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Having trouble concentrating today. Silly long weekend, and it making me think it's not work-time.
Boston was lovely, as always, and it was delightful to see many friends. The Swan was closed for renovations. I think the consensus was that while tea at the Four Seasons is nice, it's not as nice as the Swan.
In other news, I've finally hit a really bad choice with my pick-random-books-off-the-shelf spree at the library. (I was running late, and didn't have time to do a lot of searching.) The last couple haven't been too bad - a decent mystery, a badly-focused but still interesting history, an engrossing prep school novel, and an odd but still mildly entertaining historical satire. But the one I started this morning is amazingly wretched. One of the worst Marty Stus I've read in quite awhile, in a misogynistic, hackneyed wannabe thriller space opera. With a ridiculous plot.
So far, the honorable cold-eyed killer protagonist who used to be a high level operative but fell from grace because he wasn't sufficiently inefficient and bloodthirsty for the general who has taken over the world because he has a lot of money, has been sent to retrieve the alien that the general was supposed to have impregnated in an effort to prevent the war that would end the General's trade monopoly. Said honorable cold-blooded killer had sex with her instead for no discernable reason. Turns out that if you have sex with one of these aliens, you get addicted to sex with that specific alien. Which is messing with his normal, manly cold-blooded yet honorable thinking by making him all emotional and stuff. He's betrayed her and turned her over to the general (who she ran away from), again for no discernable reason. Oh, and in the process of this retrieval, he conned one of his fellow soldiers into disobeying orders, she totally tried to have sex with him immediately afterwards (for no discernable reason - now abbreviated "FNDR"), and then he killed her (again, FNDR). Oh, and he's totally like an amazing liar. You can tell, because he'll tell a ridiculous and clumsy lie, the person he's lying to believes him (FNDR) and then the narrator informs you that he's totally like an amazing liar.
At this point, I'm basically skimming, mostly because I hate not finishing books, but also because the blurb on the back cover promises an amazingly original ending that no one else would have been able to think of. I'm betting he lies and then women sleep with him, FNDR.
Boston was lovely, as always, and it was delightful to see many friends. The Swan was closed for renovations. I think the consensus was that while tea at the Four Seasons is nice, it's not as nice as the Swan.
In other news, I've finally hit a really bad choice with my pick-random-books-off-the-shelf spree at the library. (I was running late, and didn't have time to do a lot of searching.) The last couple haven't been too bad - a decent mystery, a badly-focused but still interesting history, an engrossing prep school novel, and an odd but still mildly entertaining historical satire. But the one I started this morning is amazingly wretched. One of the worst Marty Stus I've read in quite awhile, in a misogynistic, hackneyed wannabe thriller space opera. With a ridiculous plot.
So far, the honorable cold-eyed killer protagonist who used to be a high level operative but fell from grace because he wasn't sufficiently inefficient and bloodthirsty for the general who has taken over the world because he has a lot of money, has been sent to retrieve the alien that the general was supposed to have impregnated in an effort to prevent the war that would end the General's trade monopoly. Said honorable cold-blooded killer had sex with her instead for no discernable reason. Turns out that if you have sex with one of these aliens, you get addicted to sex with that specific alien. Which is messing with his normal, manly cold-blooded yet honorable thinking by making him all emotional and stuff. He's betrayed her and turned her over to the general (who she ran away from), again for no discernable reason. Oh, and in the process of this retrieval, he conned one of his fellow soldiers into disobeying orders, she totally tried to have sex with him immediately afterwards (for no discernable reason - now abbreviated "FNDR"), and then he killed her (again, FNDR). Oh, and he's totally like an amazing liar. You can tell, because he'll tell a ridiculous and clumsy lie, the person he's lying to believes him (FNDR) and then the narrator informs you that he's totally like an amazing liar.
At this point, I'm basically skimming, mostly because I hate not finishing books, but also because the blurb on the back cover promises an amazingly original ending that no one else would have been able to think of. I'm betting he lies and then women sleep with him, FNDR.
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-08 07:47 pm (UTC)From:And hey, you could get lucky and the amazingly original ending involves him getting a comeuppance and the being hit by a hover-truck. That would be amazingly original for these types of stories.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-08 08:25 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-09-08 08:50 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-09-08 09:17 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-09-08 09:26 pm (UTC)From:Also, Lord Darcy Investigates is pretty neat alternate history in a world with magic.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-09 01:14 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-09-09 01:15 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-09-09 06:43 am (UTC)From:You forgot to say ******** SPOILER ALERT! ********
no subject
Date: 2009-09-09 11:42 am (UTC)From:In other news, I think Livejournal has been dropping my posts sometimes when I respond by email. I had an extended rant about how I looked up the sequel and it featured the guy's twin sons, one of whom the evil general raises and the "hero" raises, even though he totally dies in this book, but I guess gets better.
Did I mention that the aliens have three sexes, but this works somehow anyway? Oh, and that she has sex with both him and the general, but tells him that her magic alien ways let her know that the general is infertile, unlike the manly, manly hero?
no subject
Date: 2009-09-09 11:44 am (UTC)From:It's not a lack of good books I want to read - I have a running list. But it's kind of a crappy library, and many of the good ones aren't actually there. And, as I mentioned, I didn't have a lot of time to look.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-09 11:57 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-09-09 08:36 pm (UTC)From:It's a dazzlingly original title.
I liked it quite a bit, but it's a painful kind of novel. I have no idea if you'd like it or not, or whether the fact you actually went to this kind of place would make it better or worse.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-09 09:19 pm (UTC)From:Honestly, it probably bears no resemblance to my high school. The only fictional representation I've seen that felt close to my experience was "History Boys."