SO lucky to have the author do a talk with our library next week!
This book was a fast read. It is a fairly simple post-apocalyptic survival story withSO lucky to have the author do a talk with our library next week!
This book was a fast read. It is a fairly simple post-apocalyptic survival story with the freshness of being imbued with Anishinaabe culture and language. ...more
Kind of like reading Helen Oyeyemi: I really liked it but not 100% sure I actually know what happened. Rather I enjoyed the ideas, and images, and musKind of like reading Helen Oyeyemi: I really liked it but not 100% sure I actually know what happened. Rather I enjoyed the ideas, and images, and musings of it. ...more
Nick Dragotta's art continues to impress. The story is still epic and ambitious and sometimes confusing, but the whole effect is extremely immersive.Nick Dragotta's art continues to impress. The story is still epic and ambitious and sometimes confusing, but the whole effect is extremely immersive....more
6 stars for Nick Dragotta's art and design. Really stunning and clever. One big achievement was that he somehow does not make the blood and guts of vi6 stars for Nick Dragotta's art and design. Really stunning and clever. One big achievement was that he somehow does not make the blood and guts of violence feel gratuitous or too in-your-face. It's there, but it doesn't overwhelm.
The story is epic and complex, and sometimes I felt I could not find my way through it. There are 15 single issues collected in this volume, and I didn't feel on steady ground until almost the end. Worth it, but I wish things had felt more cohesive. The characters are largely archetypes, but I felt a connection to one truly tragic character....more
An epic end to an epic series...I wish I had time to re-read the whole thing because my memory has definitely forgotten important details from the othAn epic end to an epic series...I wish I had time to re-read the whole thing because my memory has definitely forgotten important details from the other two volumes.
I do have to admit that a lot of the magic-orogeny-mumbo-jumbo-technobabble made pretty much zero sense to me, and I'm not sure if that's because of my brain or because of the writing. But I didn't read this series for the technobabble - I read it for the emotional journeys of the characters and for the theme of resistance against oppression and for the will to survive terrible odds. ...more
"It remains hard to fathom, hard to believe, that this is what the world has become. That this, of all possible worlds and times in which I could have"It remains hard to fathom, hard to believe, that this is what the world has become. That this, of all possible worlds and times in which I could have been born...that this is the world and time that I got."
I feel you, Hank, I feel you.
I really enjoyed this mystery/post-apocalyptic trilogy. The weakest parts of the story, were the plots and some of the motives in books 2 and 3. But I enjoyed Hank's somber, diligent, practical, and ultimately optimistic outlook in the face of the annihilation of all that he knows. ...more
Truly a book for our times, if you count yourself among those filled with dread for the upcoming presidential inauguration, waiting with increasing anTruly a book for our times, if you count yourself among those filled with dread for the upcoming presidential inauguration, waiting with increasing anxiety as each day ends and brings us closer to a potential darker future.
It is the story of a world whose days are numbered - in which people know that a giant asteroid will end life as they know it in a matter of months. Magical thinking, denial - none of these things will change a future that they didn't ask for.
Why would you want to read such a book? Because our detective protagonist is such a decent guy - a guy who keeps doing his job in the face of despair. A guy who tries to do what's right, even after he realizes that his false starts have caused more problems.
I had known about this series for a few years, but re-remembered after reading Winters' Underground Airlines, which I really liked. I think I like this series even more. I look forward to reading the other two books in the trilogy....more
Truly one of the worst books I've ever read. I only finished because it was for book club, so it ended up being #hatereading
Total garbage. Plot is fulTruly one of the worst books I've ever read. I only finished because it was for book club, so it ended up being #hatereading
Total garbage. Plot is full of holes; the premise is half-baked; the characters are one-dimensional (female characters are half-dimensional); the writing is detached, smug, and trying too hard to be clever. ...more
A lot of the explanation of how orogeny/magic functions was a little too technical and hard for me to follow. But the emotions and character motivatioA lot of the explanation of how orogeny/magic functions was a little too technical and hard for me to follow. But the emotions and character motivations were not, and those shined as always. The central theme of this book - that some groups have to prepare their children to survive a harsh world that is predisposed to be hurtful to them - rang clear. (Again, having read what Coates says in Between the World and Me about how many African-American parents feel that they must harshly discipline their children in order to ensure their safety in a white world was helpful to have read). There also theme about education which I found engaging, as well as parallels to the struggles that LGBTQ people (or anyone who must hide their identity) must face. ...more
Wow, that was a lot of different tags I just used. Now that I have read this book, I will have to consider if there is enough room on the book's spineWow, that was a lot of different tags I just used. Now that I have read this book, I will have to consider if there is enough room on the book's spine to put all the necessary genre stickers that describe it.
I was really liking the book until about 2/3 of the way in, when I started getting tired by the style of writing. I didn't care for how the author/narrator kept repeating certain catchphrases over and over again - it started to get grating, as it did for me with Where Things Come Back. One of the blurbs on the back of Grasshopper Jungle invokes Vonnegut, so I suppose the book is supposed to harken to Slaughterhouse-5's detached tone, philosophical musings, dark humor, sexual crudeness, and repetition of phrases ("so it goes" "potweet"). I have an amazing fondness for Slaughterhouse-5, but I last read it in my early 20s and now I worry that since this style here in Grasshopper Jungle rubbed me the wrong way, could I have outgrown Vonnegut? Or is this book just a less successful imitation?
The other thing is that while I was OK with the one million mentions of balls, boners, penises, and general non-stop horniness of the main character, the author fails to do any female characters any justice. The MC's girlfriend Shann is hardly fully formed, for one thing. You never get a sense of her as a person or any real depth of thought or feeling, whereas the MC is very attuned to his best friend and possible more-than-friend Robby - yet the MC claims to love them both equally, which I believed. I was also OK with the MC (a horny teen boy, after all) gazing at and fantasizing about females, and specifically their breasts - in general most of the novel uses fairly clinical terms like penis, vagina, breast, intercourse - which goes along with the MC's detached and "historical" narration. But in the last few chapters, the MC starts referring to women's "tits" and that just felt like a more blatant and cruder form of objectification. The MC also seemed to really have no regard for his girlfriend's feelings and basically seems to view her as a sullen and passive nuisance.
Through the beginning of the book I was really excited to think I had found an author as weirdly experimental and full of humanity as A.S. King, but based on this book, I don't think Smith is in the same league. ...more
This is very good post-apocalyptic sci fi. There is a lot of nice writing in here, especially with visual descriptions and meditations about one's pasThis is very good post-apocalyptic sci fi. There is a lot of nice writing in here, especially with visual descriptions and meditations about one's past (both the past as a time, and also about one's past self). I cared about the characters, and the book was put together well - I was eager to keep reading. Of course, I would be a sucker for any book that manages to combine Star Trek and Shakespeare together: the traveling caravan of musicians and Shakespearean actors have a line from Star Trek emblazoned on one of their vehicles: "Survival is insufficient". Yes!
Where it fell short for me was a couple of things. For one, some of the Symbols and Allusions were just a bit too on the nose for me. The author comes back again and again to that line, "Survival is insufficient". It's like she does not trust the reader to have noticed the import of the quote the first time she references it. Likewise, some of the names of the characters - Miranda, Leander, Viola - feel like the author does not trust us to notice the continuing Shakespeare theme. There is also some pretty heavy-handed irony infused throughout, as the book goes back and forth between the "present" post-apocalypse and the past before the apocalypse. For example, in a flashback one character says of a then-seven-year girl "She was probably someone who would grow up to be...unadventurous and well-groomed" - but as readers we know that this girl has grown up to be an ill-groomed survivalist and weapons expert.
In some ways, Station Eleven feels like a combination of two other books that I liked, but also felt were flawed: The Road and Serena. The Road, of course, for its grim survivalism interspersed with grace, and Serena for its (sometimes over the top) allusions to Shakespeare and its strong female characters. ...more
Loading...
