Tag Archives: books

The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov

Posted by melydia on September 13, 2011 None comments

The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov (unabridged audiobook read by William Dufris; 15 hrs 47 min on 15 discs): This time around, Baley is sent to Daneel’s home planet of Aurora, the first and most arrogant of the spacer worlds, to solve the “murder” of Jander the robot. Along the way he must deal with his own crippling agoraphobia, the Auroran prejudice against Earthmen, and foreign sexual mores. That last bit was the most unexpected: the lengthy and detailed discussions of sex and sexual practices, compared and contrasted among Earth, Aurora, and Solaria. I had trouble not thinking about Asimov’s doofy muttonchops, turning these passages even more surreal. It was certainly a well-written book with lots of interesting speculation into human societies, but it is easily my least favorite in the series. That said, it was particularly fascinating to read this after reading Foundation, as this was clearly a sort of prequel to it, from the talk of a galactic human empire to the introduction of psychohistory as a field of study. Taking into account the references to Susan Calvin (of I, Robot fame), I start to wonder just how many of Asimov’s books take place in the same universe.

A note on the audio: There isn’t nearly enough Daneel in this book, and I think Dufris’s excellent voice acting made me miss him all the more.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

The Collectors by David Baldacci

Posted by melydia on September 6, 2011 None comments

The Collectors by David Baldacci (abridged audiobook read by Tom Wopat and Maggi-Meg Reed; 6 hrs on 5 discs): A Congressman is assassinated, then shortly thereafter an employee at the Library of Congress dies under mysterious circumstances. His friends start looking into the case and soon find themselves running for their own lives. At the same time, a woman is running a high-stakes con at a well-fortified casino. This is technically the second Camel Club book, but I didn’t once feel lost or confused having not read the first installment. My favorite parts all took place within the Library of Congress, as I’ve never visited any of its reading rooms or rare book collections (you don’t see many books on the regular tour). The suspense was pleasantly constant, the characters likable and distinct, and the ending satisfying while making way for the next book in the series. A nice piece of entertainment.

A note on the audio: Wopat did an excellent job. Reed was quite good as well, though I was a little confused as to why a second narrator was brought in to voice a single character. The abridgement was fine and I never felt like I was missing anything. Over all, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Waterwoman by Lenore Hart

Posted by melydia on September 2, 2011 None comments

Waterwoman by Lenore Hart: This took me an incredibly long time to read – not because it was hard to get into, but because it lived in my gym bag for reading on the stationary bike. Then I stopped going to the gym because I was too busy with the 2011 BookCrossing Convention, then a week later I tore up the ligaments and tendons in my ankle, thus ending my biking days for a long time. So the other day I decided to pull the poor thing out of my disused gym bag and actually finish it.

This is pretty much an atmospheric book, one you read for the setting more than the plot. It’s 1920 and Annie Revels’s father has just died, leaving her alone with her beautiful younger sister and ailing mother. They live on a small island off the shore of Virginia where their father made their living as a waterman: harvesting and selling oysters and crabs. It’s a hard life, but one Annie takes to fairly quickly, donning her father’s old clothes and doing everything herself. When she meets a man who sees her as an attractive woman for the first time in her life, everything changes. Not a whole lot happens, really. It’s kind of a sad tale, but not really because I never formed any real attachment to the characters. My personal fascination with the first two decades of the 20th century was mostly what kept me interested, as the descriptions of that kind of life at the time were quite detailed. In the end, I’d count this book as one that passed the time, but not one I’ll remember in a year.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov

Posted by melydia on August 30, 2011 None comments

The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov (unabridged audiobook read by William Dufris; 7 hrs 40 min on 6 discs): This time around, Lije Baley is sent to solve a murder case on another planet. I just want to note that sometimes dated SF can be really amusing. In this case, I was entertained by the notion that the “expressway” between DC and NYC takes ten hours. But that’s neither here nor there. As an Earthman, Baley is used to crowded underground cities and always being surrounded by people, be it in the cafeterias for meals or in the public restrooms. The planet Solaria is the opposite: the planet is home to only 20,000 people, each of whom has a private estate and lives more or less as what we would consider a recluse. While three-dimensional holographic “viewing” is a perfectly acceptable means of being social, being in the physical presence of another human being has become thought of as utterly distasteful. Most of the story deals with the society itself, coupled with Baley’s struggles with agoraphobia. I was fascinated by all the different characters, even if the murder mystery felt somewhat artificial. After all, I was more interested in the science fiction part of the story, and in that respect Asimov never lets me down.

A note on the audio: Dufris continues to entertain. I especially love the dichotomy between gruffly emotional Baley and ever-placid Daneel.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov

Posted by melydia on August 23, 2011 1 comments

The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov (unabridged audiobook read by William Dufris; 7 hrs 48 min on 6 discs): Lije Baley is a regular plainclothesman in far-future New York City sent to investigate a murder of a Spacer (that is, a person born on one of the many colonized planets). His partner is R. Daneel Olivaw, a disconcertingly human-like robot. Baley is a product of his environment, and like many of his displaced fellow humans he distrusts and dislikes robots in general. Though the social differences between Earthmen, Spacers, and the reader’s own society are the main draw of the book, the story itself is very much a 1950s-style detective story. If you like hard SF, you probably already know to read Asimov, but if you’d like your futurism with some mystery mixed in, this is a good place to start.

A note on the audio: Dufris is an excellent voice actor. Sure, his female characters are more or less in hysterics all of the time, but that’s how it was written. And how most women in 1950s hard-boiled detective novels were written as well.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Posted by melydia on August 19, 2011 None comments

Divergent by Veronica Roth (unabridged audiobook read by Emma Galvin; 11 hrs 11 min on MP3): This is not a good book to read while on a YA dystopia kick unless you simply cannot get enough of it. The influence on Roth by giants like Collins and Westerfeld is too painfully evident. Our heroine is Beatrice, native of the Abnegation Faction which values selflessness and comes across a bit like an extreme form of Amish. Each Faction is built around a separate value: Candor (honesty), Dauntless (bravery), Amity (peace), and Erudite (knowledge). At the magic age of 16 (what is it about that age in young adult fiction?), you choose the Faction you will spend the rest of your life in – that is, if you pass the initiation. Feeling like she’s not nearly selfless enough to live in Abnegation, Beatrice chooses Dauntless at the last second, and is launched into a crazy world of thrill-seeking and combat. There was plenty of action, and it was kind of fun watching Beatrice grow from a timid Abnegation to a self-assured Dauntless in little jumps. That was enjoyable and believable. The rest of it, while perfectly fine as far as it went, felt like something I’d heard before. It’s certainly not a bad novel. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more had I not recently read so many other YA dystopia novels. As it is, it was nothing more than a pleasant diversion while recovering from surgery.

It’s interesting how many YA dystopia novels focus on societies where your life path is chosen from a limited number of possibilities and can never change. My guess is that this is in response to the typical teenage angst regarding all the choices they find themselves facing: colleges, careers, relationships. Sometimes it feels like it might be nice to have it all decided for you. Of course, these stories always involve someone who breaks the mold, thus showing the importance of being free to make your own choices. I also think it’s interesting that it’s mostly women (though The Giver by Lois Lowry is a notable exception). Despite the occasional repetition of theme, I still find myself drawn to dystopia stories, YA and otherwise.

A note on the audio: Galvin was fine. Not very memorable, but the characters’ voices were distinct without being caricatures, which is really all I can ask for in a narrator. I’d like to thank Bewitched Bookworms for this book: I won it in one of their monthly Whisper Stories in My Ear contests. Thanks so much!

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Posted by melydia on August 16, 2011 None comments

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (unabridged audiobook read by Carolyn McCormick; 11 hrs 37 min on 10 discs): Katniss is back home in District 12, richer than ever but still not safe from the Capitol’s reach. I enjoyed the story, even if it was clearly just a bridge between the first and third books in the trilogy. The love triangle was completely forced, reminding me eerily (and embarrassingly) of something I wrote when I was about 14. I like both guys and can understand Katniss’s dilemma, but it was still pretty unbelievable. All the same, it was fun to dive back into this weird world of specialized Districts, and I look forward to reading the third installment that has garnered such strong reactions.

A note on the audio: McCormick continues to shine. I wonder if seeing the movie will be weird after getting so used to her voices for all the characters.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Posted by melydia on August 12, 2011 None comments

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (unabridged audiobook read by Corine Montbertrand; 12.5 hrs on 11 discs): Tally is an Ugly, eagerly awaiting her 16th birthday so she can undergo “the operation” to become Pretty, which transforms her to have all the most evolutionarily desirable physical traits. Then she will move to in New Pretty Town and reunite with all her formerly Ugly friends. Until she meets Shay, who speaks of a place where no one becomes Pretty, where everyone is free to look however they look. When Shay disappears, Tally must find her or risk her worst nightmare: Ugly For Life. Obviously there’s more to this whole Pretty deal than it seems at first; of course there’s something to be said for accepting yourself as you are, but if the only change was cosmetic this wouldn’t be a dystopia story. The “hover” technology was a lot of fun from a SF point of view, but the romance was pretty unbelievable: they go from absolutely nothing to twu wuv in no time at all. It felt pretty forced; I guess you can’t have YA without some kind of relationship. Still, I really enjoyed this one. The ending was reasonably satisfying while being very clearly the start of a larger story. I’m curious to see what ends up happening to Tally and her friends.

A note on the audio version: Montbertrand was a good choice for narrator. Though her voice for Shay was pretty annoying, it was also absolutely perfect for the character. I was especially impressed with the subtle shifts in intonation for the same character before and after their Pretty operation. I look forward to hearing her interpretations of other books, most especially the rest of this series.

I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb

Posted by melydia on July 19, 2011 6 comments

I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb (unabridged audiobook read by George Guidall; 32 hours 15 minutes on 28 discs): Dominick is angry, and has been his whole life. His identical twin brother has paranoid schizophrenia, the woman he loves divorced him, his girlfriend makes him crazy, his stepfather is abusive, and his mother died keeping the secret of his biological father’s identity. Our story begins in 1990 when Dominick’s brother Thomas cuts off his own hand in a public library, believing this sacrifice will somehow prevent the Gulf War. Believed to be a danger to himself and others, Thomas is placed in a maximum security mental institution. Thus begins Dominick’s journey to free his brother from his prison, confront his issues with his parents, and discover the truth about his family history. At first I couldn’t figure out why this book was so danged long, but I was soon drawn in by the characters and their stories. There’s a lot of drama here, a lot more than anything in my personal experience, but I never felt disconnected or disbelieving. The story-within-a-story told by Dominick’s grandfather was especially compelling, being told by such an unlikable narrator. Though it may be long and occasionally feels somewhat scattered, everything comes together in the end for a deeply satisfying conclusion. Dominick, Thomas, and the rest will stay with me for a very long time.

Unrelated aside: When I was in graduate school, my landlord was a skinny, bald, white guy in his late thirties. One day while he was in my bathroom working on the plumbing, he entered my apartment through the front door. Turns out he had an identical twin brother, but man was I confused at first. Because of this, despite loads of evidence to the contrary, I pictured Dominick and Thomas looking more or less like Moby. This is not, I suspect, at all what Lamb intended.

A note on the audio: George and I go way back. He’s not a reader I actively seek out, but he’s extremely talented and makes even the driest prose quite listenable. In short, he’s very reliable, which is fortunate since he’s read basically every book ever. (Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating, but not by much.) As always, he did a lovely job with these characters. I was a little confused when the book ended on disc 27, but there was a nice little interview between George and the author on disc 28. It’s an interesting session, mostly about the creative process, with a few questions about the story and characters answered by Lamb.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

Posted by melydia on July 15, 2011 None comments

Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons: My first exposure to this comic was the movie a few years ago. I’d heard of it, of course, knew it to be one of those Graphic Novels Everyone Should Read, but before watching the movie I never had much interest. However, given both the amazing scope of the plot and my general confusion about same, I picked up a copy of the book within a week of seeing the film. (And promptly left it on the shelf for the next two years, but that’s par for the course.) And while the movie is actually quite true to the book, there were some things left out by necessity, such as the entire subplot about the people at the newsstand and the pirate comic book. Which were interesting and added quite a bit, but not strictly necessary in the larger scheme of things. If you’re not familiar with it, this story takes place in an alternate 1985, where the existence of superheroes has changed history – we won the Vietnam War, Nixon is still president, etc. Between comic chapters are additional documents, such as excerpts from the original Nite Owl’s memoirs, Silk Spectre’s scrapbook, and newspaper articles. It’s all very well-done, very believable. Rorschach remained the most interesting character, but the comic brought additional depth to Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandias – the latter in particular, actually. (It didn’t help that he was horrendously miscast either.) The story as told in the comic made sense and was actually far more astonishing and memorable than the movie. It’s the most believable superhero story I’ve ever read, and one of the more plausible alternate histories as well. If you can handle the violence and often disturbing imagery (the comic-within-a-comic especially), this is one graphic novel you should definitely check out.

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