What I Am Reading - Fevre Dream

Fevre Dream

George R.R. Martin

Read it in paper-back @ 361 pages.

Since its October, all of the frights are out and their accompanying candy, costumes, decorations, and all the spooky usually puts me in a mood to read scary books, just as I love to watch scary movies.  I generally start looking in the summer for a few horror books, but this year I had none save one which I had actually been saving for book club.  Instead I chose to read this for a tinge of horror in accompaniment to my Autumn rituals and celebrations.

And what a fun book indeed.

Poor Abner Marsh, a Steamboat Captain and Entrepreneur, is down on his luck.  All but one of his boats in his Steamboat Fleet was trapped in the ice and reduced to kindling.  This predicament leaves Abner in dire straits.  With only the smallest and oldest boat of his once noble fleet, poor Abner has little hope and little chance of saving his small company and salvaging his grand dreams.  Alas, when his luck is as bad as his looks, Abner is approached by Joshua York who wishes to fund the construction of a grand steamboat to rival the greatest boats on the river.  This is of course a deal the Abner can't refuse, but just doesn't settle right.  Non-the-less the deal is executed and construction of the great steamer is underway.  When she is completed, she is resplendent and everything both Abner and York wanted, a dream come to reality for the fledgling partners.  She slides out the slip and begins her maiden voyage, christened the Fevre Dream.  Along the river the Fevre Dream chugs and churns with her great wheels and makes fantastic time, her boilers are smooth and powerful, her decks sleek and comfortable, her kitchens stocked, and her crew happy.  Until Mr. York decides as co-captain that several stops must be made which slows her progress and sets them all down an eerie and mysterious path.

Mr. Martin, you are fantastic.  It's the characters.  It's always been the characters in everything you’ve ever written, at least for me.  You build them so rich and layered, and while the characters in Fevre Dream may not be as complex as some of his other works; what the characters lack in depth they make up for in flavor.  Abner Marsh is a man of conviction, looks to kill, and left me saying 'god-damnit' for weeks.  York, a complex and quiet man promising more than he should.  My favorite, Sour Billy who is cruel by function and uses it as a means to accomplish his own dreams. These are but a few of my favorite characters flushed out in Fevre Dream, and there are so many more that I adore.

I loved it.  Short enough that it didn't have a lot of drag or terrible filler, but long enough to give Martin space to construct a cast, locale, and properly give it flavor and description as fitting.  My criticisms are far out weighed by my praises.

What I Am Reading - Kraken

Kraken

China Mieville

Read it in hardback @ 509 pages.

This was the second book I have ever read by Mr. Mieville, and both were read this year.  What can I say, I am a fan of both the style and the 'weirdness' present in his writing.  When trying to decide what gem to read next I have spent some time reading some reviews for the books I have read (this and Embassytown), as well as some others and it appears that people are unsure if he is some sort of new messiah or a overhyped writing anti-Christ.  Those compliments and criticisms aside, I just like to read what he writes.

In Kraken, we are deposited in London at the British Museum of Natural History, when our main character, Billy Harrow, discovers that the prized Architeuthis specimen has been stolen alongside it's housing.  While the theft seems inexplicable, Billy is soon in the middle of a London he didn't even know existed where anything can happen and to make matters worse, it appears that Billy is being heralded as a messiah of sorts.  As Billy unwillingly goes deeper down the rabbit hole he is confronted with Squid cults, body shifting entities, monster herders, and a whole host of other things that Billy never knew existed.  Billy doesn’t know what to expect, where to go, or how to solve the mystery of who took the squid.  As if things were not bleak enough, the apocalypse is coming unless the squid can be returned to the safety of the British Museum of Natural History, and it's coming quick.  To put the cherry on top, Billy is also being chased by Goss and Subby who are hired assassins that Mieville made delightfully creative and incredibly horrifying.

The end of the book was not exactly what I expected but I can't say I didn't see it coming either, which was kind of a disappointment.   If anything I felt the ending was forcefully stretched and left me wanting a little more structure and explanations to a book that really didn't provide any throughout its conjuring.  But, overall I enjoyed this book.  I wouldn’t say it's the greatest and it's far from the worst.  Most of the critical response it seems to have gotten from readers is in comparison to Mieville's other works and not as a stand-a-lone piece, which is a shame.  While I have never read any of Jim Butcher's Dresdin Files (except for a few short stories), I imagine this is Mieville's interpretation of that style and concept with some British humor and Mieville curiosity thrown in for good measure. 

What I Am Reading - Breakfast of Champions

Breakfast of Champions

Kurt Vonnegut

Read it in paper-back at 302 pages.

September's selection for OLT book club brought us Kurt Vonnegut's 'Breakfast of Champions.'  This is not the first Vonnegut I have ever read, but alas, only the second.

Breakfast of Champions is a simple story of Dwayne Hoover an owner of a Pontiac Dealer in Midland and Kilgore Trout, a Science Fiction Writer in New York who are on a path to meet and spill chaos into Midland, due to a combination of defective brain chemicals and shoddy writing that just so happen to reach event horizon in a terrible calamity.  It's a pretty simple tale and not complex in the telling.  There is no real surprises as Vonnegut explains most of what will proceed in the opening of the book.

While the whimsy and satire of Vonnegut is always appreciated, I think the loose purpose of the story really bears true here.  For me, the story, which weighs in at about 302 pages, simply lacks a lot of substance.  I might even go on to say that the story could have dropped some of the whimsy and satire, surely the pictures (though they are humorous), and the whole story could have been compressed into just around 100 pages, add poignant satire back in and probably could still scratch under 200 pages easily.  While I know Vonnegut fans are true believers, I simply don't see this as a prize in the Vonnegut shelves for the common reader.

With that said though I did enjoy it and still plan to continue down the road and through the forest with all of Vonnegut's work.

So, where does that leave OLT book club? (Potential Spoilers Below)

We had a great turnout with nine members completing, which sees us tied for both the Hunger Games (March) and Eaters of the Dead (May) for the most readers to complete a selection.  Sadly though, this is the first book OLT book club in which the selector of the book failed to read it.  For shame, and a pox upon his house.

Let's dig in.

Most of the characters were straight forward, leaving only their actions to enjoy or denounce, so because of this, Kilgore and Dwayne were the most 'liked' characters with call-outs for Francine, Wayne, and the big KV appearance near culmination.

Favorite moments included the breaks for Kilgore Trout's stories and Dwayne's slide to madness, including a colorful mention to crashing cars and plastic covered feet and even a few mentions for the unexpected insert near the end.  Least favorite moments generally where the opposite of other peoples favorites, which was interesting in itself.

Scoring was higher than our OLT average, barely and sees us at 5.66.  The breakdown (1 being the worst and 10 being the best):

Th3ee: 6

Dust: 6

Hylen: 6

G$$: 6

SS: 4

AndyCoug: 8

Dave: 3

Tom: 4

Eleach: 8