You know how when your watching a great action adventure movie, you kinda want to get up during or right after the fight scenes and do some karate movYou know how when your watching a great action adventure movie, you kinda want to get up during or right after the fight scenes and do some karate moves?
That's Worm, but for books.
At about 1.75 million words (about 22 conventional books) it's a long, long read but there isn't a single dry moment. The first two or so arcs are just "okay" with our wannabe hero Taylor Herbert finding herself amongst the company of villains instead but the story steamrolls through a fantastically rich world of blurred divisions between heroes who aren't heroic, villains who aren't villainous, gods who are ungodly and creatures beyond comprehension.
The cast is diverse and intelligent. They try to build on any advantage they can find, even the smallest one, and extrapolate. Of course doesn't help that the antagonists do the same and the conflicts keep escalating in every which way. Soon it stops being a battle between good and evil and becomes between sanity and insanity. Most of the parahumans are under 30 with a bulk being teenagers - it's not because of target audience, but it's just accepted as a constant that people WILL die before they get that old. But alas, there are things worse than death. Much, much worse.
As someone else put it, it's a world where anything is possible but not in a nice way.
With that being said, I loved it. I love gray areas and Worm is just full of it, with "politics, factions, rivalries, information warfare, and the individual problems of the people beneath the costumes" (TVTropes). Sometimes you are reading towards the end of an arc and you think 'finally we get a break!' but then within a paragraph or two everything is changed and you are sucked in again at the deeper, darker, world of Worm.
I believe the author wants to edit and consolidate Worm and publish it. It's something to look out for - this series will make an excellent animated series....more
Such a different tone than the first book. The first half reminded me of Asimov's SF detective stories from the Robot Saga. Great characterization, emSuch a different tone than the first book. The first half reminded me of Asimov's SF detective stories from the Robot Saga. Great characterization, emotional depth and extremely good writing exploring how "alien" aliens are.
(view spoiler)[4/5 because lots of more basic things could've been solved just by asking the piggies right questions and putting the right spy cams. Marriage making two people being treated as a single person 3,000 years from now is a weak plot device imho. Can't really blame him, it was written in 1994. Suspension of disbelief smoothens most of the obvious 2013 logic. (hide spoiler)]...more
Good source of info. Skimmed through it. I am always fascinated by how simple things like growing a plant has so many subtletieI was always curious :)
Good source of info. Skimmed through it. I am always fascinated by how simple things like growing a plant has so many subtleties that are missed by an untrained eye....more
Reads more like a collection of opinionated blog posts than anything else. Might have been more valuable if it was written in a coherent manner, but iReads more like a collection of opinionated blog posts than anything else. Might have been more valuable if it was written in a coherent manner, but it wasn't.
The disillusioned detective whose girlfriend left him in financial ruin gets a case to solve of an apparent suicide of supermodel and is plunged into The disillusioned detective whose girlfriend left him in financial ruin gets a case to solve of an apparent suicide of supermodel and is plunged into world of money, glamour and sex.
I couldn't help but feel the film noir oozing out. Even the flowery language early in the book pointed to a very cliche'd read.
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But thankfully, it did not persist. But now that I associated the book with films, the second part of the book felt like it had a Quentin Tarantino feel, with the story moving through mostly a back-and-forth of dialogues.
But again, that did not persist.
It took me a full one-third of the book to really get used to the writing. It doesn't have J.K. Rowling's usual warmth but a certain... sharpness that takes a while to appreciate. When I did however, I started to enjoy the writing as the floweriness disappeared and the story continued to move through pages and pages of two-people just talking.
The story itself showed little sign of progress until the last fifth of the book, where all the dialogues and clues and hints start falling into place. It's only then that the story picks up pace and we move towards a resolution. But I was unable to, and I am sure most readers will be unable to draw a conclusion to where the plot was heading until the final fifth. I know that many people likes reading detective novels so they can connect their own dots, but I don't think that'll be an option here as much.
So yes, I am of mixed opinion on this one. The pacing gets time to get used to, but the read is enjoyable in itself. Anything by J.K. Rowling will get connected to Harry Potter, but I couldn't have guessed in a million years that Robert Galbraith = Rowling. It's a good book, in itself, and deserves to stand on it's own two feet....more
I don't know why I read self-help books anymore. I am sure I have pretty much covered everything there is to read about productivity at this point.
WhyI don't know why I read self-help books anymore. I am sure I have pretty much covered everything there is to read about productivity at this point.
Why did I even read this books? I don't even procrastinate!
Am I becoming a "productivity geek"? Oh, the horror. Next thing you'd know that I'll start carrying a moleskin notebook everywhere and read lifehacker....more
**spoiler alert** Allow me to summarize every Dan Brown novel ever:
An unsuspecting but intelligent protagonist is called up in the middle of the nigh**spoiler alert** Allow me to summarize every Dan Brown novel ever:
An unsuspecting but intelligent protagonist is called up in the middle of the night. Someone very powerful and possibly related with the authorities needs his expertise that only the protagonist can provide. A well-known figure has died and that started a chain of events with catastrophic consequences. The authorities need our protagonist's help to solve a puzzle left by our instigator just before he died, which has some clue in to the nature of our ticking time bomb.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to him, a secret organization has dispatched an assassin who must fulfill tasks that would have huge social ramifications all throughout the world. What the assassin and the secret organization don’t know is that the purpose of the assassin/secret organization and the purpose of the person directing the assassin/secret organization, which is our antagonist, is entirely different.
While our protagonist is running from the assassin and solving said puzzle (which has to be solved within 24 hours), he is joined by a young, beautiful and intelligent woman related somehow with dead man/instigator. At the very last moments of the book we have a final reveal: the protagonist knew the antagonist from the very start! He was being manipulated the whole time!
The book ends with the antagonist succeeding somehow. The protagonist and the readers are left with a moral question on whether the antagonist is truly the villain... or did he do something that actually benefits the whole world.
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Is Inferno different from other Dan Brown books you ask? No it's not. There are minor variations to Brown's tried and tested formula, but it will not add anything to your reading experience. The book is recycled to its core. In fact, depending on how many of Brown's books you have read, you can see the twists coming based on the number of pages left.
Rework is about working smarter, not harder. While nothing in the book is earth shattering, it tries to push you towards changing your business philosRework is about working smarter, not harder. While nothing in the book is earth shattering, it tries to push you towards changing your business philosophy and being more efficient because of it. The economy has changed drastically in the last decade, and so it asks: why shouldn't you?...more
Lots of similarity between this and the Mystery Method. DHV, framing, alpha, beta, negging, it's all there. Gives a whole new meaning to getting in beLots of similarity between this and the Mystery Method. DHV, framing, alpha, beta, negging, it's all there. Gives a whole new meaning to getting in bed with the clients :)...more
The book is less about faking your way through a conversation and more about, I felt, justifying non-reaI thought it would be sarcastic, but it's not.
The book is less about faking your way through a conversation and more about, I felt, justifying non-reading by analyzing what we achieve and lose through the acts of reading and non-reading.
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