First the good. The details about paleontology and geology were great, and I would have loved more with that. Kiernan's writing is poetic and rich; shFirst the good. The details about paleontology and geology were great, and I would have loved more with that. Kiernan's writing is poetic and rich; she is masterful, however I found the gluesticking of words together to be overusedannoying. There were some interesting ideas in this books but they suffocated beneath overwrought and thoroughly dislikable characters. Most of the time I was reading I was thinking "how much longer is this, should I just stop?" which is not a good indication. The plot that the struggled underneath the dying ideas and shitty characters was feeble, and as the book was coming to a close I correctly thought "there's nothing here". Sure enough the story whimpered its way to an utterly unimpressive ending. At this point I think I've done my due diligence with this author, and no need to read anymore....more
and with that strawman in place, Oakley then applies the beatThis book opens with an introduction:
Conspiracies do not exist. Everybody knows that.
and with that strawman in place, Oakley then applies the beating, pretending that his position is the vastly reasonable one, and the skeptical poistion is clearly wrong. Except he's started without acknowledging even the slightest nuance of the counter position. Of course conspiracies do exist, but Oakley fails to acknowledge the difference between say a conspiracy to defraud people of their money, or to hide and downplay the health risks associated from smoking for continued profit (real) vs. a grand conspiracy to hide a flat earth from the sheeple that would require the participation of every government, scientist, geographer and flight attendant in the entire fucking world. The difference is not just simply numerical, but in scope and quality.
Then he says "This book is not meant to be an allegorical sledge hammer.", but the problem is that this book is a sledge hammer. Yes, it is couched in humorous interactions and absurdities, and the artwork is charmingly cartoonish, but that's like a wrapping of cotton around the metal. So Oakley fails to deliver a story that fits well into the Thieves & Kings universe, fails to add substance to any of the characters (I would argue it even diminishes Quinton to some degree), and fails to add anything of interest to the existing storyline or world. Instead he's given us a cutely-rendered soapbox and a one-sided caricature of wasted spending.
Despite Oakley's second-hand claim from the introduction, it is not true that conspiracies are the same as governmental corruption, and he does a disservice to any substantive discussion of either subject with that gross over-simplification. This book sticks out like a giant skin tag on the face of his lovely Thieves & Kings creation. I originally rated this a 3 stars given the Goodreads lack of half stars, but after writing out my thoughts, I'm dropping it to 2. It just doesn't measure up to the quality of the rest of the books....more
Based on the premise, I should have liked this book, but it was just dull. The antagonist, the young old man Artemis is awakening. I'm falling asleep.
Based on the premise, I should have liked this book, but it was just dull. The antagonist, the young old man or whatever, was day-old oatmeal that sat forgotten in the sink. I liked the idea of the enhanced animal companions, but the delivery was lackluster. The mystery unfolded at a snail's pace. When I was reading this book I would complete a chapter, and instead of thinking "ok, just one more before I go to sleep" my thought would generally be "I should read another chapter to make some progress, it's only about another 10 pages, come on I can do it".
The completionist in me wants to read the other book. But there are too many other books and never enough time....more
The tile track The Golden Helix had me thinking for that perhaps I was finally starting to get Sturgeon, similar to the way I responded towards the opThe tile track The Golden Helix had me thinking for that perhaps I was finally starting to get Sturgeon, similar to the way I responded towards the opening story of the previous collection I read. This story was clever without being smug, and while I had a pretty decent guess from near the bgeinning of what happened to cause them to end up on a world completely different from the one they expected, my guess about who made it happen was off. But then, Sturgeon is never one to explain, rather he likes to imply. I found the characters in this story to have a nicely varied reaction to the situation and I liked that they changed over time in very different ways as well. And the world itself along with the mystery were in the realm of the kind of SF I like, even if the ending is stand Sturgeon-style face-first smack into the mud.
The next couple stories were decent, with one ending having me groaning, and the other snarfing.
And then he unloaded The Clinic which I absolutely hated. After stepping back and thinking about it for a day, I have come around more to appreciate the point I think he was trying to make (there can be no certainty because Sturgeon is always coy). So first off I have a knee-jerk reaction against the introduction of telepathy into any SF/F book mainy because I think it's overused, tired, and lazy, much like time-travel. However this story was written something like 70 years ago, so maybe I can give it a break. I can concede that maybe someone who has lost their telepathy would talk like an idiot, but I think that if they were actually as intelligent as cliamed by every fucking character, they would eventually improve. Not for Sturgeon, and I think that's really what I hated about that story. That and the fact that Sturgeon comes across, as so damn smug all the time, realizing that is my personal interpretation / reaction to the way he writes.
The next few stories were mostly what I now expect from Sturgeon - fascinating ideas presented in a way that rubs my fur backwards. The one I liked best was the one which he wrote in a deliberately different style to his usual, and while I agree with his own assessment that the main character was not at all likeable, he was at least more interesting than some of the others. I also liked The Dark Room except for the typical crappy Sturgeon ending. The final little fable was shit.
So overall, wildly inconsistent, occasionally irritating, but not boring....more
Wow. These stories are astoundingly bad. The writing is little more than a dry accounting of facts, something you might find in the worst newspaper, aWow. These stories are astoundingly bad. The writing is little more than a dry accounting of facts, something you might find in the worst newspaper, and the attempts at any flavor are consistently awkward. For example:
Angus repositioned his butt cheek in the director's chair and said, "Go on."
or
They ended the evening having a bout of rip-roaring sex in front of a breathtaking picture window overlooking the expanse of Manhattan.
The opening story projects its oh-so-shocking ending by a mile, and really, necrophilia is not a new idea in horror, and the description here was just laughably bad. The second story rips off the melting face scene from Raiders Of The Lost Ark and worse, the ending is... exactly what was predicted by the rumors, so again it fails to be shocking, surprising, or even interesting in any way. The last story was a poor rendition of the practical joke of attempting to scare someone turning into a disaster when the target of the joke fights back - but not with any real build up tension, or in any clever way, just a oh shit - it's candid camera time. And with clowns. yawn. And the alleged "scariest" movie is just clips from a bunch of horror movies - no actual horror movie fan would be freaked out by that at all. Lame from one end to the other....more
After grinding my way through this book back in high school, following a previous aborted attempt, I nicknamed it "That Hideous Book". Sometimes I thiAfter grinding my way through this book back in high school, following a previous aborted attempt, I nicknamed it "That Hideous Book". Sometimes I think about reading it again to see if my opinion might have changed. Sometimes I might be a bit crazy....more
And so this series goes out with a quiet whimper, as a pale reflection of the original 4 volumes. By this point I didn't much care anymore, but since And so this series goes out with a quiet whimper, as a pale reflection of the original 4 volumes. By this point I didn't much care anymore, but since I had already bought all the volumes, I persevered. I can't really say it was worth it any more than to feel a sense of completion. This is so disappointing given how much I liked the initial run. I don't have much to say about the story. Final mission, it's going to be suicidal, and I knew Baltimore would be dead at the end. Meh....more
I think I'm fucking done with this series. I'm at least going to stop buying the collections. Kirkman will never wrap it up, he's just going to keep pI think I'm fucking done with this series. I'm at least going to stop buying the collections. Kirkman will never wrap it up, he's just going to keep pushing that rock up the hill. This volume has some of the dumbest writing yet, and the new character is just pandering and obnoxious, and from her mouth comes the lecture that tells just how great Kirkman has become with his diversity, literally listing the mixed ethnicities and genders of the roaming party she initially encounters. It would be difficult to make this section any more ham-handed than it already is. Rick spends most of time sleeping on Andrea's grave. Then there's the continued attempt to humanify Negan all while having him stream his fucky fuckity fucking fuck fucks that desperately want us to take this character serious as a badass and make sure we know we are reading an adult comic, but profanity loses its power when not used properly and judiciously....more
I can usually power my way through any book, especially fiction, but as much as it galls me to do so, I'm giving up on this fucker right here. I startI can usually power my way through any book, especially fiction, but as much as it galls me to do so, I'm giving up on this fucker right here. I started this book 10 days ago, and I'm only 120 pages in, which is an indication of how little I'm enjoying it. in fact, the further I got in, the more I dreaded picking it up, and the more I wished I was reading something else. Absolutely fucking anything else. Liir is one of the least interesting main characters ever. I don't hate this character, and I'm not just neutral towards him, it's more like I have an actively hostile ambivalence. Whatever it was about the other characters I liked in Wicked seems to be entirely absent here. Add to that the utterly horrible pacing and a snooze-fest of a plot line, and well, I'm out. Fuck this dull, formless, grey goo abomination....more
This highly regarded book has frothing reviews that contain phrases such as "Tier 1 author" and "examines the human condition". I think the later phraThis highly regarded book has frothing reviews that contain phrases such as "Tier 1 author" and "examines the human condition". I think the later phrase is code for "dwells on dull, mundane details of the lives of boring, tedious characters." Perhaps I just have to admit that my tastes do not run in the same direction as the literati. After grinding through 180 pages of this book, I didn't care about the characters, and I found the plot entirely unengaging. I finally gave up when I found myself opening the book, reading one paragraph, and sighing in exasperation at another description of someone not being able to buy a Christmas gift, or some other bland fucking detail. Shit, even using the word fucking makes it more exciting than it actually was....more
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