On "2001 - A Space Odyssey"

There's a time in my childhood - and it's a time which i was very fond of, when i climb up the roof of my house on a clear night sky, stargazing (something you couldn't really did in a metropolis city such as Jakarta for its smug cloud would reflect-back the artificial light of the city and made it glowing with hue-ish orange). Once, i had a dream of being an astronomer, looking ever outward, tried to comprehended the puny nature of our Earth against the vast vast vast size of the universe. At that time, and even more so nowadays, I believe that looking upward is one of the surest way to get closer to the Ultimate Ruler of the Universe. If, of course, you're a believer. Although, here, 'upward' is merely a relative perspective of view that we, human, are suffered from. For if you're free floating in an empty vacuum of space, where's exactly "up"? Toward the Sun?

Alas, since I had suffered (or rather, blessed in disguise) from an early age myopia, I never really had a full enjoyment of stargazing that even to spot some constellations (i couldn't even spot the most familiar Crux constellation) is a hard task. Shortly, i turned my attention into books instead. Despite that the fire of my dreams of become an astronomer could be said as good as died (and not that long time ago, if i may add. In 1999, i had given a considerable thought of writing "Astronomy" as my second choice after graduating from High-School. In fact, on several cram test occasions, i had put "Astronomy" as my second choice before finally, nearly on a last minute, i put "Computer Science" as my second choice instead. And here i am, a "Computer Science" graduate), whenever i read books about exploring the wide vacuum of space, i still felt goosebumps all over.

I stumbled upon Arthur C. Clarke's tetralogy of "Space Odyssey" through Stanley Kubrick's "2001 - A Space Odyssey" during my early day as a would-be film junky. Though time and again i had ascertained that sitting through the film is practically hard (i watched the film on three different occasions, and successfully fell asleep on all three, on the very same scene, that "ray of light" scene), reading the book provides an utterly different and opposite experience.

In the book (in the film as well), the best character, probably the only character worth mentioning is HAL 9000. A super-computer that runs the Discovery's daily routine up to its very miniscule details, computing the - quite possibly - complex mathematic formulas to determine everything that could be counted to its most little details. He (if a computer could be subjected to "he") did his job flawlessly at first, until his fault prediction on unit AE-35 started the downward spiral that turns HAL from a computer with a slight inner-personality to a killer maniac. Nevertheless, as all computers go, he is still determined that all of his actions were based with a pure logic.

However, i read the book again and again not for its characters but rather for its detail depiction on the physical surrounding space around that of the Discovery as it made its flight to Jupiter and Saturn with an unimaginable velocity of several hundreds of miles per second, and later, its depiction on imagined surrounding space around that of Dave Bowman's space-pod as it floated two thousand light years away from our Solar System as we know it.

Although that the book was a work of purely fiction, it nevertheless provides some breath taking sceneries of Jupiter and Saturn along with their satellites and many space-objects in between. It never failed to tickle my imagination whenever Discovery released one of its probe toward Jupiter, when Clarke described the magnitude scale of how the eternal storms in Jupiter were moving, in fact, how EVERYTHING is moving, or its vastness of scale. Or how the enigmatic properties of many moons of Jupiter or Saturn that hinted extreme conditions unimaginable to us, puny human "trapped" in the relatively comfortable atmosphere on a third rock from the Sun but also offers many possibilities that lie in wait to get unraveled. I could very much guarantee that if one claimed to love reading and curious enough about the nature of the universe, he would easily found the book as quite a pleasant and thought-inducing read.

Granted, in its core, the book and the film has a far more ambitions than merely describing the interstellar travel. All those magnificent space physics and planetary stuffs were arguably no more than just a backdrop. They proposed, or rather, imagined about the next stages of human-race's evolution. When you think about it, the conclusions of what happened next to David Bowman was thought-provoking. Clarke, a proclaimed atheist probing with the existence of intellectual occupants of the universe aeons before human even existed, acknowledging the existence of God, but providing it as a mere nod, or a homage if you will to these intellectual beings who occupies no physical appearance (thus, here, in the book, there's no such thing as a humanoid alien). When David Bowman re-emerges from his sleep, reborn as a "Star Child", an entity of powerful intellectual being encased within an immaterial, yet indestructible cocoon, it has powers beyond third dimensional based physics, beyond Space and Time that it was tempting to think that David Bowman has re-emerges as a lesser God, or one of the Gods.

The book, along with its three sequels, are among the books that i often read again and again. If anything, it enriched my knowledge (although merely an infinitesimal fraction) on space-related physics that i've always found something new every time i read the book again. For instance, in my latest visit, i spent hours studying in more details about "gravitational slingshot" Here, hours means until my head felt like it's going to explode. If in the future, should my kid shown even a little interest toward the sky, i'd helped as much as i could and this book is definitely among one of the thing i'd introduce to him/her as early as possible.

The Ruins (Scott Smith)

Book review. I've heard a saying, though i don't remember whence or whom, but it goes something like this, "Writing a story is easy. Create a character, put him/her through hell, and you've got yourself a story". The Ruins basically follows this simple rule. Create characters, put them through hell. For all it's worth, The Ruins provides a light and quick read that even if it's 500 pages long and no chapters, it could easily take eight hours of your time to read this book in one sitting.

Jeff, Amy, Erik and Stacy were friends. They spent their vacation time, leisurely and lazily in Cancun. They befriended Mathias, a German tourist, and three Greek tourists who identified themselves as Pablo, Don, and Juan. Mathias was waiting for his brother, Heinrich whom adventuring to some archeological Ruins deep in the jungle. When one day Mathias receives a note from Heinrich, the four friends, Mathias and Pablo seeks out an adventure to look for Heinrich. Little does they know that they were about to put through hell by Scott Smith.

It felt like an episode of Survivor where people were put in a confined space, isolated from the outside world. The only catch is, that the game was death-threatening, and pain was the very least of their problem. I don't care about the origin of the Ruins or some scientific or mystic explanation about it. This book is about surviving, how the men and women depicted in the book forced to adapt with harsh environment away from comfort they used to know. The book was horrifying at times, and depressing most of the times, it must be noted that ones who read it should've been familiar with, or at some point, love horror stories that its sole purpose was to made you flinch and look away. Even so, with a comment from Stephen King on its jacket, the horror-nature of this book should be recognized right away.

It's been quite a while since "The Stand" that i read a book not just for a killing time activity, and couldn't really put it down unread. I was up until 3 a.m on a working day reading this book. And even if, in my opinion, the ending might seem a bit turn-off for most people out there, for me, it is the most appropriate way to end a horror story like this.

The Ruins has been adapted to a film, and it actually one of the main reason i bought this book in the first place. Wonder how's the film would end.

Book Review - Velocity (2005)

Dean Koontz' Velocity. Book review. Velocity manages to keep the flow of events in the book live up to its title. It's fast-paced action, with some expected (or not) twists and turns around the way. The thriller was on a personal-level and the whole prominent events in the book were happened in no more than 48 hours time.

Meet Billy, an aspiring writer and a bartender who just did his job on a perfect monotonous routine. His wife was in her fourth year of coma, and his life is pretty much ceased when he got home either from his job or from the Nursery house where his wife laid in comatose. One day, he found a typewritten note on his windshield. It reads as follows If you don't take this note to the police... I will kill a lovely blond schoolteacher... If you do... I will instead kill an elderly woman active in charity work. You have six hours to decide. The chooice is yours. His first initial thought was of course that the note is no more than just a sick joke. A very very unfunny joke. But of course, as the first victim fell, and the note was only the first of many, things become serious to this one particular civilian.

I've always wonder in amazement that somehow most thriller books which examines the thrill on a personal level always seems to evolve around writers. Check many Stephen King's books. It would seems to me that the real writers behind these thrillers felt that their life was too bland and decides to put some thrill to theirs, imagining all nasty things, and poured it to written words.

Velocity is a fun reading, well at least, to me, for two-third of its portion. It has violence, it has puzzles, and it has disturbing images (which of course, entirely up to your imagination on how disturbing the images really were). However, my only problem with the book is that i couldn't sympathize with the main character at all. And not because he has a disturbing past, no, not that at all. Even before i had suspected that he is not what he appears to be, i found little love toward him. Sure, he is a good-natured home boy, sure, he loved his wife to a point where his insistence of keeping her alive, should be saddening. I was using the word 'should' because frankly, i don't feel anything which i pretty much suspected due to my inability to sympathize with the main dude. It's just nothing really special with this Billy, nothing that could reach out from the pages toward me.

All in all, the book wasn't too shabby at all and i would think that it won't disappoint Koontz' long-time fan. It was a light reading anyway. An avid reader should be able to read it through and through in a night. I've read better, though.

Book Review - Reflex (2005)

Regarding Jumper series, i had read the first book, seen its first adaptation, and had a pretty much different opinion toward both. Thereore, my initial reluctance toward the second book was very justified. However, it's turned out that given the familiarity with both the prominent characters from the first book, i couldn't put down the book and finished it in a go until 2 a.m on a working day.

Reflex published twelve years after the first book, and the event depicted in this book happened eleven years after the conclusion in the first book. David Rice, the only teleporter known in the world was married to Millie Harrison. Millie wants a child, Davy doesn't. The book begins with the argument amongst both. After leaving Millie on their shelter (which mostly inacessible via normal means except by teleporter), David went to see his NSA handle. When Davy doesn't return for a couple of days, Millie's anger turns to fear as what force could stalled a teleporter like Davy where no prisons could contain him? For the length of the book, the chapters alternating between Davy and Millie. Davy tries to unraveled the mystery behind his containment, and Millie discovers that after being the second most frequent person to experience teleport, she was able to teleport as well. Honing her newly acquired skill, she tries to unravel the clues to search for her missing husband.

Steven Gould, as much as i shunned him for his involvement in writing the film version of Jumper manages to provide a convincing reasoning to established the turn of events in this book, and for the most part keep the book as a light and a quick action-packed story which had it turns into a film, would be a lot more easier and exciting than the first book. The only new important character to introduce in this book was the nemesis and he doesn't take a lot of space and quite frankly, not interesting enough to demand more development and therefore made the other characters, characters we know and love from the first book (given that you loved the first book, of course, if not, well, then bother) considerably had more attention. It would seems to me that Steven Gould knew that in every successfull series, the first book was merely act as an introduction, whereas the second book is where the fun really begins. Well, usually.

There's however one scene that made me frown. This scene is so peculiar, so out of context that it would seems to me that Steven was bragged about his knowledge about cults and beliefs of Central American people. When i read it for the first time, i was brimming with anticipation that somehow Davy, had his skills because he's the last of his tribe, or something with similar exotic feels like that. Alas, even after the book concludes itself, all that knowledge - if it is a real knowledge, and not some of Steven's fruit of imagination - feels more and more like a filler with almost to zero importance to overall of the story.

The story also features a highly intricate intrigue involving governmental agencies that actually more suitable to a spy-fiction novel.

For a literary work, i would recommend this book only given the premise that you liked the first book. Read it or ignore it, you won't missed a thing. Reflex would be more enjoyable if you had read Jumper first. But you don't need to read Reflex if reading it was merely for the sake of continuing the serie.

American Gods (Neil Gaiman)

American Gods. Book Review.

"I just keep thinking about Thor. You never knew him. Big guy, like you. Good hearted. Not bright, but he'd give you the goddamned shirt off his back if you asked him. And he killed himself. He put a gun in his mouth and blew his head off in Philadelphia in 1932. What kind of a way is that for a god to die?"

In American Gods. Neil Gaiman takes various myths, Norse, African, Welsh, Egypt, Indian (or Native Americans) stirred them together into a tale that once you get passed the first few pages of it, sucked you in a war between the Old Gods and the New Gods upon the American soil. It's philosopic, an ambitious tale to tell, something that in a much much much lesser degree of it, a story that i'd been trying to write myself - a realization that quickly dampen my spirit as sure as a terrible rain storm did to a cellar rat with no means of shelter whatsoever. But of course, Neil Gaiman is one of the few gifted writers that i've known nowadays and who am i to kid and pretend that i could fit in his shoes? Or any writer's shoes in that matter. It takes a talent to write, and it sucks when you wishes to write and realized that you simply had not the talent.

Anyway, what i liked the most about "American Gods" - and i had liked every little bit of it - is that almost in every transition between chapters, Neil Gaiman wrote a small intermezzo pieces that takes various culture and their respective beliefs, often sets in a time long forgotten - or in a time not very much far away from where we're at. These small intermezzo pieces were in itself, a complete short-story that should it be collected into a published copy, it would sell. These stories sometimes terrifying and disturbing (such as the tale of a twin Haitian slave separated at child), sometimes taken on a personal level (such as the tale of an Arabian NY cab driver), and sometimes taken on a mythical level (such as the tale of a northern Tribe in the year 14,000 B.C). All these tales, in my opinion point out to a same general theme that i believed was what Neil Gaiman's wishes to point in this epic, that various cultures went to America and there, their Gods, once believed and enshrined within each of their hearts, were forgotten.

I had taken a liberty to quote the late Douglas Adams from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that "without faith, God couldn't exist". In "American Gods", these Gods, Old Gods, excluded and forgotten for the lost of faith of their believers had turn into a sentient beings, had plotted a risky and probably last effort vying for domminance in a mortal world with the New Gods - which includes a most unlikely and amusing 'Gods', such as God of Media, and God of Internet - through the eye of a seemingly mortal man, Shadow, who as oblivious to the ordeal behind the war brewing as us the audience of this epic tale. But, as Shadow progresses into the story, gaining understandings, so does the readers. It's a convenient means to tell a story, if you asked me. Had i tried to write something that generally hard to imagine, i would put one main character who doesn't know anything about this something and gradually unveiled the shroud of mystery that surrounds it. Therefore, as my character understands and probably triggered events that would ended the story, my readers would gained the same understanding as well. This was the manner or should i say, the role of Shadow in this book. Besides, Shadow is a likeable character, it was easy to like him, to share his griefs, and to celebrate his glories.

All in all, "American Gods" is an epic tale gracefully touching various almost-religious subjects, contemplating in Gods - i'm a believer, therefore, i pluralized the word "Gods" to denotes that by no means, the "Gods" in this book were the same entity with the God i believed in - and their respective waning as the faith from their followers subdued. Despite the "Gods" subject however, the book was unmistakenly fiction and it shouldn't be resulted in any feeling above the fun feeling when one's read a good book.

No Country For Old Men

No Country for Old Men. Book review. First thing that immediately came to mind about this book was its excessive usage of the word 'and'. Never before had i read so many ands in a sentence in a book. For example, i took these words verbatimly from page number 140 in the book. 'The man unlocked a drawer in the desk and took out a steel of box and unlocked that and took out a card and closed the box and locked it and put it away again'. That's six ands in a single sentence. Second, as a non-English speaker, i felt that Texan-accented English is a single hardest accent for me to hear. And i considered myself pretty good at hearing English. However, i had never thought before that reading them was not an easy feat as well. Most people in this book used the accent and i found myself sometime, reading them out-loud so i could understand them. And third, but probably it's just the version i got, there's no punctuation in this book. It's a minor prob though, but there's a time when i had no idea who did the talking and had to trace back the conversation to restore the understanding. Well, maybe it's just me and my ultra-short attention span.

Aside from that, as i've seen the film first, there's not that much differences between the film and the book. For the most part, it's almost scene-per-scene. However, as with most film adapted from the book, small details are definitely bond to varied. I counted at least two additional significant characters existed only in the book, as well as at least two significant scenes involving these characters. There also some separate scenes in the book that in the film were merged into a single or a reduced scene. One such important scene is where Sheriff Ed Tom Bell narrates his meeting with Moss' father, and another that in a timeline, had happened after the film had ended.

Further, in my opinion, where as the film seemingly had the conflict between Lleweyn Moss, an old good boy, a Vietnam veteran who happened to pick a case full of money from a drug-deal gone bad with Anton Chigurh, a representation of evil who wishes to retrieve the case as its main course, the book definitely had the old Sheriff Ed Tom Bell as its main course. He narrates the book, providing a personal insight of what old men such as him, and other in his generation thought about the country in which they had lived and served, and of the changes the country had seen with the shifting of time, and how, in the end, that there was simply 'No Country for Old Men'. And in this respect, the film and the book was different, as each had simply gone to their own direction. And therefore, in my opinion, it is best to judge the book and the film separately. If you liked the film, doesn't really means that you're going to liked the book as well, and vice versa. I myself, loved the film, because of the character Anton Chigurh, probably - though there's no way i can be sure of it - just like the Coen Brothers had intended in a first place. And i loved the book because of the character Sheriff Ed Tom Bell. The character Anton Chigurh was to my surprise, i found as a simple backdrop in the book, almost insignificant if compared to the character Sheriff Ed Tom Bell. Whereas the film provides a character to deliver its message, the book provides the message to deliver its character. And if i seen it from this point of view, the book gave a truer meaning to its title, 'No Country for Old Men' than the film. Therefore, i held the book in a slight superior quality than the film.

Bringing Down the House

This post was intended to mean as a review to a book, Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions by Ben Meizrich. However i had written several words of contemplation to my youth long gone before really proceeding with the book.

Math is a magnificent subject. And i'd like to have a privilege of self-indulgence (i wrote this post, anyway), by saying that back in a High School, i was pretty good at Math. Well, actually, Math is the only subject that i really cared about back then. I was practically terrible at Biology and Chemistry, often relies to memorizing things rather than to understand things, I was especially good at English, doesn't cared much about Bahasa or any other social studies for that matter. Just so-so at Physics (in fact, i only cared - and subsequently, aced - when it comes to Mechanics). But, i was pretty good at Math. But of course, you know how it is in High School. There's a certain myth that if you're good at Math, then you're good at anything. Seeshh.. Anyway, that kind of myth had propelled my popularity back then. Ah, those days. And i was in a band, playing lead-guitar for a heavy-metal induced band, had a ruffling almost-shoulder-length hair, NEVER carries a bag (my home was a short-distance away from school, carries a bag is not an option. I prefer to carry one universal notebook which i used to write EVERYTHING down, and a pen stuck in my back pocket, i put all of my textbooks at the school's mosque), a terrible but good-runner left defender at soccer game, and an avid PlayStation RPG gamer, in a way, i was a nerd, but unlike those nerds as portrayed by our television. Gah! I detest them!. But, whenever i return to school's reunion, one thing that seemingly stuck in my friend's head about me. A straight-A student. A fuckin' smartest-kid in town (sadly, supported by known fact). I was flustered whenever i heard that comment, since it implies at least two-things that were expected of me. 1) I had a lucrative job, with a bright career ahead of me, and 2) I had a tall, sexy, blond woman who cared about nothing but my wealth as a wife. I was, of course, as of now, had neither.

Anyway, pardon me for jumping back in the lane of time, i just happened to question my direction of life quite often lately. I mean, i had passed my twenty-something birthday a couple of months ago, and i still don't really know what i want, or what i desire. And with the end of 2007 looming ahead of me, i grew anxious about the future even more.

However, there's also often a false misconceptions about what Math truly is among the full-of-spirit teenagers (at least in my time). Many of those i knew often asked trivial questions about how impractical for them to study limits, integrals, number theories, statistics, trigonometry, and so forth. They (i was among them, actually) wondered about how Math is going to help them in their career, in their life, and so forth. In fact, it boggles down to one thing. Practicality.

Bringing down the House - hey, we finally get into the real post - is a book, a non-fiction book about some MIT students who win millions at Blackjack by practicing a simple card-counting method. The book made a reference to Rain Man where Dustin Hoffman's character was a savant who could easily remember cards through six decks, thus improved his odds greatly during a card game.

The card-counting method depicted in this book, is more about a statistical method, improving the odds of a player to win, thus reducing the risk, and most importantly, it relies on a team play with various roles. Spotter who bet at minimums, counting the cards as they did so, and when the count is favorable they signaled another player who bet at maximum, a good actor, and a master at counting cards. The Spotters usually lose, but since they bet at minimum, their losses were much covered with the Big Player whom they signaled in when the play is favorable who bet at maximum. And then some. It was an enjoyable read, if you like to know how to make money quickly by gambling, and had a particular interest in general Math, this book is worth the time reading. But, of course, it's easy to see as well, that the author of the book was not in favor for its reader to try the methods by themself.

The book will soon hit the theater with Kevin Spacey and Lauren Fishburne. And to differentiate from the 2003 film Bringing Down the House (Queen Latifah, among others), the film would be titled '21' which of course mean the highest profitable number in the game of Blackjack.

Jumper

Book Review. Jumper told about David Rice, an adolescence boy who forced to be grown before his time when his mother left him in care of his abusive, alcoholic father. In a midst of his stress, he had discovered an ability to transported him elsewhere in an instant to any place as long as he remembered the place exactly. And by discovering so, he decided to leave his dad, went to New York City, and started a new life.

The book make light of the ability by introducing the ability right at the first sentence of the book. From there, the book could be roughly divided into three parts (in my opinion, anyway). Mystery (with a stench of Tragedy perhaps), in which Davy had to start a new life from scratch in New York City with no identity, no money, and no relatives whatsoever. This is the part where i came to hate Davy, since he often spent his time crying, angry, and whining about everything that had happened to him. Although of course, when your Mother left you in care of abusive, alcoholic and had a serious tendency to hit you with a belt-buckle for a slightest mistake father, AND almost got raped by three truck-drivers, you would most likely end up as negative as Davy, maybe worse. However, he had my love when he was shown that he loved books so much that in single scene, at one of his tantrum, he threw the book across the room, only to expressed his regret in doing so later on.

The second part was my favorite, a Drama, in which Davy found a solace in form of Millie Harrison, a college girl three years older than him. It took nearly a third part of the book, in my counting, to give way to a relationship between the two. At the end of this part, there's probably one of the best - if not the best - break-up scene i've ever seen or read in a long while (and i read a lot, seen a lot) that it almost made me cried. I had more connection with Davy in this part, since i saw myself the most clearly in him. He loved to read and often escapes to book to escape the social duties he found dreading and too judging for his taste. I was prefer my solitude as well, and small circle of friends, and often spent my weekend reading or dreaming rather than socializing. Moreover, i saw myself in him as well, in the sense that when he loved someone, he loved her for what she was, a solace, an oasis, close enough but never too close to demanding. Always there for comfort, but never there too much to infiltrate his inner privacy. I could read clearly that Millie Harrison is the perfect girl for him as my recent gf is the perfect girl for me. Therefore, when the break-up scene occurred, i felt Davy's distress, anger, and sadness because i know that that what was going to happen to me when i broke my heart. This part was also when his search for his long lost Mother came to fruition, and later, become the trigger to what would happened in the third part of the book.

Unfortunately, the third part, is the worst of all parts, when the book took into Action/Thriller. I skipped a lot of paragraphs doing the part, skimming his final confrontation with his nemesises (yes, plural) and his Dad. I had high hopes during the second part only to be smashed down by the cliche-ness of the third part. The author doesn't surprise its reader as well, by giving me, us, a nice wrap-up ending that satisfied all major characters. No surprises there, and the book ends in a flat note.

Jumper spawned a sequel which arrived nine years after the first, i just read several first paragraphs of the sequel and had decided to read something else instead. The film version of Jumper will hit the theater at early 2008. Well, actually, the film would only borrow the title and the 'jump' essential, in fact, Steven Gould was writing altogether new script for the film and would largely involving the government-conspiracy kind of thing.

See also:
- Jumper (film)

Monstrous Regiment: Book Review

To have your own custom world is a very convenient thing if you're a writer. You could take very much anything that happened in the real world, and re-imagine it as if it's happening in the world you've just created and had a story of your own. Further, you could tackle even the most sensitive subject (such as religions, politics) and re-told the story without offending anyone. It's very convenient. But of course, in order to do so, you have to really creates a world, apply their custom rules, creates its inhabitants, and creates its history, which of course, wasn't easy. At all.

"Monstrous Regiment" had its own little history behind its title and it was yet another Mr.Pratchett's story that took the world of Discworld as a backdrop. In short, it was about women's participations in a war with some little take on religion.

In Borogravia, where its inhabitants embraces a god called Nuggan, who decreed (among other things) that the colour blue, chocolate and sneezing are Abominations, a war was raging. Polly Perks decides to go into the army in an effort to find her brother Paul, and went into an army as Oliver Perks which was of course an Abbomination into Nuggans as she needs to cut her hair, wearing a pants (with a pair of socks), and swaying, and spitting, pretending that she was a man. Little does she knew that the regiment she was enlisted into, consisting of (among others) a coffee-addicted Vampire, a Troll, an Igor, a rather funny-in-the-head Liutenant with hints of dark history, a utterly-religious private, and a private with peculiar fascinating in fire.

Granted, making people laugh is a hard task. Especially if you means to do so through written words. It's a rare occassion for me to laugh, and even more to actually stop reading to stifled my laugh, but, with Mr.Pratchett's works that i've read so far, has never failed to do so. I was having a really funtime laughing especially at the earlier parts of the books where Polly makes her research and observation to how men's talked, cursed, swayed, and more importantly, spitted. It was also a fun ride when Polly adjusting her role as Private Perks and quickly gaining ranks through various incedental occurences.

However, as with other Mr.Pratchett's works that i've read so far, the half-end of the book weren't exactly as fun.

Once, the book finishes introduction and delved deeper into the more-serious territory, the reads become harder. Not only because Mr.Pratchett's was British (in my opinion, British English is far more difficult than the US English, quite probably because i used to US English more than British through entertainments), but because there were too many to my liking cross-references, and subtlety that sometimes i would read a passage several times before truly comprehending what the men were trying to hint at. Therefore, it was a particularly hard for me to finish the book.

Aside from that, it was pretty interesting in how Mr.Pratchett expresses his words on the role of women in times of war, in an occupation best known as a 'man-territory'.

Also see:
- Discworld
- Terry Pratchett

My rating: ** / ****

Ptolemy's Gate (2005)

The final trilogy of the self-loving djinni Bartimaeus told in parallel the similar relationship development - albeit in different extremes of each other's perspective - between the djinni and its master at different times. Ptolemy in the age of ancient Egypt and Nathaniel in the age of 'modern' London. In the end, the fate of this relationship ended in a resembling similarity almost at the same time as the book reaches its finale.

The book follows yet another rather uncommon relationship between a djinni named Bartimaeus and its master, a young, ambitious, and always in constant risk of losing his allies, and life, Nathaniel. Following the events in the previous books, London was again in a danger. The civic unrest when young males - magicians and civilians alike - were sent to America waging the Empire's fruitless war. Meanwhile from within the Empire itself, the Resistance - albeit loses many of its fiercest warriors over the course of two books - keep whispering and occassionally causes minor unrest throughout the streets of London. Kitty Jones, one of the (former) prominent figures of the Resistance, worked from behind the shadow of her past this time. Yet another figure, a figure who on previous books hid behind the shadow was consumed by greed and plotted an altogether different schemes to toppled the Empire from within. Nathaniel, Kitty, and Bartimaeus must settled their differences and worked together to restore the Order of the Empire.

I've heard a lot of people shows their expression in a rather emotional way - in a very good way, i must add - about the ending. That would only means that Mr.Stroub had been doing his job really well, by pulling his reader to a whirl of emotional wailing, "oh, why it must've ended that way?". I say, if the book ended in another way, i would be very disappointed. This is the end of a trilogy, and this is how the trilogy should've ended. Brilliant.

My rating: ***1/2 / ****

See also:
Book Review: The Amulet of Samarkand
Book Review: The Golem's Eye

The Golem's Eye

The successor tale to the wicked - or rather, resourceful -, self-loving djinni doesn't disappoint. Following the event of the first book, sets two years apart, some characters that had previously side-stepped and mentioned in a sort-of just-passing manners to gave the much more appropriate spotlight to the main plot (the Amulet of Samarkand), returned with more prominent roles in this second installment.

Just like its first book, the second book, again, centered around the struggle for power. Ah you know, those sort of things, when a ruler's power began to wane, and some candidates (those who had the potential to be the ruler, and more dangerously, those who thought had the potential to be the ruler) raced, openly and often - and more interesting to turn into a story - devious and mischievous, to wield the power. And our protagonists - sort of -, trapped within.

Still wielding the same story-telling technique, the book again acquainted with the self-loving djinni, Bartimaeus, his young master, Nathaniel, who after the event in the book one, earns himself a respected position at the ministry, a respected position that was seen by his peers with awe and envy. Ah, you know how it goes, there are some - and even more so in the literature world - who doesn't like you because simply you're smart and your career advanced faster, much faster than his. The same goes with Nat, some people watches his career closely, and quite easily would love to see him fail and humiliated. It's a man eat man world.

And so, the trouble brewing, some commoners (non-magician) under the flagship of Resistance tried to topple the Ministry of Magic, and as Nathaniel was given the responsibility to unfold the Resistance, his neck was soon on a chopping block after the Resistance seems growing bolder and caused more havoc than ever in the London street, and then there's this mysterious, shadow-shrouded power-house monster that seems invulnerable to magic, caused more chaos, and - oh yes, there's always more - someone or some party broke into the top magician's tomb and had unleashed the afrit - a powerful entity even stronger than djinnis - within. Our 'hero', Nathaniel, and his djinni, Bartimaeus soon entangled within. He - our hero - had his own theories, and of course, the ministry won't believe him and he was backed with none save his own djinni who obviously more interested to save his own skin and get out off the world as soon as possible.

I liked the book even more than its predecessor, because, first of all, there are no single prominent protagonist. Nathaniel? Oh, he's corrupted with desire for power already (i had pointed out in my review of the first book that he reeks of seven sins, and even prominently so in this book). Probably the only good guy (not girl, i would come to it later) in this book is our djinni, Bartimaeus. But, as he thought more about himself more than any others, he would save his own life before even thinking to save other's. And then there's Kitty Jones, the member of the Resistance. She had show up in the first book, made a brief acquaintance with Nathaniel and Bartimaeus in different occasions. If Nathaniel's innocence and altruism sometimes shown up subtlety in the first book, in this second book, it was Kitty's who took that part of innocence and altruism. So yeah, you had one good guy, and good girl. For now.

The book ended in an appropriately safe manner. I mean, we know - or rather, we wanted - the figure who was pulling the strings of most events happened in the book, and Mr.Stroud has given us so. Expected ending, but also a promise was made about the final book. I haven't read the third book, but this book really really worked as a cliffhanger episode between the first and the third. And i did mentioned that almost every trilogy's best was at number two. According to my taste and preference, at least.

I really loved the last dialog exchange between Nathaniel and Bartimaeus. It hurts so much, and mounted to a subtle emotional feeling between Bartimaeus and Nathaniel, but not the other way around in which that's why it hurts so much.

My Rating: ***1/2 / **** (Getting better, much better, i recommend this trilogy to any self-proclaimed book-worm. And it has been translated to Bahasa Indonesia anyway).

Stardust

Neil Gaiman is a man whose works, shorts or longs, written or in motion were somethings i saw with grudgingly envious manners. Imagine it this way, you were top of your class for several years in a row, when suddenly this new kid, younger, more handsome, toppled you from the top that easily. And since, in any given game, there'd be only two positions, Winner or Loser, after comfortably in a Winning position, being a sudden Loser is not something that would reined in happily. That's what i felt when i read Neil Gaiman's. His works demonstrates a skillful story-telling (grudge number one), dealt with fantasy and magnificent imagination (grudge number two), and finally crosses many boundaries that his works is sometime frightening (grudge number three), and sometime humorous (grudge number four). Granted, making people laugh or scared by means of written words were not an easy feats. But yet, on more than one occassions, Neil Gaiman's works inspired fear and ignited chuckles in me.

"Stardust" (now a motion picture) is a lighthearted fantasy written works in the form of graphic novel, accompanied here and there by beautiful illustrations by Charles Vess, and suggested for mature readers. Sets in rural English village and a fantasy Faerie land, chiefly dealt with Love and a man's quest to attain such Love. It was peacefully started, and also peacefully ended. The story itself was no stranger, almost akin to many bedtime stories that always seems to begin with "Once upon a time..." and always seems to end with "Happily ever after." True enough that "Stardust" begins with sort of "once upon a time..." and ends with a sort that quite passable as "happily ever after". But, the various reference (and rather graphic visualization) of sex and murder made "Stardust" none too wise a choice as a story to read to your kids. You might would have guessed how the story would end halfway through the story. But nonetheless, the execution of how the story was ended at the Epilogue suggested a remorse and a pang of sadness, that actually, in a way, rather marred the "happily ever after" part. But, well, you see, it was still a "happily ever after" - if you hadn't read the Epilogue part, that is - only the kind of "happy" that has been reached its "ever after" part, and thus had exhausted itself.

I haven't seen the film, as it had generated significantly less buzz even though there were prominent names in the film (Robert DeNiro, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Claire Danes). I haven't seen it in local theaters, and no words of when the film would actually arrived, though it has been released for quite a while.

My rating: *** / **** - Simple and plain read.

The Amulet of Samarkand (2003)

I had read many books than ever lately. If a year ago, not a night went by without me goggling on the screen to watch films, new and old, nowadays, reading a book was the very last thing i did before i drifted to sleep, and reading a book was also the very first thing i did when i woke up from the slumber. My bed was always littered with books, and more often than not, i sleep with my MacBook opened closely beside me. I read many books at once, well, one at any given time, certainly, but never really comitted to finish any book at any given time. For instance, i'm currently in the middle of reading Terry Pratchett's Monstrous Regiment, Robert Jordan's The Path of Daggers - can't believe that he's already dead, really -, Stephen King's Lisey's Story, and George RR Martin's A Clash of Kings. All save Stephen King's horror flick was fantasy. But, even if i had only begun reading it yesterday, i had finished Jonathan Straud's The Amulet of Samarkand.

It was in 2003 i believe. I was obsessed with demonology and thinking of starting a fantasy series loosely based on their (demon) stories, and just like any other plans that i ever had, i never really comitted to see it through - not a good habit, i know, been thinking to change it for a while, but it always seemed that i still can't get around the problem as of yet. However, for a short period, i had adopted the name Vassago - one demon that i could very much relates to, and of course, since at the time, i read Dean Koontz' Hideaway which features a notorious serial killer that called himself Vassago -, used it for some time in various message-boards, and even went as far as memorized its intricate complex pattern of his sigil. I had stopped when tried as i might, i couldn't get around to weave a story that involved all 130 (or is it 108? Can't remember clearly) named-demons.

The Amulet of Samarkand rekindled these memories of yore.

The first of the Bartimeaus Trilogy told from the point of view of Nathaniel, a magician's apprentice and Bartimeaus, a fourteenth level demon (or, properly, Djinni). The main story of this book, as the title suggests, was the Amulet of Samarkand. Nathaniel, i liked the character, he was not a flawless-made-to-be-a-protagonist Harry Potter-ish character. In fact, he reeks of seven sins - well, sloth and gluttony may not be one of them, but he's full of pride, had exercised enough wrath and envy - that the only thing that could satisfy him as a protagonist was that sometimes the child in him, pure and altruistic came forth, in short, he's not entirely unlikeable but sometimes, you (well, at least i) would wanted to rip the pages, sneaking through the words to see where his ear at and screaming some conscience into him. Not that it matters, but at least it would give me a satisfaction (and a ripped book which would surely give me a sour regret afterwards).

Bartimaeus, well, now he's - for a simplicity purpose, i shall called it as if it was a 'he' - a character worthy enough to had his name imprinted as the main character in the trilogy. He's reminded me a lot to Spider-Man. No, not web slinging from wrist and swing lazily across the city of Manhattan kind of Spider-Man nor a red-blue tight costumed freak kind of Spider-Man nor a Peter Parker, pathetic, miserable, and grumpy kind of Spider-Man, but Spider-Man in his best (which sadly, entirely absent from three of his movies so far), a witted, sometimes sarcastic, but funny as hell Spider-Man. Bartimaeus wasn't one that you'd categorized as all-powerful Djinni. He was at fourteenth level Djinni, for a start, and during the book he fought with more powerful Djinni and trapped in a most dire of situation. What made me think of Spider-Man was that he fought with his mind, always insulting his opponent with wry and sarcastic comments while furiously trying to out-smart his opponent or his surroundings. Moreover, he accompanies his chapters with various hillarious footnotes that give us insight to the world of Djinni, his accomplishments (in one footnote he commented on how the Leaning Tower of Pisa was constructed) and again, more often than not, insulted us, human.

The story itself was rather short, only 222 pages long. But as i read through it i could imagine the motion picture version of this book. And with some notable special-effects laden fights, i was wondering when the Hollywood's decision maker would lay their hands (more importantly, money) to this book. It's only three (as opposed to Harry Potter's seven). All in all, it was a good read.

Edit: I just found out that the film adaptation was scheduled to release around 2009.

My Rating: **1/2 / **** - An enjoyable read, but too short for my taste, and rather unbalanced between two of the main-casts.

A Game of Thrones

In a word of my native language, "Bangsat". Or, in a less expressive and far less satisfactory word of English, "Kick ass!". That's what i thought of this book. One of the best fantasy, if not the best itself that i had read so far. It's different with every other fantasies i had read. It's not of the High Fantasy, for a start, at least as long as i could made out from the first of the seven books (four has been released, and fans has anxiously patiently waiting for the fifth to be released for the past three years. Yep. Three years and probably more, George RR Martin himself has made excuses in his blog as per June 2007 that his dog has ate his manuscript and he was tired of making excuses, one fan even went as far as making a camp outside of Mr.Martin's house so that each day when Mr.Martin looks out of the window, he could see his hand pointing to his watch and heard him making sound, 'tick-tock-tick-tock').

Anyways, the first of the serie, A Game of Thrones, as its name suggested it's a multi-factions struggle to reign the throne in a land called Westeros where Summer last for years, and Winter was the time when there would be terror ascended from the North, from the Land-beyond-the-Wall. But, unlike any other fantasies i had read, there's not yen an ultimate evil entity that looming ever in the darkness weaving its treacherous web to entangle the world's inhabitants while our protagonists went around land high and low, meeting creatures both exotic and mysterious to finally confront with the evil itself in the end of the book. At least, not yet.

A Game of Thrones, follows three main subplots that happened in different regions of the 'world' and told in a third person limited point of view, where each prominent characters act as a POV character in each chapter. I gave praise to A Game of Thrones as a fantasy because here, everyone had their own agenda and these agendas doesn't necessarily comforting each other's. Well, actually, they're never at odds. There's a mother who looked ultimately evil from the outside, yet, on the inside, she did it because she loved her son and her family, whether they're on the right side or wrong side. There's a man who was good seeds in and out, honorable, loyal, but yet, wasn't quite a decision maker. And of course, there are wars, betrayal, and a sense of magic (evil or good, can't tell, but it's lingers). In short, this multi-character fantasy is actually the first fantasy i read where i still can't decide which one to root for, so far, i had chosen to root for a lowly character, evil, but somehow felt noble. At least, this character's story is the most interesting and the one i'm really looking forward to. I had finished the book rather quickly, and already i'm halfway through the second book. Give this book a try if you really are a fan of fantasy genre, you could easily decide whether this book is your cup of tea or not from several first chapters, so you won't waste any precious time than necessary.

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (2001)

Review: The wikipedia entry about the Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents is that the book had won Carnegie Medal Winner 2001 and is a deconstruction to a familiar story about talking animals and of course, the Pied Piper legend.

As with his other works - Terry Pratchett is the best-selling author in UK before Rowling, and still the author whose works are most often snatched from the book-shelf - the story of the Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents sets in a Discworld. And as with his other works, it was funny. Even though there were references to death and dangers, but it still one hell of book full of funnies.

The premise of the book made a mocking reference to Pied Piper. You know, that guy who get rid of vermins from a town with his piper only to be let down by a Town Council and in turns had let all the children out of town. In this story, however, the Pied Piper was for a brief-periods of early chapters known as a stupid-looking kid. He was led by Maurice, a talking - and thinking - cat, who also led a pack or talking - also thinking, AND educating themselves, as they read books, and invented letters - rats into a scheme in resemblance of that the original Pied Piper. Owh, Mr. Pratchett describes how does the rats - and Maurice, which was so funny i couldn't able to resist my laugh whenever he struggles with his conscience regarding on how he got his ability to talk - received their gift. So, no cheating there. The shceme that had invented by Maurice was simple. He instructs the rats who led by a rough old-fashioned old warrior, Hamnpork to made the town believes that there was a plague happening to their town. And that's where the stupid-looking kid came in as he played his piper and the rats would then followed him out of town, to count their money.

The rats so organized they had the Trap disarming squad led by Darktan, a philosopher Peaches and Dangerous Beans, and a straw-hat wearer, tap-dancing rat whose responsibility is to led the citizens into believing that there's a rat-plague in their town, Sardines.

However, on their very last job, they came into a town known as Bad Blintz. And in this town, Maurice, his educated Rodents, stupid-looking kid, and local Major's daughter, Malicia, who was a great grand-daughter of famous story-tellers the Grimm Sisters, faced not only what would probably their last job, but also their last breath. I had thought that this book is strictly for children, but i was so surprised to read that Mr.Pratchett put his characters into a dire dangers, and even death (well, they're mostly rats, but still, death is death). But like i said earlier, this is one funny book to read. And it only made me even firmer to seek another Discworld series from Terry Pratchett into my collection (there were forty-more titles out there, and i've got only three of them as of now).

My favourite moment is when Maurice had a conversation with Death. "Yessssirr, no problem sir, as you said, sir."

Book Review: Next (2006)

I think that it could be safely said that Michael Crichton was one of the most, if not the most, successful sci-fi writer today. The possibility of anything that he had wrote into his books were seemingly achievable and of course with that, the danger he proposed was therefore, a real threat. The fact that he had think that idea through, think that it might work, was one of his best traits, redeeming the quality of his story-telling which i personally would say, repetitive, and formulaic. One would only have to look for a film aptly named 'Jurassic Park' which spans three sequels in its wake. The idea of retracting the DNA from an amber that held the frozen mosquitos from the Jurassic (or any other -sic) era enabled the scientists in that film to actually gave a rebirth to creatures, great lizard creatures long lost. And granted, that even though in later findings the method described in the book (and in the film) was hopeful at best, a mere audience, a mere reader could be persuaded to agree that it was possible. That was what Crichton did at his best, mixing scientific dreams with action thrillers.

After several books that had touched many aspects in scientific (time-travel, genetics, medical hazards, manufactured error, microbiology, global warming), Michael Crichton's best was arguably reside in genetics (my personal favorite of his was 'The Lost World'), as evident in his latest work, Next.

After dealing and preaching with global warming (which in my opinion was merely a vessel to assert his PERSONAL opinion on a global warming issue) in his previous State of Fear, Michael Crichton again revisit his most comfortable science field, genetics, in Next. And it was a pleasant, fast book to read (compared to State of Fear, which i had often lost interest to continue reading after several chapters).

I won't reveal what was Next all about. All you needed to know was that in Next, Crichton proposed the possibility of manufactured genetics, altered genetics that could probably eliminate the undesirable traits in a given species (for instance, in human, they could eliminate the gene for an alcoholism), any undesirable traits, or to give a positive traits to a given species. Well, something like that.

The scientific aspect was nice, it surely give me a new something to think about, and it's always nice to had something new. As always. But it's not something entirely new. To a certain extent, i had read several articles of similar findings in Science magazine. And Crichton himself has admitted that for the most part NEXT is not really speculative fiction at all. However, i liked to point out how this book felt different with Crichton's previous books.

In Crichton's book, there were always an evil scientist, a good scientist, and ignorant commoner (but with good conscious, of course), thrown in some beautiful ladies, and a scientific topic to mull about, and there you have your Crichton's formula. The evil scientist, most of the time, dead. The good scientist took several chapters to do his hidden chore to counteract the evil scientist's deed, another several chapters to explain the things to the ignorant commoner, and yet another several chapters to battling out the evil scientist, often with physical labors. These characters, more often than not, immediately recognized as the book starts. In Next, these characters were present but mostly scattered throughout the pages, and only significantly identifiable when the book approaches the final act, at the final third of the book. The book also features many characters mainly from scientists, and attorneys that sometimes i need to flip back through the pages to refreshed my memory of a particular character.

All in all, if you are a fan of Crichton and has been disappointed by State of Fear (as i was), this book won't fail you. It's enjoyable read, and quite intriguing that once again, Crichton made us think of what would possibly happen when a technology gone a little bit too far.

My Rating: **1/2 / ****

Book Review: World War Z (2006)

The World War III won't be fought between nations, nor be fought between pacts. The World War III won't be fought using nuclear weapons, or state-of-the-art military equipments. The World War III was the war when human being fought for their dear extinction survival. The World War III was the war where human fought against human, where living human fought against the living dead. The World War III was the World War Z.

Ten years after the World War Z that has taken almost 1 billions (some sources say that the dead tolls was higher) lives, Max Brooks travel around the world to do an interview with the survivors of the war, prominent figures that most has been the key persons to human retaliation against the undead.

Surely, everyone who has been exposed to the world of entertainment knows about Zombies, the living dead. The events of World War Z that depicted in this book, were of course, as its name already implied, World War Z(ombie) deal with the Zombies. And it's a freakingly a fun book to read. I had only read one other book about zombie, Stephen King's Cell. And if Cell had a great opening that quickly loses its steam halfway to the end, World War Z manages to keep the book interesting during the final end.

This book is written in a manner of interview's manuscript that recorded the event that leads to World War Z and some years afterwards. The book is opened with an interview with Doctor Kwang Jingshu of People's Republic of China that recounted his experience to find the earliest case of Zombie's outbreak (Patient Zero) in the Chinese rural area. From there, the interviews went on to various parts of the world (the interviews were conducted ten years after the War declared over) with various prominent key figures recounting the event chronogically.

The book consists of many intertwined stories that crosses many genres and touches many popular references. For instance, the Chinese sub-marine story could easily fit into a sci-fi story. As well as the young Japanese adventure which easily recongnized the cyberpunk culture. It also touches some of the heavier subjects such as religions (my favourite one was when the Russian priest went outside his home with a rifle and a bible), environmentalists ('Fuck it. Say it to the whales') and philosopy. The problem of a story that consists of several other little stories were of course evident and unavoidable here, as well. Some of the story could be bored, but some of them, most, would stand out. I, personally liked the story of a Russian military dicipline (it was awesome), the New York's celebrity hideout and the beginning of the end at Hope City.

I can't praise this book enough. Released on September 2006, the Paramount Pictures has bought the right to this book, and Brad Pitt's Plan B Production would be the one to produce the film based on this book scheduled to release on 2008.

For those of you who claimed to love Zombies, grab this book, it won't disappoint, and while at it, also get yourself Max Brooks' Zombie Survival Guide (2003). It could prove handy when there's a Zombie outbreak in your neighborhood. Seriously.

My Rating: *** / **** - A fun, and light book to read

Book Review: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

This novel (i would prefer to call it a short-story though) was written from the point-of-view of a 15 years old austic British youngsters, Christopher. He loves math, has a photographic memory, doesn't like being touched, nor eat the food if they had touched each other, despises everything brown or yellow, and ultimately, unable to decipher other's emotion. But, when the dog across the street from his house was killed, implaed by a garden-fork, he sets up a journey, which from an austic point-of-view requires a tremendous effort and facing many of his own fears.

Mark Haddon works an extra mile by presenting the book in a rather absurd way, which sometimes forcing us, reader to believe that the book was actually written by Christopher - our hero, the austic boy - not with Haddon. The chapters were numbered with prime numbers, and each chapters consistently told about Christopher's random thoughts followed by his actual investigation on the murder.

We, reader, knows about the nature of the murder way before Christopher did. It draws our sympathy, well, mine at least, to see how clueless Christopher was when the facts presented to him in a careful words by his neighbor and his teacher.

I ended up hating Christopher anyway, and only after i've read the book, learn more about the social disorder Christopher suffered, i felt that i'm not mature enough to appreciate, to learn, and to cared more about other's disability. It actually made me think about if someday my son suffers the same illness as Christopher did, would i be ended up hating him? gosh, i hope not, but, what could us, men, chose what future lies on our path?

By having this kind of emotion during and after i've read the book, proves that Mark Haddon succeeded in bringing a coming-of-age story, a different if not unique kind of story that not just entertaining, but also broaden one's prespective about the many-folds of life out there.

Book Review: The Rule of Four

Dubbed by The New York Times as "the ultimate puzzle book", many compares this book with well-known Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. I disagree. Much.

I picked up this book at my friend's house, he was an avid reader, and doesn't share the hype everyone felt about Da Vinci Code with similar reason with me which is roughly translated as "i dont like Da Vinci Code that much, because everybody else's hugely praise it as the greatest novel ever written... duh". So, i picked up the book, in a hope that i'll get a good read.

The book opened with what could easily be teached at "Writing Thriller 101", a passage about some mystery - murder, in this case - which happened several hundred years ago. It was a success-guarantee formula for every successfull thriller novel. Put an opening passage that would surely piqued reader's interest. You know, such as, "I was fifteen years old when i died".

The book, in short, was revolved around a mystery, a puzzle that has been surrounded a book, an actual book, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili for 500 years. The book, has been a favourite subject among literature researchers.

In The Rule of Four, four room-mates at Princeton had its share of involvement with the manuscript. But, instead of dealing with the obsessions of the book, the puzzles (since it was cited by The New York Times as "the ultimate puzzle book"), and the prize behind the puzzle - which of course the things that i would like to see from the book -, it spends a quite considerable amount of time running around in circles told about the customs at Princeton, about "the growing character".. frankly, i dont need characterization, simply because i dont expected to see one. So, imagine my disappointment when more portion of the book spent at the four adolesence men's relationship.

But all in all, i must gave the authors an extra credit for bringing such careful research with the material behind the book and since both of them were relatively young and this was their frist book, the credit went more. Not enough though, for me to attribute this book more than just a mere mildly entertaining, and unless you had time, i wouldn't recommend the book.