altlovesbooks
"Orr had a tendency to assume that people knew what they were doing, perhaps because he generally assumed that he did not."
A dangerous assumption, in any context.
This was a rather neat read about the potential of dreams. What if your dreams had the power to change reality? It sounds good in theory, but in practice it can easily lead to chaos—something the main character, George Orr, uniquely understands. Forced to attend therapy for what people assume to be some sort of mental affliction convincing Orr that his dreams become real, he is thrown in with Dr. Haber, a psychiatrist assigned to Orr to try and help him overcome his problems. In so doing, however, Haber figures out that Orr isn’t crazy, and starts manipulating him and his dreams for his own purposes.
For a short book, this one sure covers a lot of ground. Lots of philosophical thoughts about the rights of man to interfere in destiny, the corrupting influence of power, and general thoughts on the importance of human connection in one’s life are all present in this book. Whether or not you subscribe to the idea of some sort of cosmic balance, it’s telling that every time Haber tries to make Orr dream something good for humanity, Orr dreams up a monkey’s paw version of the wish.
It's an older book so some parts definitely feel their age, but overall I really enjoyed thinking about the implications of having a power like Orr’s. I was left with some nagging questions in the end (did Orr create the Aliens or just ship them in from another reality? How did Haber, and to a lesser extent Heather, resist Orr’s reality changes so completely?), but I think it’s left open on purpose to allow you the space to come to your own conclusions.
This was a fun read, and I’ll likely seek out more from this author in the future.
"Orr had a tendency to assume that people knew what they were doing, perhaps because he generally assumed that he did not."
A dangerous assumption, in any context.
This was a rather neat read about the potential of dreams. What if your dreams had the power to change reality? It sounds good in theory, but in practice it can easily lead to chaos—something the main character, George Orr, uniquely understands. Forced to attend therapy for what people assume to be some sort of mental affliction convincing Orr that his dreams become real, he is thrown in with Dr. Haber, a psychiatrist assigned to Orr to try and help him overcome his problems. In so doing, however, Haber figures out that Orr isn’t crazy, and starts manipulating him and his dreams for his own purposes.
For a short book, this one sure covers a lot of ground. Lots of philosophical thoughts about the rights of man to interfere in destiny, the corrupting influence of power, and general thoughts on the importance of human connection in one’s life are all present in this book. Whether or not you subscribe to the idea of some sort of cosmic balance, it’s telling that every time Haber tries to make Orr dream something good for humanity, Orr dreams up a monkey’s paw version of the wish.
It's an older book so some parts definitely feel their age, but overall I really enjoyed thinking about the implications of having a power like Orr’s. I was left with some nagging questions in the end (did Orr create the Aliens or just ship them in from another reality? How did Haber, and to a lesser extent Heather, resist Orr’s reality changes so completely?), but I think it’s left open on purpose to allow you the space to come to your own conclusions.
This was a fun read, and I’ll likely seek out more from this author in the future.
The bones of this book are good, but the material dates itself pretty quickly. There's a number of references to websites, plan providers, and other specific resources that either no longer exist or no longer provide the resource indicated.
All that said, the very basics of collection development are discussed here, but I stress the point that every library is different. No book can tell you what your specific population will be interested in, so it's important that you know your own patron base and what's popular with them.
I will say there's plenty of further reading resources provided within this book, though. So, for all that it's kind of flawed as a resource guide, there's tons of cited papers and books that will help fill in the gaps and satisfy additional questions you might have when reading this.
The bones of this book are good, but the material dates itself pretty quickly. There's a number of references to websites, plan providers, and other specific resources that either no longer exist or no longer provide the resource indicated.
All that said, the very basics of collection development are discussed here, but I stress the point that every library is different. No book can tell you what your specific population will be interested in, so it's important that you know your own patron base and what's popular with them.
I will say there's plenty of further reading resources provided within this book, though. So, for all that it's kind of flawed as a resource guide, there's tons of cited papers and books that will help fill in the gaps and satisfy additional questions you might have when reading this.
Heavy handed with Japanese satire, I appreciated what this book was doing, but kind of found it boring.
Patient No. 23 is a madman whose story takes up the majority of this short book. He's out hiking, chases a Kappa (a Japanese spirit) White Rabbit style, and winds up in Kappa Land. Rather than be concerned at this turn of events, he moves right in and starts trying to fit in with his new (strange) neighbors.
We get a lot of author commentary about Japan's feelings on several topics, through Kappa who find themselves in similar situations. Everything is very episodic, in that the (short) chapters are fairly self contained. Something happens, Patient No. 23 provides commentary on Kappa behavior about the something, and we move onto the next chapter, which is generally something completely different. I would have appreciated a little more direction, but then again, these are Kappa we're talking about.
It just never rose beyond "huh" for me, interest-wise. A lot of what's discussed here isn't new, Japan is prudish, Japan is conservative, Japan doesn't like outsiders, Japan is hard working to a fault, on and on, fairly unrelentingly. The cover art was what drew me in, I just wish I enjoyed the story more.
Heavy handed with Japanese satire, I appreciated what this book was doing, but kind of found it boring.
Patient No. 23 is a madman whose story takes up the majority of this short book. He's out hiking, chases a Kappa (a Japanese spirit) White Rabbit style, and winds up in Kappa Land. Rather than be concerned at this turn of events, he moves right in and starts trying to fit in with his new (strange) neighbors.
We get a lot of author commentary about Japan's feelings on several topics, through Kappa who find themselves in similar situations. Everything is very episodic, in that the (short) chapters are fairly self contained. Something happens, Patient No. 23 provides commentary on Kappa behavior about the something, and we move onto the next chapter, which is generally something completely different. I would have appreciated a little more direction, but then again, these are Kappa we're talking about.
It just never rose beyond "huh" for me, interest-wise. A lot of what's discussed here isn't new, Japan is prudish, Japan is conservative, Japan doesn't like outsiders, Japan is hard working to a fault, on and on, fairly unrelentingly. The cover art was what drew me in, I just wish I enjoyed the story more.
I like sci-fi, I like Antarctic survival books, but these two ideas combined at this author’s hand just never really seemed to gel properly together. I had no clear idea at the end why the beginning was required, which is surprising because evidently this author’s known for his thrillers? I expected something a bit more coherent and thrilling than what I got.
Mysterious aliens arrive in mysterious ships with a mysterious deadline – mankind has 30 days to evacuate to Antarctica. As you might expect, there’s a bit of a scramble to get there, obviously not everyone gets there, but the story follows two people brought together during this adversity who remain together once they get to their destination. Suddenly we’re 20 years later (hand waving how everyone survived that first winter on the ice with basically nothing in terms of supplies in the process), there’s four main colonies in Antarctica, and mysterious happenings going on at one of them (McMurdo City, built around the real life McMurdo Station). The book takes a shift in tone here, and we go back and forth in time perspective to meet new people thrown at us in the story, how they got here, and what their motivations are. The unraveling of the mystery at McMurdo City is the crux of the last half of the book, and what it means for the survivors in Antarctica.
I thought the pacing was a little off, for one. That first 20 year hand wave in the beginning was my biggest annoyance (how did everyone survive? Where did the food come from? How did they build shelters?), but wasn’t my only one. We meet characters periodically throughout the story that the author feels compelled to go back in time to tell their story, which takes you out of the flow of the larger event going on. We’re doing this almost all the way until the end, which is a little frustrating, especially for a character that then isn’t really used much.
I’m also annoyed that the aliens, the driving force for the entire first part of the book and the reason everyone is in Antarctica, were never mentioned again. What did they want? Why have everyone move to Antarctica? What happened to the rest of the planet? All these questions and more, left on the table. They were a plot mechanic to get the actors to their places on stage, and then forgotten about.
Finally, I’m also somewhat annoyed at the ideas brought up in the last half of the book. Spoilers here: Why did we feel compelled to take such drastic genetic manipulation steps for a population that seemed to be doing well? People were living, having children, building communities. Other than, y’know, it being super cold out (which they seemed to have well in hand using what they have anyway), everyone seemed fairly positive about the whole thing. Why not redirect that genetic manipulation energy to, I don’t know, crops or fish or something? Why did we leap immediately to creating, essentially, ice-adapted aliens and then act all shocked when they don’t think much of us?
It’s a very surface level book, so it’s fun only if you don’t start thinking too closely about any one element. The omissions and inconsistencies sucked a large part of the fun out for me, but maybe someone else will think more of it.
I like sci-fi, I like Antarctic survival books, but these two ideas combined at this author’s hand just never really seemed to gel properly together. I had no clear idea at the end why the beginning was required, which is surprising because evidently this author’s known for his thrillers? I expected something a bit more coherent and thrilling than what I got.
Mysterious aliens arrive in mysterious ships with a mysterious deadline – mankind has 30 days to evacuate to Antarctica. As you might expect, there’s a bit of a scramble to get there, obviously not everyone gets there, but the story follows two people brought together during this adversity who remain together once they get to their destination. Suddenly we’re 20 years later (hand waving how everyone survived that first winter on the ice with basically nothing in terms of supplies in the process), there’s four main colonies in Antarctica, and mysterious happenings going on at one of them (McMurdo City, built around the real life McMurdo Station). The book takes a shift in tone here, and we go back and forth in time perspective to meet new people thrown at us in the story, how they got here, and what their motivations are. The unraveling of the mystery at McMurdo City is the crux of the last half of the book, and what it means for the survivors in Antarctica.
I thought the pacing was a little off, for one. That first 20 year hand wave in the beginning was my biggest annoyance (how did everyone survive? Where did the food come from? How did they build shelters?), but wasn’t my only one. We meet characters periodically throughout the story that the author feels compelled to go back in time to tell their story, which takes you out of the flow of the larger event going on. We’re doing this almost all the way until the end, which is a little frustrating, especially for a character that then isn’t really used much.
I’m also annoyed that the aliens, the driving force for the entire first part of the book and the reason everyone is in Antarctica, were never mentioned again. What did they want? Why have everyone move to Antarctica? What happened to the rest of the planet? All these questions and more, left on the table. They were a plot mechanic to get the actors to their places on stage, and then forgotten about.
Finally, I’m also somewhat annoyed at the ideas brought up in the last half of the book. Spoilers here: Why did we feel compelled to take such drastic genetic manipulation steps for a population that seemed to be doing well? People were living, having children, building communities. Other than, y’know, it being super cold out (which they seemed to have well in hand using what they have anyway), everyone seemed fairly positive about the whole thing. Why not redirect that genetic manipulation energy to, I don’t know, crops or fish or something? Why did we leap immediately to creating, essentially, ice-adapted aliens and then act all shocked when they don’t think much of us?
It’s a very surface level book, so it’s fun only if you don’t start thinking too closely about any one element. The omissions and inconsistencies sucked a large part of the fun out for me, but maybe someone else will think more of it.
”With a sharp pen and fine paper, I have wrought blood and madness.”
This was delightful. Maybe skewing a touch YA in its insistence on creating a love triangle, but I still really enjoyed this book all the same. And if you know me at all, overlooking YA romance tropes and still rating the book highly is something very rare indeed.
Rather than this being a retelling of the One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, it takes the main storyteller from there (Scheherazade) and puts her on her own adventure reluctantly at the right hand of a Seljuk monarch, Shahyar, whom she marries as a way to force his hand. She finds herself weaving tales at the whim of her husband, trying to keep one step ahead of a potential headsman’s block while keeping her own family safe.
This really was a beautiful story told both through the actions of the characters as well as through the short stories told by Scheherazade along the way. The prose was fantastic, and I liked the way the characters change and develop as the story goes along. There’s some real soul searching done by both Scheherazade and Shahyar over the course of the story, and I liked how things wrapped up for both of them.
My only complaint, and the thing keeping it from a 5 star favorite rating, is the YA love triangle the author forces in. Major plot spoilers: <spoiler>About halfway through a character is introduced whom Scheherazade starts having feelings for, which seems rather hypocritical for someone who was instrumental in getting Shahyar’s previous wife killed for the same reason. Sheherazade acknowledges this throughout the book, but only in an offhand “gee I shouldn’t be doing this” as she’s doing this sort of way that I found a little juvenile.</spoiler>
But I really did enjoy this story greatly. It took me a while to get through, but only because I was taking my time with it, a mark of a story and a world I really did want to get all I could out of. Highly recommend for anyone who liked A Thousand and One Arabian Nights, or who wants to see Sheherazade get out of her castle and go on an adventure of her own.
”With a sharp pen and fine paper, I have wrought blood and madness.”
This was delightful. Maybe skewing a touch YA in its insistence on creating a love triangle, but I still really enjoyed this book all the same. And if you know me at all, overlooking YA romance tropes and still rating the book highly is something very rare indeed.
Rather than this being a retelling of the One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, it takes the main storyteller from there (Scheherazade) and puts her on her own adventure reluctantly at the right hand of a Seljuk monarch, Shahyar, whom she marries as a way to force his hand. She finds herself weaving tales at the whim of her husband, trying to keep one step ahead of a potential headsman’s block while keeping her own family safe.
This really was a beautiful story told both through the actions of the characters as well as through the short stories told by Scheherazade along the way. The prose was fantastic, and I liked the way the characters change and develop as the story goes along. There’s some real soul searching done by both Scheherazade and Shahyar over the course of the story, and I liked how things wrapped up for both of them.
My only complaint, and the thing keeping it from a 5 star favorite rating, is the YA love triangle the author forces in. Major plot spoilers: <spoiler>About halfway through a character is introduced whom Scheherazade starts having feelings for, which seems rather hypocritical for someone who was instrumental in getting Shahyar’s previous wife killed for the same reason. Sheherazade acknowledges this throughout the book, but only in an offhand “gee I shouldn’t be doing this” as she’s doing this sort of way that I found a little juvenile.</spoiler>
But I really did enjoy this story greatly. It took me a while to get through, but only because I was taking my time with it, a mark of a story and a world I really did want to get all I could out of. Highly recommend for anyone who liked A Thousand and One Arabian Nights, or who wants to see Sheherazade get out of her castle and go on an adventure of her own.