Four Days in The Netherlands

[alobear]

Four days away, four books read (though three of them were pretty short...):

Time Enough For Love by Robert A Heinlein:
I actually finished this one the day before I left for The Netherlands, and I really enjoyed it.  The style of the narrative was a little strange - it was essentially a very extended conversation between various people, with Lazarus telling anecdotes in between discussions of the nature of love and time.  Even when the narrative caught up with the "present" of the story, it would skip portions of time and then have characters relate what had happened to newcomers, while Lazarus' trip to the past was only revealed through his letters to the future.  This meant that almost the whole book was told rather than shown, but that didn't make any less enjoyable.

The way everyone referred to everyone else as "dear" throughout was rather annoying, and parts of the narrative got a bit over-technical, but those were only a minor irritation in an otherwise excellent book.  Interestingly, the title phrase was only (except for once) used to describe "short-lifers" whom Lazarus said didn't have it - and yet he also claimed only to have experienced true love during his "short-life" marriage to Dora.  However, Lazarus would be the first to admit he wasn't always consistent!


The Losers Book One and Book Two (counted as two books in my four-book total, so maybe cheating...) by Andy Diggle:
I bought the second volume of this graphic novel shortly before going away, and packed the first volume to read again before embarking on the new one.  Since reading Book One for the first time, I've read Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and now The Losers character of Aisha really reminds me of Lisbeth Salandar.  I've also watched the film version again in the interim, and noticed that all the best bits of the film are in the graphic novel, plus a lot more very cool stuff - the novel also does not include the more ridiculous aspects of the film's plot, instead focusing mostly on mundane things like guns, oil and drugs.  It's also a lot more unpleasant than the film in places, but this is not a bad thing.

 

Moving on to Book Two, I discovered that the background to The Losers' rogue status was almost exactly the same in film and book.  However, it also revealed that my favourite character (the almost entirely silent Mexican sniper, Cougar) was actually pretty chatty before this incident, and only became silent due to the trauma of what happened.  It was rather a shame to find this out, because I had previously thought it was just a really cool aspect of his personality, making him stand out from the rest of the wise-cracking, whingeing group.

 

Annoyingly, the plot got rather sillier as Book Two progressed, and I found the denouement both ridiculous and quite upsetting.  It certainly wasn't the ending I had been hoping for, but I think the very last frame of the graphic novel just about made it all worthwhile - awesome finish!

 

 

Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley:

This was a lovely little book - less than 100 pages, but thoroughly enjoyable.  It told the story of the bored, unappreciated sister of a successful author, left to manage the farm while he went off on research trips for his books.  She bought a travelling bookshop from a passing peddlar and set off on an adventure of her own, with highly entertaining results.  It had excitement, romance, lots of gentle silliness, great characterisation, lovely descriptive passages - it was just a really good read.

 

 

Storm Front - Dresden Files 1 - by Jim Butcher:

Thanks to corone for a book that was perfect for late nights alone in a hotel.  I wouldn't say there was anything particularly special about it - it was a very standard paranormal detective story (very similar to Mike Carey's Felix Castor series), but there certainly isn't anything wrong with that.  The protagonist was personable, always important in a first person narrator, the story was intriguing enough to keep me reading, with plenty of unexplained back plot to provide depth and additional interest, and a well rounded cast of minor characters I would like to see again in future books in the series - particularly Bob the Skull, who didn't get much of a showing in this one.  It got darker and ickier as it went along (as these kinds of stories generally do), but didn't cross past my squick threshold and maintained suspense throughout an action-packed climax.  I would happily spend more time in this world.

 

 

Comments

[pollyannagoth.livejournal.com]

>I would happily spend more time in this world.

I've got as far as the eighth Dresden File, and am loving them. Word has it that the RPG is also rather good - I'm tempted...

[alobear.livejournal.com]

I would definitely recommend the Felix Castor series, then - they're very similar, only chunkier and with more depth. I can't lend them to you, though, as I already BookMooched them.