Alyse
Could have been interesting if not so long winded, and if all the interesting characters weren't dead or re-youth-ified before the story actually starts.
The 2nd half of the priest's story hooked me, but most of the rest of the book was just all the self-congratulatory, boring nonsense I hate in English lit set in space (and a version of space which isn't particularly interesting).
This was definitely my favorite of the series. I'm no fan of young adult fiction, so a small part of me dies by admitting this, but this is one of the best representations of how unglamorous and brutal revolutions can be. There's no clear right and wrong and the war is won not in the streets, but through the media. The plot meanders at times and the end falls apart completely. But it's ok, cause the meat of this book is the first half when the never-quite-made-points in the first 2 books about media culture come to fruition.
Peeta is just as creepy as ever, but it's intentional this time and he's gone for long portions of the book, so it's ok.
As a regular old novel it's pretty darn good. As a spy story it's a bit thin. The miniseries made a wise decision in cutting out most of the 1970's story line.
Somehow both silly and boring. I wanted to like it, and I do think the premise is interesting (once you get past the initial “well that's ridiculous” reaction). And maybe if World War Z hadn't already brilliantly pulled off the fake history book premise I wouldn't have held it to such a high standard.
Personally I think it would have been better if it was just Abe's journal or just a dry history book instead of the mildly annoying narrator's summary/interpretation of Abe's journal. There was a fair amount of historical research, but to me it felt too segmented and not part of the fictional story. There'd be detailed exposition about Abe's ridiculously fake exploits and then all of sudden an extended summary of the Dred Scott Case or the lost colony of Roanoke. Real Abe and Vampire Hunter Abe never connected for me, and that's a shame because it would have been awesome to learn about how a man reacts to that extreme political turmoil when he is both leader of the country and a slayer of mythical beasts.
This is basically fan-fiction without someone else's interesting characters to fall back on. The dialogue is an experiment in telling an entire story through cliches and quips that would make a CSI writer embarrassed. (Phrases like “Do you need me to draw you a map?” and “Captain Vomit” are said without irony and with the intent of being condescendingly clever.) I hated the characters, they were flat, blatant author avatars and annoyingly immature (I kept forgetting they were supposed to be adults and not 13 years old). There are a few interesting ideas, but they tend to turn into simplistic political soapboxes.
If I had to hear one more time about the chick's messed up eyes or her brother poking things with sticks or all of the ditzy girl's cameras or an in depth description of every blood test they had to take or blatantly obvious or blatantly stupid line of dialogue that a character “deadpanned” or...well, what I'm getting at is that the narration was more than a bit repetitive.
I wanted to like this book, I thought the idea adding politics to the zombie scene could be really interesting. After all, that's what science fiction does best–adds some distance between the subject and the audience so current “hot button” issues can be examined with less bias. But it has to be logical first. I mean, I couldn't get past the whole “We've matured past the death penalty, you'd have to be an idiot to think otherwise.” Yes, the prisoner would reanimate, but he would do so in a controlled environment where he could be immediately dealt with or brought to a research lab. Somehow, in this illogical world, it's more humane to let the prisoner die naturally in jail where he will reanimate and kill fellow prisoners (I'm not inferring this, it is specifically stated). It was only a minor point in the book, but the perfect example for how most of the politics felt–the author had some specific point she wanted to make ahead of time, so she molded her society to justify said point. It wasn't genuine or logical or anything that would have naturally developed out of a zombie infested world.
And I was never sold on the world. I could buy bloggers becoming respected newsmen, if all the bloggers portrayed didn't exemplify every stereotype currently making the blogging community a joke–they were all immature, outspokenly opinionated, and obsessed with fan fiction.
Personally, I like when authors try to use legitimate science to create their worlds–but this felt like she just googled a few things, found some official sounding words, and called it science. I mean, the whole premise is that the common cold (presumably all the millions of constantly changing strains) and cancer (again, all the different and incredibly varied types of cancer)are both magically cured AT THE EXACT SAME MOMENT. And, as we all know, scientific progress is scary, so then zombies pop up...or something...I admittedly got a bit lost at that point. I mean, zombie stories don't need an in depth scientific origin story (I don't remember there being one in the Romero movies our heroine can't stop mentioning)–origins help, but if you're going to add one, it had better be believable.
And the “twist ending” is only surprising in that it somehow manages to be both illogical and obvious.
I was kinda bored with the main storyline, but I really liked the side story about Kanya and her mixed loyalties.
If I could only give one anecdote to explain what I think is wrong with the current state of the engineering educational system it's that I only ever encountered this book in my history classes, I doubt anyone in my science classes was even aware of its existence.
I liked this one better than the first one–the characters are more fleshed out, there's more world building, and Peeta is slightly less creepy. Also a whiz-bang Episode V esque ending. Actually it really should have been titled The Capital Strikes Back
Oryx and Crake was a long prologue. This is the actual story. The interlocking plots are fun, even if they get pretty coincidental at times. And as always I love Atwood's paranoia and concise prose. Plus Toby is my hero and Zeb is a dreamboat.
Starts with a bang and then proceeds to go nowhere. The characters were all completely and utterly bland–people with money were beyond evil and people without were beyond reproach, and that was about it as far as character development went. I did like the mythology and attempt to lend some scientific credence to vampires. And the plot was enough to keep me interested even if it wasn't particularly memorable.
A perfectly wonderful historical event ruined by romance, sloppy writing, and silly magic nonsense.
I love the things Jonathan Lethem can do with words, but sometimes I wish he'd remember to include a plot. Also, the last 200 pages are as horrible as everyone says
This was better than I thought it would be based on the silly title, but the cutesy tone was not for me.
I also don't understand the moralizing. If slasher movies were based on real life events, they would be gross movies. But slasher movies are very fictional. This book is not horror, but it certainly is meant to appeal to fans of horror. It's weird to me that a story would try to appeal to a fan group then preach to them about the wrongness of what they like while also fundamentally misrepresenting what they like.
Horror certainly has its issues, especially when it comes to the treatment of women. But one of those issues is not that Pamela Voorhees' pride and joy, her unstoppable killing machine of a son, who visits New York and outer space, and fights a telekinetic Carrie-knock off, is based on a real person.
No character development to speak of, and a lot of fascinating quandries get brushed aside (the mind/body problem most criminally but also issues of mortality, memory, and age). But still good, mindless fun
This is silly. And why is there a concrete slab on the second floor of a residential building?!?!
Silly, fun nonsense. Interesting premise and absolutely no substance. Guilty pleasure movie in book form
Well written, but very slow. I also personally found the constantly switching character perspectives distracting and gimmicky