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newnumber6Finished: The Years of Rice and Salt, by Kim Stanley Robinson
An interesting premise, certainly, a 'what if the Black Plague destroyed 99% of the European population', but it never succeeded in making the story interesting at least over the length of the book.
It had all sorts of good elements, life, death, friendship, love, scientific inquiry, war, girl-on-girl action, reincarnation, sentient animals, but I just couldn't get into the story and stay into it for very long. The reincarnation device, where main characters suddenly changed time periods, genders, nationalities, goals, etc, kept jarring me out of whatever story had interested me and thrust me into another. The fact that the narrative trick for the reincarnations was later referenced in the story itself (when talking about another story about reincarnations) is cute, but it doesn't really improve the situation.
So, overall, a disappointment, although the alternate history itself was interesting, I wasn't interested in the Story.
Next up: A reread of "I Am Legend", by Richard Matheson. One of the great vampire stories, previously adapted once for an old Vincent PRice black and white movie "The Last Man On Earth" and also (although much was changed, including the nature of the bad guys) The Omega Man starring Charleton Heston. The book is much better, though, a story of a man, possibly the last man he's aware of left alive after a plague of vampirism sweeps the country. By day, he stalks and kills them, restocks his resources, and does what little investigation he has time for, and by night he holes up in his home, drinks, and hopes they don't manage to break in. An excellent story, especially for a scientific look of aspects of vampire lore. Very recommended.
An interesting premise, certainly, a 'what if the Black Plague destroyed 99% of the European population', but it never succeeded in making the story interesting at least over the length of the book.
It had all sorts of good elements, life, death, friendship, love, scientific inquiry, war, girl-on-girl action, reincarnation, sentient animals, but I just couldn't get into the story and stay into it for very long. The reincarnation device, where main characters suddenly changed time periods, genders, nationalities, goals, etc, kept jarring me out of whatever story had interested me and thrust me into another. The fact that the narrative trick for the reincarnations was later referenced in the story itself (when talking about another story about reincarnations) is cute, but it doesn't really improve the situation.
So, overall, a disappointment, although the alternate history itself was interesting, I wasn't interested in the Story.
Next up: A reread of "I Am Legend", by Richard Matheson. One of the great vampire stories, previously adapted once for an old Vincent PRice black and white movie "The Last Man On Earth" and also (although much was changed, including the nature of the bad guys) The Omega Man starring Charleton Heston. The book is much better, though, a story of a man, possibly the last man he's aware of left alive after a plague of vampirism sweeps the country. By day, he stalks and kills them, restocks his resources, and does what little investigation he has time for, and by night he holes up in his home, drinks, and hopes they don't manage to break in. An excellent story, especially for a scientific look of aspects of vampire lore. Very recommended.
