Daniel Roy

1 of 4 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 1 stars

“I forced myself to read 50 pages and didn't crack a smile once. It might be classic american literature, but it sure ain't my type of humor.”

Daniel Roy wrote this review Saturday, July 26 2008. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“Nowhere near as profound or mind-boggling as "Spin", this sequel is more of a quick adventure romp in the universe of its predecessor. Ultimately little is learned about the Hypotheticals, and although Wilson's prose is as good as ever, the story is quickly forgettable.”

Daniel Roy wrote this review Saturday, July 26 2008. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“It's a fine book, but it's more clever than it is interesting, I find. The characters are uninspiring, and it feels more like a Medieval alternate history novel than a real SF story for the most part of the novel. Didn't create much of a lasting impression.”

Daniel Roy wrote this review Saturday, July 26 2008. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“As books go, I found the overall tone rather naive and simplistic. But as Rob Sharma says: "When the student is ready, the teacher appears." There's a lot of good advice in this book, and if you're looking with an open mind for clear, no-nonsense advice to raise your life to the next level, this might very well be the book to do it for you.”

Daniel Roy wrote this review Tuesday, March 17 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 5 stars

“This book literally changed the way I look at food. It's true! It's simple and clear, and yet many of the subjects that Pollan approached were a shock to me. Ultimately, Pollan's advice is plain old common sense, and that's why it's so shocking in the context of modern nutrition science. Highly recommended.”

Daniel Roy wrote this review Saturday, July 26 2008. ( reply | permalink )

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 1 stars

“I'm a huge fan of Palahniuk, but this was just awful. His style now feels so cliché it's self-mocking, and the avalanche of bad porn puns just made me groan, not to mention the over-the-top gross-out ending. Big, big disappointment.”

Daniel Roy wrote this review Saturday, July 26 2008. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 5 stars

“Let me start by saying that I'm not generally a fan of Kim Stanley Robinson's work. I loved Red Mars, then stumbled through Green Mars and gave up in disgust at Blue Mars. I found they were filled with exposition and endless descriptions of landscapes, and I really didn't like the fact that the main characters stuck it out through three novels instead of allowing more interesting characters to take their place.

I felt drawn to The Years of Rice and Salt, even though the same annoyances seemed present. That being said, if like me you were burnt by Blue Mars but are intrigued by the premise of this book - do yourself a favor and pick it up. It's a work of staggering immensity, yet such a personal and touching novel that one wonders how historical scope and intimate drama could ever be weaved together so finely. The "immortality" of the main characters, while a mere plot device in the Mars trilogy, is at the core of the theme of Years of Rice and Salt : it speaks of the role of individuals in History, of how individual actions and lives weave the tapestry of History, and how the dramas of daily lives influence and are influenced by the unfolding twists and turns of Humanity. The individual lives it depicts are poignant, and play superbly against the backdrop of this alternate history where China and Islam are the two major powers of the world. More than a plot device, reincarnation is used here to paint deeply personal portraits of each period of history. Of particular interest is the role that Native Americans play in this alternate history : the way their culture grows and envelops other nations is, I felt, the true tragedy at the heart of Rice and Salt, speaking of squandered opportunities when the West conquered the New World.

The novel builds like a puzzle through 11 stages of human history, and what finally emerges is a humanist, ecologist and even feminist tale of compassion, tolerance and hope, something that transcends its alternate history roots to speak of the Heart of Mankind. If it were just for its historical scope, The Years of Rice and Salt would have been an interesting anecdote in the alternate history genre. Instead, this novel is a major achievement that transcends science-fiction, and should stand at the very top of the alternate history genre for years to come, and as Robinson's crowning achievement. ”

Daniel Roy wrote this review Saturday, July 26 2008. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“It seems to me satire is too often an easy exit. In the name of satire, the characters become paper-thin and have illogical motivations, the plot makes no sense and ad hoc storylines are included just for the sake of a laugh.

I was looking forward immensely to Jennifer Government, but the book left me disappointed and - dare I say - bored. The subject is fine and very intriguing, but once you get past the initial pleasant shock of figuring out how this future world works, there is not much left.

The characters act stupidly because they're required to do so by the plot, and individually are really not that interesting. The plot is your basic 'Diverging characters do random acts until they are brought together for a grande finale.' Plot twists include random events such as 'Greedy corporate guy tries to force himself on protagonist's girlfriend so she can accidentally kill him with a toaster and be on the run', so it is hardly cutting-edge.

All this would stand on its own if the satire of corporate America was biting and on target. Unfortunately, and surprisingly, Jennifer Government doesn't have a lot to say about this. Corporations rule the world and everybody is individualistic to the extreme, except the heroes, of course. The fact the book refuses to touch on the impact of capitalism and individualism on a more personal level makes the metaphor very thin.

Indeed, making fun of Nike, McDonald's or the NRA turns out to be as much fun as shooting fish in a barrel. ”

Daniel Roy wrote this review Saturday, July 26 2008. ( reply | permalink )

0 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 1 stars

“I tried very hard to like A Fire Upon the Deep. The reviews for it are stellar, and it did won a Hugo. Also, I am a huge fan of SF, so I felt this book would be a sure-fire hit with me. Not so.

As other reviewers pointed out, this book has some great ideas. Pack sentience is very nice, and the idea of zones is intriguing. Unfortunately, all these are wrapped in very shoddy writing. To tell the truth, the writing was barely above fan sci-fi in some places.

The characterization is also, most unfortunately, pretty bad. The Tine race is filled with potential, but the Tine characters are nothing more than stereotypes : the wanderer, the wise queen, the evil lord, the evil adviser, the betrayer. Human characters are predictable to the point of being boring, and their motivations serve the plot more than any sort of coherence. As a whole, the race is strangely 'Western european', despite their uniqueness. Also, as interesting as they were, I don't think they deserved that much of a treatment.

One major source of disappointment for me, also, was the way the Galactic net was portrayed. I'm aware the novel was written in 1993, but Vinge's depiction lacks any kind of vision whatsoever. It's silly to see the whole Galaxy chattering on newsgroups and sending each other emails. Not once did it try to be something else than the 1993's Internet surimposed on a galactic scale, and it was more a gimmick than anything else.

On a whole, the story has ambitions of grandeur, but fails at articulating it. The events are always portrayed vaguely and don't have resonance. In one scene, a character learns billions have died when her homeworld was devastated, yet this event only serves as a setup for the personal drama of the characters! Most of the story happens either among 5-6 individuals on the Tine world, or within the closed confines of the ship, and neither progress at a pace that would be satisfying.

There are some great ideas in this book, but they're buried under a nonsensical plot that fails to impress. Because of this, it has neither the scope nor the emotional impact of, say, Frank Herbert's Dune or Peter Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy.

Finishing the book was a difficult endeavour, and I will NOT pick up the prequel. Phan Newen is far from being interesting enough a character to make me pick it up. ”

Daniel Roy wrote this review Saturday, July 26 2008. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 2 stars

“Having just finished "Shards of Honor" and "Barrayar", I simply couldn't wait to pick up the first book in the Miles Vorkosigan series. Unfortunately for me, it seems Mrs. Bujold has shifted tones when going from Cordelia to her son Miles.

Where Cordelia's novels were sometimes funny, sometimes inclined to the romantic, but as a whole well-crafted and dramatic, "The Warrior's Apprentice" feels more like a running joke. It seems Mrs. Bujold has decided she would show Miles is human by making him whine, cry, puke his guts out and tremble in fear most of the time, 'in aparté' for the reader. Oh, he also lusts after Elena a lot, and shows us his noble streak by going down the 'unrequited love' path. Bleh.

What is particularly irritating about the novel is the way things just fall in place conveniently for Miles. Miles' genius is that which comes forth in second-rate novels, where it is not so much the protagonist that is intelligent, but the rest of the Universe that is downright dumb. Miles recruits people by stuttering half-baked lies; he exposes imperial schemes by confronting admirals with his sharp wit; he outwits entire armies by concocting plans full of assumptions that his enemies conveniently fall into.

I realize this novel is intended as light reading, but so were "Shards of Honor" and "Barrayar". They were light reading, filled with drama, action and humor, and a certain dose of romance. "The Warrior's Apprentice" feels like a bad imitation of all that made the Cordelia books so great, and all the characters from these two books are here only as cardboard cutouts reminding us of the clichés at the heart of the vibrant characters we grew to love previously.

I wish Miles were more like his mother. ”

Daniel Roy wrote this review Saturday, July 26 2008. ( reply | permalink )