shiragin

3.5, נראה לי.

קראתי את הספר מתוך אפקט העדר וגם כי הספרנית נתנה לי אותו ואמרה: “קחי, שיהיה לך”. לא ציפיתי ליהנות ממנו, ולא ציפיתי שהוא ייגע בי בכל מיני מקומות שאפילו לא ידעתי שקיימים אצלי. אולי זה משום שלא קראתי ספרות מקור כל כך הרבה שנים, ומשהו בעברית פגע די עמוק. אולי אלו כל הסצינות שאני יכולה לזהות את עצמי בהן - זה לא בדיוק פה ועכשיו, הסיפור מתרחש בתחילת שנות אלפיים, אבל באופן עצוב, זה בדיוק כמו פה ועכשיו. היו רגעים שבהם היה לי קשה להמשיך לקרוא כי זה פשוט הכאיב מדי.

אני באמת מופתעת מכמה שהתחברתי לספר בהתחשב בעודף הדימויים שבו, העובדה שאף אחד אף פעם לא מסיים שם את המשפטים שלו, והגזענות שהוא מנסה לפרק לגורמים אבל עדיין נופל לה קורבן בסוף האיום והנורא. כמו סרטים עם רומן לסבי, רק בערבי

אמ;לק - בנט בדוק לא קרא את הספר.

Wow. This must be one of the most original, intelligent and mind-bogglingly confusing books I have read lately. Its three novellas loosely interconnect to form a puzzle whose pieces don't always fit together, or maybe it's just me who's not clever enough to realise how they're supposed to fit.

But I'm okay with that, honestly. I'm fine with not getting a completely coherent narrative or anything even remotely close to proper answers to all the questions raised here. Because whether I understand this book or not, reading it has been one hell of a ride.

I adored Haviland Tuf, the only vegetarian ecological engineer in the Thousand Worlds, who, as it happens, also owns the original Lying Cat. “The Skin Trade” had wonderful atmosphere, that neglected, shabby industrial town feel. “The Hedge Knight” was incredible and reminded me what made me fall in love with the ASOIAF world in the first place (and also, why did I wait so long to read this?!). “Unsound Variations” is probably the only story in existence which combines chess with time travel, and “Portraits of His Children” made my skin crawl.

Go Georgie go!

I really thought I'd enjoy this. I wanted to like this. I didn't :(

This book features one of the most intriguing opening scenes I've read lately, and it sets the tone for a mysterious dark tale (which is fantastic). Then the entire thing turns into a humorously absurd tale which obviously isn't meant to be taken seriously (which is also fine, I guess, just not the kind of book I prefer reading). The narrative stays uneven, as if the book just can't decide what sort of book it wants to be. Scenes begin with a sober tone only to melt into a pile of giggles. This might appeal to many readers, but unfortunately I'm not one of them.

And the cleverness, oh god, the cleverness. See, this book is imaginative. And clever. Oh so very clever. It's so in love with its own cleverness that it becomes tiresome very, very fast. Everyone's constantly delivering snarky one-liners, everything is either a pun or a juvenile joke, and there's no real way to differentiate the characters because they're all just, well, so damn witty and snarky they basically sound the same.

All in all, this was an overwritten book with a cool premise, some nice ideas and a very tedious execution. I thought I'd give it just one star, but it gets a surprise extra star for the stroke of genius that is the Gestalt siblings.

This book is so macho, so manly, you can practically hear its muscles rippling. Not such a bad thing in itself, but it is accompanied by a noticeable layer of misogyny (Pam was simply painful). Also, the lack of diversity didn't bother me at first, because in this particular setting it actually made sense. But the fact it was never addressed or discussed was disturbing. I can get behind Pilcher being - on top of a murderer and a psychopath - also a raging racist, but the fact that no character took any notice of the total whiteness of the chosen residents makes me suspect that this was the author's choice rather than the antagonist's.

That's a shame, really, because somewhere under the flimsy characters, plot holes and unbelievable premise, there are some genuinely intriguing ideas.

Still gonna read the third part D: