Books: Friday Roundup

I finally finished reading The Stand, that not-so-little book by Stephen King.
And I liked it.
I'll say up front that this was my first King novel ever, so going in I wasn't quite sure what to expect. But I'd read On Writing and loved it, so I figured I'd dive in at the deep end of the pool and tackle this 1,000-plus page behemoth all in one gulp. Happily it went down with no real hiccups.
For those not familiar with The Stand, it basically runs like this: a government-funded virus gets loose, killing 99% of humanity and setting the stage for a post-apocalyptic battle between the forces of good and evil. We've got the devil in Las Vegas and a ragtag band of survivors united under a 106 year old black woman in Boulder, Colorado.
The novel tackles some pretty heavy and epic stuff, but King never gets lost in the book's wide breath. In fact, the tons of details and well-written characters ultimately turn out to be The Stand's greatest strength.
For all it's perks, however, the book suffered from a few problems. Namely, the ending, which i felt was over in a flash and didn't really serve to justify the 1,000+ pages of character and plot buildup. It's not like it was a bad ending by any means, just a quick one. But I suppose any wrap-up would seem shortchanged after 1,000 pages of buildup ...
The bottom line is that The Stand is a book that's worth your time. It's a great summer read and a must for anyone interested in post-apocalyptic fiction.

The Stand, by Stephen King: B+

Books: Friday Roundup

I'm still slogging through Stephen King's The Stand, which means I didn't really read anything else of note this week.
And that makes the Friday Roundup a tad pointless, doesn't it?
Ah well, no matter. I'll just fire off some lighthearted summer reading recommendations.
Hey, at least I can say I filled the space with something.

The New Space Opera, ed. Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan - Do you like space? Are you a fan of the opera? Well, then you're going to love The New Space Opera, a collection of vast interstellar epics condensed into short story and novelette form. The sequel comes out at the end of this month, so be sure to down this badboy first!

The Truth, Terry Pratchett - The 25th entry in Pratchett's beloved Discworld series, The Truth traces the story of William de Worde, accidental editor of Discworld's first newspaper. My favorite character? The recovering vampire with a suicidal fascination for flash photography.

Sphere, Michael Crichton - Sure, the movie sucked (despite casting Sam Jackson), but Crichton's Sphere is one of his all-time classics. You know the story, underwater explorers find mysterious ship. Ship does mysterious things and mysterious fallout ensues. Fun times. If I have one regret its that I saw the movie before reading the book ...

Books: Friday Roundup

I've got bacon in my belly, a book on my lap and some blankets on my legs. Life is good.
So good, in fact, I almost forgot to write up this week's Friday Roundup. Gasp! We can't let that happen now, can we?
So without further ado we present this week's (admittedly) small list.

The Stand, Stephen King. Yup, it's the book readers either love or hate. King's epic novel about a post apocalyptic world struggling to get by in the wake of a deadly virus that killed off 99.6% of mankind.
Love it, hate it, whatever. At least we can all agree on one thing -- at 1,000+ pages, this book is a freakin' behemoth.
Not that that is really a bad thing. Like King says in the introduction, one could tell the story of Hansel and Gretel in a paragraph, but where's the fun in that? The life of a story is in the details, man. And The Stand has details galore.
I'm only a little over 300 pages in so as of right now I can't say yet whether I fall into the "loved it" or "hated camp." I'm a huge fan of King's short fiction, "The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates" (F&SF October/November 2008), being one of my favorite stories of the past year, but the jury's still out on whether the epic scale of The Stand is going to leave me feeling satisfied or really, really drained.
If nothing else, I will say that King's writing does make for great summertime reading. And despite the fact that The Stand took about 200 pages to really get rolling, I'll tenatively say that I'm falling more into the "loved it" camp, at least for now, anyway.

(UPDATE: I finished this over the summer. I loved it. What's that? You hated it? OK, cool. Move along.)

"The Motorman's Coat," John Kessel (F&SF, June/July 2009) - In a world without coats, one man ...
No seriously, that's the premise. Two hundred or so years into the future all the cool kids are chasing after relics from earth's renaissance and industrial ages to show off how awesome they are at being awesomely wealthy. One man specializes in procuring said items, but when business begins to falter, he takes it upon himself to save his shop of forgotten sundries by purchasing a Checzh motorman's coat crafted in 1911. Said purchase stirs the town into a frenzy, but *gasp* the sale may not be all that it seems. There's also an awkward love plot sandwiched in there somewhere.
I really didn't get this story. The plot, while mildly interesting all fell apart under what I considered to be a terribly underwhelming conclusion. I dunno, pick it up if you're a fan of speculative coat fiction, I guess. Does that genre even exisit? Probably.

"Corona Centurion™ FAQ," Terry Bisson (F&SF, June/July 2009) - Bisson's Q&A piece is too short for me to describe in any detail without spoiling, but suffice it to say it reminded me very much of Ruth Nestvold's "Mars: A Traveler's Guide." And since that story was nominated for a Nebula Award this year, I'd say Bisson's story is in good company. Concise and punchy, "FAQ" left me wanting more -- a lot more, actually ...