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Hazel (1853 KP) rated A City Dreaming in Books
Dec 14, 2018
My rating: 2.5
<i>I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.</i>
“The city never sleeps, but it’s always dreaming.” And, by dreaming, Daniel Polansky clearly means nightmares. <i>A City Dreaming</i> is, for the lack of a better term, an urban fantasy novel. Embracing elements of dystopia and steampunk universes, it is difficult to determine the time period in which it is set. What can be established is that, wherever you are in the world, you are never far away from a monster.
<i>A City Dreaming</i> revolves around a semi-anonymous character known as M. M appears to be some form of magician who wishes he could spend his days listlessly staring into the bottom of his beer glass. Yet with misbehaving creatures and warring goddess living in the city of New York, peace is a rare phenomenon in M’s life. From demons to murders and mind-boggling situations, there is never a dull moment.
Each chapter of <i>A City Dreaming</i> is, in some way, an individual story. Apart from the occasional recurring character, no scenario is ever continued after the chapter concludes. This is initially a cause for confusion. With no clear direction or purpose, it is hard to remain engaged with the author’s imagination.
Readers familiar with contemporary fantasy writers, such as Neil Gaiman, may understand Polansky’s vision – think <i>Neverwhere</i> and <i>American Gods</i> combined, but weirder. M spends the majority of his time either inebriated or on drugs, and, to be frank, it would not be surprising to learn the author was on drugs at the time of writing. Imagine Neil Gaiman on drugs; that is how bizarre this book is.
Despite his penchant for recreational drugs, M is an intelligent character that can humorously talk himself out of impossible situations. However it is often a hopeless ordeal to fathom the process of his intoxicated mind. As a result, <i>A City Dreaming</i> loses its thrill and excitement.
As this is the first Daniel Polansky novel that I have read, I do not know whether this is his usual style of writing or whether it was an attempt at something new. What I did observe was the intelligence hidden behind the excess of expletives and lewd content. Polansky writes with certain aptitude, almost as if he has swallowed a thesaurus.
Fans of Neil Gaiman and Brandon Sanderson may enjoy <i>A City Dreaming</i> more than new readers, since they will already be familiar with the style of bemusing narration. <i>A City Dreaming</i> does not live up to the definition of a novel, however as short, connecting stories it provides the intended entertainment. Almost certainly, this book will be received with mixed reviews; nonetheless it will undoubtedly eventually find its fan base.
<i>I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.</i>
“The city never sleeps, but it’s always dreaming.” And, by dreaming, Daniel Polansky clearly means nightmares. <i>A City Dreaming</i> is, for the lack of a better term, an urban fantasy novel. Embracing elements of dystopia and steampunk universes, it is difficult to determine the time period in which it is set. What can be established is that, wherever you are in the world, you are never far away from a monster.
<i>A City Dreaming</i> revolves around a semi-anonymous character known as M. M appears to be some form of magician who wishes he could spend his days listlessly staring into the bottom of his beer glass. Yet with misbehaving creatures and warring goddess living in the city of New York, peace is a rare phenomenon in M’s life. From demons to murders and mind-boggling situations, there is never a dull moment.
Each chapter of <i>A City Dreaming</i> is, in some way, an individual story. Apart from the occasional recurring character, no scenario is ever continued after the chapter concludes. This is initially a cause for confusion. With no clear direction or purpose, it is hard to remain engaged with the author’s imagination.
Readers familiar with contemporary fantasy writers, such as Neil Gaiman, may understand Polansky’s vision – think <i>Neverwhere</i> and <i>American Gods</i> combined, but weirder. M spends the majority of his time either inebriated or on drugs, and, to be frank, it would not be surprising to learn the author was on drugs at the time of writing. Imagine Neil Gaiman on drugs; that is how bizarre this book is.
Despite his penchant for recreational drugs, M is an intelligent character that can humorously talk himself out of impossible situations. However it is often a hopeless ordeal to fathom the process of his intoxicated mind. As a result, <i>A City Dreaming</i> loses its thrill and excitement.
As this is the first Daniel Polansky novel that I have read, I do not know whether this is his usual style of writing or whether it was an attempt at something new. What I did observe was the intelligence hidden behind the excess of expletives and lewd content. Polansky writes with certain aptitude, almost as if he has swallowed a thesaurus.
Fans of Neil Gaiman and Brandon Sanderson may enjoy <i>A City Dreaming</i> more than new readers, since they will already be familiar with the style of bemusing narration. <i>A City Dreaming</i> does not live up to the definition of a novel, however as short, connecting stories it provides the intended entertainment. Almost certainly, this book will be received with mixed reviews; nonetheless it will undoubtedly eventually find its fan base.
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A Bibliophagist (113 KP) rated Space Opera in Books
Jan 25, 2020 (Updated Jan 25, 2020)
Fun writing (2 more)
Creative
Witty
Overwritten (3 more)
Lacking plot
Disjointed and distracted
Boring
Technicolor Encyclopedia entry
Space Opera seems to be a book, that based on other reviews, you either love or hate. The love reviewers can't seem to tell me why they love it, most attempting to replicate the style of the author and relying on a menagerie of adjectives to express themselves. "A glitter punk, Eurovision romp!" "Technicolor whirlwind!" but not actually saying WHY they liked it, or just saying "well you didn't get the humor". The ones who disliked it are pretty clear, and as I struggled with this book I found I agreed with their complaints. However, I have to thank the sheer number of DNFs from the disliked group for causing me to, ironically, finish it. I hate DNFing books, to begin with, but when I saw just how many bad reviews didn't make it through, it felt as bad as the good reviews not actually reviewing anything. So I powered through, and honestly, it was worth finishing. The author really got back on track and it was a great ending.
Valente has in fact given us a Eurovision, glitter punk, electric baby with Douglas Adams, her writing fantastical and humorous, her characters vapid but in a washed-out musician kind of way. She really thought about this book, creating droves of aliens and probably destroying a number of thesauri to bring them to life. We follow Decibel Jones of the "oh you haven't heard of it, well we used to be a thing" Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeros. A washed-up, no longer active glitter punk band who is an amalgam of every band you probably are thinking of when trying to grasp what that description means.
The book opens with a wonderfully witty description of how there is in fact other life out there in the universe, life is easy to come by, they've just been off doing a galactic war and while they were gone we kind of popped up. Life is stupid. This part is the best part of the book. The humor is on point, the prose magnificant. She is spot on and very pointed in her argument for why war happens. It's people vs meat, and how does one determine something isn't meat, but in fact sentient? Well, no one really figured that out, hence the galactic war, but NOW post-war they think they've figured it out. Intergalactic Music competition. Makes sense, only something sentient could create music right?
Well, this year is a special year because Earth is invited, we've been deemed "may be sentient", but questionable enough that they'd rather not let us just hang out and become annoying someday. So we have to present a band and performance for consideration. We just have to not place last. If we don't place last, we're part of the club and we'll be a-ok. If we place last, we'll be destroyed, because they already think we're annoying and that will mean we're meat. People vs meat remember?
So, one day everyone on the planet earth, everyone, awake or sleeping is visited by the blue birdlike projection of our assigned guides, the Esca, and alien species that are new to the whole being accepted as a sentient thing, and will guide us through the competition. Which it is now telling us about, Suprise! They've chosen a list of musicians they think will do well, however it's outdated and only one band is really able to do it, the has-beens, who are they, Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeros. Time was rough on our glam-punk friends as it tends to be on musicians, they lost the third member about a decade ago, the two remaining no longer talk. Decibel is a trainwreck, and Oort St Ultraviolet is now just a dad who very much wants to be a regular dude. But now they're being whisked off into space to sing for the world's salvation.
Sounds pretty fun right? This plus Douglas Adams type prose and humor? A real knock out. Unfortunately, that story I just described takes up... maybe a quarter of the book, MAYBE. You can pull the main story out and put it into a book that might be too small to be a novella. Because of this, the backstory, development, and exploration of these characters are slim to nothing. There is some mind you, but very little. It isn't until the 180pg mark or so that Valente actually decides to focus on the plot, giving very little time to do the entire Grand Prix, the actual competition takes up a page. A 288-page book about a singing competition and only 1-2 pages is actually the singing competition. Tack on another 10 maybe for the weird cocktail death party right before, that didn't have enough attempted death to make any real point of it, plus maybe another 5-10 scattered throughout the book on the back story and leading up to the story, and we've got MAYBE 25 pages of the actual plot. My math is wrong, I know, but it sure FEELS like this.
So, in a 288-page book, with 25 pages being the actual story, what are the other 263 pages? It was the author being somewhat... I don't mean to sound mean, but full of herself? She tried WAY too hard on this style she was going for. It felt like an "oh, you liked that opening chapter, didn't you? You totally read it out loud to your boyfriend, well here let me give it to you again, and again, and ... again". This book suffers from a severe case of needing to be edited. Of someone saying "that's enough now dear, but what about the story". Every few pages of the backstory of the plot we got were met with full chapters, sometimes multiple of Valente describing yet another alien species she's created, in yet another chain of witty simile and metaphor. To the point where sometimes I no longer knew what was happening, they were all interchangeable, which alien are we talking about now? It went on and on and on, and I never knew how such humorous writing could be just so soul suckingly boring. When she ran out of aliens it was describing previous grand prix's and how the aliens sang. In the exact same, formulaic, witty simile, witty simile, witty simile. Don't get me wrong, there were some absolute gems in here. Some that made me laugh out loud. But it's all about the ratio. I would trade in a heartbeat the ratio in this book. 263 pages of plot, and 25 pages of aliens described in witty simile. It took everything in my power after the third alien chapter to not skim. But she fit so much into a sentence that I was scared somewhere hiding would be a plot point (spoiler alert, there wasn't, skim away).
Then around the 180 page mark, a flip was switched, it was almost as if she went "crap, a story!" the adjective use was slimmed down dramatically and we actually got more than one chapter in a row with a plot point. But at this point, it was too late, the end of the book was hurdling at us and very little had happened and the book pretty much fizzled out with an "oh yeah, the Grand Prix happened". Mind you, the finale was very heartwarming and I liked it a lot. I just wish I hadn't had to read a full chapter about hairbrush interspecies sex to get there, and instead had more of it. But ironically, the hairbrush sex had more plot advancement that the majority of the book.
The ending did, however, for one moment, make me forget that I had just read an encyclopedia of descriptors and was happy for a few minutes. So good on her for that. That proves to me that she can write more than glittery descriptions, which then made me sad I didn't have more of that writing. With just a spattering of the gold of her opening chapters. I am glad I finished the book, the story, what little there was, was worth the read. However, I have no desire to read any other of Valente's writing now, and if there was a sequel, I just don't think I have it in me to read another 263 pages of description. Cool idea, good ability, just terribly executed. She could easily have released a separate book, expanding on a handful of species she established in the book, like an alien compendium, and I would have read it, and laughed, and been okay because I went into it expecting it. But I went into this wanting a story, not a neon throwup encyclopedia of just how "oh so creative" Valente is. That came off harsh, I know, but they blew past the fine line of interesting and well into the self-serving, look what I can do, territory. What suffered for it wasn't just a large number of DNFs, and my sanity for a few days, but an actually interesting, fun, Eurovision, glitter punk, heartwarming story about loss, life, how stupid it is, how beautiful it is, and why we should fight for it. It's in there, hiding beneath the layers and layers of word vomit. I want that story. Please release a second edition that is just that, the opening, and say... 3-5 of your favorite aliens Valente, I promise I'll give it another try if you do.
Valente has in fact given us a Eurovision, glitter punk, electric baby with Douglas Adams, her writing fantastical and humorous, her characters vapid but in a washed-out musician kind of way. She really thought about this book, creating droves of aliens and probably destroying a number of thesauri to bring them to life. We follow Decibel Jones of the "oh you haven't heard of it, well we used to be a thing" Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeros. A washed-up, no longer active glitter punk band who is an amalgam of every band you probably are thinking of when trying to grasp what that description means.
The book opens with a wonderfully witty description of how there is in fact other life out there in the universe, life is easy to come by, they've just been off doing a galactic war and while they were gone we kind of popped up. Life is stupid. This part is the best part of the book. The humor is on point, the prose magnificant. She is spot on and very pointed in her argument for why war happens. It's people vs meat, and how does one determine something isn't meat, but in fact sentient? Well, no one really figured that out, hence the galactic war, but NOW post-war they think they've figured it out. Intergalactic Music competition. Makes sense, only something sentient could create music right?
Well, this year is a special year because Earth is invited, we've been deemed "may be sentient", but questionable enough that they'd rather not let us just hang out and become annoying someday. So we have to present a band and performance for consideration. We just have to not place last. If we don't place last, we're part of the club and we'll be a-ok. If we place last, we'll be destroyed, because they already think we're annoying and that will mean we're meat. People vs meat remember?
So, one day everyone on the planet earth, everyone, awake or sleeping is visited by the blue birdlike projection of our assigned guides, the Esca, and alien species that are new to the whole being accepted as a sentient thing, and will guide us through the competition. Which it is now telling us about, Suprise! They've chosen a list of musicians they think will do well, however it's outdated and only one band is really able to do it, the has-beens, who are they, Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeros. Time was rough on our glam-punk friends as it tends to be on musicians, they lost the third member about a decade ago, the two remaining no longer talk. Decibel is a trainwreck, and Oort St Ultraviolet is now just a dad who very much wants to be a regular dude. But now they're being whisked off into space to sing for the world's salvation.
Sounds pretty fun right? This plus Douglas Adams type prose and humor? A real knock out. Unfortunately, that story I just described takes up... maybe a quarter of the book, MAYBE. You can pull the main story out and put it into a book that might be too small to be a novella. Because of this, the backstory, development, and exploration of these characters are slim to nothing. There is some mind you, but very little. It isn't until the 180pg mark or so that Valente actually decides to focus on the plot, giving very little time to do the entire Grand Prix, the actual competition takes up a page. A 288-page book about a singing competition and only 1-2 pages is actually the singing competition. Tack on another 10 maybe for the weird cocktail death party right before, that didn't have enough attempted death to make any real point of it, plus maybe another 5-10 scattered throughout the book on the back story and leading up to the story, and we've got MAYBE 25 pages of the actual plot. My math is wrong, I know, but it sure FEELS like this.
So, in a 288-page book, with 25 pages being the actual story, what are the other 263 pages? It was the author being somewhat... I don't mean to sound mean, but full of herself? She tried WAY too hard on this style she was going for. It felt like an "oh, you liked that opening chapter, didn't you? You totally read it out loud to your boyfriend, well here let me give it to you again, and again, and ... again". This book suffers from a severe case of needing to be edited. Of someone saying "that's enough now dear, but what about the story". Every few pages of the backstory of the plot we got were met with full chapters, sometimes multiple of Valente describing yet another alien species she's created, in yet another chain of witty simile and metaphor. To the point where sometimes I no longer knew what was happening, they were all interchangeable, which alien are we talking about now? It went on and on and on, and I never knew how such humorous writing could be just so soul suckingly boring. When she ran out of aliens it was describing previous grand prix's and how the aliens sang. In the exact same, formulaic, witty simile, witty simile, witty simile. Don't get me wrong, there were some absolute gems in here. Some that made me laugh out loud. But it's all about the ratio. I would trade in a heartbeat the ratio in this book. 263 pages of plot, and 25 pages of aliens described in witty simile. It took everything in my power after the third alien chapter to not skim. But she fit so much into a sentence that I was scared somewhere hiding would be a plot point (spoiler alert, there wasn't, skim away).
Then around the 180 page mark, a flip was switched, it was almost as if she went "crap, a story!" the adjective use was slimmed down dramatically and we actually got more than one chapter in a row with a plot point. But at this point, it was too late, the end of the book was hurdling at us and very little had happened and the book pretty much fizzled out with an "oh yeah, the Grand Prix happened". Mind you, the finale was very heartwarming and I liked it a lot. I just wish I hadn't had to read a full chapter about hairbrush interspecies sex to get there, and instead had more of it. But ironically, the hairbrush sex had more plot advancement that the majority of the book.
The ending did, however, for one moment, make me forget that I had just read an encyclopedia of descriptors and was happy for a few minutes. So good on her for that. That proves to me that she can write more than glittery descriptions, which then made me sad I didn't have more of that writing. With just a spattering of the gold of her opening chapters. I am glad I finished the book, the story, what little there was, was worth the read. However, I have no desire to read any other of Valente's writing now, and if there was a sequel, I just don't think I have it in me to read another 263 pages of description. Cool idea, good ability, just terribly executed. She could easily have released a separate book, expanding on a handful of species she established in the book, like an alien compendium, and I would have read it, and laughed, and been okay because I went into it expecting it. But I went into this wanting a story, not a neon throwup encyclopedia of just how "oh so creative" Valente is. That came off harsh, I know, but they blew past the fine line of interesting and well into the self-serving, look what I can do, territory. What suffered for it wasn't just a large number of DNFs, and my sanity for a few days, but an actually interesting, fun, Eurovision, glitter punk, heartwarming story about loss, life, how stupid it is, how beautiful it is, and why we should fight for it. It's in there, hiding beneath the layers and layers of word vomit. I want that story. Please release a second edition that is just that, the opening, and say... 3-5 of your favorite aliens Valente, I promise I'll give it another try if you do.
Haley Mathiot (9 KP) rated Hex Hall (Hex Hall, #1) in Books
Apr 27, 2018
Hex Hall was funny, cute, and exciting. Sophie had a witty, slightly sarcastic interior monologue and it made it fun to read, even though the writing itself wasn’t good per se.
A very good aspect of Hex Hall was the mystery side. I had no idea who the “bad guy” was (there turned out to be more than one!) until the very end, and I had no idea what was going to happen.
My only complaint was the ending: it wasn’t very good. It left unanswered questions, and there was no closure. It just… ended. Like the ending of a chapter, it felt like there should have been at least one more paragraph. One more paragraph to make you feel like Sophie was confident and knew what she was doing, and that everything was going to turn out right. But… it ended slightly lame.
Except the ending (as in the very last two pages) Hex Hall was a light funny cute read, and I look forward to the next book in the series.
Content/Recommendation: Clean, some small descriptions of violence. Ages 12-18
A very good aspect of Hex Hall was the mystery side. I had no idea who the “bad guy” was (there turned out to be more than one!) until the very end, and I had no idea what was going to happen.
My only complaint was the ending: it wasn’t very good. It left unanswered questions, and there was no closure. It just… ended. Like the ending of a chapter, it felt like there should have been at least one more paragraph. One more paragraph to make you feel like Sophie was confident and knew what she was doing, and that everything was going to turn out right. But… it ended slightly lame.
Except the ending (as in the very last two pages) Hex Hall was a light funny cute read, and I look forward to the next book in the series.
Content/Recommendation: Clean, some small descriptions of violence. Ages 12-18
Billie Wichkan (118 KP) rated The Dangerous Kind in Books
Mar 15, 2019
1 in 100 people
We all recognize them. Those who exist just on the fringes of society. Who send prickles up the back of our necks. The charmers. The liars. The manipulators. Those who have the potential to go that one step too far. And then take another step.
WOW... is what I have to say for this thriller. This book grabbed me from the first chapter and never let me go. It tackles some difficult topics and it was quite uncomfortable to read in places but it was written well and not overly explicit.
I had tears while reading this; at times I wanted to scream in frustration at the characters. by the ending I was doing the mouth hanging open in surprise!
This story is told mainly from four different view points the story follows Jessamine, a radio presenter, her adopted daughter Sarah, Jitesh an intern at the BBC radio studios in present day London and Rowena in 2003.
I myself would love to see this turned into a movie.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bonnier Zaffre for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.
We all recognize them. Those who exist just on the fringes of society. Who send prickles up the back of our necks. The charmers. The liars. The manipulators. Those who have the potential to go that one step too far. And then take another step.
WOW... is what I have to say for this thriller. This book grabbed me from the first chapter and never let me go. It tackles some difficult topics and it was quite uncomfortable to read in places but it was written well and not overly explicit.
I had tears while reading this; at times I wanted to scream in frustration at the characters. by the ending I was doing the mouth hanging open in surprise!
This story is told mainly from four different view points the story follows Jessamine, a radio presenter, her adopted daughter Sarah, Jitesh an intern at the BBC radio studios in present day London and Rowena in 2003.
I myself would love to see this turned into a movie.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bonnier Zaffre for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.
Cyn Armistead (14 KP) rated The Crown Tower (The Riyria Chronicles, #1) in Books
Mar 1, 2018
I read the Riyria Revelations, then I thought I would wait a while before reading this book. I mean, it's reasonable to take a break after six volumes in a universe, right? But I did have a sample chapter, just sitting there in the Kindle app. Just. Sitting. It wouldn't really hurt to just take a peek, would it?
I think you know what happened next. In a few minutes, there was less money in my bank account, but I had the full novel in my greedy hands, so I could get on with learning how Royce and Hadrian met. I read far more slowly this time, taking more time to savor the story. I know all too well that there's only one more novel available at the moment, and I'm trying to make myself wait for that one. Trying is the operative word, here. I enjoy Sullivan's work far too much to be very disciplined about it.
I absolutely recommend ALL of the books, but I do think it might be best to read them in the order in which they were published.
I think you know what happened next. In a few minutes, there was less money in my bank account, but I had the full novel in my greedy hands, so I could get on with learning how Royce and Hadrian met. I read far more slowly this time, taking more time to savor the story. I know all too well that there's only one more novel available at the moment, and I'm trying to make myself wait for that one. Trying is the operative word, here. I enjoy Sullivan's work far too much to be very disciplined about it.
I absolutely recommend ALL of the books, but I do think it might be best to read them in the order in which they were published.
ClareR (5885 KP) rated The Buried Giant in Books
Aug 22, 2018
Perseverance needed for this one!
I had really looked forward to this book: I was on the waiting list for it for months before it was released. So I was really excited when I received the email that it had arrived at the library. The added bonus: I was the first person to read it! Now THAT doesn't happen often at the library!
Anyway, on to the content of the novel. Honestly, I found the first half really hard going. I found he narrative voice really wooden and forced, and I was waiting for something to happen for nearly 170 pages. I only persevered because it was Ishiguro - if it had been anyone else, I would have probably stuck to my 3 chapter rule and quit. I'm glad that I kept at it though. Beatrice and Axl are lovely characters. A devoted husband and wife, who are human enough to be bothered about other people as well. To be honest, all of the characters are really likeable.
My advice: keep going, if like me, you're finding this a tough read. You will be rewarded!!
Anyway, on to the content of the novel. Honestly, I found the first half really hard going. I found he narrative voice really wooden and forced, and I was waiting for something to happen for nearly 170 pages. I only persevered because it was Ishiguro - if it had been anyone else, I would have probably stuck to my 3 chapter rule and quit. I'm glad that I kept at it though. Beatrice and Axl are lovely characters. A devoted husband and wife, who are human enough to be bothered about other people as well. To be honest, all of the characters are really likeable.
My advice: keep going, if like me, you're finding this a tough read. You will be rewarded!!