brendamn's Reviews (370)

Quite a tired cliché, but the book was better. I am not enthused to provoke it, but I make the exception because Stephen Spielberg's adaptation is so deserving of its cult classic status. That this book gave way to a movie of that caliber I think provides credibility to the excellence of the source. It might not be totally fair to give more credit to the book due to the movie it inspired, but I am going to do it anyway.

It is a gripping, suspenseful, and fun from beginning to end. The kind of read where it is frustrating to have to put it down when you have to finally put it down and do whatever life requires of you in that moment. Throughout the book you are lead from one crises to another, it felt a bit manufactured at times but ultimately worth the suspension of disbelief.

Interspersed within the excitement Crichton explores the theory of crisis theory, which provided a philosophical and existential layer throughout. It brought a pleasant balance to the non stop action unfolding in the surrounding pages.

The Three-Body Problem was fantastic, and somehow The Dark Forest surpassed even that. Remembrance of Earth's Past is shaping up to find a place among some of the greatest science fiction in history. Given the short amount of time that it has been out it may be no more than overexcited hype, but I have faith it will find its place among the ranks of those more established such as Dune, Foundation, and others.

This could just be hyperbolic rambling, but I am hopeful time will prove otherwise. Regardless, this is an amazing series all the same. Onward to Death's End.

I would be hard pressed to think of someone who I pity more than Yozo. My main struggle while reading was the decision of whether this was a worthy of pity or general disdain. He is his own worst enemy, perhaps we all are, but for him it is staggering how much he sabotaged himself throughout his life.

Whatever the fault is though, this is a person whose psyche is damaged far beyond repair. While the decisions he made were his own, this was never a person of sound mind to begin with. A fantastic look into the mind of someone suffering so much that they convince themselves they are no longer worthy of being human, but it is incredibly tragic that a book like this could ever be written in first place.

"If the only good Indian is a dead Indian, then I am going to be the worst Indian of them all". While not the exact line, it is the line that splits this novel neatly in two. The perfect line to wind the book up all the way through its grand finale, it felt like the plot bloomed forwards and backwards from this point.

Stephen Graham Jones uses tactfulness in all the right places in order to build tension and expectancy of what is to come. There are just a few places where this book packs in the emotion, and that is what makes those passages all the stronger. I found myself getting caught up in the suspense and weirdness that when those moments came they felt out of place, but they still felt absolutely right where they were needed.

While I have a couple things I could be critical about, as I love to do, I will pass up on it this time. It just doesn't feel necessary as it wouldn't serve as a worthy counterweight against all the book does right. Even reading the damn acknowledgements was great.