Arts
Book Reviews
.Allen,
Gary
None Dare Call It Conspiracy
Asimov,
Isaac
iRobot
*Review: A very dry read. It made shock waves in the early scifi world as it delved in to the phsycology of the the artificial brain and it's higherarchy of rules of behavior. It is really multiple short stories about androids who went nuts and why. Usually they would run into a logical paradox and go crazy. A couple of examples are ballet dancing mine working androids and androids who decided to take over human government to protect them from their own foolish decisions. While it is a very interesting book it is more like reading an auto manual than a scifi fantasy. I have heard the follow up books were much more enjoyable but the first book was neccessary to understand them. Perhaps one day I will try the next book.
Beaumarchais, Pierre de
The
Marriage of Figaro
Benchley,
Peter
Jaws
*Review: Two thirds brilliant and one third stupid and boring. I believe when Peter Benchley turned Jaws over to his publisher they said "Fatten it up and add some sex!" He then went and stuck several chapters of the most borring and meaningless narrative about an affair between Hooper and Brody's wife right in the middle of the book. You can rip those chapters out and it will not affect the rest of the story and will even improve it. Otherwise I love the character development of these three somewhat odd characters, the water logged sheriff who is afraid of the water, the crusty old shark fisherman who didn't escape his destiny only put it off, and the rich kid oceanographic biologist who battles boredom by swimming with sharks. And who ever thought a story about a shark could have such an intersting plot!
The
Deep
The
Island
Bradbury, Ray
The
Martian Chronicles
Fahrenheit
451
Brooks, Terry
The
Sword of Shannara
*Review:
It is probably unfair but I cannot help comparing other fantasy novels
to The Lord of The Rings. Unfortunately most novels fall far short of
the brilliant writing of JRR Tolkein including this one. That being
said Terry Brooks
has an enormous following and his books have been very
popular.
I
felt that reading TSOS was like watching a movie through a
foggy window. He is not very descriptive. For example; a very important
character in the first quarter of the story is a flying black thing
that chases the protagonists and is the primary motivation for their
flight. That's the description; A flying black thing. That's all I
really know about it. The characters say and do things that
you
wouldn't
expect with no explanation for the action or reaction. "he said
angrily!" Huh, why was he angry? There would often be no rational for
the
anger. He over uses certain devices.
"He put his hand on (somebody's) shoulder to reassure them."
This
action is performed again and again and again to the point where you're
thinking all this hand on shoulder stuff is getting a bit tiresome.
Terry does not delve very deeply into the personality of his characters
although he does jump from first person somebody to first person
somebody else to third person to first person again. He is also slow
to develop the rules that define his world or perhaps there are no real
rules.
Criticism aside there were things I did
like about the story. The premise is interesting. It is a world
that started as a magical place until the rule of man who developed
technology and then destroyed himself with that technology after which
the world has reverted to a medieval existence where
magic has more sway than technology.
I would surmise as an "epic" fantasy the
only thing epic about it is its size. As a light fairy tale it is an
easy read and a reasonably fun story. It lacks any real depth and it
seemed to me that the author intended to write a large book very
quickly and accomplished his goal. If you are looking for
brilliant word smithing and deep concepts and well defined characters
you will be gravely disappointed. If you are looking for a light read
where attention to detail is not a factor and are a fantasy book fan
you will probably enjoy it. All that being said I will confess that I
did enjoy the read. I guess I'm just that shallow.
Burnett,
Frances Hodgeson
The
Secret Garden
Cervantes,
Miguel De
Don
Quixote
*Review: Genious, if I try to say more I will never stop writing.
Clancy,
Tom
Net
Force
Clarke,
Arthur C.
2001
A Space Odyssey
2010
Odyssey 2
Clavell,
James
Shogun
Tai
Pan
Dixon,
Franklin W.
Hardy Boys (I don't remember the specific books
anymore but I will try to figure it out)
Donaldson,
Stephen R.
Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever (Trilogy)
Lord Fouls Bane
The Illearth War
The Power That Preserves
Hounds of the Baskervilles
A Scandal in Bohemia
Otherwise the story perfectly sets Holmes up to be portrayed as the sluething genious his fame suggests except that his contrivances are exposed to the reader before he employes them. To be told what will happen before it does makes for a boring read. So while I like the premise of the super slueth and his amazing powers of observation and credit Doyle with the creation of the character I did not find this to be a particularly good read.
This ornate language disappeared, with the exception of strange expletives, such as "what what", as the journey beginss. It is replaced with simple english of a grade school reading level. Not that there is anything wrong with that except the opening chapters provide a deceptive expectation.
The concept of an unscalable plateau isolated by the surrounding South American rain forrest hosting living dinosaurs and primitive humanoids is brilliant. Unfortunately Doyle fails to match his idea with a story as brilliantly written. It also seemed strange that the first instinct of his protagonist explorer, scientist, adventurers is to kill their discoveries including nearly completely wiping out the entire primitive humanoid race.
In todays world of hyper sensitivity some people may be offended by Doyles reference to the half breed and negro servants employed as guides and baggage carriers. The half breeds, which I am guessing where half white European and half South American Indian, ended up being villianous although this trait was not especially associated with their breeding.
Their black Brazillian servant, Zambo, is not portrayed as being especially intelligent and his name is not complimentary but he is a person of virtuous character and remains at the foot of the plateau providing what assistance he can while the expedition remains trapped there. I personally found nothing overtly offensive about it. At least no more so than the stereo typical Irish cop named Shamus, on the take, walking the beat and making extensive use of his night stick.
It was a somewhat disapointing read. I'm not sorry to have read it. It just didn't live up to the expectation I had since it has been widely recognised as a great work of fiction. Like the concept of Sherlock Holmes it was brilliantly imaginative but Mr Doyles ability to deliver in full story form falls short.
Einstein,
Albert
The
Special Theory of Relativity
The
General Theory of Relativity
Sidelights
on Relativity
Farris,
John
The
Fury
Gaskell,
Elizabeth
Mary
Barton
The Withered Arm
It was an excellent short story although a sad one. Warning: don't read it if you prefer happy endings.
Jacobs, W.W.
The Monkeys Paw
Kipling, Rudyard
The Return of Imray
Koontz, Dean
Phantoms
*Review: Good Read. The story is full of suspense. Strange things happen and the more clues that are revealed the less they make sense so you keep reading in anticipation of understanding whats going on. Character development is good too. You get a real sense of knowing these characters and Dean does a great job of endearing you to them. For example one character, Lisa, is a recently orphaned teenage girl who is going to live with her estranged sister. Lisa is very sweet and it's cute the way she looks up to her older sister, Jenny, who is a doctor. She wants to be just like her and tries to emulate her. As the story progresses you come to realize inspite of the vulnerability you expect the harsh realities of her life have made her an emotionally strong person and you find yourself admiring that quality. Unfortunately the movie, which bears the same name, fails misrably to portray these characters in a way that is even remotely related to the book and fails to deliver the sense of suspense that made the book fun to read. I would recommend reading the book and avoiding the movie.
L'Engle, Madeleine
A
Wrinkle In Time
Lewis, C.S.
Mere
Christianity
The
Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe
The
Horse and His Boy
Prince
Caspian
The Green Ripper
The Dreadful Lemon Sky
Orwell, George (Eric Arthur Blair)
*A comment on the author: I once heard someone characterize George Orwell as a liberal. I laughed and thought how air headed one must be to confuse George, who has such an obviously grandious distrust of government power, with liberals. I think I have finally discovered why he might have thought that. Left and Right had such dramatically different meanings between WWII England and current day America. He is often referred to as a "leftist" in recounts of his life and literary impact. Besides the confusing label he also grew and changed during the course of life starting with a very socialist and pacifist viewpoint when younger to being a soldier fighting fascism in the Spanish Civil War to later seeing the threats of the Russian/Chinese brand of Socialism spreading through Eurasia. What you really need to do is read and understand how the philosophy of these books of then fit with now.
1984
Animal
Farm
The Godwulf Manuscript
In spite of these minor criticisms it was an easy read with a likable protagonist and an enjoyable story. It's not Charles Dickens but it's good for light reading.
Night PassageI found the first half of the book to be an easy and enjoyable read. Unfortunately the story line falls apart and becomes rather goofy after that. Often times there seems to be a total lack of continuity between his characters and their behavior. For example Hasty is a rich, wimpy banker who can't even get it on with his nympho wife but runs a militia group bent on taking over their small suburban town. What an absurd scenerio. I am also put off by his association of "white Christian" with crazy, hick, militia group, wackos who are justifiably ripped off by gay mobsters, another absurd scenerio, for their obvious bigotry. I get the strong sense that Robert Parker is a snob, himself a bigot, and liberal zealot.
The books have been made into a series of made for TV movies. The story lines have been rewritten and vastly improved and all the stupidity stripped out of them. I would highly recommend the movies over the books which is a recommendation I would rarely make.
Tolkein,
J.R.R.
The
Silmarillion
Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle
Earth or the shaping of middle earth
The Hobbit
The Lord Of The Rings Trillogy
The Children Of Hurin
Twain, Mark
Huck
Finn
Tom Sawyer
A Ghost Story
Unknown or various authors
The
Bible
*Review: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." I think it is very interesting that the bible uses the term "Word". In this phrase, a reference to Genesis, John could have just as easily used any one of dozens of other possible labels to represent the Christ, the Lamb for example, but doesn't. He uses a term that represents he who completes Gods plan and reveales it to mankind. The Bible is the written testimony of these events and God revealed to us through it.
1001 Arabian Nights
Verne,
Jules
20,000
leauges Under The Sea
Zindal, Paul
The
Pigman
Books in the queue:
His Excellency George Washington - Joseph J. Ellis (In Process)The 5000 Year Leap - W. Cleon Skousen (In Process)
Eregon - Christopher Paolini (In Process)
The Chronicles of Amber - Roger Zelazny (In Process)
A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (In the queue)