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Book review: Recursion by Tony Ballantyne
So, really, I'm not usually into books where I don't know the author/premise or haven't gotten some sort of rec (the last time I did it, I ended up with a very bad book, which I need to dig out so I can dump it half price). But the thing is, I have this utter love for the word 'recursion'. And the cover is really kinda shiny/noir-looking. Plus, there were no women with big breasts in skanky leather.
Also, I had a gift card, and my bookshelf will only hold so much Charles de Lint (and I couldn't remember which collections I already have).
So I picked up the book, and I skimmed the first page in the store, decided it looked at least vaguely decent, and bought it.
This book was totally designed for people like me. Three plotlines, all interweaving, three sets of people to read about, and there's literally no slowing down. I'd be irritated that the Eva chapter hand ended, but then I'd get caught up in Constantine and then he'd end and Robert would charm my socks off (and HERB, because he's Herb, y'know). And then I'd be back to Eva and it would all start over again. And all the while, this internal plot that links all of them is building to a conclusion that's half-breathtaking, half-bloodcurdling, half-mad scientist stealing the last Thin Mint.
And then there's the fact that the book reads the way I write--sparse description, rather than the overblown Tolkien meets Dickens that a lot of people claim makes a good book. I had to use my imagination to fill in the gaps of things just hinted at, and I didn't constantly get slapped in the face with "...and then Anita put on another leather bustier, this one slightly different from the other in ornamentation, because they were silver-stitched dragons rather than gold, which cupped her breasts and gave them a subtle attitude of 'whore'..." clothing and facial descriptions.
The characters are interesting and wacky and sad by turns, and the idea of what makes them real and what doesn't is done far more subtly than all of BSG.
Now, if the EA were writing BSG, I'd totally believe it had a plan.
However, I suppose the best endorsement is that I couldn't stop reading. I read in-between cleaning and poking email and chatting and writing. And when I went to bed, I read until I was too tired, and then when I got up this morning, I read the rest of it. Now I kind of want the other two books this guy's written. Hrm.
Also, I had a gift card, and my bookshelf will only hold so much Charles de Lint (and I couldn't remember which collections I already have).
So I picked up the book, and I skimmed the first page in the store, decided it looked at least vaguely decent, and bought it.
This book was totally designed for people like me. Three plotlines, all interweaving, three sets of people to read about, and there's literally no slowing down. I'd be irritated that the Eva chapter hand ended, but then I'd get caught up in Constantine and then he'd end and Robert would charm my socks off (and HERB, because he's Herb, y'know). And then I'd be back to Eva and it would all start over again. And all the while, this internal plot that links all of them is building to a conclusion that's half-breathtaking, half-bloodcurdling, half-mad scientist stealing the last Thin Mint.
And then there's the fact that the book reads the way I write--sparse description, rather than the overblown Tolkien meets Dickens that a lot of people claim makes a good book. I had to use my imagination to fill in the gaps of things just hinted at, and I didn't constantly get slapped in the face with "...and then Anita put on another leather bustier, this one slightly different from the other in ornamentation, because they were silver-stitched dragons rather than gold, which cupped her breasts and gave them a subtle attitude of 'whore'..." clothing and facial descriptions.
The characters are interesting and wacky and sad by turns, and the idea of what makes them real and what doesn't is done far more subtly than all of BSG.
Now, if the EA were writing BSG, I'd totally believe it had a plan.
However, I suppose the best endorsement is that I couldn't stop reading. I read in-between cleaning and poking email and chatting and writing. And when I went to bed, I read until I was too tired, and then when I got up this morning, I read the rest of it. Now I kind of want the other two books this guy's written. Hrm.