Book Review: A Dangerous Man by Charlie Huston
So this was the first book I read 100% on my iPhone. Kinda interesting experience… I’m not sure how much of the formatting was changed to suit the delivery mechanism. I’ll have to give the book a look to see next time I’m at a book store.
So apparently, this is the third book in a series by Huston. Oops… That explains the numerous references to backstory that seemed oddly brief.
I read it anyway. I needed something to wash the taste of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road out of my mind.
Good? Sometimes. It’s never bad, but not great either.
It’s a work of fiction that is in the crime drama realm that is entertaining, but not astounding. It’s all first person, and sometimes there’s a little jumping around in time to add an interesting effect to the reader. I can’t quite tell if you were supposed to like the main character or not. There are allusions to some things that make it so you’re supposed to be able to go either way as the reader.
If there was a problem with the book, it’s that I didn’t feel terribly invested in it. I didn’t really care what happened. There was no character that I rooted for. Most of the way through the book, I didn’t feel like I cared in any way how it ended – and the story wasn’t good enough to pull me back in.
As far as reading it on the iPhone, I found that to be fine. It didn’t hurt my eyes, and it was very easy to leave and come back to any point in the book. I’ll really like the iPad if it has the same app (it was recently acquired by Amazon, so we’ll see if they do anything to it).
So, I know that’s not much of a review. I’ve downloaded the other two books from this series (they’re all available for free download right now on the Stanza iPhone app). I love free, but I wonder if it’s a “you get what you pay for” kinda deal. I’m not sure if I’m gonna read them now or if I’m gonna go dig around and do something like re-read the Jack Ryan books or some other good standby that I know I’ll like and enjoy.
That’s what I want right now in my free time. Not the annoyance of The Road, and not the antipathy of A Dangerous Man. I need something that can engage me in those rare times I have to read a few pages.
Book Review: The Road by Cormac McCarthy
I don’t remember the when or who, but I remember hearing good things about The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I saw it on the Costco book tables and decided to give it a shot since I was in need of something to read.
I’d seem the movie trailers, but knew nothing more about the plot than it was a post apocalyptic story about a man and a boy.
Now that I read it cover to cover I’m going to make a proclamation about this book… Don’t bother with the book because watching a few minute trailer is more fulfilling than reading these pages.
So with that out of the way, what’s good with the book? Only a few things that come to mind.
The best is the dreary picture painted of the now deserted American landscape. It sticks in your mind.
The best thing for me is what others wouldn’t consider a major thing: as a reader you never really know what the circumstances of the apocalypse really are. My imagination seems to think that there’s a good chance of not knowing the big WHY, and I can’t recall a similar piece to a post apocalypse book or film that I’ve put to memory. McCarthy resisted using that as a politicized plot device that most others can’t resist using to make a statement.
The Road mostly disappointed on two areas: the characters and the writing. Aren’t those kinda important when writing a book?
The characters were bad in my opinion because an elimination of society would produce a different kind of person. The father or man (no names were used in the writing of this novel) is a romantic figure in that he instills so many social norms of our society in the boy or son. Social norms only become so through reinforcement from people and forces external to a father / son relationship. Without reinforcement, the notions of regret, shame, and overall morality are not instilled over the same period of time. The product for me was a pair of characters that felt like someone was trying to write something play on current sympathies at the downfall of realism.
The biggest problem was the writing style. I sensed something was wrong pretty quick when I saw that there were certain contractions not following convention – but not in a uniform manner. Maybe there was a rhyme or reason to it, but it’s not apparent to me or the other people I know who’ve read it. Then the prose just began to go farther and farther into this “look what vocabulary I can use” kind of feel. Let’s take this single sentence as one example.
The sacred idiom shorn of its referents and so of its reality.
I read that and immediately wondered “who the hell writes like that?” I’d hope someone took note that it’s not good for a reader to wonder why bother going on reading a book you just bought and are only 1/6th of the way through it… Now I wish I stopped there and got it out of my house. I should have read another one of my wife’s vampire novels laying around for a more fulfilling experience.
looking for a good read
So, it’s been a few weeks since I finished by last volley of books. I read the newest Dan Brown book as well as the book series that the HBO show True Blood is based on.
The Brown book was typical, somewhat disappointing, and also a bit going back on foundations of previous works. It was typical and disappointing in that it was so formulaic based on the previous books from the girl to the villain to the drawn out feeling… It seemed disappointing in that the big reveal was at odds with supposed “facts” presented in DaVinci Code. I’ll leave it at that in case you haven’t read it yet. If you liked reading his other stuff, then you’ll at least get a good yarn out of it. I was just hoping for something better.
The Charlaine Harris books (sometimes referred to as the Sookie Stackhouse Novels) are quick reads that build off an interesting premise that vampires are real and reveal themselves after a synthetic blood is made available. This single premise is pretty interesting in some implications explored, but the books are too fantastical with too much being made up to take the novelty away from the initial premise of the books. Much like the Twilight series of books, it’s written too much from a fantastical female perspective. But they are quick reads with little bits of originality. The show is much better largely thanks to a character that isn’t even really in the books (Lafayette)…
So anyway… I need some reading now. I’m not sure if I’ll re-read some old standby, or seek out something new. I’m not really feeling the non-fiction, or else I’d trudge on a few other books I’ve been working on. Send suggestions my way, or whatever…
Flew through the book
So in looking through some unpacked things, I found our copy of Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons that Vic picked up at Half Price Books because we both enjoyed reading The Da Vinci Code.
I got through probably 75% of it in the past day leading up to my finishing it minutes ago.
It was a good book. However I am glad that I read it after The Da Vinci Code… The overt similarities in certain themes and writing style work well for a single book, but this being my second foray into Brown’s style I found a little annoying at times. So I’m glad I read it after The Da Vinci Code because Da Vinci was better.
Oh yeah, I also saw the major character twist very early on because I thought about how things played out in Da Vinci.
But this book dealt with a topic of constant thought… The relationship between science and religion in modern times and over the ages. It also keeps mentioning the main characters tweed jacket and swimming ability… but I digress.
Brown weaves an interesting web of writing that gives the reader the feeling of authenticity, but confirmation on many things is not easily achieved even with the all powerful internets.
While Brown’s writing style seems a little forced and overly fantastical, it was refreshing to read well written 3rd person book after the four Stephine Meyer books. Robert Langdon may be every male pseudo-intellectual dream of global adventure with overly grateful beautiful women… but the 3rd person developed in such a way breeds better overall development and much better suspense.
Let’s put it this way… If you liked The Da Vinci Code – you’ll get at least a good read from Angels and Demons. Now it’s back to reading the UK versions of HP in my spare time (3 down, 4 to go).
Series
I really like it when I get connected to a series. Especially a good book series. Am I alone in this?
I don’t think so. It was a conversation with another friend that got me thinking about it. He was looking for a new book to read, and I recommended picking up some old Jack Ryan Clancy novels for light reading. He was a big fan, and had read all the books related. But that’s what got me thinking about the notion of books in a series, or movies in a series.
Why is it that we like series? Is it that we get a better understanding of characters? Or that we get to see them change over time?
For whatever reason, just look at the last century or so of books to see that there’s a great love for a series (three or more books). We can easily see this from older book titles the likes of Hardy Boys, Judy Bloom, and Nancy Drew. More modern examples of literary series’ that come to mind Stepheine Meyer, Harry Potter, Ludlum (Bourne, Covert One), Clancy’s Jack Ryan series, and even examples like Herbert’s Dune series. I know there’s a lot that would argue to include comics and graphic novels here. I’m not gonna open up that can of worms.
But still I can’t quite put my finger on what I like so much about reading a series. I think part of it is that I know what to expect in writing style as the series progresses. I also like reading about the progression of characters. But I’ve not been able to get into a series before (Dune fo example). Those that I do get into, I tend to re-read and relish to an extent. I almost started reading the Clancy’s again, but instead I decided to reading the Harry Potter series again, this time from the UK versions that my wife brought back for me.
Broke Dawn
So yeah, I finished the fourth Stepheine Meyer book from the twilight series over the weekend. And I’m not going to use that damn 7-letter-word that begins with V that just so happens to be center of topics in the series and what’s been screwing up my ad words of late. Instead I’ll use pig latin in that one instance.
But if you recall back to my post on January 4th, I had my fair share of problems with the first two books, and I was hoping for improvement in the last two. Did the same problems persist? Yes. Were they better books? Yes. Again, if you’re going to read these books, then don’t read on if you don’t want spoilers.
So there were the same problems. Both the last two books continues with what I feel is mostly a female fantasy. That’s not to mean the author didn’t try to change perspective or to be creative in her story lines, but that came off even worse… It is a first person perspective throughout, and she began to change perspective in the end of book 3 and through the middle of book 4.
This is kind of minor, but she was using away too advanced vocabulary while trying to write from the perspective of a 16-year-old high school drop out who was never an even remotely intellectual character in the first two books. It annoyed the hell outta me…
The one of my bigger annoyances is connected to one of the unique character pieces of the series. It’s stemming from the fact that many of these ampirevays have special abilities. It’s pretty cool to think imagine such unique abilities, but I definitely began to feel that it became a convenience for plot direction instead of a true plot device. Does that make sense? To explain it again, it’s like Meyer had to have certain things happen. When she couldn’t find ways to make it happen with what she had previously established in something like an outline, she had to re-write some foundation make it happen. I felt like this more than a few times, especially in the last book.
But I do have to give a few little pieces of kudos. The last book has a good portion of the book with underlying tension, and it was enough to make me tense. But it never lasted too long because once I hit some wall of poor authorship it kind of brought me back to reality.
But my biggest problems with the stories is that it never takes it far enough when they are trying to mix a custom mythology with our inherent understanding of reality. One instance that come to mind is something akin to Brody from Mallrats speaking of why Superman and Lois Lane could never have sex. The other is back in book 2 where the lead character is attacked when she gets a paper cut in the presence of an ampirevay without enough self-control. My problem? Shouldn’t this have already happened given the amount of time both characters have spent around each other and or in the presence of other “normal” females.
So I’ve done no reading about the author or the fan community, but I think I’m not that compelled to look into it.
two books and two more to come
Today I finished the second of the Twilight books of which there are currently four. I’ll read the last two, but mostly because my wife assures me that they get a lot better.
My problem? It’s not really a problem more than an issue. It’s written to attract a specific core readership that is annoyingly distracting. The core readership I’m talking about? Female avid readers who want a fairytale.
That’s a pretty broad approximation by me eh? Yes it is, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. Now I’ll say why, so stop reading if you plan on reading the books and don’t even want the hint of spoilers. I haven’t seen the movie yet, so I’m just going off the books.
The book is written from the first person perspective mostly for tweens. The main character / point of view is (self described as) a pale, plain gal in her late teens moving from Phoenix to a remote corner of Washington State. That move alone magically makes her more interesting to the locals in her new hometown. All the boys seem to be interested in her from the get go, and she even convinces a “vegetarian vampire” to go against his primal instincts and become her main squeeze.
She’s aptly named Bella, so that means she has romance. She is worth the massive restraint that it takes a vampire to be in the presence of a human (it’s really a big deal). She has no problem with any academics. She has adventure. Her love for Edward the vampire even overrules any notion of self-preservation. Oh yeah, there’s a whole family of these non-human killing vampires with unique vampire powers that all love and approve of Bella.
Then the second book attempts to parallel Romeo and Juliet by implication and through overt references that frankly made me cringe. Bella can be too smart sometimes for anyone of that age and experience level, but she can also be so freakin’ dim. Then again, my experiences with vampires are limited to the three or four times I’ve been to Disney World.
But my personal dislike for the audience pandering aside, it’s a mildly interesting take on the whole vampire/werewolf thing. It’s all a little too sweet sometimes, and hindered by not being in the third person. I would just like for it to be a little less written for the tweens. Just a bit more mature would make a huge difference, so I hope the next two books are.
Book Review: The Appeal
I needed an easy reading book to relax with after quitting my job, during my little jaunt to Maine last month. The solution to such a need was the newest Grisham book. It’s back towards the legal world from his last book, Playing for Pizza.
This is a little different from most of his books that come to mind in that it’s not a protagonist type book. What I mean is that it takes place from many different perspectives, and there is no major character that everything is centered around.
It’s not bad in that way, but it is a little different. The reason for the book being written in this manner is because of the procedures of the legal and political processes he is taking on in this book.
The book starts out with the verdict of a lawsuit against a polluting chemical company is read. It then winds through the impact of this verdict on the plaintiff, the lawyers, and the chemical company. It’s more political in nature than anything else of his that I’ve read.
If I take what he wrote to be representative of how things are, then I have a serious worry about the political influence on the judicial system and process through underhanded manipulation. I’m not saying it’s widespread, but it is present and weaknesses in the judicial system have huge impact on the system as a whole.
Anyway, the book is a decently quick read. You may or may not agree with the ending or the implied commentary at times throughout the book, but there are enough parts going around to keep things interesting.
Book review: The Learners
Wow… Three books in just over a month… I won’t go as far to say I’m reading a lot, because this book and Playing for Pizza combined make up a average sized novel. Plus jPod is much shorter than it seems because of the balyhoo throughout…
Anyway. This is the second book from Chip Kidd. It may or may not be wide spread knowledge outside of my profession, but Kidd is one of the current heavyweights in the realm of graphic design – especially in the specialty of book jacket design. Lets put it this way – you’ve seen his work whether you realize it or not. He may be on track to be the Paul Rand of his generation. I digress…
But that’s secondary right now, because it’s about his fiction abilities. This book picks up where his first book (Cheese Monkeys) left off… The same main character a little further along in his life.
It tells the story of a fresh from college graphic designer going into the world of advertising – starting at a small firm where his favorite professor also started. It all takes place in the very early 1960’s in New Haven, Connecticut – the home of Yale University. The small ad firm is quite unique, and Kid does a decent job at character development.
Once you’ve got all the surroundings settled, things begin to get weird. I first thought the mention of it was purely coincidental, but then it become the major plot device. Kid decided to put the main character in the middle of a very odd little happening of 1961 Yale. I’m speaking of the quite infamous Milgram Experiment. Love it or hate it, this experiment was so of an eye-opener that so many rules are imposed on the ethical nature of psychological experimentation. The video of this experiment is very chilling. Very.
I admire the thought of trying to add such an element to a work of fiction – but it came off as a poor, sophmoric attempt to understand who Milgram was and what it may have been like to be involved in this particular study. The twists that this forces on the book also are more than a little too far into what I felt was melodramatic.
The ending is a direct progression from this interaction, and it left too many firmly established questions and concerns completely unanswered in a very annoying manner.
So… Having said all that, I’m not recommending this book unless you have an appreciation for Kidd, early 60’s, or an attempt to describe the inner workings of such a notorious experiment. His first book is much better. I may have to re-read it to get this bad taste out of my head.
Something tells me I’m not going to have time to read a book for a few months though.
Book review: jPod
Many years ago, my brother-in-law lent me a copy of Generation X by Douglas Coupland. He thought I needed to read it or thought I’d identify with something. Who knows, but I could never get into it. Not sure why. So then he and his copy moved away to Maine.
Sometime between then and now I read Microserfs, and was hooked from cover to cover. There was a lot that I identified with being fairly entrenched in the tech world. It’s always funnier to examine the peculiarities in this form than it seems in real life.
When I heard of jPod, I put it on my Amazon wish list. I took advantage of my recent time off to read a *gasp* second book in as many weeks. being in such a situation to do so felt really good.
The books starts our introducing the main character having a very weird day amidst his very weird friends and family. This initial day kept me throughly entertained.
From there, it was very much similar to Microserfs in the description of day-to-day happenings given the eccentric nature of the characters. It made me laugh out loud many times, and that’s not an easy thing to do. There’s a lot of wonderful evil in this book.
It continues for most of the book as the same basic style of Microserfs, just with the weirder people and circumstances. Then about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way through the book, it takes a turn with the introduction of a character that calls everything else into question from that point on. The bad part of this is that it was borderline annoying to me, but the good was that you find yourself questioning if any part of this could actually be grounded in reality.
In the end, it was a quick read for me. Given there are pages of weird shit from time to time that you can skip, but it still only took me 4 days or so to read it.
I’m going to give Generation X another go sometime soon. Maybe I’ll have a little reading time in the library to see if I can get into it this time around. I honestly think that I just wasn’t in the right place. I’ve come to love Coupland’s writing and ability to see how weird people from my generation actually are (at least in terms of the ones in the tech industry). If only he wouldn’t endorse blackberry BS.
