Full Review: "The Martian"

I checked out some of the other reviews of The Martian, by Andy Weir, and they are overwhelmingly positive. A lot of that strikes me as a collective relief response.  Surprisingly for a civilization allegedly obsessed with happy endings, we've been concentrating on nihilistic shock in both book and film for a very long time now (think Mad Max, The Road, Hunger Games - a whole library of just how miserable fiction can make us.)

Weir's novel does act as a corrective to all that. It's suspenseful, although in the same way as Apollo 13 is suspenseful; we know everything will come out okay. And it is indeed fun getting there. The story is knowledgeable about science (I teach chemistry, and there's some fine instruction here) and innovation (try, fail, try again), and teamwork. I liked it.

But I also get where the few naysayers are coming from. Very little uncertainty, pedestrian sentence structure, almost textbookish narration - there's not a lot of psychological depth here. This is adventure science fiction from the early days, when we thought we could do anything we put our minds to. We need that, no question about it, and it's time we got off our self-flagellation kick, but just a little more nuance or character development or elegance next time? Please?

I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review. The image above links to the book's Amazon page.

Short review: "Empire of Sin"

 
You think we have a problem today with racial violence, government corruption, and embedded injustice of epic scale? Take heart. It's nothing compared to Victorian-era New Orleans. 

Gary Krist's book is a spellbinding piece of writing. Hard to believe it's non-fiction, but Krist used original news reports and other historical documents to craft this true story of mayhem. After a prologue, the book starts off with the murder of Josie Lobrano's brother, in front of her, at the hand of her paramour in their brothel, and the subsequent crooked trial in which said paramour is let off the hook. Things get worse from there, and continue to be worse for at least four decades, through several city administrations and various heroic attempts to clean up the mess. Between minute by minute descriptions of murders and lynching, we learn about the culture of New Orleans, the roots of jazz, the founding of Storyville, and much more. 

Very highly recommended.

I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for a review. The image above links to the book's Amazon page.