Framed as a series of tales told to entertain themselves by nobles hiding out from the black plague, this sweeping collection of stories covers a broad gamut of topics, tones, and quality. Many of them are silly and there’s a surprising amount of bawdiness.
As a whole, it gives a fascinating window into the culture and lives of Rennaissance people.
Andy Weir sure knows how to keep you turning pages. He has this great talent for ratcheting up the stakes at every step without you ever really feeling the hand of the author. And in this one, I also really have to give props to his world building.
A really interesting look underneath many of the basic assumptions of our economic and organizational systems. While I could quibble with several points in the book, I find his take on the absurdities of modern work to be refreshing and insightful. This is one of those books I’ll be recommending to a lot of folks.
In some ways this may be Asimov’s most ambitious novel. There’s certainly great care given to the theme and structure. It may also be his most character driven and insightful about human nature.
The novel comes in three parts, each in a different setting, featuring different characters. And the first section had me hooked from the start. Something about a pair of scientists both motivated by spite for virtually everything they do just tickles me.
The section section, however, was a complete slog for me. There are some truly alien aliens, which I love, but the central conflict basically comes down to their version of marriage issues, and I just couldn’t care less.
The third section turns things around fairly well. And on the merits of the first and third sections, along with the literary qualities, I’m happy to say that this is a very worthwhile read.
Clarke is one of the greate of the sci-fi cannon, so it’s a disappointment that this book lands so poorly. The premise of a mission to deflect a world-destroying asteroid is a banger, but it’s told in such broad strokes as to feel more like an outline than a real work of fiction. You just get a series of events with no meaningful characters or sense of personal stakes.
Rambling perhaps, and a bit long for what it is. But full of brilliant language and sharp vision, the work of a bright and unique mind such as we rarely encounter.
Wonderful poetry. Whistful, playful, wabi-sabi. And very interesting to see how the haiku form evolved over centuries through the work of four of the greatest poets.
It’s really interesting how Jeffs constructs her own short stories out of scraps of Anglo-Saxon poetry and literature. The accompanying woodcut prints are evocative, and the commentary interspersed with personal narrative add some nice flavor. Still, at the end of the day I’d prefer to go straight to the primary sources. Anglo-Saxon poetry is beautiful and moving all on its own.
Cixin Liu’s books take a while to get rolling, but they continuously escalate, gradually inventing a whole speculative science until you find yourself far out in the unknown, unsure of how you got there. The way his mind works is a real wonder, throwing out wild hypothoses about how the nature of reality and then using fiction to meticulously explore where they might lead. Science fiction in the truest sense.
This isn’t a pleasant read. But it deserves its reputation as a powerful and expertly crafted work of literary non-fiction.
Capote’s skill is in the way he structures the narrative and in his keen observation of the contradictions of the human mind. You’re pulled into the experience of a pair of killers in a way that’s unsettling and intriguing in equal measure.
This book explores themes that really speak to me. Themes of myth, religion, science, and the relationship between them all. It’s sweeping in scope and really engaging. There are some rough edges in the time jumps and abrupt section endings, but it’s truly a pillar in the edifice of philosophical science fiction.
I’m disappointed to follow Twain into Baconist conspiracy theories about Shakespeare’s “true” authorship. Still, everything Twain says has so much charm and wit that I almost find myself nodding along — almost.
This history of humanist thinkers and philosophy made me feel less alone in the world.
Hesse has a way of painting the interior of a mind with life and illumination. While I enjoy the first half — shall we say, the misanthropic half — better than the second, the prose is vibrant and true throughout.
A niche topic to be sure, but as a lover of books, an aspiring author, and a sometimes editor myself, I find it most intriguing. There’s plenty of insight here into nearly every aspect of a book’s journey, from inspiration all the way to the readers’ eyes.
The purpose of fantasy fiction has always been to shine a mirror on the real world through the example of imaginary others, and that goes all the way back to Gulliver’s Travels. Swift transports the reader to a series of fanciful lands that each have a little (or very big) something to show us about ourselves and our absurdities. And the reader is swept along, engaged and entertained all the way, changed by the end, just as Gulliver himself is by his travels.
