The Golden Age

By John C. Wright.

A good old science fiction novel. Its been a while since I read any sci fi as the good books are getting harder to find. Long gone are the days when I'd read ten sci fi books back to back!

This one is fairly good. I feel a bit annoyed with it, because it doesn't say any where on the cover that its the first book in a trilogy, but it is and I have grown to loath the modern fetish for trilogy's. First because they take longer to read and this is a problem because they are often as not, tediously fleshed out with soap opera style story lines and second because they cost much more. I can understand why a trilogy would be desirable to the author, they get to wallow in their creation at ease and they get more money for doing so. They don't have to be nearly as creative either, because extrapolating existing idea's is far easier than generating new ones. For me, the reader though, its a bummer to be faced with three brick sized books, the actual content of which cannot compete with slim, back-pocket-sized novels like 'Rendezvous with Rama' by Arthur C Clarke or 'The Drought' by JG Ballard.

'The Golden Age' takes place in the distant future in a world which is utterly taken over by multiple layered artificial realities. The hero, Phaethon finds his memory has been redacted and the book follows his struggle to find out why. It reads okay, and is fairly understandable. Wright seems to know what he's talking about, which is fine, but he does have a tendency towards using big made up words, not all of which make sense (to me). Having discovered this is part of a trilogy, I've ordered book 2.
3/5



A Farewell to Arms

By Ernest Hemingway.

Maybe its just me, but I just don't seem to be able to read 'serious' American literature without getting thoroughly depressed, and disapointed. It happened with Steinbeck, Whitmann, Kerouac and now Hemingway. What the hell was wrong with these men!? They start off okay, with decent characters, entertaining prose and a few interesting idea's, then (usually about two thirds of the way through the narrative) they nose dive into nazel gazing oblivion before ending on as low a point as possible. Its as if they feel that in order to make a valid comment on life, they have to cut out any notion of humour and make the ending as depressing as possible!
2/5