The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this book because it came highly recommended, though I don't see all the fuss. The story is ok, the pacing is good and breakneck, and it smells of inventiveness. But I didn't care for any of the characters, and the teleport/jaunte thing is too much of a stretch and not well thought out. It seems dated in some parts while thoroughly modern at others.

It is a good read, but it's a lightweight one. I read it as a palate cleanser between The Book of the New Sun and the Culture series, which I'm just now starting to read, so I didn't expect anything engrossing, but still, I thought it would be better.

View all my reviews

The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is, as someone else said, at the same time brilliant and infuriating. It seems aimless, especially the latter half of the first book, and the third book in almost its entirety. It is as if the author substitutes character arcs (the motivation to move a story forward) for scenes that are difficult to know if they're nonsensical or allegorical, or both at the same time. Severian does change, but his changes are more evident in his actions than in any speech he makes, and in allegory (the breaking of his sword, his outward appearance).
I loved and hated the book. Somehow I had enough patience to finish the book, though in the sluggish parts I wanted to let go of it. I didn't mainly because of the beautiful prose and the imagination of the author, and it really left me wondering at the finer points of the plot, though some of the "mysteries" were pretty obvious and others were obscure in such a way that didn't make me want to bust my brains trying to figure them out (like the whole Abaia/Erebus/"Cthulish" gods), I just took them at face value, because they didn't seem important to the overall story.
I'll surely reread it at some point, since it might be better the second time.

View all my reviews

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The book with the most beautiful prose I've ever read. It's a lot better than the more popular "Cloud Atlas", but it is like one of those promising short novels in that book given room and time to breathe. I was reminded of parts of Clud Atlas' "The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing" as well as "Letters from Zedelghem".

The japanese setting is beautifully conveyed, as was expected, but the most impressive thing is the prose itself, which mimics perfectly the timing and feeling of classical japanese writing. The sentences are awe-inspiring at times, with particular sections that flow like music and sting with feeling.

These two passages struck me as perfect in their simplicity. All writers shouls aspire to that simple, zen-like clarity, and they encapsule all of the novel:



"Shiroyama’s heart stops. The earth’s pulse beats against his ear.
An inch away is a go clamshell stone, perfect and smooth …
… a black butterfly lands on the white stone, and unfolds its wings.”


“The clock’s pendulum catches the firelight, and in the rattle-breathed final moments of Jacob de Zoet, amber shadows in the far corner coagulate into a woman’s form.
She slips between the bigger, taller onlookers unnoticed …
… and adjusts her headscarf, the better to hide her burn.
She places her cool palms on Jacob’s fever-glazed face.
Jacob sees himself, when he was young, in her narrow eyes.
Her lips touch the place between his eyebrows.
A well-waxed paper door slides open.”

View all my reviews

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A good enough book. It's mostly interesting because of the thinking that was put into all the different situations that would realistically arise from a zombie apocalypse. But some (not all, really, just a few) of its 'interviews' or short stories are well written and interesting. Still, it didn't manage to move me much.
It really shouldn't be read as a novel, it's more of a series of vignettes or short stories of varying importance and quality.
It's worth the read as entertainment but it's nothing life-changing, and it just sort of ends. It would have benefited by a tighter manuscript and trimming some of the less interesting and poignant stories.

View all my reviews

The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book feels like a palate-cleanser to satisfy a Mistborn reader, but I wonder how it will fit into the planned second saga of Mistborn. Will it be just a throwaway novel, or will it have an impact on the second saga?
It's a by-the-numbers book, with some clever uses of allomancy, as is to be expected, though the characters are plain and the otherwise great plotting Sanderson got us hooked to is more pedestrian here, making it harder to elevate the material. The characters feel too overpowered at times and the risk is not upped enough to make you fear for them.
We'll have to see if Sanderson continues his plans for the Mistborn world. Maybe if he picks up from where this book left off, he will return to form and give the characters more substance, since it's not the world that needs fleshing out.

View all my reviews

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Plot against America is a book that's thorough in its world-building, even if its a parallel-world historical fiction.
The sense of dread pervades the entire book, and it goes beyond the perils of the period it's set in. It brings to mind the sense of having your freedoms stripped away, in any period and country, and even in today's world, it rings true.
I didn't give it a 5-star only because the ending felt a little flat to me. I didn't get a sense of conclusion, and even though it's not mandatory in a book like this, the ending was altogether too fast and it didn't have enough room to breathe. There was relief, yes, but it came from the situation itself and not for seeing the characters live on and well.
A great book, the first one I've read by Philip Roth, and I'll be sure to read more of them.

View all my reviews

The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There's always another secret

That sums up the Mistborn trilogy, and it's a fitting motto. I had to give this book a five-star review because of how tightly it fits all the mysteries and half-truths we learned in the course of the trilogy.

As a fantasy-fan and fellow author, what Brandon Sanderson did here is stunning. Amazing. Watertight. His world-building is made even more amazing by the fact it all goes back to the first book, without incoherences or made-up stuff.

I found myself smiling through most of this last book, or laughing at how stupid I had been, since I hadn't figured it all out. But this series of books is so well-crafted, that what you overlook as a throwaway comment is actually a big part of the story.

There are some issues, though. Some plotlines plod along while others with more potential are barely shown. I think Sanderson's dialogue is ok, his prose is not the most stunning. But his worldbuilding, his plotting and his rhythm are perfect. And he has some truly satisfying lines, especially when he pulls a move that makes total sense and you barely saw coming.

But the sheer magnitude of the author's accomplishment dwarfs any weaknesses. I spent half the book wondering how he would make all the juxtaposed plotlines fit, thinking he wouldn't have the time or that it would be unsatisfying. I should have had more faith. I should have trusted him more.

And that's the message of this trilogy, and it's a good one. It doesn't feel like a cliche. I was smiling at the end, though I was sad for some of the characters. But the twists and turns in this story are deeply satisfying. I was betting on a different outcome, though. I thought Elend would end up being the Hero of Ages. I was wrong, but I was never happier to find out I was.


View all my reviews

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Very good book. Though it seems a little formulaic at first, it manages to surprise the reader thanks to its complex world-building. Even right up to the end there are twists and turns that are hard to predict, and you are fed the information in trickles, so it's not overly expository, though a few of the dialogues seem a little forced.

The thing is, it's a very enjoyable book that you can't put down. Shallan's chapters are boring mostly, so I found myself wanting to skip ahead to the Kaladin chapters, which are the emotional cornerstone of the book. Kaladin's journey is very well told and seems more original than Shallan's or Dalinar's. It has one or two "Hell, yeah!" moments near the end which give you a huge payoff.

It's a long book, but the pacing is good and it doesn't slog down much. The length is necessary due to the amount of world-building and especially to give a payoff to Dalinar and Kaladin's story. Without the room to breathe, their 'epiphanies' at the end wouldn't have the huge impact they do.

There are some issues, but mostly with expository dialogues and some awkward phrasing. Brandon's prose is not as beautiful as, say, Patrick Rothfuss's, but he makes it up with truly superior world-building and some truly awesome scenes.

Can't wait for the next book and to find out more about the mysteries!

View all my reviews

The Pale King by David Foster Wallace
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I couldn't give this book a higher rating because it's just a glimpse of what the finished book would have been like. This reads like a first draft of a possibly brilliant book, as expected from DFW, but I couldn't help but sense that it would turn out to be very much like Infinite Jest, though it differs thematically it seems like a spiritual successor. Which is both a good and a bad thing, I guess. From the endnotes in which he clearly states where the story was going, it seemed to be much more interesting than the brief, jumbled scenes we got to read. The long conversation between Meredith Rand and Drinion stands out for me, as well as DW's arrival at the REC. It seems an interesting point would have been made regarding discipline (as opposed to boredom which has been what most critics/reviewers focused on). But alas, we'll never know. I think DFW knew he would have a hard time topping Infinite Jest (if not in literary quality, at least in people's perceptions of its quality and cultural relevance) and that's what made it a lengthy and ultimately impossible job for him to finish it. But it is a very enjoyable ride. You never get tired of reading DFW, even if it's unpolished. I'll have to read all of his essay and short story collections to get my fix now, but this book provided a momentary relief from the emptyness left by his passing.

View all my reviews

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book surprised me. I hadn't read any Heinlein works before, and I had him pegged as a "minor" sci-fi author. Obviously I was wrong, at least regarding this book.

As a writer, I appreciate how he uses chopped-up english and russian terms to create a very specific language that acts as a way of immersing the reader in his world. Also, the technicalities of the moon are pretty well thought-out (for the time it was written) and it makes for an extremely interesting rumination on revolution, social control and propaganda (or realpolitiks, to sum it up).

The only weak spot I found is that the ending is not as powerful as it could have been, though it does portray the motto of the whole book: TANSTAAFL.

View all my reviews