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A review by wagmore
Polar by T.R. Pearson
3.0
Every computer programmer learns about the "stack" data structure in Computer Science 101. If you have a stack, you can stick a piece of information onto it (we geeks say you've "pushed" the information). Then you can push something else, and so forth, as many times as you like, or until your computer runs out of memory. If you want to get a piece of information back from the stack ("pop"), it better be the last one you pushed, because that's the only piece of information that is accessible on a stack. I could re-state this whole paragraph more economically:
Stacks are referred to as LIFO data structures--last in, first out. The analogy is to--and the name comes from--a stack of dishes.
In a way, reading T.R. Pearson's work is like reading a stack. You start reading a story, but before it's finished, another story gets pushed, and sometimes, another, then maybe another. The stories in this book, like most of the others by Mr. Pearson that I've read so far, pour out, gush out onto the pages. They tumble over each other in their rush to get told. Some of them are short and some are long. Sometimes they get overlaid on each other so that, by the time all of those stories unwind--get popped off the stack--you've almost forgotten the story that started that particular stack! That's part of the fun of reading these books; if you need a strictly linear rendering of plot in your books, you might not like this style. This book is more about characterization and local color and, of course, storytelling, than it is about plot.
I enjoy reading Mr. Pearson's work a lot. Polar seemed a little more diffuse than others of his. For whatever reason, I didn't find myself slowing down towards the end of the book, trying to delay the inevitable end, like I so often do with books I enjoy the most.
Recommended.
stack.pop(stack.push(x)) = x;
Stacks are referred to as LIFO data structures--last in, first out. The analogy is to--and the name comes from--a stack of dishes.
In a way, reading T.R. Pearson's work is like reading a stack. You start reading a story, but before it's finished, another story gets pushed, and sometimes, another, then maybe another. The stories in this book, like most of the others by Mr. Pearson that I've read so far, pour out, gush out onto the pages. They tumble over each other in their rush to get told. Some of them are short and some are long. Sometimes they get overlaid on each other so that, by the time all of those stories unwind--get popped off the stack--you've almost forgotten the story that started that particular stack! That's part of the fun of reading these books; if you need a strictly linear rendering of plot in your books, you might not like this style. This book is more about characterization and local color and, of course, storytelling, than it is about plot.
I enjoy reading Mr. Pearson's work a lot. Polar seemed a little more diffuse than others of his. For whatever reason, I didn't find myself slowing down towards the end of the book, trying to delay the inevitable end, like I so often do with books I enjoy the most.
Recommended.