(no subject)
41. Eric by Terry Pratchett. This seems to be the most despised of the Discworld novels, judging by the reviews I have seen in places like amazon.com and references to it on various fora discussing the Discworld books. As a result, I was reluctant to get this book (especially after enjoying the previous Discworld novel, Guards! Guards! so much and not looking forward to the let-down). However, when I started the series I resolved to read the books in order of publication, and besides, Eric told about how Rincewind, the "hero" from The Color of Magic, The Light Fantastic, and Sourcery, returned from his trip to the Dungeon Dimensions, in which he had ended up at the end of Sourcery. Basically, a teenager named Eric wants to summon a demon to grant his wishes, and gets Rincewind and the Luggage instead. Hilarity ensues. No, it's not the best Discworld novel, but it is still very enjoyable, with Eric, Rincewind and the Luggage visiting the Tezuman (read Aztec) Empire, the siege of Tsort (Troy), the beginning of time, and Hell itself, which is currently being run by Astfgl, a demon with a unique managerial style, which segues nicely into....
42. The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. It's a business text! It's a novel! It's both! This book is Goldratt's crowning glory, deftly combining his Theory of Constraints with a painfully mediocre plot and a vapid cast of characters to create a book read by millions. It's scary how many poor business-types were exposed to this wretched excuse for workplace fiction. The story features Alex Drogo, our dimwitted, present-tense narrating protagonist who somehow managed to be put in charge of a factory despite having absolutely no clue. Then there's Bill Peach, the sadist who keeps pushing Drogo to make his sorry factory more and more productive (DAMN YOU BILL PEACH!!!!). There's Drogo's wife, who is a complete bitch until she moves back into her parents' house and starts dating Drogo like they were back in high school again. And don't forget Drogo's mom, who is either suffering from advanced senility or is mildly retarded. Of course, there is also Jonas, who Yoda he may or may not be. And lastly, we have Herbie, that lovable, morbidly obese scamp who goes camping with an entire set of pots and pans in his pack. Put down that Twinkie, Herbie! Combine them all and you get a marketing masterpiece: about 20 pages worth of useful content conveniently packaged into a 350 page novel. I am becoming more and more convinced that "business school" is a misnomer, and that it should be called "common fucking sense school." This unreadable book has also been adapted into an unwatchable video that I was lucky enough to see last week.
43. Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. This is perhaps the most highly acclaimed graphic novel in recent memory. The story is about a parallel universe in which superheroes exist, and had a "golden age" in the 1940s, but became outlawed as dangerous vigilantes in the 1970s (and as of the time of the story, the 1980s, Nixon is still president). Those who once fought crime in disguise are now either working for the government (the nuclear superhuman Dr. Manhattan), marketing their former alter-egos (Ozymandias, "The Smartest Man on the Planet," available as an action figure), living in quiet desperation while remembering the good old days (Nite Owl, who keeps his old costume and gadgets stored in the basement), or continuing to fight crime in violation of the law (the mentally unstable investigator Rorschach). The story picks up with the murder of the Comedian, a former crime fighter, later government operative, who Rorschach suspects is the first in a wave of superhero murder victims. This murder mystery is part of a larger plot of worldwide implications relating to the imminent conflict between the US and USSR in Afghanistan, and the heating up of the Cold War via nuclear annihilation. This series justly deserves the praise it receives, as it is an imaginatively rendered world (the characters based upon old superheroes that DC Comics purchased from Charlton Comics in the early 1980s) that provides a critical examination of the superhero genre and its conventions, while creating verisimilitude in the form of "supplemental documentation" at the end of each part, from old newspaper clippings to Rorschach's psychiatric file. As such, the story, even with its fanciful elements, feels very real, and that is what makes it so good... and so damn scary.
44. A Fine and Private Place by Peter S. Beagle. This book tells the story about Mr. Rebeck, a man who lives in a cemetery in New York City, his friend the Raven, whose speech Rebeck understands, and Michael and Laura, newcomers to the cemetery, freshly dead. Rebeck, formerly a pharmacist, left the world of the living behind nineteen years earlier and moved into a mausoleum, enjoying the daily visits from the Raven, and greeting the ghosts of those recently buried in the cemetery. Michael and Laura are interred at around the same time. They come to grips with their respective deaths in what ways they can, and reveal things about their lives through contemplation of how they lived and died. In the world Beagle creates, the ghosts of the dead persist, but eventually rest with their bodies and forget their lives and themselves. Michael refuses to forget, and clings to whatever life he can have as a dead person, while Laura is more or less resigned to her fate. However, the time the two spend together burgeons into a type of love for each other. This love, doomed by the inevitable forgetting of each other and themselves, has a poignancy that emboldens Rebeck, who befriends a widow named Mrs. Klapper who frequents the cemetery to visit her deceased husband, to once again live with the living. Beagle wrote this story at a very young age (19), and it shows, but in a good way, as the story has a sincerity that an older, more cynical writer may not have been able to pull off. I recommend this to anyone who likes to read fantasy novels that focus on atmosphere and character development as opposed to events, as the story is as ethereal as its ghostly characters.
45. Description by Monica Wood. I picked this book up after finishing the enjoyable and informative Orson Scott Card books of the same series, which I reviewed here and here. Wood's tips on how to provide descriptive elements are useful, but are undermined by her inability to provide any examples that did not make me cringe. Either her writing style is just not to my taste, or she did not put as much effort into her examples as she should have (and as Card did). However, the book was helpful, and is good to thumb through on occasion when working on stories.
42. The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. It's a business text! It's a novel! It's both! This book is Goldratt's crowning glory, deftly combining his Theory of Constraints with a painfully mediocre plot and a vapid cast of characters to create a book read by millions. It's scary how many poor business-types were exposed to this wretched excuse for workplace fiction. The story features Alex Drogo, our dimwitted, present-tense narrating protagonist who somehow managed to be put in charge of a factory despite having absolutely no clue. Then there's Bill Peach, the sadist who keeps pushing Drogo to make his sorry factory more and more productive (DAMN YOU BILL PEACH!!!!). There's Drogo's wife, who is a complete bitch until she moves back into her parents' house and starts dating Drogo like they were back in high school again. And don't forget Drogo's mom, who is either suffering from advanced senility or is mildly retarded. Of course, there is also Jonas, who Yoda he may or may not be. And lastly, we have Herbie, that lovable, morbidly obese scamp who goes camping with an entire set of pots and pans in his pack. Put down that Twinkie, Herbie! Combine them all and you get a marketing masterpiece: about 20 pages worth of useful content conveniently packaged into a 350 page novel. I am becoming more and more convinced that "business school" is a misnomer, and that it should be called "common fucking sense school." This unreadable book has also been adapted into an unwatchable video that I was lucky enough to see last week.
43. Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. This is perhaps the most highly acclaimed graphic novel in recent memory. The story is about a parallel universe in which superheroes exist, and had a "golden age" in the 1940s, but became outlawed as dangerous vigilantes in the 1970s (and as of the time of the story, the 1980s, Nixon is still president). Those who once fought crime in disguise are now either working for the government (the nuclear superhuman Dr. Manhattan), marketing their former alter-egos (Ozymandias, "The Smartest Man on the Planet," available as an action figure), living in quiet desperation while remembering the good old days (Nite Owl, who keeps his old costume and gadgets stored in the basement), or continuing to fight crime in violation of the law (the mentally unstable investigator Rorschach). The story picks up with the murder of the Comedian, a former crime fighter, later government operative, who Rorschach suspects is the first in a wave of superhero murder victims. This murder mystery is part of a larger plot of worldwide implications relating to the imminent conflict between the US and USSR in Afghanistan, and the heating up of the Cold War via nuclear annihilation. This series justly deserves the praise it receives, as it is an imaginatively rendered world (the characters based upon old superheroes that DC Comics purchased from Charlton Comics in the early 1980s) that provides a critical examination of the superhero genre and its conventions, while creating verisimilitude in the form of "supplemental documentation" at the end of each part, from old newspaper clippings to Rorschach's psychiatric file. As such, the story, even with its fanciful elements, feels very real, and that is what makes it so good... and so damn scary.
44. A Fine and Private Place by Peter S. Beagle. This book tells the story about Mr. Rebeck, a man who lives in a cemetery in New York City, his friend the Raven, whose speech Rebeck understands, and Michael and Laura, newcomers to the cemetery, freshly dead. Rebeck, formerly a pharmacist, left the world of the living behind nineteen years earlier and moved into a mausoleum, enjoying the daily visits from the Raven, and greeting the ghosts of those recently buried in the cemetery. Michael and Laura are interred at around the same time. They come to grips with their respective deaths in what ways they can, and reveal things about their lives through contemplation of how they lived and died. In the world Beagle creates, the ghosts of the dead persist, but eventually rest with their bodies and forget their lives and themselves. Michael refuses to forget, and clings to whatever life he can have as a dead person, while Laura is more or less resigned to her fate. However, the time the two spend together burgeons into a type of love for each other. This love, doomed by the inevitable forgetting of each other and themselves, has a poignancy that emboldens Rebeck, who befriends a widow named Mrs. Klapper who frequents the cemetery to visit her deceased husband, to once again live with the living. Beagle wrote this story at a very young age (19), and it shows, but in a good way, as the story has a sincerity that an older, more cynical writer may not have been able to pull off. I recommend this to anyone who likes to read fantasy novels that focus on atmosphere and character development as opposed to events, as the story is as ethereal as its ghostly characters.
45. Description by Monica Wood. I picked this book up after finishing the enjoyable and informative Orson Scott Card books of the same series, which I reviewed here and here. Wood's tips on how to provide descriptive elements are useful, but are undermined by her inability to provide any examples that did not make me cringe. Either her writing style is just not to my taste, or she did not put as much effort into her examples as she should have (and as Card did). However, the book was helpful, and is good to thumb through on occasion when working on stories.