Bad Guy Shocker! Vacuous Villains Blow Story! "Well, Rodney and I did our best. We can't help it if we're just a pair of control-freaks who like dominBad Guy Shocker! Vacuous Villains Blow Story! "Well, Rodney and I did our best. We can't help it if we're just a pair of control-freaks who like dominating humans and call it experimentation to give it a veneer of respectability." - Emily - The Cardboard Cut-Out Villain Gazette
I've said it in other forums, and I'll say it here. The villains have to have charisma to make me care what happens to them. This on its own is what drove the DNF decision.
But adding copious salt to the wound...
As for the hero, Holly's constant and strident attention to every authoritative neo-fascist monopoly capitalist establishment belief in 2021 about the 'correct,' and profitable response to the covid panic is like having someone tie me down in a chair and shout their rancid politics at me while hitting me across the face with a stinking fish dripping with pus.
I thought I was signing up to read a thrilling horror story, not to get preached at...
I've loved other King reads, Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Dead Zone, The Stand, Needful Things, Misery, It, but I petered out with Rose Madder back in '95 ... perhaps I should've stayed out.
This book is sad, an indictment of a genius imagination that has lost its mojo. Worse, it feels indulgent, and weirdly, comically, ironic given the villains are obsessed with domination and control and view humans as fit to be experimented upon.... all in a time of Covid...
EDIT: 01May2024: For those unable to comprehend the irony above. We were all experimented upon by the pushers of the mRNA vaccines ... the villains (Rodney & Emily) are aligned with our corporate masters in viewing us as fit only for experiments. Stephen King's alignment with the corporate establishment pandemic response aligns with his villains... and I suspect he has no idea that is the case.
Not Recommended. DNF'ed at 16%. Just Terrible.
P.S. A final word from a villain that mattered.
"Nothing irks me more than fad-diet zealots!" - Hannibal Lecter - The International Journal of Cuisine and Culture
EDIT: 17Feb2024: Regarding the phenomenon of 'Review Jumpers,' those benighted souls filled with self-righteous entitlement licensing their attacks upon non-conformative thought and expression.
The phenomenon of low-information neo-fascist monopoly capitalist establishment supporters displaying their inability to self-reflect upon their slavish adherance to authoritative market narratives such as 'The official Pandemic Response, was just the Best,' by jumping onto other people's reviews to tell them 'how awful and wrong they are,' intrigues me.
There's also this weird belief that disagreement with the 'wonderful rightness,' of the official pandemic response as articulated by our corporate state establishment makes someone an automatic tub-thumping Donald Trump supporter??? It's like ... Robert F Kennedy Jr is a figment of people's imagination. Really? Really? Can anyone believe the world is literally that black and white?
It's almost as if they have no awareness that the official pandemic response prioritised market/social control and corporate profits, over the welfare of the people, in absolute accordance with our western civilization's overarching framework of neo-fascist monopoly capitalism.
And yes, I believe Western Civilization has succumbed to a bad bout of neo-fascist monopoly capitalism. We really should be using anti-trust laws a lot more rigourously, and avoiding public-private partnerships like the plague... but that is another topic.
I suspect these 'Review Jumpers,' lack the moral, intellectual and spiritual maturity to manifest their own moral and intellectual authority in any way against public authority.
Stockholm syndrome writ large.
It's a sad fact that some people can't tolerate thinking for themselves and will simply align with whatever power and authority manifests the greatest 'center of gravity,' within their environment. As a direct consequence of their own moral and intellectual enslavement, they cannot tolerate the presence of other people's moral and intellectual freedom. It's the contrast that gets to them. Like a vampire confronted by a mirror - they have to smash what reveals their empty souls and petty tyranny.
The willing mind-slave is a spectacle to behold, and a cautionary tale for the rest of us. But, for my assertion of moral and intellectual authority over my own life, there go I.
Just remember ... we're all hairless monkeys and no one gets to tell you who you are ... least of all people terrified of taking responsibility for their own lives.
EDIT: 12Mar2024: For those who believe that Trump was against the official 'as led by Anthony Fauci,' Covid pandemic response, here is Trump bragging about the rapid deployment of the Covid vaccines after the 2024 SOTU speech. REF: https://archive.md/pL7ih
Trump did not oppose lockdowns, suppression of human rights, suppression of off-patent treatments, or the rush to market of the covid vaccines, he was complicit with the Fauci-led approach and continues to brag about it to this day.
If you want to understand what actually happened during the Covid Pandemic read these books.
Character Shocker! MC Accidentally Blown Through Time Portal! "Well, I was just looking for a flower when next thing I know, I'm in another century!" Character Shocker! MC Accidentally Blown Through Time Portal! "Well, I was just looking for a flower when next thing I know, I'm in another century!" - Claire Randall - The Hapless Character Chronical.
DNF at 9%. (page 79 of 877)
I'm just not captured by the main character Claire Randall. I suspect it's due to the absence of a 'mighty purpose.' She's just floating through her post-war life with a husband she's barely seen in the last 6 years, and then she shunts off through time in a narrative process that comes across as being struck by lightning from a bright blue sky...
I really like to read about characters with agency, and Claire just doesn't seem to have any. Things just happen to her, and she responds to them - more or less. She doesn't seem to have much initiative of her own, which follows from her general aimlessness.
After more than an hour invested, I just don't care what the hell happens in Randolph Carter's dream world which is My first DNF of a Lovecraft story.
After more than an hour invested, I just don't care what the hell happens in Randolph Carter's dream world which is a hot mess of an anything and everything goes non-story reading like stream of consciousness writing.
[1] Racism occurs as acts of prejudice and discrimination by one person against another motivated DNF at 18%.
Some simple distinctions need to be made.
[1] Racism occurs as acts of prejudice and discrimination by one person against another motivated by a value judgment based on racial characteristics.
Absent acts of prejudice and discrimination, racism ceases to have ground in which to exist.
[2] The foundational belief of racists everywhere is that everyone's racial characteristics are the most important determinator of their value as a human being.
[3] Every social division enables a pathway for political and financial exploitation. People seeking to exploit others will inflame social division for personal gain. Race is an easy 'go to,' for anyone seeking to exploit social division for personal gain.
[4] Grounding our relationships in a deep appreciation of our common humanity enables empathy and compassion, breaks down the walls of social division, and disempowers the mechanisms of exploitation.
[5] The most powerful antidote to racism is indifference to racial characteristics.
My advice: practice indifference to our differences - especially to the incredibly shallow and superficial differences of our appearance.
When I DNF books, I have a policy of not rating them, unless I have DNF'ed because the book is egregiously offensive. In which case, I will assign one star. This book qualifies for this category.
Robin DiAngelo has obviously gone to some effort to validate, reinforce, and generally inflate the tires of the fundamental belief informing rabid racists everywhere: that racial characteristics are important.
She studiously ignores the possibility of indifference to racial characteristics as a natural antidote that subverts racist practices.
Her philosophy defines your immutable and unavoidable race as the key determinant of your life. You have no control over your destiny. Your life will occur in accordance with your race. You are disempowered and without agency.
The best you can hope for is to be aware of your racial destiny. For which awareness you can sign up for one of her classes for a nifty fee.
What a toxic, self-serving ideology on display this mess of race hatred is.
I don't fit inside her ideological box, and it's healthier for everyone to step outside her toxic ideology and grasp your natural agency and empowerment.
Free yourself from the nasty belief that our superficial racial characteristics are important. Get off your knees and stand upright upon the empathic ground of our common humanity. Break down the walls of social division and exploitation. Claim your natural birth right, seize power over your life, and become the captain of your own destiny.
You are so much more than the color of your skin - don't allow anyone to diminish you by convincing you that your skin color is all that you are.
Every attempt to diminish you is a psychological attack upon your well being. Refuse to be a target.
The most fundamental power any of us have is the power to define who we are through our choices and actions in life. Every time you allow someone else to define you - you give your power to them.
Seize mastery over your own life - make your own choices, take your own actions and define your self.
Do not delegate responsibility for who you are to anyone else - that is just denying your own power.
Strongly Not Recommended, '1, we are not the color of our skin,' stars.
[Originally written in May 2021. Revised in September 2023] A post script. Marxism is architected on splitting the community into opposing groups. The bourgeoisie vs the proletariat. Your immutable group membership determines your fate in life. Personal characteristics and choices are irrelevant. [Begin Edit] Now that all the current crop of Marxists Monopoly Capitalists [End Edit] have grown up in a society that valorises wealth over poverty, they have given up the old unprofitable focus on class and and shifted to the green-fields of race and gender. But the architecture remains the same - your immutable group membership determines your fate in life. Personal characteristics and choices are irrelevant, and the social divisions thus engendered are exploitable for personal gain by those who articulate the ideological boxes in which they would force you to live.
The great shame of our historical moment is the number of people who volunteer for ideological servitude and personal disempowerment to our would be masters.
Such behaviour, boggles my mind.
[Sept '23] P.P.S. I've come to the conclusion that Western Civilization is a secular religion which worships two gods: Wealth and Power. The fundamental axis of conflict within our culture and society is between permanent extractors and value creators. The primary form of oppression is by the ultra-rich of the poor. The ultra-rich fear, and fear greatly, the unification of the poor against them. They have every reason to divide the poor against each other and will do so at every opportunity. Politics, as it occurs, is primarily a tool box of the ultra-rich to pit the poor against each other while securing their own wealth and power. Fostering race hate is simply an exploitable tool within the political tool box.
This book, and its core thesis of entrenched and immovable race hatred, speaks for the dominant power dynamic between the rich and the poor - and not against it.
For this reason, I condemn the author's thesis, and reject it....more
Radical Leftist (TM) Imbroglio! MARXISM (TM) or MONOPOLY CAPITALISM (TM)?! "Well, it appears the author has attempted to RELABEL (TM) 'Looting,' into Radical Leftist (TM) Imbroglio! MARXISM (TM) or MONOPOLY CAPITALISM (TM)?! "Well, it appears the author has attempted to RELABEL (TM) 'Looting,' into LOOTING (TM) without realising that using the technique of REBRANDING (TM) from MONOPOLY CAPITALISM (TM) is an endorsement of the methods of OPPRESSION AND DISEMPOWERMENT (TM)." - The Monopoly Capitalism Review
Given this quote from the book,
"When something is looted, that thing’s nature as a commodity is destroyed by its being taken for free… Everything in the store goes from being a commodity to becoming a gift."
To paraphrase, "The act of taking something that has not been voluntarily given transforms the thing into a gift."
Interesting, I always thought that the essence of a gift was that it was freely and voluntarily given, without any expectation of a future return. I.e. A gift brings joy to the giver in the moment it occurs, and that joy is sufficient recompense for the giver. Anyone who has freely given something to another knows this is true.
DEFINITION: GIFT The voluntary act of giving something from one person to the another without expectation of transactional reward.
Osterweil certaintly appears to be asserting (relabel) that the act of 'looting,' i.e. the appropriation of a thing is sufficient to transform it into a gift.
Given that we all own our own life and our own body. (Is anyone willing to claim that another human being owns their life, or owns their body - to do with what they will?) It follows ...
If Osterweil is correct, then the following must also be true.
[1] When a rapist rapes their victim, they transform (through the act of appropriation, through looting) the victim's body into a gift.
[2] When a murderer kills their victim they transform (by taking) the victim's life into a gift.
[3] When a slaver enslaves another human being, they transform (by appropriating) their victim's body/labor into a gift.
If those things are false, then Osterweil is incorrect, and the act of looting, appropriation, thievery, rape, murder, and enslavement, do not transform stolen goods into gifts.
I suspect the author is deeply morally confused and fails to understand that their ideology is simply a license for the strong to take from the weak. This is not a new idea or an illuminating insight, it is an old idea that has plagued humanity forever.
On further reflection, here is the killer rebuttal for this author's central idea. Imagine this scenario.
A gang of looters invade a brothel, round up all the sex workers and repeatedly rape them. The sex workers make their living by renting out their bodies for a fee. The looters/rapists don't pay, instead they just take (loot) what they want and then leave.
I challenge the author to find one sex-worker and tell them that being raped transforms the service they would normally provide for a fee into a gift - and see how they respond.
DNF'ed. Rated one star for being egregiously bad.
Interestingly enough, the COMMUNISTS(TM) at https://cominsitu.wordpress.com/ have looted this book and made it freely available to read... make of that what you will.
[EDIT: 04Sept2023] A final word. In what I read, I never saw the author point out what thievery costs the thief. They don't point out that thievery (and acts of looting are a proper subset of the set of acts of thievery. I.e. Every act of looting is an act of theft.) is a fundamentally disempowered approach to life that entrenches zero-sum-game habits within the thief's life blocking their opportunity to enter into voluntary positive-sum-games with other people to meet their mutual needs where everyone (including people who are shop owners...) are able to find positive value.
Every act of theft is a lost opportunity to create a better life.
DNF'ing at 45% which is painful and disappointing.
Not rating this on policy. (I.e. I don't rate DNF's unless the issue is really bad...).
The first 40%DNF'ing at 45% which is painful and disappointing.
Not rating this on policy. (I.e. I don't rate DNF's unless the issue is really bad...).
The first 40% of this book was engaging, amusing, and had real laugh out loud moments. However, it's becoming repetitive. I'm losing interest and really starting to not care what happens next. The action is too relentless, and it's the same issue that got me with Matthew Reilly, and Michael Anderle's books. Actions great, but it needs to be contexted within a character driven framework to win my attention.
Without characters to care about there is no reason to read. I'm left with the suspicion that I'm watching someone play with their action figures, and that these characters have as much emotional depth as little bits of molded plastic.
BOOM!: Edit 05 May 2020! It only took me 6 months to comprehend the problem. I now know precisely why this dies for me, and why it dies where it does.
It's the Villains!
The MC is fleshed out, and quite a reasonable and relatable MC, with an amusing and entertaining tone as narrator. However, the villains are card-board cutouts with targets on the front. As interchangeable as the paper targets on a shooting range.
This story died for me during an attack of giant stone gargoyles. They were all the same, all completely impersonal. Indistinguishable from a natural disaster. They seemed to be little more than an assassination attempt on the MC and his friends with not much else going on.
The Gargoyle encounter was preceded by a flashback for the 'big bad,' who is dressed up as cruel, callous, power-hungry, evil guy - and nothing much else...
There's no visible nuance in the bad guys.
If the bad guys 'don't matter,' defeating them is no more personal than putting out a house fire. A good thing to do, but - it's an impersonal threat.
For me - it's a deal breaker.
I'm really glad I read this book because it taught me something really important about how I see villains.
End Edit
Just not for me (unhappily, because the first third was excellent)....more
Now (Dec 2019) watching the HBO series which is brilliantly done and has brought the characters to life.
... and died at the same location.
Great world Now (Dec 2019) watching the HBO series which is brilliantly done and has brought the characters to life.
... and died at the same location.
Great world building. I loved the bear. The rest of the characters were just 'meh,' and I couldn't connect or care enough about them to finish this book.
[EDIT] Post watching the Netflix series, I now understand why this dies on me. (view spoiler)[ Lyra's quest to save the children is interesting and engaging, but the narrative - just falls over - once that is done. It's because there is no visible purpose for Lyra beyond that initial quest. Without a purpose - who is she? There is this nebulous prophecy that is mentioned - but it is way too vague to enable engagement... (shakes head). (hide spoiler)]
DNF'ed at 50%, not rated on policy.
Apparently, lots of people feel this is a really good book. It left me cold.
For me this is a very rare occurrence where the TV/Movie is better than the book.
Not recommended, 0 'Glad I didn't Finish,' stars....more
This is a strange book, I'm getting too hung up on the language to follow the narrative. I'm putting it aside as a DNF at 5Disconnect and Bailing Ship
This is a strange book, I'm getting too hung up on the language to follow the narrative. I'm putting it aside as a DNF at 52%.
Very sad to say that I'm just not engaged, care factor has dwindled to nothing.
Although the author is clearly a genius, hence I'm too silly to appreciate her writing, hence moving onto simpler pastures my poor mind can appreciate.
I'm putting it down to an isolated childhood where I was raised by a herd of dairy cows....more
The book deserves an explanation. The reasons for DNF'ing this book are very specific and particular to me.
What I reallyDNF at 20%. Unrated on policy.
The book deserves an explanation. The reasons for DNF'ing this book are very specific and particular to me.
What I really liked about the book.
The world building is A+. Matthew Williams has created a multi-layered future with depth and verve. Awesome work - loved that side of the story.
Why did I DNF it? Two reasons.
[1-minor] Pacing. There was a sense the story dwelled too long on things that set the scene rather than moving the narrative forward. Noting that I'm a huge lover of pace, and I'm hard to please on this topic.
[2-Major] The main character is a self-indulgent, drug addicted, pathetic failure, whose 'good points,' are only established by placing human monsters in his vicinity to make him look good by contrast.
He is in a hole, both literally and figuratively, and desperately in need of 'redemption,' which is clearly the arc going forward, as he has almost no room to fall further.
I just couldn't warm to this person - I had no reason to care what happens to him - and that's an interest killer for me.
The bottomline - this book didn't hook me.
Now the thing is - the writing is good, the story background is highly developed, and meshed seamlessly together. I'd rate this book as worth giving a go - it may well suit you better than it did me....more
This book has unfortunately ground to a halt for me. I just can't seem to get into it, and I'm not going to push it further.
The book is very well writThis book has unfortunately ground to a halt for me. I just can't seem to get into it, and I'm not going to push it further.
The book is very well written with some innovative and clever ideas, but is rather quiet, like watching a long, drawn out three dimensional chess game.
This story is valorizing vampires as the good shepherds of humanity, forgetting that sooner or later the shepherd cuts the sheep's throat, roasts its flesh and consumes its life.
This story will suit those who enjoy quiet strategic games and psychological second and third guessing.
Don't expect violence, gore, and hot-blooded action.
DNF'ed at 61% (quite late in the game for me - I usually decide much earlier. I.e. I really tried with this book...) without rating....more
I've DNF'ed this book at 20%. Gave it a good shot, just not enough action and too much fluff.
If I was going to rate it (against policy) it was runningI've DNF'ed this book at 20%. Gave it a good shot, just not enough action and too much fluff.
If I was going to rate it (against policy) it was running at 3 stars, but I don't have time in my life to read anything that's not running at 4 stars by 20% in.
Now - it's time to find a magic sword, open a Warren and war with a god - it's off to Malazan....more
Just got past the scene where Jack (ex-SAS Bad-ass Spy) gives Ethan (International Man of Mystery), and currently Jack's prisoner, a delicious salted Just got past the scene where Jack (ex-SAS Bad-ass Spy) gives Ethan (International Man of Mystery), and currently Jack's prisoner, a delicious salted caramel fudge log.
Sadly, I just can't go on, I'm throwing in the towel at 32% - this is just not my genre, and I'm left without a hook to hang my continuing interest on.
Let's shelve this under romance, as that is the primary theme of the story.
Recommended for anyone who is looking for Bromance with lashings of delicious chocolate syrup....more
In all honesty, reading this book struggled with an extremely busy time of my life which got in the way of giving it enough time to hook mDNF at 15%.
In all honesty, reading this book struggled with an extremely busy time of my life which got in the way of giving it enough time to hook me - but still, I read the first 15% without feeling a strong engagement.
Positives: 1st chapter goes straight to the story with a dramatic and promising start. Writing has a nice touch of wit to it.
Negatives: Failed to hook me.
Lessons: My time is the limiting factor here - there are too many competing demands upon it. To capture my reading - books must hook me quickly and never let go. ...more
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