Review: The Garden of Evening Mists

The Garden of Evening Mists by Twan Eng Tan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This was a truly, truly beautiful book. On the one hand it's a fascinating look into a place and a period of time that no longer exists. On the other hand, it is best described as a meditation on memory and time and love. It's easy to summarize and say that the book is about an English-Speaking Chinese Malayan survivor of a Japanese slave-labor camp in WWII, and how she comes to find some peace in the garden of a man who used to be the Japanese Emperor's gardener. But that does this story no justice.

Yun Ling is suffering from a disorder which will eventually take her thoughts from her. She will be left unable to use words, which is why she finds it important to set down her memories before she loses the ability to do so. The memories, however, seem to me to have been more of a burden to her than anything else. Memories of losing her sister in the camp, memories of her lost love, memories of friends dying. It makes one wonder what life was worth for her. Maybe losing her memories would eventually be a blessing. At the end I wasn't sure if it was a tragedy or not. She ensured that her sister would be remembered by others when she was no longer capable, and perhaps that's more real than living in the memories of one person. Maybe not.

This book is beautifully written, despite not being full of elaborate prose. Sometimes simplicity is best, as realized in the idea of wabi-sabi. I highly recommend this book.



View all my reviews

Review: Beowulf

Beowulf by Unknown

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Obviously this is a difficult read, aside from the poem itself. The details of the exact wording the original author (unknown) intended is of course unknowable, but Tolkien, being quite the expert, was attempting to get as close to it as possible. His difficulty arose from having to attempt to translate what the scribe actually wrote, but the scribe was actually less an expert on the original poem or language than Tolkien himself. While this is a good thing for modern-day scholars, for lay-people it gets a bit esoteric and perhaps more involved than we actually want. I'll leave it up to actual scholars to judge Tolkien's accuracy in translation (although there may not be any qualified to argue against the man himself; he certainly wasn't shy about declaring other experts wrong).

As far as the translation of the poem, some will doubtless find it difficult and unnatural, but it captures the cadence and style of the Old English he was attempting to translate. He wanted to make it readable to modern English-speakers, obviously, but he also wanted it to feel transported back to that time. I enjoyed it, others will have to judge for themselves.

This is not a book for people who only loved Lord of the Rings, or especially only loved The Hobbit. If you liked The Silmarillion, this may indeed be a book for you, and for anyone who is a Beowulf scholar of course it's going to be on the menu.



View all my reviews

Review: Saga, Volume 2

Saga, Volume 2 by Brian K. Vaughan

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I'm enjoying this series, but I'm also wondering why it's supposed to be so "ground-breaking" and original. As I said about the first, there's nothing particularly wrong with it, but it's only original if you're unaware of earlier sci-fantasy (notable examples are the worlds of Warhammer 40k and Shadowrun, although this might also encompass Burroughs' Barsoom series). I typically like Brian K. Vaughan's writing although it seems to me sometimes he tries too hard to buck expectations. Again, the art is alright, not what I would call a stunning example of comic-book art but certainly not the worst.

I like this series, but honestly I can't say I'd be missing much if I'd never read it, and certainly I would say if you have to choose between this and Fables, go for Fables.



View all my reviews

Review: Horns

Horns by Joe Hill

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Wow, I have to give it to Joe Hill. That was an excellent story. I like that there was no mention of why this thing occurred, although one is free to interpret the story as they wish. Quite a lovely ending too. Hill is not yet what I'd call a master wordsmith, although he can manage some nice turns of phrase, but I feel he'll get there eventually. Really just a brilliant book. I'd recommend it to just about anyone.



View all my reviews

Review: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Well, whatever literary virtue there was to this book was severely undermined by the pretentiousness and self-centeredness of the author. I can understand that this was sort of a stream of consciousness narration of how the author dealt with the deaths of his parents (which occurred at a close proximity in time). I just don't like that it seemed like the book took up years of my life. It is vastly longer than it needs to be. Also, stream of consciousness doesn't work well unless the writer really knows what they're doing, and it's fairly evident Eggers didn't know how to handle it that well.

I can sometimes enjoy books written in first person by someone who is altogether unlikable, but the worst sin is being shallow and pretentious at the same time. If I wanted to read an autobiography, I'd rather read one by someone who either knows how to make the mundane entertaining or who has lived a life that's entertaining to read about. That's not this book.

The prose was fine. In most places it was serviceable and in others there were flashes of brilliance, but those were far too few. The length of time he spends on such vignettes as his interview with MTV or his time at Might Magazine was simply agonizing in how pathetic his pandering plea for attention was, and even though his smarmy self-awareness means he knows he's pandering, he does it anyway, all the while thinking he's being cute. It's not. It's just plain awful.

I can't say the book was bad because it really wasn't terribly written. But I couldn't honestly recommend this to anyone either.



View all my reviews

Review: The Last Policeman

The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Pretty good. The mystery was not the most intriguing, but it wasn't ever meant to be anything out of the bounds of normal human behavior. The setting with the end of the world imminent creates a more memorable backdrop, but other than as set dressing it serves little purpose. Of course that's not to say that this book should have been written more as speculative fiction than detective novel because I enjoyed it for what it is. The prose was really the weakest part, not that it ever delved into being truly cliche or trite, but mostly it was uninspired. Still, a good book overall. I will definitely be reading the sequel.



View all my reviews

Review: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Great story. Pretty well written, although it's a bit scattershot, but that's ok. I loved the technical aspects of his work, although I understand maybe not everyone will because not everyone is fascinated by electronics and electricity like the author is (and like I am). I would recommend this to pretty much anyone!



View all my reviews

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.



View all my reviews

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.



View all my reviews

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.



View all my reviews