tiggum's reviews
729 reviews

Did not finish book. Stopped at 18%.

I'm pretty sure Noon likes Lewis Carroll, L Frank Baum and Terry Pratchett, Unfortunately, he's not in their league. Take their writing and flatten it out: remove the wit, the whimsy, and the creativity and you'll have this book.

Osama by Lavie Tidhar

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mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

I gave this book the benefit of the doubt because it seemed like it was going somewhere, but it turns out it was going to the most obvious and hacky place it possibly could have. The moment-to-moment writing is good, but the plot is frustrating because the protagonist simply refuses to engage with it. Repeatedly, he's told things that he doesn't understand and he essentially shrugs and keeps going without seeking any clarification - often even telling other characters that he understands what they mean when he absolutely does not. And there is a reason for that, but it is absolutely not a satisfying one and it takes far too long to get to it.

Despite its flaws, it might have worked as a short story. But it does not work as a novel.

Content Warnings

Alanya to Alanya by L. Timmel Duchamp

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challenging dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

This book is very good, but very bleak. The state of the world at the beginning is entirely plausible, and the idea that the only thing that can prevent or undo it is the arrival of godlike aliens all too easy to accept. Yes, it would be very nice if some friendly aliens showed up and fixed everything - and this is certainly a more realistic portrayal of that concept than the more common options of utopia imposed without resistance, or spontaneous and unanimous raising of consciousness - but the basic premise is still entirely unrealistic. No one's coming to save us.

The only issue I had with the book otherwise was that the protagonists's

selective amnesia

is awfully convenient, allowing her to be the sort of person she needs to be for the plot to happen while being in a position that that sort of person would never be in. It's fine though. It works.

Content Warnings

A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling

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slow-paced

I HATE this book. I'm absolutely certain that a really good book could have been written about these events and circumstances, so it's an absolute tragedy that this one was instead.

This book lacks any kind of structure or coherence. It jumps forward and backward through time, between different topics and narratives, from person to person, seemingly without rhyme or reason. It is impossible to follow any sequence, keep track of any individual, or place any event in time. The book reads like it was cut into pieces and pasted back together random.

The author injects his opinions and prejudices into the book frequently and obnoxiously, and makes no distinction between established fact and wild conjecture. The most egregious example is the entire chapter about Charles Nicolle's research in the early twentieth century leading to Hongoltz-Hetling's completely baseless theory that Toxoplasma gondii may be responsible, to some unspecified degree, for the behaviour of some or all of the bears and humans involved. It's pure speculation but presented almost as fact.

And each chapter begins with a quotation about bears, or that mentions bears, or that just has the word "bear" in it. These quotations don't relate to the subject of the chapter, nor to anything else that I could see. They're just there because the author liked them, I guess.

This book is infuriatingly bad. It should not exist.

Content Warnings

The Philosopher's Stone by Colin Wilson

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 31%.

I wanted to see where this was going. I really did. But I just couldn't do it. Listening to this dumb motherfucker; this "dark enlightenment" shithead; this arrogant wanker who thinks he invented philosophy and mastered science when he doesn't know the first thing about either; I couldn't do it. I cannot read another word.

I can't tell if the author thinks like this guy or if he just wrote an entirely believable character, but the character is unbearable. All the more so for apparently living in a universe where his extremely stupid ideas are all true. This is wish fulfilment fantasy of the highest order for every 14-year-old who just discovered Jordan Peterson and atheism.

And it goes on. And on. And on. It's one unending stream of consciousness from this idiot who thinks he's the the first one to think about anything and that actually it is everyone else who is stupid. Fucking hell.

Content Warnings