A series which deals with matters of life and death as the business at hand is being a bringer of death in a future where immortality is the norm. ScyA series which deals with matters of life and death as the business at hand is being a bringer of death in a future where immortality is the norm. Scythes must withstand a rigorous training of mind and body and learn the traditions of a practice which is only given to those who have wisdom, empathy and humility enough to understand the importance of the act they are committing when they end a life permanently in a world where revival is just a matter of a day or two in any number of revival centres and “healing nanites” and “pain nanites” implanted in every individual prevent suffering and can immediately heal many injuries and illnesses in short order.
But there are now two factions among the scythehood: the so-called Old Order which respects the traditions, which include respect for life and the consequences of their work, adherence to humility in all things and simple living, and the New Order of scythes who show no compassion, take pleasure in “gleaning” and seek to eradicate as many lives as possible, reap terror and live in outrageous luxury, taking advantage of their special status. The Grand Master has just received a promotion, leaving his position open, and now the New Order represented by a truly evil man is willing to do anything to win the position as leader.
Our two young heroes who were in training in the first book do what they can for the good cause, being somehow chosen ones who are destined to save humanity, and another young character is introduced to give eyes and ears to the Thunderhead, where it has restricted access to itself.
The Thunderhead is the governing entity created from the sum total of the human knowledge uploaded to the internet and to clouds which has come to have a conscience of its own, a sense of empathy, high moral values and incorruptibility. It oversees the smooth running of every aspect of life on the planet, has indeed saved the planet from annihilation due to climate change disasters and is accessible to everyone at all times. It sees and hears everything as a benevolent presence. But it has also limited itself to never interfere with scythe business so that human beings never need associate it with the business of death. But now that the scythedom is In crisis, the Thunderhead comes to experience an existential crisis of its own. In this second part of the series it speaks to the reader directly between chapters, as it is known to speak directly to all humans, save for scythes and “unsavories”—the few humans who still choose to break rules in what in most ways is a complete utopia.
A fascinating world construction and plenty of exciting action and adventure which also engage the mind in philosophical questions that linger no matter the readers age. Now the long wait for the next (concluding?) chapter begins....more
I’ve been in so much migraine pain lately that reading anything that requires brain processing of any kind has become a torturous challenge. So I thouI’ve been in so much migraine pain lately that reading anything that requires brain processing of any kind has become a torturous challenge. So I thought I’d go back to this thriller I’d abandoned as third rate drivel a while ago, reasoning that third rate drivel can be just what you’re in the mood for sometimes, the same way junk food satisfies a need.
Also I’d been reminded yet again that Reese Weatherspoon had chosen this title to be listed in her book club and must then think this story was worth bringing to the attention her fans and the public at large, so maybe there was more to it.
I’m trying hard to unwrinkle my brow as the question WHYYY keeps reverberating around my malfunctioning brain... why would anyone take the bother to write, or publish, or promote this lemon while keeping a straight face.
SO, MAJOR SPOILER The protagonist of this book is not the sociopath I felt sure she was going to be revealed to be in the end, even though her one and only reason for existence as a character at all is the firm intention of marrying a guy who seems like a total asshole right from the start and whose mother makes Bette Davis in “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane” seem like a sweet companion by comparison. Everything is superficial in this story and our young twenty something narrator is completely in love with a man who seemed to have no personality or likeability factor at all, and yet marriage to that man is her one and only mission in life. As I write this, I think perhaps the whole thing was meant to be read as a farce, but there was nothing knowing about it either.
I really didn’t care at the end about the supposed twist that was so unlikely I don’t think my eyeballs have rolled forward back into their usual positions in my eye sockets yet. It isn’t that it was unlikely so much as that the only way it made sense was when you thought of the author sitting there and failing to come up with a better scenario and... “readers like that sort psychotic thing anyway so they won’t mind it makes no sense.”
So. This piece of garbage highly recommended when you feel you have no mental faculties left at all, so you can be given the completely shallow impression of what a superior intellect you have by comparison to this drivel.
To sum up my reading experience, it was mostly annoyance which I ascribed to the migraine pain itself but see in retrospect was definitely caused by a really stupid book. I suppose negativity is one way to get your mind off things, but not generally recommended, nor my favourite approach.
And that’s really the best possible thing I can say about this book.
Also: Reese, WTF?!?
*****
I listened to 33% of the audiobook and have this to say about it at this point: There’s light reading and then there’s complete waste of time third rate stuff. I’m not dying to find out where this is going. It’s not worth the cringe factor....more
What would the state of storytelling be without sociopaths and grand manipulators willing to do anything to achieve their ambitions? I think of all thWhat would the state of storytelling be without sociopaths and grand manipulators willing to do anything to achieve their ambitions? I think of all the great plays, books, movies, tv shows & series featuring narcissistic monsters as the central protagonists or main characters. They seem to be everywhere. Shakespeare certainly drew plenty of inspiration from such characters. My partner assured me that if it weren't for them, modern civilization as we know it wouldn't exist. No pyramids, no iphones, no masterpieces in museums, no cars, no pollution (I say that last, he didn’t).
I often wonder if it would be such a terrible thing to have missed all that, considering the price the rest of us pay to sustain monstrous egos. We’re mere tools to accomplish their massive enterprises, for them to achieve their grand plans with a minimum of personal effort and a maximum of acclaim.
Maurice Swift is one such sociopath. From a young age, he discovers that his physical beauty makes people react in amazing ways; they’re willing to do almost anything to be in his proximity. Conveniently enough, he doesn't ask for very much: he only asks them to feed him stories. He has no interest in men or women, nor in sex, yet willing to lend them his body in exchange for stories to publish under his name. He cannot come up with his own stories, so that is his method to reach fame and acclaim as a literary genius, which he craves beyond all reason.
Through various characters Maurice has encountered in his lifetime, we discover how he appropriated people's personal stories, destroying their reputations and their very lives in the process. All the while, without batting an eyelash nor once looking back with remorse.
First, an aging homosexual author of some acclaim tells him of his first love for a young man his age when as a German adolescent just as WWII was beginning. Erich Ackermann has carried a horrible secret with him all his life: being responsible for sending his would-be first love to his death because of raging jealousy. In revealing this story to his young protégé, he’d no notion the young man would in turn publish it, nor the danger of exposing himself to the scandal of being "outed" as a Nazi, his own books subsequently removed from publication.
Young Maurice had already been well on his way towards achieving his ambitions before meeting Ackermann. There is nobody he isn't willing to steal from to advance his career and fame, win awards and satiate his outsized ambitions. Once you, the reader, think he's outdone himself, he reaches an ever greater level of depravity, until he is literally in the gutter and still reaching for success, desperate for a literary prize.
This was my first novel by John Boyne and an excellent read, if hard to take at times for the simple knowledge that people like this run around freely everywhere, though they aren't necessarily leading people to their deaths in such a literal (ha!) way. What was surprising to me after finishing the book, was that I’ve known many people like this in my career days. Willing to step over anyone and tell any amount of lies, appropriate any work or idea to advance themselves at the expense of countless others. What Boyne describes with his Maurice character (as so often is the case in fiction), is only a slight exaggeration of behaviours that are so common as to be regularly featured as part of dinnertime conversation in almost every household across the world: "So-and-so stabbed me in the back today & told the boss my plan was his idea...", etc.
I knew someone like this much closer to home, my single mum with her lifelong yearning to become a published and much acclaimed literary author. She shut herself up in her bedroom every night to work on her writing. She put a journal in my hands when I was 9, saying "life is going to be difficult and there are many things you won't understand. Write everything, it’ll help you through it all". This instead of sending me to see a psychologist or psychiatrist when I was clearly in distress. She may have been right about how helpful writing can be as a coping mechanism. 30+ years later, as I was going through my umpteenth bout of suicidal depression, all she could keep repeating to me was "use it as material" (for writing or for my art) it’ll be useful. And refusing to show any willingness to accept my need to retire from the world to get myself together again. I was meant to achieve greatness, but had I done so she’d have been proud & also bitterly envied me. Some people use their talents not to cope with, but to displace actual feelings.
Needless to say, not all authors resort to stealing and killing to get their stories written, but so many are, in many ways, toxic people. Their obsession takes over everything, to the point of neglecting their own children. Rebecca de Mornay was, it is said, a terrible mother. My own mother told me so many harrowing true stories, positively gothic horror stuff, without any regard my being highly sensitive & easily upset. There was never any forewarning or padding the information, or even using anything other than a matter—of-fact tone. I found out last year she’d been diagnosed as autistic over two decades ago, which goes towards explaining her bizarre behaviours to some extent. What disturbed me most about this story was that Maurice didn't seem like such a freak to me. There are monsters among us, being perfectly charming while sucking out our will to live. It didn’t require much of a leap of imagination to imagine he was a real person.
I wish I didn't always make these reviews so personal, but a book about a narcissistic author was bound to hit close to home, especially as I’ve been processing a final & complete break from the as yet (as far as I know) unpublished maw. And she must write stories that only appeal to her. Some are very good. Some I’ve found painfully unreadable or so complex as to defy any reader. She also must be published by a reputable house. That is the vision & nothing else will satisfy. Little wonder I’m unwilling to make compromises to gain success or popularity. Would rather remain obscure and not gaslighting myself & everyone on the path to fame. ...more
In this ode to first love and its aftermath, Daniel Handler—aka Lemony Snicket—pairs up with his friend, illustrator Maira Kalman to tell the story ofIn this ode to first love and its aftermath, Daniel Handler—aka Lemony Snicket—pairs up with his friend, illustrator Maira Kalman to tell the story of modern love gone awry. Min (for Minerva) Green is known as an "arty" girl, who hangs out with equally arty friends and has a passion for old films. One day as they are celebrating her best friend's "Bitter Sixteen", jocks Ed Slatherton and his buddy come crashing the party. Min can't refuse a date from Ed, the very handsome co-captain of the basketball team whom she would never have imagined would have ever set eyes on her. Her friends disapprove and his friends can't understand what he sees in her, but Ed claims he likes her being "different". Min brings Ed to the repertory cinema to see old movies (all convincingly made up by Handler), and though Ed doesn't really get it, he's willing to play along when Min decides they must throw and 89th birthday party for her favourite film star.
The story is told by Min in a letter to Ed following their disastrous breakup. This is no Hallmark romance story, and these kids are dealing with real issues which include numerous gorgeous ex-girlfriends and sex as a foregone conclusion. With her letter, Min is returning a box of memorabilia to him, filled with items she's collected over their brief romance, from movie stubs to elastic bands, rose petals, beer caps, a dish towel, and more which Kalman has illustrated throughout the book. An interesting way to present a story we're all familiar with and which inevitably brings us back to our own first romantic experiences and crushing disappointments. I don't know that I'd want to have my teenage daughter reading this book considering the sexual content (Min and Ed have frequent "everything but" make-out sessions before she surrenders her virginity to him), but it might be a good way to open up a conversation about self-respect, being different and how to handle pressure to have sex. —From April 2012...more
Couldn’t put it down. I suppose I should have guessed what the big reveal was, but I was too happy to just go along with the story and not try to guesCouldn’t put it down. I suppose I should have guessed what the big reveal was, but I was too happy to just go along with the story and not try to guess what was around the next corner, besides which a debilitating migraine kept my mental faculties from being fully operational. This is not to say this book is for dummies. It is well and intelligently written but also doesn't require the reader to bend their mind into strange configurations to understand what is being said. A blessing for a frequent migraine sufferer. /end PSA
A psychiatrist is passionate about trying to help a patient who hasn’t spoken a word since shooting her husband point blank five times in the face, then botching an attempt to kill herself. As the story unfolds, h reveals his own traumatizing childhood and the psychological repercussions in his adult married life which make him feel a connection to his patient and the quite often true fact that most mental health professionals are themselves working through serious mental trauma.
I suppose part of the attraction for me was that the story took place in a psychiatric institution and that the patient accused of murder is a painter, two things I am familiar with (I leave you to guess which two) and am always curious about. Short, two-page chapters keep the pace moving along swiftly. A satisfying psychological thriller and quite a great debut for Michaelides if you enjoy the genre. My friends who aren't fans of mysteries or thriller books didn't enjoy this one which isn't at all surprising, but this books delivers for fans of Hitchcock movies and reading as entertainment....more
Well that was rather stupendous. A heartbreaking work of staggering genius, you might quite aptly say. I was bowled over by his debut novel The FisherWell that was rather stupendous. A heartbreaking work of staggering genius, you might quite aptly say. I was bowled over by his debut novel The Fishermen too; whatever Obioma cooks up next, I’ll be waiting for it eagerly....more
A sheer delight for this lover of gothic horror. I’ll let all the excitement and creepiness settle a bit to sort out my thoughts and write more on thiA sheer delight for this lover of gothic horror. I’ll let all the excitement and creepiness settle a bit to sort out my thoughts and write more on this amazing debut soon. ...more
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