Older Books I Just Got To Two-Fisted Review Of Death
One may not know it, reading my blog, but I read. I just tend to not talk about the books that I'm reading, unless they're, you know, Harry Potter or Dark Tower.
But today that changes, my friends.
First off, before we get going, if you're into biographies, I recommend The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, by Edmund Morris. Extremely well written, and covers Teddy's life from birth to the moment that a Secret Service agent approaches to tell him that McKinley's dead, and that he's not the President of the United States.
Slightly less well-written, but the character himself is interesting, is Marquis de Mores: Dakota Capitalist, French Nationalist, by D. Jerome Tweton. The writer himself is a 1970's professor from UND, and it comes off a little dry. But when you're talking about a guy whose life included shootouts, hair-brained schemes, and anti-Semetic political stints, it's still a decent read.
After I finished up those two at the beginning of the year, I turned my attention to some fiction. And here we go:
Watership Down is apparently a classic. I had never heard of it before I read The Stand (SK makes a few mentions to the book throughout the course of his story), but what was mentioned was enough to get me curious.
If you describe the book to someone, it comes off like a children's television show. Actually, there was a movie, and a television series, based off of the book. Its Wikipedia entry also mentions that it was referenced in Lost, Donny Darko, Wallace & Gromit, Dark Tower, Colbert Report, and Gundam. Huh.
Watership down is a book about rabbits. Cute fluffy rabbits with names like Hazel, Dandelion, and Blueberry. Adorable, huh? Straight out of the little kid's section of the library, the part with multi-colored chairs and puppets that you can check out.
Ah, not so fast. It's a story about survival, about political allegory, about the balance between humanity and nature. It's extremely well-written, it's mature. It doesn't shy away from blood, from death, from some pretty freaky concepts like The Black Rabbit of Inle or the Shining Wire. The rabbits play out like any other basic society, with their own histories, their own mythologies, their own fables. Some of the coolest stuff in the book deals with El-Rahirah, the rabbits' version of Robin Hood.
For a story about rabbits trying to find a new home, you would think it would be a slow read. But it's really not. The character development's a little on the shallow side, but for the most part it's a good one.
Now I just have to read Shardik.
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Stephen King's Cell is possibly the most brutal book I have ever read.
More brutal than Gunslinger. More brutal than Battle Royale. More brutal than Pet Semetary or Dark Tower VII, both of which feature bloody gory car accidents.
Cell reads partially like Dawn of the Dead, partially like The Stand. It's also the novel I've read by him that gets right into it. A terrorist cell implants a Pulse into the world's cellular signals that cause the listener's brain to be wiped clean. And unlike the stand, where the virus doesn't start going big time until almost 100 pages in, the Cell happens FAST. Three pages into the book and things are uncomfortable. Five pages in and the big boom happens. If anything, the book ramps down as it goes on. As the story progresses, it becomes obvious why this decelleration occurs, so it's not as bad as it sounds.
King doesn't pull any punches in this book. The most telling, the most heart-wrenching, death out of all of them doesn't come from any supernatural entity, but comes when is a loved character is killed by nothing more than humans being stupid.
Cell isn't about psychics, or zombies, or anything like that. It's about human nature, both good and evil. And it's a good, quick read.
-------
Haven't gotten any writing done tonight. Tomorrow afternoon I will.
But today that changes, my friends.
First off, before we get going, if you're into biographies, I recommend The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, by Edmund Morris. Extremely well written, and covers Teddy's life from birth to the moment that a Secret Service agent approaches to tell him that McKinley's dead, and that he's not the President of the United States.
Slightly less well-written, but the character himself is interesting, is Marquis de Mores: Dakota Capitalist, French Nationalist, by D. Jerome Tweton. The writer himself is a 1970's professor from UND, and it comes off a little dry. But when you're talking about a guy whose life included shootouts, hair-brained schemes, and anti-Semetic political stints, it's still a decent read.
After I finished up those two at the beginning of the year, I turned my attention to some fiction. And here we go:
Watership Down is apparently a classic. I had never heard of it before I read The Stand (SK makes a few mentions to the book throughout the course of his story), but what was mentioned was enough to get me curious.
If you describe the book to someone, it comes off like a children's television show. Actually, there was a movie, and a television series, based off of the book. Its Wikipedia entry also mentions that it was referenced in Lost, Donny Darko, Wallace & Gromit, Dark Tower, Colbert Report, and Gundam. Huh.
Watership down is a book about rabbits. Cute fluffy rabbits with names like Hazel, Dandelion, and Blueberry. Adorable, huh? Straight out of the little kid's section of the library, the part with multi-colored chairs and puppets that you can check out.
Ah, not so fast. It's a story about survival, about political allegory, about the balance between humanity and nature. It's extremely well-written, it's mature. It doesn't shy away from blood, from death, from some pretty freaky concepts like The Black Rabbit of Inle or the Shining Wire. The rabbits play out like any other basic society, with their own histories, their own mythologies, their own fables. Some of the coolest stuff in the book deals with El-Rahirah, the rabbits' version of Robin Hood.
For a story about rabbits trying to find a new home, you would think it would be a slow read. But it's really not. The character development's a little on the shallow side, but for the most part it's a good one.
Now I just have to read Shardik.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen King's Cell is possibly the most brutal book I have ever read.
More brutal than Gunslinger. More brutal than Battle Royale. More brutal than Pet Semetary or Dark Tower VII, both of which feature bloody gory car accidents.
Cell reads partially like Dawn of the Dead, partially like The Stand. It's also the novel I've read by him that gets right into it. A terrorist cell implants a Pulse into the world's cellular signals that cause the listener's brain to be wiped clean. And unlike the stand, where the virus doesn't start going big time until almost 100 pages in, the Cell happens FAST. Three pages into the book and things are uncomfortable. Five pages in and the big boom happens. If anything, the book ramps down as it goes on. As the story progresses, it becomes obvious why this decelleration occurs, so it's not as bad as it sounds.
King doesn't pull any punches in this book. The most telling, the most heart-wrenching, death out of all of them doesn't come from any supernatural entity, but comes when is a loved character is killed by nothing more than humans being stupid.
Cell isn't about psychics, or zombies, or anything like that. It's about human nature, both good and evil. And it's a good, quick read.
-------
Haven't gotten any writing done tonight. Tomorrow afternoon I will.