:: darcysbooks ::

:: Thursday, July 31, 2003 ::

the war of the flowers
tad williams

Rock singer Theo Vilmos is drifting through life, not living up to his potential as an artist, dodging accusations of immaturity and irresponsibility from his girlfriend. Then, after his mother's death, he finds his great-uncle's journal, a travelogue of a journey to Faerie. Not long after, he's sucked unwillingly into the same world himself, and ends up embroiled in Faerie politics and a war between prominent families.

I really had high hopes for this book, as I really enjoyed reading the Dragonbone Chair series when it came out. However, I found I was disappointed. The writing quality and the story itself never rise above the unremarkable level, and Theo is not an engaging enough character to really hold one's interest. If I hadn't got this book specifically to take with me on a vacation, I might not even have finished it.

i don't know how she does it
allison pearson

Kate Reddy could be called the workaholic's Bridget Jones. She has a husband and a family, but with her career on overdrive, she hardly sees them. A high-powered financial executive, she goes in early, leaves late, and flies out of London at least a couple of times a week on "emergency trips" to smooth her client's ruffled feathers. Even her vacations are interrupted and cut short by her boss calling her in. With no sleep, no downtime, and more than enough stress, something in her life is bound to give. And sure enough, it does. Alternately sad and hilarious by turns, I Don't Know How She Does It may no be a profound work of literature, but it's a great way to spend a weekend afternoon.
:: darcy 8:09 PM [+] ::
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hey, nostradamus!
douglas coupland

This book traces the impact a Columbine-like high school tragedy in Vancouver has on the lives of the people involved. Cheryl, a student, is killed and left to ponder the meaning of her short life from the perspective of the dead. Jason, the boyfriend to whom she was secretly married a few weeks earlier, survives, but his life is profoundly changed, as are the lives of those he later touches. This is one of those quiet little books that leaves an impression on you for days afterwords, and I'd recommend it even if it wasn't Canadian :)
:: darcy 11:41 AM [+] ::
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darwin's radio and darwin's children
greg bear

This series is set in a hypothetical near-future, when an ancient retrovirus that "jump starts" the human evolutionary process becomes active and begins to produce a new generation. The scientific world misinterprets the event, originally classifying it as a disease, politicians jump on the public-fear bandwagon, and the result is something very akin to child concentration camps, along with massive inroads into individual privacy and freedom that may have seemed Orwellian when the first book was written but hit more close to home now. These books are fast-paced and engaging, though the scientific dialogues and explanations were technical enough that I sometimes had trouble understanding them. All told, these are fairly good books in the David Brin/Earth/futuristic action-thriller genre.
:: darcy 11:40 AM [+] ::
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the whole woman
germaine greer

Written by the author of the classic feminist work, The Female Eunuch, who tells us "it's time to get angry again." And indeed, in her scathing commentary on such topics as love, sex, abortion, work, motherhood, pornography, and violence against women, there is much to inspire righteous anger. Greer makes some trenchant points about the devaluation of motherhood, the hypocrisy of much of modern women's supposed "equality," and the still-present tendency for the medical establishment to view much of normal female biology as a disease. She also writes at a much more thoughtful, reasoned, and sometimes more radical level than many other feminist authors, avoiding pat answers and reductivist simplifications. You might not agree with everything she says in this book, but you certainly come out of it with a lot to think about, as well as a desire to see real change in the way our society operates.
:: darcy 2:14 PM [+] ::
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eaters of the dead
michael crichton

Based on an eighth century manuscript by ibn Fadlan, and the epic story of Beowulf, Eaters of the Dead tells the story of an Arab courtier who joins a band of Northmen to battle a cannibalistic tribe attacking one of their settlements. Written to resemble a translation of a complete existing text, this book has resulted in many requests for the made-up sources--even the author himself admits in an epilogue that he blended fact and fiction so closely that when he revisited the manuscript he wasted many hours trying to find some of his fictitious references. To be honest, this admission rather surprised me; though the text of the novel is annotated and footnoted in quasi-academic style, the reading level these asides are written to is far below an academic audience, and the "information" they provide is trivial.

Overall, this was a light, enjoyable novel, even if the idea of a surviving Neanderthal tribe is farfetched. However, I really resent the fact that the savage, cannibalistic enemies once again happen to be goddess worshippers, and a well-known mother goddess figure (the Venus of Willendorf), is misappropriated as an idol requiring barbaric human sacrifice. I am really, really, REALLY tired of this crap.
:: darcy 4:48 PM [+] ::
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jennifer government
max barry

Woo boy. The theme of corporate globalisation gone bad really seems to be following me around these days. Jennifer Government, set in an undefined near future, is a dystopian story about what could happen when government breaks down and the world goes private. People take the names of the companies they work for as their surnames. Police and Government are contract agencies. And you can't get an ambulance without a credit card number. Billed as "catch-22 by way of The Matrix," I really don't think the novel lives up to it's PR. There are too many plotlines to follow at one time, with the result that none of them are developed enough to fully reach out and grab you. And by the conclusion the story has decended into chaos, substituting the shock shootouts and explosions for coherent structure. However, as light reading, it's a quick-to-read, fun book, with just enough basis in current reality to produce a twinge of unease.
:: darcy 11:01 AM [+] ::
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no logo: taking aim at the brand bullies
naomi klein

In her recent address at the joint CLA/ALA conference in Toronto, Gloria Steinem mentioned that "the truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off." This statement pretty much sums up my reaction to No Logo. If there's one book that could turn you into an anti-corporate activist, it's this one. See more at the website: nologo.org.
:: darcy 3:43 PM [+] ::
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