I was reading some other book reviews online, and I came across a review of a book I had recently read. The book was called "Dune: the Butlerian Jihad". This is a science fiction book which is actually a prequel to the dune series by Frank Herbert. The original Dune series was a classic in science fiction writing, and was popular among readers for years. The prequels are written by his son and another writer twenty years after his death.
Sometimes you read a book because you are bored, and that book entertains you. It is a good story, there's lots of action, pretty decent characters, and it keeps you distracted until its done. Then you talk to somebody about it, or read someones review, and you realize that the book wasn't all that great. Actually it was pretty bad. Oh well.
This book is based in some future time, when mankind is being brutally assaulted by thinking machines,which were created by people, but overthrew their masters and now seek human extinction. Sound familiar? (Terminator, The Matrix, and even Planet of the Apes if you switch robots with primates) So we get introduced to some human characters who desperately don't want to be made extinct. These characters are distantly related to people who live thousands of years later in Frank Herbert's Dune series. They have the same last names, and thats about it as far as comparisons go. Well the book chronicles the events which led to mankind's decision to declare a jihad (religiously based war) against the machines.
The chapters are so short, it seems like the writers were drinking and coming up with ideas for chapters, one drinks and talks while the other writes it down frantically. At the time I read this, I was working a lot and I was tired all the time, so the short chapters were cool. No long commitments right? Well now that I look back on it, it was not that well written. The writer of the review I read had some good points which made me think:
"But like so many enormous projects --- especially inherited ones --- THE BUTLERIAN JIHAD falls into some common traps. It tries to navigate too much territory between only two covers; one often craves more sustained focus and less repetitive clutter. Additionally, it lapses far too frequently into extreme blood-and-guts violence that rapidly loses its power to shock, but not to disgust."
All of the things I tried not to think about while I was reading this book.....
Well I can't really recommend reading this one, unless you are a diehard Dune fan in which case it's kind of worth it to hear about the origins of all the weird stuff we fell in love with when we read the originals. But these prequels all fall short of the kind of brilliance the Dune books possessed.
Next I'm reading another Dean Koontz thriller novel: "Hideaway"
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Would you like your own guardian angel?
The next book I am reviewing is called Lightning by Dean Koontz
This was another great suggestion by my very smart and intuitive girlfriend. So lets all thank her.
This book, from the opening pages, is an interesting story of love, and surviving. It begins with a drunken doctor who is about to go try to deliver a baby, even though he knows hes too drunk and will probably screw things up. However he is stopped by a blond man who really only wants to prevent the man from killing the baby. The man ties him up and pours out all his liquor. So anyway, the baby is born but the mother dies in childbirth, leaving the father to take care of baby Laura.
Skip forward eight years and Dad and Laura are getting robbed by some junky who says he wants to rape Laura. He gets shot in the head by the same blond man, who apparently is protecting Laura from all harm. He keeps showing up at certain times, and protects her, usually violently. Her father dies of a heart attack and she lives out her teenage years in an orphanage. During that time, the blond man again shows up to help her, this time to beat the tar out of a pedophile who works at the orphanage. Laura grows up despite some horrible instances, and eventually marries a nice man and has a kid. Well of course its not over for her yet. I dont want to continue any further with the description, because a lot gets revealed and it wont be fun for you to read it.
This book has an original-ish idea, and the author does some great character development. The story gets pretty confusing, but there are some really scary and really funny moments all tied together with this crazy premise. So be careful if you said you would like to have a guardian angel, because it just might not be what it seems.
This was another great suggestion by my very smart and intuitive girlfriend. So lets all thank her.
This book, from the opening pages, is an interesting story of love, and surviving. It begins with a drunken doctor who is about to go try to deliver a baby, even though he knows hes too drunk and will probably screw things up. However he is stopped by a blond man who really only wants to prevent the man from killing the baby. The man ties him up and pours out all his liquor. So anyway, the baby is born but the mother dies in childbirth, leaving the father to take care of baby Laura.
Skip forward eight years and Dad and Laura are getting robbed by some junky who says he wants to rape Laura. He gets shot in the head by the same blond man, who apparently is protecting Laura from all harm. He keeps showing up at certain times, and protects her, usually violently. Her father dies of a heart attack and she lives out her teenage years in an orphanage. During that time, the blond man again shows up to help her, this time to beat the tar out of a pedophile who works at the orphanage. Laura grows up despite some horrible instances, and eventually marries a nice man and has a kid. Well of course its not over for her yet. I dont want to continue any further with the description, because a lot gets revealed and it wont be fun for you to read it.
This book has an original-ish idea, and the author does some great character development. The story gets pretty confusing, but there are some really scary and really funny moments all tied together with this crazy premise. So be careful if you said you would like to have a guardian angel, because it just might not be what it seems.
Mayhem, Murder, and Masons
The book I am reviewing this week isn't technically a book, it is a graphic novel(long comic book), but the narrative and storyline are so confusing and engaging that it kind of counts anyway....
It is called From Hell, and it is about the events surrounding, and resulting from the Jack the Ripper murders in East London in 1888. The crime remain unsolved to this day, but many theories have been thrown back and forth throughout the years. This book is really just a glorified conspiracy theory, but the implications are interesting enough to make it worth while. The idea is that the victims, who were all drunken prostitutes, were not chosen at random, as the mainstream theory say. They were all in on a huge secret that they evidently had to die for. The crown prince had secretly knocked up and subsequently married a common, poor woman, and the Queen was forced to take action to ensure the reputation of the royal family was preserved. So she enlists the aid of the royal surgeon, Sir William Gull. Gull is a very popular suspect among Ripperologists, because of his close ties to the throne, and his knowledge of anatomy. Apparently he was kind of a psycho too.....
The book has some weird religious ideas about the masonic order, and one whole chapter is devoted to explaining the myths of the Masons, and the symbolic and powerful architecture of London. The masons are the most secretive and powerful order throughout europe at this time. So anyway, Sir William is a bit nuts, and he takes the order of the queen entirely too seriously. He enlists the help of a coach driver to take him to and from the murders. From what I know of the real Ripper crimes, the authors used a lot of documented information and spun it into the story. The women are hunted down one by one, and horribly murdered. The violent illustrations are a little over the top, and it was obvious the authors were trying to shock the readers. There is also the side story of the chief investigator on the case, who is pretty much the only cop who doesnt know who the real killer is. The killer actually walks up to the chief of police and tells him what he is going to do, and orders the chief to put pro-masonic cops on the case. This way he is never even suspected and the police wont really investigate to the best of their abilities.
The artwork is a little dark, and looks hastily drawn, but this just lends to the foreboding and tense feeling to the whole work. I would definetely recommend this to anyone who is a fan of crime dramas, and just comic books really. It is pretty violent, and sex filled, but the real meat is in the narrative between the characters caught up in the middle of all the horror.
All in all, not a bad read!
It is called From Hell, and it is about the events surrounding, and resulting from the Jack the Ripper murders in East London in 1888. The crime remain unsolved to this day, but many theories have been thrown back and forth throughout the years. This book is really just a glorified conspiracy theory, but the implications are interesting enough to make it worth while. The idea is that the victims, who were all drunken prostitutes, were not chosen at random, as the mainstream theory say. They were all in on a huge secret that they evidently had to die for. The crown prince had secretly knocked up and subsequently married a common, poor woman, and the Queen was forced to take action to ensure the reputation of the royal family was preserved. So she enlists the aid of the royal surgeon, Sir William Gull. Gull is a very popular suspect among Ripperologists, because of his close ties to the throne, and his knowledge of anatomy. Apparently he was kind of a psycho too.....
The book has some weird religious ideas about the masonic order, and one whole chapter is devoted to explaining the myths of the Masons, and the symbolic and powerful architecture of London. The masons are the most secretive and powerful order throughout europe at this time. So anyway, Sir William is a bit nuts, and he takes the order of the queen entirely too seriously. He enlists the help of a coach driver to take him to and from the murders. From what I know of the real Ripper crimes, the authors used a lot of documented information and spun it into the story. The women are hunted down one by one, and horribly murdered. The violent illustrations are a little over the top, and it was obvious the authors were trying to shock the readers. There is also the side story of the chief investigator on the case, who is pretty much the only cop who doesnt know who the real killer is. The killer actually walks up to the chief of police and tells him what he is going to do, and orders the chief to put pro-masonic cops on the case. This way he is never even suspected and the police wont really investigate to the best of their abilities.
The artwork is a little dark, and looks hastily drawn, but this just lends to the foreboding and tense feeling to the whole work. I would definetely recommend this to anyone who is a fan of crime dramas, and just comic books really. It is pretty violent, and sex filled, but the real meat is in the narrative between the characters caught up in the middle of all the horror.
All in all, not a bad read!
Monday, March 24, 2008
"The Doomsday Book"
The first book Ive decided to review is called The Doomsday book. It was actually really good, even though the premise is kind of obscure. It was suggested to me by my girlfriend, who said she really loved it.
The story revolves around two people, Kivrin and Mr. Dunworthy. Kivrin is a younger girl and Mr. Dunworthy is her mentor, and apparently she has no family, because he is the only one who seems to care about her. The story takes place in 2054, and the idea is that historical research in the future is done by time travel. This is the obscure part, that if you can get over, becomes quite interesting. Kivrin has always wanted to travel to the middle ages, but this is not allowed because it is considered too dangerous to put a person into the situation. People mostly go back to the 20th or 19th century, since the records are more reliable, and they know pretty much what they are getting into. Well of course this doesnt stand up, and one self promoting man named Gilchrist takes advantage of the absence of the head of the project, and lift the ban on the middle ages. Of course, Kivrin volunteers.
The project is predictably not run very well, and Mr. Dunworthy becomes angry at the audacity of Gilchrist to send a teenager to 1320 a.d. What makes matters worse is that the technician in charge of making sure the machinery works falls violently ill with a type of influenza. Kivrin herself, after arriving in the past, becomes very ill, and is rescued by the people of a small village. She has trouble translating their form of english for a while, but figures it out eventually. She becomes the nursemaid for two little girls, Rosemund and Agnes. Meanwhile, Dunworthy is dealing with a quarantine in the future, and people are paranoid, and the author keeps hinting at some terrible worldwide disease outbreak that happened sometime before 2054. Well without telling you too much, Kivrin ends up becoming a kind of savior to these people, who fall victim to the Black Death(she is immune as a preparation to go back in time).
Dunworthy finds out the project was more messed up than he thought, and scrambles to figure out how to get Kivrin back to present day.
This book was a really excellent read. There is a lot of great character development, and you start to care about what happens to these people. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a good story, although some parts can get pretty depressing. All in all, this is one I would tell other people to read. Its not going to change your life, but there are some good messages, and its always fun to imagine going back in time. Until you actually get there, and you realize its freakin horrible. The middle ages were scary.
Thanks again, next I am reading another GF suggestion, "Lightning" by Dean Koontz
The story revolves around two people, Kivrin and Mr. Dunworthy. Kivrin is a younger girl and Mr. Dunworthy is her mentor, and apparently she has no family, because he is the only one who seems to care about her. The story takes place in 2054, and the idea is that historical research in the future is done by time travel. This is the obscure part, that if you can get over, becomes quite interesting. Kivrin has always wanted to travel to the middle ages, but this is not allowed because it is considered too dangerous to put a person into the situation. People mostly go back to the 20th or 19th century, since the records are more reliable, and they know pretty much what they are getting into. Well of course this doesnt stand up, and one self promoting man named Gilchrist takes advantage of the absence of the head of the project, and lift the ban on the middle ages. Of course, Kivrin volunteers.
The project is predictably not run very well, and Mr. Dunworthy becomes angry at the audacity of Gilchrist to send a teenager to 1320 a.d. What makes matters worse is that the technician in charge of making sure the machinery works falls violently ill with a type of influenza. Kivrin herself, after arriving in the past, becomes very ill, and is rescued by the people of a small village. She has trouble translating their form of english for a while, but figures it out eventually. She becomes the nursemaid for two little girls, Rosemund and Agnes. Meanwhile, Dunworthy is dealing with a quarantine in the future, and people are paranoid, and the author keeps hinting at some terrible worldwide disease outbreak that happened sometime before 2054. Well without telling you too much, Kivrin ends up becoming a kind of savior to these people, who fall victim to the Black Death(she is immune as a preparation to go back in time).
Dunworthy finds out the project was more messed up than he thought, and scrambles to figure out how to get Kivrin back to present day.
This book was a really excellent read. There is a lot of great character development, and you start to care about what happens to these people. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a good story, although some parts can get pretty depressing. All in all, this is one I would tell other people to read. Its not going to change your life, but there are some good messages, and its always fun to imagine going back in time. Until you actually get there, and you realize its freakin horrible. The middle ages were scary.
Thanks again, next I am reading another GF suggestion, "Lightning" by Dean Koontz
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
About this blog
Hello! My name is Shawn, and I am a student at College of San Mateo. This blog is for a class at my college, English 100. I have decided that it would only be appropriate to make this blog about whatever books I have read recently. I read a LOT to pass the time between classes or during slow periods at work. I am a salesman at a newer furniture store, so the slow periods come frequently and are horrrrrrible. I figured I could do reviews of the books, and talk about whether you should read them or not. I typically like non fiction or science fiction stuff, but I recently came into possession of a lot of books which are outside my normal realm. My girlfriend and I got her stuff out of storage, and she likes mysteries, horror and crime dramas. So this is a good opportunity for me to give you some good blogs while I am discovering genres that are unfamiliar to me. I hope I don't bore anyone to death, so I will not recount the book chapter by chapter, but I hope I can give you an idea if you might like it or not. Thanks for reading it, and any comments about my taste (or lack thereof) are greatly appreciated.
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