Ben

Spectacular

Revisado: 02-17-25

This is a delightfully gentle ride through one woman's life, focusing on a series of fascinating events and experiences fresh out of school and entering into early adulthood. Normally not my thing, but, damn, did the story have me spellbound all the way through.
And read by Meryl Streep! By far the very best narration I've ever listened to. Are there Oscars for this kind of thing? Time to collect another one.

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Pretty Confusing as an Audiobook

Revisado: 02-17-25

So many questions... What's going on with all the voices / accents right out of the starting block? I suppose these are different characters breaking into the narrative to have a word? What exactly is the accent the main female narrator is going for? Tremulous South African private school guidance counsellor? Maybe that's what a Pacific Islander sounds like? I wonder, though.
Too many questions to hold in my head while driving a car, for sure.

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Insightful and entertaining

Revisado: 06-13-24

This is a wonderful exploration of what makes a good sentence. The author is both passionate about the subject and practical in his advice. As a writer, it has been delightful to go back to the roots of all writing: the simple sentence, and its many complexities.

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Modern Noir Thriller

Revisado: 06-28-23

I am a huge fan of Denis Johnson, in particular of his poetic use of language in description and his crisp dialogue. In this novella, he focuses more on the characters and the dialogue than the use of poetic language. Therefore, I liked the book, but it doesn't match up to Tree of Smoke or Train Dreams. Still, a good read!

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Stream of Consciousness Musings

Revisado: 06-29-22

The title says it all, really. Silly of me to have expected more.

His message is to not get all hung up about what you want to say or how to structure your piece. Rather, pay close attention to each individual sentence and let it lead you where it may. And, boy, does he commit to his counsel! His several short sentences are like a jumble of bricks handed to you and a request to use them to build his house for him as you see fit.

Okay then, so the book might teach me how to write great sentences? Well, no, it's not about that either. There are no concrete instructions on how to make your own bricks. It's about the philosophy of, approach to, the attitude required to write great sentences.

I stuck it out for an awfully long time, thinking that the throat-clearing would eventually give way to something concrete, but my endurance produced no reward. Maybe I just stopped too soon, but other books are calling.

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If all-caps sarcasm is your thing...

Revisado: 02-25-22

The story is gripping and the action very entertaining.
However, the narrator seems to have only one voice for the leading female characters: barking ALL-CAPS sarcasm. Now, I don't think that the author provided the narrator with much nuance to work with in his dialogue. For the leading female characters, one could have switched their gender by search-replace of their pronouns, and their lines and motivations would have been just as appropriate.
But who am I to say that female characters can't be assholes too? All the time though? After the empress had just lost her closest friend in an assassination attempt? Maybe they'd give the sarcasm, cynicism, and insults a rest for a beat or two?
I don't think this tone-deaf narrator would have been up to the task of adding nuance to her emotional response even then. And I don't think he would have thought of it, since full-blast sarcasm and snark is so much cooler.

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A genuinely great novel

Revisado: 02-25-22

This book is rough reading, given its unflinching gaze on the tragic subject matter. But the genius of the author spins the desolate landscape and brutal action into the highest art.
Of all his books that I've read, this is closest in power to my favourite of his, "The Road."

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I was left in awe

Revisado: 02-25-22

I absolutely adored this book!
The strong plot and compelling characters swept me through a series of astoundingly rich worlds. These worlds contained fascinating conceptions of cultural and political systems that had given essential shape to a multitude of characters. Every action in the novel was also completely motivated by the thoughts and emotions of those varied, well-rounded characters.
The power of concentration and imagination of the author left me in awe.
This was my first Iain Banks novel and I'm going to hunt for more.

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Found it difficult to care about the hero

Revisado: 02-25-22

I came to this after reading the author's "The Algebraist" - which I adored. After quite a stretch, I found myself still struggling to give a damn about the hero and his intended quest. The narrator spoke in the refined, detached tone of an upper-class toff, and I would guess that his take on the novel fully reflects the author's intent. After all, the hero lives in the lap of luxury and whiles away his time playing various games at the highest level, but without evident passion.
When the inciting incident was a call to travel to another system to go play another game - not to save the world, but to learn about the other environment, I thought of all the other books on my shelf and put this one down.
Given the great ratings this book has received, I am sure I am missing out by abandoning it, but life is short.

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In these times, rivers are still a thing

Revisado: 11-29-21

The author's ten thousand feet view of the world is a bold project, but reduces to a glib and remarkably old-school view of what the future might bring.
For instance, commerce by river transport plays a curiously prominent role in his fly-by projections. I would have imagined that the existence of roads and railways and airports would have risen to strategic importance when thinking about commerce in the near future, but no...
Also, it might be that American power played and still plays a critical role in keeping international commerce open, but he simply can't imagine that individual nations might otherwise collaborate to preserve such channels of commerce if Americans inexplicably lost interest in the matter.
In the end, I found the work dangerously smug and narrow-minded.

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