Jorge F. Garcia

Fiction - yes. Science Fiction - Neh.

Revisado: 06-14-22

Three blunders within the first 50 minutes of this book caused me to stop and return this audiobook. First, one of the main characters discovers that her new artificial body comes outfitted with a kinetic power generator that will generate enough power to keep the body operational, as long as… wait for it… yes… as long as the body keeps moving! What! So… right, this body is essentially a perpetual motion machine! A self-winding watch that powers itself because someone cleverly thought to attach the self-winding mechanism to seconds hand! Wait, that doesn’t work? Sorry. Unfamiliarity with basic physics is appalling in a high schooler, unforgivable in a SCIENCE-fiction author! Second, the opening setting is an inhabited moon that is in a tidally locked orbit with a planet that is itself in a tidally locked orbit with the system’s star. Tidally locked means that the orbit-ER always presents the same side to the orbit-ED (there’s a better technical definition to do with orbital periods, but I find this explanation easier to visualize) Like our moon, we always see the same lopsided face frowning down at us. It doesn’t frown at you? Anyways, no problem with that deception so far. Except that this double tidal locking is offered as an explanation for why this particular moon has neighborhoods that are permanently dark. Meaning that the moon must also, always present the same face to the sun… while rotating around the planet… Which. Doesn’t. Work. Do the geometry in your head! Or do a little experiment with oranges, or with willing members of your family, or whatever. It simply doesn’t work. A tidally locked planet with a permanent dark side? Sure. A tidally locked moon with a permanently dark side… sorry, that’s just bad… thinking! Third, and decidedly not as egregious as the other two (but remember, this is all in the first 50 minutes). A prop toy is introduced as depicting an “anthropomorphic primate”. Which is, technically a correct way of describing a monkey or a chimp or a lemur wearing sunglasses and a T-Shirt. Which may be what you are supposed to picture. But of course, it is also a technically correct way of describing… you, dear reader. For you are both a primate, and (one can only hope) humanish in shape.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Frustrating and sometimes Mind numbing

Revisado: 06-12-22

Yes it is a classic. And of horror, no less (though I not once, in reading it, felt the smallest twinge of fear). Anyway… Respect to Ms Shelley! Furthermore, I know seemingly intelligent people who consider this to be one of the best books! Alas, not me! The main character is a pompous moron, the narrator (not the audible reader) is no better, and the monster himself is only slightly less pompous. At least the monster actually did something besides talk… and talk… Killed a few people and so forth. Consider that all these are characters, when confronted with a terrifying monster or a mortal enemy, rather than grabbing a nearby stake and putting it to good use, turn rather to endless monologues of the type “be gone from my sight to horrid wretch, or oh! shall I forever gnash my teeth in your general direction!”

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

The Best of its Kind

Revisado: 06-12-22

I know this is supposed to be a trilogy. Nothing more. And you just finished writing it. And perhaps you are tired. But seriously Mr. Abercrombie - can I call you Joe? - How soon can we get more ?

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

No Cryptonomicon

Revisado: 02-26-21

I'll say by saying that Cryptonomicon, Fall, and Reamde are among my favorite books of all time. I absolutely get sucked into Stephenson's intricate technological and philosophical diversions. But, and maybe it's just me, the intricate political/financial diversions with which The King of the Vagabonds is... abundantly adorned(?), they simply didn't grab and hold on to my attention. Some of the (I imagine) historically plausible financio-political intrigue was so convoluted I simply wanted it to be over so we could get back to Jack and Eliza engaged in some further adventuring, or chakra discovering, scientific conversations with Leibnitz, or something other endless speculating on who would doublecross whom causing the prices of seventeen century stock market to do what...

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

An excellent addition to an excellent series.

Revisado: 10-21-19

if you can find humor in savagery. If you like your heroes treacherous. If can stomach betrayal from the corner where you least expect it, if hunger for the should of a good fight... Then you'll be an Abercrombie fan, my son.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Simple yet Chilling

Revisado: 10-03-19

As an avid listener of traditional (?) audio books, I didn't instantly take to the dramatization format. But after ten minutes, I was sucked in. The stories were predictable, in that way that some horror is (No! Don't do it! Why would you open the door, you idiot!) but no less chilling for it.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Who knew I was a westerns man

Revisado: 10-01-19

Seems to me now, after finishing Lonesome Done, with a heavy heart, that every time I ever heard a "cowboy" speak on TV, or the big screen, it was but an actor trying (and failing) to sound like the real thing, like one of the characters of legend that roam the planes between Texas and Montana. Like Gus, or Call, or Deets, or one of the boys.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Who knew I was a westerns man

Revisado: 10-01-19

Seems to me now, after finishing Lonesome Done, with a heavy heart, that every time I ever heard a "cowboy" speak on TV, or the big screen, it was but an actor trying (and failing) to sound like the real thing, like one of the characters of legend that roam the planes between Texas and Montana. Like Gus, or Call, or Deets, or one of the boys.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Mixed Feelings

Revisado: 06-15-19

This was a fun book. Great characters characters. Good story. Beautiful scenery (I must visit some of these places one day). Bail-biting edge of the seat escapes. My problem is with.. the book's ultimate philosophy. As a lover of Sci-Fi, I am a lover of the promise of the future. Sorry George W. Hayduke, but you are fighting the wrong fight.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

No Cryptonomicon... But There's Hope?

Revisado: 05-29-19

Another reviewer wrote... it's too bad Quicksilver will deter many a reader from the rest of the Baroque Cycle, which is quite good. Could it be so bad? Well... he was right about the deterring power of Quicksilver, which is burdened with descriptions of political minutiae that stretch painfully across kilometers of erudite but ultimately uneventful pages. Still, I liked Cryptonomicon so much, that I will charge undeterred into the next book... hoping.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña