War of the Flowers

Just finished War of the Flowers by Tad Williams. I'm kind of a sucker for him, so I was excited to see some books by him I hadn't read yet when I was at the bookstore the other day. This one is just one book; he tends to write multi-part epics, each volume being over 500 pages. Wordy. But, if you like sci-fi and fiction, he's quite fun to read, so I like the length.

This one is about a 30-year-old guy whose life is going horribly and then he's suddenly whisked off to an alternate world that's all fantastic and stuff. He gets all wrapped up in that world and its various societal changes and impending war, and it turns out that his help is needed to save the world! (surprise!) The whole time he's being pursued by evil forces, including an unstoppable "Terminator"-like creature.

Williams introduces many characters and plot thickeners, and deftly ties them all together. I felt like he did that perhaps too well in this book. As I approached the climax of the story, I realized there were still a couple plot thickeners he hadn't resolved yet... and lo! here they come to help resolve the story. So, I wasn't very surprised by the resolution. It was still satisfying though.

Pretty fun stuff, a long but swift read.

so far behind

Sheesh, I have 19 books I still want to review that I've read this year. Here are some of them:

Doomsday Book - Connie Willis (time travel, historical fiction dark ages, depressing, highly recommended)
Bellwether - Connie Willis (scientist studying fads, light-hearted, recommended)
My Mother the Cheerleader - Robert Sharenow (young adult fiction, historical 50's segregated Alabama, recommended)
Mercy - Lara Santoro (American journalist in Africa, AIDS epidemic, fiction, eh, it was ok)
Wicked Lovely - Melissa Marr (dark "faery" story, kind of annoying but fun if you like vampire-type stories)
Napoleon's Pyramids - William Dietrich (action/thriller historical mystery. Macho protagonist, pointless use of math. Annoying. Not recommended unless you really like Indiana Jones and that hit novel about Jesus marrying Mary and having a kid.)
Rise of the Golden Cobra - Henry T. Aubin (young adult historical fiction about the ascendancy of Pharaoh Pianky. Not recommended unless you really really like Egypt, or are 12-year-old boy.)
Accordion Crimes - E. Annie Proulx (novel of short stories based on the lives of various immigrant families, loosely connected by possessing a certain accordion. Dense and at times tedious but extremely well written, recommended.)
Body of Lies - David Ignatius (novel by Washington Post columnist. How to fool a terrorist and advance the war on terror. Annoying if you are against the war since the author is able to instill fear in you and make you temporarily think the war is a good idea. Spies and CIA and men going around killing each other. Recommended if you liked "Syriana" the movie.)
Baboon - David Jones (boy turns into baboon after a plane crash. Excellent portrayal of the life of a baboon. recommended if you're into nature shows)
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (this book is now famous. Book group read it. Afghanistan, childhood memories, taking responsibility. Very good, recommended.)
Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand - Fred Vargas (French detective novel. Quite good actually. Interesting to see how the French and Canadians see each other)
Love, Meg - C. Leigh Purtill (young adult fiction, girl unhappy with her life writes letters to Jennifer Anniston. Hilarity ensues. Not really recommended unless you are a 15-year-old girl.)
Coal Black Horse - Robert Olmstead (young adult historical fiction about civil war. Boy searches for his father who is in the army and sees all sorts of horror. Recommended if you can stomach the gore.)
The One Where the Kid Nearly Jumps to His Death and Lands in California - Mary Hershey (young adult, boy with disability learns to stop being a jerk and feeling sorry for himself, recommended if you like coming of age novels)
The Plain Janes - Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg (young adult graphic novel, three girls named Jane deal with tragedy by doing renegade art, recommended)

Passage

Passage, by Connie Willis
780 pages
Published April 2001

This was my fourth Connie Willis book. (To Say Nothing of the Dog, Doomsday Book, Bellwether.) I really enjoy her writing. I'm starting to see some patterns that she uses, such as: annoying bureaucracies impeding progress, a certain annoying character that the protagonist has to avoid, scientific experiments, well-researched history, and a sense of urgency.

This book in particular is exceptionally good at creating a sense of urgency. In fact, it was so strong a sense that I couldn't resist reading at any possible moment. I read on the bus, during short little breaks at work, I even read while walking home from work one day. (Now that's challenging. Not sure I'll do that on a regular basis. It's especially challenging cause I wear distance glasses when I walk but I can't wear them when I read, so I was constantly having to remove my glasses to read and then put them on to see if any traffic was coming and what block I was on.)

Dr. Joanna Lauder is studying near-death experience phenomena. She interviews hospital patients who have clinically died and were revived. These patients frequently report having visions of tunnels, dead relatives, and a light. Although some are sure that this is a religious experience of the soul, Joanna wants to find the true reason behind it. She partners with another doctor, Richard Wright, to perform observed near-death experiences in the lab. Unlike the movie Flatliners (which they do refer to and scoff at in the book), the doctors do not induce death; rather they use certain hormones that are observed in the brain during near-death times to explore the effect of the hormones. As soon as the first volunteer reports on his induced experience, a race begins to find to the solution of the puzzling images he saw. Is it possible that they could find something that would help revive patients who have died? If so, can they find the solution in time to help a critically ill child that Joanna has befriended?

This book zooms between humor and pathos, it's fast-paced yet takes the time to explore minuscule details, uses modern medicine and technology yet has accurate depictions of historical events. At times I might almost call this a horror novel, other times it's an episode of your favorite medical drama, other times historical fiction. Very hard to pin down.

I recommend this book because even though I was a little disappointed by how it ended, I had such a blast while I was reading it that it was worth it. Would appeal to the scientifically-minded, problem solvers, or those who like medical mysteries.

Specimen Days

I did a lot of reading on Friday and Saturday. I finished Michael Cunningham's Specimen Days, which was really quite good. It's a novel in three parts, all set in NYC; the first part is historical fiction set in the late 1800's, the second part is modern, and the third part is set in the future. All are loosely tied to Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" in some way. He also seems to recycle characters throughout the three eras. They aren't the same people, but their names are the same and the general feel of the character remains the same. Very well done.

I especially liked the way he tied in some of Whitman's philosophies, and had the characters illustrate his ideas. One of the main ideas was that one returns to nature when one dies and experiences the joy of being one with the world, which is a relief from the pain of living. The epiphanies the characters have are very beautiful and touching. Each of the characters also has to make a difficult decision at some point, which has both good and bad consequences, very bittersweet decisions. Lots of emotion in this book.

It was recommended to me by a friend; I don't remember all he told me about it at the time, but I can see now why he was so enthusiastic about it. I wish I could remember now what he said. I will definitely have to have a conversation about it with him soon.

Harry Potter 7 (no spoilers)

I did read and finish the last Harry Potter book. It took me about 9 hours to read, it's a fat book but also a real page-turner, like the earlier books in the series.

I really like reading serialized novels since I like to get lost in the world that is invented. Harry Potter of course exemplifies this ideal, (which is also partly why they were such a hit, I think) and I am sad to know that the world, and Harry's story, ends here. That is always the case with me. Narnia, Lord of the Rings, The Golden Compass trilogy, the Death Gate Cycle, and the Otherland books have all done this to me to varying degrees. Luckily I enjoy re-reading books, so I can go ahead and revisit these lands whenever I want; but it is never quite the same.

Anyway, HP7 was well done. To keep this area relatively spoiler free, I will resist saying more. I'll just say it was just as satisfying and exciting as the others, and followed much the same formula. I think I could have done without the epilogue though.

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The Worst Hard Time

I'm not sure if I've mentioned before that a friend and I started a book group where we work. Our book for July was The Worst Hard Time, by Timothy Egan. I think I've mentioned before that I have a hard time read non-fiction; well, in this case I had no problem at all. In fact, I read this quite fast. Egan took the time to introduce many characters and set up a situation in a well-described setting, all components of my favorite kinds of fiction. He really built up a sense of dread and foreboding, as the time of the great dust storms of the 1930's arrived. It's really a disaster story. I think those who enjoyed reading about the Titanic or Into Thin Air (about a horrible Mount Everest expedition) would appreciate this as well. We watch as the characters we got to know so well, and who seemed to be thriving in the American mid-west, lose everything, and still struggle to hang on and resist leaving their adopted land. Before reading this I really had no idea of the struggle these people endured. In fact, I hadn't even heard of these great dust storms either. It's really quite amazing. Crops were buried under dust, farm animals died from lungs and stomachs getting filled with dust, families huddled in their homes, hanging wet sheets around all the doors and windows to try to keep the dust out... for nearly ten years. Incredible.

Timothy Egan bases his narrative on interviews he had with survivors from the storms or from the writings of those who lived in it. Filled with historical details, yet it retains the feel of a story rather than a history book. Highly recommended.