A Good Book for Nerds

By Charlotte

Book Review: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Official FC Rating: 

Original fan art found here.

The world Ernest Cline has written for us is not a safe one. Natural resources are depleted, the number of people living in poverty is sky high, and sweeping desperation has led to the creation of "the Stacks," communities on the outskirts of the cities to which people have fled. These communities were erected by cranes, stacking trailers and even vans upwards of 22 levels high, with a bit of scaffolding around them. They're a testament to the harsh conditions* of the world. 

But the story largely takes place in a parallel world, the virtual reality called OASIS. OASIS was created by two benevolent, nerdy, rich dudes. It's more than a video game, and by the time our story takes place, many people go to school and work in this parallel world. It's also free. (Well, it's free to get an account. It's not entirely free to do other things, like travel within the world.) When one of those founders, Halliday, dies he leaves his entire fortune, and control of OASIS, to..... someone. Upon his death an announcement is made. He's made a secret quest of sorts, and whoever solves it first inherits Halliday's money and property (we're talking billions billions). Years after the quest began, our protagonist solves the first clue, beginning the story. 

It's one kid's story, but we get a larger glimpse of his real world. There's racism, sexism, and rampant corporate greed and corruption. Since it mostly takes place in the virtual reality of OASIS, it's dystopian without always harboring the feeling of despair found in most dystopian stories. Unlike The Hunger Games, where there's a communal effort to revolt, this is really the story of one kid who just wants to solve his own problems. So I wouldn't really call it a story of rebellion, even though it's got a little rebellious flair. It's more of a fun thriller, just set in a dystopia. Still very enjoyable. 

I liked this book a lot. I wish I was still reading it! But I'd actually prefer to give this book 3.5 stars, just... we don't have an image for that. But just know it's more a 3.5 than a 4 (in my mind, anyway). I imagine that bigger nerds than me would give it four or five stars. I've got a few reasons for the rating.  

I love dystopia and I love thrillers, so that's cool. I also love fantasy, and I thought Cline played with an interesting concept when he created a fantasy using real-world things we all know like movies and video games. But sometimes he went into too much detail, describing the references ad nauseam. I know next to nothing about video games and movies and music from the 80's, and even I didn't need to have quite the amount of information he included. At times reading those parts became a drag. 

The story was what carried this book. The writing was good, but nothing spectacular. There weren't any errors I noticed or anything like that, which is always a pleasure. I hate when books are filled with bad writing. (I'm looking at you, fuckin' Twilight.) The writing, while fine, didn't give me goosebumps. If I had read this pre-Tsar, it might have had a better rating. But I'm still basking in the light of that masterpiece, holding books up to a bit of a higher standard than usual when it comes to the writing. (I know that might be snobby, and I also know writing doesn't have to be perfect for a book to be good. Hell, I don't expect I'll ever be able to meet my own standards.)  

While I liked the story line of this kid who goes on an adventure, I think Cline could have explored a few themes more deeply. I imagine the movie will be terrific, since it can just tell the story without having to focus also on broader story arcs. 

I bought this book on a whim, and when I got home and read about it online I was worried. I thought that maybe the emphasis on 80's culture or on video games meant that I wouldn't be able to really enjoy it. Totally not the case. I loved the book, and there was enough info for me to follow along without needing to have any knowledge on the subjects at hand myself. 

While I thought the ending was a bit predictable, it was also a satisfying ending. The whole story was good and well-paced, with the exception of the sometimes too-long descriptions. The book was definitely a page turner. I'd say it was good, not great, but the experience of reading it was great. I didn't want to put it down. I wouldn't put it on the same level as Tolkien, but it was fun. It's definitely one I'd recommend.   

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Char

*btw these conditions are ones we can expect to find ourselves facing one day if we don't do something about poverty and climate change. k. 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

By Liz

Book Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Official FC Rating: 

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect when I started reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I saw the movie a couple years ago and was blown away by it, but, not surprisingly, I heard from many that the book was way better. So, when I came across cheap copies of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the second book in the series, The Girl who Played with Fire, in an antique store, I snatched them up.

Explained simply, the novel is a murder mystery. Mikael Blomkvist, our protagonist, is publisher and co-founder of the magazine, Millennium, and is charged with libel against a billionaire industrialist, Wennerstrӧm. Because this case is widely publicized throughout the country, Blomkvist catches the eye of Henrik Vanger, a competing CEO of Wennerstrӧm’s. Vanger lures Blomkvist to investigate the cold case of his missing niece, Harriet Vanger, by promising him that he has evidence against Wennerstrӧm that Blomkvist can use. As the investigation into Harriet’s disappearance gets too challenging for Blomkvist to handle himself, he ends up partnering with one of the best investigative researchers and hackers in Sweden, Lisbeth Salander. The closer the two get to solving the mystery, the closer they also find themselves to imminent danger.

Let me start explaining my feelings about this novel with this: Lisbeth Salander is all that matters. Lisbeth Salander is everything. I mean it- she’s one of my favorite female characters I’ve read in a novel in my adult years, and she’s undoubtedly the best thing about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and, I assume, the rest of the Millennium Series by Stieg Larsson. “Bad ass” is probably the best way to describe Salander, but to break that down, she’s incredibly intelligent, clever, unconventional, and takes no shit from any man. Basically, I want to channel her energy in my daily life.

Salander is significantly more interesting than Blomkvist. To be frank, Blomvist is pretty boring, and I couldn’t figure out his allure. Nearly every female character he has some sort of close relationship with sleeps with him. Sure, there are some redeeming qualities about Blomkvist, but I genuinely get the sense that this character is a “Gary Stu,” the male equivalent of the “Mary Sue.” Blomkvist is described as kind, sensitive, intelligent, handsome, and, obviously, a ladies man.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is frequently described as a feminist novel. Undoubtedly, this was the intent of Stieg Larsson, and I don’t disagree that the novel is in many ways empowering. The original Swedish title of the novel is “Men Who Hate Women.” The novel is also filled with various statistics about violence against women in Sweden. It was made clear that Salander has faced sexual violence in her past and is generally untrusting of men because of this. Without spoiling too much, Salander is faced, again, with sexual harassment and assault by a man with power over her in the novel. Despite the novel addressing this horrendous aspect of the patriarchy, I wouldn’t say the writing is all that feminist.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s problematic that Blomkvist is the “good guy” trope and every woman consequently wants to sleep with him. Additionally, the female characters that are featured the most in the novel have no strong friendships with other women or each other. In fact, because each of the main female characters have slept with Blomkvist, there is this gross jealousy that ends up taking place between them. For a novel that’s supposed to be about the empowerment of women, there isn’t a lot of solidarity seen between the women in the novel.

The physical descriptions of the women are much more in depth than any for the men, in my opinion. I could really picture the women, but not nearly as much with most of the men, including Blomkvist. The women are also, of course, described by a man’s narrative in most cases and thus described in a moderately sexual manner.

Feminist critique aside, I loved this novel. I enjoyed the detail and how I was able to envision the characters and the scenery. The plot was really exciting. Because it had been a while since I had seen the movie, I couldn’t remember entirely who was responsible for Harriet’s disappearance, so new information and plot twists were thrilling. In written form I was able to retain more details about the case and the various suspects. Some people told me that the book was really confusing for them and hard to follow, which wasn’t the case for me, but that could be because I saw the movie first.

And because I know people will be dying to know which I liked better, I definitely have to say that I liked the book more. That being said, I really do think they did a great job with the movie! The hardest thing about seeing a movie version of the book before reading it is being able to envision your own images of the characters and scenes instead. In the case of this book though, I thought the casting was pretty great. Rooney Mara was cast as Lisbeth Salander, and I really think in both appearance and acting Rooney was an excellent fit. Rooney wasn’t a perfect physical match to the description of Salander, so I was able to picture her a little differently. Daniel Craig was cast as Mikael Blomkvist, which, given how mediocrely the character was described physically, was probably a fine fit, but personally I think Daniel Craig is so blah looking. If Blomkvist was described better maybe I could have done a better job creating my own mental  image, but, try as I might, god damn Daniel Craig’s face kept popping into my head.

In conclusion, this book gets 5 stars because of Lisbeth Salander mostly, but also because the book was too good to put down. I’m hoping I enjoy The Girl who Played with Fire just as much! 

The Quest

By Charlotte
Book Review: The Quest by Nelson DeMille
Official FC Rating: *

Phew. Okay. 

This is about the 700th book of DeMille's I've read and I feel the same way about it that I do most all of his books: great story, loved following along, but..... can you be better, man? I rounded up to four stars, but this is more of 3.5 out of five stars. I know, I know, it's half a star but just bear with me for a minute. 

Let's start with the good. DeMille's stories are always enjoyable. They're action packed and filled with suspense. I have a lot of complaints about his novels, but I keep reading them because they're thrilling and entertaining. You pick up one of DeMille's books and then you don't want to put it down. 

There are a few other good things about DeMille. He's funny. Sarcasm may as well be another character in his books. He writes well, too. He's no Tolkien, and he doesn't use words the way Maya Angelou or Ayana Mathis can. They're poets, DeMille is... well, he's a good storyteller. He tells exciting stories, and he does it well enough. 

But, I wouldn't call him a masterful writer. 

Every book is the same. His characters are always the same. They go by different names, sure, but you know who they will be. The main character will be a smart aleck cowboy type. He'll definitely find a lady friend, who will both motivate and distract him. There will probably be another guy who is a good guy, but might have his own agenda - and he'll probably be into the main character's lady friend, and even if he's not, our main character is going to feel threatened and will start to act like a petty child. 

Because apparently, men are just overgrown teenage boys. Or animals. All of them. DeMille's central male characters are almost always the same. (I've read seven or eight of his novels now, and this holds true for all of them.) 

I'd understand if one of DeMille's characters was a macho-man, smart mouth, thinks-he-knows-best type. Hell, I'd even understand if he included this kind of character in every novel. But for this same character to be your protagonist in every single book? Come on. Our main character in The Quest is Frank Purcell. He might as well be named John Corey or Sam Hollis, because he is them. He is the same character as those in DeMille's other books. Sarcastic (not as sarcastic as John Corey, if you're a DeMille fan reading this), somewhat reckless, rebellious (or at least disobedient), and, well, perpetually horny. A fine character, but sometimes I wonder if DeMille is incapable of writing other kinds of characters or if he just thinks suspense novels necessitate this kind of character (I don't believe they do).

Speaking of the sex issue... Listen, I'm fine with sex scenes. And a well written sex scene is good even if there's no deeper meaning or plot twist attached to the sex. But in DeMille's books the alpha male cowboy, whose thoughts we're privy to, thinks often of his "meat" "wood" "sausage" etc etc and it's so frequent that it gets annoying. I don't want to hear this overgrown bro think about his "swollen meat," I want to read the story. I was very tempted to ask one of my male friends if this is how full grown men really think, but I figured that might be awkward. But my female friends and I have all agreed it's unlikely. I mean, I'm sure men think about sex often, I just doubt that most men think about it the same way. I'd be lying if I said I didn't sometimes think that the author just really likes his own penis and is frequently motivated by erections and that his main characters are heavily influenced by his own personality.

And the women. Oh, the female characters. They're all the same. Conventionally pretty, at least a little bit naive, skilled (but, usually, not too skilled, and definitely not more so than the main male character), and younger than the protagonist. They have some role in the stories, but mainly they're there for the protagonist to lust after, fall in love with, question the depth of that love, confirm that love, and then save from certain death. (Kate, from DeMille's John Corey novels, sometimes breaks away from this basic outline.) It's frustrating to read.

And then there is often a third main character, a man, who is somehow threatening to the main character. Usually because he's been with the woman before or because in the character's mind, everyone is after his girlfriend. 

But let's talk specifically about The Quest. Here's the description given online:

A sweeping adventure that's equal parts thriller and love story, Nelson DeMille's newest novel takes the reader from the war torn jungles of Ethiopia to the magical city of Rome. 

While the Ethiopian Civil War rages, a Catholic priest languishes in prison. Forty years have passed since he last saw daylight. His crime? Claiming to know the true location of Christ's cup from the Last Supper. Then the miraculous happens - a mortar strikes the prison and he is free!  

Old, frail, and injured, he escapes to the jungle, where he encounters two Western journalists and a beautiful freelance photographer taking refuge from the carnage. As they tend to his wounds, he relates his incredible story.  

Motivated by the sensational tale and their desire to find the location of the holiest of relics, the trio agrees to search for the Grail.  

Thus begins an impossible quest that will pit them against murderous tribes, deadly assassins, fanatical monks, and the passions of their own hearts. 

The Quest is suspenseful, romantic, and filled with heart-pounding action. Nelson DeMille is at the top of his game as he masterfully interprets one of history's greatest mysteries.

AHAHA no. The basic stuff is right - a priest escapes, relays his story, and the characters decide to go on this quest to find the Holy Grail. They're pitted against a murderous tribe once or twice. There were no assassins or menacing monks. That's all gross exaggeration. Also, it was by no means a "love story." Twisted love triangle, yes. 

The story itself was a good one. I know there were many people who read this and hated it, because they were expecting it to be more action-packed. His other novels are a bit faster paced and less research based. I actually liked that aspect of this book. The middle of the story was largely devoted to the trio - Frank Purcell and Henry Mercado, both journalists, and Vivian Smith, a photographer - delving into the stories of the Holy Grail. Doing research, perusing Rome. I liked that. I like the history. It never got too slow. 

Spoilers (sort of) ahead.

Let's talk about the love triangle real quick though. Love triangles are rarely necessary, and this was no exception. I have no clue why DeMille wrote it in, and it wasn't enjoyable just for kicks, either. Basically, Vivian is with Mercado first (a much older man), but then has sex with Purcell behind Mercado's back.. oh, except it's not behind his back. It's in front of his face, as he's tied to a pole, a prisoner of war with certain death quick approaching. The whole things adds nothing but frustration to the story. Of course, as the story progresses and the three characters need to work together to manage this quest they've been chosen to make, things get awkward. There's a lot of jealousy. And then, because DeMille's women are often there to motivate or distract men, she sleeps with her first boyfriend, Mercado (the one she previously cheated on), while she's in a relationship with Purcell. Why? Literally to make Mercado feel better. She sleeps with him to make him feel like a man again. Easily the most annoying part of the novel. I'm not going to tell how the love triangle ultimately ends, but just know it's useless and detracts from the story. 

Over all, the story is engaging. I didn't fall in love with any of the characters, and they don't possess much virtue. DeMille's characters often don't though (sometimes justice, but usually a vulgar, vengeful kind of justice, so..). Characters aside, it was a good read. I prefer a deeper story with more character development, but the plot was good and thrilling. I complain about DeMille's books a lot, and every time I read one I have to roll my eyes a bit, but he does know how to tell an exciting story. The Quest was especially good because it's filled with history and background, something his other novels sometimes lack. The ending was predictable, but that's okay. DeMille is a good enough writer that you'll find the tale gripping despite guessing the ending.  

Bottom line: Good story, crappy characters. DeMille is a successful author and it's clear why. His stories are ones you can't put down. His characters lack substance and I think his model man/woman formula is very problematic, but he's got a formula and he knows it sells books, and he runs with it. If you're looking for an entertaining story, go for it. But be prepared for some disappointment with the characters. 

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Charlotte