First off, my goal was a half-Cannonball. So, yay me! The age of Jackson (roughly 1820-1860) is like a glimpse of movement in an otherwise dark and empty room: poorly understood and full of foreboding. I’m reasonably familiar with the preceding 50 years of US history, and have a more comfortable grasp on the succeeding 70 years, but the 40 years that tie them together isn’t an era I’ve read much about. I know that there were some Indian Wars, and the fervor to push […]
My boredom is assuaged, but there is no abation for my ennui
I read this book more than a month ago, and it somehow got lost in the shuffle. Which is weird, because I quie enjoyed it. This is a world driven mad by superpowers gifted to a select few. Instead of an idyllic world of good vs evil, however, Sanderson has created a world where the superpowered beings have become our dominant and oppressive overlords. They’ve set up centers of power, where the most mighty can attract underlings to do their bidding. Instead of Superman helping […]
I’m running out of ways to describe likable characters in an interesting sci-fi world.
This is the fifth book in the Old Man’s War series, which takes place in a Star Trek-like future where humans have colonized space, and are warring with other alien races for territory. It’s generally been a great read, and I highly recommend the series to any fan of science fiction. But…something happened on the way to book 4. Scalzi double dipped into the plot of book 3, and just retold the story from a different perspective. Maybe some don’t mind re-reading a story so […]
Moby Dick is a sperm whale. Let’s all just laugh about that now so we can get on with the review.
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Hearken! Before me there is a book, at once languid in its eloquence, and deceptive in its poignancy; bold in its exploration of the human experience, and narrowly constrained by its dimension. Experiencing Herman Melville’s florid prose leaves this reviewer destitute of erudition; both beguiled and inadequate before the preponderance of keys laid out in front of him. The dearth of knowledge with which I am equipped beleaguers my attempt to assess this wondrous and weighty tome. Moby Dick is a clarion singing in the […]
You will not be spared the horrors, even from the comfort of solid ground.
I’ve been meaning to read this book for a long time, and the impending release of Ron Howard’s adaptation spurred me to finally pick it up. It’s one of the better reading choices I’ve made this year. For the uninitiated, the Essex was a whaling ship that was sunk in 1820 roughly halfway between Hawaii and the coast of Peru; almost as far from land as you can be and still consider yourself terrestrial. The ship was attacked by a sperm whale, which ultimately inspired […]
Someone quiet Franklin, I want to hear more about Eleanor.
I’ll get this out of the way at the outset: I didn’t like this book. Why give it four stars, then, you ask? Well, it’s not a bad book. There’s nothing wrong with it, per say. I just didn’t like it. It took me eight months to read it. I’d like to blame it on the fact that my family increased by one 7 pound boy during that time, but there’s no getting around the fact that I simply struggled to get through this. I […]
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