Discuss and rate the last thing you read

[Satinavian]

Most of the novels I have read recently don't have an English language release. There are exceptions, but overall i am not really motivated to write about stuff i find mediocre.

When I next read something that is good and available in English, i intend to post.

 

[Agema]

I jut don't think I'm that great at writing reviews. They always come across as kind of generic unless its something I'm specifically angry about and generally I just put the book down if I'm getting annoyed at it

I'm no book critic either! But I read a lot, and it's interesting to see what else is out there and what people recommend. I think if you find someone (friend, professional critic, etc.) who often speaks highly of things you also like, it's a big plus as you'll normally be able to trust them and just go for their likes too.

I mostly read SF&F, obviously, and where I might possibly diverge from many readers is I often weight the offbeat quite highly - having read enough boy's own adventures with space rockets / magic swords, there's just not that much excitement in stuff treading the same well-worn paths, although they can make for comforting time-fillers.

 

[Hawki]

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: Reflections (3/5)

Similar to 'Siege of the Crystal Empire', I read this for canon content, so to speak. But the funny thing is, having just come off Siege, this is actually kind of the inverse of that arc. Because Siege was basically three serious issues followed by a humorous issue. Reflections is three humorous issues followed by a serious issue. However, while I enjoyed this arc, it's nowhere near as tight as Siege, as:

-There's a fair bit of tonal dissonance, in that for most of the story, things are played for laughs, but the seriousness is still present. Such as Celestia being cut off from the altnerate Sombra, with the laws of alternate realities ensuring she can't visit him because the "prime universe" (this term isn't used, but I'm using it) and "mirror universe" (likewise) are becoming linked. Which isn't too bad as plot development/character development goes, but a lot of it feels like filler. There's a sense that as Prime!Equestria interacts with Prime!Luna, the writers had to fill in panels, because the conversations between them go in a circular manner. Celestia will admit to something, Luna will chew her out, cue forgiveness. Now do this more than once for each new revelation.

-The fourth issue, as the worlds begin to merge, cue high stakes, and...yeah. Up until now, the stakes were clear, certainly, but things get very serious, very fast, in a way that makes the ending tonally dissonant with what's come up to it.

-This isn't a sin that the comic can be held accountable for exactly, but reading it now, if I'm to believe that Prime!Celestia and Mirror!Sombra were romantically entwined, why is this never brought up in Siege of the Crystal Empire (where Prime!Sombra is redeemed), or the show? I know, I know, the comics generally do their own thing and the show can override it when it sees fit (see season 9 for an example), but it's kind of jarring that this is never brought up anywhere else, even if Celestia wanted to keep it a secret. There's some plot points in fiction that are simply too big to be reasonably ignored.

So, that aside, what does the comic do well? Well, the answer to that question is the humour I mentioned, because it succeeds there, and succeeds very well. Granted, a lot of that humour is fourth wall touching, if not fourth wall breaking, but I found myself smirking a lot. Sometimes it's through the dialogue (there's a recurring gag where a character mentions "the six of you," and Spike yells out "seven!" with increased exasperation), and there's background humour. For instance, there's a panel with numerous newspaper clippings in the background, one of which says "if you're reading this, you're probably thinking about this comic too much." In the foreground, Twilight is going on about recording it and checking it for errors, while Pinkie Pie exclaims "who cares about continuity? it's a comic!" So, yes, they just roasted wiki editors like myself, but hey, I can live with that.

Oh, and it subverts the trope of a 'prime' universe character/set of characters meeting their evil dopplegangers, and does it pretty well. So good job there. But as enjoyable as the comic is, it's still "okay" rather than outright "good."

 

[Agema]

By The Pricking Of Her Thumb - Adam Roberts

Sequel to the Real Town Murders. It's the future, and most of humanity have migrated their consciousnesses into an enhanced VR world called "The Shine", with robots caring for their somnolent, logged-in bodies. Alma is a PI in Reading (now rebranded R!-town), UK, who cares for her critically ill partner, Margueritte, who has been infected with a custom-designed pathogen that requires Alma to provide medical care every four hours. Alma is tasked by a dual mystery: a) a woman has died with the only evidence being a needle pushed through her thumb and b) one of the richest people alive has decided one of her three main rivals has died, but she doesn't know which and wants Alma to find out.

This Roberts work is chock-a-block full of his customary later-phase light humour, full of quirky people who speak in contrived conversation with witticisms and puns (which readers may find amusing or annoying). It is of course a SF murder mystery (as its predecessor) at base - something Roberts is clearly enjoying following his collection of three stories, Jack Glass, several years ago.

All in all, rather good. The murder mystery is fine, and I quite enjoy the underpinning SF elements of the societal stresses of this new world; the underlying conflict between forces operating in the Real or the Shine.

 

[the December King]

So, the protagonist is an insufferable Gary Stu?

I don't know I like that term outside a fairly narrow remit.

I don't know whether it's author wish-fulfillment, or whether he's just playing too safe on the virtuous hero trope. Lots of heroes are basically dull as dishwater honourable types, who screw up but always because they're nice (naive) people trying to do the right thing who don't have the callousness or slimy, political nous that would get the job done but leave a sour taste in the mouth. I think often it makes for a weakness when it comes to creating interesting characters when an author wants to make them too likeable.

Well, that's better than Kvothe at least.

Kvothe annoyed me. He's just good at everything and conveniently encounters everything that makes the plot roll along. I think at some point in book two (!), Wise Man's Fear, he finally encounters something he's not totally brilliant at. Kvothe is at least slightly unlikeable as a smug arsehole. I think back and even stuff annoys me like the enticing but conveniently inaccessible inamorata, etc. Feels a little contrived.

Incidentally, do you get the feeling hardly anyone on here reads apaart from us?

Just wanted to add that I read like a fiend, and frequent this thread a lot for ideas on what to check out, but rarely contribute because I type like a goblin and due to my preferences (mainly horror, but occasionally SF&F and action), I assume no one would care.

I also loved the writing in the Kvothe books, but detested the character and found little enjoyment in the second book - the first one, I was hoping that we were seeing everyone else's versions, telling Kvothe's stories, and that he was going to tell us how it really was, and that it wasn't nearly as glamorous, like Unforgiven. But... well, here we are.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Moby-Dick (unabridged): Ye gads this was a slog. And it's largely attributable to the fact that...most of the book is not about the story. Really, I'd go so far as to say it reads like Melville wrote the comparatively few narrative chapters as an excuse to expound upon how glorious a profession whaling is. I kid you not, there's an entire chapter devoted to the perplexing fact that whaling is looked down upon while being a soldier is a seen as an honorable and glorious calling.

There's a chapter where he comments on the lack of patron saints for the profession and posits that Hercules and St. George should be viable candidates (on the tortured logic that the dragon slain by St. George must have really been a whale, and St. George therefore a whaler). There's a chapter on the subject of [link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_fish[/link]royal fish[/I] and a resulting injustice. There are several chapters devoted to simply categorizing and distinguishing different cetaceans. There's a chapter describing the drug-like euphoria of squeezing spermaceti to keep it from clumping. There's a chapter about who's entitled to a previously harpooned whale and the attached equipment.

Then there was a chapter philosophizing on the nature of the color white. And then we get to the narrative chaff, where we get in-narrative bits that...add absolutely nothing to the story. Like Stubb haranguing the ship's cook because the whale steak he had the cook make wasn't tough enough for his liking, and thence proceeds to have the cook preach a sermon to the sharks by the ship about table manners. Or Stubb (again) suggesting at length that one of the harpooneers (Fedallah) must really be a devil bargaining for Ahab's soul (this doesn't go anywhere). I have never read a more rambling book in my life, much less one that completely changes style on the author's whim. There are even a few chapters in there which drop prose in favor of stage directions. Stage directions. It's jarring to say the least.

As you might guess, I was not a fan of this one. I stuck with it out of spite, and I'm now thoroughly confused as to how such a meandering mess is considered "The Great American Novel"

Yes! I agree completely! How this became a classic I have no idea. It was so boring! I could not believe how long he went on about the colour white. Ages! I'm kind of curious how long the book would be if you cut out all the irrelevant digressions on the minutiae of whaling.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.

*spoilers incoming*

Was alright, I guess, but man was Victor Frankenstein an idiot! He spends years bringing his creature to life, takes one look at it and runs away and goes to sleep. I don't think he could possibly be any more irresponsible. He immediately decides it's a monster without any further investigation and then doesn't even try to dispose of it or anything, he just basically hopes it will go away if he tries not to think of it. And it does for a while, until it comes back and murders his brother and asks for a companion with which to disappear into the wilderness of Africa with. Frankenstein agrees and then goes on a sightseeing tour around the United Kingdom for... some reason. He finally gets around to working on creature #2 before he decides he doesn't want to do it after all and reneges on his promise. The monster threatens to make his life miserable and Frankenstein is basically 'whatevs.' Then he dumps the remains of his project in the ocean and promptly falls asleep in his boat, floats adrift for hours until he has no idea where he is, and almost dies. Then his friend is murdered, and Frankenstein never seems to connect that his creation may not intend to kill him, but actually intends to kill everyone he ever loved. He then does absolutely nothing about it and decides he'll get married, and what a shocker, the monster kills his wife.

What a moron! The only time he tried to take an ounce of responsibility for his creation was when it was already too late and everyone he ever loved was dead. And then he has the audacity to lecture the crew of a boat trying to find a way through an ice-field about courage and honor and all that nonsense when they want to give up. What a hypocrite! Basically the whole plot wouldn't have happened if Frankenstein hadn't been holding the idiot ball the entire book and had either raised or destroyed his creature instead of running screaming into the night.

 

[Asita]

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.

Funnily enough, that's another book I read recently. I quickly came to hate Victor. He's a terrible person for reasons that tend to trace back to his egotism and apparent inability to truly empathize with others. I mean this is a guy who bemoaned how nobody in the world was more unfortunate than he...as part of his reaction to the wrongful conviction and execution of a childhood friend for the murder of Victor's little brother. No, Victor, I'm sure you must have suffered far more in refusing to testify on her behalf than she did when she was threatened with eternal damnation if she didn't confess to a crime she didn't commit. Clearly you are the real victim here. Amirite, or amirite?

Despite my antipathy for the character, however, this is still a book I'd say is worth a read, with the understanding that both Victor and his creation end up being terrible people (albeit for very different reasons). Truthfully, I'd say the best way to approach the book is to almost treat it as a character study. You will probably slam your head into the wall over some of the leaps of logic, self-righteousness, and "oh woe is me!" melodrama from the focal characters, but it's fascinating to see how they justify those same flaws to themselves.

 

[Agema]

Master of Sorrows - Justin Call.

Adolescent boy with amazing magical and combat skills, elder mentor, building in maturity and nascent feelings of desire, magic swords, rebellious streak againsnt unethical culture, dark god trying to take over the world, blah blah blah. This is a massive assemblage of all the biggest fantasy cliches from start to finish. It is redeemed only by the fact it is otherwise pretty competent.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.

Funnily enough, that's another book I read recently. I quickly came to hate Victor. He's a terrible person for reasons that tend to trace back to his egotism and apparent inability to truly empathize with others. I mean this is a guy who bemoaned how nobody in the world was more unfortunate than he...as part of his reaction to the wrongful conviction and execution of a childhood friend for the murder of Victor's little brother. No, Victor, I'm sure you must have suffered far more in refusing to testify on her behalf than she did when she was threatened with eternal damnation if she didn't confess to a crime she didn't commit. Clearly you are the real victim here. Amirite, or amirite?

Despite my antipathy for the character, however, this is still a book I'd say is worth a read, with the understanding that both Victor and his creation end up being terrible people (albeit for very different reasons). Truthfully, I'd say the best way to approach the book is to almost treat it as a character study. You will probably slam your head into the wall over some of the leaps of logic, self-righteousness, and "oh woe is me!" melodrama from the focal characters, but it's fascinating to see how they justify those same flaws to themselves.

For what its worth, I feel that is the point. Victor's kind of a jackass, and him being a jackass to the Monster is what drives the plot. There is no good guy and bad guy, just two jackasses who are far too similar to each other for their own goods

 

[Drathnoxis]

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.

Funnily enough, that's another book I read recently. I quickly came to hate Victor. He's a terrible person for reasons that tend to trace back to his egotism and apparent inability to truly empathize with others. I mean this is a guy who bemoaned how nobody in the world was more unfortunate than he...as part of his reaction to the wrongful conviction and execution of a childhood friend for the murder of Victor's little brother. No, Victor, I'm sure you must have suffered far more in refusing to testify on her behalf than she did when she was threatened with eternal damnation if she didn't confess to a crime she didn't commit. Clearly you are the real victim here. Amirite, or amirite?

Despite my antipathy for the character, however, this is still a book I'd say is worth a read, with the understanding that both Victor and his creation end up being terrible people (albeit for very different reasons). Truthfully, I'd say the best way to approach the book is to almost treat it as a character study. You will probably slam your head into the wall over some of the leaps of logic, self-righteousness, and "oh woe is me!" melodrama from the focal characters, but it's fascinating to see how they justify those same flaws to themselves.

Yes, Victor really is a lousy person all around. It was all a bit overblown for me though. Pages and pages of almost poetic dialogue about how miserable everyone is. I was just wishing he'd shut up and get to work on the monster's companion. And he came down with brain fever, what, 3 times? That's a bit much even for a Victorian era book.

The Count of Monte Cristo (unabridged)

Holy smokes is this a long book! 52 hours long! That's longer than some entire series of novels!

 

[Agema]

Holy smokes is this a long book! 52 hours long! That's longer than some entire series of novels!

My dread was piling through Anna Karenina. It took me about 4 months and I got through about 10 other (more lightweight) books in the process when I couldn't bear slogging through it. On the good side, it has one of the greatest first lines in literature.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Holy smokes is this a long book! 52 hours long! That's longer than some entire series of novels!

My dread was piling through Anna Karenina. It took me about 4 months and I got through about 10 other (more lightweight) books in the process when I couldn't bear slogging through it. On the good side, it has one of the greatest first lines in literature.

This is even longer than that. I'm seeing audiobooks length at 38 hours and the page count is 864 compared to Monte Cristo's 1276.

 

[Asita]

Holy smokes is this a long book! 52 hours long! That's longer than some entire series of novels!

Yep. My library lets me rent 6 audiobooks a month through Hoopla, requiring that I 'return' the book every 21 days...I ended up renting Monte Cristo 4 times before I finished it. Contrast that with Frankenstein (one rental) and Moby Dick (two rentals). As I said though, while Dumas often speaks at length about background and setting, where I'd say this contrasts with Melville is that Melville chooses to toss in infodumps of things completely disconnected to the plot (such as the aforementioned attempt at a taxonomic classification of whales). Conversely, while Dumas' descriptions may not be strictly necessary, they help paint a more complete picture and adds to our understanding of the characters. For instance, we don't need the exhaustive life story of Luigi Vampa, but it certainly gives you an idea of what the characters are dealing with when they come face to face with him. We don't need to know about the decorations and amusements in Albert's guesthouse, but it ends up painting a picture of a noble who enjoys his wealth and status but lacks direction, which adds gravitas to his decisions later in the novel.

 

[PainInTheAssInternet]

Inside Out - A Personal History of Pink Floyd by Nick Mason.

Nick Mason is the drummer of PF, and as the book claims, has been the only member of the core 4 that has never officially left the band for any period of time. It's a personal memoir in chronological order, so the details get fuzzy the further you go back and you can tell when Mason is avoiding harsher words due to the desire to maintain personal relationships. That being said, I really enjoyed it. His humour shines through and you get all sorts of details that even I, as an avid fan, never knew. For example, did you know their angrier-than-hell lighting technician who designed and produced many of their iconic effects worked on Gladiator? Did you know Paul McCartney had spoken recordings that ultimately didn't make it onto Dark Side of the Moon? The book does go into detail about the demise of founding member Roger "Syd" Barrett and the falling out they are now notorious for all from a personal perspective, which does allow criticism for his inner thoughts. I think that's fairly brave of him, even considering what I said before.

If you're a fan of the band, you'll love it. If you're not interested, chances are you won't care because it is ultimately a memoir.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Holy smokes is this a long book! 52 hours long! That's longer than some entire series of novels!

Yep. My library lets me rent 6 audiobooks a month through Hoopla, requiring that I 'return' the book every 21 days...I ended up renting Monte Cristo 4 times before I finished it. Contrast that with Frankenstein (one rental) and Moby Dick (two rentals). As I said though, while Dumas often speaks at length about background and setting, where I'd say this contrasts with Melville is that Melville chooses to toss in infodumps of things completely disconnected to the plot (such as the aforementioned attempt at a taxonomic classification of whales). Conversely, while Dumas' descriptions may not be strictly necessary, they help paint a more complete picture and adds to our understanding of the characters. For instance, we don't need the exhaustive life story of Luigi Vampa, but it certainly gives you an idea of what the characters are dealing with when they come face to face with him. We don't need to know about the decorations and amusements in Albert's guesthouse, but it ends up painting a picture of a noble who enjoys his wealth and status but lacks direction, which adds gravitas to his decisions later in the novel.

Well I'll give it a go, since I was trying to decide what to listen to next.

 

[davidmc1158_v1legacy]

Tossing in a couple more for consideration.

First up is Bonnet Brigades: American Women and the Civil War by Mary Elizabeth Massey [1966]. I read this one as another historiographal study. I wanted to see how attitudes have changed (or not) since the 1960s. Overall, I can recommend this collection of essays as it does contain quite a bit of quality analysis for women's history, but that does come with a slight caveat. The work is a product of historical research from another era and suffers from some of the assumptions about sex and race that have received much further study in the intervening years. So while the work is still quite insightful, it does have some issues with its own biases.

The second is The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For by David McCullough [2017]. I once had the honor of hearing Mr. McCullough speak when he was invited to the small university where I used to teach. He was an engaging speaker, and I consider myself lucky to have attended his presentation. So when I ran across a compiled collection of various speeches he has given over the years (ranging from 1989 to 2016), I snagged the book without hesitation. With addresses to graduating classes, a naturalization ceremony for immigrants, to dedications to historical buildings and events, he covers quite a range of topics, but always comes back to the history of the nation and the ideals previous generations have striven, fought and died for. McCullough is an ardent optimist which sets him at some odds with my pessimistic and cynical mindset. However, reading quality and informed optimism was quite a nice change of pace form dealing with all of the political and social issues that clog up the news nowadays. I can definitely recommend this one.

*Looks over at bookshelf* Well, only about 60 more books to go. . . . . .

 

[Dalisclock]

Been reading "The Book of the New Sun" by Gene Wolfe. I've finished the first book/part, "Shadow of the Torturer" so far and it's intriguing. The fact it's initially presented as being a fantasy/medieval setting but it doesn't take long before they characters drop off hand references to space exploration and such concepts as electromagnetism, revealing it's actually set in the far future(far enough that space travel was a thing that happened long ago and apparently is no longer viable). Also, apparently the moon now has forests on it, enough to appear green to the naked eye, and the main character has a hard time imagining the moon ever being grey. Also, apparently there are Massive Lovecraftian Nightmares living in the oceans in their time because why not.

The main character starts off as a member of the guild of Torturers before eventually being outcast from it(for allowing a "client" the means to kill herself before her appointed time). The fact the protagonist is both a torturer and an executioner(apparently the guild is responsible for both functions) is an interesting one, but also how the guild is treated as a profession, albeit one everyone apparently hates when they aren't flocking to see executions firsthand. It's explicitly mentioned, when a rich client asks if she can pay off her torturers for a smaller punishment, she's told "We are given explicit orders for every client. We follow them to the letter, no more and no less". Apparently at some point he becomes ruler, since he's narrating the story as the past and at least one point mentions "Before I took the throne".

An interesting book in it's worldbuilding and how it's all very oblique how it does so. Interested to see where this is going over the next few books.

 

[Hawki]

Star Trek: Legacies: Purgatory's Key (3/5)

This dragged on with me reading it far longer than I meant it to. Y'know those other reviews I did? They were done while still reading this. So to be honest, I can't really appraise it properly given the huge gaps in-between reading it. But overall, it's fine. It's average. It's standard Star Trek TOS fare. Stuff I bought for $1.05 at a library book sale, so not exactly wasted money, but still, "meh" at the end of the day.

 

[Hawki]

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: The Journal of the Two Sisters (3/5)

So like the MLP comcis I read, this was obtained to help me with writing a MLP multi-chapter. However, that didn't turn out the way I expected. Ergo, I'm actually going to give this two sets of reviews in a sense - one judging the book entirely by its own merits, the other as to how things turned out.

So, let's start with something. This is half sourcebook, half stuff. So the first half of this review is going to have to be further divided to accomodate that this is actually two books in one. The first is a literal journal of Celestia and Luna from their crowning as rulers of Equestria to...well, the end of the journal. Okay, seriously, you could have at least gone as far as Luna becoming Nightmare Moon, but nup, it takes an arbitrary point and ends. Still, everything up to that point is decent, or at least as decent as a book in this format for a primarily chidlren audience can be. Yes, I've read sourcebooks for various franchises before, but while this does fit the paradigm, in that it's in-universe character writing providing worldbuilding, there's only so much depth it can go into. Now, that's not to say this is bad - it does provide some decent worldbuilding for the early days of Equestria, and the politics (such as they are) that developed at the time - but it can only go into so much depth. Also, this isn't really the fault of the book per se, but in its context, Celestia is portrayed as the down to earth one, while Luna is the adventurous one. Yet in season 9, it's the other way round.

So, what's the other half of this book? Diary entries from the Mane 6 and supporting characters tying into events during season 4. Now, in fairness, this arguably ties in with the first half of the book in that it details the sisters finding the Tree of Harmony, seeing the three marks (sun, moon, star), and Star Swirl telling them that the one whom the star corresponds to is an individual that the sisters will meet later. If you coulnd't put together upon reading this that this is foreshadowing of Twilight Sparkle, then congratulations, I've got property on the moon that I can sell to you. But before you go, let me tell you that the second half makes no connection between this. I'm not complaining that the book doesn't spell out that Twilight's very existence is practically pre-ordained, I'm complaining that in the context of this volume, it's never really acknowledged by the characters themselves. Like, I dunno, imagine Return of the Jedi where Leia being Luke's sister is only established by Obi-Wan and Yoda talking together. The viewer becomes aware of this fact, but the fact never becomes relevant to the narrative itself. This is kind of a simialr situation. And look, maybe the show did bring it up (I can't remember), but if you're going to foreshadow stuff, at least follow through. Or better yet, commit your book to more worldbuilding not diary entries that serve no real purpose aside from "hey, this is what character X was thinking after episode Y." None of it is relevatory, it's just, at best, extra character development, and even then, building off pre-existing development.

So, that's how this book functions on its own. Decent, but it tries to do two things, and both are left wanting at the end of the day. But before the day ends, I'm going to move into some self-indulgence. I got this book because of the MLP story I was writing, and I needed clarification on certain elements of canon. Suffice to say, the canon's been clarified. In fact, it's been clarified so well that I can no longer post the story, or at least, I can't post it without breaking canon entirely. I'm not talking about tweeks made to the story, I'm saying that the story literally cannot occur in any sense in its present form. And not only that, but another story I wrote ages ago in the setting can no longer be included in personal canon because the worldbuilding in the book invalidates the story completely. I mean, this isn't unheard of - I've written plenty of stuff thati's been invalidated over time - but this is the only time I can think of where two works of fine have been invalidated simultaniously. And you may be saying "come on, it's fanfic, it was never canon to begin with," and that's absolutely true, but since fanfic is all I can hope to ever achieve at this point, then, yes, it does hit. Hits hard. Hardly a real problem in a world with so many, but, well, whatever. None of this is the book's fault of course, but ultimately I'm going to have to scrap the story and decide what to do with its corpse.

In the meantime, the sourcebook is okay, but only if you're a die-hard fan.