I was tempted to see what someone makes of this classic. I‘ve read the novel several times, so I did not really spend a lot of time reading the text. I was more interested in the visualization. The artwork is actually pretty nice, but it doesn’t add anything to the novel. Too faithfully adapted?
I realized quickly that I do not want to read this now, DNF around 17% into it. It‘s me, not the graphic novel. Not rating it.
#5OnMyTBR is a bookish meme hosted by E. @Local Bee Hunter’s Nook and you can learn more about it here. It occurs every Monday when we post about 5 books on our TBR.
I am looking at books I own and that are already on my TBR shelf… never mind what I want to read on top of that…
I read the main books of the series and liked them. I loved the TV series. I did not watch House of the Dragon, because I didn‘t want to shell out for yet another streaming service. I did however get the book it is based on. Also on my TBR pile. Anyway, this one here… I was interested, although my experience with comic adaptations of novels is generally mediocre at best. I got it in September last year and now it‘s looking at me from my comics shelf..
There is a preface by George R.R. Martin from 2012. This volume takes us all the way to Daenerys being pregnant. Is that the first book? It‘s been so long since I read it…
This has been on my want-to-read for 3 years and I just got a secondhand paperback. It will come with me on my summer vacation.
Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost—but not quite—dying, she’s come up with six directives to help her “Get a Life”, and she’s already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamourous family’s mansion. The next items?
• Enjoy a drunken night out. • Ride a motorcycle. • Go camping. • Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex. • Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage. • And… do something bad.
But it’s not easy being bad, even when you’ve written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job.
From the blurb
Well, I haven‘t travelled the world with hand luggage only and don‘t plan to do so. I am not counting short trips or trips where my suitcase was lost by an airline… Doing something bad is highly subjective….
I got this in 2021, after everybody and their dog had read it.
Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth unveils a solar system of swordplay, cut-throat politics, and lesbian necromancers. Her characters leap off the page, as skillfully animated as necromantic skeletons. The result is a heart-pounding epic science fantasy.
Part of my plan to re-read all of the Pern novels. I ran out of steam with than plan. Just a little. I haven‘t touched any ofd them yet this year. They have not ages terribly well. We‘ll see.
Anne McCaffrey’s dragons are the stuff of which SF/fantasy legends are made. All of her dragon books for many years have been national bestsellers. She is one of the most popular writers ever in fantasy and science fiction.
The Girl Who Heard Dragons is a feast for McCaffrey fans and for all readers – a big, satisfying compilation of her fiction never before collected in book form. Best of all, it opens with an original short novel of Pern, “The Girl Who Heard Dragons.”
From the book blurb
Do you sometimes get this urge to read a proper classic? As in, required reading at school and you have to have read it for a well-rounded education? This is what I got:
I have actually never read it. I think I never got past his Christmas Carol. My excuse: English is not my mother tongue, I have read plenty of German classics… Likelihood of yours truly kicking this off my TBR shelf? High.
A Study in Scarlet The very first Sherlock Holmes story. John Watson meets Sherlock Holmes. The mystery wasn‘t terribly exciting. Two Americans turn up dead. Obviously there is a back story. Utah, Mormons, romance…
The Sign of the Four The sequel. Holmes & Watson meet Mary Morstan. And Toby, the dog with the supernose. The backstory takes us to the Andaman islands. I have read this one several times and so far it is my favourite. My most recent review is here on Goodreads.
It still astonishes me how (relatively) human and social Holmes comes across in the original. TV has a lot to be answered for.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Contains: A Scandal in Bohemia, Holmes & Watson meet The Woman / The Adventure of the Red-Headed League / The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle / The Adventure of the Speckled Band / various other stories
Some of these stories are more obscure or I have actually never read them. The stories span a good amount of years, including some in which Watson lives away from Holmes, happily married to Mary and running a doctor‘s practice. He very much leads a life of his own, but frequently accompanies his friend Holmes on his cases.
This Holmes, the real one, is never as aloof or downright dismissive of others as he has become on the screen. There are many visuals know from the many screen adaptations though and sentences and remarks that have made their way into the shared consciousness of Holmes‘s fans.
This is how far I got in this 71-hours long monster of an audiobook. Maybe if it returns to Audible+ at some point, I might continue. Narrated by the adorable Stephen Fry, who did his usual stellar job. Some interesting forewords are included. Which, to be honest, was a major motivator for getting this audio.
Winner of Audible’s 2017 Members’ Choice Award Full length: 71 hours 57 minutes, 50h and 19m left, DNF at 30%
Part 1 Chapter 1: Opening Credits and Introduction to A Study in Scarlet Chapters 2-15: A Study in Scarlet Chapter 16: Introduction to The Sign of Four Chapters 17-21: The Sign of Four, Part 1 Part 2 Chapters 1-7: The Sign of Four, Part 2 Chapter 8: Introduction to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Chapters 9-21: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Part 1 Part 3 Chapter 1: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Part 2 Chapter 2: Introduction to The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes Chapters 3-14: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes — stopped in the 4th chapter
Not listened to: Chapter 15: Introduction to The Hound of the Baskervilles Chapters 16-21: The Hound of the Baskervilles, Part 1 Part 4 Chapters 1-9: The Hound of the Baskervilles, Part 2 Chapter 10: Introduction to The Return of Sherlock Holmes Chapters 11-21: The Return of Sherlock Holmes, Part 1 Part 5 Chapters 1-2: The Return of Sherlock Holmes, Part 2 Chapter 3: Introduction to The Valley of Fear Chapters 4-18: The Valley of Fear Chapter 19: Introduction to His Last Bow Chapters 20-21: His Last Bow, Part 1 Part 6 Chapters 1-7: His Last Bow, Part 2 Chapter 8: Introduction to The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes Chapters 9-20: The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes and Closing Credits
Classic SF, translated from the original French version. Only slightly dated, thin on science, but still worth reading.
Unexpected beginning, considering that I see Charlton Heston in my head, when I hear the book title. But he appears in chapter 2. Well, a French equivalent of a sort… Interesting propulsion method for the spaceship in chapter 1. The science is generally pretty wonky. Yes, that‘s a technical term.
Anyway, back to the account of the main character‘s travel. Together with two others he is headed to Betelgeuse. First stop in this audio for me, because I had to read up on Betelgeuse. Meeting humans and primates on another planet is a conundrum, obviously. The same evolutionary development in another star system? Convergent evolution to this degree?
I want to discuss a few things, but it would mean spoiling the story, so I won‘t. It‘s pretty short, give it a go, especially if you have seen and liked any of the movies.
Written in 1963 from a typically white, male perspective of the time, women having to be beautiful to be attractive, some light racist vibes to it, etc. Mild though. The author is generally a little obsessed with beauty. And the main character is pretty full of himself and his superiority.
Ignoring all that, the story is simple, but quite smart. There are a lot of parallels to our own history strewn in. Coming close to the end of the story, all kinds of alarm bells went off in my head. Well done. I would have liked to get more of an explanation of how all of this happened, aka what triggered it.
I listened to the audio narrated by Greg Wise. It was pretty good.
Jack is a prospector on a colony planet. One day a little bipedal fuzzy guy shows up in his camp. They become friends and Jack starts to wonder if the little guy is more than a very smart animal. Which would throw a very large wrench into the plans of The Big Bad Company with a majority interest in exploiting the natural resources of the presumably uninhabited planet.
The Fuzzies are very cute, the story is well plotted and has some shocking elements. Characters are well developed—even the lone female character, which this time around is an actual person with dialogue. Other than that we are still very much in the 1960s with classic gender stereotypes. The cast of characters is diverse. Bizarrely everybody seems to be smoking nonstop and people drink a lot of highballs. I honestly don‘t see why this is categorized as Young Adult.
Besides those idiosyncrasies I had a lot of fun and really liked the story. The prevailing theme of this novella (novel?) is the definition of sentience/sapience and to a smaller extent the rights of indigenous people. I can see why this was nominated for a Hugo in 1963.
I might continue with the sequels. John Scalzi wrote a reboot of this story, Fuzzy Nation. I might have a look at it to see what he made of this 50 years later. His version received an Audie Award in 2012, so the audiobook might be the way to go…
“Well, maybe they’re just slightly sapient,” Jimenez suggested. Ruth Ortheris hooted at that. “That’s like talking about being just slightly dead or just slightly pregnant,” she said. “You either are or you aren’t.”
A look at the near future after an astronomical disaster, leading to a large-scale climate change and flooding of the world.
Very reflective, with great imagery and an interesting take on mental regression, brought on by nature returning to an earlier geological age. From my edition‘s introduction: “haunting tale of de-evolution amid the fetid swamps and submarine cities of a second Triassic Age…“
I liked the first half, aka the setting of the scene, but the later part felt a bit…. too slow and esoteric?
Probably visionary at the time of publication, parts of this novella have not aged well. During the first three chapters I kept wondering how the details of this story would have looked like, if it had been written now instead of 60 years ago.
The way the black characters were depicted is problematic from today‘s point of view, with a pretty casual racism. And the only female character was stuck in the last century instead of 200 years in the future, reduced to her looks. Add some dinner jackets and this felt very much like the last days of the British Empire. I wonder if Ballard could not have come up with something less stereotypical and a more futuristic setting. All the technology, for example the diving equipment and the ships, definitely felt like the middle of the 20th century.
I liked the relationship between the three central characters, what little there was, but was also bored through wide stretches of this read. Finishing this was pure stubbornness.
Apparently a retelling of Joseph Conrad‘s Heart of Darkness. Which I have not read, so I can‘t say how it compares.
I can‘t say how it compares to the original, as I haven‘t read the book. I had no issues following the timeline. Great concept. The story itself didn‘t really do an awful lot for me. I might have to digest it some more and then reread it or actually pick up the book.
So, reviewing the comic…. This is autobiographical, so does that mean that Kurt Vonnegut was unstuck in time? How would that have presented itself in his life? Presumably he came unstuck due to his experiences during WWII?
The comics within comics where a fun idea.
The ending did not satisfy me. It just sort of fizzled out.
Welcome to #6degrees. On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book. I mostly use this meme to work on my backlog, aka reviews that I haven‘t yet posted to my blog here.
How the meme works and how you can join is explained here. The initial blog post about this month‘s choice is here. October begins with Shirley Jackson’s short story, The Lottery. If you haven‘t read this, please do—it‘s very short and only takes about 20 minutes.
Probably a shocking read in 1948, when it came out. In the days of The Hunger Games barely worth a twitch, I guess. Which itself is probably considered a modern classic by now, starting a whole subgenre of likeminded YA books. I wonder, if Ursula LeGuin was inspired by Lottery, when she wrote The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas a few years later? That one had much more of an impact on me.
Anyway, we get a short story that seems to describe a regular, ordinary sounding event in a small town. People are nonchalant about it and want to get on with it, to get that interruption of their normal day out of the way. Suspicion sneaks up on you slowly, that not all is as it seems to be, all the way to the horrific ending.
Well written, good world building, the prose flows along nicely. Well-paced suspense. Love the idea of the mockinjays. All the charactes come to life swiftly and are believable. I saw it all vividly in my mind’s eye. Katniss has the odd moment of stupid. But the action is great, excellent plot and suspense. Katniss Everdeen, where have you been all my life? I read half of the book in one sitting. Bonus points for a YA book, that doesn’t read as if the author thinks that teens are stupid. Obviously, if you read this, you need to read the rest of the trilogy.
I picked this up, because I wanted to get to know Le Guin a little better. It looked like a good starting point, having won so many awards. I don‘t want to get into the plot, this needs to be read spoiler-free. If you liked The Lottery and are interested in speculative fiction, read this!
What are you willing to give up to do the right thing? Would you walk away? And would that be good enough? Obviously not, but it‘s not as easy as that. You‘ve dealt with your guilt by walking away, but that doesn‘t really help, does it? How do we deal with our privilege, what would be an acceptable response?
“A little paper tiger stood on the table, the size of two fists placed together. The skin of the tiger was the pattern on the wrapping paper, white background with red candy canes and green Christmas trees.“
Story of Your Life is the basis for the movie Arrival.
“Your father is about to ask me the question. This is the most important moment in our lives, and I want to pay attention, note every detail.“
I have seen the movie several times and like it a lot. The most interesting for me were the differences from the story to the film. Would I have liked the story more or less, if I hadn‘t seen the movie? Did I like it more, because I like the movie? Despite the differences? Probably. Would I have understood the story as well without knowing the movie? Maybe. Did the story add layers to the movie? Possibly. Either way, it was painful and a great piece of story telling.
Another book looking at family, children and a setting that fits the theme of all these stories, is:
The world is a dystopian one, where people can be genetically enhanced and those that choose not to enhance their offspring have started to be relegated to the fringes of society and the children are disadvantaged.
I read this about 30 years ago, give or take. I struggled with understanding it and remember that I found it hard to get into it. But I liked the concept of the story and ultimately liked the book quite a bit. I think it should be recommended reading for anybody interested in SF that predicts how our society could develop in the not too far away future. Especially nowadays, with the advances being made in cloning, I think this book gains even more importance.
A horrific lottery in the past leads to impossible choices in the future.
The blurb reminded me of Kate & Leopold, the movie that put Hugh Jackman on my radar as an actor. After reading the first three chapters, I put the book away. Not bad, but I couldn‘t work up much interest. August (Kate) mets Jane (Leopold) in the subway and eventually realizes that something fishy is going on, namely that Jane is from the 1970s. Nice idea, I‘m just not feeling it. DNF for now, around 19% and 70-odd pages. It‘s probably me.
“What Earthsea and the Hainish Cycle have in common is maximal impact with minimal page count.”
From the ebook introduction
After reading the first three chapters, I put this away, as I wasn‘t having fun with it. When this was published in 1969, it might have been a groundbreaking work. Now, after having read my share of gender-bending novels, this felt dated to me. The writing is dry, the style is not engaging me. Little plot progression, no exploration of the characters, to whom I felt absolutely no emotional connection.
It‘s probably also not quite what I was expecting. I read the blurb and thought „genderless society, lots of commentary and exploration about their personal interactions and divergence compared to our society“, but none of that happened in the first 60 pages.
The topic of loyalty and betrayal could have introduced more tension, but was told just as blandly. By the time I reached the supposedly more interesting part of their travel North, I had lost my will to continue. I am not interested to keep on going in the hopes of more.
One thing that irritated me deeply: The characters are all genderless, with brief exceptions of their „kemmer“, aka fertile periods / their Time / heat. Yet they are all being referred to as „he“. Which wouldn’t necessarily be an issue—Leckie does the same thing in reverse in her Imperial Radch novels and I had no issue with it. Maybe that makes me a hypocrite, I am not sure. I plan to re-read Ancilliary Justice this year, so I will pay more attention to that. However, when descriptions were made of someone appearing or behaving feminine in some way (irritating in itself), it was always with a negative slant. Maybe the point was to show how strange the situation was for the narrator, but it just made me dislike the book deeply. Why do female authors do that?
Another strange point was the narrator not seeming to be interested in what was going on in the society he was supposed to get to know. Odd.
Maybe I should have expected something slow and not obvious, considering that this was first published in 1969. This reminded me of Foreigner, which was also a book of only middling success for me. I guess in the future I should just stay away from the SF Classics.
DNF around 20%. No impact in too many pages. I might revisit this review or the book again at some point.
I read the first few chapters, then skimmed my way roughly to the middle of the book, looking at the illustrations and reading a bit here and there. The writing doesn‘t feel as dry and dated as I feared, but all together this didn‘t grab me enough to properly read it in full. That‘s just me though. I recommend reading the Goodreads review of my buddy Trish…
Cathy's Reading Bonanza 