There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters.” So basically everyone I’ve ever talked to has read this book before me, and I’m kinda pissed off about that. Why didn’t y’all tell me I needed to read this? I know most people had to […]
This time-spanning lit-fic didn’t really work for me.
So apparently this book is kind of like Cloud Atlas because it takes place over different time periods with different characters, and those time periods and characters are all connected somehow by recurring images and themes. But honestly, I wish I would have read Cloud Atlas instead because that’s supposed to be amazing, and while this was interesting, and I think my book club is going to get a good discussion out of it, I wouldn’t say that it works as a story. I feel […]
Is this the real life? Or is this just fantasy?
Ughhhh, I need to write a review of this but I don’t wanna. Oh, I’m feeling so whiny today. But it’s hard! Writing a review of this is hard! It’s too smart and I have too much to say! WAHHHH. I said in my original review that I might come back later and give this five stars, and indeed that has happened. I’ve only read through Vol. 6, but that’s enough to know how much stuff this was setting up, how much was going on […]
Time-traveling serial killer: SOLD.
I mean. Come on. Just, this author did not have to do any work at all in selling this book to a publisher. And the publisher had no trouble marketing it. Obviously. Time-traveling serial killer sells itself. All this book had to do was show up and it would have been popular, just because we all wanted to read the book about the time-traveling serial killer. Luckily, this book is far from phoned in. It maybe even goes a bit further in the other direction. […]
Not fun like I wanted it to be.
I liked this, didn’t love it. I think Austin Grossman and I just don’t blend well as reader/writer. And it all started out so well! The book begins from the point of view of Dr. Impossible as he reflects from prison on his life and career as a supervillain. He has been arrested twelve times now, after having almost destroyed the world and/or conquered it, also twelve times. His nemesis is CoreFire, leader of a group of superheroes not unlike the Avengers. The world they live in […]
A delightful dystopia.
I’ve been sitting on a hardcover copy of this book for YEARS, waiting for the right time to read it. The long-promised two sequels seemed nowhere in sight, so I figured no harm in waiting. And now that it looks like the second book* is on it’s way for next year at the earliest, 2017 at the latest, I figured it was about time. I am also feeling resentful and wanting to take back the phrase “Shades of Grey” from certain . . . sectors. […]