Richard

I was amazed at how dreadful this book was after looking at its 3.7 rating. Though it started promisingly with "Jeffty is Five," the selected stories were, for the most part, overly long and exceedingly uninteresting. (Caution: do not listen to this book while driving!) I found one of them about a precocious newborn particulary pointless and offputting. I can only imagine that readers giving good reviews to this tripe haven't been exposed to really good sci-fi yet. I was all the more disappointed because I was anticipating a good "read." Rats.

I've somehow gravitated to fantasy lately (e.g., the Mongoliad), but this one takes the cake. It does for swarthy, sword-wielding heroes what the Kovacs trilogy did for regular sci-fi. I was a bit reluctant because the hero, Gil, is very different--spoiler alert, he's gay--than every other main character in this field; still, my respect for Morgan's works forced me to push my prejudices down and give it a listen. Halfway through and so far nothing has managed to throw me off, and there's nothing as graphic as Six Feet Under managed to put on the airwaves. One of the attractions of RM's other works has been his vivid (some might say lurid) narratives of Takeshi's erotic exploits; fortunately, we don't get the same level of detail with Gil (so far). Ah, well, something for everyone. And admittedly, there is no shortage of heterosexual passages in here....

The method of unraveling the plot is much the same as in his other novels--it's a Gordian Knot. Much has to be, if not taken on faith, at least deferred until later in the story as salient facts get sprinkled around to explain just what the hell is going on. This is one of the things that makes Morgan so damnably good--he doesn't coddle the reader with a linear exposition of who and what something is, or how they are related...the reader must come to put it together as the story progresses. And the descriptions of scenes and things are as poetic and vibrant as any Morgan fan has come to expect. So, in short, this is highly recommended. If you are gay, you might enjoy parts of it more, if not...it's a small price to pay.

I don't know who told Christopher Moore that his books were too linear, too predictable, but whoever did, stop it. I am a huge CM fan, and love all his books, especially the interlocking characters, but this one was tough to love. I don't recall giving less than 5 stars for any CM book review, but I had to drop this one beause my mind is still spinning from trying to keep up with the plot. Maybe it's more like literature this way, but it was hard to follow. It ends up being an excellent story, and maybe there was no other way to tell it, but the back and forth and minimal exposition of what was happening was frustrating. I can still recommend it as a good book, but it was my least favorite Moore opus.

I've listened to almost all of CM's other works, but for some reason avoided this one. The description just didn't grab me...don't know why. Maybe it was a fear of the author's "initial effort" and concern that he had just recently honed his craft to the fine edge that it is. Not to worry. I loved this one as much as some of the other lighter works. It can't stand up to Fool or Lamb, or probably not even Fluke (IMHO), but it had heft. It was funny, charming, witty, a little wacky; in short, all the good stuff that Moore has shown he is capable of in his later works. The age of the book makes a few isolated references dated, but you can hardly notice. A strong recommend, even if you choose it as your first one. Good character crossover, BTW, between many of the books, starting with this one.

I hate to give an OSC work less than 5 stars, but I couldn't muster it for this one. The work is top flight, as usual, but it's only 1/2 a book. Mr Card admitted it was designed differently for economic purposes, and I suppose I knew it would be less than when I bought it, but once involved, it was different. There were so many questions left hanging, hints to future storylines laid out like a tease...it was frustrating. I am happy to have the story continue (and where, BTW, are the stories of Ender's journeys as SFOD?), but it ended too soon. [Sad face emoticon.]

As a steadfast Christopher Moore fan, I had been running out of material to read that appealed to me. Fool, Lamb, the Vampire episodes, all were outstanding; a story about a whale researcher? Really? But I was "between" other stuff, so I gave it a shot. What a hoot it is! Well written, parts that are laugh-out-loud funny, and much dry wit regarding the human (and cetacean) condition. A very pleasant surprise. I loved it, and if you like Moore, you will too.

(Loved the Kona character--Yah man, as Ja say, whales be our brudders, ya know. Great stuff.)

Calling a book a "classic" can be hyperbole, or just a way to say, it was a nice but boring "old" book. In some cases, however, like this one, that title truly means that the message, characters, and story remain vibrant and relevant through the generations. True, the nuclear terror that consumed us in the 50's did not come to pass, and many modern readers have no frame of reference for those times; yet, I found myself thinking about other times in Florida when similar conditions existed for much shorter periods, such as during and after the destruction left by hurricanes, and how people did react in some of the ways described in this book. The survival instinct is strong in us, but so, too, is the drive to help our fellow man. It is a story about the universal human condition, and thus still quite relevant.

For those not familar with the plot, the setting is a small Florida town immediately before and largely after a nuclear war between the U. S. and Russia, during which most major Florida cities (all big cities, in fact) and the accustomed infrastructure ceased to exist. It chronicles the struggles of the survivors of the initial attacks and how each comes to deal with the new life of survival in his or her own way. There are some references that worked better when the book was first written, but it is by no means dated.

My reasons for buying this book were varied. I had read it as a teenager, and was not overwhelmed, but mostly because Pat Frank was not a big deal to me then. My father was a good friend of Pat's and was even mentioned in some of his other works. The familiarity thing, I suppose. It took another "reading," when I was old enough to understand some of the situations of the characters, for me to appreciate Pat's style and skill in writing this. It isn't Shakespeare, of course, but it is worthwhile and, I think, worth your time. I recommend it.

The narration was a bit off-putting at first because the narrator sounded like someone I should have recognized and I was trying to figure out who it was. And the southern accent, though appropriate for the locale and the time, took some getting used to. Less than 1/3 of the way through the book, however, I had settled in, and now can't imagine it being read any other way as effectively.

...the point, that is. This book talked a lot about the nuances of a disappearing elephant--that was it. The selection was pleasant enough, as good or better than several of the free books or intros I have downloaded, but....I just didn't get it. Maybe the focus was to emphasize that we need to look at life differently sometimes, or maybe that life is a mystery that often can't be solved and should just be accepted. I don't know. Guess I didn't try hard enough. Still, my preference in books is to be entertained, enlightened, uplifted, etc., not merely puzzled. If this is, as described, postmodern fiction, please leave me in the past.

This author was recommended in a magazine article, which doesn't often carry much weight given the unknown differences between the writer and the reader of the article. But I needed a book for my Next Listen so I gave it a shot. Am so glad I did. If you are not a sci-fi fan, you can stop reading now, as this is a heavily weighted sci-fi version of a noir detective novel. Unlike many sci-fi authors who take pains to give background on the "new" world in which the story takes place, Morgan seems to take pleasure in teasing the reader with a flurry of words, concepts, historical events, and images that are unexplained and (often) confusing. As the story unfolds, however, bits and pieces are dropped so that the puzzle comes together slowly in the reader's consciousness. Maddening, and yet wonderful at the same time. The story rockets along with breathtaking action, steamy sex scenes, and gut wrenching violence, all described tastefully (yeah, I know--that seems unlikely, but it's true) under the circumstances. In the middle of this swift-flowing plot, Morgan casually drops a concept, or an image, or a reference to a historical event that the reader must store away for when it is explained later. Sometimes it isn't so much explanation as understanding by inference. This book was the most challenging in that regard since Anthony Burgess' Clockwork Orange (I didn't find the glossory in the back until I finished). It takes a bit of surrender to not let the unfamiliar stuff knock you out of the story flow. I have now downloaded 2 more of Morgan's works and look forward with a mixture of excitement and sadness to the end of Altered Carbon--sorry for it to be over, and excited to move on to another of Morgan's novels. Like Orson Scott Card's stuff, this is excellent writing that just happens to be science fiction. It may not have the extensive character development of a Card story, but it is hell on wheels in the action department. BTW, the narration is top flight as well, and provides an excellent immersion int he noir environment.

One of the few books in my Audible history that I haven't finished. Got it because of the title....very catchy. Unfortunately, it's just a pschological treatise on a narrow subject that every once in a while throws in a reference (sometimes abstract) to Alice's Red Queen. Probably would have been better to buy it based on its merits (as to which I have no opinion) but it was a disappointment based on expectations the title produced. Essentially a one trick pony.

It seems to be the trend--a popular (talented) author "collaborates" with an unknown (or, to be kind, lesser known) writer who writes in the same style. It can be guessed that the underbill author does most of the heavy lifting, the star edits it over a few weekends and adds his (or her) cachet (and name) to the project, and oops there goes another best seller, ker-plunk. And the essence of what made the best selling author with it. This version of that scenario is pleasant enough, but I fear Neal fell down in the editing department. Sure, there are occasional flashes of word play and graphic descriptions that his novels are full of (and so fun because of), but there is also so much filler I thought I was listening to a Tracy Chapman anthology (reference to Saturday Night Live satire on songwriter's propensity to versify mundane things). I never had the urge to revise Neal's work as it was being read until this book. There is so much overnarration of every detail it drove me crazy. The descriptive detail of Kevin going to the bathroom (or of anyone doing just about anything) was maddening and utterly unnecessary to moving the novel along. It works in print books because the more words you put on a page the less you actually have to write to fill up 300 pages and maybe the reader doesn't notice; but being accustomed to hundreds of pages of Neal's dynamic prose (or at least not prosaic tedium) I found this one very disappointing. The story itself takes a while to toss out the threads that get woven together, and is entertaining enough as a spy thriller once it gets rolling, but I think I will pass on other collaborations of this sort for a while.