Books of the Week!

Before we get in up to our elbows worth of books I want to give ya’ll a heads-up that starting tomorrow Time Heist will be FREE on Amazon through the end of the week. So if you’ve been holding off on getting yourself a copy, or you have a frugally inclined friend looking for a new read, then this is the moment you’ve been waiting for!

Okay, so without further bush whacking, here are the Books of the Week, err…last week. Whatever. They are books from a week!

1) Annihilation – Jeff Vandermeer (For those that want to read introspective, slow-paced horror.

Annihilation is Book One in the Southern Reach Trilogy and good-golly miss molly I don’t think I’ve ever gone into a book having read so many mixed reviews. Seriously, on Amazon book has almost as many 1 and 2 stars as it does 3 stars. Then again, it has a plethora of 5 stars, so what’s that mean? Well, it means it ain’t gonna be for everybody.

My girlfriend tried reading it a couple months back (which is what got me interested in reading the book on account of it laying around and having a snazzy cover), but she only made it part-way through the book before giving up. I rarely give up on a book, which made me hesitant to even start Annihilation, but it’s a quick read so i figured, what the hell.

I still don’t really know how I feel about the book, to be honest. The writing is top-notch, the story is compelling, but there is something about the way it was written that really bothers me. Namely, it’s reminiscent of Lost (and that’s not even taking into consideration that they both revolve around a mysterious landscape). One of the things that made the first few seasons of Lost so amazing was that every episode threw a new twist into the world. A mystery that needed unwrapping. Which works, but only for awhile. At some point you got to start answering questions otherwise you’re just throwing your readers off a cliff and making them hang out on the prayer of a chance you might actually throw some clarity on the situation.

To me Lost went downhill, and quick, when it became apparent the writers didn’t really know where they were going. They’d thrown too much in there, and while at the time it seemed cool and mysterious, after awhile it simply became “no wonder that smoke monster is mysterious, it’s ’cause it doesn’t make any friggin sense”.

What’s that have to do with Annihilation? Well, throughout the entire book I got this nagging feeling that none of the mysteries were going to be explained. On the one hand, if they were, you’re looking at a fantastic read (which is what compelled me to continue reading the story), but if not? Then you’re looking at a pissed off, frustrated me. It’s part of the unspoken writer/reader relationship that the writer will not leave us hanging. She/he will answer any and all, or atleast most of the questions raised in the first few chapters. Does Annihilation do that? Ehh…. I don’t know?

I’ve started reading the second book in The Southern Reach trilogy, Authority, ’cause I want to see what he does with the rest of the series, but I’ve sort of accepted that I will be let down in the end.  But hey, the writing is beautiful, the introspection great, the atmosphere spooky, so what the hell. There are worse reasons to pick up a book.

2) The Android’s Dream – John Scalzi (For those who like light-hearted science fiction detective mysteries that hop around the galaxy a bit)

Okay, the premise of The Androids Dream is…weak, in my estimation. That doesn’t mean bad, it just means, sort of excessively goofy. However, the side-plots that develop around that central premise are fantastic.

In typical Scalzi fashion he delivers what I consider to be his funniest read yet. My primary complaint of Redshirts is that he would set up scenarios specifically to drop a groan worthy one liner at the end, and he does that in Android’s Dream as well, but for some reason the execution works better here. I found this to be a really entertaining read. The key is to get past the initial, goofy premise.

3) vN – Madeline Ashby (For those looking for a robot coming of age story)

I like sentient robots. I like getting inside their heads and hearing their thoughts. But, I don’t like angsty teenagers. So, this tale kind of puts me at a weird crossroad. On the one hand we’re in a future world with some really awesome robots that implement some neato technology, on the other hand our viewpoint character is an angsty teenager making her way through the world today. That’s not a bad thing, mind you. Just not my thing.

The story in vN is basically good, if not slightly convoluted. There are some details (big ones at that) that simply make zero sense. Not only do they make zero sense, they are entirely unexplained. For instance, our main character is captured by the humans and thrown into what amounts to a research lab where they take her apart to see what makes her tick on account of how dangerous she is. You would think a place like this would be heavily guarded, but you’d be wrong. In a weird scene that still leaves me scratching my head, the main character just sort of… walks away? I don’t know, maybe somebody can explain this to me.

By the end of this I was pushing through just to be done. The ending plopped too many more questions into my lap alongside a healthy dose of “what’s going on here?” vN wasn’t a bad book, but for how many awards it was nominated for when it was released, I, for the life of me, can’t figure out what all the hype was about.

4) We Are All Weird – Seth Godin (For those interested in mass-marketing and how the future of advertising/production will change in the years to come)

Seth Godin knows what he’s talking about. This is a great little read about consumerism in the current age. Godin approaches the idea of what it means to be normal as opposed to weird. Neither are commentaries on good and bad, but simply the differences between the two. As we move into a world where more and more people are rich (which is not defined as material possessions, but the ability to make decisions. Choice=wealth), marketers, consumers, productioneers (i made that word up) have to rethink how they will interact with the world around them.

The central idea is that mass-production, for years, focused on delivering a product to the average person. This worked because when treated as a bell-curve, the average person fell within a strictly defined set of parameters. But that’s changing. And changing quick. Want to see how? Read this book and you’ll see. Highly recommended.

5) Saturn’s Children – Charles Stross (Recommended for anybody who likes robots, sex, and outer-space).

After having read Accelerando, I wanted to pick up one of Charles Stross’ more consumable pieces. Saturn’s Children was nominated for a Hugo a couple years back so that seemed a good place to start. Overall, I liked this story. The ideas were interested, the writing solid in that Charles Stross sort of way (thankfully this book was dumbed down a bit so I didn’t have to consult my dictionary so often!), and the world was compelling. But that’s not to say there weren’t any problems.

First, there was too much robot sex. I understand that our protagonist is a femme-bot built specifically for sex, but there was simply too much emphasis on this and at times it was like being beat over the head with a dildo. I get it, she likes sex, let’s move on to the more interesting aspects of this character.

Second, the plot gets a little too complex for its own good. Too many characters/siblings that share the same name and same body simply make for a convoluted plot. At times I would be reading along entirely unsure who’s perspective I was watching through, and what the hell they were doing. In those instances I kept going cause the writing was pretty, and I had the belief that the story would come back around and make sense eventually.

Did it? Sure. Sort of. Overall I really did like this story, and the writing, though I know it might not seem like that based off what I said up-above. I’m weird like that.

Okay, that’s enough book hullaballoo for one morning.

Anthony