Timo
A series of short stories that explores the impact of a deadly decades long pandemic, and how the world and people deal with it.
Beginning in the near future it tells very different stories full of fresh ideas about how society and humans change in a world where death and climate change is all around.
The stories often build upon another and have breadcrumb like connections from the very start of the outbreak, to thousand years in the future where humanity travels among the stars.
Some stories are more forgettable than other but concepts like the City of Laughter and other visions of the future will likely stay with me for a long time. I got a lot of „Black Mirror“ vibes while reading, which I consider a good thing.
The beautiful and off the grid location which is amplified by great visual writing is what hooked me to this book. I could sometimes hear the birds and feel the summer breeze.
Although the „power“ of the first main character that we meet at the beginning feels kind of gimmicky, the mystery that unfolded was interesting enough. That is until around 30% in, where there are so many obvious „hints“ that I instantly knew one of the major twists. I don't know if the author wanted to be sneaky or not, but come on.
From that point on the writing and location were the only things that kept me going. Unfortunately it also got worse towards the end. One twist I correctly guessed and the other was incredibly ridiculous.
A story that seems very familiar. There is a missing girl, a weird man in a boarded up house who regularly looses hours if not days he can't remember, and the sister of the missing girl still on the search years later.
But then there's also a talking cat and this is where things got a bit more interesting.
The story is small in scope, taking place only with a handful of characters and locations, which makes it very easy too read and it flows great.
The atmosphere throughout is very tense and the slow dripping of new information keeps the mystery interesting.
That is until at a certain point the “unreliable narrator” trope is getting a bit too much and it became pretty clear where the story will be going. There was a lot of drag in the third act and some chapters blended together because the characters kept repeating the same stuff again and again.
In the end it was enjoyable enough because it took some turns away from the usual tropes.
Would have been better if I read this before watching the movie for sure. Needed to drag myself through. But the good story stays.
A nice little story, but I couldn't get anything out of it. It's a bit too nihilistic for my taste.
Finally done. This was a really tough read. I had to use my Kindle dictionary more than ever, haha!
But nevertheless the story held my interest enough to not give up. Blindsight was hands down the most hardcore sci-fi I've read so far. You have never heard something like this ever before. Most first contact books or movies are getting their ideas from something we humans can relate to. The aliens are looking and behaving like something we know, be it human or animal. But Peter Watts, boy does he fabricate something. Those aliens are really alien. Add this to a dark and hopeless picture of the future and toss some scientifically backed up vampires in the mix and your're set.
It was really interesting but in the end it was just a bit to difficult and tedious to read for me.
I have to admit I cheated a little, and chose to read this short story because it's the last day of 2015 and I was missing 1 book for my reading challenge.
But “The Last Question” from Isaac Asimov was a short story that I've got recommended from so many different places, that I wanted to read this for some time now.
And sure enough, everyone was right. This is a must read for every Sci-Fi lover out there. Even if you have only the tiniest interest in space and space travel this short story will satisfy you greatly.
It is really mind blowing that Isaac Asimov wrote this in 1956. It would have the same impact if it were published today. A really great and thought provoking story and a great ending to my 2015 reading year.
Obligatory buy because I love the show. It was okay reading through once. Never touched it since.
A nice little story about love and money. I liked how the character of Gatsby grew on me. From “damn this guy's arrogant” to “he's pretty okay” to feeling real sad for him.
I'm really torn about “Sphere”. I've read books that I instantly loved and ones that I disliked and stopped reading. “Sphere” somehow managed to keep me in the middle ground all the way to the end. I disliked many things, but the story and pace was interesting enough to keep me going.
“Sphere” got me really hooked in the first half. Throw in some mystery from outer space, some future science and black holes with time travel and I'm instantly hooked on your book. But at the same time I already didn't like the cliche characters and the dialogue. But the action had a good enough pace to keep me going and I hoped for the best that the characters wouldn't get in the way too much. But oh boy did they get in the way.
Michael Crichton had a firm idea how his story needed to advance and play out and disregarded logic and character actions. Illogical actions and implausible reactions to nearly all situations are really a common theme throughout the whole book.
Although this really damped the story for me, I didn't stopped reading because I wanted to know how this all plays out. In the end my time with “Sphere” was worth it, but this story could've been so much more.
You had me there for the first half Mr. King, but really lost me during the second.
Because I loved many other King books so far, I felt right at home at the beginning. The story throws you right into the action from the first sentence. There are no explanations right away, which creates a really intriguing setting. You want to know where and why this is happening.
There's a part modern, fantasy and dystopian world waiting to get explored. And the first half of the book does this really good. The Gunslinger meets interesting chracters and creatures along the way. There's a old western town ready to be explored and destroyed. There's death, a worshiping cult and a huge shootout.
Then he meets this weird out of place boy in the middle of the desert, and everything started to fall apart for me. This boy joins the Gunslinger and I think we're supposed to care for him. Hell, the Gunslinger himself starts loving him. But for me it just felt out of place. I didn't care for him at all. At this point we get glimpses of the story behind the Gunslinger and the former world state, and it's pretty boring.
Then King started to write more and more gibberish. Don't get me wrong, King is one of my favorite authors and I really enjoyed most of his work I've read so far, but The Gunslinger really fell apart. He throws in really unnecessary long and convoluted similes every few sentences, and I stopped counting how many chapters ended with the characters sleeping in.
I powered through to see if King fell into his curse of bad endings, but it was pretty neutral. Nothing bad, nothing good. I just didn't care for it at all.
I loved it. This was the first book that touched and influenced me personally. I really could identify myself with Sutter. Not in the whole, but with many of his problems and thoughts. I could find something for myself in so many dialogues, it helped me to realize to be more open and confident.
I finally came around to read this. And it was good.
Part of me wants to think this story is about growing up and leaving your innocent and orderly life as a child behind, to face the gruesome reality of adulthood. But another part of me just takes the story as it presents itself. A scifi”ish” dystopia where manhood altered nature and feelings, because we destroyed the world with our behavior. Because those are stories that I like.
I like frightening future predictions, because it's fun to weight them for their possibility of coming true. And this one really could come true, or is already if we look at North Korea.
And this is where my problem with the book emerges. Lowry created a world that feels really claustrophobic and intense, but it leaves me with a desire to learn more about it. There's not much depth in everything, be it the world building or the characters.
I settled with the thought that this is on purpose, because that's how the characters in this world live. That's all they know. There isn't much depth in everything. Everything is superficial.
This way I could really enjoy the book, because it throws you right into this community.
Am I wrong? Probably. Could one interpret much or even less deeper than this? Sure, but with this mindset, paired with the really awesome ending that leaves you like you want it to leave you, I really enjoyed The Giver. I think it's a book that you can form like you wish.
I liked it a bit less than the other two John Green books I've read so far. I don't felt the need to find Margo. Still enjoyed it. The ending was good.
I totally skipped the hype around The Hunger Games at that time. I heard about it and signed it off as a bad copy of Battle Royale with a Twilight style love story. Oh how wrong I was.
I recently saw the trailer for the second movie in the theater, and I thought hey this doesn't look so bad. It looked pretty new and fresh, in the middle of all those standard action trailers. So I gave the first book a shot.
And here I am. Finished it in a couple of days, and what a thrilling ride that was. It's full of remarkable and interesting characters. It has a perfect pacing and tense. There's even no snobby love story. What love there is, is perfect blended into the world and totally understandable.
This would even work as a stand alone book. If there wasn't more books I would be totally happy with the ending. But there are two more and I already got them ready. Lets find out what happens next.
I got mixed feelings after finishing this. Some parts were pretty good and some kind of boring. I really liked all the descriptions about the burns. I almost could feel the pain. I also really liked the protagonists journey through Hell near the end. But I guess those ideas were copied right out of “The Divine Comedy”, so I don't want to give Davidson the full credit here.
A short but powerful book about trying to deal with the devastating news of a horrifying illness.
The writing of Paul captivated me from start to finish. I wanted to know all of his thoughts about the tiniest details. His more scientific look at his illness felt enlightening. Even though I have no medical background it helped me to better understand and feel for everyone with such illnesses.
The medical behind the scenes although pretty interesting, didn't do that much for me. I know that they're essential to his life and therefore is memoirs but I could've lived with a bit less of it.
The parts were he was just a patient and not a doctor were the most intimate.
Ironically the most resonating and memorable part of Pauls memoir for me, wasn't something he wrote. It was the afterword if his wife.
I'm not a hardcore comic fan. To be frank, I haven't read many. I'm more interested in bigger graphic novels that tell a whole story, than in short comics with an ongoing one. Once in a while there are some collections coming out that combine a few comics in one bigger issue. Wytches Vol.1 is one of them and I got it because I love horror and it's been getting some rave from different places.
So with my completely unprofessional knowledge of comics: it was okay. The story is still not completed (hence the Vol.1), but it's not as open ended as you think. It can easily be read as a stand alone.
The illustrations are really good. There are a lot of colors and distortions that feet right, and are used to give it all a really dirty and gritty look. The wytches are beautifully creepy.
The story moved way too fast for me (maybe that's a comic thing?), and I would have loved to get a little more background on every character. It started really strong and creepy, but couldn't hold my interest later as the dad decided to get his daughter back.
Because it's such a quick read, I won't say that I felt like I wasted my time with it, but I definitely won't read Volume 2 once it gets released. Maybe comics aren't for me, and I'll be sticking to graphic novels in the future.
I currently wanted to try and get into comics. Not really the superhero stuff, but ones with great and interesting stories. I chose “Blankets” as my first try because it's been getting high praise.
Aaaand..I just read this twice in a row. It's beautiful. The fact that it's autobiographical makes it so real. It's a really touching coming of age story that deals with finding faith and first love, and loosing them again.
It illustrates with lovely pictures that it's necessary to experience the highest highs, the lowest lows and the extremes of life to gain context and form your own opinions and help you find your place.
“How satisfying it is to leave a mark on a blank surface. To make a map of my movement...no matter how temporary.”
I will definitely read this again on some snowy day. And I'm definitely on the lookout for my next graphic novel.
20 000 characters are not enough to describe this book, haha.
Just experience it for yourself. Be sure to pull through even if it distracts you. It's a book you will remember for years.
One of my favorite things in media (be it in movies, tv shows, video games or books) is when I get pleasantly surprised. When I go into something with a specific expectation, and get blown away by something I did not see coming. “In the Woods” did this for me.
I was in the mood for a classic murder mystery. Even if the market is flooded with them, and after seeing that this is the first book in a series called “Dublin Murder Squad” -which kinda sounded like some off the shelf shovelware stuff- I chose this.
What I really love about murder stories is the investigation progress. I find something cozy in around the clock working detectives huddled into some small room, smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee out of cups while digging themselves through mountains of paperwork and photographs. Bonus points for rain that pours down the windows.
And I got all that with “In the Woods”. The writing is really visually and atmospheric, and the coziness kicked in alright. But around the middle of the book the pleasant surprises started to seep through. The plot and characters got way more complex than I expected. I couldn't stop reading. I felt like a detective myself learning all the tiny bits of the characters, and learned to love and/or hate them. All the way to the solutions I couldn't predict the outcome. And Tana French threw one or two small twists in.
I can see that some people will hate this book just because of the fact that one of the biggest mystery doesn't get solved. But I didn't mind. It really fits into the circumstances and left me with something to think about.
Although there are sequels I will probably never read them. For me this was a perfect story in itself and I would like to remember the characters as they are at the end of this book.