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trilbynorton's reviews
255 reviews
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
4.0
The continuous use of like nadsat is a real horrorshow way of getting us to inhabit the bezoomny mind of our molodoy droog Alex, and it is a malenky bit uncomfortable a mesto to inhabit.
But the final chapter (excised for Kubrick's film adaptation) does let the book down. It's not so much that Alex's decision to be good is a poor ending - after all, whether it is better to be forced or to decide to be good is the point of the book - it's that it has Alex decide to become a normal, functioning member of a society which the book has spent most of it's length describing as deeply flawed. Burgess doesn't so much advocate for goodness as he does for complacency, something which, whatever you think of it, the film can't be accused of.
But the final chapter (excised for Kubrick's film adaptation) does let the book down. It's not so much that Alex's decision to be good is a poor ending - after all, whether it is better to be forced or to decide to be good is the point of the book - it's that it has Alex decide to become a normal, functioning member of a society which the book has spent most of it's length describing as deeply flawed. Burgess doesn't so much advocate for goodness as he does for complacency, something which, whatever you think of it, the film can't be accused of.
Knight and Shadow by Flint Maxwell
2.0
The epigraph comprises quotations from Stephen King's The Dark Tower series and Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, two works that, unfortunately, this book only resembles in the scantest of surface details. It's a pulpy adventure which strives to mix gritty Western novels with high fantasy, to only limited success. It moves along at a brisk pace, liberally sprinkles the action throughout, and doesn't outstay its welcome (I should point out that this is the first in a planned series, and so ends rather abruptly). But the prose is clunky (one character is described as "built and macho"), the tone uneven, and the worldbuilding derivative. Fine for a quick read, but I won't be following the series.
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
5.0
Though written in the late 1960s, and so beholden to that periods mores (male pronouns abound), Le Guin's travelogue/anthropological fiction/culture shock SF feels in many ways written for the current cultural moment. The book deals with several themes, including loyalty, cultural progress, and mysticism, but it is its treatment of gender that stands out the most. The people of the wintry planet Gethen are ambisexual, only entering into a sexual state at the end of their lunar cycle, at which point they assume, without choice, male or female gender. Genly Ai, an envoy of a galactic federation, has been sent to invite the Gethenians to join the rest of humankind. Gender has almost no meaning for the Gethenians, yet to Ai it is the most importanrt thing about them and central to his understanding of the Gethenians. In this way, The Left Hand of Darkness reveals gender as both arbitrary and all-encompassing.
The Last Unicorn: Deluxe Edition by Peter S. Beagle
5.0
The Last Unicorn is a book filled with magic. Yes, there is a unicorn and a magician and a kingdom under a curse. But there is also magic in the smallest details. Minutes crawl over a character like worms. A road rushes those walking upon it. Night coils like a snake in the streets of a town. The towers of a castle stalk the sky. On the surface the story is about a unicorn searching for the rest of her kind, and various humans' attempts to possess her (in one form or another). But it is also about the magic and wonder that can be found everywhere, if you just have patience, open your eyes, and know where to look.