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February 12, 2006

Books #10 and 11: The Da Vinci Code and The Risen Empire

Usually I try to read books (and see movies) knowing as little as possible about them before I plunge in. With book #10, The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, I went in with a lot of baggage -- the book has been a bijallion-seller, it's been praised and denounced seemly-endlessly. We discussed it, on a tangent, at my old bookgroup. From all that information, I wasn't anticipating that I'd like the book, but my boss had a copy laying around in his office and I told I should give it a chance. And besides, if I'm reading fifty books, I can sacrifice one or two to keeping up with the zeitgeist. So I cleared my mind and tried to give it an unbiased read.

Dear Lord I hated that book.

I think it was the unrelenting mediocrity. I mean, I've seen worse books, but they were either just incoherent, or at least bold in their terribleness. My bookgroup had said that it was, at least, a compelling read, but I think that was just the endless, forced cliffhangers at the end of every. single. chapter. Bleh. Bleck. I had a bad taste in my mouth when I finally finished.

I decided to cleanse my pallette with Scott Westerfeld's The Risen Empire. I've been enjoying Westerfeld's young adult fiction, so I thought I'd give his adult science fiction a try. I succeeded in going into the book with knowing anything about it -- I didn't even read the blurb on the back. And it was delightful -- it's a space opera about the clash of interstellar civilizations. The one problem, it turns out, is that it is, again!, a huge book chopped in two for publishing reasons. So now I have two more second-halves of stories to read.

Posted by Fuzzy at February 12, 2006 10:24 PM

Comments

I'm really glad you didn't like that book, or I'd have to look at you sideways.

Posted by: Dan Telfer [TypeKey Profile Page] at February 13, 2006 7:40 AM

What are the other "chopped in two" books? By S. W.?
I know that I could just call and ask you, but I wanted to write a comment. Oh, and Erica's shoes came today. I could call her about that, too, but again..........

Posted by: tricia at February 13, 2006 5:53 PM

The "again" refers to "The Family Trade" by Charlie Stross that I read a few weeks ago. It is the first half of an origianally bigger book (the second half is "The Hidden Family").

"The Risen Empire" by Scott Westerfeld is half of a bigger book called "Succession" (the second book is called "Killing of Worlds").

Makasense?

Posted by: Fuzzy Gerdes [TypeKey Profile Page] at February 13, 2006 6:05 PM

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