11/13/2010
- jeff: the city and the city. china mieville.
- verdict: meh.
- review:
he got halfway through and got a little tired of it. forced himself
through and definitely enjoyed the second half more than the first,
but was still a bit disappointed overall.
- paul: perdido street station. china mieville.
- verdict: +
- review:
really liked the first half or so, but became less interested when it
turned away from the society and the setting and became "all about the
slake-moths." started strong but didn't follow through. on the other
hand, he'll definitely read the next book. brandon suggests that iron
council is really the book that he starts well and really finishes well.
- brandon: kraken. china mieville.
- verdict: -
- review:
"i just felt like i was reading a terry pratchett novel." really wanted
to like it, but felt like it was a picaresque. enjoyed himself, but
didn't feel like it was a fully-baked novel. ("did you think freaks
and geeks was a fully-baked tv show?" "no. no, i did not.")
interestingly, several other people started kraken and either didn't
(or at least haven't) finished it.
- megan: the name of the wind. patrick rothfuss.
- verdict: +
- review:
of the story and the story-within-the-story, she *really* preferred
the latter and felt that the former was a total slog. basically she
really liked it, the writing is fantastic, and these are her only
complaints. (lyle thinks kvothe is gonna level up in the next book,
josh isn't sure.)
- lyle: prince of wolves. dave gross.
- verdict: unclear
- review:
"this is a trashy piece of fantasy right here." (and he also has the
pathfinder d&d campaign setting. nice.) it's a bad book and he
wouldn't recommend it. but this is interesting, this stuff is
published by paizo, a bunch of ex-wotc dudes. a long digression on d&d
follows, which i'm enjoying so much that i shall leave off
transcribing so i can follow more closely. bottom line: paizo is
bigger than wotc, doing awesome stuff, and these are some dudes to
watch.
- megan: the would-be witch. kimberly frost.
- verdict: +
- review:
if you want to read something and not think very hard, this is the
book for you. there's a girl, she's a witch or something or at least
ought to be, i dunno, and she's bad at magic i guess and becomes a
chef. more synopsis that shall not here be recounted. souls being
sucked into dark pits of nothingness and lists of men that the family
women cannot date. this is weird. there's werewolves in it, too.
- marko: light. m john harrison.
- verdict: ++
- review:
this has been reviewed to death, so he doesn't know what to say. but
this is really good.
- marko: earth abides. george stewart.
- verdict: ++
- review:
very old, against the rules, but so far still an overlooked classic,
as i believe we've previously heard. post-apocalyptic, i shan't again
recount a synopsis, but marko's way of talking about the book is
interestingly different. it sounds like a profound downer, but marko
insists that it isn't.
- interlude
lots of discussion on post-apocalyptic and disaster stories, then and
now. this is a fun one.
- chris: the way of kings. brandon sanderson.
- verdict: meh.
- review:
"i thought you were done with brandon sanderson." "i am, i'm going to
report on the 17% that i finished." ok, so this book is "21,346
locations" long. hmmm, we hate the future. also, it's the first of ten
volumes, which is why we hate the past and present. it isn't very
engaging, it's "what you'd expect." it's not exactly like robert
jordan, there's a lot of world-building and a big arcane magic
system. he intends to get back to it, but it just didn't grab him that
much, and he didn't especially want to make the commitment to ten more
of these. and a counterpoint from lyle! he's halfway through the book
and thinks it's pretty good. so a + from lyle!
- josh: monsters of men. patrick ness.
- verdict: +
- review:
it's good, he still likes the first book best, so he's obvously cooled
off a little by now on this series. which is too bad, i'd say, because
the reviews of the first book were pretty hot. but it was pretty good.
- josh: blonde bombshell. tom holt.
- verdict: +
- review:
"this is a pretty good airport book, and that's about it." so, you
know, there are aliens who are dogs, and they're pretty advanced and
keep humans as pets. they become angry at earth for blasting all this
music into space, and send a bomb down. the first half is pretty good
and goofy, and the second half is just sort of finishing the story, so
the first half was a little better. the thing that i want to say about
this book is that this guy has written "like a million" books.
- lyle: the wind-up girl. paolo bacigalupi.
- verdict: ++
- review:
plot synopsis, WITH WRITTEN NOTES! this is nice. a little steampunk
here, lots of springs and wind-up stuff and dirigibles. food supply is
a mess, to the point that the sole unit of currency is the
calorie. this guy obviously doesn't shy away at all from controversy,
and it's been getting really good reviews, so i would guess that it
must be pretty well done.
- lyle: cowboy ninja viking. leiberman and rossmo.
- verdict: ++
- review:
so, a graphic novel. "they" decide that instead of just training
brainwashed super-soldiers, they should find people with multiple
personality disorder and train ALL of the personalities to be
brainwashed super-solders, e.g., cowboy/ninja/viking. this sounds
absolutely ridiculous. the art itself is sort of sloppy and kinetic,
and it's pretty light fare, but good. they're making a movie.
- chad: the magicians. lev grossman.
- verdict: +
- review:
this is by a columnist and book reviewer for time magazine. the fellow
in the airport borders told chad "this one is really good, too, it's
kinda like harry potter goes to college." chad is convinved that this
vibe really must have been cultivated quite intentionally. seems like
grossman really wants to sort of subvert or perhaps further develop
the young adult center-of-the-universe coming-of-age vibe and capture
the college sense of disillusionment and disenchantment (despite the
always underlying background of privilege). there are things chad
really liked about it, but there's a sense in the end of it all being
for show. chad had some problems with this book, but all in all, he
liked it. it's well-written, he wishes it wasn't as hackneyed, but he
will read the next one.
- that's all, folks.