Tag: Reviews

I finished reading Ms. Peter’s The Golden One last night and while I found the book slow to start off; it definately picked up towards the end (nice punch, Bertie!). It’s my understanding that there are two more books after The Golden One, in the Amelia Peabody series; but we don’t have copies and frankly I’m ready for a break from reading mysteries. I started digging around looking for a copy of Asimov’s I, Robot as I’d seen the trailer for the new movie, with Will Smith, and wanted to refresh my memory of the story before the movie came out.

Unforuntately, I was startled to learn that I don’t have a copy of that book around the house (or at the very least, it’s nowhere that I could find it). To make up for the lack, I dug out my copy of THE BICENTENNIAL MAN and started reading throught that. I’ve nearly finished it –what do you expect? it’s really short!– and I’m just like, wow!

Reading Asimov was such a refreshing experience; the crisp, clean style just flows so easily past the eyes and though the stories in the book are fairly old (20-40 years, I think1they still don’t seem… entirely foolish, in the light of how the modern world has been turning out.

On another side note2, I was somewhat annoyed last night because I thought I had several used sci-fi books from the last library book sale but I couldn’t find them. So either my memory is worse than I thought (entirely possible) or they got moved around when we last straightened up the apartment because people were coming over. Grrr…

1 If I get a chance during my lunch hour, I’ll double-check the copyright years.
2 It occurs to me that many of the entries in this blog are little more than side notes and even the non-side notes are still peppered with side notes. What’s my point? I’m not sure, but I felt it was worthing makeing a footnote about my incoherent writing style which mostly consists of adding more side notes whenever I have another thought that I’d like to record.

I finished reading Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the 20th Century the other day. It’s a good, but not great collection. I say that because each story in the collection is a well written and enjoyable; however I realize now that I’m not particularly fond of short shorties or at least, not a random collection of short stories which is what the overall feel of this collection is. There’s no underlying theme to the stories that were selected and that really weaks the impact of each of the stories. Still, it’s filled with good stories by good authors; so I’ll give it 3 out of 5 points.

I’ve already started reading Elizabeth Peter’s The Golden One. To be honest, I started reading it the other day and just forgot to update my blog; so I’ve nearly finished it and I’m finding it to be highly enjoyable though I’m somewhat glad that it’s the last of Ms. Peter’s books that we have around the house. I like her characters and her writing style isn’t bad but I’ve just about had my fill of mysteries for now and I’ve got a bunch of used books from the last sale at our local library. That’s all for now; till next, happy page turning.

I finished reading Chuck Palahniuk’s Survivor last night and contrary to my early thoughts on the book; I did end up sort of liking the book. It’s not what I would call a good read at all, but rather the story seems to suddenly get interesting once you’re about halfway through.

Kind of like you’re on a long road trip; it’s been raining for the last hour; the sky suddenly clears up, just in time to give you a perfect view of a massive, bloody car accident up ahead. You don’t really want to look, but you do anyway.

Overall, I’d say this book is worth 2.75 points out of 5.

For now, I’ve gone back to reading Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the 20th Century and am roughly halfway through. So far none of the stories in the collection have been stinkers, but here’s plenty of reading left to do and no more time for writing as I have to dash off to work.

Yesterday, a fiend friend tossed Chuck Palahniuk’s Survivor at me and said it was a book that I had to read. Since Masterpieces is a collection of short stories; I figured I’d humor him and read the book.

So far I’m only about 3-4 chapters in and I’m already wishing I’d told him to piss off. The book is gloomy and dreary, not at all my sort of read. Since I said I’d read it; read it I shall but this looks more like something I’ll be struggling to finish rather than racing through it. I just don’t care for doom & gloom books all that much. Ah well, you win some; you lose some.

I finished reading Elizabeth Peter’s Lord of the Silent. I really like how she’s altered the relationship between Ramses and Ameila to be more open and more like they’re equals rather than just mother and child; however the more I see Sethos in his new relationship to the Emersons, the less I like it. It just feels a bit cheesy and make Sethos less of an interesting character. Also, while I had fun reading this book; it’s definately not one of her better works. The plot felt fairly contrived, rather than flowing smoothly like most of her earlier books did. Still, overall it was a fun read; so I’ll give it 3.75 points out of 5.

Next up, I’m reading Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the 20th Century. I was in B&N the other night browsing their Sci/Fi-Fantasy selections, saying to myself that it was all schlock, when I stopped by the Orson Scott Card shelf to see if his latest Alvin the Maker book was in paperback yet (if it was, it wasn’t on the shelf) and noticed this Masterpieces book. When I saw that Mr. Card was the editor; it immediately peeked my interest as I’ve enjoyed his own work for many years now and I was curious to see who he’d pick for a collection titled Masterpieces. Then I looked over the cover and saw the top 6 names that had been choosen: Asimov, Clarke, Gibson, Heinlein, Le Guin and Pohl. All authors I’ve read and enjoyed, so I knew I’d end up buying the boo (though I made Ariesna wait a bit for me to read the first story in the book. Not very nice of me I suppose, but she’d gone wondering off looking at all the translated manga first; so I figured turn about is fair play. 🙂

Sidenote: While I was double-checking that I’d gotten the link to Mr. Card’s site correct; I noticed that apparently an Ender’s Game movie is in production! Hopefully, Hollywood won’t totally destroy it. For more details, go here.