Throwing in the towel at 79%. Starting to go cross-eyed and speed-reading sections. Yes, this is stuffed to the gills with allusions and repartee, andThrowing in the towel at 79%. Starting to go cross-eyed and speed-reading sections. Yes, this is stuffed to the gills with allusions and repartee, and comes across as Literary Theory 101 for Dummies … but it is not a novel. Maybe it is supposed to be an anti-novel. No characterisation, just historic pastiche. And no plot either, just a seemingly endless riff on Barthes, etc. And determined to wallow in so muck-raking, back-stabbing, and general sordidness that the author’s vitriolic bile quickly eroded my readerly sympathy/empathy. Undeniably well-written and erudite, but meagre entertainment. Now Umberto Eco, who does appear in this as a character, certainly knows how to balance erudition with narrative, without any unnecessary eyebrow-raising or authorial tut-tutting at the poor reader. A reading ordeal only for the brave, or the demented....more
It is not often that I throw in the towel, but this has to be the most reader-unfriendly book I have ever encountered. I suspect, however, that there It is not often that I throw in the towel, but this has to be the most reader-unfriendly book I have ever encountered. I suspect, however, that there will be as many people giving this a rapturous five stars (maybe to be seen as to ‘get it’ or to be ‘in’, as with Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time, one of the most talked-about but least-read books ever) as there are poor saps like me who wondered what the fuck was going on.
Make no mistake about it, I read a lot of genre fiction, and am open to literary experimentation. Doten does make a fascinating statement in how far you can go to disrupt textual conventions – the text itself is presented as a corrupt transcription, with gibberish coding breaking up sentences and paragraphs – but he pushes the envelope to rupture point.
You can kind of get into the flow of things once you get something of a handle of the meta structure of the novel, which is a boy in a desert speaking in tongues, from Osama bin Laden to Condeleeza Rice to (yours truly) Mark Doten.
But, weirdly enough, this quickly becomes very tedious and numbing. I particularly disliked the Osama bin Laden sections, where there is a very bizarre and very ugly strand of anti-semitism. I suppose ultimately this all has to tie up with the Israel/US, East/West split, as the title The Inferno references Dante.
This (kind of ) reminded of The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell, where a realist Iraq War section is sandwiched in-between some high-fantasy sections. Doten’s aim here is far more radical: to represent the entire War on Terror as some kind of Grand Guignol panopticon.
However, you are even unsure of any potential meaning here whatsoever, as meaning itself becomes grist for the literary mill. This is either diabolically clever, or just plain bollocks: an open-ended, distorted and fragmented text like this will definitely elicit a range of very diverse opinions and reactions.
I think this would have worked much better as a play. Certainly the structure lends itself more to drama than a novel. But then it would lose some of its anti-novel status, I suppose.
I certainly admire Doten, for this must have been a real bitch to write. Reading it (or trying to, in my case) is certainly a purgatorial (purgative?) experience. Maybe I’ll go back to it one day when I am in a better frame of mind, but for now, this has got the better of me....more
Well, I persevered valiantly, but this just left me cold and bewildered. I am all for experimentation and wink-wink PoMo, but this pseudo tale of a loWell, I persevered valiantly, but this just left me cold and bewildered. I am all for experimentation and wink-wink PoMo, but this pseudo tale of a louche gay cannibal is too elaborate, arched and contrived for the reader to make any real connection, emotional or erotic. Thoroughly disappointing....more
I have been agonising as to whether or not I should persevere with this third instalment in the Oryx and Crake trilogy, as I really admire Margaret AtI have been agonising as to whether or not I should persevere with this third instalment in the Oryx and Crake trilogy, as I really admire Margaret Atwood as both a writer and a proselytiser. Finally, just over halfway, I have thrown in the towel. It is just too painful and frustrating to continue.
The plot is minimal, alternating between Toby agonising over Zeb’s imagined (or not) infidelities, and a vaguely perceived threat from the painballers. One of the most interesting characters from the previous novel is relegated to a coma. Much of what happens here is Zeb’s recollection of his past.
It honestly seems as if Atwood lost interest in the world she had created. This is the worst kind of join-the-dots writing, jarred by such tonal inconsistencies as a running joke on the Crakers’ over-sized blue penises. Surely Atwood is above dick jokes? Apparently not....more
I think this is billed as comedy. Certainly the comedic potential is there, having the life of a corporate drone turned upside down when he becomes hoI think this is billed as comedy. Certainly the comedic potential is there, having the life of a corporate drone turned upside down when he becomes host to a centuries-old alien creature that mentored Genghis Khan, among others, in a longstanding alien-human war. However, Chu largely plays its straight, which means the laughs are thin on the ground. Instead there is a lot of secret spy type action, but these setpieces quickly become monotonous. Disappointing....more
Maybe it is just me, but I struggled to figure out what the heck Nexus is or does. The book begins with a guy using some kind of brain-machine interfaMaybe it is just me, but I struggled to figure out what the heck Nexus is or does. The book begins with a guy using some kind of brain-machine interface to devise chat lines to pick up a girl. Now there is a cutting-edge use of technology. The ideas tend to overwhelm the stock characters, which quickly become viewpoint mouthpieces either for or against the technology. Enthusiasm does not make up for the lackluster writing style....more
I rarely throw in the towel with a book I do not like, but halfway through, and Home Fires has slowed down into a rather dull crime procedural aboard I rarely throw in the towel with a book I do not like, but halfway through, and Home Fires has slowed down into a rather dull crime procedural aboard a cruise liner. There is a vague SF angle, and I am sure Wolfe ties it all up with a neat genre bow at the end. Conceptually too thin and emotionally too unengaging, and filled with vast swathes of tedious dialogue between rather unlikeable and dispirited characters in lieu of action. Life is just too short for uninvolving books....more
That's it. At 39%, I am putting this book down in protest. Well, what I mean is going to my Kindle home page and choosing another one. Actually, it isThat's it. At 39%, I am putting this book down in protest. Well, what I mean is going to my Kindle home page and choosing another one. Actually, it is this sort of book that makes me yearn for print editions, for the sheer satisfaction of being able to hurl it against a wall.
Firstly, I thought this would be an 'insider's' account of the development of Amazon's Kindle, with some speculation on the future direction of the technology and its social impact in general. (I recently read the Jeff Bezos bio One Click, which was disappointingly skimpy on this aspect of the business).
Intriguingly, Merkoski mentions quite early on (12% in the Kindle version) that eInk is actually based on quantum mechanics, and that he himself doesn't really understand how it works. Oh, okay. That is it then for any kind of technical explanation whatsoever, or any explanation of the development process of the Kindle.
And there is no mention of the Paperwhite at all, even in the discussion about how bad the resolution of ereaders is, and how it will never ever match the print quality of books blah blah blah.
Instead, what we get is a socio-philosophical treatise on the future of reading and books in general. Merkoski argues that the 'book' itself is an inferior evolutionary relic, partly improved upon, by ereaders, but that it still has a long way to go.
"Books are being replaced by ebooks, and in turn, ebooks will be replaced by another seemingly science-fictional innovation..." (37%)
Huh? Why? What is wrong with ebooks? Many experts and users have commented that the Paperwhite is the pinnacle of ereader technology (if you want to watch a movie or play Angry Birds, you buy a tablet; you do not say that the ereader is therefore useless and relegate it to the trash heap of outmoded innovations.)
Merkoski continues his theme relentlessly: "I think ebooks will one day evolve into something like a movie and a video game combined with the authoritative intent of an astute storyteller." (36%)
No! No! No! No! No! No!
He then continues to wax lyrical about The Future, arguing that "the firsthand experience of life itself will come through unmediated by the encoding and decoding that we currently use in books. Words are often the worst culprits in this. They are ornaments that often get in the way of the book." (36%, my italics)
Oh, so the biggest problem about books is that they consist of words? Turning a book into a mind-movie is not a book anymore; it is a completely different medium. And it is not an improvement.
Merkoski: "I think the future might hold some sort of high-speed plug that goes into an author's head, some way of taking an author's imagination and converting it directly into a digital format." (36%)
No! No! No! No! No! No!
The final straw for me was Merkoski's authoritative assertion: "I know of at least two publishers that offer the ability for early readers of a book to directly contribute to the editorial process." (39%)
No! No! No! No! No! No!
I think these comments show a complete lack of understanding of what a book is, firstly, and what the writing process is, secondly. A book is not a commodity that can be replicated by some science fictional plug-in into an author's mind, and then allowing your potential readers to fuck around with the content.
So why should Hilary Mantel even bother writing the third instalment of her Thomas Cromwell trilogy then, when some future gizmo will allow us to tap directly into her thoughts?
But perhaps the craziest aspect of this line of thinking is the frightening possibility that, one day, we will consider this to be normal. (It reminds me of a throwaway line in a recent novel by Adam Roberts, a real-life, bona fide, bursting-with-uncommodifiable-talent SF writer where a character 'watched' a novel.)
Thank you, Mr Merkoski. You have made me reassess my relationship with technology in general. I am going to place my Kindle on the floor, in a ring of salt, and use my laptop to Google spells for exorcism. Just to be on the safe side, I will also pray for forgiveness.
Okey dokey, 51% into the Kindle version and I have to admit defeat at this excruciatingly boring, overwritten and largely incomprehensible SF novel.
IOkey dokey, 51% into the Kindle version and I have to admit defeat at this excruciatingly boring, overwritten and largely incomprehensible SF novel.
I liked The Golden Age and its sequels. But Wright seems to have missed the mark here: he has taken the relatively straightforward plot device of a human expedition to investigate an alien artifact, and used as this as a springboard to launch swathes of gobbledygook digression on post-human evolution.
There is virtually zero characterisation; the writing is stilted; adding to the general reading difficulty is what seems an inordinate number of typos and errors.
The novel starts off promisingly, but then Wright seems to sabotage his own story by leaving the reader in the dark as to whether or not the expedition actually happened. Or what the hell happened. Weird. But not a good weird: baffling and grindingly idiosyncratic....more
It's rare for me not to finish a book, even if I am not enjoying it, as I always think it might get better towards the end ... but I had just about enIt's rare for me not to finish a book, even if I am not enjoying it, as I always think it might get better towards the end ... but I had just about enough of this when, on p227 (of 476), the Dastardly Villain declares: '"I am to have my proper revenge, and for that I am to operate in the shadows."' It's a great idea for a novel, exploring the historical antededents of MIT, and Pearl has done a lot of impeccable research on life in Boston at that time ... except the characterisation is like a Hardy Boys novel. To whit, on p147: '"Am I that important and handsome?" Bob bellowed with his deep bass laugh, and tossed his head.' One of the characters even declares: '"Hurrah for the nineteenth century!'" Aargh!!!...more