trilbynorton's reviews
250 reviews

Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

One of the most impressive first volumes in a science fiction series I've read. Big ideas - utopia, how it can be achieved, and what needs to be sacrificed to maintain it - presented in an inventive way - an unreliable narrator aping the style of an eighteenth century novel. There's lashings of philosophy and religion, a strange take on gender politics which takes a while to get used to, and an even stranger metaphysical undercurrent which may or may not actually be real. I'm holding off on a 5 star rating to see if Ada Palmer can stick the landing, but I have high hopes for this series 

The Unwritten Vol. 2: Inside Man by Mike Carey

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This seems to be where The Unwritten hits its stride. The kind of story this is comes into focus and the stakes are sufficiently raised. Whereas the first volume got bogged down in the whole "meta Harry Potter" thing, this arc starts to explore more fully ideas of how stories affect the world, and vice versa. And, as always with Carey, there are a couple of standout standalone issues, especially the one featuring a foul-mouthed Peter Rabbit analogue.

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This was my second David Mitchell novel after Cloud Atlas, and it really suffered in comparison. It isn't as formally adventurous as Cloud Atlas and strangely, as someone who primarily reads SFF, it was the fantasy elements that I felt were the weakest part of the book. They felt unnecessarily bolted on to an already compelling jigsaw narrative about mortality and the struggle between individual and community.

Galactic Pot-Healer by Philip K. Dick

adventurous reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Of interest mainly because it exists in the same world as Dick's only children's books, and because it clearly presages a lot of the theological issues he would explore in his later and final books.

The Unwritten, Vol. 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity by Mike Carey

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

A decent enough start to a series, but not up to the standard I was expecting from the guys who brought us the excellent Lucifer. Still, this is only the first five issues of the "Harry Potter does metafiction" series, and there is some promise, especially in the final issue of this collection, which harkens back to the sort of things Carey did in Lucifer's more adventurous standalone issues.

Top 10 by Alan Moore

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

This is basically a season of a police procedural TV show where the police just happen to be superheroes. There are murder investigations, drug busts, inter-departmental politics, glimpses into personal lives, all while the characters are wearing tights and shooting eye beams. It's densely written, and Gene Ha's artwork is insanely detailed, but Moore and Ha still allow themselves breathing room for quieter moments. An issue involving a high speed trans-dimensional traffic collision which becomes a thoughtful exploration of mortality is a standout.

Seaguy - The Slaves of Mickey Eye by Grant Morrison

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Not quite as good as the first volume. It's still bonkers, but in a more conventional, directed way, as opposed to the first volume's indiscriminate absurdity.

The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay

adventurous emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

There was a world for the making in Esperaña, in Al-Rassan, one world made of the two - or perhaps, if one were to dream, made of three. Sun, stars and the moons.

I found The Lions of Al-Rassan a very sorrowful novel. It's a book about intolerance and the worlds and relationships that are lost, corrupted, or are never even given the chance to exist, when people let intolerance guide them. Guy Gaviel Kay's prose is beautiful; reading on my eReader, there were numerous passages I highlighted for their insight and emotional impact on me. I think a lot of that impact comes from how much this book, published almost 30 years ago, resonates with the intolerance and cultural divisions of the world we find ourselves living in today.

Nick And The Glimmung by Philip K. Dick

adventurous funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I don't know how popular Philip K. Dick's only children's book actually is with children (I'm guessing not very), but I hope for any kids who have read/will read it, it acts as a gateway to the hard stuff, like The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich or Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

Ubik by Philip K. Dick

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Friends, this is clean-up time and we're discounting all our silent, electric Ubiks by this much money. Yes, we're throwing away the bluebook. And remember: every Ubik on our lot has been used only as directed.

Philip K. Dick's Ubik, second only to his other paranoid "what even is reality" novel The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, feels in many ways ahead of its time. Published in 1969, it predates Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation by over a decade, presaging the French philosopher's arguments concerning the unreality of modern society. (If I wanted to sound even more pretentious, I might further assert that the ubiquitious product of Ubik, which seems to underpin the reality of the novel and yet which the characters are incapable of obtaining, symbolises Jacques Lacan's order of the Real, which similarly underpins society's constructed reality but which can never be approached.) The novel also feels almost like a deconstruction of the "simulated reality" genre. Though there is an explanation offered for the inconsistencies encountered by the characters, various inconsistencies in the plot and world-building (not to mention the final, delirious twist) appear to undermine this apparent answer. Ubik ultimately doesn't make any sense, and I think that's the whole point. Reality doesn't make any sense, either.