Home » 2014 (Page 7)

Book Review: The Detainee by Peter Liney

  The Detainee (The Detainee Trilogy, Book 1) by Peter Liney

Jo Fletcher Books, 2013

ISBN13: 9781623651084

Available: Hardcover, Paperback, Ebook

 

I am a sucker for a good dystopia. In fact, I often complain about “end of the world” stories that don’t have enough gloom. However, although there are plenty of good elements here, and the book ranks high on other review sites, I have to admit it didn’t connect with me.

The first person narrative style was the first strike against novel for me; I felt this slowed the pace. 70 pages in, I still had no idea who the main character was. He was just an amorphous “I”.  The book went on at length about the setting, and a few unfortunate events, but I didn’t know the protagonist’s name. I had to look it up in an online review. This really bothered me. I needed to have a strong sense of who the narrator was by now. That is a bad sign.

Clancy, the protagonist, is considered undesirable by the hyper-capitalist society he lives in, and has been exiled to a giant trash heap of an island for “unproductive” people. “Unproductive” includes the elderly, so the island contains many people of an advanced age, like a reverse Logan’s Run world. The setting provided the potential for this to be a fantastic dystopian novel, my favorite kind of science fiction/horror crossover. It’s a great concept; I like the point of view and the message, a warning of what could happen if the right wing’s stance against social programs and welfare were taken to an extreme.

However, this is a novel, not an essay. No matter how interested I am in the socio-political philosophy of inevitable dystopia, a novel has to be a story first. I admit I found myself skipping entire paragraphs, which is not typical for me. It just didn’t hold my interest. To be fair, this book has lots of great reviews. It’s been promoted as a Hunger Games for adults, and certainly many responded to the book’s take on ageism. Because the themes are so timely and well defined, libraries should make it available despite my personal dislike for it. Recommended for ages 12-adult.

 

Reviewed by David Agranoff

Posted on November 3, 2014 by , Reply

Book Review: Jagannath by Karin Tidbeck

    Jagannath:Stories by Karin Tidbeck

Cheeky Frawg Books, 2012

Kindle Edition

ISBN-13: 978-0-9857904-2-4

Available: New

 

Jagannath is a collection of short stories by Swedish author Karin Tidbeck. Several of the stories were collected in the original Swedish in Vem är Arvid Pekon?, and some have appeared in translation in magazines and anthologies, but this is Tidbeck’s first full-length collection in English. It’s no surprise that the collection is published by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer’s imprint.

The stories in Jagannath are a little hard to categorize, but are best described as “weird tales”. ”Who is Arvid Pekon? ”, evokes a Philip K. Dick-like feeling of empty, absurd bureaucracy (and the resulting existential anxieties). Elsewhere, stories such as “Augusta Prima” and “Aunts” use a warped fairy tale landscape to unsettle the reader. “Aunts”, particularly, is a rather disturbing tale that uses grotesque imagery to great effect.

My favorite stories in the book are the ones that make clever use of Swedish geography and tradition. “Brita’s Holiday Village” and “Reindeer Mountain” are the clearest examples of this. However, in my opinion, the strongest story of the entire book is “Pyret”, which blends unsettling, weird, fictional folklore with an unconventional narrative technique. Interestingly, Tidbeck translated her stories herself, and the book includes an afterword by the author on the process of translation. This is an added bonus and enhances enjoyment of the collection. Highly recommended for fans of the weird tale, ages 12 to adult.

Contains: some sexual references, some violence, cannibalism

Reviewed by Hannah Kate

Posted on November 3, 2014 by , Reply

New Resource: StephenKingRevisited.com

Well, this looks like a fun project! Richard Chizmar of Cemetery Dance will be re-reading all of Stephen King’s books, starting with Carrie (so not actually ALL of his books, but pretty darn close). You can read along and also share your own thoughts and memories.

It’s kind of interesting to revisit books after a long time has passed. I have a strong memory of how I felt when I first read Carrie, as I was in high school myself, but that’s different than what I actually saw on the page, something I didn’t realize until I went back and read it again years later. Bev Vincent, who has written nonfiction on King’s work will also be posting, as will other contributors, including Jack Ketchum.

So check out StephenKingRevisited.com and see what’s happening!

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CEMETERY DANCE PUBLICATIONS INVITES YOU TO VISIT STEPHEN KING REVISITED

BALTIMORE – Cemetery Dance Publications invites readers everywhere to the launch of StephenKingRevisited.com, a massive new project unlike anything the horror and suspense publisher has undertaken in their twenty-five years in publishing.

Starting this Halloween, Cemetery Dance founder and publisher Richard Chizmar will begin re-reading ALL of Stephen King’s books in the order of publication, starting with Carrie, and posting his thoughts about the experience.

“Like many longtime readers,” Chizmar explains in his first post on the site, “I can chart the course of my life by when and where I read most of Stephen King’s books. Re-reading Christine recently (when writing an afterword for an anniversary edition) inspired the project was like traveling back to my youth in a time machine.  I turned the pages, and I was a teenager again, carrying around a tattered, old paperback.  Experiencing the novel for the first time. It felt like a kind of magic. And I wanted to do it again.”

When Chizmar asked Stephen King what he thought of the idea of him re-reading all of the books in order, King replied, “You should blog about it” and “go for it!”

After each re-read, Chizmar will post his thoughts on StephenKingRevisited.com.  Readers are encouraged to read along and share their own thoughts, including their memories of where they were when they first read each book.

For readers who are interested in behind the scenes information about King’s unprecedented career, author Bev Vincent will be providing a historical context post for each title, including insightful anecdotes about the writing and publication history of the book.

In addition, special guest contributors who are well known to Stephen King readers will be providing their own take on the books. Some of the first guest contributors include Michael Koryta (author of So Cold the River and Those Who Wish to Kill Me), Josh Boone (director and writer of the films The Fault in Our Stars, Stuck in Love, and two forthcoming Stephen King projects, Lisey’s Story and The Stand), and Jack Ketchum (author of The Lost, The Woman, and I’m Not Sam).

Posted on October 31, 2014 by , Reply
First « 56789 » Last