Ryan Wenneker
It was a very clever alternate history idea and well imagined.
And as a period piece done in the oeuvre of that a compilation of the diaries and first-person narrative of Lewis and Clark's it's very much in line with such a collection of that fictional collection.
In that is very well done, and kept that tonality well.
So separately -
The idea I liked.
The execution (the technical aspect of keeping itself as a period-appropriate collection of writings) - it's done well.
I am wondering if it would have been better to have just written it without that limitation as I think it hindered the retelling of the story.
Ok, this is mixed book.
Its unique structure is what wins the book for me. Opposite pages are a fictional story in which the principles are being applied. Very clever, if not inspiration
Be forearmed this is more of a narrative in the form of a series of speeches.
An easy read, from an award winning, accomplished teacher... on why the US educational system doesn't work.
It was a fast read, and the idea of a biography of the equation a wonderful approach to the theory and understanding of relativity.
Although it is a good idea, and I believe well executed. I'm unable to give it highest marks. It's a good means to educate those without a solid basis but somehow it lacks greater insight or passion on the materials.
I'm using Mary Roach's work as a comparison for biograph-ing a subject matter.
my head hurts:
The Book of the Damned (1919), New Lands (1923), Lo! (1931), and Wild Talents (1932). Charles Fort's four stranger-than-science books.
a procession of data, reports and the like that make your no longer need sleeping aids. :/
But strikingly the age of the work more seems to demonstate how little progress we've made in some fields of science.
I'm sure I must be missing the insightful aspect of the author's. Many people are very taken by this story, but to me it is another work of fiction and unless you find the way she dollops out the history of the world, aka answering the question of... “Um? How did the world get to be like this?”, it wasn't incredible, the characters were not achingly familiar and raw, and the imagry not so vivid that I was swept into the author's narrative landscape. It was story, and not bad - better than some, but it won't be something I seek to read twice to refesh its insights into human behavior, or ponder on the ethical issues faced in the story line.
Which is a long way to say.
“Meh”
A hardboiled detective romp, featuring body hopping, cloning, and the nearly immortal (and rich) Bancrofts, all through a circa 2500 San Francisco sprawl is much the same as you'd expect.
I felt like I was reading the echo of William Gibson Neuromancer. I understand that the book was optioned for a moive, and it will transition well enough for that.
Here's the thing about the book. In hardboiled fashion, it tends to be pretty sexist and crude at times, which didn't add to the dark underworld edge, it was just crass.
I felt that they overplayed the myth of the Envoy's abilities the heroic archetype wasn't anything special and the author came across as suggesting the protagonist was a mix between Ninja and PsyCovert Ops, however he wasn't. I would have liked some creative descriptions of the neurochemical boosts, and his pseudo psy-op training would have been better if he had taken the time to research the FACS system or perhaps suggest and bring that into the story.
I normally love Crichton, this book was not the same more of a rambling journey through ethical business practices of biotech companies. I normally find Crichton to be helpful to digest raw data I read in other places, a form of putting data in context. However; this book did not have the technological and medical insight of his other books.
Ok clearly this is Crichton's foray into his passion for flight, however it lacks so much of the detail and drama of the rest of his work.
This book was clever, but its a time piece, in 4-5 years the novelty of the book will gone.
The book relies heavily upon the post Obama world, into which the troubles of the united states have gathered into neuromancer-esque, dispotic future in the USA.
A thriller surrounding the death of a prominent Japanesse political/business figure's favorite son, and a washed out police detective, now strung out on the drug of the day - Flashback. A drug that allows the user to relive with perfect clarity their some of their past experiences.
The characters have the typical thriller's depth and obvious well used personality flaws.
A who dunnit mixed with some political commentary on our current experiences. Thinly veiled on that front, so thankfully easy to digest.
I like Dante, and this does keep the work's words as law - but it doesn't rise to the level of the first work (inferno). Where Inferno was at least an myoptic look at how a self centered writer might view hell, this was ponderous.
Its clever in the characters you meet, the random tidbits of history all juxtaposed... but it fails to become a coherent STORY.
It might make a good play though.
I Love this author's work.
I cannot say enough about her quixotic mix of humor and real truth of experience.
Chance brought this book to my attention.
This is a marvel, on par with Douglas Adams and Monty Python. The love story of the bride of Christ, a man with Nietzsche tattooed on his butt, and the shopping cart on a quest for finding god that brought them together.
Oh, and the odd bet on the existence of the metaphysical.
Ouch... its the literature version of Red Dawn, post apocalyptic world... more politics then perhaps I'd like, but still good read.
Written as a teen/YA lit book, I am getting a bit concerned by the ongoing repetition of rape in a series that works to mitigate things like decapitation and whose explicates all appear to be “Bags!”
I'll work my way into the third book, but this series appears to be a forced exposition rather than a narrative progression of the story.