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Can't Stop the Signal
You mean people read these things? Oh well. Here's some stuff: I read in spurts. Sometimes a lot, sometimes not at all. Sometimes books, sometimes only articles or newspapers or magazines or whatever's on that box of cereals. I don't review books. I sometimes have random semi-coherent thoughts and I sometimes rant, but i never review.
Oh, and I try to rant in the same language as the book I'm ranting about was written, which means you might encounter Norwegian, English, German or French here, all of it mangled to some degree.
I can read most genres, but I tend to prefer scifi.
The Collapsing Empire
Warning: For me, this book doesn't really work on its own, it's a setup for a series. Scalzi builds an interesting society that mixes progressive social norms with a feudal economy in a way that is close enough to believeable to work. Unfortunately his characters are still a bit on the bland side, and some of the more interesting ones tend to die or disappear from the plot (hopefully they'll return later.) The plot on its own is good and I'll definitely stick with this series.
Rebel Mechanics
Light and fluffy steampunk fantasy alternate-history jaunt. A fun premise and a lot of potential but I found the story a little too shallow and the characters way too bland.
Arsene Wenger: The Inside Story of Arsenal Under Wenger
The few interesting tidbits this book contains are repeated ad nauseum in a very disorganized manner. The writing is dull and repetitive and the attempts at controversy are so contrived they could have been taken from the Daily Mail. Oh wait, they were. Never mind.
Aurora
Possibly the best from Robinson in a very long time (though I skipped Shaman, for now.) This one surprised me halfway by going off in a totally different direction than expected, but the main themes are the same as always. Ecology, human physiology and psychology, sociology. I was looking for a a more detailed delving into the starship-as-earth closed ecology analogy, but perhaps that will come later.
Europe in Autumn
This is good in its own right, but it does bear a striking resemblance to China Mievilles City and the City. Looking forward to the next part.
Vingebelastning
[Løse tanker rett etter ferdiglesing, denne kan det ta litt tid å fordøye]Det finnes noen få bøker der jeg både misliker og synes synd på alle personene. Stilitsen av Donna Tartt er en sånn, Vingebelastning er en annen. Det gjør boka sterkere og historien bedre, og samtidig vondere. Dette er ikke koselesing (men det forventer man heller ikke fra denne forfatteren.)
Fra mitt ståsted virker denne boka samtidig som en god samtidsbeskrivelse, et lett spark til profesjonell terapi, og første del i en ny trilogi. Det er mye mer å hente i dette persongalleriet.
Solefall
Plottet er greit nok om enn noe påtatt, og det er forsåvidt spennende nok, men Braa skriver rett og slett for dårlig til at jeg klarer å nyte det. Det er også litt skuffende at når handlingen legges til et område jeg (og Braa) kjenner godt, er det såpass mange unødvendige trivielle småfeil. Det er sikkert ikke noe problem for den som ikke er lokalkjent, men det ødelegger rett og slett for meg. Hvordan foregår forresten en reendring av bilder, og når blir en sak en "red hearing"? Fillefeil det også, men unødvendig og ødeleggende.
Risp i berget
Holder dessverre ikke samme nivå som Sjabervik, denne mangler det lett absurde og selv om det er nok tragedie og håpløshet mangler det mye på like gode personligheter som i forgjengeren.
Theatre of Cruelty
"He was, in fact, dead. It would be hard to be deader without special training."And that's why we love Pratchett.
Go Set a Watchman
Starts out excruciatingly slow, and is marred by poor editing (Is the school headmaster Mr Tuffett or Ms Muffett?) It picks itself up a bit in the final third and becomes a nice but somewhat uninspiring read. Mild spoilers:
Others have mentioned how their biggest disappointment is the relegation of Atticus from God Almighty to Regular Joe. I don't see that at all. All through Mockingbird I looked at Atticus as a decent role model for fathers and people in general, but felt very clearly that he was presented through the eyes of a child that adored him. This book only strengthens that view for me. Atticus is still as much a standout father, but with the obvious flaws that make him a mortal man. His handling of what can only be called a very delayed teenage rebellion seems to me to be nothing but a success. That he has views and opinions most people today probably do not have takes nothing away from that.
I went into this with low expectations, I figured there was a good reason this book was never published, before and there is. It appears unfinished and rather immature and would probably not have appeared at all (or at least not in this form) had it not been a guaranteed success. In conclusion, you certainly do not _have_ to read this, but it's not all bad either.
Hvitt Hav
Aller først, dette er en ny strålende bok om livet på Barrøy, denn gangen under siste verdenskrig. Deretter må jeg si at jeg likte den første bokas mer tidløse beskrivelse av livet og generasjonenes gang bedre enn denne. (Forsåvidt en av grunnene til at jeg hadde sansen for samme forfatters Frost.)Denne gangen (synes jeg) kommer den veldig spesifikke dateringen i veien for dette, selv om historien også nyter noen fordeler av å ha historiske hendelser å trekke på. Ingrid Barrøy er fortsatt like seig og sta og til tider irriterende, men personene rundt er kanskje noe blekere? Og for den som er opptatt av hvordan det går til slutt tipper jeg det kommer mer. Det er i hvert fall få avslutninger i denne boka.