Abandoned Tomes: The Mirrored Heavens

Now, I don't read too much science fiction, I find much of the future worlds the authors envision depressing and scary, plus I just don't find technology, and the potential there of, all that interesting...those reasons right there may just be why I failed to enjoy The Mirrored Heavens by David J. Williams.

However I think differently. The book kicked off with a long, balls to the walls action sequence, with tons of explosions, and a bunch of dudes getting their shit blown up. When the dust cleared, a terrorist group called Autumn Rain had blown up the Phoenix Space elevator, the modern wonder of the world, some giant space thingy that never got explained what the hell it was, and was only mentioned so that it could get blown to smithereens. Then there are these dudes, and dudettes called "Razors", (2110 future talk for hackers) who can do a bunch of fancy computer stuff that didn't make any sense, and once again, wasn't explained. Oh, and there are these dudes called "Mechs", guys in the future's version of War Machine's armor, that can fly, shoot shit, blow shit up, chuck grenades, go invisible, move super silently, and did I mention that they can blow shit up?

Seriously, it had all that stuff. And yet somehow it wasn't awesome. I couldn't believe it, I thought for sure this book would be an excellent, light, yet supremely entertaining re-entry into the sci-fi genre. One of the problems is the fact that the characters are beyond weak. The story follows Claire Haskell and Jason Marlowe, (and a couple others), the two comprise of a typical razor/mech team. They are given almost no back story, and no qualities or motivations that set them apart from anything or anyone else. The two were seemingly just there for the sake of it. Also, there was a LOT of dialog, in this case, not a good thing. The dialog was really hard to follow as it had a brisk, clunky approach that led me to never knowing who was talking.

The last gripe, which may not apply to all, is Williams' staccato prose style. His sentences were short and punchy, and short on description, with tenses that alternated at the author's whim. The plot just kind of churns along, seeming to only serve as a launching point for more shit getting blown up. Some people might like his writing style, but I got sick of it really fast. I couldn't focus on the story and thanks to the weak characters, I couldn't care about what was happening to them.

I'll end on a positive note though, the action sequences were pretty damn sweet, and since I am a fan of explosions, I liked reading about things getting blow'd up. However, it just wasn't enough.

Chance of giving it another go: nope

Abandoned Tomes

The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy



A few months ago I went to a book reading/signing for John Irving. The place was packed and I got there late, so I was stuck way in the back of the giant room where the whole ordeal was being held. I couldn't hear very well, but when someone asked Mr. Irving about books that have influenced him as a writer, my ears perked up.

I'm always interested to hear what books authors I like are reading. He mentioned that he enjoys great plots, and that the writers of the 19th century were the best at plotting. The name Thomas Hardy kept coming up, and while he mentioned a title, I couldn't recall the name of it after...but the plot is one that stands out, and simply by reading the back blurbs of a few Thomas Hardy books I was able to discover the one John Irving had mentioned. That's how I came to own The Mayor of Casterbridge.

So what is the brilliant plot that had me so interested? Well...The extremely drunken lead character sells his wife and daughter to a passing sailor at a county fair. See what I mean? Brilliant.

This simple and unique concept was enough to carry me through the first fifty pages or so, but as I read on I quickly found my interest waning. There was nothing particularly bad or annoying about this book, I don't have any gripes about it, I just could not stay interested in it.

It would appear that while I find much of John Irving's work to be geared towards my tastes, his tastes apparently aren't geared to mine. Maybe one day I'll be able to pick this one up again and read the whole thing, but for now it looks like I'll have to keep my reading planted firmly in the 20th and 21st centuries for a while.

Chance of giving it another go: Moderate

Abandoned Tomes

Every now and then, I start to read a book, but I don't finish. Maybe the book failed to interest me. Maybe the writing style didn't fit my tastes. Maybe a character annoyed me too much and I had to move on. For whatever reason, I hate to waste time reading something I don't like, there is just too much other good stuff out there. When such cases arise, I'll write about them here, and give my reason for putting them down, and the odds I'll pick the book back up again in the future.

Here are three such books for Starters:


Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

This one I really wanted to like, well, I want to like every book I read, but this one in particular. This is a pretty popular title, it is a bestseller, and sometimes I guess I want to read books lots of other people like. I knew from previous encounters that Jane Austen isn't my favorite flavor, but the back blurb promised zombie hordes, bloody battlefields, and there was even mention of Satan, so I thought I would really like it. However, I was wrong. The zombies weren't enough to keep me interested, and while I appreciate what Grahame-Smith did - twisting up a classic of literature, an idea I wish I had thought of first - I couldn't find it in me to finish the book.

Chance of giving it another go: nil






The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt

I bought this book a few months ago when I went on a Steampunk kick and was buying up Steampunk titles as fast as I could. The synopses I read had me excited, and I had read good things about it on the internets. I will say, this was a pretty good book, the ideas it bought out were cool, it was creative and different from other fantasy I had read, but one little thing got under my skin, and made me chuck the book across the room. There was a character in the book named Stave, he was meant to be a bit of a sketchy dude, and whenever Hunt mentioned him in the text it was like this: "the disreputable Stave..." Always with the "disreputable", but never did Hunt show that he was disreputable. I kept waiting for some proof of this, for some dishonest moment to arise, but it didn't, and it got under my skin, and I had to give this one the hook. So, Mr. Hunt if you ever read this, I'm sorry, I liked your book, but I like for the author to show me things not tell me.

Chance of giving it another go: slim




Bright of the Sky by Kay Kenyon

Do I sometimes judge a book by its cover? Do the Yankees suck? The answer to both is YES. So I'm not perfect. I fully admit that one of the reasons I purchased this book was for the absolutely beautiful and freaky cover done by Stephen Martiniere. That isn't the only reason though. I had heard lots of good things about this book, and lots of folks whose opinions I trust and respect really enjoy this series. I however, couldn't get into it. It is a little bit sci-fi and a little bit fantasy, but I read about 250 pages of it and I just was not into it. I wish I had a better reason than that, but there just wasn't that little something that hooked me in and got me really into the book. Maybe the timing just wasn't right, and someday I'll be able to enjoy this one.

Chance of giving it another go: moderate