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Book Review Friday!: A new feature!

Sep 232011

This week sees the launch of a new weekly feature here at Undergopher Central: Book Review Friday! I’m going to be posting a few of my steadily growing number of book reviews from GoodReads and I invite others to do the same. I’d be more than happy to share your book reviews here as well. It would be great exposure because the site gets almost dozens of hits a month! :-p

Anyway I’ll be posting about three of these in no real order every friday until I end up like that guy from the one episode of Twilight Zone who had all the time in the world to read, then his glasses broke (and for some reason I remember his eyes falling out and his hands falling off). These are often short and to the point.
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Zogonia: Slice of Death by Tony Moseley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a fantastic, in-universe example of how most adventuring parties act, and is also a great comic. It’ss a shame that the author didn’t do anything after this.

The Vampire Encyclopedia by Matthew Bunson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As a Game Master, I’ve often found inspiration in the mythologies of the world. This book is a fantastic collection of the myths and stories of vampires from around the world.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this as part of my “read the classics” project and was fully expecting to hate it. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the dry humor throughout made it a pleasant read.

The Odyssey by Homer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Read this as part of my “read the classics” project for justifying an e-reader. It’s a little slow at times but is the grandfather of the fantasy adventure, so it can be forgiven for a few pacing issues.

View all my reviews
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These should get better with time and as I get better at putting my thoughts about a book together.

He Must Stop Where He Best Can or The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

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May 272010

I just finished reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain while on my daily lunchtime walk and had to restrain myself from immediately jumping into another one of Mark Twain’s novels. After all, there are only so many, and I want to save them to read after I finish books that might not be as enjoyable. I think that more than anything else should be the real mark of a great writer, being so good that your work is held in a kind of strategic reserve to wash away the ills of other, less enjoyable books.

Tom Sawyer is about the mischievous adventures of a boy and his friends get up to while growing up in a small Missouri river town. But along with pulling pranks and playing pirates Tom manages to do the right thing on occasion. The book does a good job of showing Tom’s character and craftiness all through out.

I’m pretty sure that my little reviews do a disservice to the books I read, and I think this one is the most disserviced out of the books I’ve read so far because I’m not an English major or a real book critic. I can’t wax poetically about the merits of a piece of literature the way someone who’s studied these sorts of things can. All I can really provide here is my stamp of approval, and approval I shall grant.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is a great read and I cannot recommend it enough.

And Fly, Not a Man of You Shall or The Odyssey by Homer

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May 012010

I got done reading The Odyssey yesterday and I’m much more impressed with this than I was with the Iliad. The flow of the story was a lot smoother. There weren’t whole pages that were just lists of people who died and their entire life’s story, so it wins almost on that fact alone, but the story is actually interesting. Around the middle of the book Ulysses tells his tale of woe on the high sea, and then quickly makes it back to Ithaca, where the story grinds a little, but had a satisfying ending.

Overall I give The Odyssey my seal of recommendation.

Well That Makes Sense or The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli

Reviews No Responses »

Apr 132010

I just finished The Prince a few hours ago and I wanted to give some time to soak in. I’m not sure that any review I give would do any justice to the work, mostly because I’m sure that some of the topics covered may have gone a bit over my head. In general terms it is about aquiring and keeping hold of power.

I’m generally positive about, because as I was reading through it there were several moments where things from the book triggered my “that makes perfect sense” response. I’m not a ruler of men or the king of a country, but I don’t think you have to be to get something out of this one. If there was one point above all that I took away from the book it was the necessity of self reliance and to avoid being hated, so two points there I guess.

The there are two translations of The Prince on Project Gutenberg, I would recommend going with the one I linked to and skipping the one that includes Machiavelli’s “The Art of War” as that translation uses an archaic english style of spelling that makes it the reading equivalent of pulling your own teeth.

I’m definitely going to go back and reread it again someday. I’m giving The Prince my seal of recommendation.

Everyone Gets a Backstory or The Iliad by Homer

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Mar 292010

I just finished reading The Iliad by Homer and I want to get this down while it’s fresh in my mind. More than anything this book was a major let down. From the epic story of the seige of Troy I was expecting something, well, more epic.

The story is a long, detailed, account of the beginning of the war. How detailed, you may ask, and what’s this about the beginning of the war? Well, a lot of people die in this story (as befitting a story about a war) but most of these people are not important to the story as a whole. They’re what we who play RPGs call NPCs. Most of the time these characters wouldn’t even get a name if they didn’t have an impact on a story. Homer, however, gives everyone a backstory, usually giving it after the poor fellow has already suffered a gilling blow, making it almost completely unnecessary. Also, the book doesn’t cover the actual fall of troy.

That’s right, no horse, no heel, nothing!

In the end I’m going to have to recommend that people skip this entry in the “best books ever written.”