Matt
I'm a fan of Philip K. Dick, but I read his stuff years ago. I eagerly sought this book out because I heard from a couple of people that this one was one of his best. Maybe I merely disagree, maybe my affection for PKD has waned, maybe I need more now than he can give.
Dick is famous for his drug use and for taking speed before cranking out an entire novel in fifteen hours flat. This book, to me, feels like his most drug-influenced book. Not because of his crazy ideas, those are to be expected. It's because you get the feeling that he throws things into the story as they occur to him and made no effort to smooth things over in a subsequent draft. He switches gears on a whim and those whims come at the rate of about fifteen to twenty per scene.
If you're a big fan of PKD, go ahead and check this out. If not, you'll probably want to avoid it.
This was not my type of science fiction novel. The majority of it was two guys chasing around 1930s Hollywood for a diamond. The author chose the wrong character as the protagonist. He spends a large percentage of the book driving the car and listening to what the other guy did outside of the car. All of the action is related to the reader in a second-hand manner.
This might sound silly, but this small book of simple language confounded me. The story is told, not just by a Neanderthal, but by the dumbest Neanderthal in the book. His struggle to comprehend the changing world around him and to pin down the advanced technology of modern humans with concepts he could understand made parts of this story completely baffling. He sees boats as logs and paddles as leaves and representations of things as the real things they represent. It's a testament to Golding's brilliance that he could stage a whole book this way. This is definitely something I'm going to have to read a second time and maybe then I can give it a better rating.
A fun and concise adventure that combines science fiction and romance. The ideas are cool and the sex is sweaty, so what more could you want? Check it out!
Major Karnage is a Saturday night party of a novel with machine gun pacing, insane characters and wild plot developments. Karnage is a psychologically ravaged veteran of a pan-Asian war against an enemy known only as Uncle Stanley. Twenty years in an asylum with the remains of his platoon hasn't mellowed his rage a whit. In fact, his Hulk-like fury has to be controlled by a sanity patch which threatens to blow his head off of his shoulders if he ever gets completely out of control. It gauges his anger in a terrorist rainbow of tasty warning colors leading up to death like Peachy Keen, Daffodil and Strawberry Shortcake. Add to this his flashback freakouts whenever anyone mentions The War and you've got a very short fuse about to burn itself out at any moment.
And then the alien invasion comes. Karnage, a being of pure determination but with no plan of which to speak, goes forth into the fray.
Karnage is James Bond resourceful and plays life by ear which infuses the novel with spontaneity and surprise. We never know where the story's going because although Karnage can conceive of a goal, the steps toward that goal's achievement only occur to him on the fly. Along the way we get those smoke-sucking aliens as well as cultists, monsters, a police force dressed as cats and a Disney-esque company which runs the world. And as much as I've just given to you, there are still twists and situations of which you'll never dream.
This is wonderfully ridiculous, cartoony fun that WILL make you laugh, that WILL keep you reading and reading quickly. Zajac channels the spirit of Robert E. Howard for his action scenes and there are a hell of a lot of action scenes. The more mellow scenes actually begin to stand out as anomalies. Potentially boring transitions are skipped through a trick that becomes a joke in itself after the first dozen times it's employed. This man gets knocked out more than any ten ordinary heroes.
But cracking through the two-dimensional facade of this Twenty-First century answer to pulp fiction reveals enough depth to satisfy the reader. Over time we discover that Karnage is not your stereotypical mindless brute. He cares deeply for his people and this is what truly drives him on and ultimately proves to be his salvation.
Major Karnage is an extra-dimensional amusement park ride that's somehow all short climbs and long, thrilling descents. I highly recommend it.
From the first section of the first chapter, Slattery astounded me. Spaceman Blues rocks with the people of New York City, bringing heat from cold steel and concrete. In the actions of thousands of unnamed characters, the city itself comes to life. The characters who are named experience a surreal odyssey, full of longing, passion, music, death, and of course, impending alien invasion. Spaceman Blues goes up on that too-light shelf of books I'll read again and again just to find out how the authors do what they do. Go read and enjoy.
Cool future that explores what life might be like in a world in which nearly everything is quantified and tagged, through the eyes of five extraordinary siblings who border on the psychotic whenever they think of each other.
An okay book, but I thought I'd be getting forest adventure. Instead I got an episode of Law and Order.
I really enjoyed this one. I like alternative takes on age old characters. This Batman gets his poor ass beaten nearly to death multiple times and that's fun. Futuristic, with a unique take on the history of Batman which I also liked and I absolutely loved the costume. Imagine Batman on a budget. Beautiful art, though sometimes hard to follow.
I don't usually touch graphic novels that don't feature superheroes, but this came highly recommended from the guys at the Around Comics podcast. I grabbed this because it was the only one available at the library. Great characters and a good story. I will seek out more volumes.
A beautifully told science fiction story about one man's journeys through far future Europe and the Middle East as Earth pays for its past sins. The ending lifted me out of a funk I was in.
Not great literature and I didn't expect it to be. Entertaining and a lot of fun. It took me back to my science fiction adolescence. I've had some problems with a few of Harrison's novels because of dialogue, but the dialogue here was good enough that it didn't pull me out of the story.
I love Orwell as both a stylist and a thinker. This is one of the most important books ever written and I'm glad it's required reading at a lot of our local high schools. The book has as many quotable lines as Hamlet. Politically brilliant.
I read a later edition of this book which I don't see here that includes additional material.
The constriction of Howard's circumstances and inevitability of his suicide ride the narrative throughout the book, but there is joy and humor to be found in his life. Finn places Howard and the reader firmly in Texas and though the state is vast, there was a world beyond that Howard yearned to see and never would. He made his own world through a passion for history, a violent imagination, and great talent for telling ripping yarns. Finn fills in the details of Howard's life while dispelling popular myths. If you're a fan of Howard, you must read this book.
This is a book everyone needs to read. It articulates ideas that I've been forming about corporations over the last couple of years. It's pro-capitalism while being anti-corporatism and points out the biases of a central currency vs. a local one. A fantastic, easy-to-read and mind-opening book!
A great book, even though I read most of this on MacLeod's blog, this is the kind of information a creator should recommit to memory every so often.
A good primer for anyone who's not sure what the hell went on in the movement. It offers lots of info on where to take your Beat reading from here.
Great book and very informative. It helps that I love the subject matter. If you're into the Beatles, you'll want to read this. Go get it. It's free!
I'm not a reader of horror, but after listening to an interview with the author, it sounded good and I got the book as a kindle deal. The first part of the book was fantastic. There's something akin to a sexual thrill hearing the supporting characters lay their ids bare to the protagonist and revealing their most horrible desires. It slows up a bit with the backstory, although the backstory is necessary in order to give the characters and the book some depth. There were a few cool twists, and although I don't know if it's a story that's going to stick with me, it was a very entertaining read.
Much better than 1969, I think, but the second book of a trilogy always suffers a bit. 2009 was faster moving, enjoyed a wonderful Antichrist, and his foe was delightful. As always I know there were references that went right over my head, but I'll never be able to keep up with Messrs. Moore and O'Neill. That's what the Internet's for. I hope there will be more of the League to come, no matter what the period.
I wanted this particular book because it breaks the work of The Beatles down song by song in chronological order and gives details on when each was recorded, who played what, who wrote what parts (as far as can be ascertained), and so on. These are things I've curious about for years.
In addition, the author???in a lengthy but interesting introduction???floats the theses that the sixties and The Beatles are inextricably linked, that LSD sparked the cultural and societal changes of the latter half of that decade, and that the focus on new-found individualism and freedoms in the sixties ultimately led to the consumer culture of the nineties (when the first edition of this book was released). In appropriate places along the timeline he also discusses important events and turning points in the band's creative direction. Overall, this is great stuff and I recommend the book to anyone who wants some insight into the making of the music.
The author injects large doses of opinion into much of the text, letting us know which songs were brilliant and which were dreck. I found myself disagreeing as often as not, but, hey, it's his book. The main reason I didn't give the book five stars was that some of his statements on the psychology and motives of the major players were obviously made up out of whole cloth and made me wonder what else might have been fabricated. He's also got something against George Harrison's songs, only one of which he seems to feel is of any quality. So enjoy the book, but read it while wearing your critical thinking cap, as you should any piece of nonfiction.
I read the e-version of the book, which seems to have been scanned from the print, but not thoroughly proofread and there are potentially confusing typos throughout.
When people talk about books that changed their lives, they usually talk about novels. The power of fiction is incredible and stories like “[b:The Lord of the Rings 34 The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, Part 1) J.R.R. Tolkien http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1156043001s/34.jpg 3204327]” and “To Kill a Mockingbird” resonate for decades. But if someone asked me what book changed my life, I'd have to point to “Self-Editing for Fiction Writers.” Yes, I'd immediately be branded a super-dork, but this book transformed my work like nothing before or since. For ten years, I'd been struggling with “Show, Don't Tell.” Everybody said it, but nobody explained it. “Self-Editing for Fiction Writers” took my hand and guided this dumb little pup through example after example, telling me exactly how to improve my writing. The difference between my before stories and my after stories is remarkable. This is one of the only books I recommend to people who ask me about writing. It's clear. It works.