The Dying Light / Sean Williams & Shane Dix

The Dying Light

category: science fiction, author:

Sean Williams & Shane Dix

book 2 of Evergence
original copyright 2000,
read in October 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 7 out of 10

For the first page or three I was very confused... I'd read two Williams & Dix books a few months back. Both of those were book one of three. For some reason... I expected The Dying Light to be a continuation of Echoes of Earth. Where really, The Dying Light continues the story after The Prodigal Sun... Who are all these people? I wondered.

Once I sorted out my memories, the book made a lot more sense :-) And was a lot more enjoyable...

The Evergence series is also more enjoyable than Orphans of Earth. Orphans is just too big; the characters have no time to gain our sympathy. Evergence has an equally large scope of impact -- but the story is held down to just a handful of, in general, sympathetic characters.

I read The Dying Light as an adventure, with a handful of heroes battling incredible odds and (incredibly!) winning. The big picture is there, but the adventure is constrained. The story is tight enough -- and human enough -- to be appreciated and enjoyed.

It's probably not essential to have read The Prodigal Sun in order to enjoy The Dying Light. The adventure is exciting enough to enjoy, even if the characters are unknown. Still, it would help to have read Sun.

On the other hand, these first two books of a trilogy are set in totally different environments... The characters get to know each other on a single planet, then battle baddies in spaceships and space-stations in a different part of the galaxy. Will the third book be set in yet another different environment?

I hope to read the final book of this trilogy, to find the explanation to the plague of killer superhumans...

Yet I do not have to read the third book. And I see that as a strength of this series. It would be nice to read all three books. But each book is an enjoyable story on its own.

A trilogy is fine. But not if it is really one book published in three volumes: that's just lazy writing and sneaky marketing.

Evergence is an ideal trilogy: three good books, three good stories, one consolidated epic.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

The Tenth Chamber / Glenn Cooper

The Tenth Chamber

category: thriller, author:

Glenn Cooper

original copyright 2010,
read in October 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 7 out of 10

I enjoyed this book's "environment": France, cave paintings, archaeology... Something a bit different. I also appreciated the way that "France" was the country it was set in -- and not some cutesy foreign setting where we were expected to appreciate the exciting French-ness of it all... It's just a good story which happens to be set (mostly) in France.

Also an enjoyable idea, with a realistic portrayal of what could happen to fairly ordinary people who gain the benefits of... the mysterious secrets of The Tenth Chamber.

Then there's the government involvement... How many books expect us to believe that no-one in power has ever discovered the secrets right under their noses? The Tenth Chamber is far more realistic. I like it!

It's just a bit surprising when -- suddenly -- mass murders occur. Still, it suits the story and the characters. And -- speaking of mass murder! -- the grand finale is rather satisfying!

It's a good book, well worth reading. Not a great book. Solid story, great background. Keeps you reading... Just doesn't quite grab you with ... whatever it is with which great books grab you...

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

The Dreaming Void / Peter F. Hamilton

The Dreaming Void

category: science fiction, author:

Peter F. Hamilton

book 1 of Void
original copyright 2007,
read in October 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 4 out of 10

When I say, above, "read in October 2010" I mean, I attempted to read this book. Years ago I would read and finish each and every (fiction) book that I started. Now, if a book makes no sense -- I give up.

The Dreaming Void makes no sense.

To confirm my guess -- as to why this book makes no sense -- I searched for some reviews. And found this: "this is one of the later books in a series which keeps referring to events and people that are alluded to in earlier volumes." Yes, that's what I thought... the book makes no sense if read by itself. From that same review: "buy every book this man writes and read them in order. Rather than write a 10,000 page book, Peter Hamilton has broken it up into many volumes..."

Alternatively: don't bother trying to read The Dreaming Void. It makes no sense.

This does introduce a difficulty with my rating scale.

I rate The Dreaming Void as "4: bad but could be read." But the book is not really "bad", it's just not worth reading -- by itself. Perhaps this book would improve if you have, in fact, read all of Hamilton's books in order... But -- somewhere back in the past -- I do seem to remember reading another Hamilton book. With the same result: complex, boring, unreadable.

Oh well. I read 'em, I rate 'em, I review 'em. And I recommend that you don't bother reading this one.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

Reaper Man / Terry Pratchett

Reaper Man

category: fantasy, humour, author:

Terry Pratchett

book 11 of Discworld
original copyright 1991,
read in October 2010 (and before, years ago)

Agamedes' opinion: 8 out of 10

A very enjoyable Discworld book!

This is a story of Death losing his job and learning a bit more about being human... An enjoyable plot with likable characters. Especially the confused but always wanting to understand, Death himself.

There are a few -- quite a few -- of the standard Discworld characters. Thankfully, they are not yet fixed in their roles... Okay, Sergeant Colon of the Watch is predictable -- but he only plays a small part. In this eleventh Discworld book, we are still meeting new people. And the miserable Rincewind does not make an appearance...

There are nice characters and foolish characters and strange characters and reeeeaallly strange characters. Yet they all get our sympathy and they all add their bit to the story. There is nothing cruel, there is nothing nasty. There is just a lot of good fun and a lot of excellent humour.

Reaper Man is Pratchett at his best. And that, is very good.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

Eon / Greg Bear

Eon

category: science fiction, author:

Greg Bear

original copyright 1985,
read in October 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 6 out of 10

This book is "a triumph of soaring imagination and huge detail." It says so on the back cover. And it's true. Unfortunately soaring imagination and huge detail are not enough to make a great novel.

Early on I decided, there are too many characters, I won't try to remember them all. So there are dozens of characters doing things for no apparent reason... Who is that? I wonder, Why are they doing that? Sure, it's a sign of a lazy reader. It's also a sign that the author has failed to fully capture my attention.

There is also the huge detail of the science... Again, I simply looked at the words and didn't bother to try to absorb.

Do you remember the very first Star Trek movie? All the great Star Trek characters, a great plot for a Star Trek episode -- stretched out to a full length movie. How did they stretch that movie? By including lots of slow fly-bys of the model spaceships. Boring!

Compare that to the original Star Wars movie: non-stop action, a Western set in space. Robots, spaceships, planets, movie models of all shapes and descriptions -- but all just background. The movie action rolls right along and the models are just, well, just there. Background. Adding depth to the action.

With Eon, Bear has taken the Star Trek approach: stretched out the action with boring details of the technology. Futuristic? Great. Exciting shapes and colours? Very nice. But what about advancing the plot?!

The plot itself is, sort of, interesting. A story of its time, 1985. With 1985 politics and one-eyed patriotism extended a thousand years into the future. Somewhat dated but still interesting.

More interesting is the human response to alien threat.

Aggressive aliens threaten to dump a star into the battleground, to wipe out all life -- human and alien -- in order to... well, I'm not sure. Perhaps this is Bear's reference to MAD, the mutually assured nuclear destruction of his era: we'll all be dead but so will you. So how do the humans -- the psychologically adjusted, peace loving humans of the far future -- how do these humans respond?

These peace-loving humans use their own methods to wipe out all life on the battlefield. They make all uninhabitable. At least the humans intend to survive, by moving on past the huge area of destruction. Oh well, a response for the times, I guess: You threaten me and I'll wipe your alien selves from the surface of this world...

Finally, as a sort of icing on the cake of boredom, Bear uses the then-fashionable parallel worlds theory. Which makes a nonsense of all the strife and striving...

Let's go back and help the world recover from nuclear devastation! Why bother? There is still an infinity of parallel worlds which we will not be helping. Worse yet: One woman actually decides to "go home" -- to a parallel universe where (a) nuclear devastation did not happen and (b) she does not exist but her family and boyfriend do... Riiiiiggght.

Once you introduce parallel worlds, all efforts are pointless. Sure, you may be able to find a world where "you win". But there will still be an infinite number of other parallel worlds where -- "you lose". By "winning" here you guarantee that you will have "lost" somewhere else.

Leave the parallel worlds to the quantum physicists. All it does for a novel, is to make all the protagonists' efforts, pointless.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

A Stainless Steel Trio / Harry Harrison

A Stainless Steel Trio

category: science fiction, humour, author:

Harry Harrison

contains books 1, 2 & 3 of Stainless Steel Rat
original copyright 1985/87/94,
read in October 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 5 out of 10

A Stainless Steel Trio contains the first -- is story chronology -- three stories of the Stainless Steel Rat series. I have already reviewed the first novel, A Stainless Steel Rat is Born. In that review I wrote, "By the end of the volume -- I suspect that I will have raised my rating..." I was wrong.

The second and third novels -- The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted and then Sings the Blues -- take problems from the first and make them worse.

The Rat himself is strong, intelligent, agile, good at everything... When he was Born he was learning. Now, he is perfect. Yukk!

Worse yet, everyone else is a fool, a total moron, weak, or strong but uncoordinated. In the army the Rat does meet -- as he tells us -- the one person who actually earned the medals that he was wearing... So what happens? The Rat runs, then picks on the next person in line, who is the standard strong but thick moron.

There is a handful of more capable characters. These all turn out to be bad guys who are revealed then easily defeated, or good guys who recognise the greatness of the Rat and swoon at his feet. Sheesh! Two-dimensional boredom!

In an introduction, Harrison claims that the Rat's adventures in the army reflect Harrison's own period as an army draftee. Sorry, but it takes more than bitter memories to create humour.

It's quite a few years since I read the original -- first written -- Stainless Steel Rat novel. I remember enjoying it, quite a lot. Has my taste in books changed so much? Or has Harrison simply grown old and retreated into the simplicity of churning out formulaic potboilers based on sarcasm and stupidity...

Oh well. A least these books are light enough to read quickly.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

Vellum / Hal Duncan

Vellum

category: fantasy, author:

Hal Duncan

book 1 of Book of All Hours
original copyright 2005,
read in October 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 2 out of 10

I read the introduction; it made some sort of sense. Jumping around, incomplete & unclear, but there was some sense of the beginning of a story.

Then it all went downhill.

Open a magic book and look at the map on page 1. It looks like where you are -- but not quite. Page 2 zooms out on the map... and there are noticeable differences between the map and reality. Page 3, zoom out further, the map is purely imaginary... And guess what? The hero is now in that imaginary world...

Great, let's have some imaginary-world adventures... But no! There is no-one else there. The story keeps flicking backwards and forwards -- incomprehensibly.

Suddenly: there's an unknown character doing unknown things before heading off into the great unknown. "Do this," she is told. "Why?" she asks. "Because that's what we do, here," she is told. "Okay." Good... grief.

So we have a main protagonist who doesn't know where he is, doesn't know what he's doing and doesn't explain why "his" storyline keeps bouncing from one confusing time+place to another. Then there's the unknown protagonist who decides -- for no stated reason -- to go from an initial unknown place to another place with a name but no explanation, for no known reason.

Sorry, but at this point I gave up reading and skimmed, looking for a point.

I found the author's thank-yous, including thank-yous to people who had translated legends from Latin, Greek and Sumerian... Which, apparently, the author had then rewritten in his own fashion. Which makes sense: a lot of old legends seem to be written in Gobbledegook. They are, after all, originally written for people with a complete mythos which we do not share.

The secret of getting a good story from an old myth, is to rewrite the myth for the modern reader. Duncan seems to have simply copied the old myth. With all the attendant lack of meaning for the modern reader.

I have just downgraded my rating from 4 to 2. If you're a lover of ancient Sumerian myths -- feel free to set your own rating. If you can struggle far enough into the book to make some sense of it, feel free to set your personal rating of this book to a higher level.

The words are written in English -- yes, I have read worse in a published book. But as far as being a "novel"... Vellum is unreadable.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

Grumpy Old Holidays / Judith Holder

Grumpy Old Holidays

category: humour, travel, author:

Judith Holder

book ?? of Grumpy Old...
original copyright 2007,
read in October 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 6 out of 10

A lot of funny bits... surrounded by a lot of words.

The Grumpy concept is good. Very entertaining. For a while. Then you begin to think, So what?!

There are other holiday / humour books which are better. Grumpy is, well, a series of grumps. Okay, a lot of it is funny. But with the minimum of writer's effort. Which is fine (clever, lazy). For a while. Then you start to wish that the "author" had done more than tie together a lot of holiday-related complaints.

Compare Grumpy to Molvania: a land untouched by modern dentistry, by Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner & Rob Sitch. If I reread it I'll link this to a PissWeakly review... Meanwhile, a quote from a "better" book of humour + holiday:

Meanwhile, a little further south are the Pucjicj Hills where keen hikers can walk for miles without seeing so much as a road or electricity pylon, provided of course they do it at night.

Molvania is both funny and inventive: actual imagination has gone into writing the book. Okay, Grumpy is funny and somewhat inventive -- but the humour depends on the readers' acceptance of the worst aspects of holidays. Molvania takes the same stereotypes and invents a complete catalogue of holiday humour.

I jumped quite quickly through Grumpy; that's the best way. Read too slowly and it becomes boring. Read fast enough and there is a sustained level of enjoyment. Because the book does contain quite a lot of enjoyable material.

Enjoyable material... surrounded by a lot of extra words.

Read a bit of Grumpy now and then. Come back for a small dose of light sarcasm. Just don't attempt to read it all at once.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

Eclipse / Stephenie Meyer

Eclipse

category: romance, fantasy, author:

Stephenie Meyer

book 3 of Twilight
original copyright 2007,
read in October 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 9 out of 10

Okay, I'm just a sucker for a great romance! And by "great" I mean, where the girl is kissing the guy -- so she forgets to breathe... Aaaaaahhhhh shucks :-)

I had delayed reading Eclipse for a couple of months. I had the book, just didn't pick it up. The feeling was, How much sap could I handle in one year?

I picked up Eclipse. Started reading... And just could not stop. I finished the book in a day. And enjoyed every minute of it!

About half-way through you realise, there is going to be a big battle, very soon, with vampires, werewolves and one human in the middle...

Another 200 pages of breaking hearts, anguished romantic suffering, despair, guilt and forgiveness -- and the battle is still to come...

More pages of love and (controlled) lust and longing, then one very individual battle... The heroine prepares to sacrifice herself for the cause of good (and the hero is heard to give yet another exasperated sigh at the heroine's silliness -- truly!)... Oh, and the big battle just happened, off-screen...

And all that's left is unresolved heartbreak for the odd member of the romantic triangle. "All"?! The ghastliness of the loser's fate is an entire, heart-wrenching epilogue!

Absolutely brilliant! I am really, really looking forward to reading the final book of Twilight!

Sigh...

The overall Twilight plot has also gained some depth.

Why don't they just stop sighing, get married, get vampired and enjoy life? Now I have a better understanding of why not. Where did all those werewolves come from, just at the right time? Now we know. Is "cuddling" just a euphemism for what is really going on? Well...

This book really hits the deep patches of teenage sexuality. "Don't worry Dad," says our heroine, "I'm still a... [mutter] virgin ... and I [blush] intend to remain that way until ... married." And that's it. Just for those who did not really follow the story...

This is a book for "young adults". I am not "young". (There are those who would say I am not "adult", either, but that's by the bye.) No mixed messages, no forcing adult ideas onto unwilling or too-willing teenagers.

A great book, for all ages. Just be prepared for a lot of heart-wrenching angst and anguish.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

A Stainless Steel Rat is Born / Harry Harrison

A Stainless Steel Rat is Born

category: science fiction, humour, author:

Harry Harrison

book 1 -- in story chronology -- of A Stainless Steel Rat
original copyright 1985,
read in October 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 6 out of 10

In his introduction to the three-novel volume, A Stainless Steel Trio, Harry Harrison writes that these books are picaresque. As with the author himself, I checked my dictionary... or, rather, Wikipedia. A picaresque novel can be, "an episodic recounting of the adventures of an anti-hero on the road."

A good description! Unfortunately, this story is just a bit too episodic. Too many characters coming and going, with too loose a thread to hold it together.

I also have one major problem with the central development that forms the unifying thread.

The "Stainless Steel Rat" is -- in this prequel -- a youngster, just starting out in his life of picaresque anti-heroism. To support his need for a criminal education, The Rat seeks out a past anti-hero, The Bishop. The Rat sets a trap and The Bishop takes the bait. So far, so good.

Unfortunately The Bishop does not want to train The Rat. So they part, on amicable terms.

Then The Bishop gets arrested. The Rat rescues The Bishop and the anti-hero mentoring begins.

What?! The Bishop makes mistakes and gets arrested?! After 50 or so years of successful crime?? No way!

The way I see it, The Bishop has set up his own arrest and trial. He has changed his mind and decided, after all, to train The Rat. So The Bishop sets the trap and this time it's The Rat who takes the bait.

That's the way it must have happened. It's a pity that Harry Harrison did not realise the truth...

Ah well...

I rated this "first" Rat book as a six. I'm reading this novel in a volume containing three "early" Rat stories. By the end of the volume -- I suspect that I will have raised my rating...

The Stainless Steel Rat stories are a lot of fun. This first one is just a little bit strained, perhaps by too much story for one novel...

Agamedes' opinion, six out of ten: Read to pass the time. But if you're like me, you will enjoy the reading.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

Cocktail Time / P.G. Wodehouse

Cocktail Time

category: humour, author:

P.G. Wodehouse

book 3 of Uncle Fred
original copyright 1958,
read in October 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 8 out of 10

What a pleasure to read another book by Wodehouse! It's been too long... I must do it more often :-)

I had been reading The Great Gatsby and -- realising that both Fitzgerald and Wodehouse were writing about the idle rich -- I took a break from Gatsby in the charm of Wodehouse's Uncle Fred.

What a relief!

Wodehouse writes with charm, with humour, with humanity. There's a tangled plot, with ultimate success depending on a dozen or so successful resolutions, several of these being successful romantic pairings. Uncle Fred -- Lord Ickenham -- strolls through the idyllic English countryside spreading sweetness and light and no little chaos amongst all of his friends and acquaintances.

Wodehouse also has an excellent -- amusing and clever -- way with the English language. It took me a second reading to absorb the reference to "the old son of a bachelor"... Then there are the classic and poetic references mixed in with the casual conversation.

Young Cosmo Wisdom is speaking with the elder Howard Saxby:

"How's your wife, My Wisdom?"

Cosmo said he had no wife.

"Surely?"

"I'm a bachelor."

"Then Wordsworth was wrong. He said you were married to immortal verse."

Now that meant absolutely nothing to me, either! But it did seem to be significant... and a little web searching found the original poem by Wordsworth... which still meant very little -- but was such a pleasure to find!

Two days after reading Cocktail Time I needed a book to fill in a few idle hours. I reread Cocktail Time. And enjoyed it just as much -- at least.

I must remember to check my sources, for more books by P.G. Wodehouse!

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

The Great Gatsby / F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby

category: fiction, author:

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Introduction by Tony Tanner
original copyright 1926,
read in October 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 6 out of 10

The Great Gatsby is, "A classic, perhaps the supreme American novel." How do I know this? Because it says so, there on the back cover of the book.

If this is indeed "the supreme American novel" then -- as far as I'm concerned -- novelists of other countries need have little fear of being overshadowed by novelists from America.

The first third of the book is quite entertaining. Think of it as an American version of a story by P.G. Wodehouse: a glossy look at the life of the incredibly idle, the incredibly rich, the incredibly self-centred... but with none of Wodehouse's humour and humanity. There is also, in that first one third of the book, no plot.

The next third of the book introduced a plot. Suddenly, the book became more boring, harder to read. We've spent many pages gaining no sympathy whatsoever for any of the characters and -- suddenly -- we are expected to care what happens to them? No. I'm afraid it just doesn't work.

The book I read is one of those "Penguin Modern Classics", with a ridiculously long "introduction" and regular, meaningless footnotes. Meaningless footnotes? How else would you describe this:

28. (p. 79) Coney Island: An amusement park in Brooklyn.

Anyway, I thought that, perhaps, the "Introduction" would shed some light on the supremacy of this novel. Here's a gem from the expert analysis:

"His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one."

Possibly -- and possibly not. Or possibly something different...

Good grief!

So I am forced to rely on my own judgement.

Fitzgerald was a poor and struggling author. He lived way beyond his means, as his fame allowed him to mix with the extremely rich and supremely idle. This struggle to survive, to not look entirely like a poor pratt from the country, irked him. As an outsider unable to get in, Fitzgerald saw the worst of all the in crowd. This jealousy came out as a novelistic attack on the people that Fitzgerald was unable to emulate.

It's a classic; feel free to read it. I just hope that you are not doomed to be a student under Tony Tanner, who wrote the introductory drivel.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.