Gene in CA

Curiouser and curiouser . . .

Revisado: 12-05-24

I stuck with it. Shouldn’t have. Why? Hmmm . . . Think Trainspotting except this time the drug is the bodies of aliens (no . . . really), & you’ll be close. Throw in some incest, that seems intended to be simultaneously titillating and sentimental, and you’ll be (unfortunately) closer. Add to the mix that people can be cross-pollinated (so to speak . . .) with animals, specifically dogs for whatever ineffable reason (because, like most things in Vurt, explanations are mystery boxes (within mystery boxes) that would make JJ Abrams jealous), and you’re definitely in the right (wrong?) neighborhood (you can tell because of the dog houses). Make the whole thing a quest that feels like Scorsese’s After Hours only far more self-aware without any of that director’s sense of plot or storytelling, & you’ll be spot on the money. I can see why people consider Noon’s writing “literary” because he seems to really want to be the science fiction Brett Easton Ellis. Except here the drugs are aliens. Um . . . yep. That’s pretty much it. The book feels like a slow-motion train wreck. And it is . . . in every possible way. I kept waiting for the promise of the premise, the-alien-as-drug thing, to pay off, for some aspect of the science part of the science fiction label on the book’s spine to manifest itself. Nope. As far as science goes, Noon’s is more like a soft magic system, just there to get you from one scene to the next. Turns out, all the characters (& all is the operative word there) are screw-ups who just really wanna be really good at screwing-up. And nothing else. Nothing at all. So, if nihilism is your bag, knock yourself out. I get that the book is supposed to send the reader on a sort of literary version of the trip like that of the alien-drug the book’s characters can’t quit. I get the idea that reality isn’t really real, except when it is, but when it is it’s really an alternate reality, & when the drug of reality wears off we seek the drugs that make reality, & the alternative reality, bearable, but the bummer is that reality is really alternate reality, except when it isn’t, etc, etc. Yeah, I get it. I get that Noon’s non-stop references (yellow feather, Desdemona, the losing of one’s life in a video-game-like existence, Alice in Wonderland/Jabberwocky, etc) are intended to lend the book depth & resonance, to link to other works that might have inspired Noon, or inspire the reader, or something. But . . . it doesn’t work. It never resonates. It’s spectacularly, unresonatingly unsatisfying. Which might have something to do with the fact that there’s no real plot, that the stakes are as high as the gum wrapper under your shoe, & not one character is likeable, or sympathetic, or even syn-pathetic. There’s just nothing here. When Noon attempts to explain things late in the 3rd act, in true dreamlike alien-drug-trip prose, he creates more impenetrable confusion than anything else, leaving the reader frustrated, if not angry and betrayed. The ending reveal, such as it is, is cold and barren, ultimately not worth the previous nine hours it took to arrive. The book reads like it was written by 100 monkeys locked in a room with a 100 Underwoods trying to type out Neuromancer in hopes of getting a coveted Curious Yellow banana. Sadly, Vurt the kind of book I’d expect William Gibson to paraphrase Hayao Miyazaki & say, “Cyberpunk was a mistake.” At least I now know what it’s like to be one of those World of Warcraft devotees who dropped out of society to play the game non-stoy in their basement, piles of pizza boxes corridoring the way to the bathroom, empty Rockstar cans (sugar free!) entombing the moldering sofa in the corner. Actually, that last sentence has more pathos, resonance, & (frankly) story, than any 100 consecutive words in Vurt. The kicker? This book has two sequels. Curiouser and curiouser . . .

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Overly concise & lacking all nuance

Revisado: 09-18-24

Rossellini is OK (& I mean OK, not good or anything past competent) when discussing anything prior to about 600AD. This is mostly due to the fact that she has no socio-political dog in the hunt when it comes to ancient Greco-Roman mores, whether social, political, or religious. It's a fairly breezy & mostly interesting, if perfunctory, survey of that era. After that, however, it becomes a slog of Christians bad/repressive/evil while everyone else is shown to be (mostly) free of all wrongdoing. There is barely any context or explanation, & vanishingly little nuance, in the book & she obviously expects the listener to take her word for what context she provides. Bernard of Clairvaux suffers an especially egregious character assassination. Christian teaching is consistently misconstrued & misrepresented, presenting even the most basic terms & concepts incorrectly. This has to be intentional, since she cites numerous sources (in text) that definitely gave superior information than does Rossellini. She dedicates a paltry 30 minutes to the Crusades (Christians bad/Muslims perfect), glossing over so much it gives you historical whiplash. This thing is an utter waste of time, even if all you want is a 20,000 foot overview of Western Civ. There are many that are far better & significantly more nuanced, without ignoring facts.
If you want fairly breezy & concise history that doesn't shirk on context, nuance, detail, or fact, I'd strongly suggest the work of Dorsey Armstrong, much of which is free here on Audible. She's significantly better than Rossellini in every way.

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Indispensable & necessary.

Revisado: 07-19-24

Listen now. Concise, focused, prescient, & necessary information. The book could be use is a solid, historically accurate primer on communism/socialism/Marxism that leads to deeper reading of the incidents discussed within, or a reminder of what you already know. Either way, now's the time to do the deep dive & this book is a great start.

The reader is OK, not great, but not totally distracting. Someone who fits the fairly conversational writing style would have been better, but it's a quibble. Do not allow that to prevent you from listening.

Just listen!

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esto le resultó útil a 5 personas

No.

Revisado: 09-29-23

Overlong, overwrought, & overrated. Decent prose, for the most part, but some of it feels interminable & pointless. Way too many coincidences in the story & nothing made me care about these people. I figured out the mystery a third of the way in, right about the time the book became potboiler-ish. Ultimately, there was no Why to the whole thing, nothing that compels emotional attachment or even casual interest. The performance by Davis is this thing's only saving grace. I can't imagine reading another 3 books in this series.

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