Brief Review: The Martian by Andy Weir

The Martian by Andy Weir
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The beautifully told story of Mark Watney, NASA astronaut. The Martian addresses science like nothing I've ever read before. I could not stop reading this book. I would think about getting home from work to read. I would feel like I was wasting precious Martian time whenever the TV was on.

The Martian gave me a new outlook on the term hard Sci-Fi and is easily the best thing I have read from that (admittedly underexplored) genre. The amount of raw data crunching that author Andy Weir must have done for this book is astonishing. I'd be really interested in learning how accurate the math and looney-tunes ideas for surviving really were.

On top of that, not only were all the pages from Mark's journal terrific, but the ever changing looks at what was going on in the outside world were fantastic too. While we only ever saw the world through Mark's eyes via his journal, the other narration (whether it was the NASA chiefs, the crew of the mission, or even the plastic made to provide shelter and protection on Mars) kept me guessing. I never knew how Weir was going to approach a section, but I was never disappointed.

A standout in a sea of good reads for me lately.

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Amazon Link: The Martian

Brief Review: The King in Yellow by R. W. Chambers

The King In Yellow by Robert W. Chambers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The King in Yellow, a book of offputting (in a good way) short stories, is a fun read, plain and simple. As many others have said, the first half of the book (four stories) is more along the lines of what most expect going into this collection. Short stories of normal humans beset by an elusive madness, difficult to understand and seemingly impossible to cure. The source of this madness is a book, which holds the play, "The King in Yellow." Anyone foolish enough to read the tome seems to fall into an irreversible trance. Those stories felt very much akin to a turn of the century Twilight Zone and I sped through them happily.

The second half of the book seems to focus a lot more on that emotion I understand humans call 'love'. These stories are by no means bad. In fact, they are beautifully written, perhaps even more so than the previous four. Several times I found myself stopping and thanking whatever book deities there are that I got this on my Kindle, as a simple point and drag captured the language for my future perusal. The main issue with these stories was, well, they were about the mooshy stuff. Which is all well and good, but I got into reading this book for the occult references and unnatural madnesses.

I found myself wondering what it would have been like to write this. Living in an age of burgeoning progress and knowledge and still so little information about illness, mental or otherwise. People die. People break down. People change and go mad and get sick. But this book was written right at the turn. When people still believed in magical things. But they also began hailing science and technology as new gods. People still weren't sure which side would win. Throw in the uncertainty of the world at the time (at least one thing has remained the same), and you have an entrancing book about unexplainable things like madness and plays and love. It is recommended reading, and I'm fairly sure I haven't lost my mind from it, which is a bonus. I need that.

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Amazon Link: The King in Yellow

Brief Review: Jamestown by Matthew Sharpe

Jamestown by Matthew Sharpe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jamestown is a difficult book to pin down. It is one of those books about which you say, "By turns..." and then list three or four different emotions it made you feel. It is one of those books where you don't really get all of what the author was doing, but you get enough of it that you think to yourself it was really deep. And it probably was.

Jamestown makes me want to learn more about the original Jamestown. Jamestown makes me wonder if it is racist, or perhaps an attempt at post-racism. I mean, even if it is racist, who is it racist against? It's about a post-apocalyptic melting pot of vileness/violence/vindication. Languages are confusing, as to make you read them harder, only to make you realize that this is all sing song, sling slang.

The book is funny. But not like "Haha." More like, "What the hell?" The murder is funny. It evokes slaughter laughter.

I like this book. I'm not sure that I should, but I like it. You might too.

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Amazon Link: Jamestown

Brief Review: Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski

Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An semi-autobiographical story about a boy named Henry Chinaski, Ham on Rye is a series of vignettes about growing up rough. It is raw and unforgivingly real. Its brevity and frankness punch you in the mouth, much like Henry would probably do if you ever met him. Bukowski is a master of transporting the reader into the book. Our protagonist is really kind of an asshole, but you feel terrible for him. He never wins, he never gets better. Growing up for Henry is a series of drinking and fights and losing the few friends he has for some reason or another.

It's hard to say what makes this book so good, but it is eminently hard to put it down, it flows, it dips and dives and jabs. It knocks you in the nose. The minute you think you see the punch coming, it gives you something different. It's a classic for a reason. It's the story of a poor, punk growing up in the 30s and 40s. And when you read it, you realize that things never change all that much. Kids are still kids. The world is still the world. Bukowski saw it for what it was, and then he put it in his book.

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Amazon Link: Ham on Rye: A Novel

Brief Review: Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Of Love and Other Demons is my first Marquez book. I really see the appeal. Even as translated, the language is beautiful and sharp. It makes me wish I could read Spanish as I would love to be able to experience this book in its original form. All of the threads in this book begin at a dog's rabid tooth and flourish away from each other, racing for infinity before inevitably falling short.

It seems that all of the characters in this book flirt with their own ideas of love: religious or secular, chaste or carnal. They are all deeply flawed and that's what makes each character tragic in his or her own way.

The book is slow going and it takes time and patience to penetrate Marquez's thick, weighty text, but if you stick with it and get yourself into a reading groove, you start to see the beauty of his descriptions. That seems to be where Marquez makes his home, tempting his readers in, building the world around them, and showing them the good and bad of each character without judgment. The judgement, he leaves to you.

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Amazon Link: Of Love and Other Demons (Vintage International)