Betsy > Recent Status Updates

I was overcome by the awesomeness of the cover art, the Who reference on said cover, and the prospect of a new John Scalzi in general — so I had to start immediately. When I showed the book to a family member, he found it to be so ME that he suggested that I may actually be John Scalzi. If only I had those writing skills!

“And the translator is the god.”

I have not read Paolini since Brisingr, but started this after noting the sly wink to Wodehouse in the time line at the end of the book. His writing is excellent: skillful, and compassionate.

This book is a hoot. This book is several hoots.

No.

So far, so wonderful.

Bliss.

This is a character by character, event by event retelling of the Brothers Karamazov. The strict adherence to the lot, whether it works or not, has been quite annoying at times.

This is a Russian major speaking. I have read Brothers Karamazov three times or so over the years, which is the reason I picked up this book. I can’t imagine reading this without having that connection, because character for character, event for event, this is a retelling of the same plot. At 1/3 through, I am reserving judgment and have gotten over some of my annoyance.

This visually gorgeous, and gorgeously written.

Incredible: one character likens her experience to the parallel universe episode of the original Star Trek, in which all the bad guys wear Van Dyke beards. I am also reminded of the Long Earth concept by Pratchett and Baxter. The city and the tough, fascinating characters are all her own.

“Every sin is a choice to turn a miraculous being into an object for consumption. “

Considering Bryan Stephenson’s disgust with the court in Monroeville, where clear injustices were perpetrated and protected, while Atticus Finch is celebrated, does anyone else find it weird that a quotation from John Grisham comparing Stephenson and Atticus Finch is used on the cover?

Our narrator is trapped across the dinner table from a boring professor wearing a “leather jacket not so much distressed as undergoing a complete nervous breakdown.”