The Star – Arthur C. Clarke
OK, as promised, I’ll now be finishing off the Arthur C Clarke book reviews. To anyone who is new to this blog, these reviews are just my thoughts on the books that I’ve read since coming to Kazakhstan…
May 14 2007
Neverwhere
Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman
OK this is the last of Gaiman’s novels that I’ve read so far, and after doing a little research prior to writing this review, I discovered that this book was quite unusual in its creation… A animated TV series was written first (by Gaiman and Lenny Henry of all people!), and then this novel was written afterwards. Quite shocking, as I’ve previously found that most books FROM TV series suffer in one way or another.
Anyhow, this story revolves around a lower London, where nothing is as it seems to those that get to glimpse a change from their normal lives above. Richard, the main character decides to help out a bleeding homeless girl on the way home, and from that point on, things get a little twisted. If you don’t enjoy fantasy books, then skip onto something else, but I found myself reading this whenever I had a spare moment, and almost a little saddened when I reached the end.
Might have to check in the shops next time I’m in Britain, see what the animated TV series was like in comparison… Anyone else seen it? 1997 I believe…
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May 14 2007
Anansi Boys
Anansi Boys – Neil Gaiman
Following on from two other reviews of Neil Gaiman’s books (Stardust and American Gods), we have another trip in the fantasy worlds in the authors mind.
More similar to American Gods than Stardust, this book’s God universe focuses on African deities this time, although the ‘real-life’ backdrop is equally as compelling in this novel. We start off with a ‘normal’ man in London, part of the corporate back-stabbing world, and not highly enjoying it. However, he is to be married soon, and so things could be worse. Deciding to invite his father (with a little prodding from his fiancĂ©e) who he hasn’t spoken to in years, he attempts to make contact. Sadly his dad has died, and so he drops everything to fly to America to see to the required arrangements. Strange tales are abound over his family’s history, and he is shocked to be told he has a brother!
There seems to be some confusion over the relationship between this book and American Gods. Although a couple of characters do exist in both novels, they seem more like companions than pre/sequels.
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May 12 2007
Howl’s Moving Castle
Howl’s Moving Castle – Diana Wynne Jones
Since researching the book for this review, I’ve discovered it has been made into a film (anime-style animation), so would someone please remind to search it out next time I’m back in the UK? Thanks 🙂
Anyway, although classified as a fairy tale suitable for children, don’t be at all put off; this book held my attention throughout, as Irina will attest. The plot revolves around the eldest daughter in a family, and her aspirations for more exciting things. Unfortunately she gets what she wishes for, when she, in an uncharacteristic moment, she insults the local witch. The Witch of the Waste in fact (still trying to figure out if this is a Wizard Of Oz reference or not). The daughter finds herself cursed, and takes on the appearance of an old crone. Rather than moaning (too much) she takes this as a spur to experience some more of life, and sets off on an adventure.
It is difficult to say much more without revealing plot lines, but there is a Wizard, an assistant, a fire demon and many other fantastical elements involved.
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May 11 2007
Ribofunk
Ribofunk – Paul Di Filippo
I struggled through the first 10 pages. Then almost gave up. So I skipped to 1/2 through the book, chose 3 pages at random, (hoping to find the intro had just been a gimmick), and tried reading those. Personally I couldn’t read it without wanting to put the book down and start reading something else.
The style of writing the author uses is highly stylized, with with a lot of character’s speech being used, and they all speak in a dialect that is hard to comprehend. A little like A Clockwork Orange, but infinitely less understandable.
Hope others have more luck.
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May 11 2007
A Scanner Darkly
A Scanner Darkly – Philip K. Dick
First off, if you have young children, and they aren’t already conversant with some of the darker sides of the world we live in, I’d want to read the book before okaying it for them.
That said, I liked this book. I had heard the PK Dick’s other books weren’t very well written, and somewhat over-hyped, so to be honest, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this novel. The main plot outline is that a narcotics undercover police officer is tasked with placing a suspect drug dealer under surveillance. No problems so far… The dealer lives in a house, and has some other drug taking friends, who the narc befriends, in an effort to get closer to his target. Quite a lot of the plot is filled with the strange, sometime funny, often poignant, occasionally miserable trails and tribulations any hard-drug addict has to go through to get his next fix.
As the reader you gradually begin to realise that something isn’t quite right with the narc vs. dealer situation. Someone isn’t who they are pretending to be…
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May 11 2007
Shogun
Shogun – James Clavell
OK, first things first, this is most definitely NOT an ‘airport’ book. You’ll need to sit down somewhere without distractions, and be able to actually pay attention to the book. This is a LONG book, some 1000+ pages in the edition I read. There are quite a few ‘main’ characters, although we mostly follow Blackthorne’s passage. He is a pilot (in the nautical sense of the term) who ends up in Japan, set in the 1600s I think?
Anyway, at the beginning, Blackthorne is pretty much like the rest of the crew on his ship – ‘proper’ men, stereotypical sailors, who work hard in a dangerous environment, and as soon as they set foot on land, blow a lot of money on alcohol and the company of woman with dubious moral values. However, he is soon held prisoner, and has to fight for his life many times. Although obviously resenting his captors, he soon finds himself questioning some of his core beliefs, and actually starts to learn the customs in this strange land, to the point of trying to learn their language, and understand their society’s values. Towards the beginning, he witnesses a low-caste persons beheading by a Samurai, and is incensed at the lack of justice. However, there is little taste for revolt by other villagers, and he begins to learn just how much life is different in this country.
His motives for adaptation are not wholly alturistic however, as his thirst for survival outweighs his feelings of discomfort and disgust; if he is to avoid summary execution for the smallest of misdemeanours, and maybe even make it home one day, he must learn quickly.
Blackthorne eventually makes his skills obviously valuable to the local lord of this area, and the story begins it’s real twists and turns from this point on…
If anyone wants more details, I’m happy to oblige, but I am loathe to describe much further into this story, as I don’t want to ruin some of the surprises in store for anyone…
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May 10 2007
3001: The Final Odyssey
3001: The Final Odyssey – Arthur C. Clarke
Back in 2001: A Space Odyssey, one of the characters (Frank Poole) dies due to the actions of HAL; in 3001: The Final Odyssey he returns! Arthur C. Clarke takes the opportunity to describe his vision for earth’s far off future. Given his the accuracy of some of his previous predictions, I’d be surprised if a few of them didn’t come true, and perhaps quicker than the 1000 odd year gap he envisaged.
The slabs so important in the previous 3 novels obviously star again, this time the original one from the beginning of the 2001 book rears its head, and is discovered. This novel in fact could be quite well described as tying up most of the loose ends presented in the earlier books; the essence of HAL and Bowman return, and are needed to try and avert the cataclysmic fate that human kind face. The aliens look to be judging humans as un-worthy of carrying on their existence, although the evidence used does date back to 2001, so things have improved.
I’m loathe to talk about the plot too much, as I don’t want to spoil the surprises for any potential readers; if you’d like details on any particular aspect of the book, leave me a comment and I’ll e-mail you the response.
If you’ve read the three other books in this series, you’re not very likely to decide to skip this one, and if you’ve not yet read the others, I would recommend buying those first, as they do obviously provide a lot of back-story to this novel.
There are in fact 3 other Arthur C. Clarke books to be reviewed soon, but I’ve grown a little bored of them for now, so I’ll review a few others first, then return to his books. Hope you don’t mind. Tough luck if it does cause you to lose sleep ;-P
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May 10 2007
2061: Odyssey Three
2061: Odyssey Three – Arthur C. Clarke
After Jupiter’s conversion into a new sun, Europa starts to transform, but humankind were warned at the end of the last novel that ‘All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt No Landings There’. The USA, USSR and China are all now at peace with each other, leaving the threat of violence to inter-planetary relations.
Whilst all the events are occurring on Europa (and teraforming on Ganymede), a team of scientists, and celebrities (think of a high class line up from a Celebrity Big Brother but on a space ship) go up to to land on Halleys Comet. At least that is the original plan, but at least one passenger has an ulterior motive; and what is worse, they don’t intend to respect the warning given re. Europa!
Although this book is obviously part of the series, the style of writing seemed quite different; I was still glad I read it, but was surprised how the novel progressed.
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May 10 2007
2010: Odyssey Two
2010: Odyssey Two – Arthur C. Clarke
Somewhat obviously carrying on from 2001: A Space Odyssey, this book was written almost 15 years after the original, which had seen a lot of Clarke’s visions of space travel and computing come true already. This time around, the book came first, then the film, though in the edition I read, Arthur does refer to the fact that where the book and film of 2001 split ways in terms of events and facts, 2010 was written more closely as a sequel to the film of 2001, rather than the book.
This book sees the American (especially Heywood Floyd) and Soviet forces join together, in an effort to discover just what went wrong with their previous mission, and although there are a few cultural differences, for the most part, they manage to work together, without too much suspicion on the parts of the astronauts, if not their respective governments. A 3rd party has secretly joined the melee however, and they arrive at the planet first. There appears to be some sort of tragic accident/attack with none of the crew members surviving, which only acts to spur on the USA/USSR teams to discover just what has, and maybe still is, going on.
David Bowman, a major character from the last book, returns in a less than physical sense, and as he now works for/with the alien life forces who originally planted the slabs on the moon and planet earth. He discovers basic life forms, with some hope of evolution, both below the ice of Europa, and also in the atmosphere. This isn’t covered by the film, if I remember correctly, and I was also slightly disappointed with the film’s treatment of the scene where Bowman attempts to make contact with Floyd in a more physical sense, using dust particles to conjure up a mirage like representation of the astronaut’s face.
The book goes on to describe the transformation of the planet Jupiter into a star, via the slabs exponential replication, and how the Moon Europa is allowed to survive, meaning the basic life forms under the ice have the opportunity to progress.
If you read 2001 and weren’t overly impressed, feel free to skip this book, otherwise, if you’re able to skip over little inconsistencies with the previous book, I’d read it for sure.
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