John J. Vinacci

Having only read a short story of two from Murakami which were mundane to say the least, I’m not sure why I undertook the epic length of 1Q84. Yet I did and came to find the book is not without any merit. The prose of the much-ballyhooed novel certainly flows well-enough and I can say that I’ve never come across such an unusual plot before, even having read a good deal of surreal fiction; I love the book’s originality in that regard. I also enjoyed characters that are well-developed. However, I have a number of misgivings preventing me from finding this a satisfying read: For starters, Murakami is a writer for people who like their scenes explained in mind-numbing detail. That’s all well and good for some readers, but for others like myself its entirely frustrating. In 1Q84’s case, it often felt like Murakami was trying to meet a page count, where entire chapters did little – and on occasion – nothing at all to advance the story. There is also a great deal of sex throughout the book ...

It had been 23 years since I'd been in Europe. What would it be like to go back to visit a country that had escaped my presence all this time?  What Did I Like About Switzerland in General? Outside of the cities, and in the Berner Oberland close to the Alps in particular, Switzerland is an absolutely beautiful country. Full of rolling green pastures, luscious deep valleys, and steep, jagged, majestic mountains, the scenery can’t be beat. We were there in June during an unusual year weather-wise (so we were told by locals) yet despite the rain and clouds and humidity, we found the countryside not lacking natural charm. I can only imagine the beauty of it all during a snowy winter, but being adverse to the cold, I will leave that to my imagination. Personally, I also loved all the cows that traverse the countryside and while there’s the matter of the smell, I reminded myself that’s the price of amazingly rich soil that makes the vegetation vividly green. It made all the challenging...

I spent a year reading only sci-fi in an effort to explore new ideas and hopefully enhance my own creativity and writing skills. I certainly learned a lot about what to do and more importantly, what not to do when undertaking the task of writing fiction. I managed to read 12 books which for this slow reader is nothing short of miraculous. To summarize the books I've read in the past year, I've 'awarded' them below:  Best Overall: The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu Most Fun: The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi Weirdest: Blood Music by Greg Bear Hardest/Strict Sci-fi: The Mote in God's Eye by Niven and Pournelle Moodiest/Most Haunting: Solaris by Stanislaw Lem Most Riveting: The Martian by Andy Weir Most Unpredictable: All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai Most Over-rated: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin Best for Young Adults: The Loop by Ben Oliver Absolute Worst: The Employees by Olga Ravn

My last 'sci-fi' read of the year is the story of a time-agent, a person tasked with preventing criminals from taking advantage of time travel, getting stuck in the past and his 'rescue' after 18 years. Problem is, he is emotionally torn between the family he leaves behind in the past and the family from his proper timeline he returns to. In short, it's an emotional rollercoaster painted with a veneer of sci-fi shenanigans. And that's the book's main problem.  As a family drama, the book works well enough (though I surely wouldn't say 'gripping') and is generally well-written. I just couldn't get behind the overall story, though, because the book is billed as being sci-fi - given the element of time travel - but the time-traveling merely serves as a plot device whose particulars aren't given much thought by the author. This tended to make the book almost read like advanced Young Adult material than a thought-provoking exercise in sci-fi. ...

First, a synopsis from Amazon: " The Employees  chronicles the fate of the Six-Thousand Ship. The human and humanoid crew members complain about their daily tasks in a series of staff reports and memos. When the ship takes on a number of strange objects from the planet New Discovery, the crew becomes strangely and deeply attached to them, even as tensions boil toward mutiny, especially among the humanoids."  Apparently, this book had been shortlisted for several sci-fi book awards and honestly, I can't even begin to understand why.  As stated in the book's synopsis, each chapter is a report/statement from an employee aboard the Six Thousand Ship t o a corporate investigatory board concerning the attachment of the employees to 'objects' that are taken on the ship. What the objects are exactly is never stated. There is no particular character to root for. A murder mystery is teased but never properly addressed. There is no deep philosophical exploration (much le...

This was a fun read and a real page turner for me. All Our Wrong Todays is an alternate timeline/time-travel story warped by the crushing specter of personal despair and family drama. While I see this book as not being everyone’s cup of tea, its strength lies in the fact that you simply don’t know what’s going to happen next while our anti-hero, Tom, deals with what a fuck-up he is. (This is the really the only trope the book gives service to in a genre littered with tropes.) The book has some great lines, such as, “Every invention introduces you to the accident of that invention” and this goes for people, as well. If there’s a downside to the book, it would be that too often our (anti)hero is written in an immature and crass way with too much dialogue to reflect this and his inability to truly explore the philosophical implications of his actions. Tom, the (anti)hero is not someone we could admire but I believe he reflects that dark side of ourselves that we hate to admit exists somet...

 A man-vs-nature book set slightly in the future and on a different planet to boot, The Martian excels at something very particular: Making math relevant and accessible. Mathematical skills have never been my strong suit, but reading about an unintentionally stranded astronaut fighting to stay alive by having to do numerous calculations (that the story walks you through!) captivated me. Given our protagonist is a mechanical engineer and botanist with an everyman's sense of humor made astronaut Watney a character to root for when there are really no other characters to be found, not until more than a quarter of the way through the book. None of those characters are fleshed out, mind you, as this serves to keep the focus on 'the Martian' and this is a bit distracting as it makes the team at NASA working to save Watney caricatures. So, there is that flaw, while the eventual rescue attempt seem a bit rushed (yet thrilling nonetheless) and the book begins switching narrative pe...