Friday, November 19, 2010

Year Three

I seriously cannot believe I've kept this list up for 3 years! Well actually, this blog period! I'm quite proud of myself! If you missed Year One and Year Two check 'em out!
  • It by Stephen King
  • Neuromancer by William Gibson
  • Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan
  • Schismatrix Plus by Bruce Sterling
  • Hardwired by Walter Jon Williams
  • The Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher
  • Academ's Fury by Jim Butcher
  • Cursor's Fury by Jim Butcher
  • Hidden Empire by Orson Scott Card
  • Capitan's Fury by Jim Butcher
  • Princeps Fury by Jim Butcher
  • Soul Runner by Jon Guenther
  • Ragged Dick by Horatio Alger
  • The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson
  • Spook by Mary Roach
  • First Lord's Fury by Jim Butcher
  • Broken Angels by Richard K. Morgan
  • Woken Furies by Richard K. Morgan
  • Geosynchron by David Louis Edelman
  • The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz-Zafón
  • Hyperion by Dan Simmons
  • Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons
  • The Stand by Stephen King
  • Fever Dream by Douglass Preston & Lincoln Child
  • The Passage by Justin Cronin
  • Dismantled by Jennifer McMahon
  • Rides a Dread Legion by Raymond E. Feist
  • I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
  • The Martians by Kim Stanley Robinson
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clark
  • American Gods by Neil Gaiman
  • At the Gates of Darkness by Raymond E. Feist
  • The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein
  • Gridlinked by Neal Asher
  • The Black Prism by Brent Weeks
  • Martian Outpost by Erik Seedhouse
  • Shogun by James Clavell
  • Gideon's Sword by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
  • The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card
  • The Mall of Cthulhu by Seamus Cooper
  • Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Total (Nov. 19th, 2009 - Nov. 19th, 2010): 41

Grand Total (Nov. 19th, 2007 - Nov. 19th, 2010): 145

You know this has been an interesting year indeed. I had my little Cyberpunk stint over winter break, and from there it kinda went all over the board. For the first several months I was right on track with what I wanted to be reading, but ya know, shit happens, I got sick, I moved out, I've taken a bigger interest in school, and as such the amount of reading has gone down. Is this necessarily a bad thing? By no means it isn't, I mean I was reading more than a book a week back in year one, that's a lot.. and I mean other things suffered because of it. So, while it is kinda sad that I'm not reading as much, it's allowed me to do other things, and more importantly try and focus on my schoolwork more.

One thing that's been interesting this year is the amount of absolutely amazing books I've read. In my own little word doc on my computer I have a list going like this one, but with a 1-10 rating system employed. Before I go on, though, I don't put my ratings on here because there are so many factors that contribute to my ratings, things that shouldn't matter at all like mood and what I read prior. This I think invalidates some of the ratings, not to mention I've also changed some ratings after reading other books and comparing them. Reviewing and rating is a pretty interesting topic that I may address at some point, but in any cases I had more books rated "9" this year than any of the previous years. I may of just gotten lucky, but damn there were some amazing reads.

Another thing that is rather interesting is the evolution of what I think of thousand-plus page books. Back when I read Hubbard (my first thousand-plus page book) I firmly believed that a thousand pages was overkill. Now, after reading several Stephen King books over a thousand, as well as several others, most noticeably Shogun, I think there are authors that really do need that much room and make the most out of that room. Foolish of me to make such a huge judgment based on L. Ron Hubbard, when so many excellent authors have breached the 1k mark successfully!

In any case, this has been an amazing year both in reading and in general and while I don't write as much as I should on here, I plan on updating when I can. Thanks to those of you that do read, and for those of you who click over here from facebook from my whorish self promotion, thanks for the curiosity! If you need a book to read, this list is jam packed with good ones from every genre, and don't forget about my recommendation blogs: First and Second.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Ry Recommends II

This blog as been on my mind for a while now, but until recently I haven't had the motivation to actually do it. I've kept a list of book's I wanted to put in here, but that's as far as I got. In my first recommendation blog, I listed them all alphabetically, which was a good tactic, but after giving it some thought I think it would be best to do it by genre and then alphabetically within each little group. This mainly spawns from the fact that there are a couple specific sub-genres I want to talk about. Without further ado:

Fantasy:

  • The Magicians by Lev Grossman ~ I already posted a review of this one some time ago, but I feel it is my duty to mention again just based on the level of badassness involved with this novel. Check out the review for more info, but this is one everyone needs to read.

  • The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss ~ I have been putting off doing any sort of review for this book for some time because I've had the hope that he'd actually put out the rest of the trilogy. Alas, since it's been nearly two years since this book came out, I think I'll do something small now. I will write a full review when I re-read it, but for now what I can say is that this is by far one of the best fantasy novels to come out in years. In fact, I cannot believe the pure luck that was involved when I picked up this book. It was the end of March, I had a Hastings gift certificate for $25 burning a hole in my pocket (this was pre-borders, I don't think I've bought a book from Hastings in ages), so I was wondering around, just kind of looking. I noticed the cover of this book first off, to hell with the old saying "don't judge a book by its cover", because had it not caught my eye I wouldn't have picked it up til much later. In any case, The Name of the Wind was on a display of featured, new hardbacks, the thing that caught me was the fact that it was the only fantasy book to have made it on this little display, which is rare in and of itself. So I picked it up and proceeded to read the cover slip. Honestly, I didn't know what to expect, but I was intrigued and after having spent a good thirty minutes in there, I made the hasty decision to give it a shot. After all, it wasn't really my money anyway. Like I said, I am so freaking lucky I did because when I got home I entered a world of magic and intrigue the likes of which I have seen but rarely. Tolkien, Feist, and maybe one or two others write to this caliber, but Rothfuss is brand new! This was his first ever book and it was fantastic! I can't give too many details only because I read it quite a while back and they're becoming vague, but what I can say is that Kvothe (pronounced like quothe 'sept with the K) is one of the most fascinating characters I have encountered. Essentially, Kvothe has gone into hiding from his glorious past, but at the start of the book he is found by a man who reveals that he knows Kvothe and wishes to hear his story and from there begins the miraculous story of Kvothe's life. It has everything, romance, heartbreak, action, mystery, and every other emotion that can be described and on top of it all, it is one of the most well written books I've seen! Oh and the author is a complete badass! First go pick up The Name of the Wind, then read it from start to finish (it's that hard to put down), and then go to Patrick's Blog to get the latest news and updates concerning book two. I am absolutely serious, if you like fantasy at all, hell even if you don't, go read this book. Update: The release date has finally been announced and set in stone, March 1st, 2011!

Fiction:

  • The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
    by Carson McCullers ~ Ah, I still remember walking through Borders with Kimberley just kind of looking around. I don't dislike Fiction/Literature per say, but it isn't something I read very much on my own. Indeed, the majority of the Fiction/Lit books I've read have been for school or recommended to me by friends. The same is true for McCullers book, as we were wandering, me with my big pile of sci-fi/fantasy, she remembers one of her friends really enjoying the book. I pick it up, scoff a little, but in the end I give in. Boy am I glad I did too! The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is one of those rare masterpieces that absolutely touch the heart and soul. The even more amazing thing about this novel is the fact that it was McCullers debut work and not only hit the best seller chart in 1940, but was named one of Time's greatest books 1923-2005. The story follows a deaf man named John Singer and the four seemingly average people he befriends. At first it seems like a story about Singer himself, and a good portion of the novel does follow him in particular, but you quickly get the sense that these average people each have their own demons and events that shape their lives. The characters each have so much depth and appeal that I am doing them a grave injustice in my descriptions, but trust me, they're each unique and utterly familiar: Mick Kelly the young, tom boyish girl; Biff Brannon the owner of Singers favorite restaurant; Doctor Benedict Copeland the idealistic, small town black doctor; and Jake Blount the alcoholic who can't seem to keep himself out of trouble. The story in and of itself is a so simple that there is now real way for me to give much detail without ruining it, but it is a masterful work of character study and hit's even the most cynical deep in the heart. Whether you read sci-fi/fantasy, mystery, or even non-fiction, I think The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is a must read.

  • Dismantled by Jennifer McMahon ~ This book was one I didn't have much faith in at first, but not 20 pages in and I was hooked I have always noticed McMahon on the shelf because she has a habit of putting really, really creepy little girls on her covers, indeed I had picked up several of her books just out of curiosity. It wasn't until I read the back of Dismantled though that I decided to take the plunge. It seemed like a pretty interesting story, well written, and something both Kimberley and I would enjoy, little did I know that it was spectacular. Dismantled was haunting in a way that I've never experienced before. Even after thinking about the book for a few weeks, I still cannot put my finger on it adequately. It wasn't horror, no, far from it, but at the same time it was.. well, haunting is the perfect word for it. Unfortunately, due to the fairly mysterious nature of the book I can't say much, but I can say that Dismantled will take you on a roller coaster ride of emotion, chills, and finally you'll be blindsided by an ending that explains all, but leaves you wondering too.

  • The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón ~ Oh dear I can't stress this one enough, obviously, by far one of the best novels I have had the good graces to read. Definitely a top ten!

Horror:

  • It by Stephen King ~ This is probably the first and last time you'll hear me say this, but I was wrong back in August when I wrote about L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth. I quote:

    "
    First and foremost I believe that you have to be very pompous and pretentious in order to write a book that is over a thousand pages. There is just too much story for one book. Period. No matter how good you are at writing, no matter how good you think you may be at storytelling, you cannot write a satisfactory story that is over a thousand pages. You just can't. There is just too much story and by not splitting it up into a sequel or trilogy, you lose valuable plot and world building options."

    Stephen Kings It comes out to be a beastly 1104 pages long and I have to submit that it was damn good! Perhaps Hubbard really was really just a wretched storyteller or maybe it was the type of story, but in any case I had a blast reading It the whole way through. Not only was the story good, but it was horribly creepy! Scary may not be the right word, but damn did I have a hell of a time trying to read it in the wee hours of the night. I started the books with the movie adaptation floating around my head—if you're a horror junky the theatrical version of It is probably one of the best horror movies ever made (amazing I know)—and while the movie was indeed great, this book was amazing. The character development, the progression of the plot, and even the rather large time gap proved to me, once again, just how much of a master King is. Perhaps in a full-fledged post I can go into the amount of detail that this book really needs, but really if you're in the mood for something scary and have lots of time on your hands Stephen King's It is quite possibly one of the best horror novels I've yet to read.

  • The Stand by Stephen King ~ Now that I've read several books over a thousand pages in length I know for a fact that L. Ron Hubbard is just a terrible author. Sure his story was okay, but like I said in the full post, it could have been done in 300-500 pages at most. In any case, Stephen King has blown my mind again! As I read more of him, well his early stuff anyway, I've come to realize just how lucky we are to have such a prolific author writing in our generation. Not only does King address social issues in a way that's actually interesting to read about, but he wraps it all up into some of the creepiest stories ever. The Stand is only different in that regard, it is creepy, but for completely different reasons, this is more Nineteen Eighty Four creepy in the sense it could actually happen. Ringing in at 1168 pages, The Stand is the classic post-apocalyptic book, while the sub-genre has been around since the '40's, King is a must read! I suppose it would be more accurate to call this one a horror-fantasy, but at the same time the major theme of the book is the character study rather than the looming good versus evil battle. The characters are written in such a way that you cannot help but find yourself in all of them, the good and, horrifyingly, the evil. The only true downside I can see with The Stand is that it is somewhat dated, so some of the pop culture references were lost on me, but seeing as the story is about the end of the world as we know it, those pop references become vaguer and vaguer, and eventually lose all meaning as society tries to re-create itself. If you have even an inkling of interest in the post-apocalyptic sub-genre this is definitely a must read, especially since many of the later books in the field reference King heavily.

Mystery / Thriller

  • Soul Runner by Jon Guenther ~ Kimberley introduced me to this author who just so happens to be one of her coworkers and although there are some major flaws, they have nothing to do with his writing as a whole. In fact, one of the reasons I've decided to add this book to the list is because, while I'm definitely not religious, I was able to look past that and see a rather intriguing story. The story follows Dr. Abram "Bram" Aronsfeld an ex-Hasidic Jew who also happens to be what is called a "Soul Runner". Around the world there are still places that reject Christianity and the job of a "Soul Runner" is to travel to these hostile countries and literally save Christians being persecuted there. The story has some great action scenes and honestly the idea is one that is somewhat new to me. I've always looked at Christianity as the persecutor not the persecutee and it was really fascinating to see the roles reversed. A fair warning though, every page, at least, has some sort of quote from the bible or Bram praising the lord, plus it seems that every other character Bram meets he converts into Christianity and "saves their soul". Hence the reason I had some major trouble with this book. Religious themes aside, the idea behind Soul Runner is a unique and fascinating one full of adventure and thrills. Think of it as a kinda religious spy novel. Worth picking up if you can ignore (or if you're into) the religion part.

  • Tyrannosaur Canyon by Douglass Preston ~ This is another one I have already written about, but one that I feel needs mentioning again!

Non-Fiction:
The Paranormal -

Over the last year I've read several paranormal books analyzed in the realm of science and journalism. I love myth and the whole metaphysical stuff, but the books I'm going to mention below will meet the approval of even the most skeptical. Plus, they were a good old fashion fun.

  • The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson ~ Okay, well this one may not hold up to all the skeptics out there, but Jon Ronson did an excellent job with his investigations. The major problem with The Men Who Stare at Goats is the fact that it is damn hard to get any sort of useful information out of government and military personnel. Sure, many of the people Ronson interviewed were more than willing to talk, but they were all so... vague that many people probably have a hard time not dismissing such claims as mere conspiracy theories. It's true, many of the points Ronson was suggesting are... strange... but I can't quite dismiss it. Years and years ago I read a biography called Psychic Warrior written by David Morehouse detailed many of the same ideas presented by Ronson. It is really hard to say which side if the fence I fall on here because while I cannot dismiss the number of people who back up these claims, it's just hard for me to imagine a five star general trying, over and over, to walk through his office wall (only to smack his face in it time and time again). But at the same time if indeed such amazing feats were possible why wouldn't the military and government try and research it? It puts a whole new spin on war, if you have soldiers that can walk through any and all defensive structures and then proceed to drop you with just a look, who would mess with that army? Not to mention just the very application of remote viewing--meaning purposefully going out of body to real world, real time locations--in the spying world is tremendous. Whether or not they succeeded? Well that's up for debate. Even if they had, knowing our government, they wouldn't bother telling us no matter the civilian applications. All in all, though, Ronson does a damn good job breaking down a major claim, into more manageable and, at the same time, believable chunks. This one is definitely worth a read, but it should definitely be taken with a grain of salt and an open mind. Plus, of all the conspiracy type books out there, Ronson has an amazing sense of humor which makes The Men Who Stare at Goats amazingly readable.

  • The Science of Vampires by Katherine M. Ramsland ~ Oh my long lasting love of vampires has finally panned out to more than just the fiction/horror shelves. I, first and foremost, have to applaud Katherine Ramsland's sheer force of will, vampire myths and tales have been around since the Egyptians, and just plodding through all that information takes more sanity than I even have. Anyone who may question the actual science of this book need only to look at Ramslands credentials: a masters degree in Forensic Psychology, another masters degree in Clinical Psychology, and on top of that a PhD in Philosophy—yes, yes, it's not science, but what PhD biologist would lower their pompous selves down to study vampires or the supernatural?--plus she's worked with FBI profilers to boot. So armed with her already vast academic knowledge and an almost obsessive eye for research, Ramsland takes apart each of the main myths associated with vampires. For example, she theorizes just how an actual entity might be able to consume pure blood with no ill effects, explores conditions which might explain why vampires cannot come out during the day, as well as takes a stab at what profiling a vampire's personality, and, of course, explores the question of whether or not vampires use their reproductive organs--Sorry Cullen fans their junk is for show only--as well as vampire sexuality in general. On top of all this research she interviews forensic experts as well as people who associate with the so called vampire sub-culture. This may not be of interest to any of the new vampire fans (those that only like vampires because of Stephanie Meyer) both because it came out in 2002 as well as she stays with the more traditional vampiric roles. In fact I believe she would agree in saying that vampires do not glitter, sparkle, or go to high school over and over again. What she does do is introduce and attempt to explain the myths behind vampires in a logical, scientific manner, which in the realm of vampires is a breath of fresh air. Anyone who is interested in many of the traditional myths behind vampires and would like to explore a more scientific route than that of speculative metaphysics should check out Katherine Ramslands The Science of Vampires. For those that are interested in less "out there" concepts Ramsland also has a host of books in the True Crime CSI realm as well which I'll vouch for.

  • Spook by Mary Roach ~ Mary Roach, you will never cease to amaze me in your brilliance, you hooked me in with your wry humor and solid facts in Stiff, and now you appeal to my paranormal side with Spook, not to mention I have Bonk just waiting on my shelf. In Spook Mary Roach approaches the idea of the afterlife, not from the religious or theoretical point of view, but from the scientific "I need hard facts damn it" view. Roach approaches the vast field of the afterlife in several ways: Historically she looks at the major fascination with séances back in the early 1900s, culturally she dives into the different theories behind the afterlife including the Indian reincarnation (this is an excellent part of the book because she actually travels to India to follow a doctor studying reincarnated kids), she jumps across the pond and attends a psychic school in order to learn how to communicate with the dead, and then even goes on to explore medical doctors attempting to get evidence for near death experiences. She does all of this with a hilarious sense of humor and a hard headed determination for facts. Whether or not you are interested at all with the paranormal or you're an avid psychic looking for ways to prove yourself, Mary Roach hits the mark with Spook.

  • Witch in the Waiting Room by Robert Bobrow ~ This one was especially fun to read because I have a crazy goal of becoming a doctor someday, well a psychiatrist, but still. Basically what Dr. Bobrow did was go through hundreds and hundreds of academic journals for paranormal type stuff. We're talking ghosts, reincarnation, near death experiences, the whole lot! I was actually rather surprised with the sheer amount of material he found, especially seeing as this is coming from academic journals known to be very, well, academic and anti-paranormal. The other great thing about The Witch in the Waiting Room is the very fact that Robert Bobrow is an M.D. and has been practicing medicine for over thirty years, so he knows his shit! This is really, really important when it comes to the writing because, as most college students know, academic journals are generally written in a not very user friendly way, especially medical ones. Dr. Bobrow takes these journals and gives a nice summery in layman terms, but with enough professionalism for the reader to know he's experienced in the field. Dr. Bobrows book is excellent for those super skeptics out there because it uses only peer-reviewed journals and has all the citation information listed in the back. Not to mention, as is common knowledge, doctors are generally really well respected when it comes to facts and scientific credibility, so medical journals are some of the harder journals to get published in. You'll honestly be surprised at some of the fascinating material doctors have been writing about for years, and if they believe in this stuff, is it so hard for you to as well? I should stress, though, that this is merely a brief look into the paranormal; if you consider yourself an "expert" in this sort of stuff you may find things here that you already know. Plus, because there are so many different concepts looked at in this book it does not go as in depth as some out there would like, but it is a great introduction to the paranormal based on fact rather than Sylvia Browne / David Icke "fact".

Science Fiction:
Cyberpunk –
I discovered cyberpunk over two years ago when one of my managers introduced me to the book Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson and it didn't take long for me to become hooked. Essentially cyberpunk is described as combining "high tech and low life" (again thank you wiki) and more than likely the only exposure most people have had with it are through the Matrix Trilogy. Sadly, the Matrix can only be considered cyberpunk in the most general of ways, fringe cyberpunk if you will. You get the idea though, hackers have become the rulers of a somewhat post-apocalyptic somewhat dystopian future and the internet, well the internet has become a beastie all its own. Alas, it is horribly hard to describe in terms that make people actually want to check it out, so I'll just move on with the books and let you decide from there.

  • Hardwired by Walter Jon Williams ~ Of all the cyberpunk books I read over last winter break this was my least favorite, but just the fact that it is on this list means that it was still something special. Williams is, as I found out, a somewhat local author here in Albuquerque, indeed he is in a writing group with Melinda Snodgrass, George R. R. Martin, and S. M. Stirling so he has an amazing group to throw ideas at. The only thing I did not like about Hardwired was the southwest-ness of it, growing up here I have no love for cowboys or adobe or any of the stuff that many from the east find so alluring, but I can still recognize that many do. Hell, much of the American mythology is based upon the Cowboy and the frontier. Setting that aside, Hardwired was cyber-military-punk so a lot of the book focused on the military applications of the cybernetics. In the case of Hardwired, the main character, named Cowboy -.-, is an outlaw smuggling goods across the country which as divided into city states. This is done by piloting panzers, but not the panzers of our grandparents, but catlike vehicles that run across the landscape. The piloting is done by jacking into the panzer itself which gives you the ability to "see" what the panzer sees and "feel" what the panzer feels. There is a tremendously well written story behind this theme, a very anti-corporation/government story! Cyberpunk generally focuses around the personal applications of technology whereas Hardwired strays somewhat and focuses more on outlaw/military application. Definitely worth the read, especially if you've blown threw other cyberpunks and would like to see different applications of such technology.

  • Neuromancer by William Gibson ~ Wow, just trying to write about this book is daunting. It isn't very long, but holy shit! William Gibson is the inventor of cyberpunk and Neuromancer is the most quintessential cyberpunk novel ever written. Many science fiction books written after, many movies, and much of pop culture has been influenced by William Gibson, he almost singlehandedly invented what we think of as the internet today, and insanely he didn't know a thing about computers! Technically the Neuromancer is a trilogy, but even if you don't read the other two, but Neuromancer is essential to any sort of literary list. If you're just curious about what cyberpunk is, but don't want to have to sort through everything that's out there, or even the other books on this list, pick up Neuromancer because, really, everything that came after is heavily, heavily, influenced by this piece of work. If that doesn't sway you to read it then know this: it won the "triple crown" of sci-fi awards in its day, The Nebula Award, The Phillip K. Dick Award, and The Hugo Award. In other words, the top three science fiction honors a book can ever receive, most are lucky to even get one! The plot is complex and beyond my ability to summarize in the way this book deserves, so instead, just go buy it.

  • Schismatrix Plus by Bruce Sterling ~ I picked up this book based solely on Alastair Reynolds insane props:

    "I owe an equally obvious debt to Bruce Sterling, whose 'Shaper/Mechanist' sequence blew my mind on several levels. Sterling's future history, even though it consists of only a single novel and a handful of stories, still feels utterly plausible to me twenty years after I first encountered it. Part of me wishes Sterling would write more 'Shaper/Mechanist' stories; another part of me admires him precisely for not doing so. Read Schismatrix if you haven't already done so: it will melt your face."

    That is exactly what it did too, melt my face. I still remember when I finished it, I honestly sat there for 30 minutes utterly stunned by what I had just read. This isn't typical cyberpunk either, but it was written a year after Nueromancer and was also one of the books that has heavily influenced and defined what cyberpunk has become. Schismatrix Plus is everything ever written about the 'Shaper/Mechanist' Universe. It includes every short story as well as the full length novel Schismatrix, what's more is that it is all arranged in the way the Sterling intended it to be read. It is difficult, abstract, and intense beyond anything I could have imagined, but when you finish, you will utterly agree with Reynolds description.

  • The Takashi Kovaks Novels by Richard K. Morgan ~ Ah, one of the only modern day authors to still write classic cyberpunk! I discovered Morgans' novels while reading a list of the best cyberpunk novels and anything that is listed alongside Gibson and Stephenson is worth checking out in my book. The 'first' book in the series is Altered Carbon. I put first in quotes because while all three novels are technically related (same main character, same universe, same tech), they have very little relation besides that. Indeed, each of the three novels explores three different types of cyberpunk. Altered Carbon, my favorite of the three, is the classic cyberpunk format, part mystery, part anti-government, part dystopian, but all intense. Broken Angels, the second book written, is of the more militaristic style of Hardwired and yet it also resembles modern day sci-fi, but still fundamentally cyberpunk. And the third, Woken Furies, is a mash up of everything, military, cyberpunk, hard sci-fi, soft sci-fi, and everything in-between! I found this approach amazing because you got to see the technology introduced in Altered Carbon in very diverse circumstances, whereas with books like Neuromancer and Snow Crash, you could see other uses than the novel outlines, but not clearly. The main tech found in this universe is the ability to store your entire personality within a cortical stack which allows you to "re-sleeve" into a new body with all your memories and personality intact. This alone has such intense connotations that I am amazed at just the pure possibilities of such a technology; studies on gender, identity, death, life, love, everything! Morgan explores all of these themes flawlessly in his three books and creates the classic cyberpunk antihero, Takashi Kovaks! You love him, you hate him, you wish you could be him! I feel like Morgan has picked up the mantle from the classics listed above and turned it on its head, exploring themes Gibson could only dream about, creating technology Stephenson would be in awe of, and military action that Williams would be proud of. While cyberpunk may be a niche genre liked by a few hardcore fans, Richard K. Morgan makes it accessible to every science fiction fan and introduces cyberpunk to a generation that may overlook it just based on the fact that cyberpunk was a huge movement in the '80s before slowly dying out in the '90s.

Overall though Cyberpunk is one of my absolute favorite genres, it combines amazing dystopian themes without being dated, it has just enough action to make it realistic without overdoing it, it rings true for the future, in some ways more than many other science fiction does, and creates characters that are realistic in a way that shows us that ideas such as "good" and "bad" are merely within the continuum of humanity.

Friday, April 2, 2010

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

I know readers, I know, I said I was going to be posting my recommendation blog up next plus a couple other projects, but I got distracted. Not by school or anything silly like that, but by a book, but not just any book, one of the best books I have yet to encounter called The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. What's even more surprising about this is the fact that this book isn't a science fiction or a fantasy, heck it isn't even a mystery/thriller, this is a Fiction! Not only that, but it's set in the 1940's! How can this be you ask? Well, even though I have my complaints about the fiction/literature as a whole, when a good--no scratch that--great novel comes out, it is my duty to acknowledge it. Indeed, even great may not do this book justice. No, The Shadow of the Wind is easily one of my top ten favorite books ever.

As usual, I was somewhat skeptical of this book when I heard of it, but after hearing recommendations not only from customers I trust, but from one of my coworkers that is as much of a bookworm as me, I relented and decided to but it. I've had The Shadow of the Wind on my 'to read' shelf since mid-December, but it wasn't until recently that I finally picked it up. Let me tell you, dear reader, that as much as I love my sci-fi/fantasy, this book blew me away! I don't know what it is with Spanish and Portuguese authors*, but they just have this poetic way with words that, not only makes reading their books a delight, but adds so much to the plot that it almost makes it hard to read poorly written American prose! Alas, it is actually rather difficult to even quantify this book as just "fiction" because it's so much more! Mystery, romance, tragedy, and suspense! All of them wrapped up into an amazingly poetic tale! The setting, as I mentioned earlier, is the 1940's Barcelona, Spain which adds a whole other dimension to this already epic novel! While reading The Shadow of the Wind, the reader is also taking a tour of historical Spain just after the Spanish Civil War, a time of bloody fighting and terror! The great thing, though, is that the reader need not be a Spanish historian to understand and enjoy the story--this should be obvious seeing as I am about as far from being considered a Spanish historian as I am from being a Olympic figure skater. Indeed, far from turning the average reader off from the historical significance, I believe that the book will intrigue and fascinate everyone to the point of doing a bit of research! I can honestly say that, though I've always wanted to go to Spain, it hasn't been very high up on my list until now. I would give anything right now to hit the streets of Barcelona with a copy of this book! Speaking of which, at the very end of the novel the author includes a walking tour of Barcelona so you can see all the sites described in the book. Though some are, of course, fabricated, I think it would be so cool to wander the streets and see these places that inspired the book! Indeed this type of thing has only recently become stupendously popular with Dan Brown's novels--you can take countless paid tours of The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons in Italy and rumor has it that there are The Lost Symbol Tours springing up in D.C. as well.

Alas, the very nature of The Shadow of the Wind makes it extremely difficult to talk much of the plot without giving away spoilers, but suffice to say there are things in this book that surprised even me! I hate to be cryptic, but I refuse to give away anything at all about this book! In any case, this is one of those books that absolutely everyone can and will enjoy from bookworms to the occasional reader, it has something for everyone! Actually I wish I was better read in some of the classic literature that is referenced in The Shadow of the Wind and actually it has inspired me to read my least favorite type of writing, poetry. Hell, this book is almost enough to make me want to learn to, at least, read Spanish so that I could fully absorb it the way it was written! Speaking of which, I have to give major props to the translator Lucia Graves whom without which The Shadow of the Wind would have been a lesser novel. She straddles that insane line of being able to both translate accurately and yet still keep the poetic and well written nature of the book intact! So my friends, please, for me, go to your local bookstore or library and pick up this novel, I promise that you will not be disappointed! And no worries, I'm still working on my other posts which should be out this month, hopefully!

*If you haven't read anything by one of these authors here's three excellent books to try out: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Blindness by José Saramago, and, of course, the one I've raved about in this post, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Darwin Fish and Updates

About a week and a half ago I saw one too many Jesus Fish around town. Now, generally I don't really give a hoot what you put on your car, but these stupid things have always bothered me, I don't know why. In any case I have also seen a few of the Darwin Fish floating around, one thing I've always found clever is turning someones own symbol against them, so I decided to order one. Unlike bumper stickers, car plaques are way more elegant looking and, hopefully, don't ruin your paint. All in all, it was a pretty simple procedure through a great website called Evolve Fish, and when all said and done it only cost me about 8 bucks with shipping! There's a whole host of other neat stuff on their website, so if you're interested check em out here: http://www.evolvefish.com/

I will not go into any of my religious beliefs or even slander anyone else's for that matter, especially since this is from my phone. That is for another blog all together. Suffice to say, I do not like organized religion--if you wanna believe do it on your own terms, not someone else's--and I really do believe in evolution over that whole creationism stuff. I am also somewhat outspoken about my opinions, so the Darwin Fish fits just fine. Hell, when it has turned belly up I found this sweet Alien head car plaque that I might buy. Take it as you will, but I think it looks pretty snazzy myself!


Now for the real meat of my post: updates. I said I was going to be posting more so never fear! I have several blogs in the works, all of which I hope are somewhat interesting anyway. The big kahuna of them all, though, is my second Ry Recommends post. It’s been a little less than a year and a half since I last did one of these, and damn do I have a lot to talk about! Sadly the blurbs about each book are not very short, but I think it’s turning out well. My other projects include a new series of posts looking into the various genres, sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, and the like which will then lead into a couple in depth looks at some of the sub-genres out there like cyberpunk and dystopian literature. On top of all that I have a few more full posts about some of the books and series I’ve read recently which’ll be fun to write up as well. Seeing as it’s my spring break I hope to get a least a couple blogs out before Monday, but we’ll see.

Until then, to infinity and beyond!

Thursday, March 4, 2010

New Blog App

As everyone knows I am rather sketchy about updates and I believe part of the reason stems from the fact that I tend to be horribly long winded. So, in an attempt to combat that, I have installed something called Blogaway onto my G1.

Essentially, it's a simple blogger application where you can post new blogs, work on drafts--although not drafts you started on the computer unfortunately--,and view other blogs you follow. It also looks like it allows you to post pictures, which I'm going to test out here in a few. So far I have no serious beef with set up or function, people seem to forget that even though their phone has Google's Android OS, it's still a phone. I would like to actually be able to work on posts started on the computer and view my previous posts, but for now that function seems to still be on the drawing board. Also, it looks as though my labels aren't integrated into the functionality, which really sucks. I'll post this and see what it looks like in the actual browser.

Hmm I don't know where the image is gonna show up either.. weird. Anyway, i may post more but my spelling will probably die.. I'll go back and edit stuff from the computer too, but i can see this being a really useful application for when an idea strikes me on the go! Plus, I hope this will teach me to be a little bit more concise since typing, even on a full QWERTY, is kinda hard. Thus begins the era of the microblog!

*edit* So it would appear that I haven't quite figured out how the pictures work. It says "forbidden" when I try, which is rather strange, but you know.. the maiden voyage always has some glitches. I think I'll tag all the posts I make from here with "microblog", not that anyone really reads these, so it's easy to sort for you and me.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

More Publishing Complaints

In my last post, E-Books as a Means to Revolution, I got into a mini rant about the corruption and bs tactics of publishing companies. It turns out that I had more to say than what actually fit with the content of that last post. So here's a few more things that came up.

The biggest thing, and actually the reason this post is coming into existence, is the dirty tricks publishers are now using to get our money. This has affected me directly as I've been reading the Codex Alera (very good by the way) series by Jim Butcher. Everyone knows that, in general, there are three types of printing sizes Mass Market (MM), Quality Paperback (QP), and Hardcover (CL)*. And generally the prices are as follows: MM $7.99, QP $14.99, and CL $24.99. There's some fluctuation depending on the genre as well as amount of pages--like Stephen Kings newest book Under the Dome which is retail $35.00 because it's a monster of a book--but on average that's about the price rundown. These prices are based on two factors: the materials used to print the book, essentially the MM's are cheaper because they're lower quality than that of the QP and CL, the other determinant factor is their size. MM's are 7 inches long by 4.5 inches wide; QP's are 8.3 inches long by 5.5 inches wide; and CL's are 9.3 inches long by 6.5 inches wide. Why have I told you all this random information? Well, my friends, it's because the publishing companies have decided to create another size, call it Mass Market, and charge two dollars more for it. Yes indeed, that's now $9.99 for your favorite books! That may not seem like much, but this new MM is 7.3 inches long and 4.5 inches wide and yet is still made from the same material as normal Mass Markets.

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As you can see your two dollars goes to great use! If I'm going to pay more money I want better quality, not a larger size! The other thing that's retarded about this whole situation is the fact that these aren't meant to be in that larger size, so what do they do? They just change the spacing and the margins! A pretty dirty thing to do if you ask me. Most QP's actually have normal size fonts and spacings and so the book actually looks good, in these crappy things it annoys the hell out of you while you're reading because of all the extra room on the sides and between the lines! Lastly, but actually really important, is it completely destroys the look of your bookshelf. Sure maybe I have just a bit of OCD in me when it comes to books, but I like to have all the same editions otherwise it just irks me every time I look at my shelf. Yes that means if I buy a series starting with a hardcover I need to own the rest in hardcover. Even still, I don't know if this is Jim Butchers fault or if it was the publisher company who did this, but book number 5 is in this fucked up format.. why in gods name would you change the format of a SERIES on book FIVE?! At least they should offer up a normal sized MM for people like me, oh wait they can't BECAUSE NO ONE WILL BUY THE BIGGER ONE!

I haven't really written a ranty type blog in a while, it felt good. This one was particularly needed because of my recent reading of the Codex Alera books, but it has also been something that's always bugged me, especially about "popular fiction". It seems as though these publishers are doing this mainly with mystery/suspense books as well as sci-fi fantasy, which is even more sad because those are the ones I read more often! It also sucks because of the fact that generally popular fiction stuff like that are the only ones to go into MM, so if you just buy sci-fi/fantasy or mystery/suspense then you probably have a pretty sexy looking bookshelf, until now. I think perhaps I might send an emial or message to Jim Butcher, obviously a little less angry sounding, and ask if he knows whats up. Sometimes authors are as much of nerds about books as I am, maybe he has the same feeling, or he'll know if it'll ever come out as a true MM.

Anyway, two blogs in one day is pretty good for me, especially after so long without posting. I know I told everyone I was gonna do another Ry Recommends, it is coming, eventually, maybe I'll start throwing together a list of books to use. Ta ta for now.

*CL stands for Cloth which is what hardcover books were generally made from way back in the day. At least at borders they haven't bothered to change it to HC, but I've seen it done.

E-Books as a Means to Revolution

In the past I've written about the E-Book Revolution as well as some of my thoughts on owning digital vs physical books. I'm still doing a lot of thinking on the subject and I think I may have come up with a pro for the Revolution.

The publishing industry, like most big businesses these days, is corrupt. There's no doubt about it. You have publishers swindling authors by paying them much less than they deserve, only to turn it around and charge way more than they should, then, on top of that, you have book sellers--both the so called "brick and mortar" as well as online retailers--upping the price again for profit. Of course, the publishing industry is not nearly as far gone as the music industry, or even that of the movie industry, but I feel like it's effects are far more devastating, both to the consumer as well as the author.

I am not an author myself, but working in a bookstore as well as reading author's blogs I feel like I have enough information to make a reasonable opinion of the situation. Authors spend months or years in a creative fever trying to write a book. They have to deal with their own criticisms, writers block, plot holes, and a whole host of other mentally challenging obstacles before the next step. Revision. They revise, revise, and revise again; tweaking, changing, adding before they have finally come up with something they're proud of, I've heard it likened to a child even. So they package it up and send it out to the world and wait, and wait, and wait before.. Rejection. As far as I can tell many authors to hit it big first off, but even if they pass that big hurtle, they're still stuck with "We at *insert publishing company here* are very interested in your book. We'll take a chance on you for $xxx.xx and a publishing run of xxxx copies..." and so on. Now sometimes the author will get the price they were expecting, but many times they're shortchanged, cheated, and robbed. I mean after they have spent so much time, money, and emotional well being on their work and yet the publishing company wants to offer you that much? This is where it can get shitty, if indeed they have put out a written a damn good book, they have been paid x amount of money to get it going, and only get x% of the profits as well, but because the author decided to settle for the publishing companies numbers they'll be getting all the profit. Now generally if the author hit it big they'll offer more for next book and so on, but this is where the major snag comes in because if the author does indeed keep writing those best sellers, publishers expect more books out of them. More than likely the author has to sign a contract stating that they'll write x number of books per year for x amount of money and this kills the creativity. Deadlines, stress, and nagging editors harass them at every turn, and generally the first book they wrote was with all their heart, now they just get things out on paper so they can meet the deadlines.

I've seen it happen, great authors like Nora Roberts, James Patterson, Danielle Steele, and Nelson DeMille just to name a few. Their first books were amazing, fantastic, one of a kind; the publishing company they signed up with saw this potential and dragged them into a binding contract. Now look at them, Patterson and Roberts alone put out 5-6 books a year and guess what? They are what I like to call "cookie cutter plots". Change the city, change the character names, and use the twist you had in your fourth book, and make this character fall in love with this one, and generally leave the plot as is. The reason these books continue to be popular is because consumers want to believe that because these authors were great at one time, then they must have it in them to be so again. Another reason is that once a publishing company finds something that "works" they do not want you to move away from it, the author may put in something more original, but instead of taking that chance again they edit it to look just like your last 8 books. Profit, profit, profit.

Naturally those authors I mentioned are successful and probably have a good deal of money, but do they have as much as they deserve? I don't think so honestly. It's all well and good that the publishing world is a business like any other, but I never have felt that businesses should screw over their employees. Books are especially touchy I think because, after all, none of the people who actually work at the publishing company can actually write worth a damn. So it would make sense to me that the author would be treated like a god, but no. Instead big wigs at the company make tons of money off authors' intellectual creativity and merely toss a sliver of that profit back to the author. They then decide pretty much everything about the book that isn't actual writing, they pick the cover artist, they pick what size to publish it in, they pick how many and how long to publish it, and then they merely ask what the author thinks--usually not so much. I believe that authors can escape this rat race with e-books.

As much as it pains me to see paper books are on their way out. Sure it won't be for a while, it might not even completely happen, but working at a bookstore I've noticed how much our sales have declined yet how much amazons e-book sales have jumped. There is a silver lining here, though, and that is for the authors which in turn will lead to the readers as well. Right now we have the Kindle, the Sony E-Reader, and the Nook out on the market with 50+ more already in development. Now is the time when authors can break away from the greed and the corruption of the publishing companies! So far Sony, Amazon, and B&N are arguing over prices of an e-book, they're also arguing with the publishers about those prices. If you haven't heard already, our dear friends over at Amazon want to monopolize e-books and e-book prices so much so that they pulled all of their books from the major publisher Macmillan over such a dispute. Check out the article over here. This whole incident has other publishers getting a little nervous; as well they should, because why exactly does an author even need a publisher for e-books? Amazons trying to market it so that authors sell their books directly to them, this is a baaaad idea though. What authors should realize from this little dispute is that the power is now in their hands again. Instead of going through a publisher or even an online retail like Amazon, Sony, or Borders, authors now have the chance to sell their own books! This may not seem like much right now, but shit, think about it! James Patterson is an international bestseller, if he were to say hey *insert publisher here* go fuck yourselves I'm going to sell my own books, what could they actually do? They'll probably beg and plead for him to stay, but anyone with business sense would realize that he'd make a much bigger profit from selling them on his own. I mean really, he could hire a freelance editor, and then when he finishes his book why even bother with taking only x amount of the profit when he could put it up on his website and make 100% of the profit. It wouldn't be hard, he'd still sell a ton of books because he could price them as low as he wants and still make a hearty profit, and because he is already a huge international author he wouldn't even need the advertising from the publishing companies--which I believe is their only real use these days.

I know the appeal of a solid book, but I can't help but see the possibility of completely changing the publishing world. Unfortunately, because in print books still make up the largest portion of sales for an author, one or two authors wouldn't be able to accomplish this it has to be a group effort, it has to a bunch of the big name authors coming together and sticking it to the man. You get James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Clive Cussler, Dan Brown, Orson Scott Card, Stephanie Meyer, Stephen King, and a few other big names and the publishing industry would be crippled! Now with that many big names going independent it wouldn't take long for younger more green authors to follow suit, and soon publishing companies will have two options: Completely gut and reorganize their industry or loose buckets and buckets of money, if not go out of business all together. Sure they might fight, but they would have no real cards in their hand, sure they might have the rights to certain books for a certain amount of time, but that won't be enough. People want new books by these authors not the same thing they've already read. How would the new publishing world look? Well for one authors would have complete rights to their books, no "we'll take a chance on you and buy your book from you for x number of years", the publishers get the privilege of putting their name on the book, that way authors can sell paper books in major retailers as well as put their e-books up on their own website for their pure profit. Next authors should get at least 50% of the profits, I know that publishing paper books is not cheap, but it is not so expensive that you can get away with an 80% : 20% publisher : author ratio. This in turn will mean that publishers will have to restructure their prices to be more reasonable in terms of what it costs them to print the book and what they charge for it. Somehow I don't think it costs even $20 a book for hardcovers and yet publishers list the price at $25+ per book. Sadly I can't seem to find any accurate information on how much publishers actually make because of this, but I feel like they can lower the prices of all of the books. This will also mean that instead of keeping a book under hardcover for a full year (or more) will fade away. Most books do not last a full year in hardcover with even decent sales, what they should do is put books up for 3 months, if sales are good, up it to a maximum of 6 months and then send the book to paperback.

The next thing this restructure will do is stop the rampant corruption that has filled the publishing world. Most people don't know, but the New York Times Bestseller List is a load of shit. Yes that's right, a load of shit. Why you ask? Because publishers contact Borders or Barnes and Nobel and say "hey for $xxxx I want you to get everyone in your company to market this book" this is all under the table by the way. I've seen it done. Just looking at the NYT Bestseller list this week 4 of the top 10 are best sellers because of Borders, which may not seem like a lot, but you have to take into account that 4 others are on the list because of their movies. That leaves 2 books that made the top ten because of being well written. 2% that's wretched. Of course it's not always through bookstores that they do this, many publishers send their books to Oprah, hmm I wonder why? Every Single One of her "recommendations" has been number one on the best seller list. Why is this important? Because many, many, many people only buy books if they have a NYT Bestseller stamps on them. They won't look at books that have won actual awards--which you might notice are hardly ever on the NYT list--they won't touch anything but these books because they think that if everyone else is buying it, it must be good. Nope, actually employees at Borders and B&N are told you have to sell this many of this book, and if they don't their hours get cut, which means the store loses money, which means that everyone working at these retailers has become sharks because without hours, no money, no money, no food, no food, death. Furthermore employees actually get in trouble with their management if they don't sell these books. It doesn't matter if the books actually suck, it doesn't matter who the customer is, you have to try your hardest to sell these books even if it's not something even related to what the customers purchase. You could be a big buff biker who only reads hunting books we will still recommend things like Twilight to you. You have to note as well that we booksellers and even the management do not know where the corporate offices pull these books out of their ass, and when we ask they say "oh we just liked it". Right. If they had actually even read the back of these books we're forced to sell they would know that they are not very good, nor do they actually appeal to a wide variety of people, this and the fact that they all hit the NYT list makes me believe publishers have money that isn't accounted for. If the structure was reset, though, publishing companies would have to consult with authors before they do anything with that author's book. Now sure, there are going to be some greedy authors out there, but generally I think authors want to make the List off their own skills, not because a thousand borders around the country are forcing it on hapless customers. Even if it's just a foolish fairytale that's what I believe.

I don't know if it will ever happen, but I think now is the time for something to happen if it will. Authors have to strike against the publishers before they all fall in line together and it becomes practically suicide to market your own books. You wrote the book. You put in the time for it. You sweat blood and tears for your books, take a stand, and take back what is actually yours! Publishers nor book retailers have no write to set the price of your e-book, they aren't doing anything with it in terms of supplies, they may market it a bit, but most authors have a huge following already on their website! It wouldn't even be hard; e-books are merely a text document that you can put up on your website with hardly any cost to yourself. Lastly, you don't want your fans to be screwed do you? We're your life blood, we only put up with publishing companies because of the huge monopoly they have over your works. Now is the time to take matters into your own hands!