Posts Tagged ‘fiction’

The Castle is a novel by Franz Kafka. It tells of a surveyor known as K. who arrives in a village and finds he was summoned by accident. He finds it impossible to navigate the bureaucracy of the castle’s systems, trying in vein to reach the castle authorities.

I was intrieged to see how Kafka could fill 200,000 words on this, but he does and he does it very well. Unfortunately, the novel was unfinished at the time of Kafka’s death. Usually, I would expect either the editor to add a note at the end or someone else to finish it off. This one just ends mid-sentence without any conclusion.

The Constant Rabbit is a novel by Jasper Fforde. It tells of an alternative reality in which “the event” has transformed rabbits, and a few other animals, into anthropomorphised versions of themselves. It explores the political implications of having what are seen as an under-class of a million rabbits, paralleling fears about immigration, and played out through the love story of the protagonist and the rabbit who moves in next door. Well worth a read.

Bartleby, the Scrivener is a short story by Herman Melville. It tells the story of a lawyer who hires a new member of staff, Bartleby. At first Bartleby works hard but gradually refuses to do any work or even leave the office, answering each request with “I would prefer not do”.

It’s well worth a read. For me, the exploration of the psychological processes the lawyer goes through in responding to such a situation are both relatable and fascinating.

Ruins is the second novel in Orson Scott Card’s Pathfinder series. I went straight from the first book to this one and it is probably even better.

Card gives an introduction in which he says trilogies are often rubbish because the middle book/film is just filler. I think he is spot on: most trilogies would do better as two books. This one is more like an Asimov book. Stuff happens. Interesting stuff. And we get even more into the science fiction that was promised in book one.

Pathfinder is the first novel in Orson Scott Card’s series by the same name.

I loved the Ender’s Game books so I thought I would give this a try. I wasn’t sure at first as I was looking for science fiction and this started out more as a fantasy book. And it is, although it got more science fiction-y as time went on.

I’m glad I stuck with it. It turned out to be a great fusion of fantasy and science fiction involving time trial but with some good twists on the way time travel is usually presented. Rather than getting caught up in ensuring causality loops, Card just tells a great story.

A month ago I read Ender’s Game and it was superb. It sounded too violent for me but it’s actually a brilliant story. Ender’s Shadow is another book by Orson Scott Card that tells the same story from Bean’s point-of-view. It’s equally excellent.

Ender’s Game is a science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card. I was looking around for more science fiction (I love Asimov and really enjoyed Blade Runner recently) but I wasn’t sure about this one. Sounded all about war and fighting. But it was recommended by so many sources that I thought I would give it a go.

It was excellent. I really enjoyed it. There was quite a lot of fighting in it. But it didn’t get in the way of a good story. Ender is a very likeable character, in my opinion, faced with difficult moral choices. It is easy to forget that he is a child, which itself adds another layer of complexity to the rights and wrongs of the situation.

The Suspect is a murder mystery novel by Rob Rinder and the second in the Adam Green series. It’s a fun read and I enjoyed it.

Mostly Harmless is the fifth and final novel written by Douglas Adams in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy triology.

The first couple of books wrapped everything up in a beautiful circle. Since then, it has taken various plot devices to keep the story going and explain how the Earth is back again. Mostly Harmless gets back to good old-fashioned science fiction which still maintaining the dry humour of the series.

Also, I’m sold on being the sandwich maker on Lamuella. Sounds lik a good life. That said, it was more difficult to follow what was going on than previous books. But definitely worth a read if you like Douglas Adams.

So Long and Thanks for All the Fish is the fourth novel in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams. It follows on from Life, the Universe, and Everything and forms the fourth part of the trilogy in five parts.

It is very different from the previous novels. Which are science fiction. This is a romance story. With a few aliens thrown in but only at the end. Still an enjoyable read and a good addition to the series. And the rain good is good, too.