Two books skipped, and The Sparrow
April 1, 2003 (12:59 AM) ( link )

In a fairly unprecedented move, I'm just going to stop reading two books that I'd been pursuing intermittently for the past few weeks: Stephen King and Peter Straub's The Talisman, and Kan Macleod's Star Fraction. I decided to stop reading The Talisman after I was more than a quarter of the way through and suddenly realized that I had read a book-sized chunk of the novel already--and I still wasn't interested in the plot nor the characters. Macleod's book elicited the same reaction, though it happened after only two chapters: I really couldn't tolerate his writing style, nor did I find the promise (read, "threat") of a "libertarian" conclusion to be particularly compelling. What's funny is that I am a big fan of almost all of the authors who lavish praise on Macleod on the back cover; indeed, that praise--in addition to Macleod's Hugo nomination for Cosmonaut Keep--is what got me started on Star Fraction. Alas, it sucked.

I am happy to report, though, that on a friend's recommendation I've started another book that has begun consuming ever more of my time: Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow. The book jacket effuses that it is "as literate as The Name of the Rose, as farsighted as The Handmaid's Tale and as readable as The Thorn Birds." I don't know if it's quite as good as The Name of the Rose (the only novel of the three listed that I've read), but it is really, really good so far--and if the much foreshadowed tragedy is as awful as it seems to be, I will no doubt be shattered.

Classwork and other concerns have been truly debilitating these last few weeks. But although the rest of my life may be stressed, at least reading will always be a refuge.