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Years of rice and salt: My opinion with spoilers

August 07, 2023

1. Title and structure ► Publication year: 2002 ► Genre: Alternate history, Uchronia. ► Themes: Religion, Black Death, Islam, Buddhism, Reincarnation, War, History, Theology. ► Pages: 763 This is my third book by Kim Stanley Robinson. Also, this is my first time reading him in English. Unlike the other two books I read, this one is not a sci-fi book. Also, this is the longest book I've read this year and the longest book I've read by this author. I confess that it was hard for me to finish it. 2. Title and structure ★★★★ ✩ Title ★★★★★ I love the title. It refers to the years in adulthood that are characterized as the chores of raising a family in the middle of routine, monotonous, and repetitive days. In one part, I understood these years as the years before widowhood. Great title. And it delivers within the book! The phrase "years of rice and salt" can also be a reference to the fact that rice and salt were the two most critical staples of life in Asia at the ...

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream - Harlan Ellison

January 26, 2022

► Original publication year : 1967 ► Original title : I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream ► Genres : Post-apocalyptic sci-fi, dystopia, speculative fiction, fantasy, cyberpunk . ► Saga : N/A ► Themes : Post-apocalyptic worlds, AI, war, torture, magic, bets. ► Awards : Hugo [1968] ► Age of author when published : 33 ► Nationality : US-American ► Pages : 152 I just read the collection of short stories and I wanted to share with you 10 insights I had about the book and/or the author. 1. I think the first short story is really good. A classic, a good representation of the genre. A very good story, with elements of horror and sci-fi that were popular at the time the book was published. 2. The other short stories are not my cup of tea, sadly. Because of that, I don't think I will try Harlan Ellison for quite a while. 3. I don't think that Harlan Ellison is that good at writing short stories. I'll hav...

The Dark Forest - Liu Cixin: Some criticism with spoilers

November 06, 2021

In my last post about the book , I talked mostly about why I liked the book and hinted at some issues as well. Here, I will go a bit deeper into the aspects that I didn't like in the book. Women characters I usually don't focus too much on character writing in science fiction because I haven't read good examples in the genre so far, so I just accept the fact the plot is more important than the characters in this genre, but, approaching the 2010's, you'd expect a bit of improvement from some of the science fiction classics regarding women. But, apparently, Liu Cixin didn't even try to write good female characters. The characters' writing feels so anachronistic in this day and age. I don't know much about Chinese culture and how they see women, but I guess the treatment women receive in the novel has to do with that. Just 2 examples to remonstrate with this point: Luo's spouse exists merely as an object, plain, one-dimensional, unrealistic, infantili...

The Dark Forest - Liu Cixin: My opinion without spoilers

November 06, 2021

1. Introduction ► Publication year : 2008 ► Genre: Sci-fi, fantasy. ► Themes: Chinese culture, space war, extra-terrestrial beings, technology, physics, military, politics, cryogenics, deception. ► Pages: 545 This is my second book by Liu Cixin. I read it in English and really I liked it. I think it is interesting. Read my short, spoiler-free review on Goodreads . And read some criticism with spoilers, here . 2. Title and structure ★★★★★ Great title. And it delivers within the book! The Dark Forest theory is definitely worth thinking about. Does it exist in reality? It sounds plausible. The structure of the book is not something the author really paid attention to. 3. Themes ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 3.1. World-building ★★ ★★ ✩ This second book is sub-par with the high level of science and philosophical inventiveness, creativity, and freshness introduced in the prior book. Nonetheless, the world-building is dece...

Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination - Edogawa Rampo: My opinion with spoilers

October 13, 2021

1. Introduction ► Publication year : 1956 ► Genre: Fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, suspense. ► Themes: Japanese culture, crime, perfect murder, mirrors, obsessions, the human psyche, mutillation. ► Pages: 195 This is my first book by Edogawa Rampo (Hirai Taro). I read it in English and I liked it. I think it is well-written. Read my short, spoiler-free review on Goodreads . 2. Title ★★★★✩ You cannot help but think almost immediately on "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" by Edgar Allan Poe. In this case, the connections don't end here. Literary references to the works by Edgar Allan Poe begin with the pseudonym Edogawa Rampo and permeate almost every story in this collection. 3. Structure ★★ ★ ✩ ✩ The structure of the book is simple, with short stories and an illustration in the middle of each story. The stories are really short so you can perfectly read at least one in one sitting. 4. Th...