So, yesterday was the official kick-off of the Keep Portland Weird festival here in Paris, which meant that I had a reading/screening in the...
Continue »
This book is a beautiful meditation on addition, obsession, and suicide. Set around a tennis academy and the recovery center below it, a rambling narrative gradually centers in on an entertainment so absorbing that its viewers lose all interest in the rest of life. It's not a perfect book; it drops off abruptly (in the middle of a flashback!) with several characters' stories unresolved. But it's plenty good; if you enjoy the virtuoso 14-page setpiece that opens the book, you're good for the whole 978 pages.
This is an excellent place to enter the Discworld series. It is past Pratchett's early fumbling with the form, and provides a first look at one of his stock character sets, who recur in many later Discworld novels.
It's also a wonderful introduction to Terry Pratchett, a lapidary writer who breaks the bonds of comic fantasy to write books that should be of interest to anyone who reads fiction.
Superbly creepy beginning, with expert plotting taking one through to the satisfying, though surprisingly quiet, finale. Excellent character studies, lively, detailed images of American urban scenes, and fascinating just-around-the-corner tech. Gibson's commentary on our current social trends gets steadily better as it hits closer to home.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(2 of 4 readers found this comment helpful)
Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.
Don't Miss
Customer Comments
Mark Durst has commented on (3) products.
Infinite Jest: A Novel by David Foster Wallace
Mark Durst, January 20, 2012
This book is a beautiful meditation on addition, obsession, and suicide. Set around a tennis academy and the recovery center below it, a rambling narrative gradually centers in on an entertainment so absorbing that its viewers lose all interest in the rest of life. It's not a perfect book; it drops off abruptly (in the middle of a flashback!) with several characters' stories unresolved. But it's plenty good; if you enjoy the virtuoso 14-page setpiece that opens the book, you're good for the whole 978 pages.Guards! Guards! (Discworld Novels) by Terry Pratchett
Mark Durst, September 30, 2011
This is an excellent place to enter the Discworld series. It is past Pratchett's early fumbling with the form, and provides a first look at one of his stock character sets, who recur in many later Discworld novels.It's also a wonderful introduction to Terry Pratchett, a lapidary writer who breaks the bonds of comic fantasy to write books that should be of interest to anyone who reads fiction.
Spook Country by William Gibson
Mark Durst, January 1, 2011
Superbly creepy beginning, with expert plotting taking one through to the satisfying, though surprisingly quiet, finale. Excellent character studies, lively, detailed images of American urban scenes, and fascinating just-around-the-corner tech. Gibson's commentary on our current social trends gets steadily better as it hits closer to home.(2 of 4 readers found this comment helpful)