"Anathem" by Neal Stephenson is ok if you like math-geek monks living out the rises and falls of civilization "long-now"-wise with the chance that those mathics have maybe learned new technologies that involve the many worlds interpretation of the universe, and then top it off with the intrusion of visitors from one of the other world-strands who are probably not visitors but invaders. I can't quite tell what he was thinking in writing this book. After the wonderful dive into historic fiction of his last few I wanted more of the same. Still fun to read if you like that sorta stuff.
"The Little Book" by Seldon Edwards is a time travel love story set at the turn of the last century in Vienna. It is the first (and probably only book) by the author (he spent his life writing it). It reads like it took someone maybe a bit too long to write it (overwrought?) That being said it was a fun exploration of time travel (of course with a young Hitler), Freud, and a time and place many of us don't know much about. I enjoyed it.
"The White Tiger" by Aravind Adiga just won the Man Booker Prize (I thought Salman's book should have won it by the way because even though it wasn't his best it was richer than this one). All that being parenthetically said, I enjoyed the read. It is another first time writer (though an accomplished reporter). It is a mildly comic "murderer coming of age in a pretty screwed up have and have not world" sort of story (oh yes another one of those). Very compact exploration of Indian Society and the mind of an antihero.
"Slam" by Nick Hornby is yet another coming of age tale (About a Boy and High Fidelity where coming of age stories in different vein). Set in working class London with a teen who idolizes Tony Hawk (and maybe talks to him). The main character gets slammed pretty hard by life, maybe travels occasionally through time (hmm is time travel the new black?), and ultimately makes it through to the other side, older than his years. Small, good, and quick read.
Other things...
Films?
"Sunshine" by Danny Boyle (of Trainspotting & Millions & 28 Days Later fame) is a bit bloody but blindingly buildingly brilliant exploration of science fiction themes (like the sun is going out, we're all trapped on an ark and there is a murderer loose, space travel is long stretches of boredom complimented by moments of terror, and ecologies are fragile things). Anything Danny makes I will watch and this is no exception. He has a new one out called "Slumdog Millionaires" that promises to be good as well.
"Synecdoche, NY" is confusing, difficult, looping, lingering, halting, sprawling, small, dark, and somehow ultimately worth seeing again (I think people will love or hate it or a little of both and if you love it you'll end up wanting to see it again 24 hours after seeing it for the first time).
Music?
Department of Eagles and Beirut. Good.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Books 'n' Stuff September 08
Ok, its been a long time since I've posted. I'll probably miss some books but lets see how many I can remember since the last time...
"Court of the Air" by Stephen Hunt isn't really that much about the aforementioned court but it is a dark page turner set in a steampunk alternative universe (think Dickens meets China Melville). I'd give it pretty high rankings for what it was, a quick adventure featuring evil cross dimensional universe sucking spiders combined with kind hearted mechanical men and a government gone too far.
"Submarine" by Joe Dunthorne is a typical coming of age story about a way too smart kid, his dysfunctional parents, imagination, and adolescence in a small town in England. I started out liking it (sorta reminded me of Black Swan Green or Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) but then it just kept being a bit too cute and clever and never really paid off.
"The Enchantress of Florence" by Salman Rushdie is a deep dive into history and storytelling. A blend of fact and fiction is one part clash of Mughals versus Medicis and one part delight in telling stories of fantasy and flight.
"Midnight's Children" also by Mr. Rushdie but from way back in the 80's is in some ways the one that put him on the map. I finally got around to reading it. It is crazy good. Science fiction (what if 1001 children born at the stroke of midnight to 1am where somehow suffused with super powers and linked to the birth of India?) combined with autobiography and the modern history of India. I had to reread some pages a few times just to figure out what they meant (though partly I just enjoyed reading the poetry of the prose so much that I wanted to hear it more than once before moving on). If you read one deep sprawling tale this year, read this.
"The Hakawati" by Rabih Alameddine is a story of a family who lived through some very hard times in Lebanon interspersed with fables and fantasies from the ancient world. It is the first book I've read by Rabih, I'll read his others as well.
"Saturn's Children" by Charles Stross is a cross between his Accelerando future (just a bit of it) and his Jennifer Morgue playfulness with the James Bond thriller mode. Not really much more than a diversion of a novel I still enjoy his storytelling and inventiveness (though this isn't anywhere near as good in my opinion as the other two). Feels like he's trying to start a new series. Sexbot Bond in Space.
"City at the End of Time" by Greg Bear is completely impossible for me to really like. Very mind bending leaping from the end of time back to some parts in the past that are being destroyed by some all encompassing future danger meets books that do something important but I can't figure out what and godlike intelligences combined with a howling chaos. Huh?
"Little Brother" by Cory Doctorow is a revisiting of the "Big Brother" concept (extrapolating from 9/11 into a near future San Francisco) but from the standpoint of crowdsourcing revolt through xboxes and hacker kids. Readable and probably good for the boing boing generation (and people who aren't that geeky but want to understand a few off the implications of technology and the "war on terror") as a primer of some sort.
New Music?
The Duke Spirit (retro sounding in some ways but it rocks)
DeVotcka (odd gypsy stuff with some great hooks)
Beck (just plain best album of the year I'm thinking right now)
Girl Talk (DJ mixmaster craziness, I've never heard so many songs blended together from so many sources in one song ever... I love it in small doses)
"Court of the Air" by Stephen Hunt isn't really that much about the aforementioned court but it is a dark page turner set in a steampunk alternative universe (think Dickens meets China Melville). I'd give it pretty high rankings for what it was, a quick adventure featuring evil cross dimensional universe sucking spiders combined with kind hearted mechanical men and a government gone too far.
"Submarine" by Joe Dunthorne is a typical coming of age story about a way too smart kid, his dysfunctional parents, imagination, and adolescence in a small town in England. I started out liking it (sorta reminded me of Black Swan Green or Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) but then it just kept being a bit too cute and clever and never really paid off.
"The Enchantress of Florence" by Salman Rushdie is a deep dive into history and storytelling. A blend of fact and fiction is one part clash of Mughals versus Medicis and one part delight in telling stories of fantasy and flight.
"Midnight's Children" also by Mr. Rushdie but from way back in the 80's is in some ways the one that put him on the map. I finally got around to reading it. It is crazy good. Science fiction (what if 1001 children born at the stroke of midnight to 1am where somehow suffused with super powers and linked to the birth of India?) combined with autobiography and the modern history of India. I had to reread some pages a few times just to figure out what they meant (though partly I just enjoyed reading the poetry of the prose so much that I wanted to hear it more than once before moving on). If you read one deep sprawling tale this year, read this.
"The Hakawati" by Rabih Alameddine is a story of a family who lived through some very hard times in Lebanon interspersed with fables and fantasies from the ancient world. It is the first book I've read by Rabih, I'll read his others as well.
"Saturn's Children" by Charles Stross is a cross between his Accelerando future (just a bit of it) and his Jennifer Morgue playfulness with the James Bond thriller mode. Not really much more than a diversion of a novel I still enjoy his storytelling and inventiveness (though this isn't anywhere near as good in my opinion as the other two). Feels like he's trying to start a new series. Sexbot Bond in Space.
"City at the End of Time" by Greg Bear is completely impossible for me to really like. Very mind bending leaping from the end of time back to some parts in the past that are being destroyed by some all encompassing future danger meets books that do something important but I can't figure out what and godlike intelligences combined with a howling chaos. Huh?
"Little Brother" by Cory Doctorow is a revisiting of the "Big Brother" concept (extrapolating from 9/11 into a near future San Francisco) but from the standpoint of crowdsourcing revolt through xboxes and hacker kids. Readable and probably good for the boing boing generation (and people who aren't that geeky but want to understand a few off the implications of technology and the "war on terror") as a primer of some sort.
New Music?
The Duke Spirit (retro sounding in some ways but it rocks)
DeVotcka (odd gypsy stuff with some great hooks)
Beck (just plain best album of the year I'm thinking right now)
Girl Talk (DJ mixmaster craziness, I've never heard so many songs blended together from so many sources in one song ever... I love it in small doses)
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