Up, close and personal

Don't you sometimes have experiences that you'd rather have not and chastisize yourself to never, ever fall into the same mistake again? Sure you do. But, then, is it possible that after years pass you can't recall exactly what was so bad about them and fall into the same trap? That is exactly my case. For example, each time I go hiking to the mountains and sleep outdoors after a whole day climbing. Or whenever I find out (with horror) that the movie I'm actually watching is directed by Michael Bay(!).

And it was definitely the case with Interview with a vampire. I'm sorry for the fans, but the book bored me to death, I did not like any of the characters and I just finished it because I have this compulsion not to leave a book until the last page even if I don't like it. Well, ten years later, I found The Witching Hour and someone had told me it was a great book, so I go and start reading it. Boohooo! Anne Rice just like I suddenly remembered her: long, boring descriptions, snail-slow pace that makes you forget about any interest you could have in the story after a while and, certainly, devious sex scenes ranging from incest to whatever comes to (her) mind. And, worst of all, completely open final that forces you to go and buy another brick of a book to learn what the heck happens to the characters (not that you care for any of them at a personal level, mind you, but if you are curious...). And where is the key to understand the whole book? (the lasher) In the next volume, of course.

I should start tatooing the authors I hate in my body as in Memento, in case I find myself reading another Da Vinci code in a few years ...

Yep, I know I've been pretty quiet here lately, but time is scarce, so let's go to the point: what I've been reading lately. In most cases, borrowed books, but I met Book Depository and it has been love at first sight :D



Fear Nothing (Dean Koontz)
Christopher Snow is extremely sun-sensitive, so he lives in the night. And, yet, somehow, he is a surfer in California, mind you. And super-cool, like every Koont's main character (note ironic tone here). And he seems to be the only person in town who realizes everyone is acting weird and there are strange creatures on the loose (if you've read ANY other book by the author, no real surprise here). I don't know why I read this. I do not like Koontz's books. They are boring. They are slow. And their ending is completely off-the-hook. It seems at first we are getting somewhere, but eventually, everything is caused by some government experiment and grows to epic proportions, totally out of the hands of the characters that simply decide to go on with their lives. I just read this books every bunch of years, when I forget what a total disappointment was the previous one, just like Roland Emmerich's films (well, in this case, it is usually because I forget to check the movie director before I watch the film and then I curse myself again and again along the very looooong movie...)


Pride, perjudice and zombies (Seth Grahame-Smith)
This was a gift from my brother in law, and, hey, it's fun. Basically, there is not much difference with respect to Austen's original work, except for some beheading and kung-fu. I was not expecting much of the book and that's what I got, but I enjoyed a good laugth here and there and freshened my Austen. Only I ended with this longing to find a husband for every single friend ...


The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril (Paul Malmont)
Maybe I was expecting too much of this novel, but it turned out to be too boring to be an action pulp and too pulp to be anything else. In 1937, Walter Gibson, the mind behind The Shadow, and his rival Lester Dent, creator of Doc Savage team up to solve H. P. Lovecraft's murder. And there are chinese foes involved, surely. I just could not get interested in the plot, even though it had every element for me to love it.


Truckers (Terry Pratchett)
I might be on a low streak, because I did not get interested in this one either. Unlike the Discworld series, that usually put a smile in my face in every page, Truckers is too dark to really be funny. It focus on the troubles of a tribe of nomes who have always lived inside a mall when outers arrive there just in time to discover that the mall is about to be demolished. The novel point on this is that gnomes live shorter lives, so generations come and go in barely a century and their society reflects that. It is not bad, but not up to Discworld standards.



Private Wars (Greg Rucka)
I hit the jackpot with this one! I like Rucka in general, and Queen and Country usually makes my day (unless I'm kind of low, in that case, I avoid it at all costs). Tara Chace is a british spy (in a very realistic tone) who has just lost a lover and given birth to a daughter, yet she can not really leave the thrill of a job she both loves and hates. She is offered a mission in diplomatically crucial Uzbekistan. President Malikov is ailing, and a succession fight between his son, Ruslam, and evil daughter, Sevara, has begun. Tara is asked to get Ruslam and his son out of the country, but, as usual, the plan does not go as expected and she is just in the middle when all hell breaks loose.


Ender's game (Orson Scott Card)
Yep, better late than never. I finally read this book and it was ok. Not amazing, not bad, just okay. Great expectations, once more, I guess. I think it is too long. It could have been solved as a short story (originally, I've been told it was just that) and it would not have been a great loss. Still, it was good enough to read the second book in a future. Got it from Amazon some months ago, too. Gifted kid born in a military society in perpetual war against an insectoid race. He is sent to military academy before the usual age (he has been conceived for that reason, too) and has to face jealous students, hard training and tough decisions before he even has facial hair. Plus there are some surprises at the end of the story.

---

I'm leaving something out, most likely, but who cares :) And I've just received my copy of Baltimore, from Mignola and Golden. Book Depository, if I ever get my copy of A game of Thrones in time, this is forever :D!