Short Pier Productions

T&T&T

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 23:21:03 GMT

I just finished Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, which is superb. But there's this passage right near the end that really got me:

"I've been blue, lately," Sam admitted. "And I wondered, how do you get over that sort of thing?"

"Work helps," Sadie said. "Games help. But sometimes, when I'm really low, I keep a particular image in my mind."

"What is it?"

"I imagine people playing. Sometimes, it's one of our games, but sometimes, it's any game. The thing I find profoundly hopeful when I'm feeling despair is to imagine people playing, to believe that no matter how bad the world gets, there will always be players."

I start Mage next week, and that's why. Thanks, Gabrielle Zevin.

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Book Review: The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Tue, 10 Jan 2023 16:15:59 GMT

There's a certain type of book that makes me want to write again. Really good books I just enjoy for their own sake. Really bad books I can put out of my mind and move on to something else. But near misses-- books that deserve to be better than they are-- make me want to put my fingers to my keyboard.

This is one of those, naturally.

It's hard to pick apart the threads of why this book annoyed me, which seems only appropriate given the intentional and overwrought multi-threading of the story. Bits of the book are layered, nested, abstracted, and/or partially obscured in a way that manages to be complex without being intricate. The pieces pretend to be part of a meta-story, but they come off as just a pile of scenes. Even the central storyline feels random-- both in terms of narrative progression and basic comprehensibility. This is book-as-invertebrate: no bones to give it shape. There are a lot of symbols in the book, but not meaning.

The characterization is also shallow. The lead's defining characteristic is that he doesn't know what to do and follows other people. He falls in love because the book almost literally says "And then he falls in love." Subsidiary characters are thinly drawn archetypes and we essentially never understand their motivations. I found it difficult to care about anyone in the book because they didn't feel real or interesting enough for me to invest in.

Which brings us to the prose style, which isn't beautiful, sharp, or effective. It feels like a color-by-numbers of a painting you've never actually seen-- you get the picture but you're not exactly attached to it. The dialogue and the description both ring hollow, and you have to concentrate to keep pushing through the actual words.

Which, it's worth noting, I did. I wanted this book to work. There are mysteries! There's a secret world underneath our own! It's kind of about the magic of reading! The concept of the book is at least interesting and possibly great; the elevator pitch for this book would probably name-check some of my favorite fantasies. And having read it, I can say that there are things in the book that are worth reading and remembering.

But there could have been so many more.

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RIP Ray Bradbury

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 16:36:34 GMT

You'll be missed.

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Book Log: Short Trips: Life Science

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:29:19 GMT

Doctor Who short stories. As always, no review necessary.

( Data. )

Next book due: Thursday, December 15th

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Review Placeholder: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:26:31 GMT

This is such a middle book that I don't feel like I can review it properly until I've read the last one. So much depends on how it's resolved. I'll get back to it.

( Data. )

Next book due: Thursday, December 1st

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Book review: The Essential Bordertown, edited by Windling & Sherman

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:27:17 GMT

( Full review within. )

Next book due: Sunday, November 27th

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Overdue review: Magic's Pawn by Mercedes Lackey

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:21:53 GMT

( Full review within. )

Next book due: Sunday, November 13th

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Abbreviated review: The Hollow Hills by Mary Stewart

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 19:06:57 GMT

I said most of what I wanted to in my previous review. This one had much the same feeling. All I would add is that this one had a lot of mythology to deal with and so therefore felt a little less personal. I am greatly pleased by what she did with Morgause and the sword in the stone, though.

Print date: 1973 (20s: 1, 50s: 2, 60s: 4, 70s: 10, 80s: 8, 90s: 9, 00s: 27, 10s: 2)

Verdict: Keep. (43/101)

Page count: 436 (22398 total)

Completed: 63 (28 female authors, 30 male authors, 5 anthology)
Rejected: 38 (23 male authors, 15 female authors)

Next book due: Thursday, November 10th

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Book review: The City and the City by China Mieville

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:31:31 GMT

( Full review within. )

Next book due: Thursday, October 27th

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Overdue book review: Doctor Who: The Stealers of Dreams by Steve Lyons

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 17:56:17 GMT

( Full review within. )

Next book due: Thursday, October 13th

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Book review: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 14:15:50 GMT

( Full review within. )

Next book due: Friday, September 30th

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Overdue book review: Flights edited by Al Sarrantonio

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:14:11 GMT

( Full review within. )

Next book due: Sunday, September 18th (another 1-week extension because of Real Life and it being a 600-page whopper)

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Book review: Solitaire by Kelly Eskridge

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 14:46:27 GMT

( 20,000 pages! )

Next book due Tuesday, August 30th-- giving myself a one-week extension because the book is 650 pages long and I have a busy few weeks.

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Book review: Green Rider by Kristen Britain

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 13:27:13 GMT

( Full review within. )

Next book due Sunday, August 14th.

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Random note to amazon

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:39:59 GMT

Your kindle previews are short enough as it is. Don't include the preface/author's introduction.

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Book review: Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 13:43:11 GMT

( Full review within. )

Next book due Tuesday, August 2nd.

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Rejected

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 12:06:43 GMT

Bill the Galactic Hero: The Planet of the Robot Slaves by Harry Harrison: Once again, humor books fail to amuse me. At all.
Prey by Michael Crichton: This would actually have been an "ok," but that's really not worth my time at this point. Uninterested, hate the main characters.
Spells of Mortal Weaving by Esther M. Friesner: Ye Olde Fantasie Language. I actually only made it two pages in this one.
Return to Fanglith by John Dalmas: Just do not care. Failure to engage.

Verdict: Recycle. (36/93)

Page count: 62 (18987 total)

Completed: 55 (25 female authors, 26 male authors, 4 anthology)
Rejected: 38 (23 male authors, 15 female authors)

Next book due: Sunday, July 24th.

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Book log: Short Trips: Defining Patterns

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 22:33:40 GMT

( Again, Dr. Who shorts, no need for a review. )

Next book due: Sunday, July 24th.

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Book review: Lord of the Changing Winds by Rachel Neumeier

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 13:12:44 GMT

( Review within. )

Next book due: Sunday, July 10th.

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Book review: Dream's Edge, edited by Terry Carr

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 13:57:33 GMT

( Full review within. )

Next book due: Tuesday, June 28th.

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Screw you, depression

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 12:33:05 GMT

I have an amazing girlfriend who brings out the best in me, makes me laugh, and will always be there for me.

My good friends just gave birth to a lovely baby girl with an absolutely fabulous name.

I get to go visit my closest friend-family tonight and have tea and play with their wonderful kid.

I'm making plans on visiting other out-of-town friends instead of waiting for them to come to me.

I'm buying a sexy laptop.

People want to play in the games I run, and tell me so.

White Collar is back today.

The book I'm reading is good.

So BUGGER OFF, depression. My life is pretty awesome right now.

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Book review: Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 14:06:23 GMT

( Full review within. )

Next book due: Tuesday, June 14th.

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Book review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Thu, 19 May 2011 16:39:46 GMT

( Full review within. )

Next book due: Wednesday, June 1st

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Book review: Saturn's Children by Charles Stross

Fri, 13 May 2011 16:09:09 GMT

( Full review within, with more triggers. )

Next book due: Thursday, May 26th

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Book review: Slow River by Nicola Griffith

Mon, 02 May 2011 14:13:23 GMT

Fair warning: the contents of this book are triggering and this review is more spoilery than normal. Heads up.

( Full review within. )

Next book due: Friday, May 13th

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