Juraj
Under the guise of man-beasts there's a story of order and chaos and of what makes us human. About the animalistic nature and rising above it. I saw Moreau as a god, similar to the one from old testament. He's a creator but also a vengeful spirit who is not afraid to cause pain and suffering. And without him chaos ensues. I'm not a believer but I do believe that society as a whole needs to have something (spiritual) above it in order to function well.
It's a great theme and I guess for its time the novel explored it well enough to become a classic but in today's age it doesn't hold a candle to more modern variations on this theme. I find myself liking the old writing style more and more lately but even that did not make me feel fond of this book above what I expected.
My third attempt to read Berserk. Since new chapter was just announced I think it's a good time to give it another try. I always stopped in Griffith's arc as I just don't give a damn about Guts's past and the flashbacks seemed endless. I'd much rather see what happens after the end of Guardians of Desire but skipping is unacceptable.
Lovecraftian Eldritch horror that serves as prequel to ‘Salem's Lot. Very atmospheric and written in old style of prose in form of letters/diary entries. As a standalone excellent short story, as prequel to the novel not so much. Ruins the mystery. I'm not sure about publication order, if novel was first or not, but I kind of wish the origin story was either never told or it was something more akin to Midnight Mass TV show. Not this family knot tied to Jerusalem's Lot. Oh well... definitely worth a read and better than the novel. And look at that gorgeous illustration/cover!
By far the worst book in the trilogy, playing at some intricate story about nature of consciousness and what differentiates sentient being from non-sentient - but we get that only at the end.
I didn't have any expectations for this book. I knew it was different from first two and not as popular but I didn't expect this.
I guessed what's going on the moment Liff met the “Witch”. It's a simulation. :/ Admittedly, it was humorous that Tchaikovsky turned “that” character into a role like this but he also made her even more annoying than ever before. Allegedly she's not suppose to have feelings but disdain, anger and frustration were present in every single dialogue she had. So which is it? Because it's outright stated in the book that she no longer dabbles with emotions. And if she wasn't so full of herself this story could've been shorter.
It was so annoying to go through hundreds of pages of deliberately keeping the twist secret. Not knowing properly what's going on and why, jumping through realities/time periods. Don't get me wrong, I love a puzzle. Malazan is my favorite book series ever. But it needs to be done well. There need to be crumbs left on the ground (pun intended) for it to work. For me to return to previous chapters after twist is finally shown and have the “aha” moment, seeing the puzzle pieces spread throughout the book. The First Law did this brilliantly with Bayaz and Jezal. Here it's simultaneously completely obfuscated and banging your head on the wall with the solution. Which you probably already have guessed 100 pages in.
Setting is boring compared to previous books. It takes place on another world that humans with small h tried to colonize as last resort after Earth fell. There are no interesting aliens as focus of the story, although we are introduced to Corvids which are sentient ravens and our new allies. Although they would argue they are not sentient. And that nor are we. I enjoyed those few philosophizing pages.
It's a wild west mixed with fairy tale. Did not work for the book. At all. Main character from the planet Liff is 12 yo kid through whose eyes we see the world. And world makes no sense. It's explained why. It doesn't mean I liked it. It's a jumbled mix of various scenarios that lead nowhere.
I would really want to know how this story came to be. If Children was sold as trilogy and Tchaikovsky planned this story from the get go, if he had no idea what to write the third book about and this is how it ended, if it was originally a novella and he inflated it (as 120 pages long novella this would've worked so much better!), or if he just had an idea about witch tales and Groundhog Day and decided to put it into this world.
The series ends on huge disappointment. There were so many directions this series could've gone instead and the very last page of Ruin hinted at it. It's post-scarcity hard sci-fi about alliance between several sentient species and we got a fraking medieval village story with witches!
And two more things. What was the point of simulation always ending with Miranda at the gallows? If simulation wasn't hostile to her why did she always end up dead in the most gruesome spectacular way imaginable? It's not explained at all. "Simulation just doesn't work with hostile presence." That is until it does... by miraculously figuring out completely alien millions of years old simulation engine and giving characters "admin" privileges. All off screen, of course...
To say this is just a copy Children of Time is like saying Lord of the Rings is just a copy of Hobbit.
I wasn't very keen on reading a sequel that copies the plot of the original book, especially when that original book was a disappointment (because of how overhyped it is). But Ruin improves on everything I didn't like in the first book and then adds much more alien and fascinating first encounter into the mix, along with a sprinkle of The Thing and Arrival.
I struggled with Time mainly because I didn't like any of the characters much, Portiids were fascinating but still kind of antropomorphic in their behaviors. In contrast, “aliens” of this book are pure anarchy incarnate. Admittedly, it was stretched to the edge of suspension of belief. They are more advanced than Old Empire in certain aspects, despite not being fully conscious by human measures (they think the same of us).
But that doesn't change the fact that I couldn't stop reading this book. With Time I always had to force myself to get through human chapters because they bored me, annoyed me. Here every chapter was another fascinating piece to the puzzle. It got tedious towards the end when I was expecting some similar “twist” like in the first book and Tchaikovsky kept stretching the revelation. However, that's about my only criticism, book could've been tiny bit shorter.
I liked the characters here, not a single one annoyed me like in previous Tchaikovsky's books that I read. And I liked Kern the most? What? A ship computer that became a junkie and hides it from her crew? Sign me up!
It is true, it follows the same template as Time, but it doesn't matter here. The new setting is so interesting that it amply compensates for the rehash of certain plot twists and turns. He also plays with the culture mix of Humans and Portiids really well, the differences, the commonalities. He builds upon them.
Finally a great novel from Tchaikovsky. Until now I saw the potential, the ideas he comes up with are great but the execution in Dogs of War and Children of Time left a lot to be desired in every other aspect. Well, here it is.
This book is to A Game of Thrones what Eye of the World is to Lord of the Rings
Book is visibly inspired by AGOT. It's also allegedly inspired by Cornwell's books but I haven't read those so I'm not going to call Gwynne out on that part. Otherwise it's a promising introduction into a fantasy world. Heavy on fantasy tropes just like WoT. I suppose that comes with the territory, though.
Since I mostly read grimdark and schlock action fantasy, Eye of the World is the best point of reference here. The book is certainly better. Characters feel more alive, especially Corban, his friends and family. It's what kept me going, really, because the rest of POVs I couldn't care less about.
The predictability was astounding. I wasn't correct in all my assumptions as to how the story will go on but I was mostly right. Guessed who's the villain, who's the chosen one immediately. Guessed the one in the dreams is not who he pretends to be. I knew how would Rafe's story go on. Who killed the king. When Ban got the wolven I knew what would happen with the animal. I think I know how will Veradis's character arc continue in later books.
Half way through I started struggling as it was all characterization and exposition, very little plot movement or action, no unseen twists. That changes after 400 pages and especially the last 100 were great. Some setups finally started paying off. But it's not enough to salvage the book for me. Goodreads says I read it for 3 weeks. Feels more like 2 months. I don't understand how so many people overhype and give it 5 stars, calling it amazing. It's not. It's a solid start to a series, though.
Just like in AGOT there's a ton of characters (a list would really help, I was lost for quite a while trying to remember who's who), though the world seems smaller. I don't know what the king's are ruling over because it seemed like it's one town and a few villages here and there. The scale is not there. What is the total human population of Banished Lands? 80 000? Book is trying to set up this epic world but it really feels like everyone is living on a larger island. Maybe sequels will explain this better.
As I mentioned, last 100 pages are different. We finally see some action, there's some loss, twists that I didn't expect. This book would've been 3/5* just like Eye of the World. Last parts, Corban's arc and the solid, even though predictable, writing elevates it just so barely to 4/5*. I have zero desire to re-read this book ever again but I do want to continue with the series as literally everyone is saying it only gets better from here. I think Gwynne absolutely nailed Corban's story here, his family relationships, deep courage, his humbleness, like that he trains with the best fighters in the kingdom but doesn't realize how good he got because of that compared to others. His story is full of little touches like that. He's what kept me going when I got to the middle. He's probably my favorite "chosen one" already.
This book paints a very sobering picture to the nature of what humans are. And what can happen at any time to any group of people. Even today. It's an essential read.
I found out about Ordinary Men from Jordan Peterson around the time 12 Rules came out. I think he mentioned it repeatedly in a few interviews and it immediately jumped to my TBR though I got to it only now, years later.
It's a relatively short book, with 220 pages of text it's quick read but a tough one. I've been to Auschwitz, to Sereď where Slovak Jews and others were being deported from and I saw like a dozen documentaries about concentration camps alone. I feel like these executions that were happening before and simultaneously to deportations are being largely ignored by the mainstream. And the numbers are staggering. The scale, the efficiency. It was hard to get through some of the chapters.
I don't consider myself a history buff but I do dare to say I know more about WWII than average person. But this was a blind spot to me, it seems. I knew about executions of Russian POWs and citizens in the conquered territories which the book touches only briefly but I had no idea it was on such scale and done by average people, not sadistic SS soldiers. Doubly so for the main content in this book, public executions of Jews in Poland. Thousands per day. It wasn't 20 people in this town, 30 there in a span of the entire occupation (assuming the rest was deported to camps). No, they were brought to one spot and executed, one group after another, executions going on entire day. Not even ISIS was this efficient and methodical.
And the most depressing thing is that there was zero justice. These people weren't punished. The handful (literally could count them on fingers of one hand) were imprisoned for a few years towards the end of their lives. That's it. No rope. Unbelievable.
1922 - 5/5 - One of the best novellas he's written, also a great movie.
Big Driver - 3.5/5 - At first I was afraid where this one would go but the last third was interesting.
Fair Extension - 4.5/5 - I haven't read Needful Things yet but this feels like a little spin on the same subject.
A Good Marriage - 4/5 - I didn't buy husband's behavior when wife found out. Nevertheless it was thrilling.
Overall this book has a very accurate title. It's been a while since I read King but I think these all are among his darkest stories reminding me of his early work where he nailed the darkness in people and the gradual loss of sanity. It's all here too.
11/22/63 was released after this book and it's considered his return to form. I think Full Dark already showed that his talent hasn't gone anywhere, this book just went under the radar because it's not a novel.
Under the Weather - 1/5 - The twist is absolute garbage, it's 18 pages long and 17 are fluff about nothing. Not really counting it into the overall rating, though, as this is a short story exclusively added to paperback version I read.
“Rules are for children. This is war, and in war the only crime is to lose.”
What is there to say at this point? Maybe that this book delivered even more than I expected. My jaw dropped at the beginning with unbelievable plot twist. Then again at the end when I was wondering if
Now I can see the work of ‘Lord Grimdark'. While the first two books were mild imho this one dives right into the dark, the gritty, the bloody. I kind of criticized previous books for having such a big grimdark reputation while having very little of grimdark content. Well, here the reputation is deserved.
With exception of Jezal there is no character left who could be considered good or morally gray. Sure they do good, or try to do good but in the end even the book asks: “Does the devil know he is a devil?” It's still nowhere close to Malazan but it finally earned the moniker.
Simply put, phenomenal end to a phenomenal trilogy.
Boli by to tri hviezdičky, no na konci sa mi asi prvý krát u kotletovky objavila slza na tvári.
Dej bol moc naťahovaný, keby to spojil s Poločasom rozpadu do jedného 450 stranového románu, tak by to bolo oveľa lepšie. Poločas som hltal viac, než toto.
Jo a malo to asi najhoršie erotické scény aké som kedy čítal. Akože chápem, že je to brakovka, ale ešte aj Tomáš Kosek ich mal lepšie napísané, a to je už čo povedať.
This started so good. New clans, new powers, new world was shown to Lindon. However, as the story went it started to drag.
Don't get me wrong, I loved every second Eithan was on the screen, but 5 clans alliance kept being mentioned and we only saw two of them with third one mentioned here and there. Will is definitely keeping stuff to be revealed in sequels and I didn't like that he sort of artificially inhibited the world building third of the way through.
I don't mind Lindon stopping by to train, to reach new levels, but it's like stopping the flow by putting the cork back in the bottle.
I'm much more persuaded that this series has huge potential than I was while reading Unsouled which really now feels like a prologue and nothing else. It's sort of Naruto for adults and I'm now here for it because it started going in its own direction. Only I fear the series is struggling from the same thing as many mangas do - artificially prolonging the story development for the sake of profit but... I guess this is the perfect moment to mention that I got almost the entire series along with the rest of Will's books for free on Kindle. So no harm there :) Kudos to Will for doing this, it's almost unheard of but he got a new fan.
Once I catch up I'm definitely buying the last book, I don't see how this can go wrong from here. I just can't give it 5/5 for the lack of progress in the second half of this book.
Lindon is in a lot of troubles by the end of this book and one thing that frustrates me is that I read descriptions of sequels and this stuff doesn't seem to be resolved in book 3. :/
P.S.: If Eithan turns out to be even remotely like Ardyn Izunia from Final Fantasy XV he's going to be one of my favorite villains. He's not a villain yet, don't even know if he becomes one. But he has the same “joker” persona vibes as Ardyn and I'm all here for it!
Rendezvous with Rama but with actual characters and on an object of unimaginable scale? Sign me up!
The claim is not false, it is similar in certain ways to Rama. But in other ways it very much reminded me of Hitchhiker's Guide with its humor and characters. Perhaps Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle too (it's been a while though) because the humor was also smart and subtle. The book never went into absurd in a way where it would break the immersion like Douglas or Vonnegut did, though. However, what nonsense there was, was to its detriment.
Unlike Clarke, Niven is also good character writer and I will remember most of this crew very fondly. Especially Speaker was funny and terrifying at the same time. I liked every character except for Teela and, sadly, the whole book revolves around her.
Speaker and Nessus were amazing aliens and Louis great main character. Chemistry between them was amazing and dialogues witty but when you introduce Mary Sue everything starts falling apart like those hovering skyscrapers. And in this case she was Mary Sue on purpose. It's actually hinted at right at the beginning, even before their journey begins. It has to do with purpose of their journey in a way. Characters figure it out towards the end so I won't spoil it. What I will say is that the story did not need this plot and without it I would love this book even more.
While I find the idea of a story like this incredibly attractive, it did not work for me because I was here for the Ringworld. To see how Louis and Speaker get along with each other. To awe at the scale of the world. Not to see absurd albeit entertaining events happen one after another with lazy explanations. Simply put, I wanted it to be more grounded in reality.
The scale... let's talk about it for a minute. Rama was vast and wonderous, it's what I love about that book the most. Ringworld on the other hand is so huge I fail to imagine it. Just like Louis I struggle with the scale because humans have simply never seen anything like it. One ocean on Ringworld could swallow entire planet Earth and probably Mercury on top of it. It's insane. It's amazing. But the scale works to the book's detriment for me. It's simply too vast to be awestruck too much and so I wasn't. It will not burn its place in my brain like Rama did although I still find it incredible. Perhaps someone will bring it justice on the big screen one day, though I don't see that happening any time soon.
It is one of the best sci-fi novels I've ever read and it's a big shame it does not reach the highest highs. I was tempted to give it four stars, it would most likely end up as 4.5 if I could give it that. Four stars are unfair to this book, though. I'm thinking of continuing Ringworld series but from what I heard it only goes downhill from here and the ending was sort of sufficient.
I picked this book up because everybody loved it. So I was curious even though the series is not yet finished.
It follows Emperor's Justice Sir Konrad Vonvalt and his small retinue as they travel through the empire and solve crimes. It's told through memoirs of his clerk Helena but the story is very much about Vonvalt himself and, as she often says, fall of the empire. This book is only setting it all up, though.
I was wondering what is so amazing about this book for 120 pages. Nothing was happening, mediocre mystery story that was progressing slowly. Then came the first quality spikes. Two scenes in span of two chapters (I think), one after another, where I couldn't breath, so tense the scenes were. I was finally hooked.
Then the book returned to its routine and then amazing scene again. Rinse and repeat basically until the end. To me it's very inconsistent. There are moments that are on the level of the best of the best authors and then there are whole chapters that are boring. There is one whole chapter dedicated to Vonvalt's opening speech in front of a jury. Like 15 pages of his monologue, going through the case he's been investigating. If you like TV shows Matlock you will enjoy this. I did not.
The good parts of this book are amazing. But for some uncomprehending reason Helena, the main character and Vonvalt's clerk, steps out of her character for one scene towards the end of the book, then back to herself, then behaves completely differently again. It's during the action sequence. I just couldn't understand why would she be written in such sloppy way in such crucial moment of the book. I suspect this comes from one of the first scenes Swan had written for the book and since then the character evolved but he did not adapt the scene sufficiently. That's entirely a guess, though.
Another thing that pissed me off is that the main villain was spared solely for the reason that he could be utilized in the sequel. Vonvalt had him but didn't kill him despite giving him judgment and punishment of death. He's also incredibly one dimensional religious zealot. Another disappointing thing.
And aside from that, what the hell is this?!
“(Knights) smashed bodily into [retracted] and his men. This was no arcane, elemental power drawn from ancient magickal tomes or siphoned off from the astral planes; it was naked force, raw, powerful and brutal. I found the effect enthralling. I felt as though I were at the centre of a storm, the thunder exploding through me, energising my blood as powerfully as any herbologist's concoction. I was filled with a bizarre urge to laugh, as though I had been overstimulated by excitement.”
This was the weakest of the novels in first collected volume (by Saga Press). And no wonder, these novellas were written even before The Elric of Melniboné and only later given structure and novelization in the form of The Weird of the White Wolf. Btw, where was that weird exactly?
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate had a lot more foreshadowing than this.
This Elric also behaved differently than the Elric in previous two novels which I liked. And I mean since the beginning. I'd understand the change in tone after the tragedy that befalls him at the end of part one but he's different from the beginning. But hey, at least there was no nonsensical post-modernist crap with the villain like in the first novel.
A little bit of Narnia here, a bit of Carl Jung there but most of all a big chunk of real life myths...
One of the most original fantasy novels I've read when it comes to world building. A secret realm is one of the common tropes but I've never seen it done in this way. It's basically our world but some of the forests are sort of magical. So old that time itself warps. So old that ice age has never ended there. So old that these forests have their own will. Mythago Wood is one of them and we explore it in this tale of two brothers - Steven and Christian.
The novel is split into three acts and act two was the best in my opinion. The beginning intrigued me but I wanted to kind of move on to “the good stuff”. We just scratch the surface there, don't even enter the forest proper. Then there's a lovely romance of act two that is fated to not end well - not a spoiler they say it outright. This was my favorite part of the book. Very lovely. I'm not into romances but this worked well for me.
I was looking forward to the third and longest act as we finally go explore the forest but unfortunately it dragged too long. There was a moment where main character does a dumb thing which leads to low key action scene just for the sake of something actually happening. It took me three days to read the last 50 pages. The ending also isn't done that well. The conclusion with the villain was very disappointing. I don't know what the author was aiming for. There are some Christian themes (pun intended) but then Holdstock subverts readers' expectations in one of the worst ways possible. I think I'm too dumb to understand what he aimed for maybe? Not read well enough in classic literature or myths? I don't know...
I do feel that if there were multiple POVs or if it was written in third person instead of first, the novel would benefit. The prose felt a bit sterile. Maybe it's to do with Czech translation. The entire series is not available in physical form in English language at the moment so I broke my rule and read it translated as Czech publisher is releasing the whole series in pretty nice illustrated hardcover edition.
Nevertheless, the book as a whole is definitely worth a read and Holdstock deserves a bit more fame for what he had created here. I hope he expands the world in later novels as it was a bit underutilized here. A brief walk through the expanse that is out there. From what I read the best is yet to come in Lavondyss. I'm also pretty sure that without Mythago Wood there would be no American Gods. Gaiman even wrote the introduction for this novel as Holdstock's friend and fan.
Looks like the first book was the odd one out. The Sailor on the Seas of Fate is as good as The Fortress of the Pearl although it's three short stories tied together by sea faring theme and immediately following each other, rather than one longer story.
I really wish I got into this series as teenager because I would've loved it as much as any passionate Elric fan. Almost in my 30's, it's still a solid read that aged quite well thanks to it's high fantasy theme. If it wasn't for the accusation that Sapkowski plagiarized Moorcock in The Witcher saga I wouldn't even have touched this series.
Disappointed, yet I love this series.
I've been waiting for the real grimdark part of this series for two books now. So far the darkest thing was chopping off of fingers during torture in The Blade Itself. A disembowelment here, chopped off limb there... Sure, it is grimdark but on the low end. Where the hell does the “Lord Grimdark” nickname for Abercrombie come from? I thought this would be brutal. Exhausting. Disgusting in places. Erikson, Cook, Kristoff have more ‘grimdark' stuff in one chapter than Abercrombie has in two books.
Instead it's incredibly entertaining and often funny. Some characters die, but I do feel that most of them have plot armor. I expected to be drained like after finishing a Malazan book. Instead I feel like I read bloodier Sanderson book.
I'd have to re-read ASOIAF but I think Abercrombie does the best character work in fantasy. Along with great prose and writing style full of (often sarcastic) inner monologues it's what elevates these books above the most. He gets into the heads of characters really well. You can easily see why they behave as they do.
I knew this would be 5 star book after three pages. I find his style incredible. It's not something amazing and rarely seen. It's actually the way most writers write, it's just done on whole another level. Glokta, Jezal and Ninefingers grew on me. Especially Glokta's sarcastic comments. Not to mention the character growth some of these went through. Spectacular.
But where's the plot? I already heard that this trilogy is sort of one book split into three but I wasn't expecting to feel it this heavily after two thirds done. There's barely anything happening! And yet it speaks so much more about Abercrombie's writing talent as I'm giving it 5/5 and want to continue. I will take a small break to accommodate other series I'm in the middle of first, though.
The ending was disappointing, I can't believe he wrote it like this. Reminded me of Luke in The Last Jedi when he tosses the lightsaber... nooooot a good thing. Subverting of expectations like this was the worst thing he could've done to end the book on.
But I'm really curious where it goes next... and I shouldn't say ‘it'. Rather they. The characters. The main plot really isn't that much interesting.
Looks like I finally found a LeGuin's book that's not overrated. About time.
I loved the overall narrative, the richness of the culture Genly is discovering and the slight alienness he experiences because while they are human... they are not quite human like him.
The “aliens” have amorphous gender but they are still people, humans left on icy planet and experimented on long time ago - they cycle through being man and woman once a month like a PMS, the rest of the time they are infertile and something in the middle. It is a fascinating idea and I'm glad the book was written in the 60's because today it would have several dozen preachy passages with LGBT metaphors and “THE MESSAGE” (read the word in Critical Drinker's voice for best effect). This way it was ideologically free and LeGuin simply went discovering what a culture like that would look like, which was, in a way, refreshing.
Two thirds of the book are spent in political match between two nations while Genly is trying to get at least one of them to enter Ekumen union of planets. He knows that if one agrees the rest will soon follow. But they don't believe or don't want to believe him for their own political sake. He came alone and while he looks weird to them and the spaceship is being analyzed he's still struggling against political forces that want to keep the power to themselves and fear joining galactic union would undermine their plans.
This part was good but not as good as the last third where Genly is forced to travel through icy plains with a native companion. I was quite surprised that this was the stuff I enjoyed the most. The bonding between them was the best part of the novel. I wouldn't say that LeGuin is in any way good with writing rich and complex characters but this part made me care about both of them.
I've rated only Wizard of Earthsea this high but this book was slightly better and it's not as highly praised as that one. So far Hainish Cycle was improving with (almost) every book and I hope this keeps going. LeGuin will never be among my favorite authors but at least I'm finally starting to understand why she is for many other people.
P.S.: China Miéville wrote introduction to this and it just solidified my opinion that I wouldn't enjoy his work. He doesn't understand Heinlein's ‘The door dilated' metaphor and misunderstands that LeGuin used masculine language for pregnant ‘king' because we have no other way to address a ruler that is most of the time sexless eunuch and turns into one of the sexes only for a day each month.
I heard there are two types of people. Those who prefer Dark Matter and those who prefer Recursion. I guess I'm in the second camp? But only barely.
As much as I liked Dark Matter I guessed the ending at the beginning and situations they got into were getting more and more ridiculous. But it was a thrill ride until the end even though now that I look back I consider the last third of it the weakest.
On the other hand Recursion was borderline between 3 and 4 stars until the last third where it got crazy and amazing. I guess it shows that if you have strong ending it counts for more than having strong core story and weak ending. The re-readability is also much higher than Dark Matter's as the story is about manipulating time.
First three acts (out of five) were kinda losing me. I also admit I wasn't in the headspace to read about deaths and time manipulation while going through a loss myself. Pacing is slower throughout most of the book which was actually welcomed because the situations MCs got into weren't as ridiculous even when they were mind/reality-bending.
Around 100 pages before the end one of the MCs made the dumbest thing I've read this year only for it to lead to the best scene I've read this year so far. So let's call it even. And the book did not let go from there until the end which solidified the 4 star rating.
There was also no cheating regarding page count with no
...sentences structured...
like...
this.
There are suppose to be some plot holes here. Can anyone tell me what they are? Slade says that he manipulated the timeline at the end to make Helena believe it's impossible to enter dead memory. So the interview with the convict who died was orchestrated by Slade to convince Helena. Which means it's not a plot hole. What else is there?
Sometimes it's hard to review a collection of short stories. Some are great, others usually suck unless it's “the best of...” type of book. In this case, though, I have no issues rating it 2/5.
This is the first of five volumes of PKD's short stories going through his whole career and organized chronologically. So that means these are the earliest and I guess it shows. There wasn't a single great standout. Interestingly, I have a feeling that the quality went down the page count went up instead of other way around. The first bunch of stories were the most interesting. Or at least I wasn't so tired of their predictability and poor characterization.
The only stories that are worth a mention are Beyond Lies the Wub, The Gun and The Infinites.
All stories are from late 40's and early 50's and they really show their age. There's also a novelette hidden in the middle called Variable Man which was looking promising but as the story went on I was losing interest. Major theme of many of these is war. Given the time period they were written it makes sense.
I forced myself to read everything though by the end I was losing interest. PKD is one of my favorite authors and if Electric Sheep TV anthology is something to go by when it comes to his short fiction at least some interesting stories are waiting in the remaining volumes. But this one was just ok.
The madman, the prophet, Karl Glogauer, the time-traveller, the neurotic psychiatrist manqué, the searcher for meaning, the masochist, the man with a death-wish and the messiah-complex, the anachronism, made his way through the market place gasping for breath.He had seen the man he had sought. He had seen Jesus, the son of Mary and Joseph.He had seen a man he recognized without any doubt as a congenital imbecile.
I wasn't expecting much from this novella at all. I wasn't in the mood to continue reading other stuff so I picked this off the shelf as it's quite short. Boy, was I not expecting it to be this good. Best comparison I can come up with is that one of the characters out of Milan Kundera's books travelled through time to meet Jesus.
Karl is extremely flawed narcissist drowning in toxic relationships and with nothing left to lose. So he decides to be guinea pig and gets stuck in the past one year before Jesus' crucifixion. But things aren't as they are suppose to be. Book description hints at it, it's obvious almost since the beginning. He needs to arrange historical events as they are remembered (more or less) because the real Jesus is not there to do it.
Karl's life is brutal but at the same time it's a dark comedy. Parts from Jesus' era are alternating with Karl's past in the 20th century. His childhood, adolescence and adulthood. His parents, his relationships with women. All mixed together with a few Bible quotes from apostles.
Some parts reminded me of Kundera's Immortality in their rawness and brutality that only life can bring and only a talented author can describe this well. The book definitely isn't for everyone. Hell, I dislike organized religion, think the notion of God as western religions see him makes no sense. And yet I absolutely loved this book because it's not about God. Not at all. It's about Man. A selfish flawed neurotic Man with messiah-complex. This is what surprised me the most. It's not shallow, it goes deep into Man's soul.
I've only read two of Elric's books so I did not expect Moorcock to be this great of a writer. I need to check more of his works. The guy wrote like crazy. He released 7 (S E V E N !) novels in 1976 on top of two edited collections. Even if all of them were as short as this book the number is insane. And it's not like he stopped before or after. Some authors should get inspired...