| Micro by Michael Crichton |
[20 Jun 2012|09:41pm] |
Micro! Or "Honey I Shrunk the Grad Students!" Or "The Magic School Bus Visits Brobdingnag!" What's that sound? It sounds like Michael Crichton cursing from the beyond the grave.
If I ever become a writer, I'm going to do two things. First, I am going to leave a completed, ready for publication, freaking AWESOME novel on my computer to be found and published after I die, so THAT'S how people will remember me. Second, I will bequeath my computer to someone who will wipe the hard drive of anything unfinished. Michael Crichton has taught me a lesson.
I've read quite a bit of Crichton, and while the set up and plot are certainly very Crichtony, the writing just isn't. It was really, really bad. Like, truly terrible. Here's a sample I transcribed for a friend:
As he marched at the back of the line, Rick Hutter glanced at the others, studying them. He considered Karen King. He really couldn't stand her. She was full of herself, arrogant, aggressive, thinking she was such an expert in spiders and arachnids and hand-to-hand combat. She was good-looking, but beauty wasn't everything. Even so, Rick felt somewhat better that Karen was with the group. She was a fighter, you could say that much for her. Right now she seemed icy, cold, alert, on edge, weighing every move. As if she was in a fight for her life . . . well, of course she was. He despised her and yet . . . he was glad to have Karen around.
Since this novel was only 30% complete (give or take?) when discovered, I'm going to go ahead and lay the blame for that squarely on Richard Preston's shoulders. Not even giant spiders could make that prose exciting.
- Merrin
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| Evermore and Bitter Blue by Alyson Noel |
[19 Jun 2012|06:33pm] |
Books 1 and 2 of the Immortals series.
I gave these a fair shake, really I did. But there's only so much one can take when the books aren't going as ridiculous and over-the-top as Stephenie Meyer takes them, and aren't actually legitimately good. These books are so middle of the road lame and boring that it was all I could do to get myself to finish the second one, and I skimmed a bit.
The story is that of Ever, a girl who has lost all of her family (and her dog) in a horrific car accident that left her with a scar on her forehead and crazy psychic powers. She can see auras and hear thoughts, and life seems unbearable entirely until Damen Auguste transfers into her school. She can't hear Damen's thoughts or see Damen's aura, and being in contact with him drowns out her readings of others.
Seriously, this is a pretty good set up for a story. I also like that at some point, Damen confesses that after 500 years (or however long) he finds high school BORING and gets Ever to cut a bunch. HILARIOUS, okay? I like that much better than "we matriculate a lot." I also appreciate that at the end of the book, Ever must save herself, and Damen doesn't step in a la Edward and beat up the bad guy for her while Ever lies in a whimpering, bleeding mess on the floor. Props for that.
But the books were BORING. Characterization was all over the place and nothing was really well or fully developed. Choices were made that BAFFLED ME, and the ultimate "battle" with the bad guy ended up sounding like whack-a-mole. Very unimpressive.
I thought I was going to continue to read these anyway, just to see where they go, but I've moved on to other stories since then, and life is just too short.
- Merrin
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| A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness |
[19 Jun 2012|06:17pm] |
A brief synopsis: Diana is a descendant of witches and well aware of her own possible powers. However, magic killed her parents, and she has little to no desire to actually practice herself. She is researching alchemy at one of the libraries at . . . Oxford? when she pulls a manuscript that has been missing for two hundred years and is much sought after by creatures of all races (vampires, witches, and daemons). Somehow, without even realizing she was doing it, Diana broke a powerful spell guarding the book, bringing her a lot of unwanted scrutiny of the creature variety. Most unwanted (or wanted?) of all is that of an attractive vampire named Matthew. . .
I liked this just fine, really. The book sadly suffers from being easily comparable to Twilight (albeit the grown up version) with the vampires, the (slightly) vapid female lead, and the forbidden love angle. Also, there's quite a bit of drama to go with the romance. (I love him so much I could just DIE.) There's even the possibility of a pregnancy! Which, please, explain to me how vampires have a) a pulse and b) the ability to get anyone pregnant? So confused.
That said, I stayed up until past midnight the night before the last day of our Memorial Day sale so I could finish it (and I opened the store this morning, so that's sacrifice), so clearly I found it absorbing. Harkness is a good writer, although she's got some pacing issues. I liked the characters too, even Diana grew on me after a while.
Haha, this is the most lukewarm review EVER for something I've already told four people they should read. I liked it! I read it really quickly! And I've already gotten my hands on an advanced readers copy of the second book, so woot!
- Merrin
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| Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde |
[19 Jun 2012|06:13pm] |
Not to be confused with the porn of a similar title. This is from the author of the Thursday Next series. If you've read those, you'll probably like this, but be prepared for something a bit darker than those books.
Set in a dystopian world where people are divided into castes based on the colors they can see, and within those castes ranked by the variety of shades they can see. It had classic hilarious Fforde flippancy with somewhat grisly death and destruction. Also slightly frustrating, as it is the first of a series and the next one hasn't even been announced yet. Lots of loose ends left to tie up.
I wouldn't read this first if you're new to Fforde, but it's a solid addition to a Fforde collection.
- Merrin
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| Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen |
[27 Apr 2012|02:03pm] |
Second verse, remarkably similar to the first. Different details for the story, but I'm sure a wider sampling of Dessen would reveal that they're all pretty formulaic in construction.
Still, they're pretty good if straight ya (no fairies, vampires, werewolves or aliens) is what you're looking for.
- Merrin
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