Book wrap up

February 2010

The children of men by P D James: God. The movie was brilliantly brutal, and this was too, but in a quieter, more horrifying way. At one point I actually had to put the book down and go do something else, it was so horribly bleak. Nicely done, though.

Evernight by claudia Grey: Oh, man. Much better vampire story than Twilight. Even being brutally spoiled (I read the blurb of the second book before starting the first) I mostly really, really enjoyed watching this unfold. The reveal itself was fine, but the way it was handled felt like irritating ret-conning. Once I was over that, it was a very enjoyable ride. Major, major points for the discussion of violent relationships and the 'They started an argument, you [Lucas] started the fight!' comment. I’ll read the next one.

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey N: Man. I adored The Time Traveler’s Wife, but this... It feels like it jumps point of view every other paragraph. I was ‘hooked’ from the first few pages of TTW, but I didn’t even feel a stirring until about page 130 or so here, and there was only one moment of ‘oh, love!’ in the whole story for me. The big question’s answer turned out to be a convoluted and completely unnecessary addition, and while the... practicalities of the final scenario made a certain amount of sense, the character motivation that lead to the scenario had me going: ‘Really? Really? Even if it works like you wanted, how does that in any way lead to you having a happy life?” *sigh*

The invention of Hugo Cabret by... someone: Ahhh. I think this one of those books that falls victim to the ‘I really wish it was X’ when in fact the book is aiming for Y. It’s about 500 pages long, and probably less than a third of them contain text. The rest is beautiful pencil sketches, so it’s a little like watching a silent film. Given that it’s about one of the first film makers, this is pretty appropriate. What really attracted me to it was the idea of telling a story without the need for a common language, (see my game rec post on Machinarium) and this isn’t it, alas.

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks: I liked it more than I expected, and was surprisingly touched by the father son relationship. I kept reading mostly because it rang 'true' (or rather different) as a guy trying to navigate a relationship with many people.

Stargazer by Claudia Grey: continuing the story of Bianca with Lucas. The reveal didn't quite go where I expected, but it leaves a question or three open for the next book. Most of the women in this book were *awesome*. I especially loved Raquel and Dana. Looking forward to the third one.

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld: This was a fun romp between the Steampunk/clunker Axis powers, and the Darwinist Allies of WW1. The inside cover map is particularly beautiful. Curious about the next book.