« August 2009 | Main | November 2009 »
September 21, 2009
The Graveyard Book
Just finished The Graveyard Book.
A wonderful channeling of The Jungle Book, which both outshines richly deserves it's label as "children's literature"
Please Mr. Gaiman, sir, may I have some more?
Posted by dberger at 8:06 PM
September 12, 2009
Replicant Night
I ended up laid up for a good chunk of the day with a headache, and when I wasn't wishing my head would just fall off and stop hurting, I worked my way through the sequel to Edge of Human - Replicant Night.
I found it better than the first (second?) - perhaps because the events were further removed from the film, but it still leaned too much on the visuals and vignettes from the movie for my taste - as if Jeter was afraid to "lose" his audience by painting something they hadn't seen large swathes of before.
In the end it felt a bit like "Blade Runner Meets The Shining" - and the story hinged on something just a bit too far on the fantastic side of the SF spectrum.
Maybe it's just that it was derivative, but I have this sneaking suspicion that I've read it before. A couple passages in the middle of the book evoked strong memories of taking Dawnise to the orthodontist.
Posted by dberger at 10:10 PM
Edge of Human
One of the guys at work responded to an email thread with the following quote:
...are like any other machine, they're either a benefit or a hazard. If they're a benefit it's not my problem.
Which led, ultimately, to my adding The Edge of Human to my library holds list.
It arrived, along with the next Jeter-penned sequel, a few days ago. I can't say I really recommend it - in part 'cause the lynchpin of the story (the 6th replicant) was "fixed" in the latest spin of the film. The story seemed derivative - and not in an "Aliens derived from Alien" sort of way, more in a "Aliens4 derived from Aliens" sorta way.
I'll probably read the next one, unless one of my other holds arrives in the next day or so.
Posted by dberger at 10:57 AM