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Wolf in White Van

2014-10-08 00:00

Cover for Wolf in White Van

Review:

I know it's an un­pop­u­lar opin­ion, but I pre­fer my books with some plot in them.

The Killing Machine (Demon Princes, #2)

2014-09-27 00:00

Cover for The Killing Machine (Demon Princes, #2)

Review:

I had not read Jack Vance in a while, and it's my first time read­ing it in eng­lish. It's the first time I pre­fer the trans­lat­ed work.

The need­less­ly old-­fash­ioned vo­cab­u­lary (why scold when you can ob­jur­gate!) makes for a dif­fi­cult read, and the plot is thin enough al­ready. The one-di­men­sion­al­i­ty of the char­ac­ter­s, spe­cial­ly the main one, is ex­plained away on a thin mo­ti­va­tion­al ba­sis.

Of course it al­so has the clas­sic Vance world-build­ing, a feel­ing that it all makes sense and is part of a much larg­er "ev­ery­thing", which is the main re­deem­ing fac­tor.

The Star King (Demon Princes, #1)

2014-09-20 00:00

Cover for The Star King (Demon Princes, #1)

Review:

I had not read Jack Vance in a while, and it's my first time read­ing it in eng­lish. It's the first time I pre­fer the trans­lat­ed work.

The need­less­ly old-­fash­ioned vo­cab­u­lary (why scold when you can ob­jur­gate!) makes for a dif­fi­cult read, and the plot is thin enough al­ready. The one-di­men­sion­al­i­ty of the char­ac­ter­s, spe­cial­ly the main one, is ex­plained away on a thin mo­ti­va­tion­al ba­sis.

Of course it al­so has the clas­sic Vance world-build­ing, a feel­ing that it all makes sense and is part of a much larg­er "ev­ery­thing", which is the main re­deem­ing fac­tor.

Codex

2014-09-12 00:00

Cover for Codex

Review:

First of al­l: while I don't love this book, I do love the au­thor's lat­er work. So, con­sid­er this more like a "look how much bet­ter he's now", not a "he used to not be so good" re­view.

The sto­ry is good, the set­ting is in­ter­est­ing, the lead­ing char­ac­ter is well de­vel­ope­d, but... the end­ing. The book just ... stop­s.

Codex By Grossman Lev

2014-09-12 00:00

Cover for Codex By Grossman Lev

Review:

First of al­l: while I don't love this book, I do love the au­thor's lat­er work. So, con­sid­er this more like a "look how much bet­ter he's now", not a "he used to not be so good" re­view.

The sto­ry is good, the set­ting is in­ter­est­ing, the lead­ing char­ac­ter is well de­vel­ope­d, but... the end­ing. The book just ... stop­s.
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