August 7, 2008 – 8:23 am
I have to admit, I had somewhat low expectations for this book. It had been recommended to me with rave reviews, but it seemed, based on the description, to be a dry read. I had expected a story about how two kids came up with a comic book and ran with it, but what I got was a page turner that took me from Prague to New York, to Antarctica, and places in between. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay didn’t only chronicle the lives of two Jewish cousins and how they achieved success in the comic book industry (although success for whom is certainly a question raised) but also the motivation behind their enterprise.
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July 31, 2008 – 6:00 am
Have you ever woken up from a dream that seemed so real you had to check your surroundings to make sure you have really woken up? Now imagine that a series of troubling events has occurred and now you’re at your best friend’s house with no recollection of how you have gotten there. Are you losing your mind or have you really woken up at all? This is the question that Carl faces after being beaten into a coma on the London Underground, is he really awake but losing his mind, or is he in fact stuck in his mind?
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July 24, 2008 – 6:00 am
This summer I had solicited book recommedations from my friends, and was pleasantly surprised to have Cat’s Cradle recommended to me. I had previously only read Slaugherhouse Five by Vonnegut, and while I really liked it, I questioned whether or not I would really like to read other books in his oddly structured style. Well after reading Cat’s Cradle I can only say that those worries were unfounded. (Note to those who are intimidated by seeing a new chapter every other page or so: just ignore the chapter names and keep reading.) Other than what I just mentioned, I had no clue what I was getting into, and the name didn’t give me any hints.
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July 17, 2008 – 6:00 am
Please welcome Kelly Melcher to our writing staff here at Fandomania. Kelly is a lifelong lover of books and will be bringing us her reviews and thoughts on all sorts of novels, writers, characters, and stories, beginning with this classic. –Jason
I thought I would start with a science fiction classic and one of my all time favorites. Robert Heinlein is an interesting study. While his books are indeed science fiction they also seem to highlight an interesting social issue, and this book is absolutely no exception. What may initially appear to be a story about a man who was stranded on Mars as a baby, raised my Martians and the potentials of space travel is really a poke in the ribs to conventional organized religion and questions the correctness of family structure and politics. While it has all of the science fiction aspects, of a man from mars, flying cars, space travel, high tech gadgets and gizmos, as well as a “futuristic” society, I would argue that it isn’t really science fiction at all.
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