Book Review 2022
2022 Book Review.
Not Pictured "The Stranger" - I can't find it 😔
Finished: 25 Pages: 9,955
| Book Title | Author | Series Name | Genre | Rating | Date | Pages | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Furies of Calderon | Jim Butcher | Codex Alera | Fantasy | 5 | 2022 | 688 | Fiction |
| Jurassic Park | Michael Crichton | Jurassic Park | Technothriller | 5 | 2022 | 466 | Fiction |
| And Then There Were None | Agatha Christie | Â | Mystery | 5 | 2022 | 300 | Fiction |
| Klara and the Sun | Kazuo Ishiguro | Â | SciFi | 5 | 2022 | 320 | Fiction |
| Project Hail Mary | Andy Weir | Â | SciFi | 5 | 2022 | 496 | Fiction |
| We Have Always Lived in the Castle | Shirley Jackson | Â | Gothic/Mystery | 5 | 2022 | 146 | Fiction |
| Academ’s Fury | Jim Butcher | Codex Alera | Fantasy | 4 | 2022 | 722 | Fiction |
| Captain’s Fury | Jim Butcher | Codex Alera | Fantasy | 4 | 2022 | 476 | Fiction |
| Cursor’s Fury | Jim Butcher | Codex Alera | Fantasy | 4 | 2022 | 705 | Fiction |
| First Lord’s Fury | Jim Butcher | Codex Alera | Fantasy | 4 | 2022 | 705 | Fiction |
| Princeps’ Fury | Jim Butcher | Codex Alera | Fantasy | 4 | 2022 | 412 | Fiction |
| The Lost World | Michael Crichton | Jusrassic Park | Technothriller | 4 | 2022 | 448 | Fiction |
| All the Pretty Horses | Cormac McCarthy | The Border Trilogy | Western | 4 | 2022 | 301 | Fiction |
| Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal | Mary Roach | Â | Science | 4 | 2022 | 354 | Non-Fiction |
| Sphere | Michael Crichton | Â | Technothriller | 4 | 2022 | 528 | Fiction |
| The Stranger | Albert Camus | Â | Classic | 4 | 2022 | 113 | Fiction |
| Final Spin | Jocko Willink | Â | Thriller | 3 | 2022 | 208 | Fiction |
| Good Omens | Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman | Â | Humor/Fantasy | 3 | 2022 | 288 | Fiction |
| Nightfall and Other Stories | Isaac Asimov | Â | SciFi | 3 | 2022 | 416 | Fiction |
| The Troop | Nick Cutter | Â | Horror | 3 | 2022 | 384 | Fiction |
| Steelheart | Brandon Sanderson | The Reckoners | Superhero | 2 | 2022 | 432 | Fiction |
| Broken Heart of Arelium | Alex Robins | War of the Twelve | Fantasy | 2 | 2022 | 306 | Fiction |
| Eaters of the Dead | Michael Crichton | Â | Historical Fiction | 2 | 2022 | 208 | Fiction |
| 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea | Jules Verne | Â | Classic | 1 | 2022 | 256 | Fiction |
| The Listeners | James Gunn | Â | SciFi | 1 | 2022 | 277 | Fiction |
And Then There Were None
A classic murder mystery novel - the book inspiration for things like "Clue" and "Knives Out" so if you enjoy that sort of thing you can't go wrong with this. I also finished it extremely quickly because like most things mystery once you get pulled in you just want to know how it ends.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
I absolutely hated this. I almost put it under DNF, I probably skimmed over 1/3rd of the pages as it was so take that as you will. This is considered a "Classic" so I thought it would be good, and the underlying bones of the story are good. Unfortunately, the story is buried under a ton of unnecessary detail that bores you until the point that you literally have to stop reading or else risk falling asleep on the spot. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone to be completely honest. The book feels like a chore to get through which is a shame. If this book were updated to modern standards of story telling (without unnecessary made up lists and figures of statistics and scientific classifications) it might actually be good. However, we have to take it as face-value for the 100+ year old novel it is, and that novel did not age well.
The Broken Heart of Arelium (War of the Twelve)
A fairly generic fantasy book. There are some goblin like creatures, there's sort of a games of thrones style political system in place between different "families" of power, there's some legends about 12 people who vanquished a great evil long ago that has sudden risen again. The character development is weak, the world building is fine but presented in a very one-dimensional straight-to-the-point sort of way that doesn't leave much to the imagination. The book has plenty of fantasy combat though, like a helms deep scene but less interesting. All in all it's not a bad book, but it also didn't blow me away. Uncertain if I'll bother reading the sequels.
Sphere
Sort of like an interesting modern scifi approach to 20,000 leagues under the sea? Alien space crafts, psychological horrors, and deep sea diving - all very exciting! Sort of a classic Crichton ending but certainly a fun read.
The Troop
Ew. This was a gross book, like 80% of it is over-the-top gross. It reads like a cheesy horror movie, which I think is the point. I read it in about 5 days, so it's easy to get into the action. It's a bit predictable, the characters act "dumb" like any horror movie protagonist, although in this case you can somewhat give the characters a break since they are supposed to be 14 years old. I'm not sure they communicate/act like "real" 14 year old boys but it is what it is. The "villain" is interesting and terrifying. In general, a rough book to read while eating, especially a plate of spaghetti.
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
This is a weird one. It's a funny story, but it would have been more amusing if I was British. And also 20 years old in 1990. I liked the religious satire, I enjoyed the concept of angles not always doing good and demons not always doing bad. I thought the build up was great, and the ending was a bit of a letdown? There's a lot of characters to keep track of, many of whom don't seem to have much impact on the overall story or the climax of the plot.
Final Spin
Not what I was expecting from Jocko? It's essentially a story about something making a huge mistake, but making that mistake with totally good intentions. I thought "Final Spin" was going to reference a Helicopter and/or deal with the Military in some way because...Jocko? But it turns out, it's about Washing Machines and Dead-End Jobs. I also read it in like 2 hours - it's 224 pages but it has extremely unique character spacing/font so it's really more like 100 pages.
All The Pretty Horses
It was okay? Not my all time favorite book, and certainly my least favorite McArthy to date. I will not be rushing out to read the next two novels in the trilogy. At the end of the day this was an interesting coming of age story with the "end of true western" coming to a close with Cars and Radio and Oil already on the map...A fascinating love story dealing with class and nationality, as well as corruption of folks in power.
Nightfall and Other Stories
Some great short stories in here, some less great ones. A father of SciFi. You could pick this up and just read the "good" ones and still get enjoyment out of it.
Good Ones: Nightfall, It's Such a beautiful day, C-Chute, Green Patches, In a Good Cause, Hostess, The Machine that won the war, What is this thing called love?
Less Good: Flies, The Up To Date Sorcerer, Unto the Fourth Generation, My Son, the Physicist
Klara and the Sun
This was an interesting one. I think it plays around with a lot of ideas: hope, artificial intelligences, consciousness, ethics/morals, and in a very basic way the value of sunshine and fresh air.
The book has a very interesting narrator and gives you an unusual perspective on the events that unfold in the book. The book deals with spirituality, ensoulment (having a soul), ship of Theseus, cliques/social structures/caste, and AI ethics as well. One of my favorite aspects of the book is how things are mentioned in passing but never elaborated upon. That might sound frustrating at first, but the fact that the story is told from the perspective of an AI with a very limited view on reality makes this okay. The fact that we are never directly told a bunch of seemingly important details about the world we are in also helps pull you into a world that seems to have depth in all sorts of areas that are simply left up to the readers imagination.
We Have Always Lived In The Castle
I didn't expect much coming into this story but I ended up really enjoying it. Don't read this an expect not to find spoilers.
I found the theme of bullying someone who is different, or "other" to be very interesting in this novel. The blackwoods, especially Merricat are certainly "different" both in personality, and in economic status from the rest of their village. As a result, they are relentlessly bullied and eventually attacked. The theme of morality for the treatment of those who are different, either good or bad, hits home when at the end of the book all the same villagers pay their apologies with food delivered to their doorstep - a sign of regret and a lame attempt at an apology/seeking atonement.
I found the dichotomy between merricat as a protector and Constance as an extremely shy and socially-terrified individual interesting - it's even shown on the cover as merricat stands behind a visibly afraid Constance.
I suspect based on some of merricats devotion to touch, unwillingness to clean herself, inability to cook for herself, made-up rules that she applies to herself, routines and rituals, propensity to self-isolate in the woods, or lash out with destructive behavior, when confronted with a new situation, and general paranoia that she may be a character who has a form of autism. It's not often I find a character with traits like that in a novel, and found it fascinating to read.
For a long time I was perplexed as to why merricat poisoned her whole family - except constance who she clearly has a deep love for. I think there's an indirect theme here of both sexuality and abuse? It is mentioned several times that constance is a beautiful girl, and that the girls father was a "wicked" man, and while not explictly called out, I suspect the motivation merricat had for killing her family was to protect constance from further abuse from her father, any any of the family members that enabled that abuse without stopping it. This theme of a man taking advantage of the girls is once again replayed as Charles enters the story and, without any true care for anyone in the household, pursues their family wealth for himself - ultimately abandoning them during a crisis and worrying about money instead of Uncle Julian as he dies in the fire.
The ending was a charming way to tell the story of how a small-town urban legend about a pair of "witches" in a terrifying and obviously haunted looking house might form...and they were happy on their moon - laughing at those afraid of them who keep them at bay with donations of food.
Eaters of the Dead
Not a bad book, but certainly not my favorite from Crichton. A retelling of Beowulf with a very Viking twist. The book is historical fiction, in that it's written as if it were a real manuscript/first person source of history from the main character. I found the beginning a bit dry, the middle was the most exciting and the ending was a soft landing but lost some of it's steam.
I enjoyed the sections where the mystery of the "monsters" was up to your imagination as a reader, and that diminishes the more you read.
Steelheart
The setting and plot is generally pretty good. Maybe a 7/10? However, much of the dialog is like a 2/10, and sort of made me cringe at times. Also, the character is sort of a male mary sue. He's just some random kid who happens to be really good at everything he does, with his character quirk being bad at making metaphors ? Super strange...but It wasn't the worst thing I've ever read.
Jurassic Park: The Lost World
An excellent novel, not as good as the first Jurassic Park book, but nonetheless a great follow-up. I tried to watch the 2nd Jurassic park movie after the novel, and turn it off 20 minutes in. How did hollywood butcher a movie based on a good book so badly?
Interesting commentary from Malcolm, the only returning character from J1. More T-Rex and Raptor fun!
Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal
A fun non-fiction biology read about the gut. The book discusses your jaw, your spit, your stomach acid, your shit, and your colon. From fun facts, to gross facts, to interesting historical tid-bits it's an easy read and keeps your attention easily. Author also blends science and humor very well.
The Stranger
Apathy, Atheism, Depression, Loneliness, Mistakes, Death, Crime & Punishment.
Autism...Psychopathy? Existential Nihilism? Not sure, but this isn't really a fun read. Thought provoking to be sure. I read it in a single afternoon.
The Listeners
I had this on my "to read" SciFi list for a while, and finally got around to it. It's a good book, albeit slightly more "boring" than I was anticipating. The book is somewhat ruined (in my opinion) by an extreme excess of quotes. Since the book was published in 1972 all the quotes range a bit, but none of them really "fit" into the novel since it mostly takes place in 2025...so having quotes dated from the 1960's being dropped into the story in 2025 is...unusual? It was really taking me out of the novel so I literally started skipping the quote "blocks" in the story.
Seriously, they should publish a copy of this that doesn't have any of those weird quote sections in it. Maybe one or two quotes at the beginning of a chapter, but there's dozens of pages of JUST quotes. Very strange.
The book itself is thought provoking, and despite spanning ~100 years in the story itself, the author did fairly well to avoid specifics that wouldn't age well (Eg. the computer "Room") which we all know would be a cellphone well before 2025. Anyway, despite that, It's a decent read and not terribly long so worth your time if you're interested in first contact style stories. (Just don't expect it to be about Aliens - it's 99% about humans).
Jurassic Park: A Novel
Better than the movie(s) by a mile. It seems all three movies borrowed elements from the first book which was interseting to see.
A fun read, written well as it is afterall Crichton. Some very intriguing concepts relating to science, progress, and man's manipulation of nature. In that sense, it almost has a Frankenstein vibe to it as an undertone of "man messing with things they don't think about fully."
Codex Alera
I started this series in January and ended up reading all six of the novels into the summer.
Codex Alera consists of six novels:
- Furies of Calderon
- Academ's Fury
- Cursor's Fury
- Captain's Fury
- Princeps' Fury
- First Lord's Fury
The story certainly keeps interesting but it's also still somewhat generic and predictable but the more you get into the series the more involved with all the characters and plot lines you go. This is certainly not a S tier fantasy, but it's pretty darn good. Good enough that I read all six of them!