Book blogging (mostly)
Not Recommended
The Dragon Rider
01 month ago
The Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
I think it’s important to note that I listened to the audio version of this book because it is, without a doubt, the reason I disliked it so much. Funke’s story seems pretty good, and if I had read it, I imagine it would have been closer to 3 or 4 stars.
However, it must be said that the narrator Brendon Fraser is, unequivocally, the worst narrator I have ever heard in the 150+ audio books I have listened to over the last few years. Here are just a few examples of why he is so bad:
1. He smacks his lips and chews loudly when characters are eating.
2. He coughs, moans, grunts, squeals, etc. even when the text does not imply these things are happening.
3. When the text does note coughing, etc. he exaggerates them needlessly and tediously.
4. Every piece of dialogue is overacted and extravagant for no reason.
My guess is that Fraser doesn’t actually enjoy reading, and so he feels the need “spice up” the book in order to make it entertaining. Maybe others who don’t often read would enjoy this type of narration, but it was endlessly frustrating and nearly impossible to get through in spite of an interesting plot. If you are interested in this book, please don’t listen to the audio version.
Finnikin of the Rock
41 year ago
We interrupt your regularly scheduled episode of “Talk About How Long The Tale of Genjii Is” to bring you this post on Finnikin of the Rock. (I actually finished this a few weeks ago, and just didn’t get around to writing about it.)
I’ll admit that I’m a sucker for a good story. The Hunger Games isn’t the most sophisticated piece of literature, but it was a lot of fun to read, and it does contain quality writing. A good story, however, isn’t enough to make me overlook major flaws in a novel.
You may not have seen this coming but, in spite of its promising plot, Finnikin of the Rock has far too many flaws for me to overlook. Finnikin, the son of the captain of the guard, is from Lumatere. Ten years ago, however, his homeland was cursed, and since then no one has been able to cross its boundaries, either in or out.
Like I said, this is definitely a promising story. Unfortunately, between a lack of consistency in the geography of the world, and flat, boring characters there isn’t much else to like about this book.
Speaking of boring characters, why can’t any of them communicate like normal human beings? Why do they always have to jump to conclusions, and flee from each other at the slightest (assumed) offense? The School Library Journal review on Amazon.com calls Finnikin and Evanjalin’s relationship “intensely emotional”. I think a better description is “annoyingly unrealistic” or “frustratingly devoid of reason”. It’s not a good sign when even The Tale of Genji, in which characters purposefully obfuscate their language by speaking in ancient Chinese poetry, has more open communication.
Suffice it to say, I don’t recommend Finnikin of the Rock. If you could consider the plot apart from the characters, no doubt you would be able to find some moments to enjoy, but those pesky characters just keep getting in the way.
Full Database entry on Finnikin of the Rock. Beware spoilers.
The Light – Morpheus Road Book 1
21 year ago
I love reading young adult fiction while on vacation. Last Christmas I tore through The Hunger Games in less then 36 hours, and it was absolutely fantastic. I didn’t know much about The Light, but I have listened to the first three books in MacHale’s Pendragon series, and they are good enough that I was willing to give this new series a chance.
The Light is, ultimately, a ghost story. In fact, the book starts with a hip “I believe in ghosts now” intro. From there, it follows Marsh, the main character and narrator, as he attempts to solve the various mysteries surrounding his haunting and his best friend’s disappearance.
While The Light was the fun, light reading I was looking for in a vacation book, it was also extremely disappointing. In spite of having an entirely different storyline and cast of characters, The Light felt exactly the same as the Pendragon books. In fact, in terms of the main character, there wasn’t anything to distinguish Marsh from Bobby Pendragon.
MacHale certainly isn’t a bad writer, but I’m starting to get the impression that his versatility is severely limited. If you aren’t absolutely in love with novels narrated by smart, sarcastic, angsty 15 year olds, who are just trying to figure out this crazy world, then I wouldn’t bother with The Light, or anything else written by MacHale.
It’s unfortunate, too, because he has some great plot ideas. I may even continue listening to the books in this series, just to find out what happens next, but I definitely won’t be reading them next time. Is that hypocritical, to continue reading a series that I won’t recommend? Perhaps, but I am a sucker for a cliffhanger.
Unwind
21 year ago
I learned about Unwind from a coworker whose son was reading it for school. Apparently there was some controversy among the parents. Having just finished Don Quixote I figured this would be great light reading to bridge the gap before vacation. While easy to read, this definitely wasn’t exactly the light reading I had expected.
Unwind is set in a dystopian future in which America has fought its second civil war. Only this time, the fighting was over abortion. The war eventually ended with the signing of the Bill of Life. According to this document all life was protected from conception to the age of 13. From 13 to 18 a parent could choose to retroactively unwind their children. Unwind follows the story of 3 children who are set to be Unwound.
Unwind is full of interesting ideas and deals with the difficult subject of abortion with subtlety. However, the writing itself is just mediocre. It is worth reading if you want to start a discussion on abortion with a teen, but probably not otherwise.
In fact, the most interesting thing for me in regards to Unwind was finding the parallels between it and Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal (an essay in which Swift satirically encourages the Irish to eat their children in order to alleviate poverty). I would say more here, but I don’t want to spoil anything if you are interested in reading Unwind. Feel free to check out the last 2 paragraphs of my database entry for the details, though.
What suprised me the most, however, was that this would be picked for school reading. What do you think – is this appropriate high school reading?
Full database entry on Unwind. Beware spoilers.
P.S. I wrote this on my iPhone so please forgive any typos or weird formatting.
A Personal Matter
61 year ago
There is no doubt in my mind that A Personal Matter is a skilfully executed piece of literature. And I hated reading it. The main character, Bird, is a 27 year old who dreams of going to Africa. When his son is born with a brain hernia, he is faced with deciding between surgery for his son (which may or may not allow him to develop normally) and preventing the surgery and allowing the baby to die.
Maybe it’s because I’m a young father myself, but the very idea that Bird would even consider allowing his baby to die disgusted me. Reading this book was a disturbing, and unpleasant experience. At the same, the mere fact that Oe was able to illicit these feelings in me as strongly as he has shows that he is good at what he does. Unfortunately, what he did here is create a character so selfish and depraved that I actively hated him while reading.
With all that said, this brings up an interesting question: do I recommend a book that I hated reading, one full of characters I found offensive and deplorable if it was all intentional? How do you handle situations like this? Do you still recommend the book even though you hated it in terms of content, because it’s an example of good writing? Or do you choose from myriad other books that are contain good writing, but are not despicable? I would certainly never recommend this book outright, but I have to admit, if you want something that deals with difficult problems in a vicious manner this book is perfect for you.
“But it seems that reality compels you to live properly when you live in the real world” (164).
Stranger in a Strange Land
21 year ago
I’ve had Stranger in a Strange Land on my bookshelf for nearly 5 years now. I have always wanted to read it, partly because I borrowed it from a friend and knew I should eventually give it back, and partly because it looked interesting. So what has kept me from actually starting it? Probably the fact that everyone I’ve asked about it says the same thing: “It starts of great, but then it gets really weird.”
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy weird. Weird books are often some of the most fun. Still, it was enough of a deterrent to keep it from ever moving it to the top of my never empty backlog of books.
So now that I have read it, what’s the verdict? They were exactly right. Stranger in a Strange Land starts off excellent. Unfortunately, this great start makes the second half that much harder to read. There’s a reason this book took me so long to read (nearly 3 weeks): the last half is just a pain to slog through.
The story of Stranger centers around Valentine Michael Smith – a human born on mars and raised by Martians who gets brought back to Earth where he struggles to deal with his own foreignness in what should be his home. Cool idea, right? And it is, and when there’s actually a plot happening (during the first half of the book) it’s superbly entertaining. Unfortunately, by the end it devolves into nothing more than a soapbox for Heinlein’s ideas on sexual liberation.
I hate to say it, but I would not recommend this book. There is one caveat, however. If you can read just the first two parts, and not bother with the rest, there are a lot of interesting ideas, strong writing, and fascinating characters. If you are like me, however, and hate to quit reading a book you start (especially one that starts so good) then don’t bother picking this one up.
“I don’t pay attention to politics.”
“You should. It’s barely less important than your own heart beat.”
“I don’t pay attention to that either” (33).
Full database entry on Stranger in a Strange Land. Beware Spoilers.
And Another Thing…
02 years ago
Eoin Colfer is an excellent author. I don’t know how to pronounce his name, but that hasn’t stopped me from reading 9 of his books now. My first introduction to Colfer was the Artemis Fowl series, which as of book 6, is still immensely entertaining. I was afraid to pick up anything else by him, assuming it couldn’t live up to the high expectations I had from the Artemis books. Eventually I gave in and listened to Airman. It was, quite possibly, even better than any and all of the Artemis books.
Even with Airman surpassing my wildest expectations I was shocked with how much I enjoyed Half Moon Investigations (more on this later – I just finished listening to this on cd). With all that said, when I learned that Colfer was writing the sixth book in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, I was probably more excited than most Hitchhiker’s fans. I was confident that Colfer could pull it off. He is, without a doubt, a talented, funny author.
I didn’t like And Another Thing, and that makes me sad. As I read through it, I wanted to like it. I really did. And it definitely made me laugh, numerous times and not infrequently or out of pity. It really had its moments. But in spite of that, it just wasn’t very good. It was middling, and not nearly of the quality of his other books. There are many possible reasons for this, and I explore them in more detail in the database entry, but I simply can’t recommend this to anyone. Colfer has much better books out there, and the original Hitchhiker’s books are plentiful if you need a fix.
(On a side note, I think there is a good chance that I wouldn’t even enjoy the original series at this point, for whatever reason, and that Colfer in fact did a fantastic job of upholding the tradition established by Adams. Maybe it’s not just for me anymore.)
Blindness
02 years ago
I remember when the movie Blindness came out a few years ago, I thought “what a fascinating idea – everyone in the world suddenly goes blind except for a single woman!” Once I learned it was originally a book, I decided to forego watching the movie, and decided to just read the book it was based on. It turns out I was right – it is a fascinating idea, if not repulsive. Jose Saramago’s vision of a society stricken blind is quite disturbing.
Unfortunately, while Blindness is a well-written, fascinating, disturbing book, it’s simply annoying and unpleasant to read. Saramago makes some stylistic choices (which I assume are meant to convey to the reader what it’s like to lose one of your senses) that create an obnoxious reading experience. Combine that with the disturbing content and it’s officially not fun on all accounts. With that said, however, if you love to see the depravity of the human spirit, and want a book structured so that it is purposefully difficult to read, Blindness is for you, and I recommend it with all confidence that you will “enjoy” it. For the rest of us, don’t bother.
“This is the stuff we’re made of, half indifference and half malice” (32).