This book has been on my to-do for the better part of a decade. The Stand is a boisterous novel about a plague that wipes out more than 99% of the population and the struggles with reforming into a nation. I seen countless positive reviews on this book and knew I had to check this book out. After reading it on and off for nearly two months, I’ve finally completed The Stand and already wanting to start my next Stephen King book.
Neil Gaiman is a pro at creating interesting worlds in his books that make them hard to put down. American Gods and Anansi Boys are some of my all-time favorites, so I wanted to venture into some of his other work. I finally grabbed Stardust knowing very little besides that it was made into a movie met with decent reviews. Overall I found the book to just be mediocre but see why some would absolutely love Stardust. I believe it still has the Neil Gaiman touch of humor and dialogue, I just don’t have much of an affinity for this genre.
Stardust boils down to a love story about a “man” named Tristan who falls in love with the prettiest girl in his town of Wall. While speaking to her for the first time, Tristan proposes to Victoria who rejects the offer and will not kiss him (obviously.) While walking home, they both notice a shooting star which Victoria proclaims to Tristan to find said shooting star and she will do whatever he pleases. He of course accepts and goes on a journey to find the star. Now obviously a series of events happen that I did find interesting. The book is short but packed with plot points that keep it moving along and never falters or becomes boring. Plenty of interesting characters are also present and help flesh out the narrative.
Just recently discovering John Scalzi with Old Man’s War, I was excited to give another one of his top books a shot. I knew nothing about Redshirts going into it except that it was highly regarded, and I’ll be adding another recommendation to that pile. Redshirts was interesting in a way but could also be annoying to those who want to take his twisted plot too seriously.
I’ll be dancing around the major plot twist that happens fairly early in the story that sets the tone for the rest of the book. I will say I was highly invested in the plot, laughed out loud often, and overall love how Scalzi writes. The story was over quickly though ending in about 220 pages. Being a shorter book though wasn’t a bad move though because bloating that quick and funny story would have been unnecessary. Instead, you get backstory of various characters after the book is over that helps answer some of its loose ends.
Here we are again with another volume that doesn’t advance the story enough to be relevant. It really says something where you could take out five issues from a series, or condense it down to one full story driven issue, and it still get it’s points across. Now that doesn’t mean this wasn’t an entertaining set of comics, but it’s making me walk away from the series a bit before I burn myself out. I’m more than halfway done with the series, but at this rate I don’t see me finishing them. So I’ll walk away, read a few novels, then return because I am overall wanting to find out where Yorick’s tale ends.
This all takes place on a boat, with Yorick and his crew on their way to Australia to find Beth, who SPOILERS, he has cheated on and is kissing any women who throws him flirty eyes. Setting that aside, some minor stuff happens involving submarines, more women pissed, and 355 and Dr. Mann hook up briefly. Death happens to minor characters, which has been a complaint of mine that anybody they meet up with will ultimately die shortly after.
But I am anxious to see how they handle Beth and Yorick meeting up, or if it ever happens. You are eluded to Beth a few times, who has been almost non existent until now. There is still some great writing and character development in this volume, but I just want the story to move along. I’m ready for some answers, and ready to see where Vaughan is taking this amazing story he created.
I don’t read many autobiographies but have read a few by different comedians. I seen some great reviews on Robb Lowe’s “Stories I Only Tell My Friends” and wanted to give it a shot. I’m not exactly a fan of Robb Lowe. Nothing against him, I just haven’t seen many of his movies but enjoyed his character on Parks & Recreation. It didn’t matter when I read his book, he has lived a highly entertaining and eventful life so far making for an interesting autobiography. It’s always interesting to hear what goes on behind the scenes when creating movies, and he has worked with a large amount of famous actors.
With how successful his first novel was, he would definitely need to release a second. Love Life comes off as a collection of stories that didn’t quite make the cut, but are still engaging, provocative, and somewhat unusual. The problem is this book has no direction, and feels like he threw his script up in the air and forgot to put it back in order. Love Life jumps back and forth in time and Robb sometimes forget to mention how old, the year, or what project he was working on to help figure out a time frame. It’s not such a big issue because it is random stories about his life, and not a cohesive story that is hard to keep up with, but perhaps he wanted it to be written differently than his first book.
Hello, I'm a SharePoint Administrator, Wordpress Tinkerer, husband and dad in New Albany, IN. Outside of spending time with my family, some hobbies of mine include gaming, reading, cooking, drinking, and learning new things.
