Category: Book Review (Page 2 of 2)

“Pet Sematary” Review

September 15, 2013 /

Image courtesy toomuchhorrorfiction.blogspot.com

What is the most frightening book Stephen King has ever written?

According to the man himself, it’s Pet Sematary. I picked it up for exactly this reason,  having never seen the movie and having only the foggiest idea of the plot. I wouldn’t say it’s King’s scariest work, not compared to the short story Children of the Corn, for instance. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a good read, and that definitely doesn’t mean that it’s not scary.

Pet Sematary starts innocently enough with a family named the Creeds moving into a new house in Ludlow, Maine. They’re a typical suburban family, with a father (Louis), mother (Rachel), daughter (Ellie), son (Gage), and cat (Winston Churchill, better known as Church). The Creeds’ house is located right beside a busy highway, but they don’t think much of it. Louis quickly becomes friends with old gentleman neighbor Jud Crandal, who’s lived in Ludlow for all his life. Just when everything seems to be going well, Church is run over by a truck on the highway. Jud offers to help Louis bury the cat in the Pet Sematary behind the Creeds’ house, and then the impossible happens––Church returns, alive and well…or so it seems.

Pet Sematary is undoubtedly frightening. It starts out slowly, builds well, and ends in a disturbing, terrible, shocking coda. King creates a story that is not only horrifying, but deeply tragic. When Gage dies, I found myself close to tears. You want things to be alright in the end. You want Gage to come back and be fine. But that never happens, and it makes the book all the more heartbreaking.

The pacing is admittedly slow toward the beginning. I know I had a hard time getting into it at first, but patience pays off with this book. The deliberate pace helps to make the rest of the story even more shocking, and the mundanity of the first half provides a strong counterpoint to the supernatural elements of the second half. It’s sad to see such an ordinary, likable family destroyed so utterly. But of course, it wouldn’t be much of a book without that.

The best (and scariest) part of Pet Sematary is what is left unexplained. I’m talking about the Wendigo, and the nature of the Sematary itself. Louis sees some giant creature roaming the woods, but we don’t know if this is the thing that rules the burial ground, or if it’s the thing that comes back instead of Gage, or something else entirely. It’s this ambiguity that truly makes the book spooky. King doesn’t give us too much. He gives us just enough.

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Pet Sematary is a creepy, atmospheric tale about the consequences of death. While it does drag at times, the slow pacing is mostly an asset rather than a detriment.

Rating: 9/10

P.S.: I just watched the movie…the book is better.

“Wizard’s First Rule” Review

September 1, 2013 /
Image courtesy sot.wikia.com

Image courtesy sot.wikia.com

When most people think of multi-volume fantasy epics, they invariably think of the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. Without a doubt, it’s one of the most popular and enduring series in the genre, spawning twelve novels and a short-lived live-action television series. Wizard’s First Rule is the original entry in the series, so I thought I’d give it a shot to see what all the fuss is about.

After four months of tedious on-and-off reading, I stillI don’t understand the fascination with this series. The writing isn’t particularly impressive, and neither is the world or the characters or the themes or really anything else in it. I felt like I was reading a patchwork of fantasy. Richard is a stereotypical male hero; Kahlan is halfway decent compared to others, but ultimately uninteresting; Zed is exactly what you think of when you think of a wizard. There’s nothing very original about this book, nothing to differentiate it from everything that’s come before.

Let’s start with the rules of the world––there are way, way, way too many. Everyone is bound by magical law to do one thing or another, and it seems like more and more rules are added to the list with each passing chapter. To illustrate my point, there are probably around five to ten campfire conversations where everyone sits around and chats. But instead of telling scary stories boy-scout style, they all try to explain to the reader how things work in the Midlands. They usually go something like this:

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ZEDD: So Richard, you’re the Seeker, which essentially means that you walk around with a big sword looking for truth.

RICHARD: Looking for truth? What does that mean?

ZEDD: I don’t know. And no one’s going to explain it. There are like twenty more books left for readers to figure out what the hell’s going on.

RICHARD: But––

ZEDD: Moving on. There are these boxes, right? And this dude named Darken Rahl wants them because if you open all three before winter, you get, like, limitless power and you can open up the underworld and stuff.

RICHARD: Who made the boxes? And why does this guy want to open the underworld?

ZEDD: Don’t worry about it. Point is, you need to kill this guy because he killed your father…well, the guy you think is your father. Spoiler: it turns out Darken’s your daddy.

RICHARD: Hey, wasn’t that already the major plot twist in Star Wars?

ZEDD: Uhh…

…

Okay, I admit it, this isn’t really what their campfire chats are like. They’re a lot longer, and there are far fewer logical questions being asked. The world is based on rules that seem to change depending on the situation the writer finds his characters in.

For example, at the end of the novel, when everything seems lost, Kahlan goes into this sacred rage called the Con-Dar, setting up Rahl’s downfall. It isn’t explained or even alluded to until the very end of the book, and as a result it comes out of nowhere and seems incredibly convenient. Talk about deus ex machina.

As I said earlier, for a series that’s supposedly character driven, the characters of Wizard’s First Rule are anything but compelling. They feel mechanical rather than organic, acting because they’re told to and not because they choose to. They don’t have very much agency, and as a result become monotonous, if not downright boring. And to make matters worse, many of them are noticeably derivative.

The best example of this problem is Samuel. Let me describe him to you, and you tell me who he sounds like. Samuel is a wretched, tortured little man who runs around on his arms and legs like a dog. He used to be a normal being, but he was twisted by the magic of an ancient artifact and is now hopelessly bound to it. His purpose in the story is to illustrate what will happen to the protagonist if he should fail in his quest.

Sound familiar? That’s right folks. Samuel is Gollum.

The only halfway unique or interesting character in the whole book is Denna, a torturer hired by Darken Rahl to break Richard. Though at first she appears to be merciless and cruel, she and Richard develop an unlikely bond of love. Just when she begins to get really interesting, guess what happens? Richard has to kill her.

The best thing I can say for Wizard’s First Rule is that I could finish it. It’s just interesting enough that you want to know what happens, but the payoff is just like the first 600 pages: completely derivative. I was really hoping that Darken Rahl wouldn’t turn out to be Richard’s father. I really was. Having the antagonist be the protagonist’s father became instant cliche when they did it in Star Wars…so why do it again?

…

Wizard’s First Rule might be somewhat engaging to someone who’s never read a fantasy novel before. But if you’re at all familiar with the genre, you’ll recognize every character, every theme, and every plot twist.

Rating: 3/10

“Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” Review

January 19, 2013 /

What makes a human a human? What separates us from nature, from artifice, even from each other? Are some non-human entities just as human as we are?

These are all very compelling questions, all posed by author Philip K. Dick in his novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Serving as the inspiration for Ridley Scott’s 1982 blockbuster Bladerunner, Dick’s book follows Rick Deckard, a San Franciso bounty hunter working to eliminate a new model of android, one that is more humanlike than any previous.

Besides Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, this was really my first endevour into the world of science fiction. I must say, it was quite an introduction.

First thing I’d like to say; this book is one the most thought provoking novels I’ve ever read. It’s more than a science-fiction story. It’s an examination of what it means to be human, to be a living being with thoughts (and perhaps more importantly) feelings. It’s about the beliefs that survive and the beliefs that are destroyed in the midst of change.

The themes and ideas explored in this book are excellent. As alluded to before, this one really makes the reader think. It challenges you to put yourself in Rick’s situation and wonder about what you yourself would do. Perhaps the same thing, perhaps something different. Only you (the reader) can decide.

My main criticism of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is its length. At only two hundred and ten pages, it’s not very long at all, and reads more like a novella than a novel. I would’ve liked to see just a little more, maybe a few other viewpoints, just to see the world from a few more angles. The rules are certainly established, but I feel that they could be fleshed out even more.

I also feel that the character J.R. Isidore is underused. He is quite compelling, and yet he has very little effect on the plot and really doesn’t get all that much attention. Isidore is a symbol of the destruction caused by “World War Terminus,” and yet he’s barely in the book at all. A small detail, really, but nonetheless, one that deserves attention.

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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is an excellent piece of science fiction. A fascinating premise combined with interesting themes make for an excellent read.

Rating: 9/10

“Gardens of the Moon” Review

January 10, 2013 /

I picked up Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erickson pretty much on a whim, not really knowing what I was in for. I’d seen it near the top of some random best fantasy series list, so I thought I’d try it.

Gardens of the Moon is the first book in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. It focuses on the multi-continental empire of the Malazan, specifically on their campaign on the continent of Genabackis. Here we meet the Bridgeburners, an elite company of Malazan soldiers, as well as the people of Darujhistan, last Free City standing in the way of Malazan control over Genabackis.

In a word, it’s sprawling. Erickson rivals Tolkien in his world-building. Not since The Lord of the Rings have I read a fantasy novel with such a massive scope, and that includes A Song of Ice and Fire. (That’s not a knock on GRRM as much as it is a pat on the back for Erikson). It’s a lavish world, packed near to bursting with characters and races and plots and subplots. There is so much going on and so many different forces at work that it’s almost unbelievable that only two guys made all of it up (Erickson created the world of the Malazan with fellow author Ian Estermont, originally conceiving of it as an environment for Dungeons and Dragons). It’s truly an incredible feat of world-building.

But the scope of Gardens of the Moon is a detriment as well as a strength. There is so much content that I spent the last third of the book being thoroughly confused. Maybe it’s because I listened to most of it on audiobook, but it seemed very difficult to follow. It was hard to remember who was working for who or who had done what, especially because the narrative focuses on one character and then doesn’t return to that character for many more chapters. This is one of the few problems I have with A Song of Ice and Fire as well, and here it’s only magnified. More characters and more things going on make it invariably more confusing.

I think  another area where Gardens falls short is on characterization. Some of the characters come so close to being compelling, but few ever achieve that status. I wanted to like Whiskeyjack, I wanted to like Captain Paran, and I wanted to know more about Anomander Rake––but there just wasn’t much there. To be fair, there are still nine books left in this series, and I’m sure Erickson builds on his characters further. But still, a little more attention to them in this volume would’ve been nice to see.

One last thing: I really admired Erickson’s intentionally anti-Tolkien take on fantasy. Much like Martin’s work, there isn’t any central quest, nor are there any heroic figures. Rather, it’s a bleak, violent world consumed by war. It doesn’t look like there’s any light at the end of the tunnel, either. I always appreciate a fantasy series that isn’t a Tolkien retread, and thankfully, the Malazan Book of the Fallen series is anything but.

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Gardens of the Moon is an astounding feat of creative imagination, if a little confusing at times. The characters seem somewhat flat too, especially when compared with those from A Song of Ice and Fire. However, the world by itself is enough of a reason to recommend it.

Rating: 8/10

“Red Country” Review

December 25, 2012 /

A fantasy-western hybrid. Sounds fun, right? That’s what Joe Abercrombie’s Red Country. Set in the disputed, gold-ridled landscape of the Far Country, Red Country tells the story of Shy South and her step-father Lamb. When their farm is burned down and Shy’s brother and sister are taken, the unlikely pair go on a quest to get them back. But Lamb isn’t who he seems, and the quest becomes more than they bargained for.

I think it only took me two or three days to finish this baby up. I had such high expectations. Some of those expectations were met. Others…not so much.

The thing that bothered me right away was the prose style. I read a few of Abercrombie’s blogs about his inspiration for the book, and most came from old western novels. Red Country has the kind of sentences that you’d expect to see in those books, full of run-ons and poor grammar and shifting tense. It was definitely a good way to establish the tone and the world, but in general I found it distracting. There were a few instances in which I had to go back and re-read a single sentence two or three times before I could understand what the hell it said. I get that he was going for Western-style prose, but at least for me,  it was kind of annoying.

I must say that I did enjoy the return of Logen Ninefingers, even though Abercrombie really didn’t answer any of the questions I had about him. Well, at least this volume didn’t raise any new questions; it just left me with the same ones I had before. In any case, it was great to see The Bloody Nine back in action. In my opinion, he’s one of Abercrombie’s top three greatest creations, along with Caul Shivers and my personal favorite, Sand dan Glokta. Nicomo Cosca used to be up there, but not after this book.

The Cosca of Red Country was the ugly cousin of the Cosca from The First Law. I think old, bitter, and psychotic are the three best adjectives to describe Red Country Nicomo Cosca. After finishing the book, I remember thinking: What the hell happened to this guy??? Where was the lovable rogue of The First Law? Red Country Cosca was not nearly so fun. He lacked all of the humor and much of the wit that made him so memorable in earlier volumes. And his moral complexity? Nowhere to be found. It used to be that he tottered on the line between good and evil. In this book, he was so far on the evil side that he was probably having afternoon tea with Hitler and Satan.

But Red Country was not entirely without its charms. It was really fun to see Shivers again, albeit in a cameo. His introduction was about as bad-ass as you can get. And the part with the dragon was pretty intriguing. I’ve heard speculation that Abercrombie might write another trilogy next. Could this dragon make another appearance?

…

This one was tough for me, because it was the first Joe Abercrombie book I’ve had mixed feelings about. While the book did have strong characters and a few memorable scenes, the flat story and slow pacing made it far less enjoyable than it could’ve and should’ve been.

Rating: 6.5/10

“Pawn of Prophecy” Review

June 26, 2012 /

If you haven’t noticed from my book choices, I’m a big fan of fantasy literature. Ever since reading The Hobbit, I’ve been hooked. So after browsing the fantasy/sci-fi section of the bookstore the other day, I decided on David Eddings’ Pawn of Prophecy. I’d heard good things about it before, so my expectations were pretty high.

I hate to say this, but I was more than a little disappointed.

(As always, there will be spoilers.)

Pawn starts off promisingly enough with an interesting (albeit slightly dry) prologue about an evil god, an orb, and a wizard. Though perhaps not entirely original, I liked the idea of real gods existing within the physical world, almost in a Greek or Norse mythology sort of way. Furthermore, it seemed like a promising setup for some fun action.

Next, we are introduced to Garion, a young boy living in a small village with his stern Aunt Pol. Both are solid characters, though Aunt Pol’s dominating personality grows tiresome as the book progresses, and Garion comes off as much younger than fourteen. His overall tone and constant acquiescence to his aunt just screams child to me, maybe an eight or nine or ten year old. Perhaps this is intentional on the part of Eddings, but either way, I feel that Garion’s behavior is inconsistent with his age.

Later on we meet a handful of other secondary players. Silk is my favorite of these; a sly, quick-witted man with a strong resemblance to a rat. Later on we find that he is a prince who has spurned his royalty in favor of a life on the road. He’s a very compelling character who is tragically underused by the author. More of that witty humor could’ve done wonders to a book that is mostly a dry travelogue.

That brings me to my next point: far too much travel, far too little action. The constant journeying of The Lord of the Rings is acceptable because there is a strong enough setting to support it. The setting of Pawn of Prophecy is decidedly less interesting, resembling a watered-down Middle Earth rather than a unique universe. Furthermore, the traveling in LOTR is broken up by moments of intense action, such as the episode in the Mines of Moria or the attack by the Uruk-Hai at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring. No such action to be found in Pawn, unless you count that lame boar attack in the woods.

Furthermore, the descriptions are a bit clunky from time to time, and occasionally the dialogue feels completely ridiculous. For example, when Old Wolf comments on the attention Aunt Pol is drawing in one scene, she responds with the following: “Don’t grow parsimonious in your dotage.” I’m sorry, but when the word “parsimonious” doesn’t even have a correction on spell check, it’s time to think of a new adjective.

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All in all, Pawn of Prophecy has its enjoyable moments, but they are too few and far between to make it truly compelling.

Rating: 3/10

Another Book Review

June 7, 2012 /

‘Why so soon?’ you may be asking. I might ask myself the same question. Truth is, I’ve been reading my brains out because my summer job hasn’t started yet, and I haven’t had much else to do besides read and write this dandy blog here. Oh well…you can never read too many books!

Today I’ll give my review of Stephen King’s The Gunslinger. For those of you who have kept up on my blog (so rare are you that you might be eligible for the endangered  species list), you know that I have already blogged about The Gunslinger.

Well, I’m going to do it again. If I may quote Judas Priest, “you’ve got another thing comin’.”

(Oh, and like last time’s blog, there are spoilers. Read on if you dare!)

The best part of The Gunslinger had to be the setting. I think ‘ingenius’ is the best word to describe it. A brilliant combination of fantasy staples (the ‘High Speech’ and the ‘Chosen One’ character) and horror tropes (the zombie-ish Slow Mutants and the quasi-post-apocalyptic terrain) really help to make the story feel fresh, even after twenty years of development in both genres (remember, The Gunslinger was first published in 1982). Furthermore, I loved the little connections between Roland’s world and our world. I felt that this connection furthered the realism even more, to the point where it seemed like I was reading a historical fiction rather than a novel.

And now the criticism. Sometimes I found myself thinking, ‘Ok, Stephen, we get it, Roland is enigmatic. But for god sakes, can he at least try to show some emotion?’ Sometimes I felt like he was just too flat, particularly because there didn’t seem to be an compelling motivation to visit The Dark Tower. I’m sure we’ll find out later in the series, but in this volume, it seemed like Roland had to find the man in black and get to The Dark Tower just because that’s what the story called for, and not really for any deeper reason.

This next part isn’t necessarily a criticism (or a compliment, for that matter), but I found The Gunslinger to be very tragic. Just when I was beginning to like Ally…bam, bullet to the face. Just when I was beginning like Jake Chambers…wham, hundred foot plunge off a mountain. But to be fair, the story is supposed to be sad, Roland is a loner, and I’m certain King meant for the deaths to jerk some tears. He has a knack for really delving into characters that he’s just going to kill off in a few pages anyway, just so that you really feel the deaths. Very smart writing, if you ask me. But sad. Very sad.

…

Overall, an excellent introduction to a new world. Though a little sparse on characterization, the book more than makes up for it with vivd imagery and an innovative vision.

Rating: 8.5/10

…

P.S.: Just bought The Drawing of the Three today (that’s the sequel to The Gunslinger). Big thanks to the Barnes and Noble in Union Square. Four floors, are you kidding me!? Anyway, liftoff should commence on that baby soon enough. At the rate I’ve been reading, I should finish up in, oh, I dunno, maybe a few minutes…?

A Book Review

June 5, 2012 /

Just finished Joe Abercrombie’s Best Served Cold, and it’s easily my favorite entry from an excellent fantasy writer.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Abercrombie, he’s known for a gritty, character-driven style of fantasy in the vein of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. He published his first novel in 2007, entitled The Blade Itself. Since then, Abercrombie has written a novel a year, most recently The Heroes in 2011. Another entry is due out sometime this year, tentatively titled A Red Country.

The thing I love about Abercrombie’s books are his characters. Those who read his First Law trilogy are probably already familiar with a few, but there are plenty of newcomers in Best Served Cold as well.

Beware. Here there be spoilers.

My favorite of the new characters is definitely Caul Shivers. Not completely new, as he is introduced in Before They Are Hanged, if I’m not mistaken. But he’s certainly expanded upon throughout this new entry. I found his character arc quite compelling, going from a man seeking a better life to a bitter warrior with nothing left to lose or gain.

I noticed a few reviewers were concerned with Shivers’ striking similarity to Logen Ninefingers, a fan favorite of First Law fame, and I can’t deny that they are indeed very similar. However, I found that the similarities work well, lending a sense of stinging irony to the book. Shivers proclaims his hatred for Ninefingers numerous times, (after all, Logen did kill his brother) and yet he mirrors his most hated enemy’s character arc, almost to a tee.

That said, I found the main character of Best Served Cold, Monza Murcatto, a bit underwhelming. She reminded me more than a little of Ferro Maljin, yet another character from The First Law, but not in a particularly good way. While Shivers and Ninefingers are tragic mirrors of one another, Murcatto is more like a retread of Maljin. Even their love stories seemed recycled. (In The First Law, Ferro falls in love with Ninefingers, then they end up hating each other by the end. In Best Served Cold, Monza and Shivers fall for each other, and by the end, they hate each other too.) I liked Monza a little more than Ferro, but they were still a bit too similar for my tastes.

As for the other characters, I found Nicomo Cosca to be a wonderful return. His odd combination of cowardice and wit entertained me throughout. The institutionalized convict Friendly was another of my favorites. Such a strange fellow, and his duel with Shivers toward the end was epic. Castor Morveer was another welcome addition. He was funny and interesting, with a hint of tragedy, just enough so that you felt bad when he died. Well, I don’t know about you, but I did.

As far as the story, I found it engaging, though perhaps a bit on the long side. The murder of Prince Ario in the brothel was by far my favorite of the seven assassinations, and I felt that none of the others afterward approached that level of excitement.

…

Best Served Cold is an excellent addition to any fantasy collection. Well drawn characters, a well realized world, and plenty of gory action all combine to make one hell of an adventure.

Rating: 9/10

The Gunslinger: Yet Another Reason Why I Want To Be Stephen King

May 31, 2012 /

I just started reading The Gunslinger by Stephen King today. First impression: very, very, very interesting. I know that most fantasy books have reviews on them that say something like: “This book is unlike anything you’ve ever read.” All due respect to those books, The Gunslinger really is unlike anything you’ve ever read.

The story begins with Roland Deschain, a character chiefly based on Clint Eastwood’s classic “Man With No Name.” Roland explores a vast desert world in pursuit of the enigmatic Man In Black, a sorcerer who has a talent for evil. Along the way he meets a man with a talking raven and a man risen from the dead, among other fascinating characters.

Already I’m beginning to see some interesting similarities between Roland’s world and ours. For example, at the first saloon he stops in, the patrons are sining along to “Hey Jude” on the piano. It’s little details like this that make The Gunslinger special. Often in literature, it seems that authors like to write little nods and homages to other works of literature. King does the opposite, writing in homages to real life. I think this really helps to set the world up as a different (yet not entirely distant) place.

Can’t wait to read the rest. Yet another classic by one of my favorite authors. Keep ’em coming, Steve!

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