Uncle Olaf

My stock of insults and vulgar vocabulary has exploded

Revisado: 07-07-23

No, that’s not the reason for 5 stars. The story was brilliantly written and even more brilliantly performed. I did guess the two major twists, but only because I’m a cynical bas…ard in my own right and have caught enough twist over 64 years of reading entertainment. Paraphrasing the words of Mel Brooks, by way of Olson Johnson, “not only was it authentic [Scottish] gibberish, it expressed a courage little seen in this day and age…” The good guy gets beaten badly enough that we can believe that he barely carries on, unlike the movie good guys that still seem to be able to perform superhuman feats as well as they could unbroken or unbruised.

I was also rewarded by the non-Hollywood ending, as well.

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Short, but complete

Revisado: 09-24-19

How often have we heard stories about women in law, who are ignored, stepped over, or abused, but who still manage to do their jobs better than most of the men blocking their way? And yet, those same things happen and the way in which McTiernan’s sisters manage to just go on and do their jobs, fulfill their callings, really, is still an excellent story, well developed, leading to a logical conclusion.

It doesn’t need a Behavioral Sciences Unit, to figure out the profile of the actual murderer. It doesn’t require a Forensic Sciences Unit, to examine the tiniest clues and reveal which tree they were standing under, when the murderer did the deed.

It just takes someone who can read the clues, figure out who did it, then get into their head and find what it will take to gain a confession. Someone who listens and has a head on her shoulders and enough experience with real life, to know how to use what she knows to make sense of what she finds.

Very satisfying.

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Gaiman writes. Gaiman reads. Perfect combination

Revisado: 08-15-18

The story of how this Gaiman wrote this story seems to have come from London Below. The story writer entered the world, then left it to do other things, then realized the beauty and life he’d left behind, Below.

The characters seem familiar, like they are from tales we’ve all known as kids, from stories our parents told. Yet, I’ve never heard of Door, The Marquis, or even The Earl. The beast that prowls the maze Below, is a myth I’ve never heard, but they all inhabit a realm that sounds infinitely more appealing than Above, reality, the mundane world in which we live, especially when their is story narrated by their creator, Neil Gaiman.

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Get a life!

Revisado: 01-02-18

Every kid’s dream, or at least those with vivid imaginations, is to rise from the low station granted each of us by birth, and become rich, important, wise, and powerful. There’s no easy button for that, however, even with money, power, and powerful backers, that allow one to cheat. That’s the wisdom that comes from the struggle, from the journey.

The author makes this so apparent, in generating a utopia, an Oasis, where Wade can grow up to become the spokesperson for anyone who has ever felt the need to surpass the programming given at birth.

If you ever played a video game at an Arcade, in front of a classic CRT tv, or even have a Xbox, you will recognize something in the story, hear the soundtrack of a gamer’s life, and smell the sweat and ozone from that dark mall room where Joust, Qbert, Star Wars (back when there was only ONE), and Pac-Man were battled by geeks and gamers, who spouted lines from Monte Python and War Games, dreaming of someday saving the world and getting the girl.

Ultimately, the message from the Oasis’ creator mimics Shatner’s message on SNL. Oddly, that also occurred in the 1980s (1986), in which Shatner exhorted his ardent followers to “Get a life”. So, too, does Anorak (apologies if I️ have spelled his name wrong. I️ only heard it, never saw it). The outside world is the only real one and is the only place where your experience is real.

This book is brilliant at capturing that moment and feeling. Will does an excellent job narrating. He’s taken a lot of heat, over the years, for being Wesley and having the audacity to live the dream, inside a fantastic fiction. Good choice to tell this story.

Minor spoiler. Stop now to avoid it.




And yet, the hero doesn’t destroy everything, and still gets the girl.

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Cliches become reality. Brilliant!

Revisado: 11-18-17

The Faceless Men behind the Government operate with Certainty to protect the American Dream . Who would ever believe you could take these terms at face value and make them a physical reality?

But that’s what Clines does. His characters crisscross the country, in pursuit of the elusive American Dream, also a physical reality, a physical thing, not just a concept.

As if that weren’t enough, there are vintage cars, truck stops, historical references, and TRAINS!

Yet, it all fits, including the adage about how easy it is to miss the thing for which you search, sometimes so obvious.

I️ also find it interesting to note that 15’s slightly muffled voice sounds a bit like:

Audible hopes you’ve enjoyed this program.

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Seriously? Wil reads Scalzi?

Revisado: 05-23-17

My sincere apologies, Mr. Wheaton. I never gave you a thought, regarding your ability to sound like anyone other than Sheldon's arch nemesis. I'm an idiot. Seriously.

Scalzi did his usual job, inventing a universe that is almost recognizable as ours, but just skewed enough to allow us to see our own foibles. He writes characters that are human, but represent ideals.

Still, Wil's voice acting brought them to life. He'd better be in the sequels!

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Solid space navy fare.

Revisado: 07-30-16

Against impossible odds. The least experienced, lowest rated, usual screwup, sad sack... In WW II, this guy was named Audie Murphy. The author still managed to pull me along and keep me willing to accept the miracles.

The good guys do still win, if not in the end, at least in installments. They don't live happily ever after, but they do win, in short bursts, when it counts.

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I'm spoiled. Even imaginary universes have physical laws.

Revisado: 03-23-16

First: Too much explanation. The author telegraphed his main character's angst over his origins in chapter 1. Nothing left for him to do for the next hours, except action. Like the space battles, 2D.

Second: You can't change the laws of physics. You can create new laws, worm holes, FTL drives, whatever, but if you're communicating by radio, you're limited to light speed. If you're sitting 3 light years away from a planetary system, your sensor data is 3 YEARS OLD. Telling us that you see no sign of the enemy from that distance is bogus.

Third: The author wasted a perfectly good character, the alien AI. Granted, he'll probably be back in the sequel.

I won't.

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Not an American story.

Revisado: 09-03-15

Had this been an American story, Visting's daughter would have had her father, they would have been eternally at odds with a journalist daughter that mistrusted the authority of the police and her father. I like it better this way. Father and daughter come at the mystery from two different directions and Horst implies that, while their estates differ - one is governmental authority, while the other is the fifth estate, the Press, individuals still want the same thing, justice. Horst makes the two organizations, often at odds, work together.

Even accused of the crime of planting evidence, the protagonist, Visting, is still focused on getting justice, not on clearing his name. He's no purist and he has his convictions about guilt and innocence, but he still wants the crime solved. His daughter has obviously watched her father work, in the past and pursues her story with the same determination and integrity as her father pursues the criminal. In the end, they both find the truth.

The narrator does a brilliant job, making it easy to follow the different characters, male and female, snooty and helpful. Grandfather would be annoyed at some of his pronunciation of city, state, street, and family names, but they are close enough to follow and would only matter to Norwegian and Swedish and would then be passed off as a difference in accent. The into nations and cadence make it easy to follow characters and events, disappearing into the background of the story.

I will read many others in the series.

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Lather, Rinse, Repeat

Revisado: 06-07-15

Like the title, you could see the end of this story coming. From a yoga, Eastern Philosophy standpoint, you can see all stories' ends coming. This one put twists that I wasn't expecting. So many Do-Over stories are neat and clean. This one wasn't. Not only do most of us NOT want to know our parents have sex, we also don't even want to imagine being reborn, literally, head or feet first and don't even get started thinking about nursing!

Neal kept me attentive until the final life, with the classic knowledge that one must accept one's life. Not that one is doomed, but that with proper observation, one can see life for what it is, not for what we wish it could have been.

More of us could benefit from such such inner observation.

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