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The Last Librarian
The Last Librarian
Brandt Legg | 2015 | Dystopia, Fiction & Poetry
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Poorly written and unoriginal
I wanted so much to like this book. The synopsis makes it sound like a more modern take on Fahrenheit 451 or 1984, however no matter how many times this book tries to reference these classics, it will never live up to these.

The good thing about this book is that the idea behind it. Set in a futuristic society where a pandemic has wiped out a large part of the population, the thought behind it is fairly relevant and in keeping with today’s events and you can almost imagine that this could’ve easily happened today. That however is where the good stops. The story is far too overly complicated and predictable, and also pretty dull. It doesn’t help that the author has decided that despite being set less than 80 years from today, everything has changed - the language, the continents, technology to the point where everything has a ridiculous and laughable new name. I never understand why authors try and rename everything just because it’s classed as a futuristic book, it’s entirely unnecessary. And then there’s the acronyms. Within the first half of the book so many silly acronyms are introduced that I quickly lost the will to even try and remember what they stood for, it’s far too many.

The characters are whiny and self absorbed, with a large part of the chapters taken up by their monotonous and rambling inner monologuing. And then they all seem to inexplicably talk in literary quotes all the time, to constantly stress their self importance and the worthiness of the books. The relationships between characters also seem poorly developed yet progress far too quickly.

Overall I really didn’t enjoy this book, and the fact that it has been set up for 2 further sequels doesn’t interest me in the slightest. I’d have to be very desperate to read those.
  
Hope Six Demolition Project by PJ Harvey
Hope Six Demolition Project by PJ Harvey
2016 | Alternative
6.0 (3 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I think The Hope Six Demolition Project and Let England Shake are this two pronged attack which is utterly perfect, entirely relevant and so important to be releasing this late into her career. I'd listened to Let England Shake a lot, and I felt PJ Harvey had changed so drastically with that record, and The Hope Six follows on from that so beautifully. I remember hearing 'The Ministry of Defence' and calling Dean [Richardson, Rattlesnakes guitarist] saying, 'Have you heard the new PJ Harvey? How are we going to release our album now? She's written a dirtier record than we could ever do.' It's amazing to see someone with that history in music release something that relevant, here's an artist who's so deep into her career and I think it's one of the greatest records she's made. She's definitely an inspiration; I think any artist writing at the minute would be foolish to not include some of the tragedies we're witnessing in the world. As artists we have a platform and a responsibility to talk about things that matter. They matter to me and they clearly matter to her as well. I find it incredibly frustrating that [more artists aren't addressing issues]. Either say something important or fuck off, essentially. Someone said a long time ago that stupidity was more of a problem than evil. Evil can be fought against, it can be revealed to be what it is, you can see it and name it and rally against it. Stupidity is much more dangerous because it allows evil to grow and breed and become the norm; you can't reason with a stupid person. I think when I see bands that aren't writing about anything important or releasing music that has no importance to them, I'm not trying to be overly political with my new record, it's a record about human relationships, but it was important for me to include [some political themes] because it's what's surrounded me for the last couple of years. We'll see who's got the courage."

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