So, my “rule” this Cannonball was that, after finishing a book, I had to at least write a draft of a review before moving on to the next book. This worked really well for a while, and every time I’d go to post a review, I’d have a folder full of drafts to choose from. Finishing the reviews became fairly easy, because my thoughts were already there, so even if it’d been weeks (or, let’s be honest, months) since I finished the book, at least […]
When we finally learn to time travel, it will probably be just as boring as this
On paper, this book is the complete package for me: time travel, a mysterious epidemic, a spunky female protagonist, academia, Christmas. I should have loved it. But it was a little… um…. super duper incredibly boring. I’m really looking forward to the Book Club conversation about this, because it would be nice to put my finger on why I didn’t just totally love it. There’s plenty of action, but it’s very repetitive, and never feels like it’s going anywhere. No build, just introduction of characters, […]
Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!
You know that scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, where the man with the death cart enters the plague-ridden village to pick up all of the day’s bodies? This scene? That’s pretty much all I could think about while I read Connie Willis’ Doomsday Book. I think by now, most of us know the plot, so I’ll be brief. In the future (around 2054), scientists at Oxford University are sending historians back through history. Some sort of time “net” has been created, and […]
Past-Future Tech
I’m really conflicted with this book. On the one hand I can say that objectively this is an excellent novel. It’s well written, the characters are fully fleshed out, the plot is engaging, etc etc. However, while I was captivated by parts of the novel there were other parts that I didn’t like and struggled to get through and then there were parts that flat out triggered anxiety attacks and were miserable to get through. I’m glad I read it, but I don’t think I’ll read it […]
Why hast thou forsaken me?
There is a scene in Connie Willis’ To Say Nothing of the Dog that has stayed with me. Our intrepid historian, Ned, accidentally travels back to the Middle Ages for a short time and witnesses a scene that is repeated in the book in three different historical moments – a woman is asking a man why he hasn’t done a thing she asked him to do and the man is making excuses. Ned cannot understand the words the woman and man are speaking, because English […]
A Gobstopper of a Novel
Thank you CBR book-club for forcing me to read outside of my usual genres. I usually read 1-2 science fiction books a year to appease Mr. Beth Ellen (it’s his favorite genre), but he gets to choose them so it’s always to his taste. I really enjoyed reading further into the genre, especially as I’m a sucker for time travel into the past. Doomsday book is two stories: it’s the story of Kirvin, an historian, traveling back to the 14th century to learn more about […]
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