Review: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Interesting. More of a social commentary than a novel, it's a bunch of short stories tied together by the device of the "author" being someone travelling around talking to survivors after the outbreak is controlled. It's not just an exploration of human nature but of the successes and failures of government, science, modern economic policies and just about every aspect of the world we live in. I don't think the combination of short stories and social commentary worked in every case because they really deserved a longer treatment, but it was a pretty good concept. Also if you're looking for characters to invest in emotionally and get attached to, that doesn't happen very often in this book. Still and all, I'd definitely recommend it.



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Review: Deadhouse Gates

Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Man, Steven Erikson writes some really, really bad prose. Also some of his passages where he's trying to express character's emotions are either laughable or just too terrible to laugh at. That being said, that's not the case most of the time, nor does it make the book not worth reading. It just severely detracts from it.

Anyway, this book continues on one storyline that was begun in [b:Gardens of the Moon|55399|Gardens of the Moon (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, #1)|Steven Erikson|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355144064s/55399.jpg|2646042], but introduces some new characters in the typical Erikson way, which is to explain nothing about them at all and let details drop as they will in the course of the narrative. It's annoying to me but I honestly will not say that it's an objectively wrong way of doing things. The action jumps to a different land across some ocean (where this is in relation to the first story I have very little idea since the author seems to find it unimportant to actually lay out the geography of the world).

There are two (or three) distinct stories which never actually intersect anywhere, so one wonders why they're crammed in the same book other than that they're occurring approximately at the same time. However, as far as they go, they are interesting stories. I do like the world that Erikson is building at this point, as it has lots of interesting features. Some of the characters are interesting, some are incomprehensible.

I'd barely recommend this book, but only to those who really can wait for gratification and who can tolerate really bad prose in places.



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Review: The Kassa Gambit

The Kassa Gambit by M.C. Planck

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



It was a good story, but not outstanding. Worth reading because it's so easy, but the revelation at the end is rather anti-climactic, and it's all rather rushed. The characters don't feel entirely natural either. Maybe it's that they're too anti-stereotypical to feel very real. I'd read more by this author, but only if it gets a bit better.



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Review: Gardens of the Moon

Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Well, I liked it, but I find it far from the incredibly mind-blowing fantasy I'd been led to believe. The world-building aspect was nice, but the fact that the author just starts throwing elements at you with no explanation isn't nice. Erikson takes it to crazy levels of "just roll with it". You have no idea who these people are, what they're doing or why, and especially when it comes to any of the magical elements. It makes no sense. There are several inter-twining stories that really seem to just fall apart at the end. Also, the poems or whatever they were at the beginning of chapters were horrible. Just plain really bad. The prose throughout the book was nothing special, but at least it was serviceable.

Frankly, there are some extremely cringe-worthy lines in this book. Something about people looking on with horror as the Adjunct killed the person she used to be...well, it was just plain bad.

All that being said, this book actually was fairly good and interesting. It's neither as horribly bad in parts as [b:The Night Land|970602|The Night Land|William Hope Hodgson|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348444715s/970602.jpg|955499] nor as amazing in others, but it's kind of similar. The story is definitely good enough to make up for the weaknesses. Not quite enough to make you ignore them, but it's not that big a book. I do plan on reading more of the series, and I hope Erikson overcame these flaws in his later books.



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Review: This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don’t Touch It

This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don’t Touch It by David Wong

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Wow, that was far beyond what I was expecting. I liked [b:John Dies at the End|1857440|John Dies at the End (John Dies at the End, #1)|David Wong|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1189289716s/1857440.jpg|1858059] quite a bit, but felt it under-capitalized on its potential. This book was truly impressive. The difference, I think, was that this one was a more cohesive story, and despite the fact that the reader never truly knows why event that drives the plot occurs, the narrative holds together extremely well. I have to say that this is one of the most tightly written, suspenseful books I have ever read. Of course I'm not into thrillers that much, but I don't think anybody would describe this book as anything but fast-paced. On top of that, this book, like the first one, reminds me of [b:The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy|11|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1)|Douglas Adams|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327656754s/11.jpg|3078186] in that it achieves a fine balance of comedy and poignancy. I don't want to include spoilers in my review, but the events of the ending are both touching and bizarre. While the vocabulary of the book is nothing that would challenge your average high-school graduate, the concepts brought forth in the book are those that are relevant to how we view ourselves and each other.

I don't want to go on too long, so I'll have to end here with a simple thought: read this book! You won't regret it, although it seriously is full of spiders.



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Review: Warm Bodies

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Well, it's an interesting experience. I thought the writing was great and I know this author has some serious potential. However, the book is irretrievably stupid. The plot doesn't make any sense at all, which I guess is ok if it's more of a character story, but this isn't really a character story. I hope the author was writing down to his audience, and that his moralizing and philosophizing are really so juvenile because he deliberately spurned complexity. I don't generally go for "dreams come true" books where there is a completely unearned happy ending.

Also, the main female character was irritating beyond belief, especially as the delivery method for most of the story's philosophy.

All in all, I hope the author chooses to dedicate his talents to more deserving stories than this garbage.



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