What Have I Been Reading? (2019 batch #4)
Apr. 29th, 2019 10:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroOne Word Kill by Mark Lawrence - Nick’s cancer diagnosis happens in the same week that he meets a girl he seriously fancies and also he finds out that time travel is possible and that he invented (will invent?) it. The attempts to tie the D&D game the characters are playing into the larger sci-fi plot are “thematic” at best, but this is overall a decent nerdy coming-of-age adventure story. Not brilliant, but servicable.
Don't Panic: Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Neil Gaiman – A biography of Douglas Adams, mostly. If you ever wanted to learn the specifics of Adams’ ability to ignore deadlines or how the various incarnations of Hitchhikers varied from each other, then this book is for you. I found that it made we want to properly re-read the original novels.
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin – Musings on gender and society hung together with a travelogue plot that ends up involving a lot of suffering along the way. Which describes the last Le Guin book I read as well, actually. (Yes, I realize “everyone” reads this in high school; it apparently missed me.) I actually think I liked the asides about Gethen mythology / history better than the ongoing plot, in which, upon reflection, relatively little actually happens.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams - Re-read. I had rather forgotten how insanely quotable the original book was. Also how episodic it feels, but then, given its origins as a radio series that was re-arranged and rewritten into a novel, that makes sense. I’ll probably re-read the rest of the series at some point; I have the omnibus and think the last time I read it was in college.
The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold - An attempt to be the be-all and end-all of time travel explorations, as the main character manages to do pretty much everything you’d want to do if you had a timebelt and didn’t have to worry about paradoxes. (And were a screaming narcissist.) This was originally written in the 70s, and some of the attitudes toward homosexuality (the author is gay; the character is an autoromantic bisexual) are moored in that—the character’s issues with getting it on with himself seem much more rooted in the gay aspects than the brain-bending narcissism, which I feel like more modern takes would focus on. But as an exploration of the psychological aspects of the time travel, I think this works.
Don't Panic: Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Neil Gaiman – A biography of Douglas Adams, mostly. If you ever wanted to learn the specifics of Adams’ ability to ignore deadlines or how the various incarnations of Hitchhikers varied from each other, then this book is for you. I found that it made we want to properly re-read the original novels.
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin – Musings on gender and society hung together with a travelogue plot that ends up involving a lot of suffering along the way. Which describes the last Le Guin book I read as well, actually. (Yes, I realize “everyone” reads this in high school; it apparently missed me.) I actually think I liked the asides about Gethen mythology / history better than the ongoing plot, in which, upon reflection, relatively little actually happens.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams - Re-read. I had rather forgotten how insanely quotable the original book was. Also how episodic it feels, but then, given its origins as a radio series that was re-arranged and rewritten into a novel, that makes sense. I’ll probably re-read the rest of the series at some point; I have the omnibus and think the last time I read it was in college.
The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold - An attempt to be the be-all and end-all of time travel explorations, as the main character manages to do pretty much everything you’d want to do if you had a timebelt and didn’t have to worry about paradoxes. (And were a screaming narcissist.) This was originally written in the 70s, and some of the attitudes toward homosexuality (the author is gay; the character is an autoromantic bisexual) are moored in that—the character’s issues with getting it on with himself seem much more rooted in the gay aspects than the brain-bending narcissism, which I feel like more modern takes would focus on. But as an exploration of the psychological aspects of the time travel, I think this works.
