Reading

I've been reading quite a bit lately -- actually finished up 2 books in the last week.  First up -- Camouflage by Joe Haldeman.    There were three reasons I chose this book:  First, I hadn't read any sci-fi in a while and I hand a hankering for some.  Second, I read The Forever War by Haldeman (this book won the Nebula and Hugo awards) and I liked it quite a bit.  And lastly, Camouflage won the 2005 Nebula award.  And I have to say that I did like this book and flew through it.  However, I found something lacking as I do with many sci-fi books.  There was a lack of character development and the ending was rather cheesy.  I have to say that it did give me my sci-fi fix -- and the story concept was quite interesting, so I would recommend it.

I also read Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Laila Lalami and loved it!!  It's right up my alley -- really interesting characters and somewhat unique storytelling device (an event, then description of what lead up to the event for each of 4 characters and the last part of the book was an "after" for each character.)

The book told each story beautifully and succinctly (yeah!!  If you read my reviews, you know that this has been lacking in the books I have read recently).  The book is set in Morocco and Spain and tells the story of 4 Moroccons who try to cross the Strait of Gibraltar in a small, overcrowded boat in the middle of the night -- looking for better lives for themselves.  Really interesting stuff.

I hope this has convinced you to give this book a read.  It really is quite wonderful!

Comments

[Danielle]

My husband is a big sci-fi fan. When I started working at MIT a few years ago, he pointed out that Joe Haldeman teaches there, and wouldn't it be a great gift idea (hint, HINT) if I got him a signed copy of "Forever War". So, I emailed Haldeman, and dropped by his office one day and he signed a personalized copy for a birthday gift to my husband. My husband was so surprised that I paid attention to his hints! And Joe Haldeman is a very nice and totally laid back guy ... a good experience all around :)

[--Deb]

I often find that . . . generalizing really broadly, here . . . that sci-fi books get so caught up in the "sci" part that they don't always focus as much on the "fi" part . . . the parts that make all good fiction work--most obviously, the characters. Of course there are plenty of sci-fi authors who do it well, but I've read far too many that had great ideas, decent enough execution and an adequate level of writing quality (sci-fi authors are usually pretty intelligent), but the human aspects were missing. Kind of like they were written by the computer-obsessed, pocket-protector kinds of geeks from high school who were brilliant, but had a hard time connecting to actual PEOPLE.

Of course, this applies to all genres . . . it takes a truly great author to write as well to their weakness as to their strength.

[Devil]

Hi!!
Sorry I'm italian: I'm not speak english. But You can help me...

Maybe I have eagle's syndrome.
What are your simptoms?
You have difficult to speak?..foreign body sensation?

Bye!