ewdocparris's reviews
19 reviews

This novel is on par with an episode of Warehouse 13.

The characters are about as fully realized (which is to say, not terribly).
The story is clever (though Clines makes it impossible not to guess the nature of the Fold by revealing the secret in the prologue).
The writing references lots of pop culture in mildly amusing ways (though, honestly, it would all be better suited to a YA science-fiction story).
The science is beyond hand-wavy, it's BS wrapped in vague references to quantum theory (and those are incorrect and disconnected).
It falls back on supernatural, Lovecraftian spookiness to reach the final act.

All of these would be well suited to a Warehouse 13 episode. At best it's a Star Trek episode. If you enjoy those shows, you will enjoy The Fold. But you can always watch those shows in rerun.

Listen, this isn't great literature. It's not The Broken Earth Trilogy or The Parable of the Sower or anything meaningful. If it were an hour long TV show, I'd give it a better review. Adult science fiction should be more than just, "what if there were a dimensional rift to parallel worlds and they were all subtly different than our own?"

Dennis Taylor threads a very tricky needle between campy, glib, goofiness and hard science fiction. His main character, Bob, has a fun, wisecracking take on a series of events that would leave the sanity of most shredded. But his humor and his intellect make him an ideal candidate for becoming an AI controlling a space craft and its resources including 3D printers for replicating anything, even himself.

The science is clean and straightforward. The tech feels right-around-the-corner. The situation seems completely believable and completely outlandish.

It's a ton of fun.

I’ve seen others say it, this book needed a good editor to cut 500 pages out out of it. I have to agree. There is, at best 300 pages of story here. My complaints lie with the writer’s self indulgence and total lack of a cohesive theme. 800+ pages inside the POV of one self loathing, guilt ridden xenobiologist is a hard slog. Following it up with copious appendices feels like a writer who’s fallen in love with the sound of their own voice.

Sir, yes Sir! Get ready to run a mile in the boots of a war-hardened colonel on a mission to solve a mystery that takes its share of twists and turns. Mammay's debut novel is a solid head scratcher wrapped in inter species intrigue. A fun listen. Feels like a combo of Heartbreak Ridge, Heart of Darkness, and Starship Troopers. His MC sounds like Gibbs from NCIS.

Engaging and full of believable military detail.

More like poetry than prose.

A beautiful portrait of fatherhood. McCarthy’s prose style and character sketches are sparse yet imbued with warmth and nobility. The apocalypse depicted seems to be none of the expected, human-created scenarios but the result is the same, the slow inevitable winding down of the world. Set against that a father’s role as protector of his son is an almost holy mission. An heartbreaking aperture from which to view all fathers and sons.

Neal Stephenson's FALL is worth reading despite its length.
That's my take on it after going a few rounds with myself about how I felt. The book is long. It covers a LOT of territory in this world and the next. It also covers a lot of conceptual ground. Mortality, memory, identity; all of these are woven together with a global technological and social culture that feels very plausible if not inevitable. The first act takes place entirely in a world that feels a bit like the day after tomorrow - focussing on our digital rights, the plague of the current internet, and the art of the possible. But the first act, grounded in reality as it is, is simply a set up for the mythic world Stephenson creates in acts two and three.
Does Stephenson spend too much time describing unnecessary details? Yes. Does that detail payoff in important ways as you get deeper into the story. Sometimes. Maybe the problem is that often that detail doesn't become important often enough that the reader starts to feel like they're being strung along.
But Stephenson's voice is interesting even when he's just describing the veins in a maple leaf. And ultimately that's what saves this book from it's own length. Stephenson is an interesting cat and the concepts he examines in infinite resolution are interesting as well.
I wouldn't want to be his editor.
But, while it was a long read, it was enjoyable.

Small wonder this classic launched King's career

It's hard to imagine a kid of 26 having the depth of experience in life, let alone writing, to pull off this masterwork. The young school teacher, laundry worker, and short story writer channels so many voices and captures so many portraits of small town high school life this first work feels like a documentary film as much as a horror story. Oddly, it strikes me that it could just as easily been labeled a science-fiction thriller as the framing of Carrie's talents are always wrapped in their biological and hormonal causation. As with all truly horrific stories, the real monsters are the normal people.

Though you can see hints of the storylines that have been developed by film and TV adaptations, Shelly's original is nearly unrecognizable if you grew up with the popular culture Frankenstein's monster. The focus on how to construct a man from spare parts was more visually appealing I suppose, so it takes up a great deal of screen-time. Shelly's story nearly ignores it entirely. Also the idea of a grunting, groaning, non-verbal monster was a modern contrivance.
From a modern viewpoint, this is a tale of white male privilege and a sense of superiority over the natural world leading to technology that destroys rather than improves life.
It's also a metaphor for parents and their troubled relationship to their children.
It's not what you expect.

A thoughtful exploration of fungi and their impact on all life on earth. Sheldrake's enthusiasm is infectious, his word play is endearing, and his knowledge of the biological diversity of fungi is fascinating.
If you've read Mexican Gothic, this will connect some dots. If you haven't yet, it wouldn't hurt to give this a listen before you do.

The Sun Also Rises is a postcard from Pamplona in the 1920s. An old Kodak Brownie Box Camera shot of 30-something drunks trying anything to give their post-war/pre-war lives meaning or, failing that, at least something to make them feel something.
As I read it I became aware of how the pacing and dialogue of this book imbued a generation of screenwriters with Hemingway ticks and tricks.
The casual antisemitism and racism should be acknowledged. In a culture that likes to ban books, I don't think this book ever comes up. I think it preserves the culture of expat Americans and Brits of the 1920s perfectly, the good and the bad.
As a reader who grew up in the latter half of the 20th century, I found myself expecting emotional payoffs that never landed. I was left with a sense of mallaise that perfectly sums up that lost generation.