Showing posts with label Orson Scott Card. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Orson Scott Card. Show all posts

Friday, December 9, 2011

Lost Boys

Lost Boys is both complex and easy to keep track of.  The creep who fantasizes about children and the mentally unstable man who thinks he's a god are both not the serial killer.  I expected it to be one of the two and was pleasantly surprised by it not being either.  Good job for not being predictable, Orson Scott Card.  One of the characters, DeAnne, grated on my nerves whenever the writing was centered around her.  She treated her children like idiots, was unnecessarily preoccupied with keeping them safe (read: not letting the children play near the part of the sidewalk that has a rain gutter on the curb because she's afraid they'll fall in), she got mad at her husband for no reason in particular, and never treated any of her children like human beings.  She is one of the protagonists, and this is seen as a normal, good thing to do.  I'm not quite an adult myself, so maybe I'm a bit biased, but it does not seem correct to act like childhood is analogous to drunkenness: a child is not to be believed or trusted, ever, has to be watched like a hawk to keep from being a complete idiot or getting themselves hurt, and often-times needs to be fed complete lies -- not on sex or graphic violence or anything many wouldn't mind being kept from children, mind you -- because they are too stupid to comprehend even the most simple things.  I really do not like DeAnne.  I read through the entire book hoping that she would be killed off.  Otherwise, it was a wonderful book.  The last twenty pages or so turned the entire plot around. 

Friday, November 25, 2011

Pathfinder

 Pathfinder has its own special brand of logic.  In Pathfinder, things that do not happen influence things that do happen.  Umbo went back and warned Rigg.  Rigg changed his actions.  Umbo then decided that he actually now didn't need to go back in time, because something that had happened when the warning wasn't in place now didn't happen.  It was a bit confusing, but I got the feeling that it broke logic up a bit.  Besides that, it was very well written, with an original storyline and several original elements in said storyline.