2014-06-17: So… a story about a psychotic giant who keeps seeing his dead girlfriend and who murders lots of innocent people. That sounds fun. Or not. Especially disturbing is when the queen decides he’s the paragon of loyalty and conveniently forgets all of her subjects, including his own unit, who he personally murdered. I didn’t have any issues with the writing but the subject matter sucked.
2014-06-14: I was very intrigued by the title and the setting of the book. The opening went well enough but was a bit bleak. Then it turned out to be… not exactly a wrist-slitter but pretty close. There just wasn’t any hope to be found in the book. The ending felt almost like an add-on, just to make it a little less depressing. It’s well written and I very much enjoyed the style of it although there was a shift in narrator at one point that felt odd. Well done, just not enjoyable.
Wow. These were all excellent.
Three parts dead by Max Gladstone
Started 2014-06-09 / Finished: 2014-06-12 / 4.5 stars
2014-06-10: Really digging this one so far. It’s humorous and offbeat and generally likable. Debating on whether to table it and push on to the next book.
2014-06-12: I very much enjoyed this story. An interesting world with characters that I liked. Not perfect but it stood out as the best of the books up for the Campbell award. Technically, I think the second book in the series is up for the award but I decided to read the first book as it was also provided.
A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar
Started on 2014-06-07.
2014-06-09: I’m in chapter 5 and likely to abandon it and move on after this chapter. It’s good, but written in a very florid and verbose style. It suits the story but there have been whole pages that I’ve skimmed without feeling I missed anything as they were just telling me about the pretty city or the ocean, or whatever.
2014-06-10: I did my five chapter minimum and while I think it’s a good book it’s too wordy for me at the moment. I would probably have kept going if I weren’t on this Hugo related reading binge. I’ll probably come back to it once the binge is done.
Nexus by Ramez Naam
Started 2014-06-03 / Finished 2014-06-06
2014-06-03: Really enjoying this one so far though I don’t think the tech will get that far by 2040. Also disagree with the way the Feds are portrayed. I see that as wishful thinking. No mention of climate change and how that’s affected the world. I guess it was simpler just to ignore it. Kade is too naive. I think naivete is on the edge of extinction and can’t imagine a college student in 2040 being so… naive. Might just be might cynical nature though.
2014-06-06: Still enjoying it though it’s too long and it pushes my buttons on government using violence and deception to “protect” people from imagined threats. Also, Sam just had a major change of heart that was very deus ex machina. A more organic change of heart would have been preferable. It would also be nice if books would stop using ultra naive protagonists. I stopped believing in “innocent” people a LONG time ago.
2014-06-06: Well, at least it isn’t a series. Pretty good. Generally enjoyable though I’d have liked it shorter and more believable. I know at the end he tells us about the real research his extrapolation is based on and while it’s amazing I’m still not buying his extrapolation. See me again in 15 years and we’ll see where things stand.
Three short stories by Benjanun Sriduangkaew
Started 2014-06-02 / Finished 2014-06-03
The Bees Her Heart, the Hive Her Belly Fade to Gold Silent Bridge, Pale Cascade
The Lives of Tao by Wes Chu
Started 2014-05-31 / Finished 2014-06-02
2014-06-01: Pretty good, but maybe I’m not as interested in action/adventure stuff as I used to be.
2014-06-02: I’m on chapter 21 which is about two million pages in, and I really wish authors today would learn to get to the damned point and stop taking so many side trips. Also, it was not at all obvious that the love interest would become involved in the crazy sekrit alien spy war at all.
2014-06-02: Wow. I haven’t read a book that fast in a long time. Too bad it wasn’t a better book. Overall, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t all that good either. It did that sloppy thing that so many books do where it just meanders along aimlessly and then BANG! climax, book’s over. Now meandering can be fine if it’s done well, but it wasn’t done that well. And BANG! climax, and work too, IF, it fits the overall story but it rarely does. Too often it reads like late Stephen King, Tommyknockers is the one where I really noticed it, and it looks like the author got bored and decided to wrap it up. Maybe I should re-read some early King, maybe Cujo or Salem’s Lot, and see if they did that. I don’t think so but I was a lot younger then so maybe I was more forgiving (or oblivious). Back to Tao; the ending seemed to trite and obvious. I’d have had Roen wise up and shoot Sean when the gun was dropped. The good guys shouldn’t always be idiots.
In summary: Nothing too original; not badly written but kind of cliched and not very interesting.
I don’t know where the stray thought came from but it involved something I read the other day about the secret to samurai success being “calm”. I’m down with that idea and that collided with the litany against fear and my dual mottos, “shit happens” and “this too shall pass” and the following emerged. Not sure if I like it but I think it might be useful right now.
Shit happens.
Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad.
Good or bad, I will meet it with calm resolve.
I will permit it to pass over and through me,
remembering always that this too shall pass,
but I will remain.
It’s pretty compact. Might try to haikuize it.
