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Kids, the only survivors of a shipwreck, survive on a paradise island.
It's interesting, but not great. I stopped just before reading the chapter "A View to a Death" because it had been boring up to that point, and I could tell it was going to spiral into stupidity without a proper lead and reason for it.
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A too-forgiving man and his stupid brute of a friend travel as farm hands to scrape together money for the dream of owning their own land.
A thriller, a gripping tale ... that you will not set down until it is finished. Steinbeck has touched the quick.
-- The New York Times, who are about as smart as Lenny.
An unforgivably-terrible book. Awful almost beyond reason. Plodding and boring, it's only a "page turner" because it's tauntingly short enough to tear through like ripping off a bandage. But on the plus side, although it's littered with written-accents, it's not difficult to read.. plus the ending is great!
2019-08-07 - Wow, this was so forgettable that I couldn't actually remember reading it until I read the first few paragraphs..
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In a world where everyday people use the internet through total-sensory virtual reality, a specialist intelligence agency tracks down murderers and terrorists.
Slow and confusing, this book isn't just a challenge to read, it's a challenge to read with a straight face. One of the risks of speculative science fiction is that they can get very, very, wrong in their predictions. This book hand-waives people being transported into a magical world with no explanation as to how it's possible or what it's like. It is vague in everything it demands the reader suspend their disbelief in. It is awed at 900 Mhz computers. This is definitely a 1998 book that had way too much hope for its future.
I had a sticker with two, and the book had two.. and none of these are coming up with anything:
This inspired Netforce - (1999 movie)
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An unlikely little hero is swept into an travel-adventure through dangerous lands to recapture the lost treasures of a fallen Dwarvish kingdom.
Considered a classic fantasy book, it's definitely a children's book from it's narrative tone. It's slow and awkward in a lot of places, and takes too long to pick up into anything interesting for me. Perhaps it's because I had read it long ago, and perhaps it's because of the staggering quality of its associated movies, but I didn't like it.
Definitely not recommended as an entry into fantasy fiction, in spite of its popularity. Veterans of the genre may as well read this just to say they have.
Published 1982-01
Adapted into a movie which I don't have notes on.
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The United States Navy discovers a crashed craft, and includes a cross-disciplinary team in its investigation.
I liked it, though I found it rather simple. I had already seen the movie that was inspired by this book, which I really liked, and that likely coloured my views.
Published 2011-04
This inspired Sphere - (1998 movie)
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Archaeologists discover the site they're working on is surrounded by land owned by their funder, a rich technology company, which is even more interested in it than they.
A riveting book that escalates into a great pace by its middle, and had me turning pages until I finished that latter half in one afternoon. The end chapter is an embarrassingly-bad wrap-up though, which was saddening, but it did not ruin the story.
Highly-recommended. This book has turned me back into a reader.
Published 1999-11-16, by Alfred A. Knopf
This inspired Timeline - (2003 movie)
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Some kids are given Lantern rings for transporting around.
I read a decent ways in before getting bored. The combination of language (English-age) and language (audience-age) made it tiring. It's definitely a book to be read aloud to a 10 year old girl, and I respect that. I'd, even, be the one to do the reading aloud.. but not the listening.
This is a seven volume unabridge compilation, presented in the author's intended reading order.
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I could only get through the first chapter before setting this down. It has flowery awkward old English which I will avoid from now on.
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(on Wikipedia)
https://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/
A dying guy writes about how awesome he had it, and gives advice to his children.
It takes almost half of the book to mine more than two interesting points. It is a glaring reminder of how important it is to have a solid first chapter. Instead, chapter after chapter this book keeps promising something interesting, forcing the reader to cling to the "I'm dying" parts to hope for something better.
For people who stick it out, there is a lot of fluff which I was able to trivially summarize with two pages of bullet points. That's nothing to sneeze at, so I suppose this is worth reading for some, though I won't recommend it.
Published 2008-04-08
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An man works to undermine his brother's happiness by meddling with his son's marriage. Also two smart people dual with words.
A pretty good book, though my reading of the Signet Classic was seriously interrupted by footnotes. Not because of the shifting up/down to read them, but because the footnotes are crammed all together. Given that this book is 1/4 commentary, axing one for clearer footnotes would have been amazing. Maybe another edition will be better. I intend to collect many of this particular play.
I highly recommend Much Ado About Nothing - (1993 movie), even for those who have no interest in this book.
