Friday, December 30, 2011

John's Story

by Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

Y'know, I've read one other LaHaye and Jenkins book, Left Behind, which I grudgingly rated as waiting room material. (After following Fred Clark's deconstruction of the novel, I would revise my rating downward, but I'm too lazy to actually do that.) This book, a fictional speculation of how the Apostle John came to write his gospel, strikes me as much the same. As a rule, I find accounts of the early church fathers fascinating, but Drs. LaHaye and Jenkins have managed to make John quite dull. The tale opens in Rome in the year 95. John is in prison awaiting martyrdom. An interesting start, though I didn't care for his characterization. He was portrayed as a bit too wishy-washy--not at all as I would expect from a "son of thunder". But, fair enough, there's no reason anyone should write a character according to my preferences. Then the story flashes back to the meat of the book, the writing of the gospel of John. ->yawn<- As you might imagine, the account of writing a manuscript, even of writing one of the greatest manuscripts of all time, ain't too exciting. This account is basically the tale of three guys fussing about heretics in their midst and beating a deadline, with a liberal dose of biblical quotations. The characters are artificial and uninspiring. John particularly is awkward in that his speaking style suddenly switches whenever he starts dictating his gospel. I certainly wouldn't want the task of crafting dialog to match the style of John's gospel, but I figure if you're going to turn the man into a fictional character, at least do it right. So anyway, take my advice: if you're stuck on a desert island with nothing but this book, skip the story and jump straight to the appendix where the good doctors have reprinted the Gospel, Epistles and Revelation of John. Those, at least are worth reading.

Mostly low quality waiting room material.
LibraryThing link

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Friday, December 23, 2011

A Christmas Carol

by Charles Dickens

'Tis the season.
That's the reason
I read this book.

It was pleasin'.
That's the reason
It's in my nook.

LibraryThing link

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Saturday, December 17, 2011

Homeward Bound

by Harry Turtledove

This last book of the Tosev timeline series is quite a disappointment. The timeline starts with an alien invasion of Earth in 1942. Known as the Race, these aliens plan to easily subdue the planet and it's native inhabitants. What they didn't anticipate is that human technology and society progresses (or at least changes) at a lot faster rate than theirs. So the attempted subjugation is anything but easy. Anyway, fast forward to the 1990s. Human technology has "borrowed" a bit from the invaders and the United States sends off their own starship, the Admiral Peary, to visit the homeworld of the race. What follows os a relatively dull tale. After seven volumes of life threatening conflict and intrigue, Mr. Turtledove finishes with a story of diplomacy and sightseeing. The whole book seems awkward, almost as if he (or his publisher) decided to cut the saga off short and jump to the final resolution. Or maybe he was giving his best efforts to his Settling Accounts series, which was also being published at the time. (Of course, I must confess that I was also reading under a handicap, having read a synopsis of Homeward Bound beforehand. Knowing the big plot development tends to diminish the suspense. But if you do want to know the ending of the series, I suppose reading the book itself is more enjoyable than skimming the Wikipedia entry.

Only waiting room material. (Emphatic cough)
LibraryThing link

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Friday, December 09, 2011

Colonization: Aftershocks

by Harry Turtledove

This book ends like there was supposed to be a sequel. Plotlines are loosely tied up, but there's no real sense of finality.

Waiting room material.
LibraryThing link

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Saturday, December 03, 2011

Colonization: Down to Earth

by Harry Turtledove

Waiting room material.
LibraryThing link

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