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| Friday, May 19, 2006 12:07 PM |
| Reading |
 by Fëanor |
- Recently finished "The Space Merchants" by Frederik Pohl and CM Kornbluth. It was lent to me by Sarcasmo, in a two-in-one volume entitled Venus,Inc. which also includes the sequel to "The Space Merchants." What really struck me right away about "The Space Merchants" is how contemporary its vision of the future and its satire were, so I was totally shocked to discover that it was published originally in 1952. It's vision of a polluted world sucked dry of resources, ruled by corporations and salesmen, living on processed air and artificial food, with the regular-joe consumers trapped in lives of drudgery and horrific cycles of dependency on various products, is bitingly funny and yet frighteningly believable. It's a sci fi novel and a satire, but it's also a mystery, an action/adventure story, a love story, and a political thriller. And it succeeds beautifully in every one of those categories. Very impressive stuff.
I'm afraid, however, that the sequel, written thirty years later by only one of the original authors, is just a sad attempt to recreate the initial success. I haven't gotten very far into it yet, but so far the story is disappointingly similar to that of the original. We'll see, though; maybe it'll pick up.
- My brother reminded me that I was supposed to be reading Stephen King's Dark Tower series, so I picked up the next one (Wizard and Glass) from the library a while back. I could have sworn I'd read this one before, and disliked it so much that I gave up on the series, but I'm finding it to be completely unfamiliar to me. Every once in a while I think maybe I remember something, but that could just be deja vu. Anyway, for whatever reason I'm actually enjoying it this time. I'm not generally a fan of King's - I think his writing is pretty clumsy and juvenile - but there's no arguing that he's a master storyteller. I always end up reading his books muttering things like, "Gah, what an awful passage! How melodramatic and ridiculous. People don't talk like that! Why are you telling me this? Show, don't tell! ....Okay, now what happens next?" Damn you, Stephen King! Needless to say, I'm pretty far into the book already.
- Next up on my list is poppy's upcoming book club book, House of Leaves. I'd heard a while back that this was an amazing book - absolutely horrifying and fantastic - and got all excited about it. Then later I heard (from Peccable, I think) that it was just awful and stupid. My excitement wore off a bit, and I wasn't sure what to think. But now that a copy of the book has fallen into my hands, I figure I've got to read it and decide for myself. I've already gotten through the first few pages, and flipped through some of the later bits (not reading ahead of course, just noting odd bits of typography and layout and such), and I have to say, I'm definitely intrigued...
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