The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August
In The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August our eponymous hero is a kalachakra, an ouroboron. (someone who when they die is reborn to the same life over and over) After suffering several lives filled with confusion, false diagnosis of insanity, and becoming prey to those who would know the future, Harry is found by the Cronus Club, a secret society, which protects those who are not "linear" from everyone else. They have one rule, don't intervene, don't change the course of history, it's been tried before and it led to disaster. But a message is being whispered from the future, the world is ending, can the kalachakra stop it?
I have been reading as long as I can remember and over the years must have read thousands of books.
Since the advent of my blog in 2011, I have read at a rough count 304 books, the majority of which were fiction novels with a few exceptions per year. I would say that split across the reviews the average score per book is about a 7. A few have achieved the ignominy of a Zero, or perhaps worse, a 2, and approximately 10% of the books I've read have received a 10/10.
Among these there is a Super Group, a Clique, the Creme de la Creme, an elite to which many aspire but few are chosen. If I refine my terms to only books read since 2011, this group contains Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, The Song Of Achilles by Madeline Miller, The End Of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas, Genus by Jonathan Trigell and The Crane Wife by Patrick Ness. These are books which kept me awake all night, books I thought were genius, books I envied the writers for having written, books which I felt were somehow written just for me, and particularly in the case of The Crane Wife books which triggered deep personal and emotional reactions.
At roughly 2am this morning, as I cursed my iPad for having found itself on 1% and I still had 100 pages left to go, The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August by Claire North joined their ranks.
I don't quite know how to explain fully just how good this book is, how much I loved it and why. It blew my mind. I thought it was incredible, brilliant, amazing and every other superlative thereof. I highlighted one line sentences, I highlighted full paragraphs, I got involved with the plot to an unreasonable degree, I stayed up with it as long as I could, I was engrossed in it, at times had physical feelings of excitement or anxiety. At first the central premise is not dissimilar to Kate Atkinson's Life After Life, but the books could not diverge more in terms of plot and style. They are completely different. But God, this book is great.
Ultimately, I think what I liked best was the secret society angle, that these individuals stand outside of the world as experienced by the "linear", but support one another; the implied criticism of psychiatry, and the blurred lines between theology/philosophy and quantum physics as the kalachakra search for the meaning behind their existence.
I had a little niggle in that one character has this deep antipathy to the Cronus Club and the reasons for this are never explained. Was he ever a member? What happened? And if not how did he survive without them? It's not a problem that we don't find out, I just really wanted to know.
I was also curious about the butterfly effect, the kalachakra believe inaction is the right response to complexity so established events, almost as in Doctor Who, must remain fixed. However each of them do different things with each life they are gifted. Medical training in one life, law in another, different wives, different lovers that kind of thing, how do these changes not ultimately change the course of history in infinite and complex ways?
I'd love to ask the author about this, who in fact is an established author called Catherine Webb, also sometimes known as Kate Griffin and not in fact Claire North, which hot on the heels of Robert Galbraith, does make me wonder what the point of such pseudonyms ultimately is!
Verdict : 10/10 - DO buy this book, DO read it, it's the best book I've read this year.
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Showing posts with label Science Fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Science Fiction. Show all posts
Sunday, 2 November 2014
Monday, 31 December 2012
Book #6 The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy
Length Of Time In Possession Before Being Read : 1 Week
Arthur Dent is an ordinary guy who just wants to the stop the council building a bypass through his house when long term friend Ford Prefect announces he's an alien and saves his life by removing him from Earth just as it is incinerated by aliens building a bypass.
And thusly, Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy joins the ranks of much hyped much celebrated popular phenomenon that I think is wildly over-rated. It's not very good, it's not well written, there's no decent plot, and the characters are annoying. Indeed Terry Jones of Monty Python writes "No one reads Douglas Adams for his plots or his characters but for his ideas". Well, sorry, I read fiction novels for characters and plots as well as ideas and plenty of writers are perfectly capable of writing all three very well.
Not at all interested in reading any of the follow ups and find its cult status and continued presence on Best Books Ever Lists very bemusing. A bit like a kids book if I'm honest and not like a good one either. I have a feeling that it's one of those things that once certain people have declared it's brilliant, then others feel they must declare it as brilliant because they don't want to look like they "didn't get it" - well, I "got it" but I just didn't get why it was supposedly so awesome.
Emperor's. New. Clothes.
I did enjoy Marvin however 4/10
Destination : Ebook storage
Length Of Time In Possession Before Being Read : 1 Week
Arthur Dent is an ordinary guy who just wants to the stop the council building a bypass through his house when long term friend Ford Prefect announces he's an alien and saves his life by removing him from Earth just as it is incinerated by aliens building a bypass.
And thusly, Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy joins the ranks of much hyped much celebrated popular phenomenon that I think is wildly over-rated. It's not very good, it's not well written, there's no decent plot, and the characters are annoying. Indeed Terry Jones of Monty Python writes "No one reads Douglas Adams for his plots or his characters but for his ideas". Well, sorry, I read fiction novels for characters and plots as well as ideas and plenty of writers are perfectly capable of writing all three very well.
Not at all interested in reading any of the follow ups and find its cult status and continued presence on Best Books Ever Lists very bemusing. A bit like a kids book if I'm honest and not like a good one either. I have a feeling that it's one of those things that once certain people have declared it's brilliant, then others feel they must declare it as brilliant because they don't want to look like they "didn't get it" - well, I "got it" but I just didn't get why it was supposedly so awesome.
Emperor's. New. Clothes.
I did enjoy Marvin however 4/10
Destination : Ebook storage
Saturday, 22 December 2012
Book #99 Jack Glass by Adam Roberts
Jack Glass
I'm not quite sure how I was drawn to Jack Glass, I think it popped up in 'People Also Bought' on Amazon, it sounded interesting and I think ultimately I bought it as a consequence of that unforgivable thing of "liking the cover" which is very pretty, despite the well known proverb.
What is marvellous about Jack Glass is its originality. We are informed in its preface, that protagonist Jack Glass is an infamous murderer, and what the book comprises of is three short stories about crimes he has committed. These crimes are described thusly by the narrator who is the self appointed Doctor Watson to Glass's murderous Holmes :
As well as being three mystery stories, comprising of "In The Box", "The FTL Murders" and "The Impossible Gun" Jack Glass also belongs to the sci-fi genre with all three stories taking place in some futuristic time which is both recognisable and completely different from our present day.
What I liked so much about Jack Glass was that as well as being a story it's an intellectual challenge, both in terms of solving the mystery before it's revealed and in order to get "your head around" some of the high end Science concepts explored as part of the futuristic science fiction. The paradoxes and so forth.
I found that I utterly kicked myself when the second story "The FTL Murders" was resolved, and also really enjoyed the first story, finding the third weaker by comparison. It is only because I didn't rate The Impossible Gun as much that I am not giving this 10/10, because I really enjoyed the quality and integrity of the book in terms of how it made you think and I will certainly look out for more work by Adam Roberts in future.
Recommended : 9/10
I'm not quite sure how I was drawn to Jack Glass, I think it popped up in 'People Also Bought' on Amazon, it sounded interesting and I think ultimately I bought it as a consequence of that unforgivable thing of "liking the cover" which is very pretty, despite the well known proverb.
What is marvellous about Jack Glass is its originality. We are informed in its preface, that protagonist Jack Glass is an infamous murderer, and what the book comprises of is three short stories about crimes he has committed. These crimes are described thusly by the narrator who is the self appointed Doctor Watson to Glass's murderous Holmes :
"One of these mysteries is a prison story. One is a regular whodunit. One is a locked room mystery. I can't promise that they are necessarily presented to you in that order; but it should be easy for you to work out which is which, and to sort them out accordingly. Unless you find that each of them is all three at once"
As well as being three mystery stories, comprising of "In The Box", "The FTL Murders" and "The Impossible Gun" Jack Glass also belongs to the sci-fi genre with all three stories taking place in some futuristic time which is both recognisable and completely different from our present day.
What I liked so much about Jack Glass was that as well as being a story it's an intellectual challenge, both in terms of solving the mystery before it's revealed and in order to get "your head around" some of the high end Science concepts explored as part of the futuristic science fiction. The paradoxes and so forth.
I found that I utterly kicked myself when the second story "The FTL Murders" was resolved, and also really enjoyed the first story, finding the third weaker by comparison. It is only because I didn't rate The Impossible Gun as much that I am not giving this 10/10, because I really enjoyed the quality and integrity of the book in terms of how it made you think and I will certainly look out for more work by Adam Roberts in future.
Recommended : 9/10
Sunday, 16 December 2012
Book #97 Flashforward by Robert J Sawyer
Flashforward
In 2009, the US TV network ABC ran a short lived dramatic adaptation of the Robert Sawyer novel "FlashForward" in which everyone on the entire globe suffers a black out for 2 mins during which they have a simultaneous vision of a day in the future.
Though the series shares its basic concept with the novel it was based upon, the novel is actually very different. The series "Americanizes" the idea, the drama focusing on ordinary Americans, and has a wide ranging scope of individual stories, but the novel focuses directly on protagonist Lloyd Simcoe and his colleague Theo; two physicists at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN who are shocked to find an experiment they have conducted has had far reaching and inexplicable consequences.
The fact that all of the focus is upon the workers of CERN throws away the global aspect of event impact. I have to say that in spite of some thought provoking passages on free will and existentialism, I didn't think much of Flashforward as a novel, it is a fascinating concept suffering from terribly poor execution. Neither its prose nor dialogue are up to much and its central whodunnit mystery is a sad, lazy reduction of the many possibilities for plotlines that the Flashforward idea gives rise to.
Additionally I didn't invest much in the characters whatsoever, and aspects of the ending made no logical sense. Probably the most interesting aspect of it is its historical context, the hysteria/superstition that built up around the Large Hadron Collider that fed a fear that "something bad" would happen as a result of searching for the Higgs Boson, which in reality nothing did. Passed a Sunday afternoon for me but will be going back to the charity shop from whence it came 4/10
In 2009, the US TV network ABC ran a short lived dramatic adaptation of the Robert Sawyer novel "FlashForward" in which everyone on the entire globe suffers a black out for 2 mins during which they have a simultaneous vision of a day in the future.
Though the series shares its basic concept with the novel it was based upon, the novel is actually very different. The series "Americanizes" the idea, the drama focusing on ordinary Americans, and has a wide ranging scope of individual stories, but the novel focuses directly on protagonist Lloyd Simcoe and his colleague Theo; two physicists at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN who are shocked to find an experiment they have conducted has had far reaching and inexplicable consequences.
The fact that all of the focus is upon the workers of CERN throws away the global aspect of event impact. I have to say that in spite of some thought provoking passages on free will and existentialism, I didn't think much of Flashforward as a novel, it is a fascinating concept suffering from terribly poor execution. Neither its prose nor dialogue are up to much and its central whodunnit mystery is a sad, lazy reduction of the many possibilities for plotlines that the Flashforward idea gives rise to.
Additionally I didn't invest much in the characters whatsoever, and aspects of the ending made no logical sense. Probably the most interesting aspect of it is its historical context, the hysteria/superstition that built up around the Large Hadron Collider that fed a fear that "something bad" would happen as a result of searching for the Higgs Boson, which in reality nothing did. Passed a Sunday afternoon for me but will be going back to the charity shop from whence it came 4/10
Saturday, 7 April 2012
Book #37 All The Myriad Ways by Larry Niven
All The Myriad Ways
I wanted to read All The Myriad Ways by Larry Niven because its titular story is referenced in two physics books I greatly enjoyed Parallel Worlds by Michio Kaku and The Never Ending Days Of Being Dead by Marcus Chown. Perhaps I expected too much because the science behind that first story as explained by Chown and Kaku is vastly more entertaining and intriguing than the story itself.
It's a short story collection, but I found it bizarrely difficult to read and I shouldn't have because they were short, but they were often dull, badly written or unengaging. Even those which had great concepts fell flat in their conclusions, I think particularly here of the Inconstant Moon, a short story about the sun gone nova, a great starting point sliding into mundanity.
Another great concept wasted is Man Of Steel, Woman of Kleenex discussing the difficulties Lois Lane and Clark Kent would actually have had making love. Instead of the comic story I expected it reads like an academic essay. 10 for concept, nil for execution.
By far the best short story of the bunch is Unfinished Story #2, which comprises of one sentence!
After the high expectations discussion of this collection inspired in me it was a crushing disappointment. It is not hard to see why it is out of print. 3/10
I wanted to read All The Myriad Ways by Larry Niven because its titular story is referenced in two physics books I greatly enjoyed Parallel Worlds by Michio Kaku and The Never Ending Days Of Being Dead by Marcus Chown. Perhaps I expected too much because the science behind that first story as explained by Chown and Kaku is vastly more entertaining and intriguing than the story itself.
It's a short story collection, but I found it bizarrely difficult to read and I shouldn't have because they were short, but they were often dull, badly written or unengaging. Even those which had great concepts fell flat in their conclusions, I think particularly here of the Inconstant Moon, a short story about the sun gone nova, a great starting point sliding into mundanity.
Another great concept wasted is Man Of Steel, Woman of Kleenex discussing the difficulties Lois Lane and Clark Kent would actually have had making love. Instead of the comic story I expected it reads like an academic essay. 10 for concept, nil for execution.
By far the best short story of the bunch is Unfinished Story #2, which comprises of one sentence!
After the high expectations discussion of this collection inspired in me it was a crushing disappointment. It is not hard to see why it is out of print. 3/10
Monday, 5 March 2012
Book #23 Embassytown by China Mieville
Embassytown
Embassytown by China Mieville is the first of his books I have read, and what a place to start. It is a science fiction story about space traveller Avice, who returns to her home planet Embassytown an outpost of larger planet Bremen with her husband Scile after years of travelling in the "immer".
Embassytown is a human colony where humans co-exist alongside several other species including main indigenous species the Ariekei, respectfully known by the humans as "The Hosts" The nature of the Language, meaning the Language of the Ariekei makes it difficult for the two species to inter-communicate, though the humans certainly do try and enter dialogue with their respected hosts. Scile, a linguist, is excited to meet these Hosts and discover more about their language.
Those humans who communicate with The Hosts are the leaders The Ambassadors, twinned men and women who operate as one. But during Avice's stay, a new Ambassador, EzRa arrives, when he attempts to greet The Hosts an unexpected reaction occurs and the humans panic, wondering if they have offended their Hosts. Embassytown rapidly descends into pandemonium, and as essential services stop enters an almost apocalyptic situation. Can Avice and her colleagues pull it back from the brink?
Embassytown is a really interesting novel with a lot to say. It's about linguistics and the essential nature of communication, but it also acts as metaphor for life here on Earth. It has sociological resonance regarding tolerance and interacting with those of different cultures and ideologies, and so feels grounded in something current despite being a future based novel.
At times it can be a difficult book. Avice, as a character can feel distant from the reader, instead of the heroine you root for, and at times it can be quite convoluted, and I think it would confuse and frustrate readers who don't read often or particularly in this genre. I can understand why some gave up on it. Personally, I really enjoyed it, am passing it on to one of my best friends and look forward to reading further Mieville novels. 8.5/10
Embassytown by China Mieville is the first of his books I have read, and what a place to start. It is a science fiction story about space traveller Avice, who returns to her home planet Embassytown an outpost of larger planet Bremen with her husband Scile after years of travelling in the "immer".
Embassytown is a human colony where humans co-exist alongside several other species including main indigenous species the Ariekei, respectfully known by the humans as "The Hosts" The nature of the Language, meaning the Language of the Ariekei makes it difficult for the two species to inter-communicate, though the humans certainly do try and enter dialogue with their respected hosts. Scile, a linguist, is excited to meet these Hosts and discover more about their language.
Those humans who communicate with The Hosts are the leaders The Ambassadors, twinned men and women who operate as one. But during Avice's stay, a new Ambassador, EzRa arrives, when he attempts to greet The Hosts an unexpected reaction occurs and the humans panic, wondering if they have offended their Hosts. Embassytown rapidly descends into pandemonium, and as essential services stop enters an almost apocalyptic situation. Can Avice and her colleagues pull it back from the brink?
Embassytown is a really interesting novel with a lot to say. It's about linguistics and the essential nature of communication, but it also acts as metaphor for life here on Earth. It has sociological resonance regarding tolerance and interacting with those of different cultures and ideologies, and so feels grounded in something current despite being a future based novel.
At times it can be a difficult book. Avice, as a character can feel distant from the reader, instead of the heroine you root for, and at times it can be quite convoluted, and I think it would confuse and frustrate readers who don't read often or particularly in this genre. I can understand why some gave up on it. Personally, I really enjoyed it, am passing it on to one of my best friends and look forward to reading further Mieville novels. 8.5/10
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