February Books
Feb. 29th, 2012 06:10 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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christianreaderKrondor the Betrayal
by Raymond Feist
This is a strange book; the riftwar saga was popular enough that someone decided to make an RPG for the PC out of it. That game, Betrayal at Krondor, is regarded as one of the all-time classic games. Feist didn’t write the story for the game, but he did have full creative control over the final product, and the game followed the background and setup of Feist’s world exactly. So then a few years later Feist decided to write a novel based on that game, and this is the result. So it’s a book that’s based on a video game that’s based on a set of books. And unfortunately something got lost in translation, because it’s my least favorite in the series so far. Not that it’s a bad book by any means. I think the problem is that video games and books have different narrative structures (although Betrayal at Krondor did use a pretty unique structure that was a good attempt at making it more like a book(, and when you go back and forth three times like this it just doesn’t work. It felt like Feist was very constrained in this novel, and it just didn’t flow as well as his other books. The plot was much more simple and straightforward. Again, not a bad read, just not up to the high standards the rest of the series has set. 3/5
Krondor the Assassins
by Raymond Feist
And now we’re back to pure Feist-written stories. Much better! Oh I forgot to mention in the last write-up that this three book series (called The Riftwar Legacy) actually goes back in time 50 years or so. It’s a little confusing but it’s fun to see some of the big main characters back in action again. I think the next trilogy will continue where this one left off, since it’s called Legends of the Riftwar. Anyway, this book is not all that epic, but it’s a very good read. It kind of gives us the origins of some of the things we saw earlier in the series…which took place later in the timeline. Confused yet? 4/5
Dirty Poker
by Richard Marcus
Saw this at the library and thought it looked interesting. Richard Marcus bills himself as “the world’s greatest casino cheat”. He spent a lifetime cheating casinos at various table games, and has been featured on TV specials and even wrote a book all about it. This is his take on cheating in poker, which he’s not as experienced at but he has done some of it, and he knows all the tricks. He’s got a huge ego and some of the stuff he writes sounds apocryphal to me, but it was an interesting read (knocked it out in one day). He mainly talks about player collusion, both online and offline. He also gets into the physical cheats like card marking, trick dealing, etc. Pretty eye-opening stuff. 3.5/5
Krondor Tear of the Gods
by Raymond Feist
Not bad, but a little bit by the numbers. Pretty straightforward, find and redeem the plot coupon kind of story. It really just followed one very small group of characters around and didn’t have the usual subplots and story weaving I’ve come to expect from Feist. This whole trilogy was a little weak by his standards but still good stuff. I think the problem is that we’re still dealing with the events of the video game, so his hand are a little tied. 3.5/5
The Outsiders
by S.E. Hinton
I had actually never heard of this book (although I do vaguely recall the movie) until recently when Goodreads recommended it. A short, highly rated classic? Just my kind of book ; ) I enjoyed it, it reminded me a lot of Catcher in the Rye. Not as good as that all-timer, but both are told from the perspective of a streetwise teenage boy and wax philosophical about life, with plenty of observation and very little description. I was surprised to find out the author a) was female, and b) wrote the book when she was 15. Pretty crazy. And now I know what “Stay gold, Ponyboy” means : ) 4/5
Dream Park
by Larry Niven and Steen Barnes
My dad picked up the sequel to this book at a garage sale (only because it was written by Niven, I’m sure) and then grabbed this at the library when he found out about it. When he was done with it I took it because he told me it was right up my alley. It was, and it was pretty fun. Dream Park is a huge amusement park that has a mix of actors, holograms, and sets where people called “Game Masters” can set up adventures for Gamers to play in. There’s a rating system involving points that all the gamers are obsessed with, and people spend way too much time playing these games and escaping from reality. In other words it’s just like today except we have it online instead of at a giant park. In fact at this point (it was written in 1981) it’s barely even fictional; only the holograms place out of the realm of reality. There’s also a murder mystery to drive the plot, but it was no great shakes. The book was pretty interesting though, mostly to see how close Niven came to predicting what was coming. 3.5/5
Books for February: 6
Books for 2012: 14
by Raymond Feist
This is a strange book; the riftwar saga was popular enough that someone decided to make an RPG for the PC out of it. That game, Betrayal at Krondor, is regarded as one of the all-time classic games. Feist didn’t write the story for the game, but he did have full creative control over the final product, and the game followed the background and setup of Feist’s world exactly. So then a few years later Feist decided to write a novel based on that game, and this is the result. So it’s a book that’s based on a video game that’s based on a set of books. And unfortunately something got lost in translation, because it’s my least favorite in the series so far. Not that it’s a bad book by any means. I think the problem is that video games and books have different narrative structures (although Betrayal at Krondor did use a pretty unique structure that was a good attempt at making it more like a book(, and when you go back and forth three times like this it just doesn’t work. It felt like Feist was very constrained in this novel, and it just didn’t flow as well as his other books. The plot was much more simple and straightforward. Again, not a bad read, just not up to the high standards the rest of the series has set. 3/5
Krondor the Assassins
by Raymond Feist
And now we’re back to pure Feist-written stories. Much better! Oh I forgot to mention in the last write-up that this three book series (called The Riftwar Legacy) actually goes back in time 50 years or so. It’s a little confusing but it’s fun to see some of the big main characters back in action again. I think the next trilogy will continue where this one left off, since it’s called Legends of the Riftwar. Anyway, this book is not all that epic, but it’s a very good read. It kind of gives us the origins of some of the things we saw earlier in the series…which took place later in the timeline. Confused yet? 4/5
Dirty Poker
by Richard Marcus
Saw this at the library and thought it looked interesting. Richard Marcus bills himself as “the world’s greatest casino cheat”. He spent a lifetime cheating casinos at various table games, and has been featured on TV specials and even wrote a book all about it. This is his take on cheating in poker, which he’s not as experienced at but he has done some of it, and he knows all the tricks. He’s got a huge ego and some of the stuff he writes sounds apocryphal to me, but it was an interesting read (knocked it out in one day). He mainly talks about player collusion, both online and offline. He also gets into the physical cheats like card marking, trick dealing, etc. Pretty eye-opening stuff. 3.5/5
Krondor Tear of the Gods
by Raymond Feist
Not bad, but a little bit by the numbers. Pretty straightforward, find and redeem the plot coupon kind of story. It really just followed one very small group of characters around and didn’t have the usual subplots and story weaving I’ve come to expect from Feist. This whole trilogy was a little weak by his standards but still good stuff. I think the problem is that we’re still dealing with the events of the video game, so his hand are a little tied. 3.5/5
The Outsiders
by S.E. Hinton
I had actually never heard of this book (although I do vaguely recall the movie) until recently when Goodreads recommended it. A short, highly rated classic? Just my kind of book ; ) I enjoyed it, it reminded me a lot of Catcher in the Rye. Not as good as that all-timer, but both are told from the perspective of a streetwise teenage boy and wax philosophical about life, with plenty of observation and very little description. I was surprised to find out the author a) was female, and b) wrote the book when she was 15. Pretty crazy. And now I know what “Stay gold, Ponyboy” means : ) 4/5
Dream Park
by Larry Niven and Steen Barnes
My dad picked up the sequel to this book at a garage sale (only because it was written by Niven, I’m sure) and then grabbed this at the library when he found out about it. When he was done with it I took it because he told me it was right up my alley. It was, and it was pretty fun. Dream Park is a huge amusement park that has a mix of actors, holograms, and sets where people called “Game Masters” can set up adventures for Gamers to play in. There’s a rating system involving points that all the gamers are obsessed with, and people spend way too much time playing these games and escaping from reality. In other words it’s just like today except we have it online instead of at a giant park. In fact at this point (it was written in 1981) it’s barely even fictional; only the holograms place out of the realm of reality. There’s also a murder mystery to drive the plot, but it was no great shakes. The book was pretty interesting though, mostly to see how close Niven came to predicting what was coming. 3.5/5
Books for February: 6
Books for 2012: 14
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no subject
Date: 2012-03-01 02:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-01 02:47 am (UTC)I know what you mean about Tom Cruise! He's everywhere, and he's quite annoying. He's got a fairly minor role in this film, though, so he doesn't try to steal the show too much. :)
no subject
Date: 2012-03-01 02:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-01 02:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-01 03:33 am (UTC)