"Command the murderous chalices! Drink ye harpooners! Drink and swear, ye men that man the deathful whaleboat's bow -- Death to Moby Dick!" So Captain Ahab binds his crew to fulfil his obsession -- the destruction of the great white whale. Under his lordly but maniacal command the Pequod's commercial mission is perverted to one of vengeance. To Ahab, the monster that destroyed his body is not a creature, but the symbol of "some unknown but still reasoning thing." Uncowed by natural disasters, ill omens, even death, Ahab urges his ship towards "the undeliverable, nameless perils of the whale." Key letters from Melville to Nathaniel Hawthorne are printed at the end of this volume. - Back cover.
A nice break from the Seeker adventures yet still one in a way. This book also introduced us more into how this universe works. What the Voids really are, how travel works, the trinkets, and the systems in place.
There were a few errors, like how one gate was opened by this character but a few paragraphs later the gate was supposedly opened and closed by the other character. There was also a rule about using trinkets, a restriction on what you can use but was multiple times ignored in the rest of the novel. Or, I could have misunderstood this trinket rule/restriction.
Regardless of those, full 5 stars for book 3! Now, let's begin the real adventure in book 4!
Oh, didn't I mention how the characters grew? Well done on building them up and keeping them realistic, characters we can relate to.
Review of 'Moby-Dick, or, the Whale by Herman Melville : (Penguin and Amazon Original Classic Seller List)' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
What do I think about such an epic, Iliad and Odyssey combined, in a 19th century leviathanic novel of such proportions? Would I dare to add something of my own to such a renowned work?
This is not the kind of book you would grasp at first reading; and this was my first. There’s simply too much content for a fly-by reading such as mine to take it fully. There is simply too much, way too much to even venture a justifiable review.
With all that out of the way, the only thing I can add is the personal remark about if reading a book of such a magnitude is worthy of the time and patience to delve into this almost unknown world of the past. Is it? Is this time well spent? I believe it is; that if you don’t mind coming up to the same conclusion as I …
What do I think about such an epic, Iliad and Odyssey combined, in a 19th century leviathanic novel of such proportions? Would I dare to add something of my own to such a renowned work?
This is not the kind of book you would grasp at first reading; and this was my first. There’s simply too much content for a fly-by reading such as mine to take it fully. There is simply too much, way too much to even venture a justifiable review.
With all that out of the way, the only thing I can add is the personal remark about if reading a book of such a magnitude is worthy of the time and patience to delve into this almost unknown world of the past. Is it? Is this time well spent? I believe it is; that if you don’t mind coming up to the same conclusion as I did that one reading is not enough and one reading just gives you a glimpse of what’s underneath this mythical tale of man against nature.
When all else is considered; when you understand that only by taking it whole you can at least gain some reverence for the work and the genius behind it, you may come to the same conclusion that I did: it was worthy of my time; it was time well spent. Now I have to lay it dormant and hope the seeds I now planted may grow into something more insightful in the future. “There she blows!” (MELVILLE, 1851): maybe next time I'll give this whale a proper hunt.
As someone who loves Herman Melville's work, I can explain. This rating is ALMOST a three, I swear!
I'll never understand why out of all of Melville's work, this is one that's remained his namesake. At the time of writing, Melville was riding high off of previous works like "Typee" and "Omoo" (even if the latter wasn't nearly as popular). "The Whale" was the beginning of the end for ol' Herman's fall from grace. An estimated less than three hundred copies were sold at its release, and only just recently has it risen from the depths and taken on the title of The Greatest American Novel Ever Written.
Is it written well? You bet! Some of Melville's most gorgeously descriptive prose is littered throughout this monster of a book, you just have to get through all of the chapters about harpoons and rope to find it.
For many people, this …
As someone who loves Herman Melville's work, I can explain. This rating is ALMOST a three, I swear!
I'll never understand why out of all of Melville's work, this is one that's remained his namesake. At the time of writing, Melville was riding high off of previous works like "Typee" and "Omoo" (even if the latter wasn't nearly as popular). "The Whale" was the beginning of the end for ol' Herman's fall from grace. An estimated less than three hundred copies were sold at its release, and only just recently has it risen from the depths and taken on the title of The Greatest American Novel Ever Written.
Is it written well? You bet! Some of Melville's most gorgeously descriptive prose is littered throughout this monster of a book, you just have to get through all of the chapters about harpoons and rope to find it.
For many people, this will be the only Melville they know. They'll never see his (supposedly true but probably not) high-flying adventures in the Polynesian islands in "Typee". It may have been his first novel, but it's always the one I recommend to people first when it comes to Melville's library. It's either that or his excellent short stories.
"The Whale" certainly has found a deep emotional connection with a lot of people, but I'm not one of them. Never mind the fact that the descriptions of the whaling itself is often as abhorrent as it is beautiful in style, it just has so much riddled in there that it doesn't need.
I liked the parts when Ishmael talked about whales, but not so much when they killed them. The soliloquies were great. The end was kinda fast for my taste.
Review of 'Moby-Dick, or, The whale' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
A round-the-world quest full of whaling lore, 1850s marine biology, Old Testament allusion and allegory, philosophy, humor, adventure, and struggles with destiny, all written with mastery of the English language. It very well could be my favorite novel. Lower your boat and read it!
Goodreads allows 20,000 characters for book reviews: Is it possible to provide an acceptable review of [b:Moby-Dick|2388|Moby-Dick|Jan Needle|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388729715s/2388.jpg|40862486] in so few bytes? I suspect not, so this is not a review so much as some memorable moments.
The tale begins with a plentitude of clippings from and references to historical sources about whales, giving the story a sense of depth that can only be described anachronistically as decidedly Tolkienian. I confess I did not read them all, and I don't believe it was strictly necessary to have done so. Upon recognizing, not merely intellectually but emotionally as well ("Thinking is, or ought to be, a coolness and a calmness; and our poor hearts throb, and our poor brains beat too much for that"), that there exists more recorded history and lore about whales than you ever realized before, you have fully entered the Faërie which Melville has prepared for you. …
Goodreads allows 20,000 characters for book reviews: Is it possible to provide an acceptable review of [b:Moby-Dick|2388|Moby-Dick|Jan Needle|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388729715s/2388.jpg|40862486] in so few bytes? I suspect not, so this is not a review so much as some memorable moments.
The tale begins with a plentitude of clippings from and references to historical sources about whales, giving the story a sense of depth that can only be described anachronistically as decidedly Tolkienian. I confess I did not read them all, and I don't believe it was strictly necessary to have done so. Upon recognizing, not merely intellectually but emotionally as well ("Thinking is, or ought to be, a coolness and a calmness; and our poor hearts throb, and our poor brains beat too much for that"), that there exists more recorded history and lore about whales than you ever realized before, you have fully entered the Faërie which Melville has prepared for you. For make no doubt: Moby-Dick is, above all, the story of man's journey into the Perilous Realm.
I was unprepared for how existential and atheistic (or at least deistic) the story is. In particular, the ending of the story proper, ignoring the requisite closing frame of the epilogue, could have swapped places with the last paragraph in [b:A Canticle for Leibowitz|164154|A Canticle for Leibowitz (St. Leibowitz, #1)|Walter M. Miller Jr.|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1329408540s/164154.jpg|250975]: “Now small fowls flew screaming over the yet yawning gulf; a sullen white surf beat against its steep sides; then all collapsed, and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago.” — I half-expected Melville to have added, "He was very hungry that season."
Forgive me if I don't try to describe the entirety of the text between that opening barrage and the closing swell.
Really 4 1/2 stars and I'll tell you why in a minute.
When I was about half way done with this tome I came upon this quote "... For there is no folly of the beast which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men." (Or something close to that i dont have the book in front of me at this second). And that pretty much sums up Moby Dick in a few words.
This is a very good book, some might even say an excellent book but damn it's a long book, sometimes a tedious book, sometimes an almost intolerable book. This story is told by that long winded friend we all have who just can't give you the abbreviated version of a story but the kind who has to give you every single littlest detail, backtrack, add asides, explanations, puts you on hold while she takes another …
Really 4 1/2 stars and I'll tell you why in a minute.
When I was about half way done with this tome I came upon this quote "... For there is no folly of the beast which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men." (Or something close to that i dont have the book in front of me at this second). And that pretty much sums up Moby Dick in a few words.
This is a very good book, some might even say an excellent book but damn it's a long book, sometimes a tedious book, sometimes an almost intolerable book. This story is told by that long winded friend we all have who just can't give you the abbreviated version of a story but the kind who has to give you every single littlest detail, backtrack, add asides, explanations, puts you on hold while she takes another call, on and on, but dang it, she tells excellent stories and you can't help but be drawn in and try to be patient when she goes into an extranious explanation. That is Melville. He has a leviathan of a story to tell you of a leviathan and he's not taking any shortcuts. So board the whale ship, sit back and be prepared for an extended journey (and ahem, sometimes those guys were out at sea for 3 years or more, lol).
And damn if I didn't learn a lot about whales. Mostly because I had to keep googling whales and wow and holy cow, I never did much consider whales. Never really cared all that much being more practical minded and caught up in the everyday world, which face it, doesn't have much to do with whales. But never mind, I now know more than I ever wanted about whales, sperm oil, baleen, whale boats, you name it. I even watched one video on YouTube where a humpbacked whale was caught up in a fishing net and I was moved to tears as the rescuers raced to save her life. Good lord.
And really all the explanations about whales I found interesting enough, life aboard the ship, okay, vignettes on certain characters and personalities fine, but it was the hunt itself, the more action packed parts of the story when most readers say "fuck yeah, finally!" where I balked. I just couldn't stand the slaughter. I HATED all the plumes of blood spewing from the blowhole churning water and death throes and all that. In one part they come across a pod of whales where one mama whale gives birth to baby whale, and well, I don't know because I skipped that part!
The last quarter of the book seemed to drag on for me. Yes, okay we get it Ahab is batshit crazy. Evil omens and tidings of great calamities everywhere, dear god just get on with it already. So that kind of did me in hence the subtraction of a half star. But that's just me. Symbolism, allegory, God and fate all that and a whale of a tale.
A dangerously intelligent mutant sea mammal plays manipulative mind games with a disabled ship Captain in this dark and fatalistic retelling of the Biblical story of Jonah and the Whale.
Told from the perspective of the Captain's best friend and closest confidante, this is the perfect beach novel for anyone who loves heavily descriptive encyclopedia entries and harpoons.
It's trite to call this a tour-de-force, an epic, the paragon of all that's good in American novels, the apotheosis of the obsessive, independent, profit-driven, reflective, maddening American psyche. It's trite, but it's also true. I know I've read a better book: the Commedia, certainly, but I don't know if I read it as possessed by the language.
So laden with metaphor and consequence, Moby Dick is an intense and purposeful drag. There's a lot of real tension mixed in with extensive philosophizing (hemming and hawing), lecturing, and worrying. There are also a lot of beautiful passages and genuine forehead-slapping moments to make you consider larger points like fate and reason.
Moby Dick is also a challenge to get through. It was the hardest I have fought not to abandon a work in a couple of years and I think I was rewarded for it. If Ahab is the stand-in for mankind, here, in his struggle with Fate, the experience of reading this novel might be a personal metaphor for the same thing. Or perhaps it mirrors the life of these whalers - rare peaks of tension, panic, and striving to break up the 99% flat gray sea, flat gray gruel, flat gray routine.
What separates this from …
So laden with metaphor and consequence, Moby Dick is an intense and purposeful drag. There's a lot of real tension mixed in with extensive philosophizing (hemming and hawing), lecturing, and worrying. There are also a lot of beautiful passages and genuine forehead-slapping moments to make you consider larger points like fate and reason.
Moby Dick is also a challenge to get through. It was the hardest I have fought not to abandon a work in a couple of years and I think I was rewarded for it. If Ahab is the stand-in for mankind, here, in his struggle with Fate, the experience of reading this novel might be a personal metaphor for the same thing. Or perhaps it mirrors the life of these whalers - rare peaks of tension, panic, and striving to break up the 99% flat gray sea, flat gray gruel, flat gray routine.
What separates this from something like, say, 1Q84 as a heavy and challenging novel? I don't know if I should construct an answer for that or just leave it open. I think we all know how Moby Dick ends and we read it anyway - knowing that the book is supposed to mean something we invest in the quest to find out what it is. It's not about the narrative payoff so much as the journey and what we learn on the way. Melville scores points for making me care about a cast of characters. While I complain about how authors treat their creations sometimes, and these characters are poorly treated (no doubt), the suffering of Melville's sailors serves a larger purpose than punching me in the gut for an emotional reaction (and critical kudos).
I'll be thinking on this for longer than I ought, most likely. Perhaps I'll come back and edit for clarity or changing opinions in a week.
Not really sure what the hype was about. While I definitely felt fully immersed in the whaler life, I really got tired of hearing about whales being described by someone whom considers himself an authority without having actually been a whaler before.
