The Barsoom Project, Larry Niven and Steven Barnes

The Barsoom Project by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes is a sequel to Dream Park which I read as a kid.  This is the second book in the Dream Park Series.

Started:  1/16/2016

Completed:  1/29/2016

Recommendation: Highly Recommended

Recommended By:  Nobody

Words for which I sought help:

Fimbulwinter - From Norse mythology.  The "mighty winter" that precedes the end of times (the Ragnarok).

fugue state - A rare psychiatric disorder characterized by reversible amnesia for personal identity, including the memories, personality, and other identifying characteristics of individuality.

Review:

What a truly enjoyable read!  I loved the mix of science fiction and fantasy that Dream Park brought to the game and The Barsoom Project does not disappoint.  Mixing together a fantasy theme park that caters to all wishes (sort of a mass holodeck for the Trekkies who read this) with the science fiction that makes it happen, this book takes the reader back and forth with ease and pleasure.  Either of the stories could stand on their own (mix in the whole Barsoom Project which is a bit of a red herring) and the read is both fast and pleasurable.  The characters are poorly developed, but one does not crack a scifi or fantasy novel looking for character development--there is enough to carry the story and that is enough for me.  I love the way scientific ideas are explored and enough is left to the concept of "magic" that one really doesn't want to go down and see all the nuts and bolts.  Very enjoyable!

The Eight, Katherine Neville

The Eight by Katherine Neville is a book I picked up in response to a list of "best books."  I can't remember which list or why this one stuck out, but on some list somewhere this book is recommended.

Started:  6/23/2015

Completed: (stopped reading) 1/16/2016

Recommendation:  Not Recommended

Recommended By:  Some list, somewhere.

Words I sought help to understand:

macchia - An Italian word that literally means "stain or spot" but it is also a term in artwork that emphasizes a sketchy way of applying the initial color to a drawing or painting.  I think that within context  it was intended to emphasize a landscape with vigorous growth so verdant that the plants overlap and blur into a sense of color rather than a collection of individual plants.  Pretty cool.

Review:

Despite the occasional turn of phrase that was nice, this book was very difficult to read.  The series of premises required in order for it to be even near believable pressed my considerable ability to suspend disbelief.  I finally just gave up when the heroine in one time period ran into Napoleon after sleeping with Talleyrand.  Frankly, this is just too much.  The initial premise is weakly presented and the current day heroine is portrayed from moment to moment as courageous and weak and ineffectual.  I just finally reached a point where I had to realize that attempting to continue to read this book was more annoyance than pleasure.

Forty Nine, Bruce Holand Rogers

Forty Nine:  A Square of Stories by Bruce Holand Rogers is a book that I helped Kickstart.  Rogers has won several awards and his story samples looked promising, so I thought it made sense to help the author get some of his stories that publishers weren't publishing out into the wild.

Started: September, 2013 (?)

Completed: January 9, 2016

Recommendation:  Mildly recommended

Recommended by:  Nobody

Review:

This book of short stories was supposed to only grace my bedside table for a few days as the stories represent some pretty light reading.  Unfortunately, the book slipped off the bedside table (I wish I could write some great story about how that happened, maybe it was in the throws of passion or perhaps the book felt unappreciated or maybe the dust bunnies got lonely) and was lost beneath the bed until it was moved, about a week ago.

The stories are broadly inventive and the character of Donat Bobet is a masterpiece.  There were seven stories about stories (sort of along the lines of the book feeling unappreciated).  I found these self-referencing stories the kind of thing that might be submitted for a high school English class (the quality is better, but it felt like that kind of assignment).  They did not help the book.  There were two stories that had me laughing out loud to such a degree that I was compelled to read them to my wife.

The author's intent, I think, is to transport the reader to another place or another idea.  There were seven stories about hotels that were quite good and did this rather effectively.  I enjoyed several of the stories in this section, and found one in particular quite insightful into human character (this hotel allowed guests to deny amenities to others,  for a price).

I was hoping for some fantasy or science fiction themed stories as this was the area in which the author has received most renown, but was disappointed in that regard.