Sci-Fi book # 31 Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

I didn't know much about Snow Crash going into it, but I had been looking forward to reading it ever since I bought a cheap used copy at The Last Book Store last year. The story is about Hiro, a computer hacker that also delivers pizzas for the Mafia. It starts out pretty promisingly... the virtual reality Hiro helped create may be threatened by a new virus that can harm both computers and humans and have significant real world consequences. And there are some interesting ideas throughout about how language works, how religions spread and the relationship between man and machine...but somehow it all became a bit too jumbled by the end. The links between plot points were sometimes unclear and all of the information about the Tower of Babel and Sumeria didn't seem to grow organically out of the story and ended up being just a lot of exposition to try and explain what was going on. And the ending seemed pretty abrupt too. Still parts of it were enjoyable and the world Stephenson creates has a lot of character. I'll give it a B.

Sci-Fi Book # 4 Foundation and Empire (Foundation Trilogy Book 2 of 3) by Isaac Asimov

Wow, somehow I went eight months without reading anything from my science fiction list... I'll probably read a few in a row. Also I've decided to change which science fiction book list I'll be using. The new list is at http://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-greatest-science-fiction-novels-of-all-time. The top 25 or so on each list is pretty similar, but after that this new lists tends towards more Jules Verne and Kurt Vonnegut and less Orson Scott Card. So...

Foundation and Empire picks up some time after the first Foundation book. The book is broken into two halves. In the first half the Foundation is still growing and faces the threat of an attack by the empire that is starting to feel threatened by it. The second half tells the story of a "mutant" called the Mule that threatens to disrupt Hari Seldon's long range plans for the Foundation. Since he is a mutant that doesn't interact with humans in a normal way, the Mule throws off the time line and is able to take over the Foundation while they are confused.

I enjoyed the book but the weird names Asimov gives his characters still throws me off a bit. As a stand alone book it doesn't really tell much of a story though, I'll have to see how the next book follows up on the Mule's story. I'll give it a B+.

Book # 8 One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Well this book was different from anything I've read before. One Hundred Years of Solitude is about the Buendia family and their town of Macondo. Chronologically it starts with Jose Arcadio Buendia and his wife Ursula as they leave their hometown with a few other families and found a new village. From there the book follows the family for the next six generations! And these characters have pretty interesting lives so there is a ton of plot. I'd say there is more plot in the first twenty pages than in any volume of Remembrance of Things Past. There really is enough story here for thousands of pages but it is all crammed into 450 pages.

The main theme of the story seems to be that each generation tends to make the same mistakes as the previous generation and thus prevent themselves from being happy. Each generation is pretty similar to the generations before it, they even use the same names over and over. There are five characters named Aureliano and Jose. The story also has some fantasy elements to it that no one in the story thinks is weird (one characters literally ascends to heaven and another is always followed by butterflies, and a couple live to about 150 years old).

Overall I enjoyed the book, mostly because it was different from anything else. However, I could have done with a bit less story... with so many events and characters it took some effort to remember how everyone was connected to one another. Also the ending was pretty satisfying. I'll give it an A.

Book # 52 David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

When I told Lucinda that I was thinking about reading David Copperfield next she said something about how long it would take me to get through it. I replied that I thought I could read it in a week. Lucinda doubted that... Challenge accepted! And with an hour to spare I got through to the very end.

David Copperfield tells the story of the title character from birth up until about mid-life. Basically to sum up a 1200 page book, David has a mean step-father that sends him away to boarding school, then his mom dies, then his step-father sends him to go work in his factory (as a young boy still), he runs away to his aunt that takes him, he meets a bunch of people as he goes to school and starts a career, he falls in love a few times, he meets more people and becomes involved in their lives, gets married (twice) and has children. The end.

The whole book if filled with the interesting characters that David meets. There is the slimey Uriah Heep, the poor Peggotty family, the always broke Micawber, the innocent Dora, his crazy aunt Betsey Trotwood, the untrustworthy friend Steerforth, and so on.  At one point David mentions that he read Don Quixote and Tom Jones.  I liked how the book is so funny even when David is living through horrible conditions and that he always tries to make the best of a situation. I'll have to give it an A+.

Book # 78 The Stand by Stephen King

Progress Book #30 of 100

This was a big book and the first Stephen King novel I have completed.  I already knew the story before reading because we watched the miniseries.  This is a case where the novel is way better than the film version.  The story follows the few survivors of the world after a virus is released from a military lab and most of the population die.  The few that survive dream that they need to travel and meet an old lady and have nightmares of an evil presence.  It is a battle of good vs. evil and there are a few characters that that you aren't sure which category they fit into.  Despite being a big novel, it was a straight forward read it moved along at a good pace.  I think watching the miniseries was helpful too, since it establish who was who.  If I had just read the book I think it would have taken longer to figure out each character and their role. That is the one major complaint that I have with the book. There were characters that I really liked and wanted to see what happened to them next, but the novel would move on to a different story line for a good amount of pages before it got back to who you wanted to read about.  So I guess there is a patience factor that was hard for me to deal with.

Overall it was an interesting story.  I'm not sure if I'll ready other novels by Stephen King, but am happy that one of his most popular ones is on our list and that I was able to read it.

I'll give the book a 90%, A-

Book # 70 Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

Progress Book # 29 of 100

I was really exited to read this book because I have really good memories of reading it in high school with my friends Julie and Mindi for English.  I think we read the abridged version and I remember Julie bringing over a DVD (maybe VHS) copy of a Broadway play that we watched.  For years I wanted to go see the play and then Daniel finally took me when it was in LA at the Ahmanson a few years ago.  The movie also came out right before I re-read this so the story was fresh in my mind.  That being said I don't know if I hyped it up too much, because the book seemed way longer this time around.  The story was still good, but the sections where Hugo goes into French history, or even at the beginning and the pages of the priest's family tree that go on and on and are never mentioned again started to get old around 700 pages.  I'm sure it was the difference of reading the abridged version before.  I don't think abridged is so bad, we aren't doing it for this list, but I would recommend the condensed version to anyone.

The story follows Jean Valjean and his life from leaving prison after 19 for stealing bread to becoming a successful businessman and mayor, and then hiding out in a convent and caring for his adopted daughter Cosette.  It is touching story and I would recommend the abridged version to anyone.

I'll give the book 97%, A