Antonio Carioca
One of the best books I've read in a while. Still cant believe this is the first book by Lê Guin that I read - a mixture of Clarke and Zamyatin.
Despite the sci-fi background, it has an incredibly human and acurate description of earth politics. Pragamatic, says it as it is. Ursula is regarded by many as a leftist, by I reckon she is simply a humanist.
While fantasy is not my favourite style, I thought I should read this one, given the author (one of my favourites). And she does it again, masterfully steering away from “us” against “them” as very few can.
I had already heard that Higashino books were page turners and this is indeed the case, I finished this one in just a few days, which for me is quite unusual.
He does some fantastic weaving of side stories into a bigger plot, which are often quite touching. And there's also a general vibe of Osamu Tezuka, specially on the Blackjack manga series which I really enjoyed. I throughly recommend it.
SPOILER: On a side note, it also reminds me of some of my favourite low budget science fiction movies, like Prime or Los Cronocrimenes. Also, how come no one mentions the connections between this and the Dark tv show?!?!?!
Classic Hemingway. Years later I was luck enough to go on a hike for several days in the mountains of Northern Spain and be constantly reminded of this book - this is a testament to how well Hemingway paints his imagery.
Interestingly described solutions for hard environmental and economic problems. Down to earth and yet sophisticated and extremely knowledgeable. Great prose structure.
Um romance épico e revelador sobre as classes sociais do Rio do século 19 e na verdade ainda o Brasil de hoje.
Always a pleasure reading Le Guin and her so accurately described class / power struggles.
Also I wonder how much “Avatar” and George Lucas Ewoks were inspired by this work.
Note: try and get the SF masterwork edition for her introduction to it.
This book has the sort of vivid imagery that haunts you long after you put it down. Krauker is an incredibly writer (and reading it while I was in Nepal only added to the excitement).
Incredibly sad and puzzling at times, but I thoroughly recommend it.
I try not to have personal heroes, but there are no two ways about it, Carl Sagan is one of mine for a number of reasons. And among his many great books, documentaries and speeches, I hold this book in particular in very high regard.
As it is often the case, I came by this one entirely by accident (crashing at a friend's place and quite literally just finding it underneath his bed). I picked it up and could not put it down, becoming probably one of my top 5 all time favourites.
One particular excerpt, where he compares the consciousness of dogs to the way we think and act in dreams, never fails to come back to my mind every time I interact with a dog for more than 5 minutes.
“I was a victim of a series of accidents, as are we all.”
The fact that Vonnegut is not hailed as one of the master's of the human soul is baffling.
His at first-sight chaotic and randomly woven tapestry of ideas soon proves to be nothing of the sort. No sentence in the entire book seems to have been written without a clear purpose, no event is untied to a relevant aspect of the whole plot. The experience of reading his books amounts to murmuring a series of pleasant “ahhhh”s and “ohhhh”s.
The man is simply a genius.
Whilte I still prefer the dispossed by far, this is without a doubt thought provoking as well, perhaps not as political as the other one though
Interesting book from an author that's quickly becoming one of my favourites. This one reminds me quite a bit of the general tones of a Philip K Dick, which is different to the other two books I read by her (the dispossessed and the left hand of the darkness).
Clear references to George Orwell too (main character called George Orr) and, interestingly, the ever shifting reality of the book reminds me also of Murakami's 1Q84, which also pays homage to Orwell.
Overalls fun short read
I had been familiar with the movie Solaris for years and thought it was reasonably interesting. Then one day I had to visit Lviv in Ukraine for work (the hometown of the author, but at the time it belonged to Poland) and decided to give the book a try. Man, absolutely incredible. He describes an encounter with an alien culture the exact way I always thought it should be - incomprehensible.
But while he does it majestically well, this is not even my favourite part of the book. What is really enticing (and just too close to home) is the fact that no “specialist” could come to an agreement whether the “alien” was even conscious or not. Again, exactly how I always suspected it would be.
A must read to any science fiction fan.
I didn't think that was possible, but this has probably become now my favourite book by Kundera. Here in a hotel room in Santiago, jet-lagged, and simply could not put it down until I finished. Insights and nods - and “melancholy” as he often said - through the night
Decided to give the second book a try but now I know for sure: this really isn't my cup of tea.
I am absolutely speechless. Couldn't put the book down. How can such a story be real is beyond me.
Absolute classic. As many other of his books, hilariously quoted by both the left and the right pointing fingers at each other.
Fantastic, Ted Chiang's vibes here and there. Really glad to have found out about Egan (and a fellow Australian too!!!)