Reviews and Comments

Aneel

aneel@outside.ofa.dog

Joined 2 years, 11 months ago

He/Him. In the USA... for now. Mastodon

I only track books that I read for pleasure, mostly SF/Fantasy. I've fallen out of the habit of actually writing reviews beyond giving a star rating. It would be nice to get back into that habit.

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Harry Potter #5

After the Dementors’ attack on his cousin Dudley, Harry knows he …

Review of 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' on 'Goodreads'

Jorm loaned this to me. It was okay. It's nice to see Harry as something other than the golden boy, but the book was pretty mediocre overall.

Richard Dawkins: THE SELFISH GENE (2009)

The Selfish Gene is a 1976 book on evolution by the ethologist Richard Dawkins, in …

Review of 'THE SELFISH GENE' on 'Goodreads'

After years of reading references to this book, I finally got around to reading the book itself. It's now clear to me just why there are so many references out there to it. There are some very interesting ideas, presented in a very coherent fashion.

The thesis is that evolution happens on the scale of "replicators" (genes, usually), not on the scale of individuals or groups. This explains the evolution of altruistic behaviors: a gene can sacrifice the good of the individual carrying it if there's enough benefit to others who are likely to be carrying it as well.

There's a chapter at the end about how genes may no longer be the state of the art in replicators, and that ideas (Dawkins coined the word "meme") may be the next big thing.

Jorge Luis Borges: Ficciones (Paperback, Castellano language, 1994, Lumen)

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Review of 'Ficciones' on 'Goodreads'

This book has been on my shelf since 1994. I'm not sure why I never read it. It's spectacularly good. Amazing, thought provoking short stories, sketches of larger works, and reviews or commentaries on imaginary works. Remarkable, unadorned pieces, without the dilution of the intriguing central idea that would have come of expanding them into longer formats.

Michael Pollan, Michael Pollan: The Botany of Desire - A Plant's-Eye View of the World (Paperback, 2002, Random House Trade Paperbacks, Random House)

A Random House Trade Paperback

Review of "The Botany of Desire - A Plant's-Eye View of the World" on 'Goodreads'

Suggested as a follow-up to Guns, Germs, and Steel. Not nearly as interesting as that book. It takes four plants (apple, tulip, cannabis, potato) and discusses how they have co-evolved with man to reach their current state. There's a lot of interesting material: what the real value of apples in the American frontier was (hint: they weren't for eating), descriptions of the weird not-quite-apples and proto-potatoes in the evolutionary homelands of those plants, and comments from potato farmers about how they wouldn't eat what's in their fields because of the pesticides. But it's mixed in with a lot of boring musing about the Apollonian/Dionysian tension in humans, tales of the author's visits with Johnny Appleseed historians, and anecdotes about hiding cannabis plants from the cops. I would have preferred more information and less story.

William Shakespeare: The Tempest (Paperback, Amazon Classics)

For years, Prospero, sorcerer and overthrown Duke of Milan, and his daughter, Miranda, have been …

Review of 'The Tempest' on 'Goodreads'

Surprisingly undramatic. No tension. Seemed to move on rails. No real decisions seemed to be made during the play, just expressions of the personalities of the characters. Perhaps I would do better to see this enacted, rather than just reading it.

Italo Calvino: Invisible Cities (1974)

Invisible Cities (Italian: Le città invisibili) is a novel by Italian writer Italo Calvino. It …

Review of 'Invisible Cities' on 'Goodreads'

Contemplative. Thought-provoking. Not a narrative, per se, but a collection of evocative descriptions, organized around multiple layers of themes.

Clive Barker: Clive Barker's The thief of always. (2002, Harper Trophy, HarperTrophy)

After a mysterious stranger promises to end his boredom with a trip to the magical …

Review of "Clive Barker's The thief of always." on 'Goodreads'

Clive Barker's first book for children. Structured pretty traditionally, with an extra helping of menace. Good, but not fantastic.

Review of 'Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World' on 'Goodreads'

Jorm gave me a copy as a gift. Definitely grittier and more down-to-earth than The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, as befits a book with "Hard-Boiled" in the title. The premise was interesting, and I liked the structure of the book, but I didn't find myself empathizing with the characters.

John Barnes: The Merchants of Souls (Giraut) (Paperback, 2002, Tor Science Fiction)

Review of 'The Merchants of Souls (Giraut)' on 'Goodreads'

Sequel to Earth Made of Glass. Disappointing. I wasn't terribly interested in the interactions between the characters (the major characters seemed obnoxious in uninteresting ways), and Barnes focused on them to the detriment of the plot. There was some food for thought about what humans will do after the Age of Scarcity (to borrow a Banks term), but the treatment is much less interesting than in an Iain M. Banks novel.

The way the plot wrapped up towards the end of the book smacked of a deus ex machina. I was left utterly unconvinced that such influential opposition could be so easily defeated, once the scheme was exposed.

Alexandre Dumas: The Count of Monte Cristo (French language, 2008)

The original revenge story, The Count of Monte Cristo is an adventure story set in …

Review of 'The Count of Monte Cristo' on 'Goodreads'

The Stars My Destination made me want to read this. I read an abridged version as a kid.

This Penguin edition (no translator named) turned out to be abridged as well, but I don't think I missed much. The book started out very well, but after the focus shifted to Paris I found myself bored by all of the machinations. It was hard to care about the families or reputations of the villains.

Iain M. Banks: Look to Windward (2002)

Look to Windward is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, first …

Review of 'Look to Windward' on 'Goodreads'

Re-read. A solid book. Explores life and death in the Culture. Gives more insight into why anyone would do anything in a society where everything can be provided. Less gripping than some of the other Culture novels, though.

reviewed Abarat by Clive Barker (Abarat -- [bk. 1])

Clive Barker: Abarat (2002, Joanna Cotler Books)

Candy Quackenbush of Chickentown, Minnesota, one day finds herself on the edge of a foreign …

Review of 'Abarat' on 'Goodreads'

I didn't realize that this was the first of a series (apparently of four books). It's frustrating to expect a book to resolve, only to find that it ends pretty abruptly. I had a sneaking suspicion towards the end that there wasn't space to satisfactorily resolve all of the plot threads in the time left, but I was ambushed by the fact that there is a substantial Appendix.

That aside, I liked the book. Creative. Surprising. More depth and darkness than a lot of books for children. The paintings add a lot. I look forward to the rest of the series.