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I think it's been out for around a month or so, but it kind of seems like the Dark Tower books don't get much publicity. I get the impression that King and his publishers view the DT series as an "acquired taste" and don't promote it as heavily as they would a regular King release.
I won't be reading it now, though. Due to not being able to get to the library in time to renew it before it was overdue I had give it back since someone else had it on hold. Apparently that's one of those obscure library rules I didn't know about. Live and learn. I read about 1 page. But it was good.
From: Douglasville, GA | Registered: Jul 2003
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I am reading Life of Pi by Yan Martel. Good book so far.
Also I am trying to get through The Devil in the White City. This book is set turn of the century Chicago when the city is about to host the World's fair. The book is about the industrializing of America, the rise of big business, the isolation/lack of socialization/anonymity of people in big cities, set against what could be considered America's first serial killer to appear publicly.
Yah, there is a reason I haven't finished that book yet.
From: Texas | Registered: Apr 2004
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rtvu2, I read Life of Pi last year. When I picked it up I thought it might become a little tedious, given that most of the story takes place in a lifeboat with a tiger. However, I found it to be well-paced and contains some of the most vivid (and truly heart-breaking) passages I've ever read (e.g. the zebra scene).
I also have Devil in the White City in my bookcase waiting to be read. Maybe after I finish The Time Traveler's Wife.
[ August 05, 2004, 10:37 AM: Message edited by: Semi Transparent Fellow ]
Registered: Aug 2003
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With Life of Pi, I am finding it more interesting when the author is writing about his meetings wiht Pi now. Also I enjoyed the book more when he was still in India. Did yo hear the M. Night Shaylman (director of Sixth Sense, The Village) is set to adapt the novel for a movie?
how good is The Time Traveler's Wife? Been meaning to pick that up.
From: Texas | Registered: Apr 2004
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I'm liking Time Traveller's Wife a lot. It's written as a series of vignettes - because Henry (the time traveller) keeps popping in and out of various time periods. He has to become very adept at survival because he always appears buck naked when he travels. Often he ends up visiting a younger version of himself and teaching him survival tricks. There's a cute scene in a museum where he teaches his 6 year old self how to pick a pocket.
At first it's a bit confusing figuring out what he knows when, but gradually, you get the overall picture of his life. The writer enjoys shocking the reader with the practical realities of the time traveller's situation (for example, if you visited a 3 month younger version of yourself, and you were both 15 and horny, would you have sex with yourself. Henry did.)- and he's no goody-goody, although he is quite likeable.
[ August 05, 2004, 11:40 AM: Message edited by: Semi Transparent Fellow ]
Registered: Aug 2003
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I'm currently reading In the Garden of Iden, forget the author's name. It is one Caroline read and I picked it up after she finished. Interesting time travel concept of taking inhabitants from the past and 're-engineering' them to become immortal so they can spend their lives saving things lost to time (artwork, books, plants, animals, etc).
Prior to that I read three of Dan Brown's books but not the DaVinci Code. I'm saving that one for some reason.
And before I read the Browns I read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, one of the best books I've ever read. Ever. In fact it was the first novel (re: non-technical) book I've picked up in over five years. I loved it so much it made me start reading for pleasure again. Now I'm trying to track down the comics that Chabon did. Already got a collection of the first stories through the Sci-Fi Book Club.
From: Utah | Registered: Jul 2003
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Really didn't like Kalavier and Clay that much but loved Wonder Boys by Charbon, even better then the movie which I think is great. Also liked his anathology of short stories Werewolves in their Youth.
Thanks for the mini review Semi for Time Travler's Wife. Guess I will pick it up now. Is it out in paperback yet?
From: Texas | Registered: Apr 2004
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I just checked Amazon, and Time Traveler's Wife is now out in paperback.
Scott, I loved "Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay," too. I'm surprised that it's not required reading for all lovers of the golden and silver age eras of comics. The only part I found jarring was the interlude in the Antarctic during the war. The betrayal of the dogs really got to me.
Registered: Aug 2003
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Devil in the White City - looked fascinating, but I couldn't get into it. Kavalier & Clay - enjoyed it although I hadn't expected to. Time Traveller's Wife sounds like fun...
Just wrapping up The Scar, by China Miéville. Best/favourite fiction book I've read this year.
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I just picked up "History Lessons". It shows how history textbooks from around the world portray US History.
-------------------- Five billion years from now the Sun will go nova and obliterate the Earth. Don't sweat the small stuff!
From: Boston | Registered: Aug 2003
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rtvu2, The Scar is a fantasy/sci fi novel, but far beyond the usual wizards and warlords/Camelot/LotR imitations. Miéville has constructed an incredibly complex world, with its own languages, science, magic, sentient races - but anchored enough in our own world to make it accessible. His first book was Perdido Street Station; the Scar takes place in the same world, with all different characters.
Perdido St. was about the power of love; the Scar is about the loyalty & betrayal, and concepts of reality. The main character, Bellis, is a linguist on the run from the city of New Crobuzon, headed across the ocean to a colony. The ship she is on is taken by pirates and transported to the city of Armada, a collection of ships, offering refuge to malcontents, misfits, convicts... Bellis will do anything to return home, with very tragic consequences....
What makes both Perdido and The Scar incredible is the excellent writing, the "hitherto unimagined creatures" (quoting reviews here), "relentlessly, stunningly inventive: a conceptual breakthrough of the highest order". One reviewer called it "steampunk genre" - Victorian technology meets sci fi.
Cactus people, 6-foot high mosquito people, winged people, Crayfish people - not just described, but well thought out, with their own cultures and customs; sentenced criminals are "remade", with strange appendages or machinery grafted onto their bodies as punishment, to humiliate or to make them useful slaves ... there is science, but there is magic too, and they blend together. It's hard to describe the complexity.
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