mid-year reading wrap up

[braintransplant]

I am having a very bad year of reading. No 5 stars so far :( Also there are quite a few books I’m not even bothering to review because there's nothing to say  LOL

Acceptance by Jeff Vandermeer

Rating: 3 stars

Summary: Basically what if you had to go on a company retreat in a giant biohazard.

Comments: Obviously I did not like this as much as I liked the second book in the Southern Reach Trilogy but few things can live up to Authority's particular oeuvre. IN MY OPINION. Anyways. I keep reading Jeff Vandermeer because despite the fact that his writing style does not particularly appeal to me and he is a chronic loser of the plot, his premises/ideas are so interesting that I just can’t help myself. He also crafts some of the most truly psychotic relationship dynamics I have ever come across…though they are rarely fleshed out in the way I would like. I very much appreciated the added POVs in this final book; the lighthouse keeper (Saul) and Gloria really round this installment out. I especially liked Saul. In typical Vandermeer fashion I don’t understand anything that happened in this and felt underwhelmed by the trilogy’s conclusion. But it's okay. I had fun. Maybe the real Area X was the friends we made along the way etc etc.

Highlight: I never did forget about you. I just took a long time coming back.

Highlight: Don’t you get tired after a while? Of always moving forward and never reaching the end? 

Highlight: What did you hide from us about Area X? / Nothing that would have helped you.

Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff Vandermeer

Rating: 3.25 stars

Summary: What if the collapse of civilization was also a scavenger hunt put together by a suspected bioterrorist that knew your dead brother.

Comments: Again with the Vandermeerian problem of boring writing paired with a delightfully insane premise that promptly gets lost in the plot. Protagonist in this is a 6 foot tall woman that works in security and was formerly a professional bodybuilder who recreationally cheats on her husband. Put simply, I love her. She’s not particularly compelling or anything, I just appreciate what she does for this novel in the general sense I guess? This book opens on the protagonist receiving a mysterious letter that leads her to a taxidermied extinct species of hummingbird (aka it is illegal), then promptly snowballs into an insane apocalyptic mystery involving federal agents, giant corporations, scorned friends, scorned lovers, and a guy named HELLBENDER. All while the environment and also society collapses. It was interesting, but not particularly Good. If you know what I mean. 

Highlight: You tripped a wire. I don’t want to be in the cage with you.

Hyperion by Dan Simmons

Rating: 3.5 stars

Summary: honestly there is no way to sum this up

Comments: Um…..this book is balls to the wall crazy. As expected from the author of THE TERROR! Once again the writing itself is nothing special but the story kicks off like a bat out of hell and does not let up. It clearly takes inspiration from the format of The Canterbury tales, aka a group of people traveling together each take turns telling their story as they head towards their destination. Which in this book happens to be a creature called the Shrike on the planet Hyperion that will supposedly kill all but one of the seven people on the pilgrimage. This book has everything; priests getting parasites, poor anthropological ethics, fucking on a battlefield, falling in love with some girl you saw in your dream one time, diseases that make you age backwards, making out with cyborgs, poems that predict the future, accidentally becoming a folk legend, destroying your relationships with space time relativity, and the Wizard of Oz. Something the whole family can enjoy! It ends on a cliffhanger before the pilgrims meet the Shrike which is extremely annoying but I also am not sure if I care enough to read the sequel.

Highlight: N/A 

Comments

[lowhours]

its nice to hear that you have basically the same experience of vandermeer. every time i read his books im like "this prose sucks and is weirdly paced and i dont like it" but the concept is soooo good and then there's at least one or two lines that arrive Very Effectively, maybe in part bc of how unspecial the rest of the writing feels.... like no matter what i'll always end up drawn in, somehow he just has good ideas that are enough to overcome everything else and I respect that wonky skilltree point allocation