2023.01.31
Is it OK to put non-fiction here, or should I separate... I read so little, it doesn't matter.
Wednesday, January 31, 2024
Tuesday, October 20, 2020
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie (2006)
2020.10.20
I checked this out from the library a while ago. I read a chapter a few weeks ago, set it down, and haven't touched it since.
I checked this out from the library a while ago. I read a chapter a few weeks ago, set it down, and haven't touched it since.
Tuesday, November 21, 2017
Kings of the Wylde by Nicholas Eames (2017)
2017.10.?
I check the book out of the library, and place it prominently on my main bookshelf. I do not touch it.
2017.11.21
About once a week I see the book, feel a pang of guilt for not reading it, while I continue to re-new it.
Tonight I finally open it. Read the first 3 chapters. Its good. Draws you right in. Paints the world and characters fast, and if you're even a little familiar with D&D, the world feels comfortably familiar.
I'm not quite invested yet, but I can already feel it starting. The overtly RPG references are coming almost a little too thick and fast, as if the book is overly eager to try and establish its fantasy cred, but its earnestness is excusable in this short attention span age.
2017.12.01
Of course - why didn't I think of it before: geeksploitation. I've been calling it things like Nostalgia Chow, but a new word isn't needed. What else can you call it when a book references half the monsters in the Monster Manual in the first few chapters? Not only is it an exploitation of geek culture, but maybe even a particular era - kind of like Ready Player One was a like a nostalgia and geek exploitation engine, with the 70s/80s module loaded.
Not that I'm complaining, I just wanted to understand. I am the target demographic. I am in the right place.
Now if only I could get started reading again...
2018.01.27
Start over.
2018.01.31
Once I got started it was easy to keep going, until something from the Real World derailed me. After a day my head was still in the book, after two days faltering, after three days almost all inertia lost.
Spoilers coming up.
The band metaphor just keeps on building to the point where its getting hard to ignore. The book cover says "the boys are back in town" (a song from...lookup 1976), the back cover says "it's time to get the band back together" (a fairly old music biz idiom). Mercenary companies are "bands". Merc bands have bookers, or agents, just like music bands. In the band Saga, one of the characters is name Moog, fitting for the mage of the group. Clay Cooper doesn't ring a bell, and "frontman" Gabriel... Peter?
I know William Gibson used a little bit of this metaphor in Neuromancer, naming a few characters and situations after his favorite musicians and songs, but Kings of the Wyld is world building with it. If the references stopped here that would be fine, but they don't, so it maintains a constant level of distraction.
I don't mind the D&D geeksploitation, and I somewhat forgive the classic rock music industry references. I don't mind at all the map at the beginning of the book in the Tolkien map style - its a fitting tribute, actually. But when a character says "the cake was a lie" you are starting to actively annoy your reader. Even if it was an innocent mistake some proof-reader or editor should have told the author that you can't put this phrase here, its wholly owned by an entirely other property and it sticks out unforgivably.
Freddie.... Mercury?
And, halfway through the book, the band is back together.
2018.10.11
Stopped again for months. I have to finish this book this month... its been a year now.
The musical references keep coming, I'm over it, but when internet memes start dropping in ("kill it with fire") its knocks me right out of the story. I'm now convinced the previous meme ("the cake is a lie") was no boating accident.
I really like the friendly troll, but why give him precisely a Jamaican accent? Irie. Really?
I think I've finally got a handle on this book, its just like how I felt when reading the the Hitchhiker's books. There's a good story, good characters, some good dialogue and comedy, but you just have to put up with the author's eccentricities.
2018.10.13
For me reading seems to be a function of inertia. The more I read, the more I can, want, and need to read.
A clear pattern has emerged in this book, the tension is ratcheted one level higher, then release, over and over again. There's not much time to hang out or contemplate, as soon as one problem is resolved the kettle is set to boil again. Not sure how to feel about it, it is just the pattern.
In the last quarter now.
2018.10.18
Done.
*spoilers is always set to ON, but this your last chance*
If you're into fantasy, this is worth reading. It's a bit too self-aware with the non-stop D&D references, and its a bit too pleased with its non-stop music references, but its got heart, and some good action. There's a type of story telling that yanks the tension dial up to 11, then back down to 1, over and over, and its exhausting. Before long though you realize the good guys only gain ground, and everything's probably going to be OK. Despite that, the nearly impossible happy ending feels earned anyway. The way to sequel is left clear, but the prologue closes more doors than it opens.
And then one of my least favorite things happens, there are more and more endings. I love a book that just ends, leaving you to your own thoughts and questions. Acknowledgements, extras, meet the author, Author interview, next installment, plugging some other similar Orbit property - you can only diminish the impact of your story. I am grateful, however, that they color coded the DVD extras section gray, so I didn't think the main story had another chapter to go. That's the only reason I'm not mad about it, so thanks for that.
Reading the extras... the bit of the next book feels like it was written by someone else. A quick look on Amazon and... Bloody Rose (The Band) came out on Aug 28, 2018.
The epilogue left nothing to the imagination, the story of Saga is over. I don't care if the Winter Queen has been resurrected any more than I care about a new set of characters.
Skimming reviews, there is much gushing over the first book, but the second gets but a trickle. Not so much sophomore slump, but second album syndrome. Seems to be darker and less funny. Who knows, maybe I'll like it more. Maybe it can even get close to The Black Company.
I check the book out of the library, and place it prominently on my main bookshelf. I do not touch it.
2017.11.21
About once a week I see the book, feel a pang of guilt for not reading it, while I continue to re-new it.
Tonight I finally open it. Read the first 3 chapters. Its good. Draws you right in. Paints the world and characters fast, and if you're even a little familiar with D&D, the world feels comfortably familiar.
I'm not quite invested yet, but I can already feel it starting. The overtly RPG references are coming almost a little too thick and fast, as if the book is overly eager to try and establish its fantasy cred, but its earnestness is excusable in this short attention span age.
2017.12.01
Of course - why didn't I think of it before: geeksploitation. I've been calling it things like Nostalgia Chow, but a new word isn't needed. What else can you call it when a book references half the monsters in the Monster Manual in the first few chapters? Not only is it an exploitation of geek culture, but maybe even a particular era - kind of like Ready Player One was a like a nostalgia and geek exploitation engine, with the 70s/80s module loaded.
Not that I'm complaining, I just wanted to understand. I am the target demographic. I am in the right place.
Now if only I could get started reading again...
2018.01.27
Start over.
2018.01.31
Once I got started it was easy to keep going, until something from the Real World derailed me. After a day my head was still in the book, after two days faltering, after three days almost all inertia lost.
Spoilers coming up.
The band metaphor just keeps on building to the point where its getting hard to ignore. The book cover says "the boys are back in town" (a song from...lookup 1976), the back cover says "it's time to get the band back together" (a fairly old music biz idiom). Mercenary companies are "bands". Merc bands have bookers, or agents, just like music bands. In the band Saga, one of the characters is name Moog, fitting for the mage of the group. Clay Cooper doesn't ring a bell, and "frontman" Gabriel... Peter?
I know William Gibson used a little bit of this metaphor in Neuromancer, naming a few characters and situations after his favorite musicians and songs, but Kings of the Wyld is world building with it. If the references stopped here that would be fine, but they don't, so it maintains a constant level of distraction.
I don't mind the D&D geeksploitation, and I somewhat forgive the classic rock music industry references. I don't mind at all the map at the beginning of the book in the Tolkien map style - its a fitting tribute, actually. But when a character says "the cake was a lie" you are starting to actively annoy your reader. Even if it was an innocent mistake some proof-reader or editor should have told the author that you can't put this phrase here, its wholly owned by an entirely other property and it sticks out unforgivably.
Freddie.... Mercury?
And, halfway through the book, the band is back together.
2018.10.11
Stopped again for months. I have to finish this book this month... its been a year now.
The musical references keep coming, I'm over it, but when internet memes start dropping in ("kill it with fire") its knocks me right out of the story. I'm now convinced the previous meme ("the cake is a lie") was no boating accident.
I really like the friendly troll, but why give him precisely a Jamaican accent? Irie. Really?
I think I've finally got a handle on this book, its just like how I felt when reading the the Hitchhiker's books. There's a good story, good characters, some good dialogue and comedy, but you just have to put up with the author's eccentricities.
2018.10.13
For me reading seems to be a function of inertia. The more I read, the more I can, want, and need to read.
A clear pattern has emerged in this book, the tension is ratcheted one level higher, then release, over and over again. There's not much time to hang out or contemplate, as soon as one problem is resolved the kettle is set to boil again. Not sure how to feel about it, it is just the pattern.
In the last quarter now.
2018.10.18
Done.
*spoilers is always set to ON, but this your last chance*
If you're into fantasy, this is worth reading. It's a bit too self-aware with the non-stop D&D references, and its a bit too pleased with its non-stop music references, but its got heart, and some good action. There's a type of story telling that yanks the tension dial up to 11, then back down to 1, over and over, and its exhausting. Before long though you realize the good guys only gain ground, and everything's probably going to be OK. Despite that, the nearly impossible happy ending feels earned anyway. The way to sequel is left clear, but the prologue closes more doors than it opens.
And then one of my least favorite things happens, there are more and more endings. I love a book that just ends, leaving you to your own thoughts and questions. Acknowledgements, extras, meet the author, Author interview, next installment, plugging some other similar Orbit property - you can only diminish the impact of your story. I am grateful, however, that they color coded the DVD extras section gray, so I didn't think the main story had another chapter to go. That's the only reason I'm not mad about it, so thanks for that.
Reading the extras... the bit of the next book feels like it was written by someone else. A quick look on Amazon and... Bloody Rose (The Band) came out on Aug 28, 2018.
The epilogue left nothing to the imagination, the story of Saga is over. I don't care if the Winter Queen has been resurrected any more than I care about a new set of characters.
Skimming reviews, there is much gushing over the first book, but the second gets but a trickle. Not so much sophomore slump, but second album syndrome. Seems to be darker and less funny. Who knows, maybe I'll like it more. Maybe it can even get close to The Black Company.
Thursday, February 16, 2017
Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897)
2017.02.16
About a month ago I eagerly read about a third of this book over a day or so, then set it down and forgot about it for a month. It started out so promising as a travelogue, with a train trip into eastern Europe, enjoying the local cuisine and languages, but it didn't stay like that. The forced conceit of the book, that everything must be told after the fact from some form of journal, diary, etc. starts to wear heavy.
Its also a bit of a hurdle to get over that you know this story from countless retellings. Cliches are just worn out tropes that used to be new, so you just have to get your mindset back to when it was fresh. I am pleasantly surprised that the language hardly feels old at all.
Trying to start up again, familiarity with the story lets me dive right in. Go back a few pages and there's crazy Renfield awaiting the coming of his master, Mina's growing concern for her friend Lucy's increasingly odd condition, Van Helsing joining the investigation, Jonathan recovering from his ordeal in Dracula's castle. Its hard to shake the images of the movie (you know the one, all star cast, 1992), but the purple prose is actually helping me get back to the 19th century. Sometimes it reminds me of Lovecraft's writing, and that also helps me get back into context.
2017.03.07
I still really like this book when I pick it up, but I go days without thinking about it.
Up to about the part where Lucy is being finally put to rest, the book was mostly parallel to what I knew from the movies. Now its really starting to diverge. Where's the seduction of Mina? We quickly move from our heroes meeting and sharing information, to fighting Dracula off of Mina's body. Was all that vampire romance just from the movies? I think I like this creepier Dracula more, he's less relatable as a human, and more of a predator, but still cunning. And the heroes do hardly any bumbling at all. They communicate and plan, and their few mistakes are understandable. Even leaving Mina out of the council, at the cost of her getting caught up by Dracula, is explained reasonably well in the story, even as the author leaves hints that this is what is going to happen, and its their fault. To our heroes credit, they realized their mistake quickly.
2017.03.14
A snow day makes for a great reading day.
I can see the finish line in sight, and I am forcing myself to keep a steady pace, and not break into a mad dash. I take little breaks to give me some time to reflect on what I just read. I force myself to make food, but read while eating.
The extreme verbosity becomes really jarring as there are more and more action scenes. Characters are capable of remarkable half-page length soliloquies while a key turns in a lock, or one character moves from one room to another.
I'm surprised how much the last third is starting to feel like bits and pieces of all the role-playing games I've encountered over the years, as much as and at times moreso than even Lord of the Rings.
Only a millimeter or two of pages to go...
For a story that seemed to drag on for so long, the ending was non-stop action. As I turned the last few pages I thought perhaps this copy was defective and missing pages, as it seemed unlikely this story could wrap up this fast, faster even than the movie version. That makes sense as I consider what makes for movie action scenes compared to the action scenes in the mind's eye.
I don't think the "7 years later..." reunion, with obligatory child named after the fallen, was in the movie. I don't really remember the story ending this conclusively upbeat, but our heroes earned it. Even if we want the mythology of Dracula to keep going.
I like this book, and the story in it. It feels fresh and more alive than the movie version, but in some ways the movie makes for a better package. I guess the seductive powers of movie Dracula, and the tacked on romance revenge story, was just an update for modern sensibilities; if it was in the book it was submerged under many layers of Victorian lace. Nobody in the book wants sexy time with Dracula, he's simply a very smart - and very hungry - monster who can generate a little charm when needed, but is not even remotely likable as a villain.
Its a good and fun story, and would be an easy read if not for the often extreme prose diahrea. Still worth a read though, if for no other reason than to get the story straight. What other good things from the 19th century have I missed?
About a month ago I eagerly read about a third of this book over a day or so, then set it down and forgot about it for a month. It started out so promising as a travelogue, with a train trip into eastern Europe, enjoying the local cuisine and languages, but it didn't stay like that. The forced conceit of the book, that everything must be told after the fact from some form of journal, diary, etc. starts to wear heavy.
Its also a bit of a hurdle to get over that you know this story from countless retellings. Cliches are just worn out tropes that used to be new, so you just have to get your mindset back to when it was fresh. I am pleasantly surprised that the language hardly feels old at all.
Trying to start up again, familiarity with the story lets me dive right in. Go back a few pages and there's crazy Renfield awaiting the coming of his master, Mina's growing concern for her friend Lucy's increasingly odd condition, Van Helsing joining the investigation, Jonathan recovering from his ordeal in Dracula's castle. Its hard to shake the images of the movie (you know the one, all star cast, 1992), but the purple prose is actually helping me get back to the 19th century. Sometimes it reminds me of Lovecraft's writing, and that also helps me get back into context.
2017.03.07
I still really like this book when I pick it up, but I go days without thinking about it.
Up to about the part where Lucy is being finally put to rest, the book was mostly parallel to what I knew from the movies. Now its really starting to diverge. Where's the seduction of Mina? We quickly move from our heroes meeting and sharing information, to fighting Dracula off of Mina's body. Was all that vampire romance just from the movies? I think I like this creepier Dracula more, he's less relatable as a human, and more of a predator, but still cunning. And the heroes do hardly any bumbling at all. They communicate and plan, and their few mistakes are understandable. Even leaving Mina out of the council, at the cost of her getting caught up by Dracula, is explained reasonably well in the story, even as the author leaves hints that this is what is going to happen, and its their fault. To our heroes credit, they realized their mistake quickly.
2017.03.14
A snow day makes for a great reading day.
I can see the finish line in sight, and I am forcing myself to keep a steady pace, and not break into a mad dash. I take little breaks to give me some time to reflect on what I just read. I force myself to make food, but read while eating.
The extreme verbosity becomes really jarring as there are more and more action scenes. Characters are capable of remarkable half-page length soliloquies while a key turns in a lock, or one character moves from one room to another.
I'm surprised how much the last third is starting to feel like bits and pieces of all the role-playing games I've encountered over the years, as much as and at times moreso than even Lord of the Rings.
Only a millimeter or two of pages to go...
For a story that seemed to drag on for so long, the ending was non-stop action. As I turned the last few pages I thought perhaps this copy was defective and missing pages, as it seemed unlikely this story could wrap up this fast, faster even than the movie version. That makes sense as I consider what makes for movie action scenes compared to the action scenes in the mind's eye.
I don't think the "7 years later..." reunion, with obligatory child named after the fallen, was in the movie. I don't really remember the story ending this conclusively upbeat, but our heroes earned it. Even if we want the mythology of Dracula to keep going.
I like this book, and the story in it. It feels fresh and more alive than the movie version, but in some ways the movie makes for a better package. I guess the seductive powers of movie Dracula, and the tacked on romance revenge story, was just an update for modern sensibilities; if it was in the book it was submerged under many layers of Victorian lace. Nobody in the book wants sexy time with Dracula, he's simply a very smart - and very hungry - monster who can generate a little charm when needed, but is not even remotely likable as a villain.
Its a good and fun story, and would be an easy read if not for the often extreme prose diahrea. Still worth a read though, if for no other reason than to get the story straight. What other good things from the 19th century have I missed?
Sunday, December 18, 2016
Death's End by Cixin Liu (2010)
I finished this book over a week ago, and I'm just starting to get over it. I haven't been this moved by a story in some time, not just emotionally, but mentally as well.
Can't say anymore until moving on to the spoiler stage, but if you liked Macroscope or Rama, or any story that involves cosmic scales of time and space, you need this whole trilogy. Like the other books in this trilogy, characters are not especially strong or memorable, and there's a lot of exposition, but the sum is far greater than any weak parts.
*spoilers*
The book lets you know early and hard that you're in for a super long timeline. There isn't a table of contents - its a Table of Eras that extends millions of years into the future. I vaguely recall looking at the names of all these eras, wondering if I'm reading spoilers and should maybe quickly look away. I tried to mostly forget about it, but all through the book I found myself distracted about what's coming in the next era, so I don't think this should be shown to the reader right up front.
I'm concerned I've taken too long since the last book, but I get right back into it. I just have to try harder to recall all the Chinese names. Characters can be sometimes expressive and real, but drop into exposition mode for pages at a time, but I'm still into it.
It grabs me from page one, because it starts talking about history (fall of Constantinople) immediately. I also like that we go back and revisit the previous stories from a new perspective.
(Following are notes from certain pages, written as I was reading. I don't know if this has any value, and even as notes its not very useful. But this is a blog, so useful is not why we're here.)
p60
Was that a deliberate callback to Byzantium and swords?
p73
Just like that, title drop. Overall, I like the nonchalant way the author just lets the heaviest of things drop.
p79
I love the connections from the weird start of the story to the 'present' (i.e. brain extraction).
p98
The author has done this separating and reuniting act a few times now. You can see it coming from an eternity away but it still works for me every time.
End of Part 1.
p109
"under arrest for murder" I am so glad this is finally addressed. I was never comfortable with the idea that human survivors immediately turn on each other. I think even the author regrets that ham handed need to push a point at the expense of believable characters, and is trying to walk it back a bit.
p141
I've been looking forward to the meeting of the humans and Tri-Solarans for a long time. I'm actually glad the process is taking so long, with exchanges of information and AI meetings only so far. That the TS seem to like humanity so much, and be so cooperative, seems too good to be true. The TS seemed so ruthless up until now that I'm wondering if its not a way to put us off our guard so they can conquer us another way. But the TS supposedly don't know how to lie.
p169
Nice way to re-invent the Cold War, with bigger weapons and higher stakes. Maybe the TS will be better liars than we.
p175
Yep, just like that. Humanity defeated and reduced to a reservation in Australia. A second dark age (Great Ravine).
The other humans (away form Earth) offer a last chance at revenge... and suddenly we're in 4D space.
The descriptions are simple and great, quite believable that it could work this way.
p246
Feels like the first third of the book setup the new adventures in 4D.
p253
Again and again this story reminds me of Macroscope, just when you think you've gotten used to how the universe works, we shift to a higher level. Our universe is a dark forest. Now we move up a level to 4D space, and you move from one dark forest to another.
p262
Part 3
p270
Tri-Solaris dead. Will humans and TS ever meet? Will the author get to completely dodge ever having to describe them?
p287
Humanity in this story is written so it changes its mind so often it seems crazy; its nice of the author to admit this problem he's created.
p317
Weight. The author is facile at throwing around weight and making it look easy.
p351
Done with the 3 fairy tales.
p370
Double and single layer metaphors.
p391
Math questions determine who gets to go on the last ship. Guess I would be left behind on the doomed Earth.
p418
In most any sci-fi story humanity finally achieving light speed would be a victory. Here its yet another threat, like everything.
p436
Along the River During the Qingming Festival.
p446
The story of Gao Way, just another bead on a long string of tragedies. There's no way this book doesn't end with Cheng Xin and Yun Tianming together.
p465
Part 5
Cheng Xin's pacifism is unmovable, yet she still seems more like a person than a character or an idea.
p470 Cleansing and singing? Star-Pluckers?
Hide yourself well, cleanse well.
p498
Over and over, Cheng Xin's pacifism robs humanity of its weapons and defenses against near certain destruction, and yet humanity keeps surviving somehow. The message that there is no point in surviving if we have to compromise our humanity is not very convincing this way.
p525
The 2D death of the solar system and everything in it is more boring than surreal. I appreciate that the author must have spent a lot of time on research, but I feel frustration that the book will be over soon, and I just want to get it over with.
p530
Of course the Halo is capable of light speed. Of course it is, because there's still 1 cm of paper left in the book, so of course our protagonist can't just die with the Solar System.
p533
This is another point from the author, across all these stories, that I can not entirely believe, that all humans are so selfish all the time. Of course most are, but humans are also random enough that nothing they do is ever this consistent.
p535
I'm glad this hippy is finally mad. The past is littered with heroes who could have saved mankind, and Cheng Xin's stupidity doomed mankind over and over. She doesn't deserve to be amongst the last humans alive, let alone get anything like a happy ending. At the same time, its not fair to call her the greatest mass murder in history. Same end result though.
p539
"Halo flew at the speed of light toward the star that Yun Tianming had given Cheng Xin."
Just like that, I'm not even mad anymore. It feels like the whole story was leading up to the glory of this line.
p541
Part 6
p559
The Garden of Eden use to be 10 dimensional, with near instant light speed. Endless war is making our universe continually lose dimensions, and keeps reducing the speed of light. Now this is sci-fi.
p577
18 million years gone, like nothing.
p592
Over a hundred thousand languages discovered, representing survivors of the death of the universe... no, more - over a million!
p602
end
Whenever I near the finish line, I tend to break into a sprint, unfortunately making the conclusion more anti-climactic. But it still has quite an effect. After I put the book down I move about my world in a bit of daze, feeling mostly empty.
It's hard to top rebooting the universe, there's just not much more to say. Cheng Xin and Yun Tianming miss each other by only a few days, and a few billion years. This is one of the few ways you could top them actually meeting (storywise), but its still an emotional kick in the abdomen that leaves me breathless. And the carving in the stone... So many stories and tragedies hinted at, and long gone.
This Death's End trilogy is to Macroscope what Lord of the Rings is to The Hobbit.
2016.12.18
I finished reading earlier in the month (12/9 maybe), and I am now at the stage where I'm not thinking about the story every few hours, just maybe once a day.
I flip through the beginning of the book, and all the big points of the story are right there. The end of humanity, even the universe. The notion that the world, and the universe, looks the way it does is because of life, not despite it.
The excerpts from A Past Outside of Time, the book Cheng Xin writes at the end of the story, are interspersed, but they still sound a bit more like the author than the character. That's something I've been wrestling with over the whole book, and for days later - is Cheng Xin a real person, a real character, a placeholder, an ideal? There are far fewer moments when she feels real (early in the book) then when she doesn't (especially near the end).
I know, characters in a book serve a purpose, unlike real people, who don't have to make any sense at all. I feel like I got most everything out of the book that I was supposed to, but I can't reconcile Cheng Xin's extreme pacifism as being part of a real person/character, or just something to keep the wheels of the story on the track. There were times that her boss/rival/nemesis Wade felt like more of a real person, and he gets like 5 lines in the whole book. But I guess he was just an ideal also.
It might be interesting to read through the whole thing again, knowing how it will end. But not now, time to move on. I'm not sure how hard the sci-fi in this story was, but it feels like the bar has been raised. This will be a hard series to move on from. My next book or series should almost certainly be fantasy, to avoid any unfair comparisons.
Can't say anymore until moving on to the spoiler stage, but if you liked Macroscope or Rama, or any story that involves cosmic scales of time and space, you need this whole trilogy. Like the other books in this trilogy, characters are not especially strong or memorable, and there's a lot of exposition, but the sum is far greater than any weak parts.
*spoilers*
The book lets you know early and hard that you're in for a super long timeline. There isn't a table of contents - its a Table of Eras that extends millions of years into the future. I vaguely recall looking at the names of all these eras, wondering if I'm reading spoilers and should maybe quickly look away. I tried to mostly forget about it, but all through the book I found myself distracted about what's coming in the next era, so I don't think this should be shown to the reader right up front.
I'm concerned I've taken too long since the last book, but I get right back into it. I just have to try harder to recall all the Chinese names. Characters can be sometimes expressive and real, but drop into exposition mode for pages at a time, but I'm still into it.
It grabs me from page one, because it starts talking about history (fall of Constantinople) immediately. I also like that we go back and revisit the previous stories from a new perspective.
(Following are notes from certain pages, written as I was reading. I don't know if this has any value, and even as notes its not very useful. But this is a blog, so useful is not why we're here.)
p60
Was that a deliberate callback to Byzantium and swords?
p73
Just like that, title drop. Overall, I like the nonchalant way the author just lets the heaviest of things drop.
p79
I love the connections from the weird start of the story to the 'present' (i.e. brain extraction).
p98
The author has done this separating and reuniting act a few times now. You can see it coming from an eternity away but it still works for me every time.
End of Part 1.
p109
"under arrest for murder" I am so glad this is finally addressed. I was never comfortable with the idea that human survivors immediately turn on each other. I think even the author regrets that ham handed need to push a point at the expense of believable characters, and is trying to walk it back a bit.
p141
I've been looking forward to the meeting of the humans and Tri-Solarans for a long time. I'm actually glad the process is taking so long, with exchanges of information and AI meetings only so far. That the TS seem to like humanity so much, and be so cooperative, seems too good to be true. The TS seemed so ruthless up until now that I'm wondering if its not a way to put us off our guard so they can conquer us another way. But the TS supposedly don't know how to lie.
p169
Nice way to re-invent the Cold War, with bigger weapons and higher stakes. Maybe the TS will be better liars than we.
p175
Yep, just like that. Humanity defeated and reduced to a reservation in Australia. A second dark age (Great Ravine).
The other humans (away form Earth) offer a last chance at revenge... and suddenly we're in 4D space.
The descriptions are simple and great, quite believable that it could work this way.
p246
Feels like the first third of the book setup the new adventures in 4D.
p253
Again and again this story reminds me of Macroscope, just when you think you've gotten used to how the universe works, we shift to a higher level. Our universe is a dark forest. Now we move up a level to 4D space, and you move from one dark forest to another.
p262
Part 3
p270
Tri-Solaris dead. Will humans and TS ever meet? Will the author get to completely dodge ever having to describe them?
p287
Humanity in this story is written so it changes its mind so often it seems crazy; its nice of the author to admit this problem he's created.
p317
Weight. The author is facile at throwing around weight and making it look easy.
p351
Done with the 3 fairy tales.
p370
Double and single layer metaphors.
p391
Math questions determine who gets to go on the last ship. Guess I would be left behind on the doomed Earth.
p418
In most any sci-fi story humanity finally achieving light speed would be a victory. Here its yet another threat, like everything.
p436
Along the River During the Qingming Festival.
p446
The story of Gao Way, just another bead on a long string of tragedies. There's no way this book doesn't end with Cheng Xin and Yun Tianming together.
p465
Part 5
Cheng Xin's pacifism is unmovable, yet she still seems more like a person than a character or an idea.
p470 Cleansing and singing? Star-Pluckers?
Hide yourself well, cleanse well.
p498
Over and over, Cheng Xin's pacifism robs humanity of its weapons and defenses against near certain destruction, and yet humanity keeps surviving somehow. The message that there is no point in surviving if we have to compromise our humanity is not very convincing this way.
p525
The 2D death of the solar system and everything in it is more boring than surreal. I appreciate that the author must have spent a lot of time on research, but I feel frustration that the book will be over soon, and I just want to get it over with.
p530
Of course the Halo is capable of light speed. Of course it is, because there's still 1 cm of paper left in the book, so of course our protagonist can't just die with the Solar System.
p533
This is another point from the author, across all these stories, that I can not entirely believe, that all humans are so selfish all the time. Of course most are, but humans are also random enough that nothing they do is ever this consistent.
p535
I'm glad this hippy is finally mad. The past is littered with heroes who could have saved mankind, and Cheng Xin's stupidity doomed mankind over and over. She doesn't deserve to be amongst the last humans alive, let alone get anything like a happy ending. At the same time, its not fair to call her the greatest mass murder in history. Same end result though.
p539
"Halo flew at the speed of light toward the star that Yun Tianming had given Cheng Xin."
Just like that, I'm not even mad anymore. It feels like the whole story was leading up to the glory of this line.
p541
Part 6
p559
The Garden of Eden use to be 10 dimensional, with near instant light speed. Endless war is making our universe continually lose dimensions, and keeps reducing the speed of light. Now this is sci-fi.
p577
18 million years gone, like nothing.
p592
Over a hundred thousand languages discovered, representing survivors of the death of the universe... no, more - over a million!
p602
end
Whenever I near the finish line, I tend to break into a sprint, unfortunately making the conclusion more anti-climactic. But it still has quite an effect. After I put the book down I move about my world in a bit of daze, feeling mostly empty.
It's hard to top rebooting the universe, there's just not much more to say. Cheng Xin and Yun Tianming miss each other by only a few days, and a few billion years. This is one of the few ways you could top them actually meeting (storywise), but its still an emotional kick in the abdomen that leaves me breathless. And the carving in the stone... So many stories and tragedies hinted at, and long gone.
This Death's End trilogy is to Macroscope what Lord of the Rings is to The Hobbit.
2016.12.18
I finished reading earlier in the month (12/9 maybe), and I am now at the stage where I'm not thinking about the story every few hours, just maybe once a day.
I flip through the beginning of the book, and all the big points of the story are right there. The end of humanity, even the universe. The notion that the world, and the universe, looks the way it does is because of life, not despite it.
The excerpts from A Past Outside of Time, the book Cheng Xin writes at the end of the story, are interspersed, but they still sound a bit more like the author than the character. That's something I've been wrestling with over the whole book, and for days later - is Cheng Xin a real person, a real character, a placeholder, an ideal? There are far fewer moments when she feels real (early in the book) then when she doesn't (especially near the end).
I know, characters in a book serve a purpose, unlike real people, who don't have to make any sense at all. I feel like I got most everything out of the book that I was supposed to, but I can't reconcile Cheng Xin's extreme pacifism as being part of a real person/character, or just something to keep the wheels of the story on the track. There were times that her boss/rival/nemesis Wade felt like more of a real person, and he gets like 5 lines in the whole book. But I guess he was just an ideal also.
It might be interesting to read through the whole thing again, knowing how it will end. But not now, time to move on. I'm not sure how hard the sci-fi in this story was, but it feels like the bar has been raised. This will be a hard series to move on from. My next book or series should almost certainly be fantasy, to avoid any unfair comparisons.
Thursday, September 29, 2016
The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu (2008)
2016.09.29
Just finished, after lots of starts and stops over the past month.
It reminds me of sci-fi old (Rama) and new (Seveneves), but especially Macroscope. Lots of twists and turns from small and deeply personal to cosmic in scope.
Like the first book, you could just end it right there and it would be totally fine. I wasn't expecting this much new and good stuff from the second book, so now I'm really curious about the third book. Is it translated yet? Searching.... wow, it came out 10 days ago. What timing, for books that were written in the previous decade, that I am just discovering now.
*spoilers*
The metaphor of the dark forest is an excellent answer to why the universe seems so quiet. It fits so fiendishly well, you can't help but contemplate the stars with something akin to Lovecraftian levels of cosmic horror. Its so dire that attracting the slightest bit of attention means whatever star you are orbiting is probably going to explode within your lifetime. Instead of a Star Trek universe, its a Mad Max universe. Actually, that's too kind and orderly. Its more like a zombie movie, where every civilization inevitably becomes a psychopathic cannibal in the end. And once this point is brought home in multiple ways, you are thrown a bone at the end that empathy and love might actually exist in this universe.
The second book feels like it flows logically from the first. So where can we go in book three with what we know? Maybe the galaxy is filled with psycho killers quietly stalking each other, but if you can stay alive long enough, and keep your wits and some sense of civilization about you long enough, perhaps you can find the extradimensional secret treehouse where the good guy survivors are hanging out above the fray, and if you can convince them you belong, maybe they'll lower the treehouse rope ladder just long enough for you to scurry up to the next level.
You have the same problems of the first book, where the author needs to explain something to the audience, and two characters stop what they are doing, turn to the audience, and there's a stream of exposition. Sometimes a hat is hung on it, sometimes its worked into the story, but its a science fiction thing you just have to expect, the way you expect certain tropes from romance novels, for example. But its done more competently than the first book, and so are some of the characters. What I'm not sure about is the part near the end where a bunch of humans instantly go cannibal murderer on each other at the end, just to serve as another proof of the author's primary theory of the book.
There was so much written about how the humans of this time (I think it was 200 years after the world started mobilizing for war) are hopelessly naive, and far more peaceable than the hibernators, who were much more in the mindset of war and suspicion. Zhang Beihei single-handedly, and single-mindedly, saved a tiny portion of the fleet from destruction, and all the survivors immediately hail him as the new supreme commander, while they escape the doomed earth. Five minutes later, every surviving ship is firing its super-weapons at each other, because that's what the point of this book is: if you don't shoot first to guarantee your meagre share of resources (and continuing existence), the other guy will. Its a nice way to underline the point that not only are the Tri-Solarans proof of the central concept, but the proof lies within mankind too, just waiting to bust out under the right conditions. Well, the right conditions were not adequately established. Humans survived the Cold War, and we were barely talking to one another, meanwhile these future humans were plugged into the modern equivalent of Facebook every waking minute. One might say this wasn't the general population, this was the military. I think that makes it even more likely that some sort of communication, probably within the chain of command, would have taken place before a near instant breakdown of humanity. I can't help but think of that moment in a recent Batman movie, where both sides are given a button to blow up the other boat, and in a funny and touching scene, the psychos of the world are proven to be in the minority. That felt right, but maybe its just wishful thinking.
Its a sharp contrast to what's happening back on Earth, where Luo Ji has figured out how to use the dark forest as a weapon, and forces the Tri-Solarans to surrender before they even get to Earth. Its sort of a proof that if you can get control of a few variables, the cosmic sociology axioms (technology, suspicion) can be suspended. There seems to be a strong hope at the end that the two species can not only co-exist at the end, but can grow to be willing allies. If humanity moves up a whole tech level, it can probably easily send ships that can go catch the escaping remnants of the human fleet, no matter their head start. That'll be an awkward meeting. Oh hey guys, if you had just waited a little while, we not only defeated the enemy without firing a shot, but they're working us now, and now we have their technology, and we're ready to see what humanity can really do now that the sophon brakes have been removed. It might be kinder to just send a teardrop after them and finish them off.
No more time to look back, must move on to the third story.
Just finished, after lots of starts and stops over the past month.
It reminds me of sci-fi old (Rama) and new (Seveneves), but especially Macroscope. Lots of twists and turns from small and deeply personal to cosmic in scope.
Like the first book, you could just end it right there and it would be totally fine. I wasn't expecting this much new and good stuff from the second book, so now I'm really curious about the third book. Is it translated yet? Searching.... wow, it came out 10 days ago. What timing, for books that were written in the previous decade, that I am just discovering now.
*spoilers*
The metaphor of the dark forest is an excellent answer to why the universe seems so quiet. It fits so fiendishly well, you can't help but contemplate the stars with something akin to Lovecraftian levels of cosmic horror. Its so dire that attracting the slightest bit of attention means whatever star you are orbiting is probably going to explode within your lifetime. Instead of a Star Trek universe, its a Mad Max universe. Actually, that's too kind and orderly. Its more like a zombie movie, where every civilization inevitably becomes a psychopathic cannibal in the end. And once this point is brought home in multiple ways, you are thrown a bone at the end that empathy and love might actually exist in this universe.
The second book feels like it flows logically from the first. So where can we go in book three with what we know? Maybe the galaxy is filled with psycho killers quietly stalking each other, but if you can stay alive long enough, and keep your wits and some sense of civilization about you long enough, perhaps you can find the extradimensional secret treehouse where the good guy survivors are hanging out above the fray, and if you can convince them you belong, maybe they'll lower the treehouse rope ladder just long enough for you to scurry up to the next level.
You have the same problems of the first book, where the author needs to explain something to the audience, and two characters stop what they are doing, turn to the audience, and there's a stream of exposition. Sometimes a hat is hung on it, sometimes its worked into the story, but its a science fiction thing you just have to expect, the way you expect certain tropes from romance novels, for example. But its done more competently than the first book, and so are some of the characters. What I'm not sure about is the part near the end where a bunch of humans instantly go cannibal murderer on each other at the end, just to serve as another proof of the author's primary theory of the book.
There was so much written about how the humans of this time (I think it was 200 years after the world started mobilizing for war) are hopelessly naive, and far more peaceable than the hibernators, who were much more in the mindset of war and suspicion. Zhang Beihei single-handedly, and single-mindedly, saved a tiny portion of the fleet from destruction, and all the survivors immediately hail him as the new supreme commander, while they escape the doomed earth. Five minutes later, every surviving ship is firing its super-weapons at each other, because that's what the point of this book is: if you don't shoot first to guarantee your meagre share of resources (and continuing existence), the other guy will. Its a nice way to underline the point that not only are the Tri-Solarans proof of the central concept, but the proof lies within mankind too, just waiting to bust out under the right conditions. Well, the right conditions were not adequately established. Humans survived the Cold War, and we were barely talking to one another, meanwhile these future humans were plugged into the modern equivalent of Facebook every waking minute. One might say this wasn't the general population, this was the military. I think that makes it even more likely that some sort of communication, probably within the chain of command, would have taken place before a near instant breakdown of humanity. I can't help but think of that moment in a recent Batman movie, where both sides are given a button to blow up the other boat, and in a funny and touching scene, the psychos of the world are proven to be in the minority. That felt right, but maybe its just wishful thinking.
Its a sharp contrast to what's happening back on Earth, where Luo Ji has figured out how to use the dark forest as a weapon, and forces the Tri-Solarans to surrender before they even get to Earth. Its sort of a proof that if you can get control of a few variables, the cosmic sociology axioms (technology, suspicion) can be suspended. There seems to be a strong hope at the end that the two species can not only co-exist at the end, but can grow to be willing allies. If humanity moves up a whole tech level, it can probably easily send ships that can go catch the escaping remnants of the human fleet, no matter their head start. That'll be an awkward meeting. Oh hey guys, if you had just waited a little while, we not only defeated the enemy without firing a shot, but they're working us now, and now we have their technology, and we're ready to see what humanity can really do now that the sophon brakes have been removed. It might be kinder to just send a teardrop after them and finish them off.
No more time to look back, must move on to the third story.
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (2007)
I read most of it last night, finished it today.
I'm still somewhat reeling from it, and that is always a treasured gift of reading. So many big ideas, quickly processed through the story, then more big ideas. And yet it flows well, which I can only guess is an even greater feat considering it was written in another language.
There are some easy and obvious criticisms, number one being the somewhat thin characters. They seem more like pieces on a game board that serve various fixed functions, than actual people. Was something lost in translation, or is this just another one of the many sci-fi books where character is secondary to ideas and story.
Before I say anything more I must check the library site and order the next book in the series. I have to be careful figuring out what the next book even is, must avoid spoilers. This book said it was published in 2006, yet translated in 2015. Yet Wikipedia says something different:
The Three-Body Problem (三体) (2007)
The Dark Forest (黑暗森林) (2008)
Death's End (死神永生) (2010)
It looks like the second book is available in the library, but the third is not. I could just pay for it, but I suspect maybe it has not been translated yet. I see the first book won a Hugo last year (2015), so if it isn't it will be soon. I can't wait for inter-library mail to deliver it, I will drive to that branch tomorrow where the second book is.
Damn straight this book gets a Hugo. I haven't been reading a lot for a long time, but this book feels like something special. I can't remember the last time I read this much physics, and it moved so fast, yet confidently, and only enhanced the story.
The author's note at the end of a story is usually an unwelcome sight. You just had a whole book to tell me whatever it is you wanted to tell me, you can't just speak directly to the audience now. The author basically confirms that all the themes in the book are things he lived growing up, and he made the story out of them. That was actually fairly obvious in the book, but I guess its nice to get the confirmation.
I like how the story unfolds with increasing speed and urgency and revelations for the ready, only to end in a hurry up and wait state. But you don't feel cheated or tricked in any way, like now you have to purchase more books just to get the story you signed on for. You could have ended the book here, and it would still be a very memorable story.
Actually, that puts it in the territory of having more to lose than gain from a sequel. Its a gamble I'm happy to join in on.
2016.08.07
Someone already checked out the second book from the nearby branch, I'll go to the far one tomorrow.
I don't find myself thinking about the first book at all right now. Its like it left no impression on me. Is it because of or despite reading almost the whole thing in one night? Is it because the first book ended so finely, with closure and an opening for more? I'm thinking of delaying the next book to see if there's anything subconscious trying to bubble its way to the surface.
I'm still somewhat reeling from it, and that is always a treasured gift of reading. So many big ideas, quickly processed through the story, then more big ideas. And yet it flows well, which I can only guess is an even greater feat considering it was written in another language.
There are some easy and obvious criticisms, number one being the somewhat thin characters. They seem more like pieces on a game board that serve various fixed functions, than actual people. Was something lost in translation, or is this just another one of the many sci-fi books where character is secondary to ideas and story.
Before I say anything more I must check the library site and order the next book in the series. I have to be careful figuring out what the next book even is, must avoid spoilers. This book said it was published in 2006, yet translated in 2015. Yet Wikipedia says something different:
The Three-Body Problem (三体) (2007)
The Dark Forest (黑暗森林) (2008)
Death's End (死神永生) (2010)
It looks like the second book is available in the library, but the third is not. I could just pay for it, but I suspect maybe it has not been translated yet. I see the first book won a Hugo last year (2015), so if it isn't it will be soon. I can't wait for inter-library mail to deliver it, I will drive to that branch tomorrow where the second book is.
Damn straight this book gets a Hugo. I haven't been reading a lot for a long time, but this book feels like something special. I can't remember the last time I read this much physics, and it moved so fast, yet confidently, and only enhanced the story.
The author's note at the end of a story is usually an unwelcome sight. You just had a whole book to tell me whatever it is you wanted to tell me, you can't just speak directly to the audience now. The author basically confirms that all the themes in the book are things he lived growing up, and he made the story out of them. That was actually fairly obvious in the book, but I guess its nice to get the confirmation.
I like how the story unfolds with increasing speed and urgency and revelations for the ready, only to end in a hurry up and wait state. But you don't feel cheated or tricked in any way, like now you have to purchase more books just to get the story you signed on for. You could have ended the book here, and it would still be a very memorable story.
Actually, that puts it in the territory of having more to lose than gain from a sequel. Its a gamble I'm happy to join in on.
2016.08.07
Someone already checked out the second book from the nearby branch, I'll go to the far one tomorrow.
I don't find myself thinking about the first book at all right now. Its like it left no impression on me. Is it because of or despite reading almost the whole thing in one night? Is it because the first book ended so finely, with closure and an opening for more? I'm thinking of delaying the next book to see if there's anything subconscious trying to bubble its way to the surface.
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