cyber(b)space book reviews

I say this with all sincerity, I wanted to like this.

Really well done overview of the subject.

Very much enjoyed reading this.

Sharp, playful, melancholic, complex.

The first half felt a bit clichéd and dated.

Really wish I had stumbled across this in grad school while writing my thesis.

I say this with utmost affection and respect: reading this feels a bit like standing by the guy in Scanners right before his head explodes.

Not totally thrilled with this collection.

Better than I expected.

Review originally posted on the main blog here.

There’s so much going on in this book that it should collapse under its own weight.

Not perfect, but a great debut.

Surprisingly astute, despite its stylistic simplicity.

To my modern ear, Dickens can feel overdramatic at times.

Runs a bit long & dry at points.

More optimistic than I expected.

Poignant and heart rending.

Eh.

Not as gripping as “When We Cease to Understand the World,” in my opinion.

Lem puts all other science fiction to shame.

What a surprising and sharp little piece of fiction.

Some pacing and tone issues throughout.

A decent book at times.

Excellent.

Excellent and thought provoking piece of writing.

What. the. fuck.

Bof.

Dear god, what a fraught book.

A genealogy of thought that begins rooted in fact but slowly sprouts into fiction.

Tense and claustrophobic.

Almost a memoir, and equally almost a collection of essays.

Shocked to see such a sizeable section of the acknowledgments dedicated to thanking Cormac McCarthy for his review and input.

Beautiful, melancholic, and deeply pessimistic.

Not quite memoir or non-fiction.

A lovely little counter point to The Crying of Lot 49.

So many great poems here.

This is not actually an instruction manual, so the title is a bit of a bait and switch.

A delightful, winding jaunt through the life of a Viking around the turn of the first millennium.

Interesting from a historical perspective.

I feel like this had real potential.

3.5 stars.

Like almost all proscriptive utopian fiction, More’s book piques your interest at first because of its critique of the contemporary culture in which it was written - but ultimately becomes tedious as it attempts to describe a better way of doing things.

A nice bit of experimental fiction.

3.5 stars rounded up.

Even minor DeLillo is a cut above the rest.

Sparse, direct prose in the vein of Hemingway.

(3.5/5 stars) An intriguing and original thought experiment.

Do not be deceived.

The plot is compelling and it’s undeniably a page turner.

Cute when it comes across as dated, terrifying when it doesn’t.