I forgot to post these back at the end of June so here they are now. I also read a couple of comics, but they were parts one and two of a trilogy and I'm planning to get to the third one so I'll review those all together when I finish them.
Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture
David Kushner
I hate this book.
The author didn't seem to know if he was writing a biography, a history or a drama, and he can't write any of those things. He quotes ancient conversations like as though he was present for them and never says where he got his information or how it could possibly be so accurate. And it can't be because everyone has the exact same voice - at once childish and condescending.
He glosses straight over the most interesting topics to give us more reconstructed dialogue, he doesn't seem to understand half the things he does cover, and he gives the distinct impression that he doesn't have a clue what he's talking about. For all the research he apparently did, there is very little substance here. It's bits and pieces scattered among this breezy overview that never really drills down into anything.
I'm led to understand that this is considered rather the definitive work on the subject, and I really hope that's not true. Someone must have done a better job than this, surely?
A Pocket Full of Rye
Agatha Christie
The setup was good but I didn't like the conclusion of this one. I feel it's an issue with Miss Marple's worldview. She doesn't like people. She thinks the worst of everyone and is usually correct. Her only joy is in proving she's smarter than other people (usually after going out of her way to make them think she's stupid). She only has two feelings about other people; pity and contempt. And because the book is written to confirm her worldview, everyone in it is pitiful, contemptible and deserving no benefit of the doubt. When it comes down to the point of figuring out who the killer is, it doesn't even matter because everyone is either awful or pathetic.
That said I did like the first half of the book, in which one is free to take the characters at face value and find them charming and pleasant, before Jane Marple shows up to let us know that they're all greedy, scheming and miserable.
Maddie Hatter and the Deadly Diamond
Jayne Barnard & Robin Robinson
Steampunk at its worst. The historical elements don't ring true and the "technology" is just magic. There's no real attempt to engage with either the social dynamics of the setting or with the how and why of the technology. Also the protagonist is bland and annoying. Did not finish.
Becoming Quinn
Brett Battles
Vile book. The message is simply that anything (eg. murder) is good and right if it's done by a competent professional with the backing of those in power. If the US government says to kill someone, and you do it neatly and professionally, then you're the good guy. But if you're a little careless, if you enjoy it too much, then you're the bad guy. That's literally the only difference between the hero of the story (Durrie) and the villain (Larson). And our other viewpoint character (Oliver) quickly comes to accept that his best friend needed to be murdered because she knew too much about the other murders they did. And hey, sometimes the American government needs to murder American citizens on American soil to cover up the other American citizens they already murdered also on American soil. That's just how the Real World works, because there are Bad Guys out there who would... I don't know? Kill Americans? Like the Good Guys are doing anyway? Fuck this book.
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, the mystery sucks. Oliver figures stuff out by magic. He spots the killers on security camera footage and knows they're involved because he just does, OK? He can't explain it and neither can the author. I think we're supposed to feel aggrieved when his superiors chew him out and throw out his work, but he has literally nothing. He just happens to be correct because he's magic.
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