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ospalh commented on Far From True by Linwood Barclay (Promise Falls, #2)

Linwood Barclay: Far From True (Paperback, 2016, ORION, Orion)

"When private investigator Cal Weaver looks into a break-in at the home of a recently …

Content warning Plot relevant tech noobery

Eh, could have put it in the main review. Anyway.

This book is set in the present, 2016, and we even get a one line mention of the short-fingered vulgarian as a politician. Still, this does not read like 2016. Main point is the central idea that media can’t be copied. There is a ton of talks about destroying video-DVDs, and not a single mention of maybe having dumped the raw video to a computer. Does that even work? Are there cameras that record directly to DVDs? I ges you could hook them up to some DVD-recorder. At some point the »discs« are even called tapes. Even VHS tapes could be copied by rather inexperienced folks.

ospalh reviewed Far From True by Linwood Barclay (Promise Falls, #2)

"When private investigator Cal Weaver looks into a break-in at the home of a recently …

Part 2 of 4

2 stars

Content warning mentions of violence, sexualized violence, plot points

Nowhere on the cover or inside the book does it say that this is part of a series. Nothing to keep you from picking this up on its own. No »Book 2 in the Promise Falls series«.

It just starts in the middle of some half dozen convoluted stories with tons and tons of characters you are supposed to be familiar with, they go around raping and murdering and being nasty to each other in not quite that evil ways for a while, a few new characters (i presume) are introduced, and we leave the story just as much in the middle of it like we came in.

The point i had the most problems with, story wise, is that there wasn’t as clear of a distinction between consensual orgies and gang rapes. Basically »Oh, no! What happens when news of our orgies come out?« »Orgies? You worry about orgies? You roofied and raped women!« »Yeah, if news of that got out, it would be a little bit worse.«

I also didn’t like how Crystal was described in general.

Pretty much the only adult who wasn’t an arsehole was that one lady who wanted to leave the town even before she could sell her house.

Writing-wise there was a lot of padding. And that about a quarter is written in first person and the rest in third is baffling. It isn’t to get better action scenes. One of the big ones isn't first person, and the one that is is just confusing.

ospalh commented on Far From True by Linwood Barclay (Promise Falls, #2)

"When private investigator Cal Weaver looks into a break-in at the home of a recently …

Content warning Plot point

Plot Twist! Ok, i did not expect the bit at the end of chapter 36. Then again, thinking about it, the great plot twist ... doesn’t really change much. That must be a talent of its own, inventing a plot twist, that is than rolled out for more than one whole other chapter, only to not really change the story at all.

ospalh reviewed Liars For Jesus, Volume 1 by Chris Rodda (Liars for Jesus, #1)

Chris Rodda: Liars For Jesus, Volume 1 (Paperback, 2007, BookSurge Publishing)

Good for its target audience

5 stars

So, no, i did not read this thru. This isn’t really a book to read thru. It is laser focused on its target audience, and i’m not it. It does what it does, and does it well.

What it does is provide detailed responses for people annoyed about false claims about how the USA was always a Christian country, and how the politicians¹ of the First Republic² and the early Second Republic³.

1 This group of politicians is given a name in the USA. I think this name is silly and won’t use it 2 The time of the Articles of Confederation⁴ 3 The time of the constitution of 1789

ospalh commented on Liars For Jesus, Volume 1 by Chris Rodda (Liars for Jesus, #1)

Content warning Font rant

This just looks ugly to me. The font, that is. Using Caslon was a great idea. Very fitting. The Declaration of Independence, that is, the Dunlap broadsheet, was set in it, so a book about that area: great font choice. But. Bringhurst has this to say on Caslon: »(...) His work is the typographic epitome of the English Baroque(.) (...) Caslon was the first great English typecutter, and in the English speaking world his type has long possessed the semi-legendary, unexciting status of the pipe and slippers, good used car and favorite chair.« So. High praise for a font. But the text goes on: »(M)any of the faces sold as Caslon now are merely parodies.« Yeah. Like ITC Caslon. This book is set in ITC Caslon, and i think it is just ugly. Some of it, like the inconsistent contrast, may be because this is print on demand. Some of it, like the f, the g and the T, wouldn’t be much better if set in metal.

ospalh commented on Far From True by Linwood Barclay (Promise Falls, #2)

"When private investigator Cal Weaver looks into a break-in at the home of a recently …

Ugh. Do i have to make a list about who is who? I may have to make a list about who is who. We have Cal and Celeste, we have George and Georgina, we have Dwayne and Derek. Adam and Miriam may be dead, and Adam’s daughter what’s-her-name. Looks like the late Adam may be important. But maybe George and Derek are only there to tie this book to other books set in the town and they won’t be in later chapters. Or maybe not. I don’t want that. That’s too much work. I pickt this up for free and if i read it at all it should be as a distraction, with minimum effort.

ospalh reviewed Hybrids by Robert J. Sawyer (Neanderthal Parallax, #3)

Robert J. Sawyer: Hybrids (Paperback, 2004, Tor Science Fiction)

Ran out of pages

3 stars

Content warning plot relevant genetics

Again outdated biology. Significant parts were outdated when Sawyer wrote this. Like the whole bit with »there is no fusion site, the telomeres from gene 2 and 3 (should have been 12 and 13) completely disappeared« was known to be wrong for over ten years by then. There are basically two telomeres stuck together in the middle of chromosome 2. That is how we know it was a fusion, and have known since 1991.

The end was very rushed, narratively. What to do with the personal villain? Have him commit suicide. Elaborate what it means that only women but not men can move to the parallel world? Eh, not worth more than about a page of text. What to do with the whole god organ? Have everyone have a vision at the same time, but I’m out of paper, so I can’t do anything with this.

And one more thing for the whole trilogy: The thing is very gender essentialist. Men this, women that. Men have XY chromosomes, women XX. Men are hunters, women gatherers. Oh, yeah. Literal mammoth hunters. Looking at real hunter gatherer societies, it is never that strict. Even here we have one woman hunter, but she’s a literal outlaw, in the »not protected (!) by law« sense.

Again, you can read this without thinking too much about it, and than it is an OK book.

ospalh reviewed Humans by Robert J. Sawyer (Neanderthal Parallax, #2)

Robert J. Sawyer: Humans (Paperback, 2003, Tor Books)

Book two of a trilogy

2 stars

So, which parts of the story are in part 2. Let me think. No, that was part one, that was part three. Not all that much happening. Well, not that much apart from all the discussions of god – believing in one is good, because otherwise people wouldn’t we OK with politicians sending people to war¹ – and eugenics – great, all you need is a society without classes or poverty, and without different races to start with.

Yeah, no. I used to like it, but my thought was »Well, obviously eugenics won’t work, because we have racism and poverty« but if that is the point you want to make, you have to hammer it home mercilessly. That wasn’t done here. And a few sentences on a web page along the lines of »I don’t believe in what I write in my novels« doesn’t cut it for me.

Oh, and …

So, which parts of the story are in part 2. Let me think. No, that was part one, that was part three. Not all that much happening. Well, not that much apart from all the discussions of god – believing in one is good, because otherwise people wouldn’t we OK with politicians sending people to war¹ – and eugenics – great, all you need is a society without classes or poverty, and without different races to start with.

Yeah, no. I used to like it, but my thought was »Well, obviously eugenics won’t work, because we have racism and poverty« but if that is the point you want to make, you have to hammer it home mercilessly. That wasn’t done here. And a few sentences on a web page along the lines of »I don’t believe in what I write in my novels« doesn’t cut it for me.

Oh, and here we are getting more and more bits, where the science here became outdated. The paleontology i mean, the parallel universes is the fiction bit in science fiction. Mainly the Neanderthal genome project, the gene flow between Homo species &c. Stuff like the Denisovans: he, let’s sequence the genome from this Neanderthal bone next. ... Hmm. You know, that isn’t a Neanderthal, but another species of human.

1 I think that was the point of the Vietnam war memorial scene? That believe in god makes what should be unbearable – people dying in a pointless war – bearable.

ospalh reviewed Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer (Neanderthal Parallax, #1)

Robert J. Sawyer: Hominids (2003, Tor Science Fiction)

Total surveilance is great

3 stars

... if people just weren’t people. That is, if they weren’t interested in pelf and power and weren’t at all curious. I don’t believe a word of the note added at the top here: sfwriter.com/privacy.htm You don’t write a whole novel about how great it would be if you could always prove your innocence if you didn’t mean it.

I believe that Bruce Schneiers burn stung so much that Sawyer thought he had to do something. »(W)henever I see a tourist attraction with a guest register, (...) I sign “Robert J. Sawyer, Toronto, ON”—because you never know when he’ll need an alibi.« www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/09/robert_sawyers.html

Anyway, if you don’t think about it too much, it’s a fun¹ story. Neanderthal quantum physicists!

1 OK. Entertaining. The trauma the author thought he needed to inflict on the protagonist to get an unsolved crime – see what happens without alibi archives! – is no fun.

ospalh reviewed The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi

Paolo Bacigalupi: The Water Knife (2015, Alfred A. Knopf)

In a future hammered by climate change and drought, mountain snows have turned to rain, …

Too bleak

3 stars

I couldn’t get past chapter 9. It was all too bleak and hopeless. Will there be solidarity and cooperation after the climate collapse? I don’t know but i want to – have to – hope so. But the author’s answer (up to the point i got to) is a clear »No!«.

ospalh reviewed Duel in the Deep by David Sears

David Sears: Duel in the Deep (2023, Naval Institute Press)

Meh.

3 stars

I don’t really know what i expected here. One destroyer vs. u-boat duel isn’t really enough for a novel-style – and especially novel-length – book. So we get lots of biographical sketches of all the people on the destroyer USS Borie. These just aren’t very interesting. Nobody’s fault, but i don’t have to read it, so i don’t.

ospalh commented on Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk

Chuck Palahniuk: Survivor (2000, Vintage)

Tender Branson, the last surviving member of the Creedish death cult, has commandeered a Boeing …

Also, the plan of the protagonist has at least two, maybe four major flaws: • He is telling his 6 h sop story to a CVR that overwrites anything older than 2 h. • NTSB and ATSB are about transport safety, and analyze accidents: what can be done so that this won’t happen again. What recommendations for pilots, maintenance staff, airlines as a whole &c. can be derived from this? • Even if NTSB & ATSB would analyze the 2 h of CVR, they won’t publish that »manifest«. • Also, with the given parameters the aircraft would probably crash somewhere in the middle of Australia. But the guy might mess it up and crash into the ocean much sooner, and even if they want to, they might not actually get to the black boxes, if they are deep down in the ocean.

ospalh commented on Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk

Tender Branson, the last surviving member of the Creedish death cult, has commandeered a Boeing …

Ugh. I reject the premise set out in the first chapter (»47«. Very clever, the backwards chapter and page numbering 🙄). That being that we should listen to a guy’s story because he destroyed millions worth of equipment and coerced hundreds of people. In the name of aviation safety: not »listening« to the »CVR« is the one thing that will deter copycats the most.

ospalh commented on Esperanto-Lesebuch by Herbert Mayer (Serio Instruo, #14)

Herbert Mayer: Esperanto-Lesebuch (Paperback, German language, 1995, Pro Esperanto)

Es ist aus einem »Mini-Verlag«. Da will ich mal nicht soo viel über den Schriftsatz lästern. Nur ein bisschen. Schriftart ist Bookman. OK. Kann man nehmen. Die Schrift hat zwei »ß«s. ein mit und eins ohne Unterlänge. Aus Gründen. Das ganze sieht etwas verschwommen aus, was eigentlich Spitzen sein soll, sind abgerundet. I-punkte laufen mit ihren i’s zusammen. Zu viel Tinte? Schlecht fokussierter Belichter?

ospalh reviewed Esperanto-Lesebuch by Herbert Mayer (Serio Instruo, #14)

Zu wenig Texte

3 stars

Nicht was ich dachte. Das ist eher ein Lehr- als ein Lesebuch. Ich dachte, wir kriegten so ¾ kurze, einfache aber interessante Esperanto-Texte. Vielleicht mit ein paar Worterklärungen, und nichts weiter. Pustekuchen. Alle Texte sind, um Seiten zu schinden, doppelt, und dann gibt es lange Wortlisten, esperanto und deutsch, und dann nochmal eine Übersetzung, die natürlich die Wörter der Liste wiederholt. Ich fühl mich betuppt. Ich will mehr Texte! Am ende haben wir viel Erklärungen auf Deutsch, was denn in dem Teil vom Poemo de Utnoa steht, den wir nicht im Original zu sehen kriegen. Tolle Idee. Nicht.