This was awful, just stereotypes galore and meaningless actions. The characters are one-dimensional and it is written for millennials with vocabulary This was awful, just stereotypes galore and meaningless actions. The characters are one-dimensional and it is written for millennials with vocabulary deficiencies. I love the Stone Sky trilogy but hated this novel. Maybe I just wasn’t the target audience? Nope....more
I really tried, but this book as other reviewers have pointed out just has too many acronyms and similar names that I couldn't keep the actors straighI really tried, but this book as other reviewers have pointed out just has too many acronyms and similar names that I couldn't keep the actors straight. Also, the elliptical writing style drove me crazy. She'll start at one point, jump forward to some unrelated or only slightly related side point and sometimes never come back to her main point or go back to her previous point. It could have used a better editor perhaps. For the stories behind the cartel, I think that the Narcos series or better yet, Extra pure : Voyage dans l'économie de la cocaïne are better and more readable sources of information....more
Really having a hard time with the fragmented narrative in this one. I know she put a lot of work into it, but it is so incoherent and with no focus oReally having a hard time with the fragmented narrative in this one. I know she put a lot of work into it, but it is so incoherent and with no focus on baseball and the Babe, it is hard to stay engaged. I am going to put this aside because it is just too annoying :-/...more
I started this one but lost interest after a few chapters. Character development was poor and the story sounded too derivative. I know it won the NebuI started this one but lost interest after a few chapters. Character development was poor and the story sounded too derivative. I know it won the Nebula, but why? Maybe some other enamoured reader can enlighten me and inspire me to pick it up again and finish it?...more
As much as I enjoyed The Stone Sky trilogy to which this series is often compared, I got bored very early in this book. It is quite confusing with uneAs much as I enjoyed The Stone Sky trilogy to which this series is often compared, I got bored very early in this book. It is quite confusing with unexplained rituals and a plethora of weird characters. I didn't really enjoy it and after nearly 100 pages, I gave up on this one. Maybe some commenter will give me some reason to pick it up again, but I didn't see where the story was going and the characters all seemed rather two dimensional....more
No one is talking about this, because there is no content here and it is lame. This is more like reading a half-drunk person’s Twitter feed. Just not aNo one is talking about this, because there is no content here and it is lame. This is more like reading a half-drunk person’s Twitter feed. Just not all that fascinating…there are just quips and the bare-bones suggestion of character or plot. Nope. DNF
This was the last of the Hugo winners for me to read. I found the dialog pedestrian at best. The rape scene towards the beginning was gratuitous and jThis was the last of the Hugo winners for me to read. I found the dialog pedestrian at best. The rape scene towards the beginning was gratuitous and just pointless. The narrative singularly uninteresting. I put this one in the same “wtf were they thinking” category as “They’d Rather Be Right” among the worst sci-fi novels I have read. Really one to skip IMO....more
I was not enamored with The Forever War to begin with, but tried to bring an open mind to its related book, Forever Peace. I read about 100 pages befoI was not enamored with The Forever War to begin with, but tried to bring an open mind to its related book, Forever Peace. I read about 100 pages before giving up. Maybe I should have given up earlier with Forever War as well. I mean, there are some good ideas like the soldierboys and so forth, an attempt at diversity in casting Julien as a black male, but still, the sexism is a total turnoff and the characters just are not very interesting. I realize there is a twisted kind of critique of American colonial militarism under Raygun in Central America here, but it is either too explicit or too convoluted to redeem the entire book. One idea I did like which may have inspired Red Mars by Stanley Robinson were the nanoforges....more
Honestly, it is VERY rare that I don't finish a book - especially a book ostensibly about baseball - but this one just didn't do it for me. I never saHonestly, it is VERY rare that I don't finish a book - especially a book ostensibly about baseball - but this one just didn't do it for me. I never saw anything interesting in the plot and found no engaging characters. I felt the writing was rather sparse and lacked depth. I am a bit mystified on how this book earned such high ratings on GR. Anyway, not sure I'll make another attempt at this unless commenters give me some truly compelling reasons....more
I could not get into this book at all. I had hoped for light and funny about a doppelgänger, but ended up with a bizarre, relatively poorly written faI could not get into this book at all. I had hoped for light and funny about a doppelgänger, but ended up with a bizarre, relatively poorly written farce of a novel. I admit to finding it so abysmal that I only got about a quarter of the way through it before throwing up my hands (my own hands of course) and just giving up. It was neither cute, nor original, nor funny, nor readable. I don't know what people appreciate about this book because its ratings were surprisingly high for something this poor IMO. DNF....more
I am quite familiar with Lincoln, having read 4 books about him, Grant and the Civil War in the last few months, and thus am well aware of how deeply I am quite familiar with Lincoln, having read 4 books about him, Grant and the Civil War in the last few months, and thus am well aware of how deeply his heart was crushed by the death of Willie. But, I did not need to hear snippets of dozens of dead and living people in a cemetery to more fully appreciate the pathos. I truly could not get into this messy, chaotic account by multifarious narrators agogo and found it intolerably boring. The gimmick could be aright if, as Joyce did in Ulysses, the style changed at some point (which is precisely the problem of unreadability of Finnegan’s Wake by Joyce). Sadly, I couldn't get past about 34% and returned it to the (virtual) library early. Probably will have to be convinced to take another shot at Saunders' writing because this one was a turn-off for me....more
This is a DNF and even a DNS for me. I read about it years ago and avoided it because of all the stories or gore and misogyny associated with it. ThenThis is a DNF and even a DNS for me. I read about it years ago and avoided it because of all the stories or gore and misogyny associated with it. Then, I heard friends discussing it less critically. So, when the library opened after the holiday break, I took it home...and didn’t read it. I mean, I opened it to a random page and the first word I saw was “cunt”. That threw me off as an evil portent. Not that I am queezy about harsh language, just that that word for me conjures the same negativity and images of slavery (sexual in this case) that it seriously put me off. So, I dove into a bunch of GR reviews both praising and vilifying the book, and I decided that: A/ I should NOT leave this lying on my shelf where my 12yo could pick it up B/ even those who liked it admitted that it was glorified snuff movie material C/ i already get a healthy dose of misogyny from reading about everything that the orange smegma says and does that this would likely cause me to be physically ill D/ apparently, even Ellis felt he went too far and wrote a book later as a sort of mealy-mouthed apology E/ i already know that books that praise rape and violence against women like Boris Vian’s J’Irai Crache Sur Votre Tombe just engender feelings of anger and rage in me F/ I already loathe the spoiled frat boy mystique and already blame it for many of the evils and certainly most of the violence voiced in Dump’s hate rallies, for the pathetic horror movie that was the Kava hearings (himself being a believable stand-in for Patrick Bateman with his stupid smirk and pathetic calendar) that it would only increase my feeling of alienation and sad, introspective rage to read the woman-hater’s Ayn Rand which this novel most certainly claims to be with a certain machismo and pride.
In the incredible comment stream below, there is a feeling on the part of some that I missed the point of critiquing the hollow aspect of 80s America. In my defense, I'd say that books like Lolita, Rabbit Redux, and Sabbath's Theatre all were dealing with subjects considered sexually deviant and yet still come off, for me, as better critiques of the "american way of life" without the abject violence. Anyway, for each their own, right?
So, this one went back, unread, to the library. I am reading the gory strange Bunny by Mona Awad as penance....more
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