I got 99 problems but a book ain't one.

So the genre of book that i prefer to read is more of an action/military kind of book. This is why i like authors such as James Rollins, Matthew Reilly, and Clive Cussler. I think the main reason for this is that they very rarely ever have a slow moment. For example, Matthew Reilly's novel Ice Staion opens up with a massive 60 page firefight in an Antarctic research station between American Marines and French Commandos. Now James Rollins, the first novel of his Sigma Force series, Sandstorm, is quite bulky (about 600 pages i think) but at no point during it is there a dull moment. Between open conflict and archaeological-esque segments the book is entertaining from start to finish. And finally, Clive Cussler's most recent publish in the Oregon Files, Mirage, has action just about every ten pages. I think that just in general if i want to read i want to be entertained. If a book drags on when its not supposed to i'll just put it down instead of finishing it. If i wanted to be bored while reading i'll go read a textbook or even better yet go open up Catcher in the Rye.....

Mirage

While on the road to Happy Valley I resumed reading Mirage by Clive Cussler. I have previously talked about this book in general but now i have almost fully read it and can comment on the plot a lot more.  The book pits it's main character, Juan Cabrillo against a Russian military admiral that is hell bent on wielding some kind of technological force that has been on the bottom of the sea for close to a hundred years. Juan only goes after him though after a botched prison break leaves his friend dead and with his final words he sparks a hunt for answers to his last cryptic sentence. Like all of Cussler's novels the story has some kind of history tie in. This one revolves around Tesla and his odd experiments that he started to conduct towards the end of his life. One of the questions posed to Cabrillo's team is what did Tesla create that would warrant the Russian Navy risking starting World War III. The book is fast paced and has action throughout. The one gripe i have about it is that it doesn't have the large scale military ops that some of its predecessors had but it makes up for it with scenes such as an underwater boat rescue, a submarine fight and a snowmobile chase. Overall a good book, to any fan of the series i would recommend it.

The Road Less Traveled

Alright, last blog about The Road, three on the same topic surprisingly enough...let's do this. So one of the most important elements in The Road that i noticed was the importance of the father's interaction with his son. The father grew up in a world before what is probably the apocalypse happened. His son though seemingly never knew of this world. Several times in the novel the father dreams of the world as it was before it ended. He remembers what it was like before it was all ashy and grey and tries to explain to his son what the world was like. Another example of this is when they stop at a supermarket and they father finds a Coca-Cola for his son and the son has never seen this or tasted it before. The father gives it to his son and lets him have it all because he had enough of it in the old world to know what it is like, but his son does not because he grew up in this harsh new world and has never seen a Coke before. This exchange shows how father is still trying to raise his son right in a world that is literally Hell on Earth.

The Road-Traveled Again

Okay, intro down now for the actual book. The Road centers around an unnamed father and his son in a post-apocalyptic world. It is never truly stated what happened to the world but it is described as being scorched and covered in ash so my guess is some kind of nuclear fallout. This would also help to explain why the days and nights are so bitterly cold, nuclear fallout bringing about nuclear winter. There are several reasons i like the story. The first of which is that it moves along quickly. Each new paragraph is basically a new part in the story so it is always moving forward. Another reason i really like story is because of how it paints the landscape that it is very vivid despite how dull it is. Your told how the world is dusty and covered in ash and the garages and homes that they come across are dilapidated but other than that it is all up to imagination.The last thing i like about the book is how it creates feelings of sadness in the reader. The simple conversations between the father and the son evoke basic feelings of sadness and this is something that a book does not commonly do.

The Road-an intro

So once again i started a new book. This time i went into a bit of obscurity from what i normally read.I decided to read The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Normally, i'm not too big a fan of McCarthy for one simple reason: his writing style. He uses a very odd writing style in that he does not use punctuation of any kind really. Meaning that he does not use comma's, quotation marks, or semi-colons/colons. This can lead to very confusing paragraphs and conversations including more than two people. My first experience with this odd writing style was with his novel, All the Pretty Horses. From what i got through it was a good book but the lack of punctuation is what led me to stop reading it. The Road is different though. His sentence structure is simple in the story and the lack of punctuation is not a main problem. As for conversations it is very simple to follow because the majority of them are between the father and his son and you can always tell which of the two is talking.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

What is the purpose of the fight scenes?

The purpose of the fight scenes is to do two things. The first is to add action to the movie so that the audiences attention can be held. The movie is rather dull and the outrageous fight scenes are the only thing capable of keeping the viewers attention span past three minutes. The second reason for the fight scenes is to relay emotion that otherwise couldn't be expressed. The old saying actions speak louder than words is of particular importance to the fight scenes. There are several scenes in the movie that show emotions such as anger, the courtyard fight, or complete complacency, the bar fight. For these two reasons it can be seen why fight scenes are critical to the movie.

Game of Thrones. Better as a Book or TV show?

The simple answer is as a TV show. I tried to read the Game of Thrones book simply because i wanted to see how closely it followed the show. This effort lasted for about forty pages. The book, as far as i'm concerned was horrible. The style of writing that George R. R. Martin uses in the book seems to me to be some kind of forced higher level writing, similar to something you'd see from older novels from British Literature. This style of writing made it very difficult to casually read and was more trouble than it was worth as i decided. The second problem i have with the book is the annoying extra info that is presented all the time. Every time a character gets introduced there is a long winded paragraph about all these accolades and achievements and references to stuff that is absolutely not necessary. This itself was enough for me to put down the book after forty pages. So, in conclusion, as far as i'm concerned, Game of Thrones is meant to be watched on TV rather than read simply because it is easier to follow and more streamlined. Although it is annoying having to wait six months at a time for a new season. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers i guess.