Mike Crawford > Recent Status Updates

This is the first book Goodreads suggests in its “readers also enjoyed” section on the page for Richard Ellmann’s biography of James Joyce??

I didn’t find reviews where both the Fraser and Weir books (same title, published a year apart) were compared (Goodreads scores Weir slightly better, but ChatGPT says Fraser’s style is more like Barbara Tuchman). Who to believe? Curious, I’m doing a simultaneous comparison. After 130 Fraser pages and 30 Weir, there’s an easy three star difference already; Fraser’s way ahead.

Sadly they’re just getting worse. I feel like this was written by a high school freshman who didn’t proofread and can’t write believable characters, plot, dialogue, or setting. The only mystery is why the Hillerman family doesn’t just get a real ghostwriter or use an AI bot instead.

Having no idea that this book 7 was a sequel to book 5 (?), I needed a plot/character refresher given middle-age degradation of my neural memory tissue. Spoilery reviews were ok but in the whole unsatisfying. A “Network Effect” e-audiobook was available at one of the 14 library systems I belong to and have cranked it all the way up to 1.5X speed (I live dangerously.) But it is a perfect refresher. And hilarious.

I wanted to read the first short story DRIVE MY CAR and, like with Station Eleven, I’m impressed to see what the scriptwriters have done with the original material. I guess “best adapted screenplay” isn’t always just a celebration of plagiarism.