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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
quite delightful. i was drawn to this one because of the obvious art reference but it turned out to be a fun off beat sci fi ish adventure. love a rando read.
I hope the rest of you 2017 books are ready. This one will be near impossible to beat.
I tried reading this physical book And put it down.
Fast forward I recently tried again listening to the audible version.
I got a little further this time around but I just cant find the value in finishing.
I’m figuring if I can’t get through this novel two time two ways I just don’t like it.
Fast forward I recently tried again listening to the audible version.
I got a little further this time around but I just cant find the value in finishing.
I’m figuring if I can’t get through this novel two time two ways I just don’t like it.
Well! This was one weird, whacky ride guys. I found this title through the recommendations of Goodreads, and in the description it literally summed up many themes and tropes that I really enjoy. So.. I was thinking that this would be a straight forward read, nothing really unusual, despite the description stating some telltale hints that this may be trippy. Though trippy is good...it can be. As I began I suppose I had some idea and thoughts as to how this would play out. I was thinking it would be a very Pan's Labryinth type novel. I was right and wrong...I was pleased, and disappointed... and I was excited to continue, and bored to continue. Not all at the same time of course..Okay let me start from the top...
So the story here begins (but by god it definitely does not stay here) in the 1960's. We're introduced to a really interesting character named Lytten, who's described as a professor (not sure if he actually is or not, but he's very intelligent, and worked for the military intelligence during WWII) is a reclusive person. The term, hermit may be a bit much, but he's not exactly the most talkative and socially outgoing person. He's introduced to us as a writer, but not the normal novel writer who aspires to get his work published or even really seen. In fact...If he published it, or gave it to others, his safe space and place of quiet would be gone and ripped apart.He belongs to a small book club of gentlemen who all like and enjoy their escapism through writing. They get away from their wives and personal lives and convene together to read to each other, talk and converse about usually science fiction or fantasy writing. The author here makes note that Henry Lytten either knew personally or studied the works of Tolkien and C.S Lewis. In fact Tolkein's world comes into play into the story!
Litten's home life is secluded, quiet, and only point of contact mostly, is a young 15 year old girl, Rosie, who is bookish and inquisitive herself.
She comes over to feed Litten's cat, but secretly always hopes he's around since he gives her lessons and doesn't treat her like 'a girl'. He home life is bad, no one likes or appreciates that she's smart and educated. They think these are not good traits for a girl to have. She's a bit shunned and outcast as well.
Litten is working on a new kind of book, that's a departure from his normal fantasy, tolkein and lewis like writing.
From this point we're then introduced to another world or timeline. We can resumeably assume and I think that it's fairly well implied that the storyline we're showed is the story that Lytten is writing.
There's multiple characters introduced here. The main character, a young boy named Jay. This '2nd' world that is introduced is very complex and it's society has a very narrative based lifestyle. They tell stories, and even have folks dedicated to preserving story lines, and history. Instead of the Bible, they have "The Story". It's not a holy or religious text, but it's revered as "THE DOCUMENT" to reference for anything.. For example Jay was quized on why Iron was better than Bronze, but instead of citing a passage from "The Story" he skipped the class, and went and found a real blacksmith and talked to him. Henri, his mentor (reminds me of the relationship of Qui Gon Jin > Obi Wan > Anakin. Qui Gon dies, like Etheren, and the reluctant tutor, Henri/ObiWan but train Anakin/Jay who is rebelous but smart and clever)
The book was off to a strong start. But as this progressed, the fantasy world that we were shown, called Anterworld, to me just wasn't (initially) as interesting as the main 1960's story. Even though we're not given a lot of time with Lytten, his relationship to Rosie, and his interaction with the world, and time period really had me. Then we're sort of whisked away to another story. Now I knew going in that this would be a story relating two different worlds, so ..okay. But my gripe and annoyance came with this, is that we're really pummeled with the amount of character's we're introduced to.
This only continues as the story digs in. The way the story progresses and is written is actually what turned me off the most. It's written in such a way that events happen in one storyline. Then later on, either sooner or later, we're shown the same "scene" through the eyes of another person. While this is very cool in a more straightforward story, it doesn't do as well when we already have jumping time frames. We also were introduced to a 3rd world. A future dystopian that really pulled me out of the story. It wasn't until way way later in the book that I sort of began to "get" that future story. My problem I believe is that I may have taken the book too lightly up front. And because I listen to my audiobooks, I will admit there are times that you do get distracted and you may *think* you heard what was going on, but you could have missed major key pieces and nuainced story. So going towards the middle of the book, my excitement level had dipped to a point where I actually was sort of angry and disappointed. To me, it had started off to good and rich, but the author barrages you with so many (seemingly) random events, and multiple stories, it was just too much and the characters were just names at that point. I went from really caring about the core set of characters, Lytten, Angela, and Rosie, but all of these other's where popping up and from the readers perspective, offered nothing but distraction.
The character of Angela grew on me once I forced myself to settle down and focus more on the characters...
So in Angela's future, the gov't (apparently there's only 1?) has removed pretty much all free thinking, sadness, 2nd thought, and doubt from people. Art is frowned upon because it would inspire free radical thinking. There are groups/cults and outliers that resist. They stage protests, revolt cause "Terroist" acts. They have forest retreats and camps/towns away from the main society. They shun all forms of modern (future) medicine. Medicine has advanced to the point where people, Angela included, she was one of the elite, before she turned, can taken medicine or undergo treatment to reduce effective age. This isn't an infinite solution, as it sounds like they do still age, but it can add on decades and decades.
So the members of these groups that resist dont' and ignore all forms of gov't aid. Drugs in people's food keep dreams surpressed, democracy is abolished. The resisters are arrested, killed or have their brains wiped. Angela who worked for the gov't research division, defects. She realizes that the Elite class is horrid and wants to go about to change history to see if she can change how her future is. Hence why she's been secretly working and using the gov't facilities to development the time machine. (I wish the "future world" was more fleshed out and explored.) She explains to Rosie that in her future, her boss wants to make money with the idea of multiple realities.
So Angela is using Anteworld to 'calibrate' her machine. She actually doesn't really care about the world specifically, just needs someplace stable enough to stay open, and not collapse until she has the data she needs. She's a 'psycho-mathimatician'. Cute. Normally I love me some dystopian stories. But this one just seems very very generic, it offers pretty much what every other dystopian story has...Censorship, resistance, evil, meglamaniac gov't...etc. Been there done that...
Now at this point let me share my thoughts to my fellow audio listeners... John Lee's narration of Angela is pretty bad… Normally his stuff is spot on, but Angela as a woman, he completely destroys. Then there's the matter of her own personal narration is done by someone else, a woman. They should have gotten her to do ALL of her narrating, cause it's very disjointed and jarring when the same character, one done by a man and the other a woman, clash so heavily, it's very jarring and doesn't come off well at all...
My last bit of complaining here (my last I promise! I actually DID enjoy this book!) is the sort of lazy way the author chooses to explain what's going on. Now on one hand, I relied heavily on this type of exposition in that it's very clear, straightforward and it lays it all out. Unfortunately this comes off very artifical. The rest of the story is very 'fluid' and feels like the story flows. But during these parts of "Whoa, slow down and let's recap" moments, things are explained through the eyes of usually someone from the "Future" story line. It's not a killer, and again it actaully helped me piece of things together, but it's not very... clever, which clashes with the rest of the books style.
Okay, so I've laid out a lot of grievences with the book. But I actually rebounded and as I began really really paying attention and trying harder to make the connections between the characters in all three worlds, it turned into a very Cloud Atlas like story. While it's not as well done as Cloud Atlas. I love the idea of Lytten's story being a sort of center piece to different events. While the reveal and climax at the end felt way too much like a James Bond evil villain plot (c'mon...high jack a nuke and bomb the world? Couldn't be a tad more inventive...?) it tied in well with the idea of cause and effect.
Talks about altering the past. Unfortunately changing an event is generally compensated but other events forming to "heal" the change. Example given is JFK / Nixon election, and up to Reagan's election. Two variations of outcome. Reminds me heavily of Stephen King's book,
"11/22/63"
The book here then makes attempts to tie all three worlds together, with some characters crossing between them. The fact that Lytten created Anterworld, he puts and makes many of the people he's met in his life into character in his book. This also has a very Wizard of Oz take, as by the end of the book he's introduced to them, which are oddly reflections of his own mind. I really enjoyed this part, and I can't help but think that this book would have been so much better if it stayed simple, really work on the "god like" character of Lytten over his world, and not go to deep into the evil cliche gov't organization story...
It was a good book, but sort of tried to do too much. It sort of felt like going on a date with a third wheel. Many parts and stories, really got in the way of a story that would have been a very pure and elegant story, of time, causality, and decisions we make in life.
So the story here begins (but by god it definitely does not stay here) in the 1960's. We're introduced to a really interesting character named Lytten, who's described as a professor (not sure if he actually is or not, but he's very intelligent, and worked for the military intelligence during WWII) is a reclusive person. The term, hermit may be a bit much, but he's not exactly the most talkative and socially outgoing person. He's introduced to us as a writer, but not the normal novel writer who aspires to get his work published or even really seen. In fact...If he published it, or gave it to others, his safe space and place of quiet would be gone and ripped apart.He belongs to a small book club of gentlemen who all like and enjoy their escapism through writing. They get away from their wives and personal lives and convene together to read to each other, talk and converse about usually science fiction or fantasy writing. The author here makes note that Henry Lytten either knew personally or studied the works of Tolkien and C.S Lewis. In fact Tolkein's world comes into play into the story!
Litten's home life is secluded, quiet, and only point of contact mostly, is a young 15 year old girl, Rosie, who is bookish and inquisitive herself.
She comes over to feed Litten's cat, but secretly always hopes he's around since he gives her lessons and doesn't treat her like 'a girl'. He home life is bad, no one likes or appreciates that she's smart and educated. They think these are not good traits for a girl to have. She's a bit shunned and outcast as well.
Litten is working on a new kind of book, that's a departure from his normal fantasy, tolkein and lewis like writing.
From this point we're then introduced to another world or timeline. We can resumeably assume and I think that it's fairly well implied that the storyline we're showed is the story that Lytten is writing.
There's multiple characters introduced here. The main character, a young boy named Jay. This '2nd' world that is introduced is very complex and it's society has a very narrative based lifestyle. They tell stories, and even have folks dedicated to preserving story lines, and history. Instead of the Bible, they have "The Story". It's not a holy or religious text, but it's revered as "THE DOCUMENT" to reference for anything.. For example Jay was quized on why Iron was better than Bronze, but instead of citing a passage from "The Story" he skipped the class, and went and found a real blacksmith and talked to him. Henri, his mentor (reminds me of the relationship of Qui Gon Jin > Obi Wan > Anakin. Qui Gon dies, like Etheren, and the reluctant tutor, Henri/ObiWan but train Anakin/Jay who is rebelous but smart and clever)
The book was off to a strong start. But as this progressed, the fantasy world that we were shown, called Anterworld, to me just wasn't (initially) as interesting as the main 1960's story. Even though we're not given a lot of time with Lytten, his relationship to Rosie, and his interaction with the world, and time period really had me. Then we're sort of whisked away to another story. Now I knew going in that this would be a story relating two different worlds, so ..okay. But my gripe and annoyance came with this, is that we're really pummeled with the amount of character's we're introduced to.
This only continues as the story digs in. The way the story progresses and is written is actually what turned me off the most. It's written in such a way that events happen in one storyline. Then later on, either sooner or later, we're shown the same "scene" through the eyes of another person. While this is very cool in a more straightforward story, it doesn't do as well when we already have jumping time frames. We also were introduced to a 3rd world. A future dystopian that really pulled me out of the story. It wasn't until way way later in the book that I sort of began to "get" that future story. My problem I believe is that I may have taken the book too lightly up front. And because I listen to my audiobooks, I will admit there are times that you do get distracted and you may *think* you heard what was going on, but you could have missed major key pieces and nuainced story. So going towards the middle of the book, my excitement level had dipped to a point where I actually was sort of angry and disappointed. To me, it had started off to good and rich, but the author barrages you with so many (seemingly) random events, and multiple stories, it was just too much and the characters were just names at that point. I went from really caring about the core set of characters, Lytten, Angela, and Rosie, but all of these other's where popping up and from the readers perspective, offered nothing but distraction.
The character of Angela grew on me once I forced myself to settle down and focus more on the characters...
So in Angela's future, the gov't (apparently there's only 1?) has removed pretty much all free thinking, sadness, 2nd thought, and doubt from people. Art is frowned upon because it would inspire free radical thinking. There are groups/cults and outliers that resist. They stage protests, revolt cause "Terroist" acts. They have forest retreats and camps/towns away from the main society. They shun all forms of modern (future) medicine. Medicine has advanced to the point where people, Angela included, she was one of the elite, before she turned, can taken medicine or undergo treatment to reduce effective age. This isn't an infinite solution, as it sounds like they do still age, but it can add on decades and decades.
So the members of these groups that resist dont' and ignore all forms of gov't aid. Drugs in people's food keep dreams surpressed, democracy is abolished. The resisters are arrested, killed or have their brains wiped. Angela who worked for the gov't research division, defects. She realizes that the Elite class is horrid and wants to go about to change history to see if she can change how her future is. Hence why she's been secretly working and using the gov't facilities to development the time machine. (I wish the "future world" was more fleshed out and explored.) She explains to Rosie that in her future, her boss wants to make money with the idea of multiple realities.
So Angela is using Anteworld to 'calibrate' her machine. She actually doesn't really care about the world specifically, just needs someplace stable enough to stay open, and not collapse until she has the data she needs. She's a 'psycho-mathimatician'. Cute. Normally I love me some dystopian stories. But this one just seems very very generic, it offers pretty much what every other dystopian story has...Censorship, resistance, evil, meglamaniac gov't...etc. Been there done that...
Now at this point let me share my thoughts to my fellow audio listeners... John Lee's narration of Angela is pretty bad… Normally his stuff is spot on, but Angela as a woman, he completely destroys. Then there's the matter of her own personal narration is done by someone else, a woman. They should have gotten her to do ALL of her narrating, cause it's very disjointed and jarring when the same character, one done by a man and the other a woman, clash so heavily, it's very jarring and doesn't come off well at all...
My last bit of complaining here (my last I promise! I actually DID enjoy this book!) is the sort of lazy way the author chooses to explain what's going on. Now on one hand, I relied heavily on this type of exposition in that it's very clear, straightforward and it lays it all out. Unfortunately this comes off very artifical. The rest of the story is very 'fluid' and feels like the story flows. But during these parts of "Whoa, slow down and let's recap" moments, things are explained through the eyes of usually someone from the "Future" story line. It's not a killer, and again it actaully helped me piece of things together, but it's not very... clever, which clashes with the rest of the books style.
Okay, so I've laid out a lot of grievences with the book. But I actually rebounded and as I began really really paying attention and trying harder to make the connections between the characters in all three worlds, it turned into a very Cloud Atlas like story. While it's not as well done as Cloud Atlas. I love the idea of Lytten's story being a sort of center piece to different events. While the reveal and climax at the end felt way too much like a James Bond evil villain plot (c'mon...high jack a nuke and bomb the world? Couldn't be a tad more inventive...?) it tied in well with the idea of cause and effect.
Talks about altering the past. Unfortunately changing an event is generally compensated but other events forming to "heal" the change. Example given is JFK / Nixon election, and up to Reagan's election. Two variations of outcome. Reminds me heavily of Stephen King's book,
"11/22/63"
The book here then makes attempts to tie all three worlds together, with some characters crossing between them. The fact that Lytten created Anterworld, he puts and makes many of the people he's met in his life into character in his book. This also has a very Wizard of Oz take, as by the end of the book he's introduced to them, which are oddly reflections of his own mind. I really enjoyed this part, and I can't help but think that this book would have been so much better if it stayed simple, really work on the "god like" character of Lytten over his world, and not go to deep into the evil cliche gov't organization story...
It was a good book, but sort of tried to do too much. It sort of felt like going on a date with a third wheel. Many parts and stories, really got in the way of a story that would have been a very pure and elegant story, of time, causality, and decisions we make in life.
Heads up: this book is slightly frustrating to get into the groove of. I put it down in annoyance at least twice, but am glad I restarted it the third time.
I am used to Pears' capabilities to tell the same story from multiple perspectives, and am truly in love with how he accomplished this in "Arcadia."
My one complaint on the story arc is that he leaves you to fill in the last piece of the puzzle, Gestalt-style. While he gives you all the pieces to do so, it still would have been nice to have him close out the Story for you.
This story is intricate and detailed and beautifully woven together.
I am used to Pears' capabilities to tell the same story from multiple perspectives, and am truly in love with how he accomplished this in "Arcadia."
My one complaint on the story arc is that he leaves you to fill in the last piece of the puzzle, Gestalt-style. While he gives you all the pieces to do so, it still would have been nice to have him close out the Story for you.
This story is intricate and detailed and beautifully woven together.
Arcadia "is a spy story, a fantasy, a historical novel, a romance, a mythology and a work of science fiction. It is a meditation on literature and narrative, or just a light-hearted romp. Naturally that means that one strand or another, one theme or another, may displease." That's Iain Pears' description of his book in an article he wrote describing why you should read it with using an app. Perhaps unfortunately, I didn't know that when I ran across the book, and didn't read it that way.
For someone about to read the book, I think that it will be interesting to know that Pears' intended there to be all these interwoven plot threads that fell (somewhat loosely) into the categories he mentions above. Even without knowing it, the book is recommended and well worth reading. It doesn't quite rise to the heights of some of Pears' other works.
For someone about to read the book, I think that it will be interesting to know that Pears' intended there to be all these interwoven plot threads that fell (somewhat loosely) into the categories he mentions above. Even without knowing it, the book is recommended and well worth reading. It doesn't quite rise to the heights of some of Pears' other works.
Now, much like zero, is a placeholder.
If you find that idea dizzyingly intriguing, as I do, I recommend diving in. This book is a great game.
If you find that idea dizzyingly intriguing, as I do, I recommend diving in. This book is a great game.
Everything I want a speculative science fiction/historical fiction/fantasy novel to be - seamless movement between genres.
"Arcadia" is a mildly interesting novel from Iain Pears. It consists of three parallel stories intertwined with each other. Scientists in the future are experimenting with time travel, but they discover that time travel is not what they think. Whatever actions they do seems to be affecting not just the future but sometimes the past, trying to avoid paradoxes. Thus time seems to be a string which can be moved along a single dimension but can also have an impact on the two ends of the string (past and future).
Their trials send several people to the past where they try to figure out what to do, having lost part of their memory in the transition. One of the scientists try to experiment by creating a fantasy world using the sparse writings of an obscure Oxford professor, but the fantasy world and the real world - past and future - start to seep into each other and things get messy.
Very interesting idea, but poorly executed. Halfway through the book I seemed to lose sense of where the story was going and I was not impressed with the way the author carried out the completion of the story, thus a disappointing find.
Their trials send several people to the past where they try to figure out what to do, having lost part of their memory in the transition. One of the scientists try to experiment by creating a fantasy world using the sparse writings of an obscure Oxford professor, but the fantasy world and the real world - past and future - start to seep into each other and things get messy.
Very interesting idea, but poorly executed. Halfway through the book I seemed to lose sense of where the story was going and I was not impressed with the way the author carried out the completion of the story, thus a disappointing find.