A Canticle For Leibowittz

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book takes place in between the events that most books would actually be about. It basically follows a cloister of monks whose mission it is to protect knowledge. This covers a huge swath of time. It is probably the only science fiction story that I have ever read that paints the Catholic religion in a positive light. It is a very strange yet very compelling book. I took away a star because I felt that the third act was a bit weaker than the other two and it was a lot more abstract and left many questions unanswered. Amazing book though, highly recommended.

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I Am Legend- audiobook review

I am Legend and Other Stories by Richard Matheson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It is just as good the second time around. It has been a few years since I read the book the first time. This time I listened to the audio. The director of the audio book made some different interpretations of the I Am Legend story, but the reading was well done. The other stories, though, I couldn't get through due to the reading. I remember enjoying several of the stories previously, especially the Mad House one and the monster funeral, but there were funny voices and whatnot and It kind of ruined the mood. I would suggest reading instead of listening to this one.

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The Lord of the Sands of Time

The Lord of the Sands of Time by Issui Ogawa
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Was this book written specifically for me. Time travel, alien race, robotic super creatures, artificial intelligence with sentience, feudal Japan, and the far future. Yeah, this was my kind of book. It also had a pretty good story of love and sacrifice. The only negative marks I could give it are due to some translation issues. I would say 99% of it is translated perfectly but that makes that 1% that isn't stick out like a sore thumb.

It felt a lot like All You Need Is Kill. If you like one of thes books, I think you will like them both.

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The Historian's Tale -Book Review

The Historian's Tale by K.B. Shaw
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received the book as a review copy. I am usually skeptical of self published works, but I have read an earlier novel of Shaw's as well as the short story that he expanded this novel into. So I knew he was capable of delivering a good story and he didn't let me down here. He does a pretty good job of creating this society with its strange rules. He shows some world building skill in the part of the book where they explore the basin, and I imagine/hope that would be further developed later in the series. There are a few weeknesses of this book. The middle part slows down as the characters discover and try to understand the technology that they have found. Not sure how you liven that section up, though. I would have also liked a bit more explanation from the chancilor. I understand the implementation of the sex scenes to differentiate Neworld culture from Earth culture, but it did seem a bit gratuitous, especially for a YA book.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. I would love to see the solar map in a future book that shows the binary star and the planet's orbit around them and how it effects the cycles, but I realize, I may be in the minority on that part. It was a quick read, which was a welcome respite after a few of the more recent books that I have read (looking at you 2312 and Consider Phlebas). I would catagorize it more as teen than YA with a 14+ age range.

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Mistborn-Book Review

Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't like to read fantasy. There I said it. I think a majority of the books labeled fantasy are dreck or are blatent rip offs of the Lord of the Rings. Every once in a while something will come along and I will pick it up for whatever reason and be pleasently surprised (GoT, NotW, first couple of WoT). Add Mistborn to the list. It has the chosen one cliche that pretty much all fantasy has, but it kind of puts a spin on it. The story was completely original, as far as I know, with its use of alomancy and the other thing that Terrismen can do that looks just as hard to pronounce as it is to spell. I see that there are two sequels of increasing length, but the story in this book wraps itself up in a nice tight package with a little bow. I can see where the next book would come from but it isn't a you have to read the whole series after reading the first book. I might or I might not. I have heard this described as postapocolyptic high fantasy and I think that is an apt description.

I would recommend this to people who like fantasy and even to people on the fense about it. It does take about 50-100 pages to really get into so be aware that it is a slow starter. I don't think it inclines itself more to women or men. Safe for kids that are okay with reading about violence.

Should I read the second book?

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2312

2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book was torture. Certain parts of it were great, but the rest of it falls flat, especially when you compare it to the good parts. I didn't really see any growth in the characters. The story is basically a mystery but it is very linear with no twists or false hunches. I kept expecting a surprise and got nothing. Maybe there was one in the epilogue, which I didn't even bother to read.

The book was a good world building exercise, but that was really all he did. He throws in some futuristic philosophies and technologies, but I found some of these a bit far fetched or not far fetched enough. The main plot point is said to be impossible in the text and it is never explained in the text how it isn't. It was infuriating.

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Usurper of the Sun- Book Review

The story can get bogged down in technical mumbo jumbo. I didn't see a lot of character development. It was a very Japanese novel, which isn't a bad thing. Overall it was okay to good. I really liked some of the concepts presented even if I don't feel that the planet mercury has enough matter to create one ring, let alone a second around the sun. I thought the ending was kind of weak. No real payoff. You could easily cut 40 pages out of this story and make it much more enjoyable, or, conversley, Add about as much in character development and get a much better story.

This is a first contact story so if you like first contact stuff this may be up your alley.  You also may enjoy this more if you are interested in AIs.  Safe for the kiddies but they probably won't enjoy it much. 

Cloud Atlas- Book Review

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Very frustrating. Some good concepts and interesting formatting, but, ultimately, not well executed. I an sure it had a theme, but I am not sure that I could be troubled to puzzle it out.

The story- There are like six stories of varying genres so chances are you are going to like one of them.  I really liked the Son-Mi story, but the ending of it was very unsatisfactory to me.  I think my comment on finishing that part was that I wanted to throw the kindle out the window.  The stories are all split in two and the first half of each starts in the past and move forward chronologically.  The most future story is told in its entirety and then the second half of each story is told in reverse chronological order.  Interesting formatting.

Overall- it was a slow book that is very long.  I can't really recommend it, though.  3 stars is me being generous, it is actually about a 2.5 but I really liked the Son Mi story (until the end).  I am not sure why it got all the praise it did and don't look forward to seeing the movie as it reads as a pretty unfilmable movie. 

Did you read it or see the movie?  Let me know what you thought. 
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Anna Dressed in Blood

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wow, this is her first book. Didn't realize this while reading, which is excellent. This is a great creepy book. My 11 year old picked it up at the Library and recommended it to me when she had finished. We are both fans of the show supernatural and it really feels a lot like that show. I think Ms. Blake is also as the main character has a run in early on with a man named Mr. Dean who has an old muscle car that is his baby.

While I saw some things coming there was some clever misdirection in the story. I would say that I didn't believe Cass's voice 100%. I thought he was a girl in the first chapter and he doesn't really think like a teenage boy. Given he is a strange kid, teenage boys will always be somewhat like teenage boys. He is more realistic after his encounter with Anna. That said, guys generally do a worse job writing girls.

If you and your kids like spooky/ultra violent books like Me and mine do, this is an awesome book to read together or share with each other. Blake spins a pretty original yarn here in the ghost story genre. I look forward to her other works.

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The Hobbit- Book Review by Ashli (age 11)

The Hobbit was a very fun and exciting book by J.R.R Tolkien. I liked it because Bilbo was justanother hobbit, not a brave warrior who had set out to steal from the great dragon, Smaug.Another thing I liked about the book was that the characters kind of added Bilbo to

theirjourney, not Bilbo adding them to his. I particularly like how Tolkien told the story, and howthe characters presented themselves. The story had the kind of dialogue that you would haveexpected from a normal person, the way they talked and acted was very much imperfect,which to the books benefit, made it even better. This book is one of my favorites, and I wouldrecommend this book to anyone who loves adventure, humor, and suspense, or anyone inbetween the ages of 9 and whatever. It is a must read and you’ll find yourself not being able toput the book down!

Among Others- Book Review

Among Others, by Jo Walton, is a hard book to describe.  I guess the easiest way is to say that it is the winner of both the Nebula and the Hugo awards.  I don't know if it is deserving of the award as I have not read the other nominees as of this writing.  It is very interesting and it is in a diary type format, but I think the best way to describe it is as a coming of age story...for girls.  It has fairies and boys and father issues; yep, definitely a coming of age story for girls. 

Plot-  We meet young Mor on an adventure with her twin and then we are transported to a future where Mor is alone and her sister is dead.  Mor is leaving the Magical Welsh countryside and is stuck in a very unmagical boarding school.  It is kind of like Harry Potter in reverse.  Along the way we get to hear about all the wonderful science fiction and fantasy books that she is reading, some(most) of which, we still haven't read.

Characters-  I don't know how much to say here as I don't want to ruin anyone elses raw interpretation of the book.  Finish the book and then email me and we can talk about Mor.  Mor is really the only developed character.  Mor sees the other characters as fulfilling roles and they aren't established beyond these roles, this works as the book is a diary. 

Overall-  The book left me conflicted.  It has some action I guess, but that is always secondary.  It is more of an exploration of Mor and her coming of age story.  Thankfully the writing is good and it is very easy to be consumed into Mor's world.  I should have known it wasn't going to be a normal story as the narrator tells someone along the way that he is looking at things as if they were a story and that stuff doesn't happen in real life.  I was not, however, satisfied with the ending. 

I am not sure who to recommend this book to.  I am letting my 11 year old read it, knowing that there are some adult situations in the book and talk of sex, pregnancy, abortion, incest, and homosexuality.  She knows about all these things, but they are presented a bit differently in this book than what she may be used to and that we may discuss afterwards.  it was good, but I don't know if it was great. 

Parasite Eve- Book Review

Hey, do you remember that Parasite Eve videogame from the 90's? Well, it was a sequel to a Novel of the same name by Hideaki Sena.  It was also a movie, released direct to DVD around 2001 here in The States. 

Synopsis-  Toshiaki's wife dies in a car accident and she has an organ donor card for her kidneys.  Her mitochondria is what caused the accident and they are also manipulating her husband, a pharmicology professor who specializes in mitochondria, into taking her liver and creating cell cultures for experiments.  The mitochondria is tired of being enslaved by humanity and wants to become the lead in our symbiotic relationship.  To do this the mitochondria will have to create a hybrid baby.  Good thing one of the kidneys was transplanted into a 14 year old girl with a viable womb. 

Unfortunately the writing in this story is too acedemic.  The author really knows his stuff and tends to over explain every scientific detail.  This really slows down the story and takes all of the tension out of what could be a scary story.  Neal Stephenson also does this, but he usually just limits it to one or two places in the book.  You get a full explanation of all the science or math you could hope for in one chapter and then he lets it go.  I think this is a better approach. 

There are also translation issues.  Japanese people talk a certain way and it is perfectly normal in Japanese and not always literal.  When translated some things need to be changed to make it not sound completely stupid in English.  An example would be a graduation ceremony at the end of the novel, the character's name is called and she responds with "Hai!"  Hai literally  means yes, but in Japan it has a lot more roles, like present, or I agree, or okay, or just as an acnowledgement.  In this instance it is more like the character is saying "I am here to accept my diploma" but it is translated as "Yes!"  Another instance is at the beginning of the novel when a character calls someone.  After the character says who he is, the other character asks if that is really him.  It reads very corny in English, but in Japan it has more to do with respect and could have been translated better by having the character say "to what do I owe the pleasure of this call."  The book is full of little things like this in the dialogue, and that is annoying. 

Over all it was a pretty fun book and a bit educational if not over my head in few places.  I don't think I was ever really scared, but the book did have me hooked to see what happened.  I will not lie, I was kind of rooting for Eve as I thought a fully developed Eve would be a great antagonist and a bit more interesting than what we were given. 

This book would be pretty safe for 9th grade up, it does have some sexual situations, but nothing too graphic.  The violence isn't as bloody as you would expect.  I have a hard time calling this one Horror, but that is what it is classified as. 

Anthem- Book Review

Having never read Ayn Rand and hearing how polarizing her writing is, I decided to give it a shot.  Anthem is available for free at the Amazon store for Kindle, so I downloaded it and dug in.  This book isn't very long, I would say long short story or novellete range and is a fairly quick read. 

The story takes place in a post apocolyptic future where it seems war has sent us back to the middle ages, at least technically.  Man was forced to relearn such essential skills as glass and candle making.  The system that has developed in society is one of communism; communism so deep that characters refer to themselves as we and only think about their actions in light of how they will affect their brothers.  Equality 7-2521 is a character that doesn't fit in and has a love of knowledge and decides to pursue his yearning for knowledge despite being assigned the position of street sweeper.

The book is obviously an attack on communism.  Rand makes the arguement that the individual is more important than the group, and that individuals following their desires will do more to benefit society.  She shows that working and accomplishing something on your own is more rewarding than having that same thing given to you.  She argues that the human spirit needs individualism and will strive for it. 

I enjoyed the book.  I don't think this work is the one people feel so ademantly opposed to.  While you may not agree with her politically, this is a fairly unoffensive story.  The story is fairly predictable in format and feels like a lot of other Science Fiction from that time period, but some of the writing is very good.  One chapter towards the end when our friend Equality is discovering his own philosophy is a great example.  I would recommend this one highly. 


"There is nothing to take a man's freeedom away from him, save other men."

"What is my joy if all hands, even the unclean, can reach into it?  What is my wisdom,  if even the foos can dictate to me?  What is my freedom, if all creatures, even the botched and impotent, are my masters?  What is my life, if I am to bow, to agree, and to obey?"

Super Shorts: 20th Century Ghosts, by Joe Hill

I admit that I had a certain amount of skepticism about Joe Hill as a writer. Being the son of Stephen King, I couldn’t help but think that just maybe he hadn’t quite earned his entrance into the world of publishing the way that other writers had.

I felt a little vindicated with this feeling when I read his novel Heart Shaped Box, because I liked the book well enough, but I didn’t feel it was really ground-breaking or noteworthy in particular.

So, it was with a bit of a raised eyebrow that I noticed his short story collection 20^thCentury Ghosts had won the Stoker Award for Best Collection in 2005. Based on that award, I decided to give Hill another shot.

And I’m glad I did. 20^th Century Ghosts is stellar collection of short stories. As you might expect, there’s a good portion of horror, other “supernatural” type stories, and even a couple that are surprisingly sweet natured.

20th Century Ghosts, by Joe Hill

There are two trends in the stories throughout this collection that set it apart from other “good” horror collections. The first is the sheer imaginativeness behind so many of the ideas. For example, Pop Art was based on perhaps the most absurd-sounding premise I’ve heard in a long time, but in the end was probably one the best and most emotional stories in the book. My Father’s Mask was disturbing in that it portrayed a don’t-look-too-closely world that seemed like ours, but had some damn unsettling things going on behind the scenes.

The second thing that Hill excelled at in these stories is breaking the expected “horror story” formats and cadences. Hill even pokes fun at this in the first story, Best New Horror, which is about a horror magazine editor who has seen it all and read it all a thousand times. Like that jaded and cynical editor, I found something new, interesting, and occasionally truly horrific in Hill’s stories. They are constantly taking unexpected turns leaving the reader (or in my case, the listener) off balance. They also tend to end at unexpected times, almost in mid-story sometimes (or at least that’s the way it felt), leaving the reader to stop, put away their expectations, and consider that ending — and the entire story in a new light.

Just a superb collection. I will definitely re-visit these stories again and again.

Five stars.

Book Review: Graveminder, by Melissa Marr

A couple of months ago, I was casting about for a new audiobook to listen to and it happened to be right as Goodreads was releasing its Readers Choice Awards for 2011. Melissa Marr’s novel Graveminder won Best Horror, so I decided to give it a shot.

In the story, a young woman, Rebekkah Barrow (also, 2011 Egregious Name-Spelling Award Winner), is called back to her hometown of Claysville (vaguely Ozark-y/Appalachia-y) after her grandmother is mysteriously murdered. Rebekkah has fond memories of her grandmother, following her through graveyards as she tended the graves of the dead (I mean, who doesn’t?). Because apparently, the dead in Claysville don’t always stay dead…

What transpires is a tale the restless dead, family secrets, star-crossed love, trips to the Underworld, and deals with the devil, or sort of devil, or something, I’m not really sure, because it’s never made very clear, but it’s very clear that he’s The Bad Guy.

One thing that is very clear, however, is that Graveminder is a patchwork of supernatural cliches that never rises above formula and seems to be trying very very hard to capture the same audience as Charlaine Harris and Sookie Stackhouse. Sadly, this book sinks below what I would expect for even something mediocre — mostly because I feel that Marr was lazy.

At the beginning of the story, Rebekkah contemplates her youth back in Claysville from her apartment in the Gaslight district of San Diego. That’s a hard task, because there ISno Gaslight district in San Diego. It’s Gaslamp. Do you know how long it took me to find the correct use of Gaslamp versus Gaslight? About 40 seconds on Wikipedia. To me, that’s a lazy author (and editor). Now that may seem picky, but horror authors require readers’ suspension of disbelief to be effective, so being credible in other parts of the story is critically important. So she began to lose me almost from the outset. Still, I had hope.

Later, we learn that the “normal” citizens of Claysville get headaches and forgetful when confronted with anything supernatural. Seriously? That’s the way you’re going to handle the fact that someone sees a kid that died last week walking down the street? They just get a headache and forget it? How convenient. Then, when someone manages to man-up and ask a question, you get statements like, “Things are just different here” and “That’s the way things are here.” Oy. Again, I can’t suspend that much disbelief and for a storyteller, that’s just lazy.

Later, we find out that there’s a secret contract between the powers that be in the town and the Bad Guy. Rebekkah’s love interest goes to the Underworld and signs it (for a new generation) in blood without reading it. Without. Reading. It. I’m just going to stop here.

Clearly, by winning the Goodreads Readers Choice Award, there are a lot of people that liked Graveminder. Obviously, I’m not one of them.

One star out of five

Book Review: The City & The City, by China Mieville

One of my favorite books from a couple of years ago was Kraken by China Mieville. I enjoyed that audiobook so much that there was a part of me that had some trepidation about reading more of Mieville’s books because I worried that maybe they wouldn’t be as good as that first one, right? Please tell me that I’m not the only person that feels this way when they first discover a new writer or band.

Anyway, I overcame my perhaps unwarranted hesitancy and read Mieville’s novel previous to Kraken: The City and The City. At its core, it’s a detective novel. The setting is the rival Eastern European-ish cities of Beszel and Ul Qoma. A woman from one city is found dead in the other and haggard Beszel detective Tyador Borlu must work through the barriers in his own corrupt department as well as navigate the other city-state’s unfamiliar customs and inherent distrust to solve the crime.

Now, this might sound all pretty straightforward, but Mieville’s innovation is the locale. Beszel and Ul Qoma aren’t neighboring cities like East and West Berlin, or Buda and Pest. Their streets and buildings literally co-occupy the same space. This creates an environment in which citizens of one city are required to “unsee” and “unhear” the citizens of the other, even though they might be walking down the same street or sitting on the same park bench. Monitoring everyone from both cities is the (almost) all-seeing secret police, Breach, which ruthlessly “disappears” offenders that break the rules of separation.

Of course, Mieville is too subtle a writer to spell things out with exposition. He just dunks you right in and makes you figure the nuances of this world out for yourself. For me, this caused the first several chapters to be downright disorienting. And I found that slightly off-balance feeling staying with me during the entire book – which I’m pretty sure was the intention all along.

The overlapping cities and the beaten down, paranoid police-state culture that comes with it are the real stars of the book and create a palpable noir feel. Of course, the construct invites clear parallels to our own society, whether it’s “unseeing” the homeless person you walk past everyday, or “unhearing” facts that disagree with your own political worldview, or having a population that’s willfully ignorant. These contemplations lingered with me long after I put the book down.

The City and The City is solid detective mystery set in one of the most original backgrounds I’ve come across in a long time that can even induce a little self-reflection. See? Nothing to worry about.

Four solid stars.

Zone One- A second look

Based on Steve's review of Zone One, I decided to pick it up.  This book isn't really your normal zombie novel.  It doesn't concentrate so much on the gore and is more philisophical.  This effect is magnified as the author writes in a stream of conciousness style.  The main character is suffer from PASD (post apocalypse stress disorder) so this stream of conciousness can jump around quite a bit and not seem to make much sense.  There are many instances where the timeline just shifts without any warning.  It makes the book a much slower read, but it is still a good story and quite enjoyable.  It is actually a litterary zombie story.  I think Steve's assessment of a 4 is fair.  I am not a huge fan of stream of conciousness, but this one was still engaging. 


Here are some things I clipped from this novel:
"Time slowed down in situations like this, to grant dread a bigger stage."
"He stopped hooking up with other people once he realized that the first thing he did was calculate whether or not he could out run them."

Yes the book is dark.  I won't say it is for everyone, but it is good. 

Never Let Me Go- book/movie review

The novel and movie Never Let Me Go are about those volatile times in England that we like to call the 1980s.  Yes, as we learn, the 80s had an organ harvesting program that harvested organs from clones.  I am actually not sure why the Author, Kazuo Ishiguro placed the events of the story in the past.  I have seen the novel called dystopian, but I don’t really agree with that definition.  Most people, not in the organ donor program, live happy, non inhibited lives. 

The novel was very well written and takes place from the perspective of Kathy.  We follow Kathy through her childhood as she befriends Ruth and Tommy.  Ruth is super manipulative and Kathy is weak enough that she allows herself to be manipulated by her for most of the story.  It is pretty obvious that Kathy loves Tommy right from the very start. 

The characters grow, but not as much as you would expect from a novel that covers the span of twenty-something years.  This might be due to the sheltered way in which they grew up.  They do grow, but they never seem to lose the innocence of children.

Two major ideas are presented in Never Let Me Go.  The first is “what makes a human human.  As the children are all clones, do they matter.  Are they real people.  The characters struggle with the idea of having originals and it seems that individually they come to a consensus that their originals were probably not normal members of society.  The second idea explored was that of sacrifice.  Most donors where able to donate about three times before completing.  That is three lives exchanged for the one and I am sure when a donor did complete, they would harvest the additional organs.  So the death of one person can save many lives, and this person (at least someone from Hailsham) lives a pretty comfortable/leisurely life up until they start donating.  Hailsham does close and it is hinted that the other schools are nowhere near this nice.  So the novel asks the questions What is a person’s life worth, especially if the person isn’t really a person. 

Overall, it was a very interesting book/movie that takes place in an alternate past.  I don’t see it as being very realistic though.  I can’t see a humanity that is willing to raise kids as spare parts, clones or not.  I would say the movie and book are 13+ minimum.  Worth a read and a watch.

MogWorld-Yahtzee Croshaw

Yahtzee Croshaw sets out to create a fantasy novel that takes place in the world of an MMORPG(massively multiplayer online role-playing game, think World of Warcraft) from the perspective of NPCs(non player characters).  He succeeds in doing this and in telling a pretty good story along the way. 

Jim is the hero, no scratch that, the protagonist of the story.  He is dead, but he got better.  He is accompanied by Meryle and Thaddeus (both also dead, but got better).  Jim pretty much wants to find out how to get dead again and stay that way, but something has happened to the world and for the last 15 years, anytime someone dies, they get a new body at the nearest church (except for Jim and company, as they died pre “infusion”).  This happening was called the “infusion” and it coincided with a lot of people all of a sudden turning to adventurers and setting out on the adventurer’s trail. 

This book is full of witty dialogue and humorously pokes fun of its MMORPG/fantasy source material.  Croshaw develops the characters so that you actually care about NPCs, that in itself is impressive.  It reads lightening quick and whenever it is in danger of slowing down, “Slippery John” shows up to speed things back up.  You don’t have to play online role-playing games to enjoy this book, I don’t.  A passing knowledge of the genre would be all that was necessary.  If you think you want to read it but are unfamiliar with role-playing games.  Pick any game and play it for half an hour and you should be set.  I would put this one at 14 and up age wise.  I think anyone can enjoy it. 

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

The name is punny.  Get it, because the word for the number nine in Japanese is pronounced “Q.”  It doesn’t really have much to do with Orwell’s 1984 though, so I am not sure why he went with that title.  It may had made more sense to use a different but adjacent year to avoid comparisons.  The title, although punny, is just one example of poor forethought on this book though. 

I generally love Murakami’s books.  Well not including the last three.  Kafka on the shore wasn’t horrible, but it just came off as completely pretentious.  What I Talk About When I Talk About Running was completely pretentious and not very enjoyable at all.  I will summarize that one.  Murakami is better than you and knows more than doctors, when he tries hard he can do anything including running marathons while battling pneumonia and hooked up to a respirator after having both lungs removed (yeah he can even have pneumonia with both lungs removed).  Wait this is a review for 1Q84. 

This book is a hot mess.  Did Murakami edit this himself; maybe the day after he wrote it.  This was supposed to be his opus and I guess no one wanted to tell him that his signature piece was deeply flawed.  Well onto the flaws I guess.

1. The translation sucks.  It is translated by Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel.  The fact that it took two people to translate it says a lot to me.  Gabriel translated Kafka on the Shore, which I also thought had problems.  He seems to do direct translation of puns and idioms.  Rubin has translated my favorite Murakami books, so maybe he wasn’t too involved. 

2. The book was too long.  For fun, I thought I would look for the longest book on my Kindle.  Oh look there is the Count of Monte Cristo that has to be it, right?  Nope, a bit further down beating it by like three dots, was 1Q84.  Not that long books aren’t good.  The Stand is a favorite and I enjoyed the heck out of the Count of Monte Cristo.  But this book has a tendency to repeat the same things over and over.  I get it, Aomame’s face looks scary when she is angry and Fuka Eri talks funny.  Please stop hitting me over the head with it. 

3. There is no climax.  As usual, in a Murakami story, several of the characters do, but the story just never hits a high point.  I think any part that could have been a high point is weighed down with over philosophizing and self actualization.  Tengo and Aomame meeting should have been huge, but it just kind of sputters.  Aomame and the leader should have been great but apparently everyone in Japan talks in riddles and no one asks direct questions.  Either way, What felt like buildup towards a climax, never really climaxes.  We only get halfway up that hill before Murakami decides to take us around the long way. 

4. Unresolved plot threads.  This story develops characters and makes them central to the story, until they aren’t and then it abandon’s them to never be seen or heard from again.  At the end, you hardly no more about anything than you did at the end.  What happens to those two Sakigake guys, the dowager, Fuka Eri, or even the little people. 

5. Pedophilia.  Murakami has danced around this one in the past.  I am looking at you Wind up Bird.  Kafka has a younger man/older woman dynamic that society seems to find more acceptable, but 1Q84 has men sleeping with underage girls all over the place.  It is explained away but comes across as excuses so that Murakami could include these scenes that he obviously has always wanted to write.  But hey Tengo was paralyzed, so that makes it okay.  Not to mention that someone slipped Aomame a mickey, or it at least seemed that way. 

6. Tengo is superman.  Tengo is perfect.  He can cook, he is clean, he is a brilliant mathematician and teacher, he lives frugally, he doesn’t watch TV, he is excellent at Judo, he is a great writer, he is a stud that woo anything female, he is an excellent musician that can learn an instrument in a week and then play complicated pieces of music at a concert the following week to great acclaim.  All this and the whole time you are reading him, he comes off as mildly retarded.  The character is completely unrealistic.  Aomame and Fuka Eri seem to be fantasies of what Murakami thinks the perfect women would be. 

Overall-This book was in serious need of an editor and took over a month and a half for me to read. It would often put me to sleep and at one point I just started scanning past paragraphs of inner dialogue at a time.  There are at least two points when the perspective of the novel changes mid chapter, which pulled me right out of the book.  Is there an interesting book in here, maybe, but you would have to go after what we were presented with an axe to find it.  Any of the flaws I found in of themselves wouldn’t completely ruin a book, but put them together and I find it impossible to recommend this book.  It felt like a waste of the large amount of time that I spent reading it.  Don’t read this book.  Read Wind Up Bird Chronicles thrice or Norwegian Wood four to five times instead.  This one sucked.