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thecaptainsquarters's reviews
2360 reviews
Superposition by David Walton
5.0
Ahoy there mateys. For some sci-fi fun! An author whose blog I read, named John Scalzi (if you don’t know him you should) has a segment called “The Big Idea” wherein as Scalzi puts it “What’s the Big Idea? Authors explaining the big ideas behind their latest works, in their own words.”
I heard about this book when David Walton wrote his Big Idea for Superposition in April 2015. Now normally a book which describes one of the factors of the book to be quantum physics politely gets ignored through no fault of the author. I barely passed high school physics, physics makes no sense, and I hate it. I mean if it is background to the plot then that’s one thing. But for some reason unremembered by me at this point, I decided to put it on my “to be read” list and then promptly forgot all about everything but the title. I now feel that the title should have re-clued my silly physics hating self about the physics involved (duh!). Having finished the book, I am glad I did.
The book was a fun romp into quantum physics that for a non-supporter was broken down well and overall easy to understand. It mentions Schrodinger’s cat which was one physics concept I loved and understood back in the day. I am not sure what hard-core physicists would think of it but I happen to know one as a friend and if he reads it ever, I will let you know. It also dealt with legal issues which having been a paralegal at points in my past entertained me heartily.
The main character Jacob Kelley is enjoyable and amusing in more ways than one. The other characters in the book are not as fully written but with no harm to the plot or book. The book also deals with the Pinelands in NJ which is currently home sweet home so that too tickled my fancy. I will definitely read the sequel which is out already.
If you want to read other reviews visit https://thecaptainsquartersblog.wordpress.com/
I heard about this book when David Walton wrote his Big Idea for Superposition in April 2015. Now normally a book which describes one of the factors of the book to be quantum physics politely gets ignored through no fault of the author. I barely passed high school physics, physics makes no sense, and I hate it. I mean if it is background to the plot then that’s one thing. But for some reason unremembered by me at this point, I decided to put it on my “to be read” list and then promptly forgot all about everything but the title. I now feel that the title should have re-clued my silly physics hating self about the physics involved (duh!). Having finished the book, I am glad I did.
The book was a fun romp into quantum physics that for a non-supporter was broken down well and overall easy to understand. It mentions Schrodinger’s cat which was one physics concept I loved and understood back in the day. I am not sure what hard-core physicists would think of it but I happen to know one as a friend and if he reads it ever, I will let you know. It also dealt with legal issues which having been a paralegal at points in my past entertained me heartily.
The main character Jacob Kelley is enjoyable and amusing in more ways than one. The other characters in the book are not as fully written but with no harm to the plot or book. The book also deals with the Pinelands in NJ which is currently home sweet home so that too tickled my fancy. I will definitely read the sequel which is out already.
If you want to read other reviews visit https://thecaptainsquartersblog.wordpress.com/
Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente
2.0
It is time to abandon ship me mateys! I am so very sad to have to abandon another ship. This trend of abandoning novels is starting to alarm me. This book had a cool concept including a murder mystery, firm noir, inhabited plants in our solar system, and even a prologue told from the point of view of a prologue. But I stopped and started reading this novel over 5 times and only made it to page 75 of 429. Okay . . . I will also admit that I did something even more out of character for me then not finishing the whole book. I also read the last chapter ::gasp:: from page 422 to 429 after getting stuck on 75.
You see, I thought that if perhaps the murder mystery ending part was interesting enough then I could make myself go back and finish it to see how the story wound to that conclusion. Yet again. Failure. I just did not find the story appealing. I mean the structure of the story was interesting. The story was told out of order with some chapters being film scripts, some being newspaper gossip articles, some being straight narrative, etc. The novel seemed more interested in playing with form than anything else and the plot was too disjointed. I could not even care about the characters. Shame too since so many people seem to love this author. This Captain could have done without.
If you want to see other reviews visit https://thecaptainsquartersblog.wordpress.com/
You see, I thought that if perhaps the murder mystery ending part was interesting enough then I could make myself go back and finish it to see how the story wound to that conclusion. Yet again. Failure. I just did not find the story appealing. I mean the structure of the story was interesting. The story was told out of order with some chapters being film scripts, some being newspaper gossip articles, some being straight narrative, etc. The novel seemed more interested in playing with form than anything else and the plot was too disjointed. I could not even care about the characters. Shame too since so many people seem to love this author. This Captain could have done without.
If you want to see other reviews visit https://thecaptainsquartersblog.wordpress.com/