Books
« Previous EntriesJames Patterson Redeems Himself With ‘7th Heaven’
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008As big a fan of James Patterson as I am, I’ve been quite disappointed with some of his latest efforts. The past few installments of the Alex Cross series have failed to impress me. The Maximum Ride series has gotten progressively worse. But, thankfully, the Women’s Murder Club series has managed to stay strong. I finished ‘7th Heaven‘ earlier today and I have to say I was pleased. While the Alex Cross series has been fading away, the Women’s Murder Club series has remained consistent. While some twists were anticipated, the story overall kept its suspense. I hope Patterson can keep it up.
Maximum Ride: The Final Warning
Saturday, April 19th, 2008James Patterson’s Maximum Ride series certainly had promise. I enjoyed the first installment, The Angel Experiment. Unfortunately, each installment got progressively worse… The latest of the series, The Final Warning, is by far the most disappointing.
The novels have followed the story of 14-year-old Maximum Ride, a human-bird hybrid girl and four others just like her, who are on the run after escaping from “The School” where they were created. It was established in the first novel that Max had been created for a purpose: to save the world. A cryptic voice in her head has guided her and her flock along the way as they fight for their lives in their quest to fulfill that mission. Until The Final Warning, what that mission was exactly, they did not know. Quite frankly, I don’t think James Patterson knew until he started writing The Final Warning, because the mission seems entirely anti-climactic. The series has had human-wolf hybrids and robots out to kill Max and flock, and hints of a decades-long global conspiracy involving genetic research with recombinant life forms. Sounds exciting and thrilling doesn’t it So what is Maximum Ride’s mission really about?
Global warming.
That’s right. The Final Warning takes Max and her flock to Antarctica to study penguins, and ultimately to Capitol Hill, where Max gives a speech to Congress, urging them to heed the alleged warning signs and to do something to slow down global warming.
Instead of tying up all the loose ends from the previous books of the series, Patterson seems to have gone on a tangent by making global warming the focus of the latest novel of the series. Patterson may think he’s doing a service by using his popular series to “educate” kids about global warming — but ultimately the story has suffered.
The Maximum Ride series seems to be suffering from premature burnout. Patterson’s Alex Cross series started off very strong but started really going downhill with The Big Bad Wolf. After ready the most recent of the Alex Cross series, Double Cross, I felt that Patterson had taken the Alex Cross character as far as he could. Well, with Maximum Ride, he’s taken the series in the wrong direction and should stop. Unfortunately, despite the implication of the title, the ending implied there’s more coming.
And yes, I’m sure I’ll read it, but I can’t say I have high expectations for it.
Then We Came To The End
Wednesday, March 5th, 2008Today I finished reading ‘Then We Came To The End‘ the debut novel from Joshua Ferris. It is the story of the employees at a Chicago ad agency in the late 1990’s when the economic bubble burst. Ferris ’s diverse cast of characters bring a realistic humor to the everyday mundanity of the office setting.
The most interesting aspect of the story is that it is told in the first person plural… an extremely effective way of making the omnipresent narrator feel as one of the characters in the book.
At times it is hard to follow all the stories (comedic and tragic) and idiosyncrasies of all the individual characters, but they all are important parts of the novel, as they demonstrate that people are more than what they are when they are on the job.
‘Then We Came To The End‘ is a clever novel anyone who has worked in an office can relate to, and anyone hasn’t should read anyway.
‘Double Cross’ Reviewed
Saturday, January 19th, 2008As a longtime fan of James Patterson’s Alex Cross series, I always look forward to the next book of the series, despite the fact that the last few have been somewhat disappointing. I was hoping for James Patterson to redeem himself in Double Cross after a rather unsatisfying previous attempt in Cross. Unfortunately, Double Cross lacked in thrills and suspense, and was horribly predictable.
Perhaps Patterson has taken the Alex Cross character as far as he can realistically take him with. If it truly is better to burn out than to fade away, then Alex Cross needs to go into retirement… soon. In the more recent additions to the series, I found myself more interested in the parts of the stories that revolved around his personal life, particularly the strains on Cross’s family with his work and lifestyle, and a custody battle with his ex-girlfriend over their toddler son. There was a noticeable absence in Double Cross his family, and it’s not as if the parts about the DC Audience Killer or Kyle Craig were so engrossing that we couldn’t be taken away from them for a few more brief moments. Cross’s family life gave a lot more depth to his character, and was complementary to the bigger story. In Double Cross, it felt more artificial and supplementary.
But the worst thing about it was the predictability. I had the killers’ identities figured out much sooner than I should have. And some aspects of the end with Kyle Craig I had faint ideas of how they would turn out as well.
The story had potential in the beginning, but it just didn’t hold up to the end. If you’re a fan of the series, you have to read it just like I had to… but it just doesn’t measure up to his earlier efforts, such as Kiss The Girls or Cat & Mouse, two of my favorites in the series
I Am Legend: The Story vs. The Film
Friday, January 18th, 2008Yesterday, I finished reading Richard Matheson’s original story, I Am Legend. I saw the movie last month, and liked it a lot. It didn’t take me long to buy the book it was based on — I was very much interested in comparing the two.
I bought the book at the airport last month and since read it in small portions during my commute home from work. In short, Richard Matheson’s original story and the latest film adaptation of it are very different in ways that just work to each version’s benefit.
In reading the book, I found that it was easier to feel the main character’s isolation than in the movie. The movie, for starters, was a lot shorter, and the main action took place over a shorter period of time. His isolation in the movie is softened by his companionship with his dog… Though his talking to mannequins was effective in demonstrating his desperation for contact. In the book, he does not have a dog (though one turns up late in the story) and rather than talking to mannequins, Neville resorts to heavy drinking.
The book goes into a lot detail about Robert Neville’s search for a cure to the plague, and you get a sense for his enormous amount of free time and his dedication as he struggles to not only deal with his virtual solitude, but with the horrors of the plague that took his family away, and ultimately let him to not only bury his wife, but kill her violently again when she returned from death.
In the book, he is not military doctor (as he is in the film) so his quest for a cure involves starting from the basics of medicine. As he builds up his knowledge from reading books on medicine and biology his understanding of the plague (and how to possibly cure it) increases.
In the book, the humans who weren’t killed by the plague (with the exception of Neville) became vampire-like zombies, who displayed similar weaknesses as vampires from popular legends (aversions to sunlight, crosses, and garlic) which may have been appropriate when the story was first published, but seemed a bit dated and uninspired to me. The genesis of the zombies in the movie (a mutated cure for cancer) was more appropriate for the present, and the vampire elements (except for the aversion to light) were not used.
Another thing that separates the movie from the book is that the movie had to have action that would bee effective for the medium given the opportunities that exist with special effects.
It’s hard to say too much about the differences and similarities between the book and the movie without giving away too much. In the end, I can say that I enjoyed them both, but I can’t say which I liked better. I liked the action and visuals of the movie, and the detail of the book. They both have their own strengths and weaknesses. Each were done at a particular time where certain themes or styles were appropriate.
Unlike my previous book/film comparison, there is no clear winner here. If you’re going to see the movie, read the book first. Both are worth enjoying.
Books Bought
Saturday, January 12th, 2008You’ll notice I’ve added a new section to the right sidebar called “Book Bought” — which, obviously shows books that I’ve recently purchased. I decided to add this section because I don’t usually read book in the order I purchase them, and I really want to show what books are coming into my personal library. Books under “Books Bought” are different from books under “Future Reads” because ideally “Future Reads” includes only books that I plan to read in the near future. True enough, Joshua Ferris’s Then We Came to The End has been listed under “Future Reads” for several months, and I have yet to crack it open, though my plan is to remedy this after I finished I Am Legend.
As for the books I’ve just purchased, let me give you a run down:
As any reader of my blog knows, I’m a fan of Nick Hornby. Despite this, I haven’t read The Polysyllabic Spree or Housekeeping vs. The Dirt, both a compilation of selections from his “Stuff I’ve Been Reading” column for The Believer literary magazine.
I said in my previous blog entry that I was working on getting James Patterson’s Double Cross on audiobook, and I’ve finally done that. That will likely be read soon after I get it in the mail.
The last book I got was The Better of McSweeney’s, Volume 1 , which is a collection of “the best stories from the first ten issues of McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern.” McSweeney’s publishes Believer and also put out the aforementioned Nick Hornby books of his columns from Believer.
Reading Update
Monday, January 7th, 2008There’s a been a few changes to my “Currently Reading” list.
First, I’ve put Love in The Time of Cholera on hold for now. The book has been a struggle for me to get through. Perhaps it’s the story… or the fact it’s a translation… I’m not sure. But, I’ve put it on hold in order to read two other books.
The first book I started reading after putting Cholera on hold was I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. I was interested in reading the book after seeing the movie last month. So far, I can say that the book is very different… But I cannot say which one is superior. I will give a full report when I finish the book.
The other book I started was The Book of Other People, a compilation short stories edited by Zadie Smith. I admit one of the main reasons for my getting the book was that Nick Hornby made a contribution to the book, however, I do find the book’s premise intriguing (the contributors were instructed simply to create a character) and expect to enjoy the colleciton in its entirety.
So, that’s what I’m reading at the moment. Perhaps I’ll end up reading more by Richard Matheson, or start reading Zadie Smith.
Recent & Future Patterson Reads
Sunday, January 6th, 2008Since my previous James Patterson update I’ve read a few more of his books, and a few more are coming out soon…
Recently Read:
5th Horseman and 6th Target
The last two books in James Patterson the Women’s Murder Club series.
Judge & Jury
A very good thriller about a mafia trial. Patterson’s love scenes are a bit smarmy, but story was great.
To Be Read in 2008:
Double Cross
The latest in the Alex Cross series… Still haven’t gotten a copy yet. Attempting to get the audiobook now.
7th Heaven
The latest in the Women’s Murder Club series… To be released February 4, 2008.
Maximum Ride: The Final Warning
The latest in the Maximum Ride series… To be released March 18, 2008.
Sail
New story, not part of a series… I’ll probably get the audiobook. This one will be released June 10, 2008.
The Dangerous Days of Daniel X
This one sounds very different from his previous work… More along the lines of a sci-fi thriller. This one will be released July 22, 2008.
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