the Forgotten Realms and is published by TSR / Wizards of the Coast so it has a very strong Dungeons and Dragons feel to it. A lot of the terminology is lifted right from the game so it was quite familiar. I wonder if Salvatore wrote it that way, or if TSR made alterations to give it that DnD mechanic.. I could see that happening. You can almost see Drizzt rolling a D20 sometimes. I wonder what feet he is going to choose at level 15..
Drizzt is a badass Fighter / Mage born into the evil Drow society. The story of his birth really sets the scene of ruthless ambition well. Salvatore paints a great picture of the subterranean Lawful Evil society. Drizzt himself is not evil and he feels that he does not fit in to the mold of what a Drow is expected to be. He struggles to break the bonds of his wicked clan / community and strike out on his own. Normally I'd write something about a few of the other characters in the book - like his mother Malace or his uncle Zak (shh.. it's his father) but they weren't all that well developed to be interesting enough to note. Sorry, spoiler alert about Zak - but you can see it coming from miles away.
p119
Zak slid one of the swords from the scabbard and admired the weapon's wondrous detail. This sword, as with most of the Drow weapons, had been forged by the grey dwarves, then traded to Menzoberranzan. The duergar workmanship was exquisite, but it was the work done on the weapon after the dark elves acquired it that made it so very special. None of the races of the surface or Underdark could out do the work of the dark elves in the art of enchanting weapons. Imbued with strange emanations from the Underdark, the magical power unique to the lightless world, and blessed by the unholy clerics of Loth, no blade ever sat in its wielder's hand more ready to kill.
Drizzt is a badass Fighter / Mage born into the evil Drow society. The story of his birth really sets the scene of ruthless ambition well. Salvatore paints a great picture of the subterranean Lawful Evil society. Drizzt himself is not evil and he feels that he does not fit in to the mold of what a Drow is expected to be. He struggles to break the bonds of his wicked clan / community and strike out on his own. Normally I'd write something about a few of the other characters in the book - like his mother Malace or his uncle Zak (shh.. it's his father) but they weren't all that well developed to be interesting enough to note. Sorry, spoiler alert about Zak - but you can see it coming from miles away.
p119
Zak slid one of the swords from the scabbard and admired the weapon's wondrous detail. This sword, as with most of the Drow weapons, had been forged by the grey dwarves, then traded to Menzoberranzan. The duergar workmanship was exquisite, but it was the work done on the weapon after the dark elves acquired it that made it so very special. None of the races of the surface or Underdark could out do the work of the dark elves in the art of enchanting weapons. Imbued with strange emanations from the Underdark, the magical power unique to the lightless world, and blessed by the unholy clerics of Loth, no blade ever sat in its wielder's hand more ready to kill.
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
#4 The Dune Chronicles Frank Herbert (done enough)
Damn. I thought I only had to read the first one but the list says Dune CHRONICLES. I have to read ALL of them before I can cross them off. Almost everyone I talked to said the first book is the best and the rest aren't as good.
The fist book was.. uh.. OK, I guess. It wasn't great. There were a lot of opportunities to make things really epic that just weren't taken. Most of the battles could have been more exciting. Feyd-Rautha Harkonen fights a gladiator in one chapter and that combat sequence is done well but the other ones are lacking somehow. The big battles are also glossed over and slow. You can do so much more with those sand worms.. but again, you only get a glimpse. There are chances for so much epic awesomeness but maybe that's not what Herbert is good at.
For all of his talk about "feints within feints" and plots and secrecy, the characters sure seem to be rather black and white. Barron Vladimir Harkonen is clearly E V I L. He is also fat and Russian.. predictable for a cold war era author perhaps. Paul, on the other hand, is always good. He is brave and strong and smart. He leads the Fremen in the desert against their.. Russian.. oppressors.. Hello? Afghanistan?
There are some neat plot twists and turns, but the reader always knows about them. They are secret from the characters but not the audience. I suppose I'm more used to having to figure things out or discover the nuanced details of the characters as you progress thru the book.. but that doesn't really happen here.
I guess we'll see what the other two have to offer..
**Addendum: not much is the answer. I got 100+ pages thru Messiah and NOTHING has happened. Revenant Duncan Idaho is neat. The naked sword-fight against the practice drone was neat.. but that is all that there was in the first half of the book. I had accidentally started reading Children of Dune first and didn't even realize it. It was totally ho-hum too.
He does write pretty, though. These are three of many great passages.
Dune P31
Paul shrugged. " Then she said a good ruler has to learn his planet's language, that it's different for every world. And I thought she meant they didn't speak Galach or Arrakis, but she said that wasn't it at all. She said she meant the language of the rocks and the growing things, the language you don't just hear with your ears. And I said that's what Dr. Yueh calls the mastery of life.".
Dune p230
What do you despise? by this are you truly known.
Dune p277
And I am a desert creature, Kynes thought. You see me, Father? I am a desert creature.
He felt the bubble lift him, felt it break and the dust whirlpool engulf him, dragging him down into the cool darkness. For a moment, the sensation of coolness and moisture were blessed relief. Then, as his planet killed him, it occurred to Kynes that his father and all the other scientists were wrong, that the most persistent principles of the universe were accident and error.
Even the hawks could appreciate these facts.
Messiah p19
"We of the Tleilexu believe that in all the universe there is only one insatiable appetite of matter, that energy is the only true solid. And energy learns. Hear me well, princes: energy learns. This we call power"
The fist book was.. uh.. OK, I guess. It wasn't great. There were a lot of opportunities to make things really epic that just weren't taken. Most of the battles could have been more exciting. Feyd-Rautha Harkonen fights a gladiator in one chapter and that combat sequence is done well but the other ones are lacking somehow. The big battles are also glossed over and slow. You can do so much more with those sand worms.. but again, you only get a glimpse. There are chances for so much epic awesomeness but maybe that's not what Herbert is good at.
For all of his talk about "feints within feints" and plots and secrecy, the characters sure seem to be rather black and white. Barron Vladimir Harkonen is clearly E V I L. He is also fat and Russian.. predictable for a cold war era author perhaps. Paul, on the other hand, is always good. He is brave and strong and smart. He leads the Fremen in the desert against their.. Russian.. oppressors.. Hello? Afghanistan?
There are some neat plot twists and turns, but the reader always knows about them. They are secret from the characters but not the audience. I suppose I'm more used to having to figure things out or discover the nuanced details of the characters as you progress thru the book.. but that doesn't really happen here.
I guess we'll see what the other two have to offer..
**Addendum: not much is the answer. I got 100+ pages thru Messiah and NOTHING has happened. Revenant Duncan Idaho is neat. The naked sword-fight against the practice drone was neat.. but that is all that there was in the first half of the book. I had accidentally started reading Children of Dune first and didn't even realize it. It was totally ho-hum too.
He does write pretty, though. These are three of many great passages.
Dune P31
Paul shrugged. " Then she said a good ruler has to learn his planet's language, that it's different for every world. And I thought she meant they didn't speak Galach or Arrakis, but she said that wasn't it at all. She said she meant the language of the rocks and the growing things, the language you don't just hear with your ears. And I said that's what Dr. Yueh calls the mastery of life.".
Dune p230
What do you despise? by this are you truly known.
Dune p277
And I am a desert creature, Kynes thought. You see me, Father? I am a desert creature.
He felt the bubble lift him, felt it break and the dust whirlpool engulf him, dragging him down into the cool darkness. For a moment, the sensation of coolness and moisture were blessed relief. Then, as his planet killed him, it occurred to Kynes that his father and all the other scientists were wrong, that the most persistent principles of the universe were accident and error.
Even the hawks could appreciate these facts.
Messiah p19
"We of the Tleilexu believe that in all the universe there is only one insatiable appetite of matter, that energy is the only true solid. And energy learns. Hear me well, princes: energy learns. This we call power"
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
#61 The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
Starts off a little slow, but by the end I thought this is one of the best SciFi books I have read so far. Humans expand thru the universe and have found life on other planets, but no intelligent life until now. Daring young captain Rod Blaine is sent on a mission to investigate a probe entering the Empire's space that must have been launched from an intelligent species somewhere. The star that the probe came from appears as a small speck of light alone in the "eye" of a constellation that is thought of as a face of a "god".
After investigating the probe, they are sent to investigate the mote. Once they meet the "Moties" they need to find out if they will be friend or foe.
This is the first book by Jerry that I have read. I did read Ringworld by Larry, and I think I see Jerry's influence here. My guess is that Larry wrote the science / space stuff and Jerry wrote the character development and the intriguing plot. I found the characters thin and the plot simple in Ringworld, but the science was super cool. They seem to compliment each other well.
One criticism that I have is that they chose not to write a future where humanity has progressed to men and women being more equal. Sally is a very important and influential character. She is a scientist and an aristocrat. She is very powerful and independent, but she is the only female on the ship. No women sail in the Galactic Navy. When the main conflict is over she is expected to take her place as Rod's wife and have no further ambition following that.
They can predict space travel, but not equality?? Come on, boys..
P 444
"You are so cold! Can you not rejoice with me? We are saved!"
"Study Renner."
"Yes... I know that look. He wears it playing poker, when his down card is an unexpected one. It does not help us. But her has no power, Charlie! A wanderer with no sense of responsibility!"
"Perhaps. We juggle priceless eggs in variable gravity. I am afraid. I will taste fear until I die."
p 454
"No use." said Charlie. "Taste the irony. For millions of years we have been in a bottle. Its shape has shaped our species to our detriment. Now we have found the opening, and now the Navy pours thru to burn our worlds."
P 457
They stood for a long time on the balcony outside Rod's suite. Faint sounds of a city after dark floated up to them. The Hooded Man rose high in the sky, his baleful red eye watching them with indifference: two human lovers who would send squadrons of ships into the Eye itself and keep them there, until they too passed away...
It took most of the book, but i finally found some things worth quoting. The first two are from Moties.
After investigating the probe, they are sent to investigate the mote. Once they meet the "Moties" they need to find out if they will be friend or foe.
This is the first book by Jerry that I have read. I did read Ringworld by Larry, and I think I see Jerry's influence here. My guess is that Larry wrote the science / space stuff and Jerry wrote the character development and the intriguing plot. I found the characters thin and the plot simple in Ringworld, but the science was super cool. They seem to compliment each other well.
One criticism that I have is that they chose not to write a future where humanity has progressed to men and women being more equal. Sally is a very important and influential character. She is a scientist and an aristocrat. She is very powerful and independent, but she is the only female on the ship. No women sail in the Galactic Navy. When the main conflict is over she is expected to take her place as Rod's wife and have no further ambition following that.
They can predict space travel, but not equality?? Come on, boys..
P 444
"You are so cold! Can you not rejoice with me? We are saved!"
"Study Renner."
"Yes... I know that look. He wears it playing poker, when his down card is an unexpected one. It does not help us. But her has no power, Charlie! A wanderer with no sense of responsibility!"
"Perhaps. We juggle priceless eggs in variable gravity. I am afraid. I will taste fear until I die."
p 454
"No use." said Charlie. "Taste the irony. For millions of years we have been in a bottle. Its shape has shaped our species to our detriment. Now we have found the opening, and now the Navy pours thru to burn our worlds."
P 457
They stood for a long time on the balcony outside Rod's suite. Faint sounds of a city after dark floated up to them. The Hooded Man rose high in the sky, his baleful red eye watching them with indifference: two human lovers who would send squadrons of ships into the Eye itself and keep them there, until they too passed away...
It took most of the book, but i finally found some things worth quoting. The first two are from Moties.
Friday, August 14, 2015
#65 I Am Legeng by Richard Matheson
This is actually a rather short book that is followed by several short stories that have nothing to do with the title work. I did not read all of the following shorts, but they were quite good.
The copy of this book that I read had a big picture of Will Smith on the cover and said "Now a major motion picture!" The book and the movie are so totally different that you can't really compare the two.
Matheson gets really into the depressive psychological self mutilation of Robert Neville, the last man on earth. A plague has turned everyone into zombie / vampires and he is holed up in his house utterly alone. He battles the drive to survive with the anguish and guilt of being the only survivor. Matheson really likes to get into the mind of all of his characters. He sets it up really well so that you can feel what they are feeling. It is a little scary at times.
Neville, while on a good manic streak, heads to the local University's library and studies up on medicine to try to figure out what happened and how to combat / cure it. He gets deep enough into medical jargon and has everything based well enough in reality to make a really plausible seeming explanation of where zombies and vampires came from. Being a medical person myself, I found this aspect really COOL!
p32
But are his needs any more shocking than the needs of other animals or men? Are his deeds more outrageous than the deeds of a parent who drained the spirit of his child? the vampire may foster quickened heartbeats and levitated hair, but is he worse than the parent who gave society a neurotic child that became a politician? Is he worse than the manufacturer who set up belated foundations with money made from handing bombs and guns to suicidal nationalists? s he worse than the distiller who gave basterdized grain juice to stoltify the further the brains of those who, sober, were incapable of progressive thought? ... Is he worse than the publisher who filled the ubiquitous racks with lust and death wishes? Really, now, search your soul, lovie - Is the vampire so bad?
All he does is drink blood.
p78
He stood there for a moment looking around the silent room, shaking his head slowly. All these books, he thought, the residue of a planet's intellect, the scrapings of futile minds, the leftovers, the potpourri of artifacts that had no power to save men from perishing.
The copy of this book that I read had a big picture of Will Smith on the cover and said "Now a major motion picture!" The book and the movie are so totally different that you can't really compare the two.
Matheson gets really into the depressive psychological self mutilation of Robert Neville, the last man on earth. A plague has turned everyone into zombie / vampires and he is holed up in his house utterly alone. He battles the drive to survive with the anguish and guilt of being the only survivor. Matheson really likes to get into the mind of all of his characters. He sets it up really well so that you can feel what they are feeling. It is a little scary at times.
Neville, while on a good manic streak, heads to the local University's library and studies up on medicine to try to figure out what happened and how to combat / cure it. He gets deep enough into medical jargon and has everything based well enough in reality to make a really plausible seeming explanation of where zombies and vampires came from. Being a medical person myself, I found this aspect really COOL!
p32
But are his needs any more shocking than the needs of other animals or men? Are his deeds more outrageous than the deeds of a parent who drained the spirit of his child? the vampire may foster quickened heartbeats and levitated hair, but is he worse than the parent who gave society a neurotic child that became a politician? Is he worse than the manufacturer who set up belated foundations with money made from handing bombs and guns to suicidal nationalists? s he worse than the distiller who gave basterdized grain juice to stoltify the further the brains of those who, sober, were incapable of progressive thought? ... Is he worse than the publisher who filled the ubiquitous racks with lust and death wishes? Really, now, search your soul, lovie - Is the vampire so bad?
All he does is drink blood.
p78
He stood there for a moment looking around the silent room, shaking his head slowly. All these books, he thought, the residue of a planet's intellect, the scrapings of futile minds, the leftovers, the potpourri of artifacts that had no power to save men from perishing.
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