Aleks

Can't get myself to finish this one! Will try again in the future cuz I love Gene.

Did not enjoy the interplay of "plot" chapters and "reflection" chapters-- a real pace-killer. I'll never not enjoy a Wolfe book to some degree... but I don't see myself ever reading this again.

"There has been joy. There will be joy again." Did not click with me as much as "Stars My Destination" but I don't think I'll ever not enjoy being tossed around by Bester's manic yet purposeful prose-- it's like dancing with a real weirdo of a partner who you eventually realize is following steps!

I waited like 200 pages for them to hopefully go on the damn journey to the mysterious land and they didn't so I gave up. I will probably try again at some point.

Absolutely loved this.

Read this in one sitting. LOVED the world, loved the narration, loved the atmosphere... but was ultimately disappointed with how many of its secrets this book was willing to give away. Was really disappointed once it explained literally the whole deal and then turned into a pretty conventional crime drama. Why is there a damn COP stalking through my spooky enigmatic mystery house?!

Lovely little book. Some sentences in here stopped me dead.

I actually really enjoyed this, but the density of description made me move through this at a slow pace, and then I had to return it to the library. I'd like to read it again now that I better understand what to expect from it.

Got 1/3 of the way through and just was not clicking with it. I hate to say it but I think part of the problem is that this was SO influential that it now feels trite. I don't like having that issue because it's not the book's fault for being iconic! Idk. I just did not care what happened to this guy. But I do want to play Cyberpunk 2077 again.

Annihilation was such an excellent little jewel of a book, and each successive book in the series let the air out of the balloon a little more. I really just don't feel like this added anything that really needed to be added.

Dated and debilitatingly Boomer-y but with a solid core of information.

Wow!!! Eco gets a lot of shit for being deliberately dense, so I was intimidated going into this... only to get a really bright, light-of-foot narrative. He has a real fluidity and complexity of thought to envy. Really enjoyed the very thoughtful and interesting author's notes, where he specifically mentions that he writes for his and the reader's pleasure.

Potent images drowning in unbelievably tedious prose. (Tell me one more goddamn time how many food tablets you took today.) Cloying, sexist, and generally irritating... yet at the same time a completely singular vision like nothing else I've read.

I cannot believe this version I've read is the condensed one-- still way too goddamn long.

Maybe my number one pet peeve is a writer who refuses to let you put two and two together, and overexplains even the most obvious plot points. This book has an instance of that within the first like 25 pages. Instant DNF. Life's too short. My two brain cells deserve respect.

A kaleidoscope, a text-based adventure game, a pinwheel. The only book.

It's giving The Long Tomorrow. Cool idea but the prose is so workmanlike, I wish I could read the, like, Gene Wolfe version of this. Which I guess is just BOTNS.

Completely fucking crazy and singular. Really loved the art.

I love how, both plot-wise and prose-wise, this is sedate on the surface but absolutely roiling with meaning and emotion underneath. Frickin electric.

I did like a few things about it, i.e. the brevity and the implied gay sex. But for the most part I feel like my opinion can be summed up by the fact that I spent like 100 pages waiting for the "actual" story to start before realizing that this was it. Just something, idk, missing for me. Gene Wolfe broke me, probably. The romance feels unearned, the odd modern lingo and references are really immersion-breaking (referring to drunkenly flying a hovercraft as "drunk driving"??) Charming at times, but I left feeling 0 interest in this world or these characters.

The problem with reading a bunch of Ito stories back to back like this is you realize huh the guy only has like 3 ideas. And some of the variants get real stupid.

Really does nothing less than take apart our entire world, cultures, expectations, lives.

I spend too much time on the Internet and that's how I know when other people, like this author, spend too much time on the Internet. Something in the style of writing. Vibe-killer for me.

A lush, enthralling world; gorgeous prose; all kinda wasted in service of two pretty bland and uninteresting main characters. That being said, Barker is so good that I would still rather read something like this than most other fantasies. Struck throughout by how queer this narrative is and how good it feels to read something that's this striking and different in that way. Will have to check out some of Barker's other books.

Just not my vibe.