"A History of Future Cities"

A History of Future Cities (Daniel Brook)

I knew I was in trouble with this book right from page three:

Orient is both a noun and a verb - the noun means east; the verb means to place oneself in space - but its two meanings are intertwined. An individual lost in the wilderness can place herself in space (orient herself) because she knows the sun rises in the east (the Orient). The disorientation imparted by St. Petersburgh, Shanghai, Mumbai and Dubai results from their being located in the East but purposefully built to look as if they are in the West. Their occidental looks are anything but accidental.

What we have here is a misleadingly titled book comprised of four not terribly well written, hyperbolic, boring histories of "pop up" cities - the aforementioned St. Petersburgh, Shanghai, Mumbai, and Dubai (putting aside that Shanghai is over a thousand years old and Mumbai may have been continuously inhabited since the Stone Age). I'm gonna be real here: This is a book not only without a central premise, but as I hope is demonstrated from the snippet above, soaked in nonsense. The actual histories themselves are, and I know I said this already but it bears repeating, not well written and boring. I can't recommend not reading this book enough.

Grade:
F-

"Double Down"

Double Down: Game Change 2012 (Mark Halperin & John Heilemann)

I really liked the original Game Change, and I guess it's not much of a shock that I liked this book as well - it's more of the same in the best sense, in this case covering (checks title) 2012. What really stood out to me is that the authors apparently got access to all the candidates, as we get to hear what they're thinking throughout the whole campaign. The 2012 campaign may not have been the most exciting - Obama basically had it locked up the whole time - but because of the detail they're able to include, the authors have produced a book that's very tough to put down (aside from the slow introduction dealing with Obama's political situation heading into the campaign).
That said, I do have two small issues. One is that the authors can't stop using annoying buzzwords, including "flooding the media zone", "doubling down" (groan), and looking for "game changer"s. Luckily nobody was thrown under the bus, moving forward, because it is what it is. This is also true of the original Game Change, so I can't really act surprised.
The second and I think bigger issue is that there were a few areas the authors didn't talk about. They cover a lot of ground, but I wanted to read about the meltdown of Romney's get-out-the-vote computer system, and I would have loved to have seen some more detail on why Romney's team thought they would win considering almost every poll had them losing. (As it is this just gets a fleeting mention.)
These issues aside - and wanting more of a book ends up speaking well of it, I guess - you shouldn't pass this up.

Grade: A-

"In The Shadow of the Moons"

In The Shadow of the Moons: My Life in the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Family (Nansook Hong)

This book fits into the little subgenre of cult-escape books - most of the ones I've read have been about Scientology, but this one is about (checks title) the Moonie church, more specifically the man himself and his totally dysfunctional family. The author is married (at 15) to the eldest son of Sun Myung Moon, and escapes with her children after over a decade of abuse, verbal, mental, and physical. What really stuck with me is the author's strength; the abuse she undergoes is horrific, and I couldn't help but smile at the end of the book when she successful escapes and sets about building a real life for herself. She also seems more sad than angry about what she went through - and make no mistake, this is a downer. Even so, I recommend it. It's harrowing, but this is a story that deserves to be told.

Grade: :0

"Vulkan Lives"

Vulkan Lives (Nick Kyme)

I really hated this book. It's nominally about Vulkan, leader of the Salamanders, one of the neglected groups of characters in W40k. I thought this would be his chance to shine; Instead, the book is more about John Grammaticus, the annoying gary stu from Deliverance Lost and Legion. Like these two books, this one is a boring, annoying disappointment. I'm at the point now where when I see the name John Grammaticus I might just put the book down, because there's never anything interesting that happens when he's around. This book is no exception, and does itself no favors in being split into three narrative threads (Vulkan in captivity, John Grammaticus fucking around, and the Isstvan V dropsite massacre, which has been depicted four or five times by now). There's at least one thread left dangling where we're told that Vulkan must die to prevent him "becoming the gatekeeper" (I'm not sure where the keymaster is) that is never explained or explored at all. For bonus points, the end of the book is confusingly nonsensical and appears to conflict with what we've explicitly been told earlier in the book. Avoid at all costs.

Grade: F

"In the Balance"

In the Balance: An Alternate History of the Second World War [Worldwar, Volume 1] (Harry Turtledove)

I think I'm being trolled with this book; it's a retelling of World War II where Earth is invaded by very slow lizard aliens, and as the author kept stopping to drive home how slow the lizards move and react, all I could think about was how slow this book moved, almost as if it was written by one of the lizards and published without going through an editor. The only reason that humans have any chance against the aliens and their advanced technology is due to this slowness, which the author repeats endlessly just in case you didn't get it the first time. This does not exactly make for a gripping read.
I forgave the other Turtledove book I read for being bloated because it had a strong narrative thread, but here Turtledove follows around way too many characters, half of whom have no reason for us to waste page after page watching them (here I'm looking askance at the minor league ballplayers and the frankly racist depiction of some captured Chinese peasants). I wonder if the problem is that this is the first volume of a four volume set; The author seems to feel no need to resolve any storylines he starts, nor give them much forward momentum, instead indulging in endless noodling and the repetition mentioned above. It's a shame - this is an idea with a lot of possibility, and  I feel like there's a decent book in here, maybe if all four volumes were trimmed down to a single 500 page novel. As it stands, I can't really recommend this one to anybody, unless you're having trouble going to sleep.

Grade: D-

"Atlas Infernal"

Atlas Infernal (Rob Sanders)

I believe this may be the most bonkers W40k book I've ever read, which is no small feat. It's tough to describe the plot since it zags all over the place, but the basic jist is that there's a grumpy old Inquisitor who's stolen a living map of the Eldar Webway, pursued by mean old Ahriman of the Thousand Sons. This is just the launching point to a truly bizarre adventure that takes our heroes through the Eye of Terror. I found this quite enjoyable, and in fact my only gripe is that Sanders does the readers no favors by breaking the story up into non-linear pieces. (The book opens with the hero going to visit the Black Library, but we don't see him escape until it's almost over.) Frankly, it's already a little tricky to follow because of the endless and strange new ideas thrown at the reader, not to mention that the main antagonist can cast illusion spells that let him appear as other characters, and having things happen out of order is a little jarring.
This quibble aside - and a note that this is a really bad place to start if you don't know much about the setting - you really shouldn't pass this one up.

Grade: A