27th November, 2009
The Road
The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
A post-apocalyptic world where there is nothing left but a handful of humans, struggling to survive on a dead planet. No sun, no plants or animals and the world is rapidly cooling – not that it matters since there is no food or drinkable water outside of what can be scrounged from increasingly rare caches. Cannibalism is rampant and every encounter with another human involves a life-or-death choice. The story details the travel of a father and his son through the blasted land in their attempt to find something, anything.
No, this is not a happy novel nor is it a wordy one. I breezed through it in a couple of days which is a testament not only to its minimalistic prose, but also to Cormac’s skill as a writer. The book takes a good look at the love between a parent and a child and lot of reviews suggest also that the book is about hope. I agree with these interpretations for the most part, however, I wonder if there is a little more to it. To me, it feels like an exploration of the meaning and purpose of life; why some people continue to move on despite knowing that the end is coming and why others don’t.
My feeling is that, depending on the stage of life you’re in, you’ll take different things from this story. Being a father myself, some of the interactions between the man and his son really hit home and made me think about the relationship I have with my own daughter. Recommended.
4/5 gogs.
As an aside, I’ve seen some of the stills from the movie adaptation and I have say that I’m pretty unimpressed. Maybe it’s because I keep seeing Strider from LotR and Omar from The Wire when I see pictures of the Man and the Thief or maybe it’s because the landscapes don’t look how I pictured them (where is all the ash and mud that is so prevalent in the book?), but I doubt I’ll bother with the movie. (Although if anyone who has read the book has seen it and liked it, let me know).
Posted at 5:21 am | Comment (1)
25th November, 2009
Uphill, both ways.
If you lick your index finger and hold it up to the winds of pop culture at the moment, you’re going to find a strong current of vampire blowing your way.
This is awesome. Although you damn kids may not get why it’s so awesome. Damn kids these days. Oh, and get off my lawn.
Posted at 5:25 pm | Comment (1)
13th November, 2009
So Here’s the Deal
Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski
Huh, so it turns out that Blood of Elves, which I’ve been hearing Good Things about on the internets, is actually the second book in Sapkowski’s Witcher series, not the first. Which explains why I felt like it picked up in the middle of a story and ended in the middle of one as well. Heh, heh. Right. Normally, I would have gone and read the first one before discussing the second, if some dipshit hadn’t have stolen the first one from the library last year. Seriously. I mean, what kind of a douchebag steals from a library? Go stick up Barnes and Noble, ffs, not a damn public library. Dick.
Despite not knowing how the story got to where it was or where it’s going, it was still a pretty good read. I’m giving it a 3, which may change once I actually track down a copy of the first book.
3/5 gogs.
Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks
What’s up with the dorky book covers in fantasy land these days? First, Abercrombie’s Best Served Cold and now this series. (Astute readers will point out that Week’s trilogy was published before BSC, but I didn’t read them in that order so my way is the right way, chronology be damned).
Regardless, what we have here is an easy-to-read book, despite it’s length, that is a bit grim at times but none the less tells a decent tale. Nothing spectacular here, but nothing worthy of scorn, either. Fans of darker, action-oriented stories should find this worthwhile.
3/5 gogs.
Bauchelain and Korbal Broach by Steven Erikson
A collection of three short stories focusing on Bauchelain and Korbal Broach of Malazan fame which I believe were published individually sometime earlier in Erikson’s career. Publisher’s Weekly calls it “edgy and violent” but I don’t see it that way. Dark, sure, a little, but edgy and violent? Nah. There was actually quite a bit of humor blended into these tales which I quickly devoured in a few days’ time. Fun stuff.
3.5/5 gogs
Posted at 5:29 am | Comment (1)
