blairconrad's Reviews (1.12k)

Okay, I’m in the minority here, as about 95% of you liked the book, but I just couldn’t do it. For on thing, there were no quotation marks around dialogue, just like [b:No One Belongs Here More Than You|113429|No One Belongs Here More Than You Stories|Miranda July|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41CyQk56M6L._SL75_.jpg|3173608]. Isn’t it enough that we try to figure out what characters feel from what they said? I’m not particularly excited about having to first work to figure out which words were said, and then by whom, and then analyze them for meaning. Oh, and the apostrophe thing? Did the big apocalypse destroy half the apostrophes in the world? I’m not sure if this is supposed to reflect that the book takes place in the future, or symbolizes man’s beginning reversion to savagery or what, but it’s weird.
And – cardinal sin – halfway through, I didn’t care if any of them lived or died, so I’m out.

Less exciting than I'd like - knowing who committed the crime takes a bit of the edge off. The characters at least had some distinguishing characteristics, but I never really felt like I got to know any of them. A decent read, with a small twist, but nowhere near the whimsy of [b:The Hot Rock|596576|The Hot Rock|Donald E. Westlake|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176140861s/596576.jpg|980279], or the heart of the Rebus books.

A cute premise, not developed like it could've been, I think. A good read if you're looking for a little light entertainment, but not much more than that.

Not a really quick start, I didn't think, but midway through I really found myself enjoying the action.
As always, Miéville's command and use of the language is stunning - he's one of the few authors that when I'm reading them make me wish I had a dictionary with me.

I enjoyed his knacked London setting - just as with [b:Perdido Street Station|68494|Perdido Street Station|China Miéville|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255612085s/68494.jpg|3221410], and [b:The Scar|68497|The Scar|China Miéville|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170692699s/68497.jpg|731674][b:The City & The City|4703581|The City & The City|China Miéville|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266894982s/4703581.jpg|4767909], he's crafted a place that is interesting and feels real. And unlike The City & The City, there were some memorable characters, with interesting quirks, and personalities.

As usual, though, it's the language that does it for me...

There are two alien shape-shifters on earth, and a very dense spaceship that’s linked to one of them.
There. I saved you 304 pages.

Not nearly as funny as people'd have you believe - I may have chuckled once. Many of the cast are more caricatures than characters, with the narrator's love interest not developed past us knowing that she has a nice smile (and nice jeans).
The story wasn't in the least believable, but in the end I at least wanted to follow along to see what craziness Fallis would come up with.

I had some other minor problems with the book, but the thing that really stuck in my craw was Fallis's seeming total unfamiliarity with engineers. He's supposedly one, yet he (I can only assume) qualmlessly portrays them as one-dimensional, single-minded pursuers of nothing but technical knowledge. If he's to be believed, nearly no engineers are so much as literate, much less interested in reading. I'm not an engineer, and as a former student of mathematics, I'm practically required to mock and belittle engineers, but I even I was insulted.

As an aside, I realize that Fallis went to school a while ago, but 2 female engineering students in a class of 120? He's probably off by something like 58...

To his credit, I'd thought I'd caught another error when he referenced the four-year lifespan. For years I'd heard people mention this when the term was actually five years. Imagine my chagrin when I checked and learned that it was reduced to 4 years in 2007, which is when The Best Laid Plans was published, so at least he was current on that.

A little disappointing. Not a bad read, and many of the anecdotes were interesting, but that's as far as it goes. I didn't find that there was a unifying theme threading between the stories - many of the ideas didn't seem to have obvious elegance or even anything missing. For example, the factory without an HR department - I guess it's missing an HR department, but it's not missing the HR role - they just moved it around. It's perhaps not a bad idea, but I think the story glossed over was was probably a complicated transition in the interest of presenting an "elegant, simple solution".

Less Regency than I was lead to believe, which was okay, since I didn't know what Regency was before I started reading the book. It's not quite a standard "magician takes in an orphan as apprentice" - Kim's sex and background provide a little bit of a twist there, and an interesting one at that. Ultimately, though, I found myself wanting to be through it. The main part of the story was both boring and confusing - the mystery of the silver bowl wasn't that interesting, and there were way too many characters to keep track of. In the end, though, my interest seemed to have returned, since I felt compelled to read [b:Magician's Ward|169885|Magician's Ward (Mairelon, #2)|Patricia C. Wrede|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172371237s/169885.jpg|1047578] immediately after. Of course, that may be partly because I have the two books in my home in the form of [b:A Matter of Magic|7278720|A Matter of Magic|Patricia C. Wrede|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1272320388s/7278720.jpg|8455012], so it was pretty convenient.

A step up from [b:Mairelon the Magician|245727|Mairelon the Magician (Mairelon, #1)|Patricia C. Wrede|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173099876s/245727.jpg|1047576]. Since we already knew most of the main characters, we were able to jump right into the story. The mystery was more mysterious and interesting, and there was a lot more of being in Society, and some of the dialogue was pretty interesting. Sprinkle in some romantic tension, a threat to a major character, and considerably less of Hunch ("you shouldn't have oughta had done that" gets old fast), and we have a pretty good book, that I actually made time to return to, rather than just reading at the end of the day.

A very strong collection, overall, with the first third being perhaps a little stronger than the rest, but there are gems throughout.
Standouts for me, in no particular order, and not comprehensive:

"Catch And Release" by [a:Lawrence Block|17613|Lawrence Block|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1263189552p2/17613.jpg] - serial killers aren't everyone's preferred fare, but this was an interesting angle

"The Truth Is A Cave In The Black Mountains" by Neil Gaiman

"The Stars Are Falling" by [a:Joe R. Lansdale|58971|Joe R. Lansdale|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1200406474p2/58971.jpg] - slightly predictable, but a compelling presentation

"A Life In Fictions" by [a:Kat Howard|4098207|Kat Howard|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg] - when done well, meta-stories can be very good, and this was done well

"The Devil On The Staircase" by [a:Joe Hill|88506|Joe Hill|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1279308605p2/88506.jpg] - a very nice story, although I didn't find that the novel formatting added anything