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3.1 AVERAGE
3.1 AVERAGE
Another 2016 Tournament of Books entry. This starts with a bang and then fizzles at the end. A wife returns from a trip to find her husband has just died and due to a secret contract with a Cryogenic outfit, his head has been removed! Subsequent chapters alternate between the pov of the re-animated husband centuries into the future and the distraught wife trying to come to terms with the consequences of her husband's decision. Well written but the story itself becomes muddled at the end. 3 stars.
I think this is the weirdest book I have ever read and I honestly could have rated it anywhere between two stars and four. It's such a novel concept and there was a lot that I liked, but the second half is a mess.
2.5 out of 5. Chris Adrian is an author who I just don't know how I feel about. A lot of his regular fixtures are here (questions of faith, doctors, hospitals, a hint of magic) but beyond the concept of the story, I was left rather cold. And the e-material is nearly non-existent here. I've not yet read the paperback version of Eli Horowitz's The Silent History but the e-version of that story was built with the app experience in mind: the serialized release schedule as well as the accessible-only-in-that-spot Field Reports. Nothing about this story needs to be read in the app and so we must rely on the story. And the story was nothing extraordinary to speak of. A resounding shrug, as I think longingly about what Atavist Books could've done...
More at RB: http://ragingbiblioholism.com/2015/01/05/the-new-world/
More at RB: http://ragingbiblioholism.com/2015/01/05/the-new-world/
A sweeter meditation on marriage than I expected, though it took until near the end for me to feel really invested in the love between Jane and Jim. The story is paced well and seems confident about what it wants to say, even as I'm not sure I'm listening.
This is a weird, lovely little book, exactly the kind I was expecting. It's unusual, tonally similar to Michel Faber's The Book of Strange New Things, though totally different in nearly every other way.
This was more lovely than I expected, and I'm really glad I dove into this slim little sci-fi love story.
This was more lovely than I expected, and I'm really glad I dove into this slim little sci-fi love story.
Wish I'd read this in the atavist app instead of on kindle - this title did not make the transition well, in fact the gimmickry at the conclusion on kindle mostly just pissed me off.
Read the gizmodo review instead of mine if you want an enthusiast's take on this . . .
Read the gizmodo review instead of mine if you want an enthusiast's take on this . . .
" 'I love you,' Jim said, in a daze. He was worried that he had somehow neglected to mention that in the vows. 'I love you,' she replied, because she was masterful like that--omitting the 'too,' declaring by the omission that nobody ever really went first in love, the 'too' was only an accident of time, not a cause and an effect, not two causes in search of an effect."
The New World intends to tell the story of a marriage from the perspectives of future and past; present realities that separate pediatric surgeon, Jane Cotton, from her deceased chaplain husband Jim whose head has been preserved for the future by the Polaris Corporation.
Throughout the story, they each find that love, and life shared, in all its messiness is far more eternal than deferred hope in life somewhere in the far distant future. Eternity is far less tangible than the eternal now--a moment when we are fully present with one another (such as during the experience of a tender passionate wedding kiss embracing all of our past and future history).
The premise is an interesting one, but an underdeveloped plot, flat characters, intangible realities, and poorly executed back story left me disappointed.
This tale could have been so much more. Instead, it took a shallow dive into the deep mystery of love, and offered a meaningless reflection of life that leads me to recommend this as one tale you should avoid reading.
Throughout the story, they each find that love, and life shared, in all its messiness is far more eternal than deferred hope in life somewhere in the far distant future. Eternity is far less tangible than the eternal now--a moment when we are fully present with one another (such as during the experience of a tender passionate wedding kiss embracing all of our past and future history).
The premise is an interesting one, but an underdeveloped plot, flat characters, intangible realities, and poorly executed back story left me disappointed.
This tale could have been so much more. Instead, it took a shallow dive into the deep mystery of love, and offered a meaningless reflection of life that leads me to recommend this as one tale you should avoid reading.
I think I completely missed the point of this book. Perhaps I dozed off during some section that is meant to make the story thought-provoking or poignant or something more than just odd.