Don't Forget to Read a Book!

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about Lois McMaster Bujold's Memory. The Short of It Plot: After be declared unfit for active duty, Miles is tasked with investigating issues within Imperial Security. Page Count: 462 Award:  Part of the Vorkosigan Saga Worth a read : Yes Primary Driver:  ( Plot , World, or  Character ) Bechdel Test : Pass Technobabble:  Minimal Review:  Start of the next chapter for Miles. Fun mystery elements and tight focus keep things moving. Excellent character work and development of Ivan, Illyan, and Miles. Nice to be back on Barrayar and engaging with a smaller cast of characters. Some side stories are less interesting but nonetheless nicely woven into the main plot.  The Medium of It Spoiler Free! It is hard to continually raise the stakes in a series this long. We're somewhere past book ten here. And Miles full on died in the last one. Admittedly, not permanently, but still. Dude was a corpsicle. Where do you go from there? After all, this changes the g

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about Christopher Priest's  The Prestige. The Short of It Plot:  A simple rivalry between two stage magicians becomes an all-consuming feud.  Page Count:  372 Award:  1996 World Fantasy Award  Worth a read : Yes Primary Driver:  ( Plot , World, or  Character )  Bechdel Test : Fail Technobabble:  Minor. Review:  A gripping and fun read despite a handful of odd narrative choices. Good characterization on all sides, including multiple accounts and perspectives of overlapping events to flesh everyone out. Writing is good and builds suspense well. Pacing can be a bit off, in particular the use of an unneeded framing narrative, which pads out the book a bit too much on either end. The Medium of It Spoiler Free! Yes, this is the book upon which the Christopher Nolan film is based. It may also be a rare example of the movie being superior to the book, though the book is still good. The story begins with a framing mechanism: a reporter going off to investigat

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about James K. Morrow's  Towing Jehovah. The Short of It Plot:  God is dead, and the angels need his giant corpse hauled to the Arctic for burial.  Page Count:  371 Award:  1995 World Fantasy Award  Worth a read : No Primary Driver:  (Plot,  World , or  Character )  Bechdel Test : Pass Technobabble:  None. Review:  A brilliant short story which far overstays its welcome. Characters are established well and have some neat arcs. Truly excellent opening hook which is let down by the book that follows. Pacing turns extremely choppy. This is not so much a novel as a point to prove: and the point is reiterated to death. The Medium of It Spoiler Free! THE IRREDUCIBLE STRANGENESS of the universe was first made manifest to Anthony Van Horne on his fiftieth birthday, when a despondent angel named Raphael, a being with luminous white wings and a halo that blinked on and off like a neon quoit, appeared and told him of the days to come.  "Our mutual Creator