I may need to go back and re-read the second book because I couldn't remember anything that happened there. Even so, this third installment was decentI may need to go back and re-read the second book because I couldn't remember anything that happened there. Even so, this third installment was decent after a refresher from watching the series. I really disliked the Elise chapters because the POV was so frustrating, but otherwise, a satisfying ending to the series. I thought some of the conflicts could have been resolved without a bang, but I'm not sure what the alternative would be....more
The premise of the book is a far fetched one : a traveling symphony and Shakespeare theater group, going through the desolate north east in(4.5 stars)
The premise of the book is a far fetched one : a traveling symphony and Shakespeare theater group, going through the desolate north east in the decades following an epidemic that wipes out almost all of mankind. It took me a few chapters to really get into it, but once I did, the book became a page-turner.
Station Eleven isn't as bleak as the description makes it sound. I found parts of it uplifting, while other parts were difficult to read through. It's a rare book that makes me say I cared about all of the characters, but everyone's backstory and the reveal of how they're interconnected actually got me to worry about them when it seemed like something bad was going to happen.
It probably wasn't a good idea to start on this book in the midst of the Ebola media frenzy though....more
I forgot where I got The Wandering Earth, but it has been sitting on my kindle for more than a year. It's a short read, so I'm not sure why I didn't sI forgot where I got The Wandering Earth, but it has been sitting on my kindle for more than a year. It's a short read, so I'm not sure why I didn't start it sooner.
The premise is that scientists discover that the sun will die in 300-500 years and swallow up all the planets in its inner orbit, including Earth, in the process. To ensure survival, the people of Earth decide to find a nearby star for its new sun and somehow propel Earth out of its current orbit, out of the solar system, and toward this new sun.
This may sound very scientific and space-travel-like, but the story itself is more about the people on earth. I especially liked the rich descriptions of the different phases of this new elliptical orbit Earth has to take as it gets ready to exit the solar system. The way Earth's atmosphere and topography changes was surreal, as was the fact that most coastal cities become destroyed because of 300 foot waves.
One thing that was nagging me was, how did Honolulu, Hawaii end up surviving if the polar ice caps all melted and most coastal cities are underwater?
For how much I put off reading this book, I enjoyed it immensely. The writing has a poetic feel to it and everything feels like it's being seen through a dimmer filter....more
You know that feeling you get when you finish a really great book and you want to shout about it from the highest mountain and tell everyone you know You know that feeling you get when you finish a really great book and you want to shout about it from the highest mountain and tell everyone you know to read it? Yeah, that's me right now.
The Wool Omnibus is *the* way to read this series of stories. Once I read Wool #1, I couldn't stop. Good thing I bought the omnibus! Wool is about the people who live in a sealed silo that goes for more than a hundred levels below Earth because the surface of Earth is toxic and uninhabitable.
What happens when these people discover the history of Earth and how they came to be where they were isn't surprising to a frequent reader of post-apocalyptic fiction, but what makes Wool so great is that I felt almost everything the characters felt. I felt such hope at the end of the first chapter, just as the main character of that chapter felt his heart fill with hope. I felt the surprise and horror when another character discovered a terrible truth. I felt panicked and anxious when another character almost drowned. It was quite a roller-coaster.
I also loved that Wool has one of the strongest female protagonists I'd read recently. She's a mechanical engineer, brave, quick on her feet, compassionate, logical, just all around awesome. Sci-fi needs more leading women like Jules....more
I don't know what took me so long to read an Ursula Le Guin sci-fi novel, but I'm glad I finally did. The Lathe of Heaven starts off with George Orr, I don't know what took me so long to read an Ursula Le Guin sci-fi novel, but I'm glad I finally did. The Lathe of Heaven starts off with George Orr, a seemingly ordinary guy with a very extraordinary talent: his dreams can change the universe. This talent of his is as far-fetched as super-powers go, but Le Guin eases readers into the world in baby steps so that you're not saying to your self, "Oh my god, he just made pink elephants fly! This is too much!" She makes Orr's talents make sense in the world without being overly technical in explanations. It just works.
Once I quickly came to terms with the world-shifting thing, the next prominent thing on my mind was social responsibility and morality. Haber, the psychiatrist who's assigned to Orr has a very macro view of morality, while Orr has a conflicting view of it. Naturally, the two are at odds, but throughout the whole novel, I kept rooting for Orr even if it meant being content with a crappy world.
One thing I kept going back and forth on was whether Le Guin's vision of the future was dated or eerily accurate. Some things she writes reminded me of an old Twilight Zone episode of the future, with flying cars and everything, while other things like conflicts between countries and races seemed very on the ball. I guess fighting in the middle east is pretty timeless.
Reading the Lathe of Heaven felt like reading several scifi books at once despite its short length. There was a near-apocalyptic world, a post-apocalyptic world, a dystopian world, aliens, flying cars, you name it. It was like a buy-two-get-one-free deal on scifi settings....more
The short review: imagine an edge-of-your-seat action movie with super fast vampires, lots of tension, guns, and explosions. Then imagine leaving the The short review: imagine an edge-of-your-seat action movie with super fast vampires, lots of tension, guns, and explosions. Then imagine leaving the theater, thinking of the actual plot of the movie and then feeling empty and disappointed.
The long version:
Someone give this man an editor! The whole book could have been cut down to half its length. There are pages after pages of needless filler, only making me roll my eyes at all the trite, cliched paragraphs I was actually reading. I know it's supposed to invoke some emotion for the characters, but I just kept thinking, "I've read this before."
Now don't get me wrong, The Passage is a page-turner. But it doesn't actually reveal itself as that until 200 pages into the book. If you ask me, that's too long for a book to start getting interesting.
As for the story, it was the main thing that kept me going. I'm a big fan of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction and I had very high hopes for this one considering how everyone was raving about it. It even had some dystopia thrown in, but in the end, it left an ugly taste in my mouth.
Although there were full pages crammed with pseudo-science and explanations of the virus, nothing was that believable. The characters were either flat and one dimensional, or archetypes. There's the pure, innocent girl whose destiny is to save mankind, the old cryptic, slightly crazy old mystic who has all the answers if only someone could take the time to sit down and really listen to her. There's the tough-as-nails woman who has something to prove. Oh and the loyal, all-believing hero who comes to terms with something.
The Passage read like a long video-game. There are intense, suspenseful action scenes, but there are also a lot of clumsy, poorly-staged exposition chapters which just made me cringe.
The worst of all, the whole novel was some modern-day metaphor for Noah's Ark. Viruses that turn people into vampires with super strength, I can stomach, but characters who act only because they think they hear the voice of god or think they're on god's mission? No thanks....more
Although I would describe Life As We Knew it as apocalyptic, I don't really want to because it doesn't really fit in with a lot of books of that genreAlthough I would describe Life As We Knew it as apocalyptic, I don't really want to because it doesn't really fit in with a lot of books of that genre I've read. The Event in the novel is an asteroid hitting the moon and thanks to some gross miscalculations, it ends up knocking the moon off its regular orbit and closer to earth. Because the moon is suddenly closer to earth, the tides swell so that whole states get demolished, dormant volcanoes erupt, and the climate pretty much goes hay-wire.
That's on a macro level.
The micro level is what Life As We Knew It is about. The story is told through journal entries of a 16 year old girl in a rural, northern state. The beginning of the book reads very much like a Young Adult novel, with the girl, Miranda, fretting over boys, homework, and all the usual things teenagers have on their mind.
When The Event happens, things change, but not at once, and I think this why the novel is so good. No one knows what to expect, so most people don't prepare. People worry about mundane things like if they should send their kids into school the next day. Pfeffer makes the novel terrifying and believable by focussing on just Miranda's family. I like that she has selfish thoughts, jealous outbursts, and flaws throughout the entire book. It made her feel realistic.
While reading this book, I kept stopping and reminding myself that this is a YA book. While the narrator is a teenager, she ends up maturing quickly because of The Event. Most of the story is dark and I really felt a sense of hopelessness to the point of wanting to put the book down, but like a bad car wreck, I couldn't turn away.
Life As We Knew It is a decent entry in the genre and one of the better, serious YA books I've read. The cover is also AWESOME. Halfway through the book, I flipped it over to the cover and just stared at it for a few minutes. It made me kind of scared....more
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