Reviews and Comments

avatar for herr_rau

Herr Rau

herr_rau@leselog.de

Beigetreten 3 Monate, 1 Woche her

Follow on Fediverse

This link opens in a pop-up window

reviewed Tiger! tiger! by Alfred Bester (Classic science fiction)

No cover

Alfred Bester: Tiger! tiger! (1987, Penguin)

 5 stars

Review of 'Tiger! tiger!' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Maybe four stars? But the sheer audacity of it, the throwaway ideas and scenes that would be enough for a hundred silver-age DC stories, the proto-cyberpunk - tiger tattoo, burning man, radioactive scientist/special agent, a retro-future not unlike Cordwainer Smith's, psionics, technically enhanced human bodies, grisly high-speed open-heart surgery (well, heart removal, actually), seeing outside the visible spectrum - all this makes me honour this with all five stars. It is a perfect example of what it is.
Flaws: The ending, too fast. The main character's growth, too fast. The story calls out for 800+ pages, but I'm still glad I got to take the 250-page-rollercoaster. (Definitely more a six-part tv series rather than a single film.)

reviewed Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood: Hag-Seed (2016) 4 stars

Review of 'Hag-Seed' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

A re-telling of The Tempest in modern form, with quite a clever conceit as its base: After years of professional exile, a de-throned theatre director secretly gets to produce one more play in favourable conditions with his rascally former colleagues and usurpers as a captive audience. It is, of course, The Tempest.

I kept wondering what to expect. Would he go full Vincent Price in Theatre of Blood on them? Would his own plans be crossed by other players? In the end, the central performance reminded me of the final episode of The Prisoner: weird. And after the end, there are long in-world analyses of the play and its characters, and a summary of the original play. I was surprised by this pacing, but didn't mind it; I'm interested in literary theory anyway.

A fun read.

reviewed The Trimmed Lamp by O. Henry

O. Henry: The Trimmed Lamp (Hardcover, Wildside Press) 3 stars

O. Henry's short, simple stories are noted for their careful plotting, ironic coincidences, and surprise …

Review of 'The Trimmed Lamp' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Not one of my favourite O. Henry collections, and I've read them all. Bleaker and less poetic - still, not bad. There are several stories on the theme of - misplaced envy? Misunderstandings about how the other half lives? About, say, a poor guy looking hungry while being full, and a swell guy looking comfortable but secretly starved.

The pinnacle of this is "The Social Triangle", with working-class Ikey Snigglefritz being proud to shake rich Billy McMahan's hand, who is then shown to be proud to shake classy Cortlandt Van Duyckink's hand, who is finally happy upon shaking the hand of - Ikey Snigglefritz.

This reminded me of William Tenn's short story "The Servant Problem", where in a dystopic world, where everything and everyone is controlled by one person and ultimate ruler, except for one person, who secretly rules him, who themselves are secretly beholden to one other person who …

reviewed The Trimmed Lamp by O. Henry

O. Henry: The Trimmed Lamp (Paperback, BiblioBazaar) 3 stars

O. Henry's short, simple stories are noted for their careful plotting, ironic coincidences, and surprise …

Review of 'The Trimmed Lamp' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Not one of my favourite O. Henry collections, and I've read them all. Bleaker and less poetic - still, not bad. There are several stories on the theme of - misplaced envy? Misunderstandings about how the other half lives? About, say, a poor guy looking hungry while being full, and a swell guy looking comfortable but secretly starved.

The pinnacle of this is "The Social Triangle", with working-class Ikey Snigglefritz being proud to shake rich Billy McMahan's hand, who is then shown to be proud to shake classy Cortlandt Van Duyckink's hand, who is finally happy upon shaking the hand of - Ikey Snigglefritz.

This reminded me of William Tenn's short story "The Servant Problem", where in a dystopic world, where everything and everyone is controlled by one person and ultimate ruler, except for one person, who secretly rules him, who themselves are secretly beholden to one other person who …