In a sense, this is McCarthy’s version of Dostoyevsky’s existential dialogue between Ivan and Alyosha in the Brothers Karamazov. The only way this worIn a sense, this is McCarthy’s version of Dostoyevsky’s existential dialogue between Ivan and Alyosha in the Brothers Karamazov. The only way this works is if the case for both sides (meaning vs. nihilism) is made equally well. It’s a hard and risky thing to do and, Cormac McCarthy being who he is, is the perfect guy to try it....more
The Naked and the Dead is less about strategy or tactics than it is about soldiers. It’s about the dynamics between commanders and their subordinates.The Naked and the Dead is less about strategy or tactics than it is about soldiers. It’s about the dynamics between commanders and their subordinates. The way men of different backgrounds deal with being placed together and forced to cooperate. The constant affronts to personal morality that war brings, and the way war pushes endurance and courage to their absolute limits. It’s also about power dynamics, love and lust , and of course death.
It takes a Tolstoyian effort to sandwich that many themes between the covers of one, huge albeit, book and Mailer manages to� well, not really approach Tolstoy but he manages to weigh in as a Tolstoy-light. In the best possible way. The Naked and the Dead is easier reading than War and Peace . It has far fewer characters, settings, and scope, but it still manages to explore a lot of the same ground in a meaningful and compelling way. It’s impressive, especially for a work written when Mailer was essentially just a kid....more
Playfully erudite. Semi-permeable fourth-wall. Historical fiction? Not for the squeamish. Set in a Postmodern far-left milieu, appropriate for today'sPlayfully erudite. Semi-permeable fourth-wall. Historical fiction? Not for the squeamish. Set in a Postmodern far-left milieu, appropriate for today's sociopolitical climate.
It reminded me of Hesse's Glass Bead Game. ...more
I saw Neal Stephenson when he came to Seattle to do a reading for Fall and, based on his Q&A session, was pretty excited for it. Turns out, it's is juI saw Neal Stephenson when he came to Seattle to do a reading for Fall and, based on his Q&A session, was pretty excited for it. Turns out, it's is just not for me. Much of the book takes place in a virtual realm that comes complete with an extended pseudo-biblical creation story.
Personally, I was unable to get the point of caring about the virtual world or its inhabitants. The story of how that world was built was unconvincing and the restraining parameters seemed arbitrary and inconsistent.
As other reviews have mentioned, the "meatspace" characters are great. Had the ratio of the book been something like 80% real world, 20% virtual world, I would have loved it. As it is... I bailed about 700 pages in....more
We Are Legion is a nice start to a casual sci-fi series. It's an exploration of AI, digital cloning, post-apocalyptic civilization, and an especially We Are Legion is a nice start to a casual sci-fi series. It's an exploration of AI, digital cloning, post-apocalyptic civilization, and an especially fun dive into self-replicating Von Neumann probes. The book's characters are almost all digital copies of Bob, an erstwhile Silicon Valley tech startup founder. Each Bob comes, rather inexplicably, with minor differences from the original, who started it all after having been restored from his long-term cryogenically preserved state.
While I can see how some might love the dry, geeky humor, it didn't resonate much with me. Also, coming so recently off having read Cixin Liu's beyond good Remembrance of Earth’s Past series, Bob was a good distraction but probably not too memorable....more
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