Monday, February 25, 2013

Review: Foundation


Foundation
Foundation by Isaac Asimov

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I was talking to a friend about science fiction recently; he was waxing poetic about the good old days when a science fiction novel was 150 pages jam packed with ideas, and with none of the bloat of recent offerings in the genre.*

I am quite certain that my friend adored The Foundation novels because honestly there's hardly a character or other description to be found.

I'm not really complaining; I liked Foundation quite a lot, but it's kind of like reading the bible. It's not really a traditional narrative so much as an opportunity for Asimov to lay out his opinions about religion, science, economics, and technology and he's going to construct and ubermensch to cleverly tell you all about it and suddenly everything is right with the world again.

It's fun, it really is. It has some delightfully pithy** quotes like "For it is the chief characteristic of the religion of science that it works..." (That whole chapter is great, actually.) But everything is so easy. Near the end, I was really hoping for some Lannisters to show up*** and get in the way with their selfish ambition and politicking.

Don't get me wrong, I would be happy to live in the world that Asimov describes, but I think maybe those fatter science fiction titles with their nuanced characters and intricate relationships are a bit more real.

* And no, he's not that much older than me, but yes, I am trying to make his rant sound like "*sigh* the kids these days with their well defined characters and a complicated interpersonal relationships."
** And dishearteningly relevant
*** Or, you know, a SINGLE FEMALE CHARACTER****!!!!!
**** Yes, I know the Commdor's wife makes an appearance near the end, but she really doesn't count. At some point, I got so sick of this particularly brutal imbalance that I just started imagining some of the characters as female.



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Saturday, February 2, 2013

Review: New Spring


New Spring
New Spring by Robert Jordan

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



And I was so excited about this book. Moiraine and Lan have always been two of my favorite characters in the Wheel of Time series, and I was really excited to see their Origin story.

Too bad it's not any good.

First off, the plot. Really beloved and wise Amrylin, your plan to find the dragon reborn is to offer a ridiculous amount of money to everyone who had a kid in the vicinity of the prophesied location? That's not going to arouse suspicion or anything. And it seriously never occurred to you that that he might be born of the Aiel? Sheesh.

And secondly the characters. I know, I know, it's a subtle reference to the character struggles in Eye of the World, but Moiraine and Siuan as a ditzy school girls just didn't work for me. On the other hand, Lan apparently has never changed on iota from the day he was born. And, of course, the unending parade of minor characters, most of them Aes Sedai continues. For the eighteenth time, I know your world is impressive in its depth and scope. You don't have to remind me by breaking our 400 new Aes Sedai in every scene.

And finally, the ending. Seriously, why were any of those characters there doing those things? I like that it was all dramatic and brutal and that it let Lan and Moiraine grow into the heroes they are destined to be, but I have no idea why they were fighting that particular battle.

The book is not all bad. The "courtship" of Lan and Moiraine was fun. I liked Moiraine's Aes Sedai trial. There were some cute foreshadowings of the series. But all in all, this has been the most disappointing entry in The Wheel of Time. I'm sorry it's the last complete book of Robert Jordan's that I'm likely to read.





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