Review: The End of Eternity

The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The End of Eternity follows Andrew, a technician who makes small changes in the world to supposedly create a better future.

It started a little slow for where it was going, but overall, I really enjoyed it. Women weren't shown in a very good light, which I will chalk up to the times not only of Asimov but in the reality in which Andrew was living.

Like I said, it started slow, but the last 4 or 5 chapters packed quite a punch. Lots of twists and turns, and very exciting. Only one thing that happened early on in the novel suggested what was to come. I would have preferred it to be spread out a little more, but what can one do.

I especially like the shout-out to the Foundation series. The books really can go together in a way.



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Review: Foundation

Foundation by Isaac Asimov

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



In this novel a psycho-historian predicts that his Galactic empire is about to fall, which would inevitably lead to thousands of years of ignorance and stagnation of all things scientific. He proposes to compose an Encyclopedia so that the previous millenia of human knowledge does not forever dissappear, leaving them to relearn it once order is restored. Finally, he says that this encyclopedia will shorten the time of disorder to about only one thousand years. However, he also knows that his calculations don't work when individuals are knowledgeable of the outcome...

First thoughts, which have little to do with the book but I wish to say anyway: I read awhile back about a Canadian system of writing short stories that were very interconnected. I wondered what those would be like, but if they are like Foundation, than that would be amazing. So what I'm saying is, Foundation, is split into sections of stories which are all connected by following Seldon's path, but are all written in different generations with different characters. I wish I had known this ahead of time, but I caught on soon enough, and still like it. So it's not really a complaint than a surprise.

My only complaint is that Seldon appears after certain crises. So what role does he play? Apart from setting up Foundation in the first place, all he has done is verified that actions past were the correct ones. Of course, he is a historical figurehead to the characters, but they relied so much on his appearances where he's been most unhelpful.

What I did like was the strategy of the characters. It's fun watching brilliant minds have everything work out exactly to plan (which is manufactured by the author, but is great anyway). I also like that they have realized that war would lead to a prolonged period of strife and that instead they should be fostering nonviolent (although sometimes equally oppressive) actions. I'm excited to read more about the journey to the second Galactic Empire.

Also, I can imagine Firefly taking place in Asimov's Foundation setting, which is a fun thought. ^_^



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Review: Light Boxes: A Novel

Light Boxes: A Novel by Shane Jones

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Light Boxes is about a town experiencing a perpetual winter and an end to flight (birds, balloons) at the hand of February.

I enjoyed this book. It was really sweet, gentle, soothing even. Although I did at one time get confused with February.

Some of the typography decisions really worked and added to the feel of the novel, while others I could have done without. I liked more of the atypical typography than I disliked, however. The chapters start in various ways and sometimes it's first person while others there is a narrator, which I didn't feel added to the story in any other way than to make it different.

It's a quick read and it's definitely different than the majority of books out there, so if you're looking to shake up your reading habits, you can't go wrong with this novel.



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Review: Reached

Reached by Ally Condie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Since this is the third and final book of the trilogy, I'm going to skip any form of summary and go straight to my thoughts on the series, and this book.

Obviously, I was hooked after reading Matched, but only sort of. Mostly, I loved the book until I got to the final chapter. Then, I didn't know that it was meant to be a trilogy, but it really could have ended a chapter or two sooner. Despite how much I hated the end, I loved the bulk of the book enough to read Crossed.

Crossed was awful. I'm sorry, but I felt like it was pointless. It lost the charm and wonder of the first book. There was a lot of walking and a lot of poems and a lot of longing, but not much substance. It was a lot of book to accomplish only two things. I almost didn't read the third book. I gave it two stars and I was being too nice. I was disappointed. Nothing in book 1 suggested a follow up like book 2.

But when I start a series, I must finish it (unless it's a billon books long like Jacky Faber and Mister Monday, etc). So I read Reached. This book put us back into Society, where we were in the first book (I generally don't like it when books drastically change their setting, which added to my distaste of Crossed).

Cons: Firstly, I don't think it was at all necessary to go into depth how viruses spread. One, because I think everyone already knows, and two, because even if they don't they get it enough to understand the magnitude of the situation. Not only was virology explained (needlessly), but it was explained, not once, not twice, but THRICE. And the analogy they used to help people along wasn't until the third explanation, and wasn't a good analogy anyway.

This is basically one of my biggest issues through the whole series: So many words, most of it repeating things we already know, don't care about, or reprinting old poems. I'm a fan of efficiency. The length of the book felt stretched.

Pros: I really feel like this third book captured the intrigue of the first book. What I like about dystopian books is reading about a society that is not my own. Learning about their customs, and their outliers. Book three showed us a society falling apart, yet we still learned so much about it's inner workings despite that.
While others have wars and battles to overthrow their dystopian powers, it was more fitting in this society to use a virus. Makes sense. Do I think those characters should have been the most capable to fix everything? No, but they did and that's why the book's written about them. Everything that was introduced felt settled, even if I felt that some of those issues weren't pertinent to the story. :)

All and all I gave it 4 stars for recapturing all that it lost in book two, which was so far above my expectations (I had heard bad things). It ended well, no loose ends (well...), I was moved, and I was happy for the characters.



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