Lucas Blogs About Books

SYMBOLISM! My feverish pursuit of MOAR content brought forth a new feature: Simplified Series. Here's the pitch: quick (mostly spoiler-free) synopses of the entries in a series followed by the reasons you should or shouldn't read it. This week: The Sea of Fertility tetralogy by Yukio Mishima Background info: In America, Mishima is probably as well known for the circumstances of his  death  as for his accomplishments as a novelist (he was also a poet, bodybuilder , dramatist , actor , three-time Nobel nominee , and of course, the founder of a right-wing nationalist militia).  The Sea of Fertility was his last major work, with the final volume being completed just before his attempted coup. It follows the life of Shigekuni Honda from 1912-1975 as he continually tries (and fails) to save the life of his childhood friend, Kiyoaki Matsugae, who Honda believes is doomed to die young and be reincarnated unless Honda can find a way to break the cycle. Spring Snow  ...

Oh, so that's what Link was saying. That's it, I'm at my limit! What is it this time, Hypothetical Reader? A kids' book was one thing, but the manga adaptation of a v ideo game ? Have you no shame? You know, even for a rhetorical device intended to give voice to my own anxieties about how others perceive me, you sure can be judgmental. Okay, okay, I have my guilty pleasures, too. Guilty pleasures? Who has time for that, enjoy what you enjoy, HR. Fine. So, what's this book's deal? You ever play Ocarina of Time on the N64? Of course. It's like that. You're the wors- JK LOL!!!! So, it has the same basic plot as the game, Link has to leave his home in the Kokiri Forest to meet Princess Zelda and fulfill his destiny as the Hero of Time. There are a few tweaks here and there, but no real surprises. The main difference is that instead of being the strong, silent type he is in the game, Link is quite talkative. This makes him more of a...

Shut up! I'm not crying, you're crying! Books can affect you in any number of ways. Sometimes they  introduce you to new ideas and make your world bigger. Sometimes they speak to something deep inside you and make you feel like someone else understands. Sometimes they just wrench your guts out and send a cascade of hot tears down your face and make you wish you hadn't started reading that chapter on the bus. East of Eden by John Steinbeck HERE THERE BE SPOILERS! When'd I read it?: This was an assigned reading book the summer before Advanced Lit & Comp in 11th grade. What's it about?: This is a big one. In the dedication Steinbeck says "Everything I have is in it, and it is not full." Part family history, part retelling of various stories from Bible,  East of Eden tells the stories of the (fictional) Trask family and the (real) Hamilton family (Steinbeck's mother's family). The Trasks seem doomed to relive biblical stories of brothe...

The Imperial Radch trilo - Hey! I see you trying to sneak in there, Provenance ! In my feverish pursuit of MOAR content, I'm proud to introduce you to my newest feature: Simplified Series.  Here's the pitch: A quick synopsis of the entries in a series I've read followed by the reasons you should or shouldn't read it. Easy, breezy, flying trapeze-y. The Imperial Radch series by Anne Leckie Here's some background info you may find helpful: The Radch is a space empire that uses starships and space stations with advanced AI. The larger part of their armed forces are made up of ancillaries, human bodies (often dissidents from conquered worlds) which have been taken over by the ship's AI to serve as soldiers. This, of course, destroys the original consciousness of the human being used as an ancillary.  Breq Ghaiad is the last surviving ancillary of the troop carrier Justice of Toren  (specifically, she is Justice of Toren One Esk Nineteen), which was destroye...

Illuminated throughout! Hold the phone! Are you reviewing a book for children? Ugh! Is this gonna be a whole thing, Hypothetical Reader? Aren't you in your thirties? Isn't this a legit children's book? Like for children too young to read YA? Well, the back cover does say "Ages 10 up" so I think I'm allowed to read it. Sorry, it's just, you know, with all these adults reading/watching/playing media marketed to children aren't we just dumbing down our culture and - You can just shove that concern-trolling nonsense up your ass. This blog is called "Lucas Blogs About Books." If I reads, it ledes. That's definitely not an expression, but o kay. So, what's this book's deal? The Inquisitor's Tale Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog  written by Adam Gidwitz and illuminated by Hatem Aly is the story of, well, three magical children and their holy dog. Gidwitz took inspiration from stories about medieval ...

All right, Hypothetical Reader, you may have noticed that I still haven't figured out what to put on here between the weekly review/article. Here's one idea, I could take what might otherwise be a listicle and turn it into a series of shorter blog posts? Clever way to spread out content? Or cheap shortcut? You decide. Books can affect you in any number of ways. Sometimes they  introduce you to new ideas and make your world bigger. Sometimes they speak to something deep inside you and make you feel like someone else understands. Sometimes they just wrench your guts out and send a cascade of hot tears down your face and make you wish you hadn't started reading that chapter on the bus. We'll start with perhaps the most embarrassing one: Star Wars: X-Wing 6 - Iron Fist  by Aaron Allston HERE THERE BE SPOILERS! When'd I read it?: I want to say maybe summer or spring break in 9th or 10th grade. What's it about?: Sixth in the X-Wing ennealogy (second in the...

DICK! Confession time: in high school and college, I was obsessed with Dick. Really? You're writing about one of your favorite writers, and you're starting it off with a dick joke? Oh, I didn't see you there, Hypothetical Reader. I thought I would handle this one on my own. What? You don't think I have anything to add to a discussion of the works of Philip K. Dick? Well, it's more that Philip K. Dick is one of those writers who looms large in my reading life so I thought that I might make this one a little more personal and a little less joke-y. I'll refer you to the first line of this post. Fair enough. Philip Kindred Dick (1928-1982) was a prolific and influential science fiction writer who published dozens of novels and over one hundred short stories in his thirty-ish year career. Outside of his writing he's probably best known for his struggles with drugs and mental illness. Inside of his writing, he's best known for intel...

Game recognizes game, as the young people say. Excellent face concealment! As you may have guessed from previous blog entries, my fiction reading habits tend toward genre and escapist material. However, as a non-fiction reader, these days I find myself more inclined to tackle subjects that are inescapably tied to the problems of the real world. So let's talk about Masha Gessen's The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia . Before reading this book, I knew Gessen mainly from her appearances on Full Frontal with Samantha Bee . So all I really knew was that she was a sharp-witted Russian journalist and activist who had fled the country. Having read the book, I now know that she is both a skilled prose writer and an excellent journalist. However, as the book is not about her, I had to do some quick googling to obtain a little biographical info for this review. Per Wikipedia: Masha Gessen was born into a Jewish family in the Soviet Union in 1967, but lived i...