Posted by Felix Enescu on 3rd September 2006
Details
Title: The Hammer of God
Author: Arthur C. Clarke
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Bantam Books
Language: English
ISBN: 0-553-56871-X
Review
The book is: vapid, insipid, tasteless, dull, flat. It’s like a steak made of cardboard. I read it easily like a collage of newspaper articles. It is written more like a history book than a novel.
To continue my food analogy: it is a healthy book, but a diet one. No spices inside.
I am glad I read it in English because I can fell it directly without any translation interference.
PS: Where can I find in Bucharest, English SF book at reasonable prices?
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Posted by Felix Enescu on 31st August 2006
Details
Title: E greu să fii zeu
Author: Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Paperback: 239 pages
Publisher:
Paralela 45, 2006
Language: Romanian
Original Language: Russian
Translator: Valerian Stoicescu
ISBN: 973-697-365-4
Review
Before 1989 I have read some Russian science fiction. Remember Efremov? Remember Beleaev? I didn’t have much of a choice, as Russian were the only “modern” foreign authors published in Romania.
Efremov versus Strugatky? Military march versus symphony!
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky write in what I call the Russian style. The book is dark, the lives of people are hopeless, and the misery and mud are the main components of everyday life.
The sparks of goodness are small and rare.
The reader is trapped between the immense Earth happiness and intense Arkanar misery.
Authors wrote about their life. About the communism, which promise “eternal” happiness for everybody, but was light-years ahead and about their everyday life.
Beyond the obvious comparison between soviet Russia and don Rumata adventures, the book explores the drama of a human good, of an almost spectator. Don Rumata is neither fully detached, neither fully involved.
Overall I like the book, despite the dark “Russian” feeling.
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Posted by Felix Enescu on 30th August 2006
Review date: 2006/08/30
Site: www.tritonic.ro
Overall: Only if your life depends on it
“We have a site! We have a site!” The cheerleaders sing in front of the stadium. “We have search! We do electronic commerce! You can order online!“ But after the first minutes the spectators already left.
The design is plain ugly and there are many errors. The online orders spits out lots of
“Notice: Undefined index: autor in
/var/www/html/tritonic/tritonic.ro/cos.php”.
I didn’t dare to explore this part further. There are missing pictures. The site break the back browser button. The usability is wonderful but totally missing (Iarta-mă nene Caragiale!)
The good point (there are some 
):
- There IS a site
- Many parts function correctly. Unfortunately the fiction.ro collection is in big trouble
- Obviously they invest some energy in the site. This is a good sign.
The sister site www.fiction.ro is even worse. Let’s not go into details.
Notable books:
The New Crobuzon trilogy:
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Posted by Felix Enescu on 28th August 2006
Details
Paperback: 283 pages
Publisher: Tritonic, 2006
Language: Romanian
ISBN: 973-733-069-2
Review
Costi builds a coherent world that traps you inside almost until the end. Unfortunately the ending is quite abrupt. Reminds me of Viriconium.
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Posted by Felix Enescu on 25th August 2006
I finished the book last night. As always, when I finish a Philip K. Dick novel I look around trying to see if my reality has any cracks.
His book starts by building a credible alternative history – so credible that one has to abandon the usual mindset of science-fiction reader. Up to a certain point, the novel is like any fiction novel: the peoples, their feeling, and the development of characters. Moreover, when you think you pick the wrong novel, you notice the fine cracks in the reality. With each page the cracks grows larger.
Late at night, I closed the book and put it on the shelf. I looked outside in the dark and tried to feel the cracks in my reality.
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Posted by Felix Enescu on 25th August 2006
I am a fan of hard SF and I like cyber punk (i.e. I love “Burning Chrome” of William Gibson). Despite this, when it’s about alternate reality I prefer “The Man in the High Castle”.
Ubik is somehow stuck between two genres. It has something from “The Man in the High Castle” and something different. Many times, I felt like reading an “epic” story (almost Asimov). And exactly when I thought I get it, the story got a twist sending me again into unknown.
For me, Ubik was almost like a roller coaster.
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Posted by Felix Enescu on 25th August 2006
My first Gaiman read. What a mix! Egyptian cat goddess Bast, the Irish god Mad Sweeney, and the Slavic god of darkness and death, Czernobog mixed together with modern gods like TV, Malls, the Internet…
The book is a snapshot of American soul more than a science-fiction book.
American Gods is a book you either love or hate it. I looked at Amazon reviews: not many mild ones. Reviewers praise it or flame it.
Anyway, not what I was expecting from a Hugo and Nebula winner.
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