Life After God
This was one of the few remaining Douglas Coupland books that I hadn’t read.
It’s a collection of short stories, each one told in a series of short vignettes.
To be honest these are messy pieces filled with pre-millenial malaise. As such they come across as lazy and self-indulgent.
Coupland’s usual effortless style is the only thing making this collection worthwhile.
Unless you’re a fan of Coupland’s work in general I’d not recommend this particular work at all.
War For The Oaks
Back in 2008 when the tor.com website first started up they gave away a load of ebooks from the Tor catalogue to people who signed up to be members. This is one of those books.
I read it when I first got my hands on it, on a Palm pilot. Not the greatest reading experience but I did enjoy the book.
Earlier this year I had a sudden craving to re-read War For The Oaks and went scouring through the hard disks of various old PCs and I just couldn’t find it anywhere. A few days ago I was idly tidying up files on my iMac and lo and behold there was the ebook file.
Reading the book on the new ‘retina’ iPad is a world away from the Palm – it’s amazing the speed at which technology has improved.
Anyway back to the book. This is an excellent early example of urban fantasy. It’s particular strength is in the author’s understanding of music and the music industry, which I can tell is pretty much spot on.
It’s hard to get hold of in the UK, but I’d recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone looking for a good fantasy read – especially fans of urban fantasy.
Mockingjay
The final volume of the trilogy puts Katniss and her loved ones through further horrors.
The onset of war burdens her with further guilt when she’s forced into unpalatable decisions from the resulting moral quandaries.
I raced through this book, desperate to find out how things turned out. While I’m happy with the ending, I felt that there were a lot things I would have liked to have known that were left out because we’re limited to only Katniss’ view of events.
Overall I think I’d recommend the series but I’m pretty sure that some readers will find a lot to annoy them about the books.
Catching Fire
The second book in Collin’s popular series deals with the repercussions that follow Katniss’ actions in The Hunger Games.
Another enjoyable read, however, it definitely feels like the middle book of a trilogy.
A lot of the ground covered feels familiar from the first book and the ending is just there to tee up the final volume.
The lead character remains compelling. A flawed, deeply damaged person attempting to survive a horrific world.
I’m pretty sure if you read the first of these books you’ll know whether you want to move on to this one.
The Hunger Games
This hit teen novel’s film adaptation is about to land at the cinema in the UK and prompted me to finally read the kindle copy I picked up on the cheap in the Amazon Xmas sale.
In this dystopian world the children of the Twelve Districts are placed in the lottery to be chosen as Tributes in the Hunger Games, one male child and one female over the age of twelve from every District. The Hunger Games act as a reminder of the consequences of rebelling against the Capitol and take the form of a vicious reality show where the participants have to kill each other with the final survivor winning a lifetime of relative luxury.
The book is a first person narrative told from the point of view of Katniss Everdeen. Katniss is old beyond her years, trusts pretty much no one and has become very skilled at hunting wild game in order to provide food and extra income for her family after the death of her father.
When her sister, Prim, is chosen for the Games Katniss volunteers to replace her and from that point she’s thrown into a media frenzy and ultimately into the Games themselves.
This not a terribly original book but it has strong characters (especially Katniss), a compelling narrative and a convincing world.
I enjoyed reading this book and I cared enough about the characters that I’m currently reading the second book in the trilogy. Recommended if a compelling young adult piece of dystopian science fiction sounds like your kind of thing.
Ready Player One
Heavily hyped in certain circles online this is a science fiction novel with nostalgia for the USA’s 80s nerd culture as it’s USP.
References to totems like the Atari 2600, D&D, Oingo Boingo and Family Ties pop up on nearly every page.
The plot is that it’s the 2040’s and the inventor of the globally pervasive OASIS system (like a VR combination of the internet and mmorpg worlds) died leaving his fortune and company to whomever can solve a series of puzzles he left behind, his easter egg if you will.
This is a world devastated by economic collapse and the search is frenzied initially. However, after a few years without progress only a dedicated few are still trying to crack the puzzle, one of which is a poor kid growing up in his aunt’s stack trailer. The pursuit of the easter egg is about to change his life.
This is a thoroughly entertaining read and I raced through it an a few hours.
Much of the rampant nostalgia lacks proper impact to someone who grew up with the UK version of 80’s nerddom but enough of it translates for you to understand what he’s trying to do.
I feel that it’s actually quite a slight story if you look past all the cultural signifiers but it certainly is fun.
I’d recommend it if you grew up in the 80s and fancy a quick read.
The Rook
I first came across this book in a Big Idea piece on John Scalzi’s website.
If I had just seen it in a bookshop I would have dismissed it as mining the same territory as Charles Stross’ Laundry books but the author’s piece on the book made me intrigued enough to want to read it.
The key hook is that the lead character (the awesomely named Myfanwy Thomas) has been robbed of her memories and has to navigate her former life in the supernatural secret service and find out why her memories were taken using the notes left behind by her previous self.
It’s a really fun and quick read. It plays with the supernatural and mocks bureaucracy with equal verve.
While I thoroughly enjoyed the book I’d be a bit worried if sequels were to arrive as I can’t see how they could do anything other than bring diminishing returns.
Recommended if you’re looking for an entertaining romp.
The Fault In Our Stars
John Green’s latest book is about two teenagers, Hazel and Augustus, who meet in a cancer support group. Spoilers in this case would be inappropriate, so I’ll not go into any more detail.
The book is moving, amusing and frequently insightful. The characters are complex, memorable, and you like them enough to become invested in their struggles. Green has a way with a nicely turned phrase, but he still has the occasional attempt at profundity fall flat. Understandably it’s not as laugh out loud funny as the last book of his I read (An Abundance of Katherines) but there’s enough humour to leaven the subject matter and indeed a few nice in-jokes for those who follow the Green brothers on youtube.
Ultimately it feels like he gets at the truth of what it’s like to have cancer and happen to be a teenager, which is no mean feat.
I would definitely recommend this book. I suspect it’s going to stay with me for a long time.
For those that care, the signature in my copy is in blue sharpie.
Making Money
The second Moist von Lipwig book is a very entertaining romp. Not as powerful or as moving as the very top echelon of Pratchett’s work can be, but very much worth a read.
Previously reviewed in 2007 and 2009. This re-read was prompted by a showing of the Sky production of Going Postal over xmas. It’s probably the best of all the Discworld adaptations so far, with the performance by Claire Foy as Adora Belle Dearheart a particular standout.
This is just to note that today was the tenth anniversary of my first post on transmission:
It was a fairly typical first post.
I shouldn’t be surprised but somehow it still seems like it can’t possibly be that long ago.