Book Review Thread

[Pro A.]

I'll do maybe one or two a day on books that I have read. I'll stick to popular and modern fiction, for the most part, because that is what I read and what interests me, but I will go beyond the limits when I can. It will be done on a four-star scale.

Mystic River, Dennis Lehane, ***1/2

Lehane, who had already established himself as a great hard-nosed mystery writer, does himself one better with this chilling and powerful tale of inner-city Boston with a murder mystery at the center. Three characters: Sean, Jimmy, and Dave, were changed forever when they were kids, and now they are pulled back together. All of them are fighting inner demons and all of them have an axe to grind. The story is almost poetic as it delves deep into the human emotion. Lehane pulls out all of the stops to drive the reader deep into the characters and he succeeds. He almost gets it done perfectly, but the ending is a bit off in tone and scope. All the same, a modern virtuoso work of art told by one of the best modern storytellers.

[Silent Strife]

Great Idea, Pro A. I think you'll agree we need more members to post at this board that read on a regular basis.

Incidently, what are you reading at the moment?

I am currently reading Hyperion by Dan Simmons.

[Pro A.]

Currently, I am reading a couple of books. The Parsifal Mosaic is one, Star Wars: Shatterpoint is another, and I am waiting for the Episode III novelization.

[Pro A.]

Star Wars: Heir to the Empire, Timothy Zahn, ***1/2

The first authorized novel to take place after Return of the Jedi gets the game going in a grand, epic style that captures the right overtones of the SW trilogy and taking it in new directions. The story takes place five years after Jedi. The Empire is falling apart and they have been given a new leader in Grand Admiral Thrawn, their greatest strategist, who has returned from the Unknown Regions to lead them to victory. His scheme is wild and dangerous and it threatens the stability of the New Republic. Old characters like Luke and Han and Leia fit well in the new universe with the new characters. Thrawn is an inspired character and is probably the best villain ever for a SW story. New allies like Mara Jade and Talon Karrde bring a helpful layer of sophistication. Zahn gets it right with strong, verbose writing. The end is too abrupt. Another thirty pages would have done it. A strong debut.

[bobo_ess]

^I love that series..a true sequel to Return of the jedi

[Pro A.]

Star Wars: Dark Force Rising, Timothy Zahn, ***1/2

Zahn proved yet again why he is the best of the Star Wars authors by delivering another exceptional story. He juggles six or seven major storylines and weaves them together. The best one is Luke learning about the mad clone C'Baoth and trying to keep the former Emperor's Hand, Mara Jade, from assassinating him. The rest work in building up to an impressive climax. The only quibble with the story is that Thrawn might be a little too smart for this story. It doesn't seem right that he would be omniscient. The good guys get too many lucky breaks. All the same, another strong entry by a very good writer.

[Cofey]

You taking requests? I'd like to know what you think of LOTR, if you've read it.

[Pro A.]

I will get around to that, as soon as I finish the trio I started.

The Last Command, Timothy Zahn, ***

The final book of the trilogy sets the stage for endgame as Grand Admiral Thrawn plans to end the war with his inventive and unconventional strategies. Included are a laser-trick that can create a fantastic illusion and using invisible asteroids to drop near a planet's orbit. Luke, Leia, and Han decide to go after the Emperor's cloning storehouse on Wayland with the help of Mara Jade. Meanwhile, Ackbar enlists the help of Talon Karrde to go after a major shipyard, where Thrawn is waiting. Very well done until the end, where things became a little too outrageous. The end of Thrawn is a little too easy, though it is ripe in irony. Probably could have been tightened up a bit. A solid final entry. Zahn would return to the novel scene four years later.

[Ravster]

I got LOTR bumper book and im half way through TTT, very good book, just like the movies

[Pro A.]

Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien, ***

The follow-up to The Hobbit has a lot of background information to go through, but once it does it gets going. The book has a very slow, meticulous pace that will turn off some readers. There is a lot of rich prose to be found in here, but one has to be patient to allow it to come. The characters aren't as well-drawn out as they could have been, but this is only the first book, and it really serves as nothing more than the jumping point for the story. Very good start to the famous trilogy.

[Cofey]

I got LOTR bumper book and im half way through TTT, very good book, just like the movies
Not sure what you mean by bumper book, but there's no way you're reading the actual trilogy if the books you have follow the movies at all.

[Pro A.]

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, J.R.R. Tolkien, ***1/2

Not having a lot of exposition to go through really helps the follow-up as it gets going from the word go and absorbs the reader in a very well-told story that continues the saga from several perspectives. On one end we have Aragorn and his band trying to stop the forces of Sauron and we also have Frodo and Sam trying to get the ring to Mount Doom. They dominate most of the narrative, but there are plenty of side-plots that connect with the main story by the end of the story. Not too much to fault. The story lags in the middle, but that is nothing too severe. A fine book for the hobbit in us.

[Pro A.]

Star Wars Episode III: ROTS, Matt Stover, ***

Certainly the best of the three movie adaptations of the pre-trilogy and it ranks with the other movie adaptations, if not surpasses them. Stover, who has come down as the best author of the new wave of Star Wars authors, uses a very vivid visual image to present us a story that is filled with joy, sorrow, tragedy, victory, and heartbreak. The characters seem to be on target in their characterizations. There are a few things that some of the novice readers won't understand, especially Stover's references to his previous novel Shatterpoint, and the final third of the novel is a bit of a letdown, but it has a much stronger pace than Episode I and none of the overblown mannerisms of Episode II.

[Flaccid Acid]

A Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy- The first book of five in the hitchiker seires. A major motion picture of this book is coming out late this month. I really liked this book. It was funny, the plot and characters were smart, and it had a lot of very insightful views on everything. Combining Sci-Fi with comedy, this book is a classic. Arthur Dent is just an average English man living his life. He wakes up one day to find out his house has long been schedualed for demolition to make room for a overpass for a highway. The Earth is also having similar problems, with it about to be demolished by Vogons from across the galaxy to in order to make a hyperspace highway. Arthur is saved seconds before the earth explodes by his friend Ford Prefect, who he had no idea was a Alien, standed on earth, and working as a writer for the hitch hikers guidebook to the galaxy, a electronic book that does just what the name implies. This book chronicles Arthurs first few adventures in space.


The Resturant at the end of the universe- The second in the hitchhiker series. I enjoyed this book a lot, althought perhaps loosing a little of the first books magic and wonder, it still holds its own.

Life the Universe and Everything- Third in the hitchhiker series- I liked this book. Although the ending wasn't very sastisfing, and the characters seem to get thrown around in various settings so quickly that it gets confusing.

So long and thanks for all the fish- Fouth hitchhiker book- I found this one very odd. No longer in space, it's about Arthur finding love in a girl he meets on earth. Somehow some earth of a slight alternate demention. In this demention, A atom colided with the genetic structure of a plant on earth causing it to now naturaly grow 4 leaves, this became the 4 leaf clover, which is normal in this demention. This caused a great deal of minor differnces in the characters. This book was strange. If you want to read about Arthur having sex while flying in the clouds (very very long story). I liked the ending though, Arthur, Fenchurch (the new love of his life) and Ford Prefect go in search of gods final message to his creation, they find marvin the paranoid andriod, (been in the series since the first book) who is perhaps the most unfortunant thing in the universe, having said to be 23 times older than the universe (time travel is common) Anyway I liked the ending of this book best.

[Pro A.]

American Tabloid, James Ellroy, ****

Perhaps the best novel of the 1990's. Ellroy, who had already established himself as a great detective writer that used tight prose to deliver his action, goes one step deeper as he enters the world of espionage and the mafia, from the perspective of the underworld people. Enter Pete Bondurant, a corrupt ex-LAPD cop working for Howard Hughes; Kemper Boyd, an FBI-CIA liaison assigned to work undercover in the Kennedy group; Ward Littell, an FBI mafia investigator grabbing power and advantage with the people he's investigating and working for. Ellroy deftly uses his prose to take us through a rabbit hole of sex, murder, bribery, betrayal, crime, and history from the fall of Cuba to the JFK killing. A wild, flamboyant, and brilliant book from start to finish, the opening book of the underworld trilogy comes out and hits you in the gut, which is where Ellroy's stuff usually winds up hitting you. This one, however, leaves a much deeper mark than one could even begin to expect.