Blood’s a Rover (James Ellroy)

I don’t know if I really love James Ellroy anymore. I love the idea of James Ellroy, merciless writer of charged hard-boiled fiction. But more often than not, I always find something disappointing in his works. I devoured American Tabloid, 20 years ago. I was bored numb by The Cold Six Thousand. And I didn’t even know about the final piece of the trilogy, Blood’s A Rover, until now.

After so many years, getting into this book was not easy; in part because of the previous plots that I had forgotten about, in part because of the slang and style. But the latter are best of Ellroy’s prose, and once into the groove, I was hooked. But then the plot started to drag on. And on. And on. Meandering senselessly. I don’t know who was exhausted first, me or the story, but finishing the book was a struggle – a disappointing one.

A City on Mars (Kelly and Zach Weinersmith)

Colonizing Mars is such a trope that even a casual reader of science fiction like me can only take it for granted. Of course, in the future mankind will settle on Mars… in stories. But in our age of madness, some people consider this possibility seriously. This book does a great job at explaining all the ways is which this is absurd, methodically and humorously.

It is clear that this book was rigorously researched, and it is rigorously written. It sticks infallibly to its didactic formula: announce the topic, expose the outline, go through each point, recap and move to the next topic. Regularly inject light jokes to keep the reading focused. Use callbacks to reinforce attention. It is a bit didactic, but it works – and the casual and friendly tone is really pleasant. This is not Carl Sagan’s ornate but borderline pompous prose.

And yet, this book did lose me at a certain point. Namely, the long section on the legal considerations of space colonization. All the memes and funny illustrations in the world could not make such a topic easy to digest.

Overall, reading A City on Mars feels like watching a good, but a bit too long, episode of Kurzgesagt or SciShow. Pleasing and informative.

Elantris (Brandon Sanderson)

I had the pleasure to meet David at Rails World, and his praise for Brandon Sanderson got me intrigued. I’ve been looking in vain for good fantasy for a long time. So, while in Bucharest for Friendly.rb, I bought his first book. (I wanted something that was not part of a long series.)

I hope that David will not read this post, because the book was a huge letdown. The writing is perfectly acceptable, the fantasy world properly serviceable, but the plot is so dull, and the characters so unimaginative! The bad guys wear blood red armors and twirl their metaphorical mustaches, while the good guys are down-to-Earth, hard-working family men and women with a decent love of God and the free market.

Its only redeeming quality would be the levity of its tone and the chatty dialogues – like in a David Eddings book, without the reek of hebephilia. But somehow it doesn’t even fit the story. I did finish this book, but I won’t give Sanderson another try.

Let The Right One In (John Ajvide Lindqvist)

Another recommendation, and unfortunately another disappointment – but thankfully a smaller one. Let The Right One In starts like an overly edgy twist on Dracula; a death metal version in which the vampire is a child, Renfield a pedophile, and Mina a future school shooter. Putting aside the cheap-ish shock value, it is an interesting premise. There was something in the material – children as both innocent and manipulative, selfless and selfish, and the lonely alienness of early adolescence.

Unfortunately, the book wastes these opportunities as it expands into a TV adaptation of a Stephen King synopsis, piling on subplots and formulaic beats. There is still atmosphere and tension, but it could have been so much better.