This was a nice week for book reading. Don’t usually get this much time generally.
Finished The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid. I didn’t like the writing style initially but got used to as I read along. It’s a small book, just a little more than 100 pages. An umm… interesting read.
Got my copy of The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson. Really liked the book. It was a fun, light book. There was much less action than I was expecting, after reading the announcement of the book, but that didn’t make book any less enjoyable. Finished the book in two days, which I rarely get to do now.
Grave Peril by Jim Butcher. Book 3 of Dresden Files. I have just started it, but it’s the same Dresden Files. Nothing to say about that.
What have you been reading?
I would love to hear what you think about The Expanse. Have been looking for an interesting sci-fi series to start.
I hope I’m able to properly communicate my thoughts to you! Haha
Alright, so to start, it reads sort of like a tv show, in the way that every chapter we get a shift in perspective and what character we are following. It shifts between 2 narratives. Sort of like every chapter is a different episode. Perhaps I just don’t read enough, but this constant back and forth seemed a little odd to me in a written medium? Including the prologue, we get 3 different character POVs.
As for the pacing, it isn’t slow, but it isn’t fast either. I’d say it’s well-paced, but each POV seems to have a slightly different speed, where a chapter for one character could be just a typical day, the chapter for the next character could span a few weeks. This doesn’t interrupt the story much at all, and it really seems to only serve to enhance the readers immersion in this world and how fast or slow things move in space and “The Belt” as it’s called in the series.
Speaking of the world, so far, it has been built and established pretty wonderfully. 114 pages into the first book of the series, and the writer never seems to shoehorn in exposition into the narrative, but rather it’s, usually, a tasteful cutaway to a flashback of sorts that explains perhaps who they’re talking to/about, or what event happened to kick off a chain reaction and why, etc.
I have encountered 1 misspelling so far earlier in the book, and it’s probably just me, but it’s stuck with me since.
In terms of its actual writing and language used, the author uses basic, everyday language, with a few “$5” words sprinkled in that can sometimes cause confusion, although that could just be due to my limited personal dictionary. Overall, it doesn’t detract from the story, especially if you’re willing to take a moment to look up a word or 2 every couple chapters.
In terms of “sci-fi”-ness, so far everything the entire series has taken place either in the empty vacuum of space, or smaller stations scattered throughout the solar system. The way the author describes some everyday actions and activities, and their difficulty or impossibility in the altered gravity of space and/or space stations really sucks me into the universe as it makes me believe that even though these people are humans, they’re living an entirely different existence, with different rules.
I said a lot, especially for only being 114 pages into the first book, but it has sucked me back into reading, and I commend it for that.
Also, a few articles I’ve seen scattered across the internet when searching for other books in the series have called it “the greatest sci-fi series of the decade” for whatever that’s worth to you.
Oh, and they also have a “major” tv show based on the books.
Hope this comment answers a few questions for you :)
Thanks for such a detailed response. I know there’s a TV show based on the series, but I don’t know anything about it. I am going to look up the series on my next visit to the bookstore.