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July 22, 2005
Book reviews
I read a few books recently, and had some thoughts.
First, William C. Dietz's DeathDay and its sequel EarthRise
You'll notice they are both on the Scifi Hall of Shame list on Amazon, and for a reason. These books are post-alien invasion apocalypse (think Footfall but, I swear, worse.) The writing is bad, the characterizations are painfully polarized. The plot is thin and the theme (racism is bad) is hammered into you with all of the subtlety of a Harry Potter fanfic. The books are just bad bad bad, and I still feel silly for buying them. I got more enjoyment from the Halo novelization.
I then got saved, because someone had the brains to collect the Morgaine Saga in one volume. This is some fun high-fantasy high-tech adventuring, with a preoccupation on horsemanship. Probably some of Cherryh's best work that I've read.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I read Diamond Age . Now, here's the thing... I understood the cool fun that was Snow Crash but the writing and plot were pretty substandard, at least compared with the inventiveness that went into the world. Now imagine Snow Crash with characters you don't really give a shit about. That pretty much sums up Diamond Age, and I don't think I'll be reading any more Stephenson for a long while. I would just rather read... almost anyone else.
Last new book, Forever Peace by Joseph Haldeman (more famous for The Forever War considered by many to be the definitive reply to Starship Troopers ) Well, it's not The Forever War . For one thing, Haldeman uses the rather clumsy technique of switching between the protagonist Julian Class and the omniscient narrator. The problem is that the narrator rarely has anything interesting to say and is used for forshadowing. The group-mind concept winds up terribly similar to Man in The Forever War. The antagonists could have been done better, and I really with the protagonist's characters had just been... different. They felt too much like rehashes or something. Still worth reading, whereas I'm lead to believe Forever Free definitely isn't ;)
Posted by jeff at July 22, 2005 12:34 AM
Comments
I loved Diamond Age. I also loved Snow Crash. That said, I didn't actually read either of them but listened to the unabridged audio versions. I think I would have enjoyed reading Diamond Age, but I'll never know.
Posted by: Leonard at July 28, 2005 10:08 PM