OOOF locked out of my wyrmsign after forgetting my password for 3 weeks. I have a backlog of books to review that I will blast on here sometime in the next week!
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Printer, anarchist, illustrator, & enthusiast of the printed word.
FediBanter: @Thundering@kolektiva.social
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I want everyone to read it and think of it often ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great book, fun, and uncomplicated ⭐⭐⭐ Good, feel complicated about if I wasted my time ⭐⭐+⬇️ I hate read this
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Leaving_Marx's books
2024 Reading Goal
70% complete! Leaving_Marx has read 21 of 30 books.
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Leaving_Marx started reading The City & the City by China Miéville
Leaving_Marx started reading Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Leaving_Marx started reading The Human Division (Old Man's War, #5) by John Scalzi
Leaving_Marx commented on The White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty
Leaving_Marx set a goal to read 30 books in 2024
Leaving_Marx reviewed The Shining (The Shining, #1) by Stephen King
All work and no play makes Matty go....
4 stars
So I've been a big fan of the shining movie and wanted to see how the book told the story cause I heard that a) Stephen King didn't like the movie b) the story was different.
So considering that I felt like I was reading a story I really enjoyed specifically to appreciate the differences. At points it felt like a slog, with date rusty and clumsy politics and such. But some of the differences I really appreciated about the book included the greater sympathetic lens we view jack Torrence through, his suicidal tendencies, struggles with alcohol, and love for danny cast him in a much more sympathetic light, which makes his descent into unhinged murderous rage much more disturbing and tragic.
The shining and magic of the world is also much more prevalent and explored and even the jump scares and horrors focus on hornets, hedges, anthropomorphic ghouls, and …
So I've been a big fan of the shining movie and wanted to see how the book told the story cause I heard that a) Stephen King didn't like the movie b) the story was different.
So considering that I felt like I was reading a story I really enjoyed specifically to appreciate the differences. At points it felt like a slog, with date rusty and clumsy politics and such. But some of the differences I really appreciated about the book included the greater sympathetic lens we view jack Torrence through, his suicidal tendencies, struggles with alcohol, and love for danny cast him in a much more sympathetic light, which makes his descent into unhinged murderous rage much more disturbing and tragic.
The shining and magic of the world is also much more prevalent and explored and even the jump scares and horrors focus on hornets, hedges, anthropomorphic ghouls, and possession than the blood tidal waves, and creepy twins that are so iconic from the film.
Definitely better appreciate all the liberties that were taken with the film and world building shoved aside that make up the novel. I can see why Stephen King felt antagonistic to the film, and appreciate the story better for it all.
But all in all, don't think I really like Stephen King's writings that much, this being my first read, and might just stick to how pop culture interprets and bastardizes his works in the world of b-rate horror films.
Some things are just better seen than read.
Leaving_Marx rated The Shining (The Shining, #1): 4 stars
Leaving_Marx reviewed City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky
If Marx was trying to be relevant and writing fantasy today
5 stars
Ok, this book was very fun and gave me some of those excitement in the streets feels at moments I am just always there for. Going in blind to the story, it took me way to long to feel invested in the story, it being fantasy and starting off with a tale about god, I was pretty much ready to swipe left on this one. But then the world came into focus and I was hooked.
I read a review that said in the fantasy world, it's hip to be exploring the magic/creatures/polygod world's through a lens of the industrial revolution rather than bronze or medieval developments. And within this modern trend this is Adrian Tchaikovsky's contribution to that.
I couldn't help but map Marx's capital onto this world, updated by my stronger and stronger appreciation of Tchaikovsky's work and left politics. We have main characters from the factory works, …
Ok, this book was very fun and gave me some of those excitement in the streets feels at moments I am just always there for. Going in blind to the story, it took me way to long to feel invested in the story, it being fantasy and starting off with a tale about god, I was pretty much ready to swipe left on this one. But then the world came into focus and I was hooked.
I read a review that said in the fantasy world, it's hip to be exploring the magic/creatures/polygod world's through a lens of the industrial revolution rather than bronze or medieval developments. And within this modern trend this is Adrian Tchaikovsky's contribution to that.
I couldn't help but map Marx's capital onto this world, updated by my stronger and stronger appreciation of Tchaikovsky's work and left politics. We have main characters from the factory works, lumpen proles, sex workers, students, immigrants, and heretic theologians. The book explores a world colonized by an analogue of Roman Catholic conservatism and empire. There is even a parallel of Marx's theory of dead-labour embodied in commodities as magic embed in objects, which lends them value and can be distilled and extracted to produce further value.
Definitely a strong nationalist anti-colonialism bent to the societal tensions, with nostalgia and ghosts of feudal ethnic powers and the folk cultures and traditions lost to urbanization and proletarianization.
Reading it as a Marxist, one would be happy by its interpretation of struggle, class and modernization with greater heed paid to the lumpen proles and gender. Reading it as an anarchist, there are critiques to be made around the appeal of nationalism, hierarchy, and power as little fiefdoms and warlords struggle to remain dominant above and sometimes oblivious to the peoples struggles in the streets.
I would highly recommend this book, 1 of 2 in the series as of yet, as a fun read that gets your heart racing while both escaping from this world to better view it as an outsider.
Probably gonna stay in my top 5 of 2024!
Leaving_Marx finished reading City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky
City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Arthur C. Clarke winner and Sunday Times bestseller Adrian Tchaikovsky's triumphant return to fantasy with a darkly inventive portrait of …
Leaving_Marx started reading City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky
City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Arthur C. Clarke winner and Sunday Times bestseller Adrian Tchaikovsky's triumphant return to fantasy with a darkly inventive portrait of …
Leaving_Marx finished reading The Shining (The Shining, #1) by Stephen King
Leaving_Marx wants to read The Employees by Olga Ravn
The Employees by Olga Ravn
Funny and doom-drenched, The Employees chronicles the fate of the Six-Thousand Ship. The human and humanoid crew members alike complain …
Leaving_Marx reviewed Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi (Old Man's War, #4)
A 4th book in this series???
3 stars
This book follows up to the old man's war world and it felt a bit like I was working to finish it for the sake of completion.
It is the 3rd book told again from the perspective of the main characters daughter. It literally just covers the same timeline and plot points with a different narrator.
+: sometimes it read like space opera mean girls. It centers a women in the stories. There is a few moments that Zoe's perspective tells part of the story that didn't come up in the 3rd book.
-: You know the plot, twists and turns. It wasn't a good enough book for a second run.
Leaving_Marx finished reading Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi (Old Man's War, #4)
Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi (Old Man's War, #4)
How do you tell your part in the biggest tale in history?
I ask because it's what I have to …