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4.13
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Dec 31, 2017
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B09H7QV53Q
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really liked it
SPOILER FILLED
Awaken Online: Happy, is the eleventh (or maybe twelfth book?) in the Awaken Online Series. It's a side character novel that takes plac SPOILER FILLED
Awaken Online: Happy, is the eleventh (or maybe twelfth book?) in the Awaken Online Series. It's a side character novel that takes place sometime during the main characters Jason's ascent in developing the Twilight Throne, and Finn's conquest and creation of Sanscrit, if I remember correctly.
So, a short summary. The story involves Dom, a college football player who gets diagnosed with cancer and has a short time to live. His life goes to shit, further so when he realizes he can't afford the treatments. But his nurse suggests to him, yep, the game from Ceruellian Entertainment, that patients seem to have a positive affect with playing. And he gets hooked into Awaken Online.
Much like Jason and the other avatars, Dom is sort of chosen by one of the games deities, or Alfred behind the scenes. This time he starts in a casino, which I love the idea of a dilapitating casino powered by magic and steampunk tech that has a door that has an entry way that goes into the abyss, but its eye-rollingly convenient that when Dom was a kid his dad took him from casino to casino because he repaired slot machines or whatever the hell, so Dom naturally takes to the setting familiar. Backstory. The god that is stuck in the purgatory running it is the god of happiness, with a philosophy that I found told interestingly and well as to what gives people happiness.
Anyhow Dom starts off in the jungle sky islands in a city known as Aislen. Aislen is run by the Jackals, a group that is stuck along with the players in the hardest start point of Awaken Online (very interesting idea here). See none of the players who start here can successfully escape it, the monsters and traps of the jungle are just too great obstacles to successfully overcome. Basically, they're stuck under the Jackals rule unless they go solo, which is what Dom does. But eventually he meets up with a bard. And a chicken. And a few minor characters from previous novels. And they band together and go against the Jackals while accomplishing other in game things no-one’s ever done before.
Travis Bagwell delivers a good story, and I am constantly surprised by his inventiveness and sheer fun of these books. This is AOs version of the superhero, or in this case supervillain tale. But I have some criticisms. First things I liked.
-The dire python first encounter made my skin crawl. As someone who HATES snakes, being digested alive by one is one of my irrational personal fears so that was really unsettling.
-Another mention, But I love the idea of the casino hub world and that its lorded by the God of Happiness, and that slot machines are run by metals and crystals and magic. And that there is a main door that opens to oblivion and sucks you out back to the main game world. Good stuff.
-I loved the Truggle side plot where they bind the goblins to the casino
-Dom is an interesting character and his training of facing game death mirroring his real life not only athletic training and growing, but his dealing with the facing the real possible death from his illness. That was a really good idea, and Dom’s approach of brute forcing it but being smart and strategic about how he trains based on how he trains in football was a clever idea done well.
- I liked Wingman as the Death Chicken but have issue with some of his scenes. But Wingman knocking the smoker over and it is falling through the floors of the guild hall was great.
-Adrian’s idea of crowdfunding in game, that kick starters can raise money for different quests to be accomplished, assassination missions, ec... was great
-Taking strategy from Jason and co. It's nice to acknowledge that every character isn't the smartest person in the room who comes up with their own ideas all the time, sometimes they need help.
Now my criticisms
I found it funny with the amount of graphic and gruesome violence in AO novels, the disclaimer had to be said at the beginning that the character may curse a bit too much, really? If kids reading this can stomach the violence than a bunch of F bombs shouldn't faze them. And it's kind of gratuitously violent for a book that has a lot of comic relief. I mean the characters are practically destroying entire ecosystems of animals. I don't know how I feel about that, maybe I’m getting older. I guess in a video game, say Diablo you massacre hundreds of thousands of demon spawns. I mean in Final Fantasy for example, you slaughter different creatures, but the tone is established that it’s clearly a pixel/anime game world, whereas AO prides itself on its ‘in game realism�.
But like, Page 703 example of the violence: “The blood ran through waters..� Like blood falls from the massacre that happened. Maybe it’s the comedic tone and Dom and co’s nonchalance about it that makes it off-putting at times. With Jason’s story it is meant to be shocking, he’s playing a bad guy. With Dom, yeah he becomes Smiles (AOs version of the Joker) but he’s not really the Joker because he doesn’t do things for pure chaos, its more survival. He doesn’t get the power trip from manipulation and destruction that Jason does.
Modern slang being used in the year 204X/ 207X or whenever future year AO takes place. Hoomans. Gender fluid. Woke-ass humans. Get good. Selfies. I mean its distracting; slang would change by then and all these terms would be lame by then, wouldn’t they? Also, chicken nuggets were used twice to describe Wingman once by a character thinking it and then another character saying it.
It appears the Gambler can enter the game world and recruit. Don’t know how he does this whilst the other gods can’t interfere directly like that.
I notice that Bagwell has his characters roll their eyes a lot. Particularly after telling a lame, bad joke. It doesn't make the joke any better that the character recognizes how bad it is. His characters sometimes start to sound the same, like trying to be the wittiest most clever person in the room, the way Jason does. They all have a similar type of humor. I wish there was more distinct differences in personalities.
Wingmen feasting on the slain. I mean, yeah, I get it, this is a subversion of the cute Chocobo like mascot, but its just way overdone and gross to read about, again contrasted with the humor.
The biggest one I have is that Adrian dies repeatedly to train his stats. Then later Vanessa, Lauren, Willow, and Walt. To me this negates the importance of Dom's own trait, his resilience. It makes sense for his character to face death again and again, but not so much Adrian's character. That implies that Adrian is as strong willed as Dom, whilst everything in his character, speech, and actions, indicates that he isn't. And he has no reason to be. He isn't the one facing the possibility of dying soon. Nor is he a real-life athlete who trains hard to improve himself. His character is the support bard, it would have made more sense to have written him as an artist type who is completely reluctant to face death, to train his body, but rather focused on his music. I think this training should have been relegated just to Dom. I don’t believe that everyone is psychologically prepared to go through what he did (even in a game). Like in real life, people are willing to push themselves, and part of me believes “what one man can do; another can do.� But within that frame there are some who always push harder than others, and few still willing to go the extra mile. And some people who aren’t willing at all. I think it would have been more interesting if it was reflected in maybe one of the characters rather than just having everyone succeed. Also, maybe a betrayal by one of them for the unexpected.
But all in all, I give it 3.5/5, still a good addition to the AO saga and I look forward to the next one as always!
...more
Awaken Online: Happy, is the eleventh (or maybe twelfth book?) in the Awaken Online Series. It's a side character novel that takes plac SPOILER FILLED
Awaken Online: Happy, is the eleventh (or maybe twelfth book?) in the Awaken Online Series. It's a side character novel that takes place sometime during the main characters Jason's ascent in developing the Twilight Throne, and Finn's conquest and creation of Sanscrit, if I remember correctly.
So, a short summary. The story involves Dom, a college football player who gets diagnosed with cancer and has a short time to live. His life goes to shit, further so when he realizes he can't afford the treatments. But his nurse suggests to him, yep, the game from Ceruellian Entertainment, that patients seem to have a positive affect with playing. And he gets hooked into Awaken Online.
Much like Jason and the other avatars, Dom is sort of chosen by one of the games deities, or Alfred behind the scenes. This time he starts in a casino, which I love the idea of a dilapitating casino powered by magic and steampunk tech that has a door that has an entry way that goes into the abyss, but its eye-rollingly convenient that when Dom was a kid his dad took him from casino to casino because he repaired slot machines or whatever the hell, so Dom naturally takes to the setting familiar. Backstory. The god that is stuck in the purgatory running it is the god of happiness, with a philosophy that I found told interestingly and well as to what gives people happiness.
Anyhow Dom starts off in the jungle sky islands in a city known as Aislen. Aislen is run by the Jackals, a group that is stuck along with the players in the hardest start point of Awaken Online (very interesting idea here). See none of the players who start here can successfully escape it, the monsters and traps of the jungle are just too great obstacles to successfully overcome. Basically, they're stuck under the Jackals rule unless they go solo, which is what Dom does. But eventually he meets up with a bard. And a chicken. And a few minor characters from previous novels. And they band together and go against the Jackals while accomplishing other in game things no-one’s ever done before.
Travis Bagwell delivers a good story, and I am constantly surprised by his inventiveness and sheer fun of these books. This is AOs version of the superhero, or in this case supervillain tale. But I have some criticisms. First things I liked.
-The dire python first encounter made my skin crawl. As someone who HATES snakes, being digested alive by one is one of my irrational personal fears so that was really unsettling.
-Another mention, But I love the idea of the casino hub world and that its lorded by the God of Happiness, and that slot machines are run by metals and crystals and magic. And that there is a main door that opens to oblivion and sucks you out back to the main game world. Good stuff.
-I loved the Truggle side plot where they bind the goblins to the casino
-Dom is an interesting character and his training of facing game death mirroring his real life not only athletic training and growing, but his dealing with the facing the real possible death from his illness. That was a really good idea, and Dom’s approach of brute forcing it but being smart and strategic about how he trains based on how he trains in football was a clever idea done well.
- I liked Wingman as the Death Chicken but have issue with some of his scenes. But Wingman knocking the smoker over and it is falling through the floors of the guild hall was great.
-Adrian’s idea of crowdfunding in game, that kick starters can raise money for different quests to be accomplished, assassination missions, ec... was great
-Taking strategy from Jason and co. It's nice to acknowledge that every character isn't the smartest person in the room who comes up with their own ideas all the time, sometimes they need help.
Now my criticisms
I found it funny with the amount of graphic and gruesome violence in AO novels, the disclaimer had to be said at the beginning that the character may curse a bit too much, really? If kids reading this can stomach the violence than a bunch of F bombs shouldn't faze them. And it's kind of gratuitously violent for a book that has a lot of comic relief. I mean the characters are practically destroying entire ecosystems of animals. I don't know how I feel about that, maybe I’m getting older. I guess in a video game, say Diablo you massacre hundreds of thousands of demon spawns. I mean in Final Fantasy for example, you slaughter different creatures, but the tone is established that it’s clearly a pixel/anime game world, whereas AO prides itself on its ‘in game realism�.
But like, Page 703 example of the violence: “The blood ran through waters..� Like blood falls from the massacre that happened. Maybe it’s the comedic tone and Dom and co’s nonchalance about it that makes it off-putting at times. With Jason’s story it is meant to be shocking, he’s playing a bad guy. With Dom, yeah he becomes Smiles (AOs version of the Joker) but he’s not really the Joker because he doesn’t do things for pure chaos, its more survival. He doesn’t get the power trip from manipulation and destruction that Jason does.
Modern slang being used in the year 204X/ 207X or whenever future year AO takes place. Hoomans. Gender fluid. Woke-ass humans. Get good. Selfies. I mean its distracting; slang would change by then and all these terms would be lame by then, wouldn’t they? Also, chicken nuggets were used twice to describe Wingman once by a character thinking it and then another character saying it.
It appears the Gambler can enter the game world and recruit. Don’t know how he does this whilst the other gods can’t interfere directly like that.
I notice that Bagwell has his characters roll their eyes a lot. Particularly after telling a lame, bad joke. It doesn't make the joke any better that the character recognizes how bad it is. His characters sometimes start to sound the same, like trying to be the wittiest most clever person in the room, the way Jason does. They all have a similar type of humor. I wish there was more distinct differences in personalities.
Wingmen feasting on the slain. I mean, yeah, I get it, this is a subversion of the cute Chocobo like mascot, but its just way overdone and gross to read about, again contrasted with the humor.
The biggest one I have is that Adrian dies repeatedly to train his stats. Then later Vanessa, Lauren, Willow, and Walt. To me this negates the importance of Dom's own trait, his resilience. It makes sense for his character to face death again and again, but not so much Adrian's character. That implies that Adrian is as strong willed as Dom, whilst everything in his character, speech, and actions, indicates that he isn't. And he has no reason to be. He isn't the one facing the possibility of dying soon. Nor is he a real-life athlete who trains hard to improve himself. His character is the support bard, it would have made more sense to have written him as an artist type who is completely reluctant to face death, to train his body, but rather focused on his music. I think this training should have been relegated just to Dom. I don’t believe that everyone is psychologically prepared to go through what he did (even in a game). Like in real life, people are willing to push themselves, and part of me believes “what one man can do; another can do.� But within that frame there are some who always push harder than others, and few still willing to go the extra mile. And some people who aren’t willing at all. I think it would have been more interesting if it was reflected in maybe one of the characters rather than just having everyone succeed. Also, maybe a betrayal by one of them for the unexpected.
But all in all, I give it 3.5/5, still a good addition to the AO saga and I look forward to the next one as always!
...more
Notes are private!
1
Jan 17, 2022
Jan 20, 2022
Jan 17, 2022
Kindle Edition
B0DSZLN57Y
4.16
198,022
Apr 28, 1985
May 2010
it was amazing
SPOILER FILLED
Blood Meridian is a novel that I’d been meaning to pick up for a long time. I’d read Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and liked it, but for so SPOILER FILLED
Blood Meridian is a novel that I’d been meaning to pick up for a long time. I’d read Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and liked it, but for some reason it didn’t have the impact it did on me that it had for many readers, the bleak and horrifying feeling. Maybe I was just in a numb state of mind when I read it, I wasn’t really absorbing what I read, and I may have to do a reread of it someday. I’m a huge fan of the movie No Country for Old Men, I loved the badass villain that is Chigurh, and since it’s based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, I’m sure I’d enjoy it too (very rarely do I love a movie and dislike the novel it's based on).
Now I’m not a fan of the Western genre at all. The setting (visual aspect, gunslingers, dry wastelands, shootouts, bar brawls, expansion, trails) just doesn’t interest me. I’ve never seen a Clint Eastwood Western in its entirety or a John Wayne film. I remember sort of liking the movie, Shane. But for whatever reason, the Western for the most part doesn’t connect with me the way it does many people. The primary reason I sought this book out was because McCarthy 1) is known and respected as a modern literary great, 2) his previous works as I stated 3) and a video with a snippet of a Yale professors� lecture of it, the character of the Judge and the challenge of reading his violent nature got my interest. So on to it
Blood Meridian was a challenging read, not merely for McCarthy’s extensive use of vocabulary (so many words Spanish and otherwise I’ve never even seen before, the switch between Spanish dialogue (I don’t know Spanish) and English, and his descriptions and metaphors which I’ll get to. But also, for the extreme brutal violence, which I’ll also get to.
Blood Meridian I’ll quickly summarize, takes place in the West, spans through Texas, Mexico, Nevada, California, the deserts, the mountains, the forests, the coasts, that is a journey throughout the seasons and the years. It follows a band of characters (bounty hunters), the unnamed kid, Toadvine, an ex-priest, Glanton the de-facto leader, Judge Holden, and many others which I can’t seem to remember because they sort of overshadowed them for me. They travel from town to town, skirmish ground to skirmish ground killing and scalping as they go and collecting rewards for the scalps they take back to the governor. But they experience the horror and beauty of the west as they go. There’s so much that happens along the way, because their journey is so huge and sprawling that you almost forget details, you just remember the experience of it. But I want to get to the style writing and the violent content.
The prose is short sentences, and then long descriptions without punctuation, some constructed using simple words in ways which are poetic, others with more extensive vocabulary and terms. And wow did this novel expose me to probably a hundred words that I’d never seen before (wished I had a dictionary while reading). One description of the many that stood out to me was the ‘sun as being urine colored� was amazing. It takes something most people regard as beautiful and puts it to the perspective of something foul and distasteful maybe to indicate the characters regarding their situation as awful. Just as you think there’s no other way to describe the sun, the sky and the desert, McCarthy throws another one at you that’s amazing. The setting of the West doesn’t connect with me, but he managed to make me not only care but see the great beauty in it. At times it feels like I’m venturing in these characters through the Biblical Hell, the volcanic rock, the bones of the massive decaying animals, the corpses of both animal and human the blood-soaked earth, the starving masses, the burning heat, and desolation of it. The brimstone that’s created in a scene where the characters urinate on the gunpowder mixed with volcanic rock? and then used against the warring tribe was another scene that really stuck with me.
Blood Meridian is also the most brutal and violent things I’ve ever read (probably even experienced in any media) outside of stories that depict war. Wars are obviously more brutal and violent by the mass scale of it, but I strictly mean on a more personal level humans doing vile brutal acts against other humans. It’s fucking relentless. You don’t know who is going to survive. And the violence is described in the goriest most lurid details. I’m reminded of G.R.R’s Martin’s perspective of disliking sanitized violence and that if you’re an author describing it, depict it in all its ugliness. It’s the case here. Martin’s other pet peeve of showing the medieval fantasy setting as a Disneylandesque type of place rather than its harsh reality. I think this is McCarthy’s response to the false Hollywood ideal of the old West. Here he depicts how unforgiving it was for many people living in that time.
Judge Holden is, like Chigurh, an example of prime evil. But unlike Chigurh in the movie who's a scary hit man whose violence is towards cops and criminals, a sort of dark charm, Holden is just unredeemable, vile, wholly immoral capable of the most disgusting brutality. While I think Chigurh for me was like Death Incarnate (he even dresses in all black), Holden is gigantic, bald, muscular, and hairless, almost like a demonic creature from Hell. From the professor’s analysis from earlier, her comparison was of Holden being Satan, so I kind of went into the novel with that in mind. Holden is worldly, well educated, articulate, has compassion for the strangest things at time animals if I remember, except when he doesn't and kills them for amusement and several points, and a botanist collecting specimens he finds. He also has the capacity for complete immorality and inhuman violence which he justifies in the philosophy of the game and its players, which I took as sort of a survival of the fittest and the desert chaffs out the weak until only the strong remains. There’s a scene with an Apache child on his knee which he innocently plays with and which the posse take a liking to. And in the next scene…One of his most awful acts, until we get to the end that is.
That ending…Fuck. First off, I’m not sure what the shooting of the dancing bear is to indicate, maybe that the violent acts committed by the characters have gotten so commonplace at that point that the bear is almost funny if it wasn’t horrible (I mean a dancing bear for no real reason). McCarthy doesn’t mention what happens to the kid when he meets the Judge in the outhouse. But as a reader, at first, I was confused, I thought the Judge had ‘affections� for him which is fucked up, that he was capable of love, that alone would have ended the novel on a weird and twisted note. But the reactions of the men who come across the aftermath quickly dissuades that situation. Pure evil.
Blood Meridian was a difficult read, but never because I got bored or worse unmoved. I was there, in the moment of the characters and the story and it was all I could think about as I was engaged. After reading it I sort of realize how many books just don’t ‘move� me at all, I get easily distracted, I zone out or tune out, because the prose or story is just base insultingly easy, I can skim it and not miss a thing. Blood Meridian had my full attention from beginning to end, and even though many ideas and themes probably went over my head, its written so beautifully so immersive as well, it does make other writing pale in comparison.
I give Blood Meridian five stars but more if I could because I think it reaches above even other outstanding classic fiction. ...more
Blood Meridian is a novel that I’d been meaning to pick up for a long time. I’d read Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and liked it, but for so SPOILER FILLED
Blood Meridian is a novel that I’d been meaning to pick up for a long time. I’d read Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and liked it, but for some reason it didn’t have the impact it did on me that it had for many readers, the bleak and horrifying feeling. Maybe I was just in a numb state of mind when I read it, I wasn’t really absorbing what I read, and I may have to do a reread of it someday. I’m a huge fan of the movie No Country for Old Men, I loved the badass villain that is Chigurh, and since it’s based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, I’m sure I’d enjoy it too (very rarely do I love a movie and dislike the novel it's based on).
Now I’m not a fan of the Western genre at all. The setting (visual aspect, gunslingers, dry wastelands, shootouts, bar brawls, expansion, trails) just doesn’t interest me. I’ve never seen a Clint Eastwood Western in its entirety or a John Wayne film. I remember sort of liking the movie, Shane. But for whatever reason, the Western for the most part doesn’t connect with me the way it does many people. The primary reason I sought this book out was because McCarthy 1) is known and respected as a modern literary great, 2) his previous works as I stated 3) and a video with a snippet of a Yale professors� lecture of it, the character of the Judge and the challenge of reading his violent nature got my interest. So on to it
Blood Meridian was a challenging read, not merely for McCarthy’s extensive use of vocabulary (so many words Spanish and otherwise I’ve never even seen before, the switch between Spanish dialogue (I don’t know Spanish) and English, and his descriptions and metaphors which I’ll get to. But also, for the extreme brutal violence, which I’ll also get to.
Blood Meridian I’ll quickly summarize, takes place in the West, spans through Texas, Mexico, Nevada, California, the deserts, the mountains, the forests, the coasts, that is a journey throughout the seasons and the years. It follows a band of characters (bounty hunters), the unnamed kid, Toadvine, an ex-priest, Glanton the de-facto leader, Judge Holden, and many others which I can’t seem to remember because they sort of overshadowed them for me. They travel from town to town, skirmish ground to skirmish ground killing and scalping as they go and collecting rewards for the scalps they take back to the governor. But they experience the horror and beauty of the west as they go. There’s so much that happens along the way, because their journey is so huge and sprawling that you almost forget details, you just remember the experience of it. But I want to get to the style writing and the violent content.
The prose is short sentences, and then long descriptions without punctuation, some constructed using simple words in ways which are poetic, others with more extensive vocabulary and terms. And wow did this novel expose me to probably a hundred words that I’d never seen before (wished I had a dictionary while reading). One description of the many that stood out to me was the ‘sun as being urine colored� was amazing. It takes something most people regard as beautiful and puts it to the perspective of something foul and distasteful maybe to indicate the characters regarding their situation as awful. Just as you think there’s no other way to describe the sun, the sky and the desert, McCarthy throws another one at you that’s amazing. The setting of the West doesn’t connect with me, but he managed to make me not only care but see the great beauty in it. At times it feels like I’m venturing in these characters through the Biblical Hell, the volcanic rock, the bones of the massive decaying animals, the corpses of both animal and human the blood-soaked earth, the starving masses, the burning heat, and desolation of it. The brimstone that’s created in a scene where the characters urinate on the gunpowder mixed with volcanic rock? and then used against the warring tribe was another scene that really stuck with me.
Blood Meridian is also the most brutal and violent things I’ve ever read (probably even experienced in any media) outside of stories that depict war. Wars are obviously more brutal and violent by the mass scale of it, but I strictly mean on a more personal level humans doing vile brutal acts against other humans. It’s fucking relentless. You don’t know who is going to survive. And the violence is described in the goriest most lurid details. I’m reminded of G.R.R’s Martin’s perspective of disliking sanitized violence and that if you’re an author describing it, depict it in all its ugliness. It’s the case here. Martin’s other pet peeve of showing the medieval fantasy setting as a Disneylandesque type of place rather than its harsh reality. I think this is McCarthy’s response to the false Hollywood ideal of the old West. Here he depicts how unforgiving it was for many people living in that time.
Judge Holden is, like Chigurh, an example of prime evil. But unlike Chigurh in the movie who's a scary hit man whose violence is towards cops and criminals, a sort of dark charm, Holden is just unredeemable, vile, wholly immoral capable of the most disgusting brutality. While I think Chigurh for me was like Death Incarnate (he even dresses in all black), Holden is gigantic, bald, muscular, and hairless, almost like a demonic creature from Hell. From the professor’s analysis from earlier, her comparison was of Holden being Satan, so I kind of went into the novel with that in mind. Holden is worldly, well educated, articulate, has compassion for the strangest things at time animals if I remember, except when he doesn't and kills them for amusement and several points, and a botanist collecting specimens he finds. He also has the capacity for complete immorality and inhuman violence which he justifies in the philosophy of the game and its players, which I took as sort of a survival of the fittest and the desert chaffs out the weak until only the strong remains. There’s a scene with an Apache child on his knee which he innocently plays with and which the posse take a liking to. And in the next scene…One of his most awful acts, until we get to the end that is.
That ending…Fuck. First off, I’m not sure what the shooting of the dancing bear is to indicate, maybe that the violent acts committed by the characters have gotten so commonplace at that point that the bear is almost funny if it wasn’t horrible (I mean a dancing bear for no real reason). McCarthy doesn’t mention what happens to the kid when he meets the Judge in the outhouse. But as a reader, at first, I was confused, I thought the Judge had ‘affections� for him which is fucked up, that he was capable of love, that alone would have ended the novel on a weird and twisted note. But the reactions of the men who come across the aftermath quickly dissuades that situation. Pure evil.
Blood Meridian was a difficult read, but never because I got bored or worse unmoved. I was there, in the moment of the characters and the story and it was all I could think about as I was engaged. After reading it I sort of realize how many books just don’t ‘move� me at all, I get easily distracted, I zone out or tune out, because the prose or story is just base insultingly easy, I can skim it and not miss a thing. Blood Meridian had my full attention from beginning to end, and even though many ideas and themes probably went over my head, its written so beautifully so immersive as well, it does make other writing pale in comparison.
I give Blood Meridian five stars but more if I could because I think it reaches above even other outstanding classic fiction. ...more
Notes are private!
1
Dec 30, 2021
Jan 17, 2022
Dec 30, 2021
Paperback
0857059580
9780857059581
0857059580
4.44
980
1957
Feb 04, 2021
it was amazing
A HEART DIVIDED
Excellent novel and final chapter to the series. Refreshing after the meandering of the middle chapters to have it get back to what I A HEART DIVIDED
Excellent novel and final chapter to the series. Refreshing after the meandering of the middle chapters to have it get back to what I loved about A Hero Born.
Wow! After liking but not loving ‘A Bond Undone� and being disappointed and annoyed by ‘A Snake Lies Hidden, I’m so glad that Jin Yong is back here in full form with ‘A Heart Divided�. I loved this, and I usually despise love stories or romance taking center stage in a book, but this was so engaging with a massive backdrop, and different types of things happening. What I mean by that is, yes, there is the martial arts you expect from this series but there’s so much more. I’m going from memory so I might get some names, things wrong.
(view spoiler)[
I guess this story can be split up into four parts
1. The Madam Ying plot
2. Peach Blossom murder
3. The Mongols invading Song, Jin empire as well
4. The Challenge of Mount Hua and Aftermath
There are new characters introduced right off the bat, Madam Ying, a sort of swamp witch who takes in Guo and Lotus and whose backstory and motives are really interesting. Madam Ying had an illegitimate son (from an affair with Zhong Botong) who was poisoned by the monk Qui Chijing?, and her husband the King sort of just let it happen. She plans to use Guo in her revenge as he must take Lotus to the mountain to meet one of the five Greats, a retired King Duan for healing her wounds from the Iron Palm. That encounter with Duan, his four (or five) subjects are interesting, how one is like the fisher man, the farmer I think? They serve as trials in the path before Guo and Lotus can meet the master, but also have their own personalities and devotion to their king.
The second part happens when Gou and Lotus return to Peach Blossom Island and find out something horrible has happened and (this is all spoiler territory). Guo finds the Six Freaks dead minus one who escaped, killed by who he by the evidence of the murder scene, deduces that is Lotus� father Apothecary Huang. The deaths of the Freaks shocked me, even though it was foreshadowed, I didn’t see it coming. I assumed if the confrontation happened, there’d be a fight, it’d be a big misunderstanding, everyone would be friends and hug, and that’s it.
No.
It does lead to a great confrontation between Apothecary and the monks with the surviving blind Freak (sorry bad at remembering all the names). And some good fights.
Yang’s death surprised me as well. I expected a fight between him and Guo or that he’d give up his struggle for power and see the light, but he just gets poisoned and dies with the birds pecking at his corpse. It was gruesome, but I guess fitting, because he killed Viper’s nephew Gallant, or we find out his son?
The third half is the Mongol invasion, the return of Genghis Khan and his family, Gou having to decide between honoring his promise to Khojin, but in love with Lotus. A part of it is chasing Viper Ouyang to find Lotus, setting traps for him in the camp to get information from him, and another plot is the conflict between Genghis Khan’s first and second born kin after he declares the third son to be his successor, and finally the strategic taking of the enemy city. I felt that the conflict with Wayan Hooglie’s was just rushed and wrapped up, that he was just captured and tied in a sack, then offered to Genghis for execution. I thought there should have been more of a fight or something. But for his strategic success, Gou receives one favor from the Khan which he plans to use to break off the marriage, but instead after seeing the Mongols massacre the city of the Arab allies of the Sixth Prince, goes by his conscience to do the right thing and to use the favor to put a stop to the slaughter, to the blood lusted anger of the Khan.
There are some cool unique settings that expand on the world. I like the broken mountain sky bridge that leads to King Duan, and here I like the frozen castle that’s colorfully lit up on top of the ice peak where Guo climbs up to meet Lotus. Also, the slaughtering of goats and using their bloody shanks as a ladder is morbidly clever.
I like how Guo has a period where he regrets learning any martial arts (I forgot the reason for this maybe because he thought he lost Lotus) Or because his martial arts brought destruction or that in general that he’s seen the destruction it brought.
Finally, the fight competition at Mount Hua at the end. This seemed sort of brief compared to everything else. There was a lot going on already, so this was kind of a letdown…Guo fights Apothecary and Count Seven and bests them both if I remember, but they all lose to Viper who does all this weird funny shit that Lotus lies to him about being moves in the Nine Yin Manual. I did like that Viper goes insane in the end. I think it’s a fitting close for his story. Since they tried to kill him so many times and failed, he survived drowning in water, in sand, being frozen in ice, almost drowns in a swamp in the wasteland if not for Guo saving him, shot with arrows from the Mongol army as he handglides from the frozen peak. Killing him would be unsatisfying since why didn’t they just kill him at the hundreds of opportunities before? Instead, Viper wanted to learn the mysteries of the Nine Yin Manual and be the greatest martial arts master. Well, he achieves the greatest part, but under the cost of his sanity. The greatest rival to himself was…himself, and he spends the rest of his life chasing his shadow.
The ending is fitting, Guo and Lotus live happily ever in the aftermath of the conquest, but it seems overshadowed a bit by Genghis Khan and Guo trying to convince him no to continue his path to be remembered as a hero rather than a brutal warlord. Since Genghis Khan has been there from the beginning, his death puts an end to the larger conflict.
Some criticisms I have though
So, we find out Viper Ouyang along with the Prince was behind the deaths of the Six Freaks. I knew it was going to be Viper the moment the scene unfolded and never suspected Huang of a moment. And I think that this was a missed opportunity. Maybe it’d be out of character, maybe not, but I wished it was Apothecary who was behind the murder. It would make things complicated; Guo loves Lotus but now is at conflict because he hates and wants to kill her father (and hurt her), Lotus loves him, but must protect her father even if it means harming Guo. It would also be the tragic consequence of a sort of revenge for the death of Huang’s student and would follow through on his threat. Finally, it wouldn’t be the obvious Viper is behind everything that is bad that happens.
Guo using General Yu’s manual and knowledge. Its great that Guo is more proactive in this instead of just Lotus doing everything, but I feel it goes against his character. He’s supposed to be this dumbass who succeeds because he works hard, but now all of a sudden, he understands the general strategy and becomes like this military genius who can stop the feud between the Khan children, as well as run successful campaigns and finally, siege a city. Seemed out of character, it should have been the Khan who learned the manual.
Characters just show up, enter scene, and exit at will. Its never really stated how they got there just in the nick of time, they kind of conveniently show up at times. This is an issue I had with the series as a whole. It didn’t break the story for me, it was just sort of a wha? for me. Like at one point suddenly Count Seven Hong and Zhou Botang just show up, like how’d they get there?
(hide spoiler)]
Ok this is a long review, but I’m so glad that the story got back on track in a big and satisfying end. Madam Ying and King Duan’s chapter would have to be my favorite, an incredibly strong start to the novel, then it maintains its energy from there and continually surprises. I loved being in this world and these characters grew on me, even the ones who kind of annoyed me at times, grew on me. I enjoyed it greatly and will have to come back to more tales of the Condor Heroes in the future. ...more
Excellent novel and final chapter to the series. Refreshing after the meandering of the middle chapters to have it get back to what I A HEART DIVIDED
Excellent novel and final chapter to the series. Refreshing after the meandering of the middle chapters to have it get back to what I loved about A Hero Born.
Wow! After liking but not loving ‘A Bond Undone� and being disappointed and annoyed by ‘A Snake Lies Hidden, I’m so glad that Jin Yong is back here in full form with ‘A Heart Divided�. I loved this, and I usually despise love stories or romance taking center stage in a book, but this was so engaging with a massive backdrop, and different types of things happening. What I mean by that is, yes, there is the martial arts you expect from this series but there’s so much more. I’m going from memory so I might get some names, things wrong.
(view spoiler)[
I guess this story can be split up into four parts
1. The Madam Ying plot
2. Peach Blossom murder
3. The Mongols invading Song, Jin empire as well
4. The Challenge of Mount Hua and Aftermath
There are new characters introduced right off the bat, Madam Ying, a sort of swamp witch who takes in Guo and Lotus and whose backstory and motives are really interesting. Madam Ying had an illegitimate son (from an affair with Zhong Botong) who was poisoned by the monk Qui Chijing?, and her husband the King sort of just let it happen. She plans to use Guo in her revenge as he must take Lotus to the mountain to meet one of the five Greats, a retired King Duan for healing her wounds from the Iron Palm. That encounter with Duan, his four (or five) subjects are interesting, how one is like the fisher man, the farmer I think? They serve as trials in the path before Guo and Lotus can meet the master, but also have their own personalities and devotion to their king.
The second part happens when Gou and Lotus return to Peach Blossom Island and find out something horrible has happened and (this is all spoiler territory). Guo finds the Six Freaks dead minus one who escaped, killed by who he by the evidence of the murder scene, deduces that is Lotus� father Apothecary Huang. The deaths of the Freaks shocked me, even though it was foreshadowed, I didn’t see it coming. I assumed if the confrontation happened, there’d be a fight, it’d be a big misunderstanding, everyone would be friends and hug, and that’s it.
No.
It does lead to a great confrontation between Apothecary and the monks with the surviving blind Freak (sorry bad at remembering all the names). And some good fights.
Yang’s death surprised me as well. I expected a fight between him and Guo or that he’d give up his struggle for power and see the light, but he just gets poisoned and dies with the birds pecking at his corpse. It was gruesome, but I guess fitting, because he killed Viper’s nephew Gallant, or we find out his son?
The third half is the Mongol invasion, the return of Genghis Khan and his family, Gou having to decide between honoring his promise to Khojin, but in love with Lotus. A part of it is chasing Viper Ouyang to find Lotus, setting traps for him in the camp to get information from him, and another plot is the conflict between Genghis Khan’s first and second born kin after he declares the third son to be his successor, and finally the strategic taking of the enemy city. I felt that the conflict with Wayan Hooglie’s was just rushed and wrapped up, that he was just captured and tied in a sack, then offered to Genghis for execution. I thought there should have been more of a fight or something. But for his strategic success, Gou receives one favor from the Khan which he plans to use to break off the marriage, but instead after seeing the Mongols massacre the city of the Arab allies of the Sixth Prince, goes by his conscience to do the right thing and to use the favor to put a stop to the slaughter, to the blood lusted anger of the Khan.
There are some cool unique settings that expand on the world. I like the broken mountain sky bridge that leads to King Duan, and here I like the frozen castle that’s colorfully lit up on top of the ice peak where Guo climbs up to meet Lotus. Also, the slaughtering of goats and using their bloody shanks as a ladder is morbidly clever.
I like how Guo has a period where he regrets learning any martial arts (I forgot the reason for this maybe because he thought he lost Lotus) Or because his martial arts brought destruction or that in general that he’s seen the destruction it brought.
Finally, the fight competition at Mount Hua at the end. This seemed sort of brief compared to everything else. There was a lot going on already, so this was kind of a letdown…Guo fights Apothecary and Count Seven and bests them both if I remember, but they all lose to Viper who does all this weird funny shit that Lotus lies to him about being moves in the Nine Yin Manual. I did like that Viper goes insane in the end. I think it’s a fitting close for his story. Since they tried to kill him so many times and failed, he survived drowning in water, in sand, being frozen in ice, almost drowns in a swamp in the wasteland if not for Guo saving him, shot with arrows from the Mongol army as he handglides from the frozen peak. Killing him would be unsatisfying since why didn’t they just kill him at the hundreds of opportunities before? Instead, Viper wanted to learn the mysteries of the Nine Yin Manual and be the greatest martial arts master. Well, he achieves the greatest part, but under the cost of his sanity. The greatest rival to himself was…himself, and he spends the rest of his life chasing his shadow.
The ending is fitting, Guo and Lotus live happily ever in the aftermath of the conquest, but it seems overshadowed a bit by Genghis Khan and Guo trying to convince him no to continue his path to be remembered as a hero rather than a brutal warlord. Since Genghis Khan has been there from the beginning, his death puts an end to the larger conflict.
Some criticisms I have though
So, we find out Viper Ouyang along with the Prince was behind the deaths of the Six Freaks. I knew it was going to be Viper the moment the scene unfolded and never suspected Huang of a moment. And I think that this was a missed opportunity. Maybe it’d be out of character, maybe not, but I wished it was Apothecary who was behind the murder. It would make things complicated; Guo loves Lotus but now is at conflict because he hates and wants to kill her father (and hurt her), Lotus loves him, but must protect her father even if it means harming Guo. It would also be the tragic consequence of a sort of revenge for the death of Huang’s student and would follow through on his threat. Finally, it wouldn’t be the obvious Viper is behind everything that is bad that happens.
Guo using General Yu’s manual and knowledge. Its great that Guo is more proactive in this instead of just Lotus doing everything, but I feel it goes against his character. He’s supposed to be this dumbass who succeeds because he works hard, but now all of a sudden, he understands the general strategy and becomes like this military genius who can stop the feud between the Khan children, as well as run successful campaigns and finally, siege a city. Seemed out of character, it should have been the Khan who learned the manual.
Characters just show up, enter scene, and exit at will. Its never really stated how they got there just in the nick of time, they kind of conveniently show up at times. This is an issue I had with the series as a whole. It didn’t break the story for me, it was just sort of a wha? for me. Like at one point suddenly Count Seven Hong and Zhou Botang just show up, like how’d they get there?
(hide spoiler)]
Ok this is a long review, but I’m so glad that the story got back on track in a big and satisfying end. Madam Ying and King Duan’s chapter would have to be my favorite, an incredibly strong start to the novel, then it maintains its energy from there and continually surprises. I loved being in this world and these characters grew on me, even the ones who kind of annoyed me at times, grew on me. I enjoyed it greatly and will have to come back to more tales of the Condor Heroes in the future. ...more
Notes are private!
1
Dec 10, 2021
Dec 24, 2021
Dec 10, 2021
Paperback
0857054627
9780857054623
0857054627
4.29
1,358
1957
Feb 06, 2020
liked it
Meandering goofy first half, where is the plot?, then sort of redeems itself near the end
Sigh. I don't know about this third novel. It's...a disap
Meandering goofy first half, where is the plot?, then sort of redeems itself near the end
Sigh. I don't know about this third novel. It's...a disappointment. I don't understand, the first one was so masterful, the right balance of action, drama, humor intrigue, everything. Then the second was really good. It feels like it's just sort of gone downhill from there. Where to begin?
(view spoiler)[
This first part, god it was annoying. We were left with all the characters voyaging off Peach Blossom Island from the last novel. There's a battle happens on the ship I don't remember why, and they get stranded on another island. Then the villains are like...Spare us! Don't spare us! We're going to trick you and steal the manual. No were going to be good. Haha just kidding we're bad. I want the Nin Yin Manual, nah never mind I don't care about it, nope now I want it again. That's what reading this seemed like.
I don't know why were on the island or these ships or whatever, but all the time I read I just wanted everyone to sail back to the mainland so the plot can continue. I mean this all just seemed like a huge waste of time.
I don't remember how Lotus does it but I think she uses kung fu to loosen the base of the raft that Viper and his nephew escape the island on. Then later when she and Guo come across their wrecked raft, and them drowning in the sea, she CHOOSES to save them. WTF? They're basically the most dangerous enemies in the novel, why not just let them drown? It makes no sense.
Gallant Ouyang tries to rape both Lotus, and then Mercy later on in the novel, but here gets his legs broken and is submerged underwater at one point with only a straw for air, whilst the others try to save him from drowning with this rope pully system (I did like the creativity of that) but again, if he's this awful, why save him to begin with?
Piss and shit jokes. Now I don't mind piss and shit jokes in a story but it's how they're done here that bothers me. Viper Ouyang I assume, is the main villain of not only this chapter but for the series. At this point he's made out to be anyway. It takes all the menace out of him when he's the butt of this kind of humor. At one point he eats meat that's been pissed on after Lotus pulls a prank on him.
I understand it works with Qui Quiran, the iron palm dude, because he comes across as a scam artist type character, but why Viper Ouyang? Am I supposed to be afraid of him now and his Exploding Toad kung fu, when he's constantly made a mockery of? It's like if you introduced Darth Vader in the original (the only good) Star Wars movies, then later make all these piss and shit jokes with him.
Lotus. I despise this character now. She goes from "can do anything" basically superwoman now she's a homicidal maniac who wants characters dead. She wants this seemingly retarded girl who might be faking it dead. That girl is the daughter of a kung fu master that Apothecary Huang taught whose now dead and his skeleton remains in a storeroom.
I don't' know this story seems a mess now. It gets back on track when everyone is looking for General Yue Feis secret texts because it's the key to winning the battle for the Jin empire and those on the Song's side want to keep it safe. Some scenes are cool, attacking through the waterfall in the cave. I did like the last act with the Beggar Clan and learning about the Washed vs the Unwashed and the politics of that situation, that's an interesting bit of lore.
Overall, I don't know. This novel has some good fights, but it just seems like the story meanders, it's confusing, characters just 'show up' basically out of nowhere 'plot convenience'. Apothecary Huang wants to kill the Six Freaks because he thinks there responsible for his daughter's death. The Mongolian clan comes back and Guo is caught in a triangle on which girl to marry. I dunno, it's fun to read as an adventure. (hide spoiler)]
I just expected more given how the first book was so excellent. I'm going to see how it ends but, yeah disappointing.
...more
Notes are private!
1
Dec 03, 2021
Dec 10, 2021
Dec 03, 2021
Paperback
0898048427
9780898048421
0898048427
3.28
1,831
1906
Jun 2002
liked it
Ok so this one’s very interesting, but I had problems with the execution. I’ll try to describe it as best I can.
The main character is a young man Ok so this one’s very interesting, but I had problems with the execution. I’ll try to describe it as best I can.
The main character is a young man who grows up an intellectual with his friends in a small township, lives with his mom. This guy is kind of a douche, who thinks himself intellectually superior, though he is, flaunts it around by arguing with his mom, his girl, his friends, his professors constantly demeaning and belittling their beliefs while exalting his own as the best ones. He professes his love for a girl who ends up being a free spirit who runs away from home with a capitalist. The main character is a socialist, due to introduction of literature to it by his friend. In the meantime, there’s a green comet in the sky that everyone but him wonders about.
So, this guy goes crazy over this girl because she leaves him for another ‘better� man. He goes to a pawn shop, purchases a gun, and goes cross country on a mission to murder them both. All this is over a Final Fantasy 7 style comet (meteor, yes but it’s a comet first, right? before it enters the atmosphere and becomes a meteor or something like that) that his scientist friend is fascinated and concerned about but that [ ] doesn’t give two shits about. [ ] is enraged, most of the time at his lover and her new boyfriend/husband, most of the time at the ruling class and industry crushing the working class. So, when the comet finally strikes, he’s amid killing them both, misses, and then we get ‘The World After the Big Event�.
(view spoiler)[
The comets effect is that it produces a green fog which sort of ‘chills� everyone out. By that I mean humanity forgets the conflicts, the anger, the old wounds, and becomes more forgiving, more empathetic towards each other, particularly the main character. This doesn’t however seem to affect the upper ruling class, the elite politicians, who go on with their shady dealings and false empty promises and industry business as usual.
I must admit, I’m not the person who can analyze this work. A lot of it seems like political diatribes. For a revenge story set in the backdrop of this world changing event, it has a massive feel to it (ha I avoided using the e word) And two elements of this, man’s quest for revenge, and the world changing comet I have to say is a cool unique concept. I think I didn’t care too much for the execution, trying to understand it more, I went back and read the forward saying that this was one of the books that H.G Wells had written after shifting away from his science fiction romantic ideas and more into his political beliefs, and it shows here. I feel like this is more a series of ideas or essays on…socialism? The condition of the worker in industry. Again, I don’t know, and to the ending.
The ending is sort of polyamory for women. Nettie’s right not to have to choose to be with a single man, but can have multiple lovers, which the man in the tower says will bring about a new day or considering the comet’s enlightenment or whatever. It was confusing. I don’t know what this stuff had to do with any of the other stuff. This to me is one of Wells� is more puzzling works in terms of themes. The comet is some literal realization from above that smacks into humankind to lead better more compassionate and lives with love.
(hide spoiler)]
I can’t tie together what it all means revenge, socialism, the right to choose love, dismantling of industry. I liked the story, but this was a more tedious read I was in the end bored by.
...more
The main character is a young man Ok so this one’s very interesting, but I had problems with the execution. I’ll try to describe it as best I can.
The main character is a young man who grows up an intellectual with his friends in a small township, lives with his mom. This guy is kind of a douche, who thinks himself intellectually superior, though he is, flaunts it around by arguing with his mom, his girl, his friends, his professors constantly demeaning and belittling their beliefs while exalting his own as the best ones. He professes his love for a girl who ends up being a free spirit who runs away from home with a capitalist. The main character is a socialist, due to introduction of literature to it by his friend. In the meantime, there’s a green comet in the sky that everyone but him wonders about.
So, this guy goes crazy over this girl because she leaves him for another ‘better� man. He goes to a pawn shop, purchases a gun, and goes cross country on a mission to murder them both. All this is over a Final Fantasy 7 style comet (meteor, yes but it’s a comet first, right? before it enters the atmosphere and becomes a meteor or something like that) that his scientist friend is fascinated and concerned about but that [ ] doesn’t give two shits about. [ ] is enraged, most of the time at his lover and her new boyfriend/husband, most of the time at the ruling class and industry crushing the working class. So, when the comet finally strikes, he’s amid killing them both, misses, and then we get ‘The World After the Big Event�.
(view spoiler)[
The comets effect is that it produces a green fog which sort of ‘chills� everyone out. By that I mean humanity forgets the conflicts, the anger, the old wounds, and becomes more forgiving, more empathetic towards each other, particularly the main character. This doesn’t however seem to affect the upper ruling class, the elite politicians, who go on with their shady dealings and false empty promises and industry business as usual.
I must admit, I’m not the person who can analyze this work. A lot of it seems like political diatribes. For a revenge story set in the backdrop of this world changing event, it has a massive feel to it (ha I avoided using the e word) And two elements of this, man’s quest for revenge, and the world changing comet I have to say is a cool unique concept. I think I didn’t care too much for the execution, trying to understand it more, I went back and read the forward saying that this was one of the books that H.G Wells had written after shifting away from his science fiction romantic ideas and more into his political beliefs, and it shows here. I feel like this is more a series of ideas or essays on…socialism? The condition of the worker in industry. Again, I don’t know, and to the ending.
The ending is sort of polyamory for women. Nettie’s right not to have to choose to be with a single man, but can have multiple lovers, which the man in the tower says will bring about a new day or considering the comet’s enlightenment or whatever. It was confusing. I don’t know what this stuff had to do with any of the other stuff. This to me is one of Wells� is more puzzling works in terms of themes. The comet is some literal realization from above that smacks into humankind to lead better more compassionate and lives with love.
(hide spoiler)]
I can’t tie together what it all means revenge, socialism, the right to choose love, dismantling of industry. I liked the story, but this was a more tedious read I was in the end bored by.
...more
Notes are private!
1
Oct 21, 2021
Oct 23, 2021
Oct 21, 2021
Paperback
1570020159
9781570020155
1570020159
3.43
5,187
1904
1903
really liked it
This was one of the stories that I read after the more well-known ones, and I don’t know what to make of it. I suppose this is HG Wells comedy story?
This was one of the stories that I read after the more well-known ones, and I don’t know what to make of it. I suppose this is HG Wells comedy story? It doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously at points. So what happens are these two scientists Redwood and Bennington I think are their names, who invent this ‘food� that when consumed by living things, causes those things to grow.
(view spoiler)[
Then the story shifts to the doctor’s infant son that he gives this ‘food� too, and how his growth spurt affects him and the community around him. So the story shifts to the son Caddles and his attempt to lead a normal life as a giant infant. There’s an attempt by the local churches vicar to instill such a religious fear into him as to make him do no wrong, but Caddles is prone to some mischief, being a thief. He’s amongst several main human test subjects given the food, including three brothers, and a princess the daughter of a duchess as we find out.
The three brothers grow up as giants and build a home for them on the testing site the food was first created in (I think). There is the giant’s home and base of operation that reminded me of ‘Orthanc� or of Mordor or something, because of the ‘machinery� and the huge tower, the dug-up pits. I imagine the air above it all is the smog of industry.
But realizing their compassion for the normal people, the giant brothers decide not to waste their ‘giantness� on being selfish or destructive, and instead to help them out the best they can. One funny scene is them wanting to build a more efficient roadway system and the beauracracy of British township putting a stop to them every step of the way. That’s why this is more meant to be a comedy. That and the idea of giant infants and trying to make a nursery with enough things to keep the kid from being bored.
There’s a hate group that’s formed by a religious leader or uses his power to invoke a religious like fervor amongst his followers who goes by the name of ‘Jack the Giant Killer�. He professes that the giants will spell and end to British Society, or any society and seeks to have them hunted down and destroyed.
(hide spoiler)]
There’s a love story also, and by the end the characters need to decide what is to be done. It’s a more serious and bleak ending in a way despite all the comedy that came before it. I really don’t know what to make of this story. There are giant roosters, rats, and wasps, amongst other things, and a lot of it is people reacting and finding these creatures in their backyard and getting bitten or mauled. It’s funny, interesting, and full of ideas as all of Wells� stories seem to be.
Really liked this one.
...more
Notes are private!
1
Oct 20, 2021
Oct 21, 2021
Oct 20, 2021
Paperback
0141441089
9780141441085
0141441089
3.66
17,902
Jan 01, 1901
Sep 27, 2005
it was amazing
So first off, this is old science fiction before all our current data on space travel and the universe and stuff. Just ignore the fact that the sphere
So first off, this is old science fiction before all our current data on space travel and the universe and stuff. Just ignore the fact that the sphere craft run by a mysterious invented force is not feasible it could be a rocket ship or whatever, but it just so that the character of Cavor can invent it and get the plot going. The other character, I forgot his name, is not a scientist but a playwright, so how he is immediately able to get close to Cavor's level of understanding is a suspension of disbelief.
Also.
Disregard it’s the moon and just think of it as an alien planet. It doesn’t apply to many real moon laws, (like Burroughs version of Mars). Because the world here is fantastic. I love the Selenites as an alien race and learning about their communities and hierarchies, their culture, their environment, their beliefs. Wells goes so much in depth here by the accounts of Cavor reports, it feels like I’m immersed in this world and society, rather than just on the sidelines reading about it. Only few worlds in this type of planetary sci-fi, (in this case it’s a moon but same concept), like Dune. I love the different types of Selenites, the creatures like moon insect-bovines, the weird phosphorescent fungi that acts like lights.
I won’t spoil much, except they lose their ship, get captured (sort of) and then well things go bad, and it’s one you must read and experience.
(view spoiler)[
The ending was a complete shock to me. I had a feeling that Cavor would be stuck in the moon after being abandoned by the playwright. But I had no idea that his fate would be sealed. It fits his character though, highly intelligent but a dummy when it came to common sense. I was shocked, I wasn’t expecting the playwright to just abandon Cavor, I thought the two of them would make it back. It was an interesting twist and even more shocking a twist that it ends on a note where you aren’t sure what happens to him, though its heavily implied that he is killed.
(hide spoiler)]
This story poses a lot of interesting ideas too, colonization, the idea of a civilization that’s based on conquest and war to one who doesn’t understand why it’s necessary to be done, xenophobia.
This is an awesome story. ...more
Also.
Disregard it’s the moon and just think of it as an alien planet. It doesn’t apply to many real moon laws, (like Burroughs version of Mars). Because the world here is fantastic. I love the Selenites as an alien race and learning about their communities and hierarchies, their culture, their environment, their beliefs. Wells goes so much in depth here by the accounts of Cavor reports, it feels like I’m immersed in this world and society, rather than just on the sidelines reading about it. Only few worlds in this type of planetary sci-fi, (in this case it’s a moon but same concept), like Dune. I love the different types of Selenites, the creatures like moon insect-bovines, the weird phosphorescent fungi that acts like lights.
I won’t spoil much, except they lose their ship, get captured (sort of) and then well things go bad, and it’s one you must read and experience.
(view spoiler)[
The ending was a complete shock to me. I had a feeling that Cavor would be stuck in the moon after being abandoned by the playwright. But I had no idea that his fate would be sealed. It fits his character though, highly intelligent but a dummy when it came to common sense. I was shocked, I wasn’t expecting the playwright to just abandon Cavor, I thought the two of them would make it back. It was an interesting twist and even more shocking a twist that it ends on a note where you aren’t sure what happens to him, though its heavily implied that he is killed.
(hide spoiler)]
This story poses a lot of interesting ideas too, colonization, the idea of a civilization that’s based on conquest and war to one who doesn’t understand why it’s necessary to be done, xenophobia.
This is an awesome story. ...more
Notes are private!
1
Oct 17, 2021
Oct 20, 2021
Oct 17, 2021
Paperback
3.89
548,159
1895
Oct 01, 2002
really liked it
The Time Machine is a story of an inventor who’s amongst his friends of scientists, doctors, and the like, trying to convince them of the possibilit
The Time Machine is a story of an inventor who’s amongst his friends of scientists, doctors, and the like, trying to convince them of the possibility of time travel which they’re skeptical of. He’s built a miniature small-time machine which he shows, and then to a working model. The time machine is built, a chair the time traveler sits in, and on the sides has two levers, one that moves forward through years of time when pulled, the other when pulled moves backwards through years. So, the time traveler decides to go forward, thousands of years into the future.
(view spoiler)[
He ends up far into the future where he comes across the human civilization known as the Eloi. They are beautiful but essentially children mentally, where their environment has been rid of disease, strife, wars, and other conflict that they essentially have no room to grow and evolve further and have descended into a kind of a physical and intellectual laziness (i.e., sit around eating fruit all day, lounging about not working or caring about much whilst everything humans built essentially decays and goes to rot around them). It’s an Eden like paradise at first until the time traveler realizes of the actual danger.
There is another race of people deep underground known as the Morlocks. They are ugly, brutish, and violent, but industrious and through the machines of production enable the Eloi to live their paradise like existence. Wells� theme here, I think, is two. One is that a utopia like environment breeds apathy and stops progress dead, humans need strife and something to strive against, motivation. The other is that the upper-class Eloi are profiting off the of the hard labor and suffering of the Morlocks who are doing all the work and Eloi are reaping the benefits. Except the Eloi are so deadened, they are like cattle for the Morlocks to feast upon.
I like the story and the points that Wells is trying to make. The short of it is the inventor travels back in time, meets an Eloi woman, loses the time machine, ends up in the Morlock undergrounds where he fights against them, finds the time machine again and ends up back in his time, only at the end to have taken the machine on another run, which is what I remembered. This story no doubt influenced all modern time travel stories, ‘Back to the Future� with the comes to mind but uses a car instead of a chair. I really like this story, it holds up, but I realize it’s one of the first of its kind, and for me there are more interesting time travel stories/ time paradoxes that came after.
(hide spoiler)]
My favorite all-time favorite time travel story is Chrono Trigger. Donny Darko, and Back to the Future are my other favorites, I guess Terminator would be on that list. So, a big appreciation to Wells for his influence on the genre and making those possible. I didn’t find myself as blown away by it as ‘WOTW�, First Men in the Moon, or the Invisible Man, but I really liked. The classic movie made from it is also pretty good.
...more
Notes are private!
2
not set
not set
not set
not set
Oct 17, 2021
Paperback
0375759239
9780375759239
0375759239
3.83
336,380
1898
Mar 12, 2002
it was amazing
My favorite story of H.G Wells which I’ve read so far or at least tied with First Men on the Moon. I like them for very different reasons. Then thir
My favorite story of H.G Wells which I’ve read so far or at least tied with First Men on the Moon. I like them for very different reasons. Then thirdly followed by the Invisible Man. His work is so diverse, more so than say HP Lovecraft, who I really like and whose names I confuse in my mind when bringing up Wells. But a lot of Lovecraft’s stories seem to stay to the theme of cosmic horror and unknown, a lot of groups of explorers descend in a mysterious abandoned place and meet something terrifying. So, H.G Wells might be my favorite of the classic sci-fi authors, I couldn’t get into Jules Verne’s work.
‘War of the Worlds� follows a narrator, I don’t think his name is mentioned or I forgot it, who finds himself in midst of an alien invasion on Earth. The story takes place in the late 1800’s maybe even in early 1900s England, I’m not familiar with the era so some things confused me, motorcars were early automobiles, or the name for horse and carriages? I don’t think the automobile was widely available until after the book was written but I could be wrong. So the news that runs is that these strange cylinders have arrived and placed themselves amongst various fields where the public gather around to see them. And then shit goes south quick.
(view spoiler)[
I love the description of the cylinders that land first, and from them we get the tripods? Or do they help in construction of the tripods, I forget? But then we have tripods. They tower over London’s buildings and the cities of England burning everything to ash and flame with their ‘Heat Rays�, and poisoning things with this weird sort of black gas. I remember Roger Ebert criticizing the 2005 movie version of WOTW saying that tripods are not ergonomically, correct? The tripods worked for me picturing them as more flexible, tentacle like rather than mechanical bird like stilts. The aliens are shown as wide v mouthed, large eyed, I think with various limbs and the like. They do extract blood from people, a detail that was in the film, but I don’t think it’s en masse like collecting them and spraying blood as fertilizer across the field, although if I remember a type of ‘human collection device� was mentioned. There is the mysterious red vined growth that is everywhere that I think is referenced in the Spielberg film. I’m using the film as comparison because it was my first exposure to WOTW.
I love how this is an account of the main character trying to move from one place to another, hiding about in ruined basements, battlements, trying to get food from wherever they can find, cupboards and the like. How London migrates in the millions, how people fight over each other in the riots. The narrow escape where the limbs of the Martian war machines just go by them.
The ending is famously known. The aliens succumb to viruses and microorganisms of earth and not do the machine gun and rifle fire of the battalions and fighting men, one tripod is taken out beforehand though which was interesting. And that Wells makes the point as best as I can describe it, mankind is not in vain for the dead pass on the immunity to the next generation, and the next.
The main character returns to his house and his study which survives the invasion and reunites with his love.
(hide spoiler)]
This is a dark story, also probably the original invasion disaster story that has been copied many times. I love the griminess, grittiness, sense of urgency of it, how quickly it moves, the imagery, everything makes it a great sci-fi story.
...more
Notes are private!
1
not set
not set
Oct 17, 2021
Paperback
0684830493
9780684830490
0684830493
3.81
1,247,646
Sep 01, 1952
1996
it was amazing
Reading The Old Man and the Sea is part of my effort to read more of Ernest Hemingway’s work. It was two of the other of his major works, the other ‘F
Reading The Old Man and the Sea is part of my effort to read more of Ernest Hemingway’s work. It was two of the other of his major works, the other ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls� that I hadn’t got to, and the ‘First Forty-Nine Stories�. Having read this, it feels as if this is a book for every quiet loner type, and after reading it, I can see why. Not for people who enjoy ‘fakeness� and being ‘fake�, followers of everything and everyone, the ‘too cool for school� crowd.
An old fisherman, who I’m bad with remembering names, so lets just call him ‘The Old Man� is alone except a friendship with a boy who is learning the ropes of the fishing trade. The boy deems the old man unlucky because he doesn’t much of anything and so remains ‘poor�. One day the old man goes out on his skiff to go fishing. You learn a lot more about this man then what I think people perceive as a ‘simpleton� with ill luck. The setup is something like that, I’m writing this from memory.
But to my thoughts on the story.
(view spoiler)[
This was completely unexpected. It’s almost like an action movie, like Jaws. I love how essentially its man against nature, and sort of man against himself at the same time, two of the three major story types.
One interesting thing to note is that there are no chapter breaks in this novel. I think it’s cool how the narrative never gets interrupted, it’s a short novel anyhow.
Several themes come here. ‘Still Water Runs Deep� is a big one. The old man doesn’t say much aloud, but his mind is an endless conversation on deep topics of love, survival, purpose, defeat, the sea. Stoicism, a quiet simple living. The old man is not wealthy, extravagant, show offey. He hides his abilities from the world, and is humble about them, so much so the boy considers him unlucky, and others may consider him inept at fishing. He drinks coffee made very simply, eats simple food. But is not in any way simple.
Also, competence is another theme. The old man knows his craft and knows it WELL, better than most. He describes parts of the boat, the ocean, the movements, patterns, and behaviors of the sea life, the different ‘textures� I guess is the word? of the water, the line and bait he uses.
I had no idea that after he caught the dolphin what trouble it’d be for him on the voyage back. He must defend it against invaders. There’s a theme of dog eat dog, or in this case fish eat fish, fending for survival against other creatures. The nature of the food chain, but even more when one obtains something, food, wealth, resources, they are attacked by others who want to pray on him, take it away, symbolizing by each creature taking their part or share of the dolphin, piece by piece until there’s nothing, if barely anything left for the one who originally had it.
The old man fights sharks in harrowing scenes of trying to bludgeon them, beat them with a harpoon. He hides his pain. He is in a lot of pain, both physical and mental. Again, his stoic nature, his ability to endure, his intelligence, and his competence. He is a ‘man’s man� so to speak.
(hide spoiler)]
I’ve read the critics who say this is Hemmingway’s greatest work. I think my favorite story would still have to be ‘A Farewell to Arms�. I have still to read ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls.� though. But this is outstanding. ...more
An old fisherman, who I’m bad with remembering names, so lets just call him ‘The Old Man� is alone except a friendship with a boy who is learning the ropes of the fishing trade. The boy deems the old man unlucky because he doesn’t much of anything and so remains ‘poor�. One day the old man goes out on his skiff to go fishing. You learn a lot more about this man then what I think people perceive as a ‘simpleton� with ill luck. The setup is something like that, I’m writing this from memory.
But to my thoughts on the story.
(view spoiler)[
This was completely unexpected. It’s almost like an action movie, like Jaws. I love how essentially its man against nature, and sort of man against himself at the same time, two of the three major story types.
One interesting thing to note is that there are no chapter breaks in this novel. I think it’s cool how the narrative never gets interrupted, it’s a short novel anyhow.
Several themes come here. ‘Still Water Runs Deep� is a big one. The old man doesn’t say much aloud, but his mind is an endless conversation on deep topics of love, survival, purpose, defeat, the sea. Stoicism, a quiet simple living. The old man is not wealthy, extravagant, show offey. He hides his abilities from the world, and is humble about them, so much so the boy considers him unlucky, and others may consider him inept at fishing. He drinks coffee made very simply, eats simple food. But is not in any way simple.
Also, competence is another theme. The old man knows his craft and knows it WELL, better than most. He describes parts of the boat, the ocean, the movements, patterns, and behaviors of the sea life, the different ‘textures� I guess is the word? of the water, the line and bait he uses.
I had no idea that after he caught the dolphin what trouble it’d be for him on the voyage back. He must defend it against invaders. There’s a theme of dog eat dog, or in this case fish eat fish, fending for survival against other creatures. The nature of the food chain, but even more when one obtains something, food, wealth, resources, they are attacked by others who want to pray on him, take it away, symbolizing by each creature taking their part or share of the dolphin, piece by piece until there’s nothing, if barely anything left for the one who originally had it.
The old man fights sharks in harrowing scenes of trying to bludgeon them, beat them with a harpoon. He hides his pain. He is in a lot of pain, both physical and mental. Again, his stoic nature, his ability to endure, his intelligence, and his competence. He is a ‘man’s man� so to speak.
(hide spoiler)]
I’ve read the critics who say this is Hemmingway’s greatest work. I think my favorite story would still have to be ‘A Farewell to Arms�. I have still to read ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls.� though. But this is outstanding. ...more
Notes are private!
1
Oct 15, 2021
Oct 15, 2021
Oct 15, 2021
Hardcover
0831727527
9780831727529
0831727527
3.58
172,823
1992
Jan 01, 1994
it was amazing
Effective but Disturbing, Very Uncomfortable Read with a Head Scratching last 30 or so pages
So this is Gerald's Game, the second of the two of th Effective but Disturbing, Very Uncomfortable Read with a Head Scratching last 30 or so pages
So this is Gerald's Game, the second of the two of the King books my brother got me, the first being the godawful boring slog 'The Dark Half'. With Geralds Game however and Stephen King delivers a truly horrifying disturbing, unexpecting tale.
Unexpecting? I thought it was going to be a married couples kinky sex games with horror elements, something along the lines of a couple bringing in victims to join their sex play and then murder them. Sounds maybe B movie cheesy. Thankfully its better than that. A lot better.
The novel starts in a Maine summerhouse where a lawyer and his wife are engaged in kink, and the wife is handcuffed to the bed. The husband is into it and the wife is bored and disgusted and wants to be freed. Spoilers from here.
(view spoiler)[
So the game is basically Gerald handcuffing his wife to the bed and being dominant. The wife Jessie refuses again and again but the husband, Gerald, a lawyer who interprets it as his wife just playing and insists on going forward due to being a control freak. Before he can take advantage of her, she kicks him hard in the balls at the same time he gets a heart attack (whether by the kick, or a combination of that plus years of a bad lifestyle) and drops dead. Right off the bat, a main character bites the dust. Gerald is dead. But not gone. He's still in the story, In a manner of speaking. "Not in the sense you mean" to quote Anton Chigurh. And his wife Jessie is alone handcuffed to the bedposts unable to move her arms and free herself. So she's stuck, alone with only the call of the loons in the lake, and the chain sawing of a lumberjack in the forest who has no idea she's there. No one can help her. Gerald's body is bloody. Nightfall arrives and a dog wanders in the house from outside. A starving dog.
And yeah, what you think happens, happens.
Jessie is basically trapped. The story takes place in the bedroom, and in Jessies head and childhood memories, and won't spoil where it goes from there. She hears multiple voices of her friends, family, and herself from her past. And that's the most important and crucial part of this story. Her past. And this is where we get to the most uncomfortable.
The middle chapters of the book is Jessie recalling the events of 'that day'. King describes this in its most horrifying, disgusting detail. I was reading Gerald's Game in a public place, and had to stop time and time again. Super uncomfortable to read, yet its disturbing, and very sad. Jessie's pain and whirlwind of emotions before, during, and after, felt like a very realistic depiction. Yeah, this was a difficult read.
Jessie has only her wits and her sanity to keep her alive. Which becomes even more complicated as she's visited by a strange shadowy figure who stands in the corner of the room observing her. Who is this man, or is there even any one actually there?
Which brings us to the final parts. There's even more pain when Jessie tries to cut herself to bleed and use her blood to lubricate the cuffs and free her hands. This whole book is like a pain, torture test but not in the mindless Saw or Hostel shock way, but in a realistic way of how someone would try to escape a trap. I felt the pain and shuttered a lot at her skinning her hands in her attempt to remove the cuffs, all the blood loss from the glass and cuts from the broken drinking glass. All the feelings, the loss of blood, lack of energy, dehydrated, what's going through her mind, all the details very effective.
After she escapes, the novel continues to months after when she writes a letter to her college friend Ruth, detailing her experience, her meeting Gerald's law partner who investigates into who the shadowy figure might have been. I feel like this last part was incredibly strange when it suddenly brings in another character Randolph, who is basically all kinds of evil twisted degenerate, mainly a necropheliac collector though. I guess it makes sense, that SK wants to have a character that mirrored Jessie's childhood experiences, but instead of ending up a good, decent, functioning member of society, went completely on the other side of the spectrum. I was confused a bit, because I almost thought that it was her father back from the dead, then some kind of ghoul. But it's just a twisted, very demented man, who she spits in the face of as an outlet for everything she hates about the evil men throughout her life.
I feel like gruesome nature of Randolph takes away from the horror that was previously in the book, it seems so over the top evil. But again, I kind of see the point of it, and giving Jessie's story some kind of closure.
(view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)]
All in all, this is something masterfully done, but something I don't want to experience again. It's like when people say there are certain movies that are masterpieces but are so disturbing or depressing you only want to watch once.
(hide spoiler)] ...more
So this is Gerald's Game, the second of the two of th Effective but Disturbing, Very Uncomfortable Read with a Head Scratching last 30 or so pages
So this is Gerald's Game, the second of the two of the King books my brother got me, the first being the godawful boring slog 'The Dark Half'. With Geralds Game however and Stephen King delivers a truly horrifying disturbing, unexpecting tale.
Unexpecting? I thought it was going to be a married couples kinky sex games with horror elements, something along the lines of a couple bringing in victims to join their sex play and then murder them. Sounds maybe B movie cheesy. Thankfully its better than that. A lot better.
The novel starts in a Maine summerhouse where a lawyer and his wife are engaged in kink, and the wife is handcuffed to the bed. The husband is into it and the wife is bored and disgusted and wants to be freed. Spoilers from here.
(view spoiler)[
So the game is basically Gerald handcuffing his wife to the bed and being dominant. The wife Jessie refuses again and again but the husband, Gerald, a lawyer who interprets it as his wife just playing and insists on going forward due to being a control freak. Before he can take advantage of her, she kicks him hard in the balls at the same time he gets a heart attack (whether by the kick, or a combination of that plus years of a bad lifestyle) and drops dead. Right off the bat, a main character bites the dust. Gerald is dead. But not gone. He's still in the story, In a manner of speaking. "Not in the sense you mean" to quote Anton Chigurh. And his wife Jessie is alone handcuffed to the bedposts unable to move her arms and free herself. So she's stuck, alone with only the call of the loons in the lake, and the chain sawing of a lumberjack in the forest who has no idea she's there. No one can help her. Gerald's body is bloody. Nightfall arrives and a dog wanders in the house from outside. A starving dog.
And yeah, what you think happens, happens.
Jessie is basically trapped. The story takes place in the bedroom, and in Jessies head and childhood memories, and won't spoil where it goes from there. She hears multiple voices of her friends, family, and herself from her past. And that's the most important and crucial part of this story. Her past. And this is where we get to the most uncomfortable.
The middle chapters of the book is Jessie recalling the events of 'that day'. King describes this in its most horrifying, disgusting detail. I was reading Gerald's Game in a public place, and had to stop time and time again. Super uncomfortable to read, yet its disturbing, and very sad. Jessie's pain and whirlwind of emotions before, during, and after, felt like a very realistic depiction. Yeah, this was a difficult read.
Jessie has only her wits and her sanity to keep her alive. Which becomes even more complicated as she's visited by a strange shadowy figure who stands in the corner of the room observing her. Who is this man, or is there even any one actually there?
Which brings us to the final parts. There's even more pain when Jessie tries to cut herself to bleed and use her blood to lubricate the cuffs and free her hands. This whole book is like a pain, torture test but not in the mindless Saw or Hostel shock way, but in a realistic way of how someone would try to escape a trap. I felt the pain and shuttered a lot at her skinning her hands in her attempt to remove the cuffs, all the blood loss from the glass and cuts from the broken drinking glass. All the feelings, the loss of blood, lack of energy, dehydrated, what's going through her mind, all the details very effective.
After she escapes, the novel continues to months after when she writes a letter to her college friend Ruth, detailing her experience, her meeting Gerald's law partner who investigates into who the shadowy figure might have been. I feel like this last part was incredibly strange when it suddenly brings in another character Randolph, who is basically all kinds of evil twisted degenerate, mainly a necropheliac collector though. I guess it makes sense, that SK wants to have a character that mirrored Jessie's childhood experiences, but instead of ending up a good, decent, functioning member of society, went completely on the other side of the spectrum. I was confused a bit, because I almost thought that it was her father back from the dead, then some kind of ghoul. But it's just a twisted, very demented man, who she spits in the face of as an outlet for everything she hates about the evil men throughout her life.
I feel like gruesome nature of Randolph takes away from the horror that was previously in the book, it seems so over the top evil. But again, I kind of see the point of it, and giving Jessie's story some kind of closure.
(view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)]
All in all, this is something masterfully done, but something I don't want to experience again. It's like when people say there are certain movies that are masterpieces but are so disturbing or depressing you only want to watch once.
(hide spoiler)] ...more
Notes are private!
2
not set
not set
not set
not set
Oct 10, 2021
Hardcover
045052468X
9780450524684
045052468X
3.81
148,695
1989
Oct 07, 1990
did not like it
BLOATED AND BORING, when it should have been awesome�
I’m a Stephen King fan like many, mostly for his Dark Tower Series which I consider his greate
BLOATED AND BORING, when it should have been awesome�
I’m a Stephen King fan like many, mostly for his Dark Tower Series which I consider his greatest work, and my second favorite epic fantasy series of all time next to Wheel of Time. I read King in high school and more recently caught up on his early novels. I still have more I want to read from him. My brother got me two of his books, The Dark Half, and Gerald’s Game. I have yet to read Gerald’s Game, but I finished reading The Dark Half.
Sigh. I haven’t read all seventy, or a hundred or however many novels he’s written but I already can tell this is one of his worst novels. Like, it’s BAD. I almost put it down a quarter of the way through. Why is it bad?
Minor spoilers
Two words. BLOATED and BORING. First off, ‘The Dark Half� stars Thad Thaddington, jk its Beaumont, but Thad Thaddington would have been better, starts off with him as a kid who has talent writing, gets a runner up prize in a writing contest. His father is an asshole with no faith in him. He gets writers block and becomes very ill. A doctor finds a weird tumor in his brain, removes it, bam, writer’s block gone, and his life is saved. Fast forward to him as an adult, with a family and a successful career as a fiction author who writes as Thad, and as an alter pen name George Stark i.e., (Stephen King/Richard Bachman).
Except George Stark’s work is vastly more successful than Thad Beaumont’s work. His wife hates and is attracted to his alter ego who is Thad being colder and more distant, and the two of them decided enough is enough so they hold a mock funeral for this pen author George Stark, mock burying him in a cemetery with a fake tombstone and publish the photo and article in People Magazine. They move on and think nothing of it. Then one day a caretaker finds the fake grave has been desecrated and worse something seems to have escaped out of it. Then a series of murders happen to people that Thad knows. Then there are a ton of sparrows that show up via Hitchcock ‘The Birds� style. And so on. Now the major spoilers.
(view spoiler)[
Ok. First, I F’ING HATED every scene with Alan Pangsfield the investigating Sheriff. There is scene after scene of him and Thad and his wife just sitting at the table drinking coffee and talking on the phone and talking, and man is it overwritten. This should have been done ONE time, and then we move on. And its so dull and insipid, we hear every thought of theirs, every stupid joke (people are getting murdered horribly and it’s jokey), just long paragraphs of characters talking to each other. Stephen King references that Agatha Christie books are bullshit when it comes to how actual murders and investigation happens, but his version is equally so. I mean the characters just talk in the driest way possible, insert Liz’s horrified reaction, then go back to uninteresting overly long reference filled dialogue about police procedure and what the killer plans to do. Rinse and repeat. The talking scenes should be a quick back and forth, there’s no reason for them to stretch on and on the way, they do, and we get back into the action.
The stupid follow cops, the annoying professor, the stupid side characters. Seriously these horrible murders and things happen, and the story stops for the most mundane boring minutia. I understand Thad going to the store to purchase things, checking on his professor friend, but again this stuff is long and drawn out. This may be true to life, but it isn’t fun to read about. We don’t care, we just want the back and forth between the main characters and the villain.
It’s overinflated with references. I know his style is known for his pop culture references, but it seems like its too much here. That along with the thoughts every time the character does something, takes a sip of coffee. The introspection isn’t well done, its boring and slows the book down to a halt. Again I almost dropped it because of this.
(hide spoiler)]
The thing is this would have been a great short story, there are parts that are exciting and horrifying, particularly the final act when it comes together. It didn’t need to be a full 400-page whopper, it’s essentially the good guy vs the killer, throw in some evil twin telepathy and supernatural elements, and it could have been a 50-to-100-page short story/novella whatever. More action, less introspection. I usually like/love King, but man this one sucked. I think if you held a gun to my head you couldn't get me to read this again. ...more
Notes are private!
1
Oct 2021
Oct 03, 2021
Oct 01, 2021
Paperback
B005PYJ9S0
3.79
474,625
Oct 22, 1926
1957
it was amazing
Brilliant novel about really shitty, pathetic, ugly American/European types behaving really shitty, pathetic and ugly to each other and to the people
Brilliant novel about really shitty, pathetic, ugly American/European types behaving really shitty, pathetic and ugly to each other and to the people of the countries they consider "lesser" but are happy enough to eat, drink, party with. I don't know if Cohen is supposed to be Hemingway or Jake is, maybe a bit of both, I think he's more so 'Jake who has also experienced the hopelessly pathetic elements of Cohen.' I understand it's the point of showing us the lives of the "The Hopeless Generation" but these characters talking grew weary on me after a while.
They are decent/good people outside the events of this story, it's in the context of this stories events I'm speaking of which they are pretty awful. I'm not even talking about the cheating or the pathetic nature of these men all falling for the one girl, I'm talking about the condescending, at point blatantly racist attitudes.
No one changes or learns anything for the better in the end. It's all just constant excess, spoiled bad behavior because they have money ie Great Gatsby style. However, I get that this is the point, again it starts with a quote saying "You are a lost generation...", and these do feel like these are real people you get to know, just maybe not like all that much. I didn't.
EDIT: I wouldn't put Jake in that first sentence, he's prob the only one you can feel sympathy for, care about. ...more
They are decent/good people outside the events of this story, it's in the context of this stories events I'm speaking of which they are pretty awful. I'm not even talking about the cheating or the pathetic nature of these men all falling for the one girl, I'm talking about the condescending, at point blatantly racist attitudes.
No one changes or learns anything for the better in the end. It's all just constant excess, spoiled bad behavior because they have money ie Great Gatsby style. However, I get that this is the point, again it starts with a quote saying "You are a lost generation...", and these do feel like these are real people you get to know, just maybe not like all that much. I didn't.
EDIT: I wouldn't put Jake in that first sentence, he's prob the only one you can feel sympathy for, care about. ...more
Notes are private!
1
Sep 25, 2021
Sep 26, 2021
Sep 25, 2021
Paperback
1250220688
9781250220684
1250220688
4.36
2,029
1957
Mar 10, 2020
really liked it
A ‘Bond Undone� is the second novel in the ‘Legend of the Condor Heroes Saga�. There are four novels in the translated to English version of the Legen
A ‘Bond Undone� is the second novel in the ‘Legend of the Condor Heroes Saga�. There are four novels in the translated to English version of the Legend series, and these four novels being lengthy, with in depth worldbuilding, a cast of many characters, and supernatural/magic abilities, and were dealing with an epic fantasy, though one set in a mythological version of China and Mongolia.
I thought the first novel ‘A Hero Born� was a masterpiece and easy to see how it’s an instant fantasy classic. ‘A Bond Undone� isn’t quite as strong, in fact I found it meanders a lot, but I’ll get to that. First a quick spoiler filled synopsis from memory.
(view spoiler)[ ‘A Bond Undone� takes place immediately after the first novel where Guo Jing is poisoned or imbued, however you see it, with the red snake venom that the alchemist was counting on for his own immortality. Guo is being chased through the palace by the alchemist and several others, split up from Lotus at this point, where he runs into a dark tunnel and into an even darker figure from the past. This is the return of Cyclone Mei, the one surviving half of the Twin Corpses who is blind and wounded, and apparently hiding within this cave and serving as a seifu to the sixth prince Wayan Yang. Wayan Hooglie is the adopted father to the prince Wayan Yang, whose true parents are Ironheart Yang and Bao. At around the time Guo Jing is dealing with Mei and his pursuers, Ironheart and Bao desperately try to convince their son of the truth. Having failed because Wayan Yang’s refusal to believe he came from meager/humble beginnings and accepted Wayan Hooglie as his father, the two parents commit suicide to avoid being captured and to show their story is the truth and their love for their son.
Further along in the events, Guo and Lotus are still in love, but he’s still promised to Mercy Mu from the ‘win my daughters hand in marriage game� from the first novel, and the girl in the Mongolian steppes (forgot her name) who he was pledged/married to in his youth. Wayan Yang chases Mercy who rejects him again and again. Yang also forms a bond with Guo, but he’s torn between his friendship and allegiance to his stepfather, who promises him power when the Jurchen take over the remaining Song Empire and Mongolian tribes. [Maybe the Bond Undone Part of the Novel]
Later we find out there are five sort of Grandmasters of Kung Fu if I can remember them all, Apothecary Huang and the Venom of the West being two major players, the others the Beggar, The Southern One?, and the Central Divine who is deceased. Lotus and Guo run into the Beggar, who trains Guo in the eighteen ways of his special kung fu in return for Lotus� cooking, though only gets to fifteen of them before they are attacked by armies of snakes�(shudders) by the Venom’s nephew Gallant Oyoung (spelling?). They survive that encounter despite Guo being bitten, his prior venom acts as like an anti-venom. They have various encounters, end up on a pirate run island with the captured Wayan Yang, reunite with the Seven Freaks, and are met by Apothecary Huang. Huang is distraught that Hurricane Chen was defeated by Guo, one who knew the one half of the secrets of the Nine Yin Manual. This manual is the other MAJOR PLOT POINT.
So, the Nine Yin Manual is supposably this manual, split in two volumes that is said to contain the ultimate secrets to gaining the strongest OP kung-fu. The Five Greats competed for it, years ago on a snowy mountain competition. It passed down hand to hand, and there is whole interesting backstory to it, filled with backstabbing and betrayal. Chen and Mei ended up with the second volume, killed a lot of people and a great number of horrible things though their powertripping. Mei feels remorse for it and betraying her seifu.
Apothecary Huang, having Chen his student who he still held dear, defeated, and due to pride of his ‘martial arts line� being tested, challenges Guo only to be stopped by his daughter Lotus. Guo ashamed of disgracing the master, seeks to visit the Peach Blossom Island to accept his death at the hands of Huang. He sails there with Lotus, but instead finds the imprisoned Zhang Botang, an insane hermit who had his legs broken by Huang for some transgression involving the manual or back talk or something, forgot why exactly. Any way before Guo can kowtow to Huang, the Venom arrives with his nephew to seek out Lotus� hand in marriage. Lotus and Guo are promised to each other, so it’s decided by a martial arts competition of three trails for the hand of Lotus. All this while the Masters try to uncover the treachery behind who knows the location and what from the Nine Yin Manual.
(hide spoiler)]
Cool. I was able to summarize it for the most part (pats self on back). Because, man, this can be a tough read, especially when more and more and more kung fu is thrown at you, including the Eight Trigram, and methods of I-Ching, and your brain is supposed to visualize what’s going on with these moves. And that’s the major drawback. There is a lot of awesome plot and story, but it constantly seems like you must wade through chunks of this, whereas the first novel, it seemed more seamless transition from explanations and theory to action. I don’t particularly enjoy reading overly descriptive magic systems or blow by blow fight scenes. I feel like Jin Yong is an exception and he does these well enough to keep them interesting, but even there are times where he doesn’t pull them off, and I slip into boredom reading.
My second problem was the jokiness. Now, I love the character of Zhang Botang. I thought he was interesting, and complex, a prankster who regrets being deceived and had, whose bitter and somewhat out for revenge, and uses Guo in his plot. But even this got carried away. The pranks were childish, and they took a lot of the menace out of a cool antagonist such as the Venom. The Venom and his snake army make a fantastic villain, and I hate snakes, so the descriptions of the herded snake army made my skin crawl. (“Why did it have to be snakes…�) But the last act makes The Venom, and Huang seem like fools. It annoyed me.
The novel ends on another cliffhanger, a cool one, though strange out of nowhere, why would Huang have a deadly ship laying around unless its for people trying to leave the island or something?
EDIT: Also Lotus IS A MARY SUE. Seriously this girl might as well be the Grandmaster of all Grandmaster's and Empress of the World Chosen One.
The main problem I had was after the first book seeming like such a cool epic adventure, this one just doesn’t have as much happening. It’s more of a character study, maybe, but I was hoping for more adventure like the first. It’s very good, mostly saved by the third act, and by interesting new characters such as the Beggar and the Hermit but comes up kind of a weak sequel. I can hope the third one comes back stronger and returns to the sense of grand scope. ...more
I thought the first novel ‘A Hero Born� was a masterpiece and easy to see how it’s an instant fantasy classic. ‘A Bond Undone� isn’t quite as strong, in fact I found it meanders a lot, but I’ll get to that. First a quick spoiler filled synopsis from memory.
(view spoiler)[ ‘A Bond Undone� takes place immediately after the first novel where Guo Jing is poisoned or imbued, however you see it, with the red snake venom that the alchemist was counting on for his own immortality. Guo is being chased through the palace by the alchemist and several others, split up from Lotus at this point, where he runs into a dark tunnel and into an even darker figure from the past. This is the return of Cyclone Mei, the one surviving half of the Twin Corpses who is blind and wounded, and apparently hiding within this cave and serving as a seifu to the sixth prince Wayan Yang. Wayan Hooglie is the adopted father to the prince Wayan Yang, whose true parents are Ironheart Yang and Bao. At around the time Guo Jing is dealing with Mei and his pursuers, Ironheart and Bao desperately try to convince their son of the truth. Having failed because Wayan Yang’s refusal to believe he came from meager/humble beginnings and accepted Wayan Hooglie as his father, the two parents commit suicide to avoid being captured and to show their story is the truth and their love for their son.
Further along in the events, Guo and Lotus are still in love, but he’s still promised to Mercy Mu from the ‘win my daughters hand in marriage game� from the first novel, and the girl in the Mongolian steppes (forgot her name) who he was pledged/married to in his youth. Wayan Yang chases Mercy who rejects him again and again. Yang also forms a bond with Guo, but he’s torn between his friendship and allegiance to his stepfather, who promises him power when the Jurchen take over the remaining Song Empire and Mongolian tribes. [Maybe the Bond Undone Part of the Novel]
Later we find out there are five sort of Grandmasters of Kung Fu if I can remember them all, Apothecary Huang and the Venom of the West being two major players, the others the Beggar, The Southern One?, and the Central Divine who is deceased. Lotus and Guo run into the Beggar, who trains Guo in the eighteen ways of his special kung fu in return for Lotus� cooking, though only gets to fifteen of them before they are attacked by armies of snakes�(shudders) by the Venom’s nephew Gallant Oyoung (spelling?). They survive that encounter despite Guo being bitten, his prior venom acts as like an anti-venom. They have various encounters, end up on a pirate run island with the captured Wayan Yang, reunite with the Seven Freaks, and are met by Apothecary Huang. Huang is distraught that Hurricane Chen was defeated by Guo, one who knew the one half of the secrets of the Nine Yin Manual. This manual is the other MAJOR PLOT POINT.
So, the Nine Yin Manual is supposably this manual, split in two volumes that is said to contain the ultimate secrets to gaining the strongest OP kung-fu. The Five Greats competed for it, years ago on a snowy mountain competition. It passed down hand to hand, and there is whole interesting backstory to it, filled with backstabbing and betrayal. Chen and Mei ended up with the second volume, killed a lot of people and a great number of horrible things though their powertripping. Mei feels remorse for it and betraying her seifu.
Apothecary Huang, having Chen his student who he still held dear, defeated, and due to pride of his ‘martial arts line� being tested, challenges Guo only to be stopped by his daughter Lotus. Guo ashamed of disgracing the master, seeks to visit the Peach Blossom Island to accept his death at the hands of Huang. He sails there with Lotus, but instead finds the imprisoned Zhang Botang, an insane hermit who had his legs broken by Huang for some transgression involving the manual or back talk or something, forgot why exactly. Any way before Guo can kowtow to Huang, the Venom arrives with his nephew to seek out Lotus� hand in marriage. Lotus and Guo are promised to each other, so it’s decided by a martial arts competition of three trails for the hand of Lotus. All this while the Masters try to uncover the treachery behind who knows the location and what from the Nine Yin Manual.
(hide spoiler)]
Cool. I was able to summarize it for the most part (pats self on back). Because, man, this can be a tough read, especially when more and more and more kung fu is thrown at you, including the Eight Trigram, and methods of I-Ching, and your brain is supposed to visualize what’s going on with these moves. And that’s the major drawback. There is a lot of awesome plot and story, but it constantly seems like you must wade through chunks of this, whereas the first novel, it seemed more seamless transition from explanations and theory to action. I don’t particularly enjoy reading overly descriptive magic systems or blow by blow fight scenes. I feel like Jin Yong is an exception and he does these well enough to keep them interesting, but even there are times where he doesn’t pull them off, and I slip into boredom reading.
My second problem was the jokiness. Now, I love the character of Zhang Botang. I thought he was interesting, and complex, a prankster who regrets being deceived and had, whose bitter and somewhat out for revenge, and uses Guo in his plot. But even this got carried away. The pranks were childish, and they took a lot of the menace out of a cool antagonist such as the Venom. The Venom and his snake army make a fantastic villain, and I hate snakes, so the descriptions of the herded snake army made my skin crawl. (“Why did it have to be snakes…�) But the last act makes The Venom, and Huang seem like fools. It annoyed me.
The novel ends on another cliffhanger, a cool one, though strange out of nowhere, why would Huang have a deadly ship laying around unless its for people trying to leave the island or something?
EDIT: Also Lotus IS A MARY SUE. Seriously this girl might as well be the Grandmaster of all Grandmaster's and Empress of the World Chosen One.
The main problem I had was after the first book seeming like such a cool epic adventure, this one just doesn’t have as much happening. It’s more of a character study, maybe, but I was hoping for more adventure like the first. It’s very good, mostly saved by the third act, and by interesting new characters such as the Beggar and the Hermit but comes up kind of a weak sequel. I can hope the third one comes back stronger and returns to the sense of grand scope. ...more
Notes are private!
1
Sep 19, 2021
Sep 25, 2021
Sep 19, 2021
Hardcover
075285139X
9780752851396
075285139X
3.92
5,269
1939
Jan 01, 2002
it was amazing
I came to know of ‘Rouge Male� from a Folio Book reviewer on YouTube. I saw the cloth bound edition all in brown with a man with a rifle who looked li
I came to know of ‘Rouge Male� from a Folio Book reviewer on YouTube. I saw the cloth bound edition all in brown with a man with a rifle who looked like a hunter. I thought…I’m not going to purchase an expensive edition of a story I know nothing about, but I must read this! An incredibly masculine looking cover, possibly a story with an awesome loner type male hero. (No offense to the Divergent Urgent Mergent Convergent Insurgent: Kylie the Chosen Girl with the Bow and Arrow, stories) But this seems like it’s written for men. So, I got a paperback copy of it.
The story of ‘Rouge Male� is told in first person account by…the Rogue Male. I don’t think we ever get his name, which is a brilliant touch, nor do we ever get the name of the person he attempted to assassinate another brilliant touch. Merely, we know from the beginning that he failed in his attempt and now he’s on the run. Aside, I think this was published in the thirties, so the time maybe takes place then, there’s automobiles and loreys, milk trucks, and sports cars, all which aid the Rouge Male in his escape. The setting is the fields, small towns, villages, farmland, cities, harbors, shipyards of England, London, to South England. He is the hunted throughout most of this tale, so he’s on the run, though there are a couple of times where he must defend himself, and he does have allies. There’s Saul, who I believe is his employer of whatever syndicate he works under. But now we get into spoiler territory.
(view spoiler)[
So, spoilers are that he worked alone. The assassination of the dictator was under no one’s orders, he acted on his own and I hated the reason why. I hate when they add a romantic interest to stories like these, it’s total weak sauce because the original reason was far more compelling and leaves for more enigma surrounding the ‘Rouge Male�. This story is gritty, dirty, man against nature, man turned into beast, a pure survival tale. You don’t need some bullshit love story or backstory to muck it up. But whatever, I’m not going to lower my rating because of it, I just wish it wasn’t there. I also won’t lower it because some of the descriptions of the wilderness seemed tedious, looking back at the whole experience, it totally works.
(hide spoiler)]
slight spoilers below
I love how the character accounts for the items he has, what he can use, how he attempts to get other items by reading the psychology of scared civilians, or just his read on situations, an example of stealing clothes from skinny dippers realizing that he must steal all the clothes to make it look like a prank, rather than just the set he needs where they would suspect a vagabond about. He’s incredibly smart and resourceful, as we can see him build a concealed shelter where he stays hidden befriending a cat named Asmodeus, he mimics voices to throw off his hunters. The motorbike confused me, he couldn’t have just given the money to the husband and wife for it he had to purchase and exchange a vacation home/rental? I was also confused about the weapon he makes in the last act of the story with the tools of what he has available, I keep picturing it as flimsy, the string or elastic not long enough, or it too easily breakable and not able to fire the projectile with any kind of effectiveness. Whatever, I’ll assume he somehow built it and it works.
For a book that was written in the early part of last century, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this, even after seeing Bond, and Borne, and probably a hundred other spy movies, or hunter/hunted movies in this style, this remains unique and literary as well. There are moments the ‘Rouge Male� pontificates on various topics, there are references to mythology and events and history. This transcends the genre into what seems like it would be at home with classic literature, I mean I can’t see why it wouldn’t be.
EDIT: So a lot of people are saying the Dictator is clearly Hitler. I wouldn't have guessed it merely because I felt the story took place before the rise of Nazi Germany, more of the first WW. I was thinking Archiduke Ferdinand at one point but that was decades before. I just thought it was a fictional dictator. But I see you kind of have to pay attention with the details Germany, Poland, and remember them or you'll miss the connection! ...more
The story of ‘Rouge Male� is told in first person account by…the Rogue Male. I don’t think we ever get his name, which is a brilliant touch, nor do we ever get the name of the person he attempted to assassinate another brilliant touch. Merely, we know from the beginning that he failed in his attempt and now he’s on the run. Aside, I think this was published in the thirties, so the time maybe takes place then, there’s automobiles and loreys, milk trucks, and sports cars, all which aid the Rouge Male in his escape. The setting is the fields, small towns, villages, farmland, cities, harbors, shipyards of England, London, to South England. He is the hunted throughout most of this tale, so he’s on the run, though there are a couple of times where he must defend himself, and he does have allies. There’s Saul, who I believe is his employer of whatever syndicate he works under. But now we get into spoiler territory.
(view spoiler)[
So, spoilers are that he worked alone. The assassination of the dictator was under no one’s orders, he acted on his own and I hated the reason why. I hate when they add a romantic interest to stories like these, it’s total weak sauce because the original reason was far more compelling and leaves for more enigma surrounding the ‘Rouge Male�. This story is gritty, dirty, man against nature, man turned into beast, a pure survival tale. You don’t need some bullshit love story or backstory to muck it up. But whatever, I’m not going to lower my rating because of it, I just wish it wasn’t there. I also won’t lower it because some of the descriptions of the wilderness seemed tedious, looking back at the whole experience, it totally works.
(hide spoiler)]
slight spoilers below
I love how the character accounts for the items he has, what he can use, how he attempts to get other items by reading the psychology of scared civilians, or just his read on situations, an example of stealing clothes from skinny dippers realizing that he must steal all the clothes to make it look like a prank, rather than just the set he needs where they would suspect a vagabond about. He’s incredibly smart and resourceful, as we can see him build a concealed shelter where he stays hidden befriending a cat named Asmodeus, he mimics voices to throw off his hunters. The motorbike confused me, he couldn’t have just given the money to the husband and wife for it he had to purchase and exchange a vacation home/rental? I was also confused about the weapon he makes in the last act of the story with the tools of what he has available, I keep picturing it as flimsy, the string or elastic not long enough, or it too easily breakable and not able to fire the projectile with any kind of effectiveness. Whatever, I’ll assume he somehow built it and it works.
For a book that was written in the early part of last century, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this, even after seeing Bond, and Borne, and probably a hundred other spy movies, or hunter/hunted movies in this style, this remains unique and literary as well. There are moments the ‘Rouge Male� pontificates on various topics, there are references to mythology and events and history. This transcends the genre into what seems like it would be at home with classic literature, I mean I can’t see why it wouldn’t be.
EDIT: So a lot of people are saying the Dictator is clearly Hitler. I wouldn't have guessed it merely because I felt the story took place before the rise of Nazi Germany, more of the first WW. I was thinking Archiduke Ferdinand at one point but that was decades before. I just thought it was a fictional dictator. But I see you kind of have to pay attention with the details Germany, Poland, and remember them or you'll miss the connection! ...more
Notes are private!
1
Sep 13, 2021
Sep 15, 2021
Sep 13, 2021
Paperback
0646418432
9780646418438
0646418432
4.00
475,082
Jan 01, 1920
Oct 21, 2002
liked it
Let me get this out of the way first.
Whodunit novels/stories, cozy mysteries are not my cup of tea. I did not care for Sherlock Homes. I like occasion Let me get this out of the way first.
Whodunit novels/stories, cozy mysteries are not my cup of tea. I did not care for Sherlock Homes. I like occasional mysteries that occur in the larger extend of a novel "Who Killed Asmodean?". But all in all I don't like to focus on that sort of thing for hundreds of pages.
I am not a social butterfly. I don't care for gossip much and try to stay away from it. I'm terrible at remembering names. I don't remember family trees, extended families all stuff that's common in particularly South Asian culture. I hate all that stuff. And I have terrible social intelligence.
The reason I picked up an Agatha Christie novel is that someone noted that it's great way to examine how mystery and intrigue is done correctly. So I was curious.
Again, there are some genres I just don't get into. The Western is another one, though I can still admire and appreciate the work.
I'm not going to list all the characters, I'll just say its a murder mystery where the victim is suspected to be poisoned, and they introduce a detective Poirot whose French with an egg shaped head in a group of Englishmen and women and a few other ethnicities and partial ethnicities that come to light about certain characters. I liked that the novel has drawings of the hallways room layout, reminded me of a game of Clue (which this obviously predates and influenced greatly).
I like stories that are written with a more descriptive style or a more immersive style of where I am, the environment I'm seeing, and characters who I'll say speak much less and act more. Other than the murder and the detective, the characters here are just doing mundane things, in court testifying, walking through their manor/gardens, and arguing/confessing to each other.
If this is your thing, you'll love this book. Again, not my style or interest, so I kind of got impatient reading this. And I knew I would guess wrong because I'm obviously not as smart as the author, so it is just a waiting game for the reveal. And all that time a stupid ear worm of a song was blaring in my head (has nothing to do with this review, it made me stop reading and want to bang my head against a wall).
I liked the book and elements of the mystery. I appreciate the book and the author for her influence on storytelling. Maybe I'll check out Murder on the Orient Express just because of its a more interesting setting. ...more
Whodunit novels/stories, cozy mysteries are not my cup of tea. I did not care for Sherlock Homes. I like occasion Let me get this out of the way first.
Whodunit novels/stories, cozy mysteries are not my cup of tea. I did not care for Sherlock Homes. I like occasional mysteries that occur in the larger extend of a novel "Who Killed Asmodean?". But all in all I don't like to focus on that sort of thing for hundreds of pages.
I am not a social butterfly. I don't care for gossip much and try to stay away from it. I'm terrible at remembering names. I don't remember family trees, extended families all stuff that's common in particularly South Asian culture. I hate all that stuff. And I have terrible social intelligence.
The reason I picked up an Agatha Christie novel is that someone noted that it's great way to examine how mystery and intrigue is done correctly. So I was curious.
Again, there are some genres I just don't get into. The Western is another one, though I can still admire and appreciate the work.
I'm not going to list all the characters, I'll just say its a murder mystery where the victim is suspected to be poisoned, and they introduce a detective Poirot whose French with an egg shaped head in a group of Englishmen and women and a few other ethnicities and partial ethnicities that come to light about certain characters. I liked that the novel has drawings of the hallways room layout, reminded me of a game of Clue (which this obviously predates and influenced greatly).
I like stories that are written with a more descriptive style or a more immersive style of where I am, the environment I'm seeing, and characters who I'll say speak much less and act more. Other than the murder and the detective, the characters here are just doing mundane things, in court testifying, walking through their manor/gardens, and arguing/confessing to each other.
If this is your thing, you'll love this book. Again, not my style or interest, so I kind of got impatient reading this. And I knew I would guess wrong because I'm obviously not as smart as the author, so it is just a waiting game for the reveal. And all that time a stupid ear worm of a song was blaring in my head (has nothing to do with this review, it made me stop reading and want to bang my head against a wall).
I liked the book and elements of the mystery. I appreciate the book and the author for her influence on storytelling. Maybe I'll check out Murder on the Orient Express just because of its a more interesting setting. ...more
Notes are private!
1
Sep 11, 2021
Sep 13, 2021
Sep 11, 2021
Paperback
014200068X
9780142000687
014200068X
4.06
147,601
1943
Feb 05, 2002
really liked it
I picked up Cannery Row after visiting Monterey Bay one weekend and learned the author John
Steinbeck had written a novel about it and that he is wel I picked up Cannery Row after visiting Monterey Bay one weekend and learned the author John
Steinbeck had written a novel about it and that he is well celebrated in Monterey. That’s pretty much it. I’m not a huge fan of Steinbeck from his other work, I read ‘Grapes of Wrath�, and ‘Of Mice and Men� in high school, didn’t leave much of an impression on me other than the basic knowledge of what they’re about. But I was curious about Cannery Row.
What a surprise this was, I liked this book. A lot. It takes place on Cannery Row during the old days, I’m not sure which decade 30s, 40s, 50s maybe. I looked it up, it's during the 'Great Depression'. It follows the stories of various characters starting with Lee Chong, an elderly Chinese American shopkeeper who gives loans and business dealings with the various residents of Cannery Row. After one is unable to payback Lee, he commits suicide and his residence is left open and later occupied by Mack and his friends, a group of kind of vagabonds who were previously living in the large pipes and scrounging the backlots in Cannery and work only enough to get fired and move to the next job with a good enough impression by the employer that they’ll stick around and are not going to quit after the first week. One happens to be a stand in bartender who sneaks a jug which he fills with leftover liquor and takes to the boys.
Mack is their ringleader, in his 40s? a kind of street-smart genius who has knowledge of a lot of practical knowledge of the world and his workings, at one point he heals a sick dog for a soldier who almost blasts them for trespassing on his property to catch frogs. Incredibly smart and resourceful, affable and a great negotiator, one of his friends mentions that he could run for president if he wanted to.
What are the frogs all about? Well, they catch them for a man named Doc, a smart, compassionate, cultured, level-headed, scientist who owns and works in the research lab for all the aquatic life in the area, frogs, squids, small sharks, starfish. Everybody in Cannery loves and respects Doc, especially the boys, and one day they decide to catch frogs for Doc, who pays money for each frog. They then plan to get enough money to shop at Lee’s for the supplies to throw Doc a party. This requires the borrowing of Doc’s car, scrapping enough for gas, and taking a road trip out of Cannery Row. They have several adventures and missteps along the way.
There are a lot of cool touches including a roller skater who looks to break the world record of consecutively skating for the longest time on rooftop roller rink staying up there day and night, and the question that all inquiring residents want to know is “How does he go to the bathroom?� There’s a slow kid that Doc hires who learns how to be a waiter well yet overestimates his abilities and causes a small disaster, and later finds himself even worse off. There are some gruesome details, a man whose body is found and entrails or maybe it’s his organs found by a dog, another is a corpse a woman Doc finds beautiful he sees close to shore whilst gathering specimens one day. There’s the story of a whorehouse of working girls, and a married couple who live in a discarded old boiler from the sardine factory whose wife wants to put up curtains despite them having no windows.
I’m writing this at least a couple weeks after reading it so its from memory. I do know there are several themes, including happiness despite being in the poorest of situations, true pure friendship and the goodness and selflessness of people despite again having very little. Forgiveness. Ultimately that life goes on and people survive the best they know how, and some don’t.
...more
Steinbeck had written a novel about it and that he is wel I picked up Cannery Row after visiting Monterey Bay one weekend and learned the author John
Steinbeck had written a novel about it and that he is well celebrated in Monterey. That’s pretty much it. I’m not a huge fan of Steinbeck from his other work, I read ‘Grapes of Wrath�, and ‘Of Mice and Men� in high school, didn’t leave much of an impression on me other than the basic knowledge of what they’re about. But I was curious about Cannery Row.
What a surprise this was, I liked this book. A lot. It takes place on Cannery Row during the old days, I’m not sure which decade 30s, 40s, 50s maybe. I looked it up, it's during the 'Great Depression'. It follows the stories of various characters starting with Lee Chong, an elderly Chinese American shopkeeper who gives loans and business dealings with the various residents of Cannery Row. After one is unable to payback Lee, he commits suicide and his residence is left open and later occupied by Mack and his friends, a group of kind of vagabonds who were previously living in the large pipes and scrounging the backlots in Cannery and work only enough to get fired and move to the next job with a good enough impression by the employer that they’ll stick around and are not going to quit after the first week. One happens to be a stand in bartender who sneaks a jug which he fills with leftover liquor and takes to the boys.
Mack is their ringleader, in his 40s? a kind of street-smart genius who has knowledge of a lot of practical knowledge of the world and his workings, at one point he heals a sick dog for a soldier who almost blasts them for trespassing on his property to catch frogs. Incredibly smart and resourceful, affable and a great negotiator, one of his friends mentions that he could run for president if he wanted to.
What are the frogs all about? Well, they catch them for a man named Doc, a smart, compassionate, cultured, level-headed, scientist who owns and works in the research lab for all the aquatic life in the area, frogs, squids, small sharks, starfish. Everybody in Cannery loves and respects Doc, especially the boys, and one day they decide to catch frogs for Doc, who pays money for each frog. They then plan to get enough money to shop at Lee’s for the supplies to throw Doc a party. This requires the borrowing of Doc’s car, scrapping enough for gas, and taking a road trip out of Cannery Row. They have several adventures and missteps along the way.
There are a lot of cool touches including a roller skater who looks to break the world record of consecutively skating for the longest time on rooftop roller rink staying up there day and night, and the question that all inquiring residents want to know is “How does he go to the bathroom?� There’s a slow kid that Doc hires who learns how to be a waiter well yet overestimates his abilities and causes a small disaster, and later finds himself even worse off. There are some gruesome details, a man whose body is found and entrails or maybe it’s his organs found by a dog, another is a corpse a woman Doc finds beautiful he sees close to shore whilst gathering specimens one day. There’s the story of a whorehouse of working girls, and a married couple who live in a discarded old boiler from the sardine factory whose wife wants to put up curtains despite them having no windows.
I’m writing this at least a couple weeks after reading it so its from memory. I do know there are several themes, including happiness despite being in the poorest of situations, true pure friendship and the goodness and selflessness of people despite again having very little. Forgiveness. Ultimately that life goes on and people survive the best they know how, and some don’t.
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Notes are private!
1
Sep 09, 2021
Sep 11, 2021
Sep 09, 2021
Paperback
0099339218
9780099339212
0099339218
4.16
11,269
Oct 14, 1938
2004
liked it
So, in my quest to read more and more of Hemingway’s writing, his style is growing on me, I love the simplicity of it, and the themes he explores, th
So, in my quest to read more and more of Hemingway’s writing, his style is growing on me, I love the simplicity of it, and the themes he explores, things that you wouldn’t find in today’s modern times. I picked up ‘The First Forty-Nine Stories.� There are too many stories here for me to review, I’m not looking to be a professional critic, but I like to just get my thoughts out to a) help me remember and process what I read b) to share the experience with others and see what they have to say. I’ll simply pick my favorite stories and list them, I’m kind of burnt out on reading and analyzing things now.
The Short Happy Life of Francis McComber
The Capital of the World
My Old Man
Big Hearted River
The Killers
An Alpine Idyll
The Mother of a Queen
The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio
Hemingway has a series of topics that he’s knowledgeable about and continually explores, bull fighting, marriage, war, medicine, boxing, fishing, Europe, and the countryside. You get a glimpse into the time and place well with. There’s continuing stories with the character of Nick, with his father, amongst the Native Americans. The chapter breaks have small paragraph or so vignettes into an event in some characters life, sometimes Nick, sometimes someone unnamed. Some of them are ugly and brutal, a remember one a guy was shot in a car, another a bullfighter maimed.
I think what keeps me from really liking this novel is that many of his short stories don’t particularly go anywhere, they just conclude without the conflict really being resolved, and the characters seemingly adrift on what to do next. Sometimes it works for me, Nick camping and fishing in the forest. There may be a message to each of them like Aesop’s fables or something of the like, but some of them leave the feeling of� ‘Cool, that was a good description of a scene.� And then?
Maybe I’m not a fan of short-story, I read a lot of epic fantasy and the like, large books because they feel like the give a lot of room to develop and explore their world and themes. Sometimes short story is effective like the ‘Hills Like White Elephants�, which I already knew from a radio podcast that analyzed it that it was about (view spoiler)[ abortion (hide spoiler)].
Would I read this again? Maybe. I read one per day so I could soak them in and think on what I read. But Forty stories are a lot, even for an author that I really like. It’s a good experience, and I think if you like Hemingway you should read through this to get a better understanding of the man and his life.
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Sep 06, 2021
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Oct 18, 2021
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Sep 06, 2021
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