Category: Books

Snuff by Terry Pratchett

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Took several tries to really get going on this book, partly because of my fickle reading habits, but at least partly because, well, this just seemed too damn familiar. Anyone who’s been reading Pratchett for some time will recognize all of the moving parts. The past few have not felt like original tales, really just incremental additions to the existing stories. Vimes gets in a little over his head as he learns to accept another species and upset different people, the discworld moves on. Pratchett’s stories have always been allegories for our world, and so this thought should be appropriate: the more the map gets filled in, the smaller the world feels.

Still, it’s Pratchett and that means great characters and dialogue. Definitely a good book, just perhaps not as novel…

It happens. Hang.

P.S. One of the new characters in the book is named Feeney!

View all my reviews

John Adams by David McCullough

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Even though I bought the book when it came out (actually was lucky enough to get a signed hardcover), never could plow through it. I’m rubbish at reading biographies; doesn’t matter how interested I am in the subject – just have trouble with them.

So this review is actually for the audio version narrated by [a:Edward Herrmann|105602|Edward Herrmann|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1354426951p2/105602.jpg]. I sadly didn’t realize that it was abridged, but that’s probably just as well considering my difficulty with bios.

Fascinating portrait of an amazing man. Narration is excellent, save for the jarring nature of the abridgement; periodically another narrator comes in for a transitional summary before introducing the next segment – odd.

Will have to make a better effort with this one, but for now I’m moving on to 1776[b:1776|448534|1776|David McCullough|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1280706060s/448534.jpg|3364186]…

View all my reviews

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Impossible to put down. The text is so expertly written that you slide right through it, but the thoughts expressed and images conjured are visceral, vivid and unsettling.

View all my reviews

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

How do you make my new favorite book better? Have Wil Wheaton narrate! A perfect choice – Wil, you need to do more narration.

And if you haven’t read this book yet, you really have to get on that. The most fun read in years, if you’re a geek and a child of the 80’s…

View all my reviews

Stealing Trinity by Ward Larsen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Impulse buy; picked up as Kindle deal of the day months ago and picked away at it a bit at a time before seriously powering through it recently. Very glad I did.

Very different than my usual read, but that’s the whole point, isn’t it? I can easily see why historical fiction is such a popular genre. This sort of “What if” thinking is natural to everyone, and so makes for an inexhaustible supply of scenarios.

This one is quite simple in the telling: the pursuit of a loose thread; a Nazi agent tasked with stealing the secrets of the Manhattan Project in the days after the surrender of Germany.

Great thriller; interesting story. Well written, but switches perspective/voice a little too frequently; gets a little distracting. Inclusion of female protagonist so prominently into the third act changes the tone of the piece. Turns the feel from tight spy story to Hollywood thriller. Not necessarily a bad thing, just unexpected and tonally at odds with the earlier chapters.

All in all, a very enjoyable read; looking forward to move of the author’s works.

View all my reviews