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Added to listOwnedwith 113 books.
Dungeon Crawler Carl is Sword Art Online narrated by Holden Caulfield.
The story pulls you in at first but the excitement wanes. Halfway through, the story starts recycling its narrative pattern...which is to be expected I suppose, after all "Dungeon Crawler" is in the book's name. It also becomes apparent that the story isn't going to get far in the dungeon, that it's going to end on a cliffhanger—which it does. Dungeon Crawler Carl's cliffhanger ending is not as irritating as Hyperion's, which made me turn that book into a projectile, but boo to cliffhangers generally.
Pacing is good but that's thanks to the repetition of the grind-levels-then-bossfight structure over and over. Matt Dinniman's writing style is simple and functional. The novelty of the achievements and tooltips is nice early on but they are a distraction later. Some parts are funny but it's a lot of flippant humor, e.g., a lot of the achievement descriptions.
Fun for at least one go through. Like a Michael Bay flick.
Dungeon Crawler Carl is Sword Art Online narrated by Holden Caulfield.
The story pulls you in at first but the excitement wanes. Halfway through, the story starts recycling its narrative pattern...which is to be expected I suppose, after all "Dungeon Crawler" is in the book's name. It also becomes apparent that the story isn't going to get far in the dungeon, that it's going to end on a cliffhanger—which it does. Dungeon Crawler Carl's cliffhanger ending is not as irritating as Hyperion's, which made me turn that book into a projectile, but boo to cliffhangers generally.
Pacing is good but that's thanks to the repetition of the grind-levels-then-bossfight structure over and over. Matt Dinniman's writing style is simple and functional. The novelty of the achievements and tooltips is nice early on but they are a distraction later. Some parts are funny but it's a lot of flippant humor, e.g., a lot of the achievement descriptions.
Fun for at least one go through. Like a Michael Bay flick.
Added to listOwnedwith 111 books.
A third of Orbital is good, following astronauts over the shoulder, working, relaxing, and dealing with the hostile realities of life in space. These parts are stuffed with details, transporting readers into orbit. Like Orbit 10 where Roman describes his sleeping bag billowing in microgravity.
The other two thirds is soporific: tracking the typhoon and Earth's geography, and the philosophical and sentimental musings, and all the flowery writing. For example:
Its light is an ensemble of a trillion things which rally and unify for a few short moments before falling back into the rin-tin-tin and jumbled tumbling of static galactic woodwind rainforest trance of a wild and lilting world.
In these parts, Samantha Harvey's astronauts come off like dumbfounded tourists, not consummate professionals.
Harvey's exclusive use of indirect quotes is a good choice. It maintains narrative distance giving Orbital a diorama effect, like peering into a tilt-shifted world.
A third of Orbital is good, following astronauts over the shoulder, working, relaxing, and dealing with the hostile realities of life in space. These parts are stuffed with details, transporting readers into orbit. Like Orbit 10 where Roman describes his sleeping bag billowing in microgravity.
The other two thirds is soporific: tracking the typhoon and Earth's geography, and the philosophical and sentimental musings, and all the flowery writing. For example:
Its light is an ensemble of a trillion things which rally and unify for a few short moments before falling back into the rin-tin-tin and jumbled tumbling of static galactic woodwind rainforest trance of a wild and lilting world.
In these parts, Samantha Harvey's astronauts come off like dumbfounded tourists, not consummate professionals.
Harvey's exclusive use of indirect quotes is a good choice. It maintains narrative distance giving Orbital a diorama effect, like peering into a tilt-shifted world.
Okey. A collection of well-written short stories with no particular standouts. The kinds of stories you might read in The New Yorker then forget once you turn the page. The kinds of stories that end abruptly and leave you wistful, but only for a moment.
Okey. A collection of well-written short stories with no particular standouts. The kinds of stories you might read in The New Yorker then forget once you turn the page. The kinds of stories that end abruptly and leave you wistful, but only for a moment.
John Scalzi's Old Man's War is to sci-fi what Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn: The Final Empire is to fantasy.
Pacing is good. There are plenty of problems and complications for the characters to solve, keeping the plot moving. The writing style is straightforward and functional. Lots of simple sentences and simple language which also makes exposition easy to understand.
Some details are tastelessly gaudy like all the sex after the recruits get new bodies, and naming neural implants Asshole and Bitch. Juvenile appeal. At the same time this behavior fits under the circumstances so I throw my hands up to it.
I am disappointed that the recruitment of septuagenarians is little more than a gimmick. Initially, it's justified by greater life experience presumably translating into some tactical edge. But Sergeant Ruiz immediately dispels that notion:
Each of you has seventy-five years of bad habits and personal feelings of entitlement that I have to purge in three goddamn months.
This is neither here nor there but curiously, according to Scalzi, Starship Troopers—the novel—was the inspiration and model for Old Man's War. Beyond the similar settings and premise I don't see how though. Starship Troopers is up to its neck in exposition and scenes of training and military academies. I see more similarities between Old Man's War and Starship Trooper's film adaptation though, down to specific plot beats.
John Scalzi's Old Man's War is to sci-fi what Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn: The Final Empire is to fantasy.
Pacing is good. There are plenty of problems and complications for the characters to solve, keeping the plot moving. The writing style is straightforward and functional. Lots of simple sentences and simple language which also makes exposition easy to understand.
Some details are tastelessly gaudy like all the sex after the recruits get new bodies, and naming neural implants Asshole and Bitch. Juvenile appeal. At the same time this behavior fits under the circumstances so I throw my hands up to it.
I am disappointed that the recruitment of septuagenarians is little more than a gimmick. Initially, it's justified by greater life experience presumably translating into some tactical edge. But Sergeant Ruiz immediately dispels that notion:
Each of you has seventy-five years of bad habits and personal feelings of entitlement that I have to purge in three goddamn months.
This is neither here nor there but curiously, according to Scalzi, Starship Troopers—the novel—was the inspiration and model for Old Man's War. Beyond the similar settings and premise I don't see how though. Starship Troopers is up to its neck in exposition and scenes of training and military academies. I see more similarities between Old Man's War and Starship Trooper's film adaptation though, down to specific plot beats.
Playback is tied with Farewell, My Lovely for my favorite Raymond Chandler novel.
Playback has been panned as the his weakest, with the simplest plot and fewest challenges for Marlowe. But I think Playback deals in highly distilled examples of Chandler's style, featuring some of the most memorable scenes of the series. Like when Marlowe parrots Mitchell to Betty about spotting him a few dollars until his "check comes in." Imagining Betty slack-jawed at that gets me every time. Or when Marlowe stakes out the iconic Super Chief. Or Marlowe working the cabbies to tail Betty. Or dinner with hick dick Gobel (and the waiter's reactions). Or Betty's clumsy attempts to buy Marlowe with dreams of Rio.
Playback closely follows The Long Good-bye (taking place roughly one year after the latter) and in this context, I see Playback's simple plot and softball obstacles as Chandler communing with Marlowe and giving him some reprieve from the events of The Long Good-bye.
Chandler would pass away the year after Playback was published so this is about as close to a happy ever after Marlowe will get.
Playback is tied with Farewell, My Lovely for my favorite Raymond Chandler novel.
Playback has been panned as the his weakest, with the simplest plot and fewest challenges for Marlowe. But I think Playback deals in highly distilled examples of Chandler's style, featuring some of the most memorable scenes of the series. Like when Marlowe parrots Mitchell to Betty about spotting him a few dollars until his "check comes in." Imagining Betty slack-jawed at that gets me every time. Or when Marlowe stakes out the iconic Super Chief. Or Marlowe working the cabbies to tail Betty. Or dinner with hick dick Gobel (and the waiter's reactions). Or Betty's clumsy attempts to buy Marlowe with dreams of Rio.
Playback closely follows The Long Good-bye (taking place roughly one year after the latter) and in this context, I see Playback's simple plot and softball obstacles as Chandler communing with Marlowe and giving him some reprieve from the events of The Long Good-bye.
Chandler would pass away the year after Playback was published so this is about as close to a happy ever after Marlowe will get.
