Classic Review: Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse-Five
by Kurt Vonnegut


Description:
Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time, Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world's great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous firebombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we fear most.


My Review:
Just a fantastic book, but also convoluted, lyrical, and thought-provoking.

I very much enjoyed this story, and I think I'll be quoting "so it goes" long into the future. It's rather dark, but there's a message of never ending, a comfort, that Billy Pilgrim's journeys through time and the resulting mantra convey. And added to that, I'd never heard of Dresden before listening to this book. Scary stuff, and heartbreaking.

Despite it being fiction, the real experiences the author draws from are historically accurate, and to be honest, I wouldn't have read a non-fiction book on the subject, but add in time travel and aliens and I'm all in, so there's that.

Overall, strongly recommended to folks who enjoy time travel books, with some off color bits and dark humor.

I borrowed the audiobook of this from library.


About the Author:

Kurt Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis in 1922. He studied at the universities of Chicago and Tennessee and later began to write short stories for magazines.

During the Second World War he was held prisoner in Germany and was present at the bombing of Dresden, an experience which provided the setting for his most famous work to date, Slaughterhouse Five (1969).

Visit his Amazon page for a more thorough rundown of his works and his Goodreads page for more about his interesting history. 

Amazon  |  Goodreads  |  Website

Classic Review: Watership Down by Richard Adams

Watership Down
by Richard Adams

Description:
Set in England's Downs, a once idyllic rural landscape, this stirring tale of adventure, courage and survival follows a band of very special creatures on their flight from the intrusion of man and the certain destruction of their home. Led by a stouthearted pair of friends, they journey forth from their native Sandleford Warren through the harrowing trials posed by predators and adversaries, to a mysterious promised land and a more perfect society.


My Review:
Just a fantastic book! And yes, it is about rabbits.

Occasionally, I like to buckle down and read a classic, or in this case, listen to a classic. I must say, Watership Down was absolutely engaging and exciting. The story follows a small band of rabbits on their quest to escape a foreseen disaster and find a new home.

What I most enjoy about this is that everything is true to the rabbit. The author took great pains to limit the characters to actions natural to a rabbit, yet still, he created an epic adventure that tests these larger than life creatures to their limits.

Another thing I adored is the rabbit lore, the stories the rabbits tell and pass down about their past and their own folk heroes. It perfectly balanced past and present and future in the story. I say future, too, because it is obvious as the story progresses that Hazel will be a legend in his own right.

This is truly a timeless tale, told with heart. I absolutely loved it! I find it very easy to strongly recommend this to folks who enjoy a good adventure.

I borrowed the audiobook from the library.


About the Author:

Richard George Adams (born 9 May, 1920) is best-remembered as the author of Watership Down, but wrote many other novels, short stories, poems and a biography.

He originally began telling the story of Watership Down to his two daughters, Juliet and Rosamond, on a trip to Stratford-on-Avon, to see a play. They insisted he publish the tale as a book. When Watership Down was finally published, it sold over a million copies in record time in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Watership Down has become a modern classic and won both the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 1972.

Others of his books include Shardik, Maia, Tales from Watership Down, The Girl in a Swing and The Plague Dogs, the last two of which, together with Watership Down, have been filmed. His goal was always to tell a good story, ideally one so good you can't put it down! His last work, 'The Adventures of Eggbox Dragon', which is a picture-book for younger children, will be published posthumously by Hodder in 2017. It was written when he was 93.

During his later years Richard and his wife Elizabeth lived in Whitchurch, Hampshire, very close to Watership Down, and not far from where they had both grown up. He wrote about his childhood and youth, including the time he served in the army in World War II, in his biography 'The Day Gone By'.

During the last year of his life he kept a blog: https://www.watership-down.com/blog/. He died peacefully on Christmas Eve 2016.

Bio from the author's Amazon profile.

Classic Review: Moby Dick, or The Whale by Herman Melville

Moby Dick, or The Whale
by Herman Melville

Description:
"It is the horrible texture of a fabric that should be woven of ships' cables and hawsers. A Polar wind blows through it, and birds of prey hover over it."

So Melville wrote of his masterpiece, one of the greatest works of imagination in literary history. In part, Moby-Dick is the story of an eerily compelling madman pursuing an unholy war against a creature as vast and dangerous and unknowable as the sea itself. But more than just a novel of adventure, more than an encyclopaedia of whaling lore and legend, the book can be seen as part of its author's lifelong meditation on America. Written with wonderfully redemptive humour, Moby-Dick is also a profound inquiry into character, faith, and the nature of perception.


My Review:
Finally made it through with audio! I tried a few times before, but didn't get very far.

Very good book, and informative. The ending was fantastic. I don't know how I've managed to avoid spoilers for this, but it was quite an exciting finale.

There are its slow points, though. When Herman Melville says he's going to catalog all of the whales, he's going to catalog all of the whales. Still, there were some very interesting asides, and many, though about whales on the surface, have a rather deeper and profound message.

I can totally see why it has been described as an important book.

Anyhow, I really liked this as an audiobook. Recommended for fans of the classics, of whales, and of sea stories. Vast in its scope.

Borrowed this from the library. Took a little over two weeks to get through.


About the Author:

The writing career of Herman Melville (1819 - 1891) peaked early, with his early novels, such as Typee becoming best sellers. By the mid-1850s his poularity declined sharply, and by the time he died he had been largely forgotten. Yet in time his novel Moby Dick came to be regarded as one of the finest works of American, and indeed world, literature, as was Billy Budd, which was not published until long after his death, in 1924.

Sci-Fi Review: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Ender's Game (The Ender Quintet #1)
by Orson Scott Card 

Description:
Andrew "Ender" Wiggin thinks he is playing computer simulated war games; he is, in fact, engaged in something far more desperate. The result of genetic experimentation, Ender may be the military genius Earth desperately needs in a war against an alien enemy seeking to destroy all human life. The only way to find out is to throw Ender into ever harsher training, to chip away and find the diamond inside, or destroy him utterly. Ender Wiggin is six years old when it begins. He will grow up fast.

But Ender is not the only result of the experiment. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway almost as long. Ender's two older siblings, Peter and Valentine, are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. While Peter was too uncontrollably violent, Valentine very nearly lacks the capability for violence altogether. Neither was found suitable for the military's purpose. But they are driven by their jealousy of Ender, and by their inbred drive for power. Peter seeks to control the political process, to become a ruler. Valentine's abilities turn more toward the subtle control of the beliefs of commoner and elite alike, through powerfully convincing essays. Hiding their youth and identities behind the anonymity of the computer networks, these two begin working together to shape the destiny of Earth-an Earth that has no future at all if their brother Ender fails.

My Review:
Ender’s Game is one of those books that I’ve wanted to read for some time. I saw the movie when it came out and liked it, but never got around to picking it up as a book. Glad my friend and I got into a talk about books because he reminded me about this.

This is a story about a child genius who is enlisted into an intergalactic army and molded into perhaps the most gifted commander of his time, all before the age of 12.

First off, I dig a good sci-fi with all the technology, the space science, the what ifs, and the deep questions, and Ender’s Game delivers. Ender and the other kids are part of it, much smarter than they should be and given the responsibility for the fate of humankind, though most don’t really understand it. And that leads into the next thing I found fascinating.

Ender, unlike most of his peers, knows he’s being used, that the game is bigger than just a game, that his teachers are not his friends, that his friends are not his friends, not really, not when he has to lead them. He knows that no one will rescue him but himself. He’s the victim and the savior all in one. And it just draws you right in. Rooting for him. Rooting for his success, even though deep down you know it’s terribly wrong how he’s being used. And all through it, the shocking reminders that he’s the age of a kindergartener or first grader.

This story toys with ideas of morality. The author gives us the perspective of those in charge of the Battle School and the children’s training, so we have a peek into that mindset of knowing that despite your love for those children, you’re going to break them so you can build them into what they need to be. Despite that you’re going to do it because it needs to be done, even it if means prison or worse if the war is in fact won, if the gamble pays off.

Overall, I loved the story. It’s just one of those books that truly does deserve to be labeled a classic. I devoured it in a day and a half. I highly recommend this to folks who love sci-fi and underdog stories.

There are four more books, but this one reads well enough that you could stop with it and be satisfied.

I purchased my copy of this book.


This is the second book I've read by Orson Scott Card. The other was The Seventh Son for which you can read my review here.

About the Author:

Orson Scott Card is best known for his science fiction novel Ender's Game and its many sequels that expand the Ender Universe into the far future and the near past. Those books are organized into the Ender Quintet, the five books that chronicle the life of Ender Wiggin; the Shadow Series, that follows on the novel Ender's Shadow and are set on Earth; and the Formic Wars series, written with co-author Aaron Johnston, that tells of the terrible first contact between humans and the alien "Buggers." Card has been a working writer since the 1970s. Beginning with dozens of plays and musical comedies produced in the 1960s and 70s, Card's first published fiction appeared in 1977 -- the short story "Gert Fram" in the July issue of The Ensign, and the novelette version of "Ender's Game" in the August issue of Analog.

The novel-length version of Ender's Game, published in 1984 and continuously in print since then, became the basis of the 2013 film, starring Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, and Abigail Breslin. Card was born in Washington state, and grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He served a mission for the LDS Church in Brazil in the early 1970s. Besides his writing, he runs occasional writers' workshops and directs plays. He frequently teaches writing and literature courses at Southern Virginia University.

He is the author many sf and fantasy novels, including the American frontier fantasy series "The Tales of Alvin Maker" (beginning with Seventh Son), There are also stand-alone science fiction and fantasy novels like Pastwatch and Hart's Hope. He has collaborated with his daughter Emily Card on a manga series, Laddertop. He has also written contemporary thrillers like Empire and historical novels like the monumental Saints and the religious novels Sarah and Rachel and Leah. Card's recent work includes the Mithermages books (Lost Gate, Gate Thief), contemporary magical fantasy for readers both young and old. Card lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Kristine Allen Card, He and Kristine are the parents of five children and several grandchildren.

Source: http://us.macmillan.com/author/orsonscottcard

Find more books by this author on Amazon.

Classic Review: Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck

Sweet Thursday (sequel to Cannery Row)

by John Steinbeck

Description

In Monterey, on the California coast, Sweet Thursday is what they call the day after Lousy Wednesday, which is one of those days that is just naturally bad. Returning to the scene of "Cannery Row," the weedy lots and junk heaps and flophouses of Monterey, John Steinbeck once more brings to life the denizens of a netherworld of laughter and tears - from Fauna, new headmistress of the local brothel, to Hazel, a bum whose mother must have wanted a daughter. 

My Review

In Sweet Thursday, John Steinbeck returns to Cannery Row, a rundown place that’s fallen upon hard times since the local waters were all fished out and the canneries have all closed down. Central to this story is Doc, returned from the war to his failing business. He’s feeling low, and everyone in the neighborhood knows it. They just don’t know exactly what to do about it.

This is a delightful story, even for someone like me who hasn’t actually read the previous book. That being said, I found that the plot didn’t quite become evident until several chapters in after all the “where are they now” stuff was covered. At that point, it took off and I must say in quite a wonderful way. This book left me grinning so hard my face hurt. I feel a welling of emotion just thinking about it.

I mentioned what I was reading to my dad and told him it was the sequel to Cannery Row. He’d seen the movie for Cannery Row and asked if the book was just as good. I guess this means I’ll have to track that book down and see how it all started. That’s as good as a reason for reading it as was the one I had for reading this one. I read a blog post about hooptedoodle and it made me curious.

Anyway, I totally recommend this, though perhaps the first part have been better had I actually read the first book. This story won a Pulitzer Prize in Literature, well deserved in my opinion.

I borrowed this book from the library.

-----

Definitely worth picking up. But perhaps better if you pick up Cannery Row first.
 

Historical Fiction Review: Ann of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A classic, but Anne talks the Cuthberts and the reader in circles.

Anne of Green Gables is the story of a young girl who matures from spunky day dreamer to mature young woman. When the Cuthberts decide to adopt, they intended to get a boy who could help on the farm, but what they get is Anne. They very nearly decide not to keep her, but the ever-optimistic and imaginative Anne manages to sway them in her favor just in time.

I think what I like most about this story is Anne's temper and impetuous nature and how she slowly becomes less of a hellion. I also like how those she meets can't help but be changed by the experience. And, then there is the historical aspect. Imagine sending someone down to the orphanage to pick you up a boy, or handing an orphan off from one household to another without anything more than a "here you go" to mark the occasion.

On the other hand, this story is quite a whirlwind of chatter (mostly Anne's nonsensical ramblings) and Anne seems to blast through all phases of adolescence. Several times it seemed that the story was wrapping up (or should be) and I found that I was nowhere near there. It's not a short story by any measure. I think it might have helped if I hadn't been reading this on a Kindle as part of a "boxed set."

Overall, I really liked the story, particularly the colorful character of Anne. I recommend it to those who enjoy historical fiction or coming of age stories, though it can drag on and be hard to follow in places. There was a TV series about Anne that's also worth checking out.

I found the complete Anne of Green Gables boxed set for free on Amazon Kindle and this was the first story in it.

View all my reviews

Short Story Review: Rikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard Kipling

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard Kipling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This classic tale, featured originally in The Jungle Book, tells of the brave battle of Rikki-Tikki the mongoose against the deadly cobras, Nag and Nagaina.  Rikki-Tikki is swept away from his family by a flood and finds himself a most welcome guest of a human family.

I remember reading this once in school, though I can't remember exactly when, and I was happy to come across it for free on Amazon. It's actually quite an exciting tale, though perhaps a little scary.  The snakes, Nag and Nagaina, are sinister and plot the death of the entire family in the big house, hoping that Rikki-Tikki would then move on. But luckily their plot is discovered, and the mongoose defends his adoptive family with every fiber of his being.

The characters are varied and are each entertaining in their own right.  I love the idiotic Tailorbird, Danzee.  He weeps, sings, and celebrates in turn, without any regard to consequence, mostly because of his short attention span. The little fearful musk-rat, who runs along the walls, but never to the center of the room, is also amusing.  His role as informant is important to winning the battle, but mostly because he's afraid he'll be mistaken for the mongoose.

But mostly, I love Rikki-Tikki himself.  Too curious to be afraid and fiercely protective of the young family and the creatures of the yard, he is an admirable hero.  Brave and funny, and believable, too. When he's not busy saving the day, he scampers around on the breakfast table, perches on the little boy's shoulder, and otherwise endears himself to both the family and the reader.

I also like the poem at the beginning and Danzee's song at the end, cut short because Danzee himself was interupted in the singing by Rikki-Tikki.

Overall, a short, but powerful story of triumph, bravery, and danger. I recommend this one to anyone who likes rooting for the underdog and those who enjoy animal characters.

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