Unexpectedly, Atwood does not pick up in Year of the Flood where Oryx and Crake ended. Rather, she covers the same time-line as she did in her first novel, only this time she gives us a different viewpoint with which to greet the end of the world. In her first book, we learned that the world’s corporations had hired brilliant men—Crake among them—to bioengineer humanity in their own image—materialist, hedonistic, narcissistic. The profits have never been so good, the disparities between rich and poor never […]
Airships and mercenaries and bandits and adventure
Part One: The Kraken King and the Scribbling Spinster – 4 stars Part Two: The Kraken King and the Abominable Worm – 4 stars Part Three: The Kraken King and the Fox’s Den – 4.5 stars Part Four: The Kraken King and the Inevitable Abduction – 4 stars Because The Kraken King is being published in eight weekly instalments, I’m going to blog the first four as one book, and the final four as another, mainly because I don’t want to wait until I’ve read all the parts to share my […]
Formidable, but fantastic
Bas-Lag is a land of water. There are all manner of creatures living above and below the water, and each little island seems to have its own race of people or monsters. There are great cities and small ports, heroes and villains, sailors, regular folk…and of course, pirates. I almost don’t want to say anything about this amazing, astoundingly creative book. I knew nothing going in, and watching it unfold, never knowing where it would turn, definitely heightened the experience. But I have to at […]
Summerland by Michael Chabon
Y’all this was so good. So, so good. It was like the best of what I love about Stephen King novels — grand, sweeping adventures like Dark Tower or The Talisman that focus on young kids getting wrapped up in mythology and having to save the world. It reminded me quite a bit of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods as well — mythology in the modern world, the old gods forced to adapt to the new. A Michael Chabon treatment of this kind of adventure? Sign me up! “Mr. Feld […]
Annihilating several hours of my time…
Annihilation – the first of a trilogy – is the tale of an expedition into the mysterious “Area X” . Something happened to Area X a while back – never explained, very vague. Exactly what or when and what’s wrong with “Area X” is never explained – at least not in this book. Perhaps in the other parts of the trilogy… Eleven expeditions have gone in to investigate Area X and …really no one has come back out or if they have, they […]
The Dumbest Kiss
This book. Don’t read it. It was a Vaginal Fantasy pick, but an awful one. The plot was uninteresting, the pacing jarring, the writing juvenile and uninspired, and the characters flat and insipid. Here’s the rub: Lucien is one of the Lords of the Underworld, punished for opening Pandora’s Box by having the demon of Death coupled to his soul. He and Death are one; they cannot be separated. He has to perform Reaper-like tasks and escort souls to their final resting places (these are boringly […]