Läs mina böcker på Storytel i sommar!
https://storytel.com/se/sv/authors/54725
VAERNEN DEN FÖRDÖMDE: Kommer 27 juli 2021
TERRA HEXA: Ute nu
DARC AGES / De mörka tidevarven: Ute nu
BLOD & SVIN: Kommer 26 juli 2021
HUNDRA TUSEN PIRATER: Ute nu
MONSTER I MASSOR: Ute nu
#boktips #lästips #sommar #böcker #litteratur #fantastik #nyheter #författare #skriva #skrivarliv #boktipsungdom #ungdomsböcker #sommarläsning #sommarboken
Länk: https://www.storytel.com/se/sv/books/vaernen-den-f%C3%B6rd%C3%B6mde-1330955
Book review:
DANSE MACABRE (1981) by Stephen King
A nonfiction work about the horror genre - literature, movies, television - plus revelations about King's own life and writing (before his much longer and more personal book ON WRITING).
This is a book for writers, packed with insights, and very amusing. If you want to get a little deeper into how horror is created, read it.
While somewhat rambling, one particular strength of DANSE MACABRE is how it analyzes a few key works in depth (such as Shirley Jackson's THE HAUNTING) - here you can hear Stephen King the schoolteacher at work.
The book is also quite funny. Highly recommended.
__
#bookstagram #fantasy #horror #stephenking #dansemacabre #writerslife #writing #writinglife #authorlife #writer #literature #bookreview #bookreviews #biography
#vampyrer #skräck #litteratur #satir #böcker
Book review:
MILITARY INTELLIGENCE BLUNDERS AND COVER-UPS (2004) by Col. John Hughes-Wilson
I'm fascinated by spectacular failures - the whys and hows of them. This book covers great failures to know, understand, communicate and analyze in war - and before war breaks out.
It's enlightening, and humbling, reading. People are not perfect, and the path to defeat is lined with faulty assumptions: "We have already won", "My opponent's reluctance to fight is a sign of weakness", "We know all we need to know", "Surely the enemy understands how we think", etc.
Even if you are not into military matters, this book will make you think about the problems with information flow that we are dealing with in all parts of society (even your day job!).
(FOOTNOTE: UFOs / UAPs have been in the news recently. Perhaps there's a lesson to be learned there about failures to communicate information that is deemed ”impossible”...?)
#war #history #failure #bookstagram #gulfwar #911 #fiasco #bookstagram #bokstagram #books #bookreview #bookreviews #bookcover #bookcovers #military #espionage
Fantasykammaren har intervjuat mig om bokserien "Darc Ages" / "De mörka tidevarven" som snart kommer ut på förlaget Saga Egmont.
Den kan du läsa HÄR.
If you know readers who like "The X-Files" and paranormal stories, tell them about...
PRECINCT 20: DEAD STRANGE Crime stories from an urban twilight zone amazon.com/dp/B07D32K8GQ
En liten "hint" om en kommande bok... som jag har skrivit.... som ska ges ut av ett större förlag. Mer information kommer snart...
Book review:
THE LONG
WAY TO A SMALL ANGRY PLANET (2015) by Becky Chambers
I read
this novel and as I soon grew bored with it, I kind of asked myself:
Am I the jerk here? The one who’s just small-minded and
petty and can’t appreciate the positive vibes in a story where so
many different characters can get along and be themselves and
validate each other? Surely that’s a message I could get
behind...?
But you see, in order to make a story engaging it’s
not enough to be right or good or decent. The Hallmark Channel is
decent, but I don’t want to watch it. It's not enough to have a
single message, even if I basically agree with it.
At the
point when the characters went into yet another heart-to-heart talk
about their feelings and how much they understood and supported each
other, I started to understand that these talks were really what the
novel is ”about.” The story didn't have to take place on a
spaceship, and the ”alien” characters wouldn't have to be
aliens.
Because all the main characters are really just there
to assist the principal protagonist – a rich girl who ”goes
slumming” among the ”charming and authentic” working class to ”find herself.”
(She is supposed to be from Mars, but
she is so obviously a white American upper middle-class
woman.)
Someone who had also read the book pointed out the
telling detail: This reads like fanfiction. Dead on target!
The lack
of plot, the overreliance on borrowed genre tropes, the all-too-human
”alien” characters, the myopic focus on relationships (in the
most watered-down sense), the anxious avoidance of genuine conflict
and tension between characters, the sex scenes... it all fits into
the cliches of fanfiction.
It's not that this novel
”challenges” me – I find it not nearly challenging enough. It
wouldn't even have to be violent! Just one outspoken conflict between
the characters would have been an improvement.
Just as an
example: The ”working-class” characters could have cornered the
upper-class protagonist with the tension and resentment that real
people can express:
”Hey, rich girl! Why don't you ask your
parents for help?”
Judging by the glowing reviews on Amazon
and Goodreads, this novel has a fan base. There may be many young readers who need to feel encouraged and validated through
fiction. They love this novel, and good for them.
If you're into this sort of ”cosy”
space opera aimed at teenagers, or if you like TV shows like FIREFLY, or read STAR TREK fanfiction, then I guess you could try it.
I'd prefer
something a lot more original and a lot less saccarine.
#bookstagram
#bookstagrammers #bookreviews #bookreview #books #literature
#sciencefiction #scifi #firefly #lgbtq #spaceopera #yabooks
#youngadult
(This text was previously posted on my Instagram account in January 2019.)
Book review:
STARSHIP TROOPERS (1959) by Robert A. Heinlein
There's exactly one segment in this novel that I think is genuinely good.
It's the passage where Heinlein describes in detail a "combat drop" - where the protagonist, a soldier in a future war against aliens called "bugs", fights in mechanized armor. The description of the armor and its user interface was so far ahead of its time, it seems advanced even today.
The rest of the novel is a tedious, dishonest bore.
I could go into the tedious political sermons, that feel like enduring the reactionary rants from a cranky relative during a family Christmas dinner. (Shut up, Uncle Ezra, nobody wants to hear what you think about bringing back spanking!)
I could go into the dishonest depiction of military life... the euphemisms and double-talk that obviously are intended to lull the reader into thinking war is a simplistic, bloodless boys' adventure.
But I want to emphasize how boring this book is. There's very little actual combat in it. Mostly it's about the antiseptic, unbelievably conflict-free military life between missions - and the sermons. Those idiotic sermons.
Heinlein could write good, even great SF stories. This just isn't one of them. Unfortunately, STARSHIP TROOPERS was a monster hit that spawned a whole militaristic sub-genre of SF... and the less said about it, the better.
(For your information: I did military service. My fellow recruits used foul language and did things that would make Heinlein's protagonist faint on a couch.)
If you want to read a good "Military SF" novel, try Haldeman's THE FOREVER WAR.
NOTE: The 1997 movie is like a send-up or satire of the novel. Heinlein would've hated it.
#robertaheinlein #heinlein #starshiptroopers #bookstagram #bokstagram #bookstagrammer #bookreview #bookreviews #bookcover #bookcovers #sciencefiction #scifi #novel #spacewar #classics #literature #reviews #books #paulverhoeven #movies #starshiptroopersmovie
