Going After Cacciatio is an unusual magical realism novel set in Vietnam war, where a bunch of soldiers chase a deserter… all the way to Paris, while experiencing a whole bunch of different cultures and discussing the spiritually hollow nature of modern conflicts.
|
Positive:
|
Negative:
|
|
Interesting, quirky characters
|
The plot feels disjointed like a fever dream
|
|
Thought-provoking on war and human condition
|
The plot isn’t most immersing or exciting
|
A horror novel where the main boogeyman is an alien culture.
|
Positive:
|
Negative:
|
|
Interesting, exotic setting of modern India
|
The ending lacks a bit in the oomph factor
|
|
Interesting, likable, relatively profound characters
|
|
|
Enthralling plot with lots of twists and surprises
|
|
|
Illuminating on Indian culture
|
A beautifully written, sarcastic story about an ex-con-artist introducing paper money to a high-fantasy-like economy and other bureaucratic hijinks in a quirky and fascinating fantasy world.
|
Positive:
|
Negative:
|
|
Flowing, sarcastic prose
|
The story, when you take away all the flare, is pretty simple
|
|
Fascinating, quirky fantasy setting
|
Pulp fiction
|
|
Interesting, likable, wacky, and even relatively profound characters
|
|
|
Involving plot full of twists and surprises
|
The Moonstone is an interesting work in that it’s both a Victorian and a mystery novel, and pretty much offers the best sides of both worlds with Jane Austin like drama and Agatha Christie like mystery.
|
Positive:
|
Negative:
|
|
Beautiful, old-fashioned prose
|
A couple of parts might feel too slow
|
|
Interesting, likable, relatively profound characters
|
Though the mystery is good, it doesn’t exactly blow your mind
|
|
An enthralling plot full of twists and surprises
|
|
|
A solid story that’s based around a pretty crafty mystery
|
A fascinating science-fiction novel about two extremely different factions of space-faring mankind observing and hoping to capitalize on a planet of intelligent giant spiders.
|
Positive:
|
Negative:
|
|
An imaginative, well thought-out space opera setting
|
The conclusion feels kind of simple and predictable in retrospect
|
|
A fascinating premise of contacting extremely alien intelligence
|
Doesn’t really delve too deep in the contact difficulties with alien beings
|
|
Interesting, likable, relatively profound characters
|
|
|
Enthralling plot full of twists and surprises
|
|
|
A solid story that explores intergalactic politics and nonhuman intelligence
|
|
|
Thought-provoking on space society and contact with intelligent species
|
I haven’t heard much about Needful Things compared to other Stephen King’s books, but it might have actually turned out to be my favorite of his as the main boogeyman here only plays people and their already prevalent frustrations against each other to create a grand spectacle of horror.
It feels a lot more grounded in reality and plausibility than his other books.
|
Positive:
|
Negative:
|
|
Flowing, pleasant prose
|
Doesn’t really offer anything particularly mind-blowing
|
|
Spooky, unnerving atmosphere
|
|
|
Interesting, likable, relatively profound characters
|
|
|
An involving plot that consists of the whole town going nuts
|
|
|
Thought-provoking on the fragility of society
|
A horror novel with an interesting premise (breaking in and exploring an abandoned hotel) that soon devolves into stereotypical and painfully superficial psychopath thriller.
|
Positive:
|
Negative:
|
|
Interesting premise
|
The latter half is pretty much a copy paste of any psychopath thriller you ever read
|
|
Relatively interesting, likable characters
|
Pulp fiction
|
A historical novel that while not groundbreaking gives some insight into 17th century Denmark and England with an all right plot and relatively interesting characters.
|
Positive:
|
Negative:
|
|
Interesting, relatively profound characters
|
The story, while not bad, turns out a bit underwhelming
|
|
Enlightening on the 17th century Denmark
|
An awesome political space adventure with unbelievably likable characters.
|
Positive:
|
Negative:
|
|
Interesting, intergalactic setting
|
Offers very little actual science
|
|
Awesome, likable, interesting, unique, profound characters
|
Doesn’t offer anything particularly groundbreaking
|
|
Engrossing plot full of twists and surprises
|
|
|
A solid story fueled by merciless politics of an unstable planet
|
An interesting account of a religious black family’s life in 1930s Harlem.
|
Positive:
|
Negative:
|
|
Interesting, likable, profound characters
|
The plot is not always the most exciting
|
|
Illuminating on the life of black families in early 20th century America
|
|
|
Thought-provoking on life
|
Known as the Harry Potter for adults, The Magicians, unfortunately, abbreviates most of its fun parts in the magic school to the benefit of dull adventures in a fairly standard high fantasy land in the latter half.
|
Positive:
|
Negative:
|
|
Interesting urban fantasy setting
|
Dull and underwhelming latter half
|
|
Likable characters
|
Doesn’t really offer much that other better fantasy books hadn’t already
|
|
The various hijinks of learning magic in the magic school are pretty fun
|
A fascinating hard sci-fi account of a future where mankind has colonized the solar system which unfortunately follows a cast of really poorly written characters and a plot that’s somehow both bland and all over the place.
You definitely read this book for the world and the science behind it… not what’s actually happening in it.
|
Positive:
|
Negative:
|
|
Fascinating, well-researched setting of a far future
|
The characters, especially the protagonist either act like children or are painfully dull
|
|
Lots of awesome hard sci-fi concepts
|
The plot is all over the place and fails to captivate you
|
A fascinating true crime story that follows a man fighting for his own execution.
|
Positive:
|
Negative:
|
|
Pleasant, flowing prose
|
Doesn’t offer many surprises due to the nature of the genre
|
|
Interesting, likable, extremely profound characters
|
|
|
Engrossing plot even if you know where it’s going
|
|
|
Thought-provoking on human condition
|
An entertaining horror story centering around a haunted school and a bunch of kids involved in the affair set in 60s, somewhat reminiscent of Stephen King’s “It.”
|
Positive:
|
Negative:
|
|
Light and conversational, but pleasant and flowing prose
|
The story doesn’t offer anything particularly unusual
|
|
Likable, relatively profound characters
|
|
|
Immersing plot with an odd surprising twist here and there
|
|
|
Genuinely spooky, unnerving atmosphere
|
A relatively entertaining account of a quirky town with quirky characters, though at times it feels like the story lacks cohesiveness and with the amount of characters it sometimes can become hard to follow.
|
Positive:
|
Negative:
|
|
Quirky, interesting, profound characters
|
Hard to keep track of all the characters
|
|
Relatively interesting plot
|
The story feels a bit all over the place
|
|
Thought-provoking on life
|
Money feels a bit all over the place and is a bit hard to follow, but it’s thoroughly entertaining sarcastic protagonist makes every line in this story simply a pleasure to read.
It kind of reminded me of The Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
|
Positive:
|
Negative:
|
|
Satyrical, thoroughly entertaining prose
|
Feels a bit all over the place at times
|
|
Interesting, likable, profound characters, especially the protagonist
|
So many characters it’s easy to lose track of who is who
|
|
Relatively enthralling plot
|
|
|
Solid, poignant story
|
|
|
Thought-provoking on capitalistic values and human nature
|
Joan D. Vinge tells an interesting story in a fairly fascinating setting that mixes science fiction and fantasy, but while well-written, it never really rises to something particularly mind-blowing or memorable.
|
Positive:
|
Negative:
|
|
Fascinating, imaginative, and well thought-out setting
|
Doesn’t offer anything particularly mind-blowing
|
|
Interesting, likable characters
|
Some of the parts can feel a bit slow
|
|
Relatively engaging plot
|
So far my favorite Michener’s book, Hawaii is a fantastic recounting of Hawaii’s history that spans generations of interesting and likable characters, almost every one of whom have a poignant and dramatic story to tell.
|
Positive:
|
Negative:
|
|
Simple but pleasant and easily-digestible prose
|
Might feel a bit slow at times
|
|
Profound, interesting, likable characters
|
|
|
Enthralling plot
|
|
|
Epic story that spans generations
|
|
|
Multiple genuinely dramatic and touching moments
|
|
|
Enlightening on Hawaii’s history
|
|
|
Thought-provoking on life
|
A poignant record of four generations of a very memorable family in post-colonial Chile.
|
Positive:
|
Negative:
|
|
Profound, interesting, likable characters
|
A few parts of the story might feel a bit slow
|
|
Interesting story inspired by historical facts
|
|
|
Relatively engrossing plot with a couple of cool twists here and there
|
|
|
Enlightening on Chilean culture and history
|
A fascinating horror mystery set in a small town in New Mexico.
|
Positive:
|
Negative:
|
|
Spooky, unnerving atmosphere
|
The story is pretty simple in retrospect
|
|
Interesting, likable characters
|
|
|
Engaging plot
|
|
|
A fascinating, creepy mystery
|
Visual novel & other stuff impressions 