Man, I have totally missed writing in this style. Rock on, internet! Rock on.

Jun 06, 2007 02:07

Since Rusty has gone before, blazing the path in the high grass by the sheer mass of his incessant druge use, I am powerless to do all but follow.

BOOK REVIEW

(about books)*

The Jannissary Tree, by Jason Goodwin

Is a good book about the 1850s in the Ottoman Empire! It is probably very historically accurate.

THINGS I FOUND PROBLEMATIC ABOUT THIS BOOK;

The hero is a eunuch, right? But he has sex with someone. What is up with that? How does that even work?

The whole story ends with a goddamn rooftop denounement in which the villain orates his villanious plan and offers for the hero to join him, then BY SHEER NARRATIVE CO-INCEDENKY is foiled by the equalivent of a falling girder.

Seriously, this is not a good detective novel.

THINGS I LIKED ABOUT THIS BOOK;

Surprisingly enough, the few bits in which the hero was left alone to cook and ponder life in general were really enjoyable. Restful? Yes.

WHO I WOULD RECCOMEND THIS BOOK TO;

Ottoman's from the 1850s, Eunuchs, dudes who enjoy reading about eunuchs and 1850s Ottomania. Ottomanisms? Ottomantiaries?

Light, by M. John Harrison (who also has a great blog

Is one of the best science fiction books I have ever read. It is A Novel, which, you know, means it is Serious Business. But it is also a science fiction book! It is all full of beautiful words.

THINGS I LIKED ABOUT THIS BOOK;

Magical dice, wierd narrative slices, horrible evil horse's skull, masturbating about cousins, acceptance that there are mysteries we cannot understand, unacceptance that there are mysteries we cannot understand, a pervading sense of powerful narrative

THINGS THAT I LIKED LESS ABOUT THIS BOOK;

The ending was sort of really weird, seriously, what? And then he what? What?

THINGS ABOUT THE BACK-COVER OF THE BOOK;

The reason I bought the book was the back-cover, which said;

On the barren surface of an asteroid, located deep in the galaxy beneath the unbearable light of the Kefuhachi Tract, lie three objects: an abandoned spacecraft, a pair of bone dice covered with strange symbols, and a human skeleton. What they are and what they mean are the mysterious explored and unwrapped in Light, M. John Harrison's triumphant return to science fiction.

This would have been a good story, I think, except it is totally not the story the book is about.

Please think about your back covers a bit more throughly, M. John Harrison.

PEOPLE WHO WOULD LIKE THIS BOOK;

Dudes who are smart, dudes who are artistic, dudes who freak out whenever they see a horses skull, Iain M. Banks, chicks who are hot for Iain M. Banks maybe

PEOPLE WHO WOULD NOT LIKE THIS BOOK;

Rusty.

*BOOKS

book review

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