June 18th, 2009
I read my first Star Wars book back in 2003. I can’t remember what it was called, but it was about Boba Fett and I think it was the first book in a trilogy. I’d always thought the writing would be terrible in Star Wars books, but I was surprised by how well-written that book was. Through a book sale and a co-worker, I’ve picked up some more Star Wars novels and have been reading them.
Yoda: Dark Rendezvous by Sean Stewart
This is a solid book. It gives some insight into the training in the Jedi temple, and more importantly explores the relationship between Yoda and Count Dooku. It was tough to get too emotionally involved since I knew Yoda wasn’t going to die, but overall is was a good read.
Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader by James Luceno
This one started off slowly, with characters I knew little about, but then it picked up. I like the exploration of Vader’s struggles with his new body, his weaknesses that he’s never before had, and how he’s ended up like this. Also, Kashyyyk is always cool and Chewbacca rules, so that’s a bonus.
Outbound Flight by Timothy Zahn
This was my least favorite of the three. I like the character of Thrawn, but a lot of the jedi story bored me. Zahn was the only Star Wars novelist I’d heard of before reading any Star Wars books, so I’d expected a lot more of his writing. I was suprised by winners like “I agree,” he agreed. Is that a joke? He said/she said is fine.
Tags: star wars
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June 12th, 2009
In his introduction to this book, King calls this a trunk novel. He wrote it back in 1972/73, put it away, checked it a few years later, put it away, and then dug it up about 30 years after he wrote it. He did a massive rewrite and released it under the Bachman name.
I like that King warns readers about what they’re getting into. I found this one on sale in Osaka, so I wasn’t too worried about wasting my money.
How is it? It’s fine. I didn’t love it or hate it. It’s about a kidnapping and a friend who may or may not be dead. The writing and characterization are good, but it didn’t leave much of an impression on me. It’s fine.
I love the idea, though, of going back and rewriting something from the past. I wrote a novel-length manuscript back in 2005 and haven’t looked at it since. Recently, I’ve had the idea to go back and rewrite it. It could be fun. Or, it could be a nightmare. Reading something you wrote long ago is like talking to your old self, so I think I’ll give it a try. Emulating King can’t be a bad idea.
Tags: Blaze
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June 5th, 2009
First off, Jeeves is a valet, not a butler. He works for Bertie Wooster, a man of leisure. This is a collection of some of the early Jeeves stories and a few non-Jeeves stories. The stories, although fairly similar to each other, are good. The dialogue is great, with old chestnuts like “Right-o!” and “Did you, by Jove?” Good stuff.
After reading this book, I really want to be a man of leisure. Most of the characters have plenty of money without working. Several of the stories involve a character trying to keep his income that he receives from his rich uncle or aunt. They just sleep late, eat breakfast and read the paper, head down to the club for some lunch, and then go out for a show and dinner in the evening. What a life! Where do I sign up?
Tags: Enter Jeeves, Wodehouse
Posted in Enter Jeeves, Ulysses, Wodehouse, ancestor's tale, books, dawkins, fiction, joyce, science | No Comments »
May 18th, 2009
You ever had anyone tell you that Ring Around the Rosies is about the Plague? I have several times. The rhyme varies from region to region, and some of the variations, such as “a tissue, a tissue,” make it really sound like it’s about the Plague. According to Snopes, though, the idea that this rhyme is about the Plague didn’t show up until 1961. I knew this before I bought this book, but I neglected to read the back cover. If I had, I would have seen that rhyme and a note saying it’s about the Black Death. That should have been my warning.
I picked this book up in Hawaii on an English book shopping spree. I was looking for a history book, and I thought a book about the plague, something I knew little about, would be good.
Though some of the stories in the book are interesting, overall I can’t recommend it. I don’t care for the writing style; some of the sentences go on forever and there’s too much passive voice. While there are several stories about specific individuals, there’s also a lot of generalization. I almost stopped reading after the first 100 pages, but it actually picked up and got more interesting from there. So, if you feel you have to read this book, know that it improves the more you read.
Tags: In the Wake of the Plague
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May 15th, 2009
I want to believe in the long tail. I want to believe that at some point in the future, anyone who wants to produce something will be able to, and that instead of just a few movie directors, authors, or musicians finding an audience, there will be many of us creating, many of us who would have never had a chance under the old system. I want to believe that. It’s a nice idea. I’m just worried about the crap.
I started podcasting back in 2005. The idea that anyone could produce a podcast and get an audience was really exciting at the time. The problem is most podcasts are crap. I should know; I’ve produced a lot of crap in the last four years. The iTunes podcast directory’s top 100 is full of podcasts of traditional TV and radio shows. Why? Because they’re better than most of the independent crap that’s being produced. Sure, there are a lot of good independent podcasts, but they’re hard to find. They’re great for reaching niche audiences, but moving beyond the niche is difficult. Maybe they don’t need to.
Can online comments and reviews provide the crap filter that book publishers, magazine editors, record companies, and movie companies have provided over the years? Some would argue that their crap filters have been ineffective, and I’d have to agree. But, at least they keep out the real crap. Comments and reviews can be too easily manipulated, though. There has to be another way.
I’d love to see a future without middlemen between producers and audiences, I just can’t figure out how we’re going to keep the quality up.
The book? Yeah, it’s good. There are some great long tail examples. The idea makes a lot of sense, but ideas that make sense don’t always take over. We’ll see.
Tags: The Long Tail
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April 19th, 2009
See Rock City. That line brings back memories of my childhood in the rolling farmland of central Kentucky, where those words cover the roofs of many barns. I’ve been to the Smokeys many times, but never to Rock City, and I doubt I’ll ever go. It’s just another tourist trap, another over-advertised–and I would guess underwhelming–tourist trap. But the memory remains, and that’s a lot of what American Gods is about.
Before reading American Gods, I had little respect for Gaiman. I’ve never read Sandman. I know I should. I hung out in a comic shop for a few years and never picked it up. I’ll have to remedy that. I read Fragile Things, and with the exception of a couple of the stories, I didn’t care for it. The stories were too surface, bordering on amateurish, and I almost stopped reading a few times. Several people recommended American Gods, though, and I found it at a book sale in Osaka. I now have a lot of respect for Gaiman and plan to read more of his work.
Wall Drug. Have you heard of Wall Drug? Have you been there? It’s out west somewhere, maybe one of the Dakotas or Wyoming. I can’t remember, and I’m afraid looking it up will kill the memory. After seeing roadside advertisements for hundreds of miles, we stopped there on one of our family vacations. I think I stayed in the car. I was in high school then, a time when staying in the car was just one more small act of rebellion. I should have gotten out and looked around. I should have taken in the place, appreciated it for what it was, appreciated it for how American it was. And, that’s what American Gods is all about. Okay, not exactly, but we’re getting close.
I hate descriptions of dreams in novels. It’s weak writing. When writers run out of story, they start describing the characters’ dreams. Boring. It’s almost as bad as having the main character look in a mirror so the author can describe her/his physical appearance. Weak. Dreams are important in this story, though, so I’ll give Gaiman a pass here. The dream sequences were still boring, but at least they were part of the story and not some weak attempt at character development or space filling.
So, if you’ve ever had the urge to pull over and check out the world’s largest ball of twine, you’ll want to check out American Gods.
What’s your favorite tourist trap?
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March 30th, 2009
I’d been meaning to read some Terry Pratchett for a long time. Several people had recommended him, but I’d never gotten around to picking up any of his books. Once I decided to give him a try, it was hard to decide where to start; so I started at the beginning.
The Colour of Magic (I read an American printing with colour spelled color, but I’ll defer to the original) is the first Discworld book. Discworld is a world in the shape of a…disc, with plenty of magic and adventure to go around.
The book reads a lot like a Douglas Adams novel, which is good. It’s fantasy, with enough insanity thrown in to keep it interesting. One of the main characters, a wizard named Rincewind who has little ability to do any useful magic, is a classic anti-hero and the best part of the whole novel.
The similarities to Adams bring along both positives and negatives. I’ve read all of Adams’ novels and really like them all, but I read the beginnings of those books much more quickly than I read the endings. The silliness wears me down after a hundred pages or so. The same thing happened with The Colour of Magic. I never doubted that I would finish it, but I was much more enthusiastic at the beginning than at the end.
That said, there was much more to like than dislike here. The writing is excellent and the story is quite imaginative. It’s recommended for people who don’t take themselves, or their fiction, too seriously.
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March 27th, 2009
When I lived in San Francisco, I spent many summer afternoons and evenings at the Oakland Coliseum, sitting as high up as possible, away from the crowd (if there was one). Sometimes we would stop in the Mission, pick up some burritos, and sneak them into the Coliseum. Tickets were always cheap, and the A’s played with heart. That was back in 2000 and 2001. Those were good times.
The new Pac Bell park in San Francisco was much closer, and I grew up a Reds fan so I was much more familiar with the National League, but watching a Giants game at Pac Bell felt like more of a social event than a baseball game. A’s games felt like baseball.
At the time, I knew nothing about the A’s front office; I just knew the A’s had little money and still managed to win a lot of games.
Moneyball focuses on A’s General Manager Billy Beane and his approach to finding talent. The book’s not all about Beane, but if there’s a main character it’s him. It came out in 2003 and follows the team through the 2002 season, right after I left the Bay Area for Japan. I like that this style of managing a team focuses less on big stars and gut feelings and more on stats, but I dislike the way ballplayers are passed around from team to team without emotion. I guess if it’s a business it’s a business.
The ideas are interesting, but the writing is mediocre at best. It’s recommended if you’re interested in what makes a player good or if you just spent a few summers in the Coliseum, cheering for the underdogs.
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February 8th, 2009
It’s been 17 years since I took a biology class; I’m more of a physics/chemistry kind of guy. Over the past few years, though, I’ve been reading books about biology, mostly Richard Dawkins, and I felt I needed to go back and get a base in the subject. So, I picked up The Idiot’s Guide to Biology.
Does anyone like the title The Idiot’s Guide to…? I can’t imagine anyone says “Yeah, the idiot’s guide. Just what I need!” They should go with something more subtle, but I can’t think of an alternative right now. At least it’s better than …for Dummies. Anyway, I read it on the train here in Japan, so it didn’t really matter, but I doubt I would read it in public in the U.S. There would just be too many people yelling, “Hey, idiot!”
In very clear, easy-to-understand language the book starts with some chemistry and then moves on to cell structures and functions, inheritance, evolution, and then to plants and animals before ending on biospheres. I’m embarrassed to say I really learned a lot. There was so much new information for me, I’ll probably read it again. There were parts that I thought might have been over the heads of those new to biology, but overall it builds well upon itself and assumes little previous knowledge on the reader’s part.
If you want to catch up on some biology, I recommend this book.
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January 25th, 2009
Although this book really caught my interest when I started reading it, by the end it disappointed me. I liked the ideas about society and the rights of citizens over the wills of governments, but when the story moved into religious ideas it lost me. Some of the ideas about how society works, especially why we wear clothes, reminded me of Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. Heinlein’s writing, although marred with standard 50’s/60’s sci-fi stylistic potholes, is better than Quinn’s, but Quinn focuses on the causes of those societal ideas unlike Heinlein’s focus on how to move past them. I find the causes much more interesting than the solutions, but maybe I shouldn’t.
The first half is solid and the second half falls apart, but the cover claims it is the most famous science fiction novel ever written, so I’m glad I’ve read it just to be able to say I’ve read it, but for nothing more.
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