ospalh stopped reading Der Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
Meh. Siehe meinen letzten Kommentar.
User Profile
I may or may not use Simplified Spelling Board rules in my notes.
This link opens in a pop-up window
ospalh's books
User Activity
RSS feed Back
ospalh reviewed Crossing in Berlin by Fletcher Knebel
Promisses not kept
2 stars
As i wrote, the MacGuffin could have made this a great two-part story. But, no. Also, the sex scenes were too much for a spy thriller. A bit more, and we would have erotica. Which is fine, but for my taste should be kept separate. Then there are some oddities like the author using »SSD« when he means MfS or Stasi. Never heard that one before. I just don’t care about the elevator guy and the science editor.
ospalh stopped reading
ospalh commented on Crossing in Berlin by Fletcher Knebel
Content warning MacGuffin
Meh. I had a bit of hope for this, but the MacGuffin was immediately treated as a MacGuffin. What is it? The realization that climate change is real and that we have to decarbonize immediately and radically. The GDR government is suppressing the results, and so the hero has to help the scientists editor to escape to the USA, because the scientists there are Free with a capital F there.
But riffling thru the thing, no, the novel is not spending at least half the text about how US scientist knew about climate change, but many were bought by oil companies and suppressed and downplayed the danger.
ospalh started reading Crossing in Berlin by Fletcher Knebel
ospalh started reading Der Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
ospalh quoted Der Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
Content warning Rassismus
(...) Jazzmusik (...) Natürlich war sie, mit Bach und Mozart und wirklicher Musik verglichen, eine Schweinerei (...) Und diese Musik hatte (... eine) Negerhaftigkeit und einer frohen, kindlichen Laune. Sie hatte etwas vom Neger (...), der uns Europäern (...) kindlich erscheint.
— Der Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse (Page 44 - 45)
Die Szene, in der Herman Hesse, sorry, Harry Haller Jazz nicht mag ist insgesamt eine Seite lang. Nein, man muss Jazz nicht mögen. Aber das als nicht echte Musik zu bezeichnen, nicht echte Kultur, sondern (!) im Gegensatz dazu »negerhaft«: dass ist schlicht und einfach Rassismus.
Fragen sind jetzt: Ist das der große Charakterfehler des Steppenwolfs, und der Rest des Buches dreht sich darum, wie er sich bessert? Ich glaubs’s nicht.
Nächste Frage: Les ich weiter, oder knall ich das Ding in die Tonne? Ich weiß es noch nicht.
ospalh wants to read Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane
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 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 quoted 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 …
His cell phone rang. He dug into his pocket for it, saw a Boston area code on the display. He accepted the call and put the phone to his ear. “Duckworth.”
— Far From True by Linwood Barclay (Promise Falls, #2)
This is just a quick example of the padding i mentioned. Why not cut this to »The phone in his pocket rang, a Boston area code. “Duckworth.”«?
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 finished reading Far From True by Linwood Barclay (Promise Falls, #2)
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 deceased man, he uncovers far …
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 quoted 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 Language again. Nitpicking word choices.
a car (...), exhaust coming from the tailpipe (...) I powered down the passenger window
— Far From True by Linwood Barclay (Promise Falls, #2) (Page 274 - 275)
O, now i get it. Parts of the book is written in first person, an most of it in 3rd person. I find that annoying, but now i get why: Not to get good 1st person action scenes, but to get odd word usage like this. The author is trying for a hardboiled style, i think, but is utterly failing.
Exhaust. For me exhaust is what is called the tailpipe in America. But yes, according to Wiktionary it can also mean exhaust gas, what comes out of an exhaust or tailpipe.
Power down means switch off, and the two other transitive meanings Wiktionary has don’t fit. »rolled down«, or maybe »rolled down the power window«. The rest of the time the author is padding a lot, so using a few words more here should have been fine. Oh, well, not boiled hard enough, i guess.
ospalh stopped reading
