Well, I haven't uptated my blog for a long time... It's time I do it...
After august I've been very busy and read a lot of books but unfortunally haven't make a review in recent months... I am a lazy guy.
Well after Grand Father's Tale of a German Sniper I've read George Orwell - 1984. This was an odd book... It had far more information than the movie and it let us readers understand more of the world he live on... I Like the novel and would advice anyone to read it... Some of the ideas that the Inner Party had were pretty good but others were pretty useless. I can see several of the ideias implemented on our world to function properly but others are almost impossible. The lack of vocabulary is a thing that would never be implemented. The writing of the history is nowadays done so it can be implemented and it works.
The world itself it's in a never ending war involving three superstates. Two allied powers fighiting against the third. The book of Goldstein (the arch enemy of the state) states that each superstate is so strong it cannot be defeated even when faced with the combined forces of the other two powers. The allied states occasionally split with each other and new alliances are formed. Each time this happens, history is rewritten to convince the people that the new alliances were always there, using the principles of doublethink. The war itself never takes place in the territories of the three powers.
There is one part that is very entertaining and shows how powerful is the state against the masses... Midway through the book, the alliance breaks apart and Oceania, newly allied with Eurasia, begins a campaign against Eastasian forces. This happens during "Hate Week" (a week of extreme focus on the evilness of Oceania's enemies, the purpose of which is to stir up patriotic fervour in support of the Party), Oceania and Eastasia are enemies once again. The public is quite abnormally blind to the change, and when a public orator, mid-sentence, changes the name of the enemy from Eurasia to Eastasia (still speaking as if nothing had changed), the people are shocked and soon enraged as they notice all the flags and banners are wrong (they blame Goldstein and the Brotherhood) and tear them down. This is the origin of the idion, "we've always been at war with Eastasia." Orwell's book explains that the war is unwinnable, and that its only purpose is to use up human labour and the fruits of human labour so that each superstate's economy cannot support an equal (and high) standard of living for every citizen.
Goldstein's book hints that, in fact, there may not actually be a war.
Even Eurasia and Eastasia themselves may only be a fabrication by the government of Oceania, with Oceania the sole undisputed dominator of the world. On the other hand, Oceania might as well actually control only a rather small part of the world and still brainwash its citizens into believing that Oceania dominates the whole Earth or - as in the novel - that they are battling/allying with (a fabricated) Eurasia/Eastasia.
Then there is the key word of the book... Doublethink that is explained as followed :
"The keyword here is blackwhite. Like so many Newspeak words, this word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary. This demands a continuous alteration of the past, made possible by the system of thought which really embraces all the rest, and which is known in Newspeak as doublethink. Doublethink is basically the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them."
I would advice this book to anyone... This book relates much more than the totaliarism state but also the power of our mind and the power to change our mind. The main story of the two characters is psychological intense. It made me shiver and think of life and our feelings... they are all fabricated in our mind.
Then I read Splinter by Adam Roberts. I have to say it's a weak book with a weak plot. The main character only thinks of sex and it's a celf-centered and self-obsess character. The other characters are weak minded and don't evolve. It could be a good book but it's very boring... the idea was good but was not so well conceived. I must say that last year I only stop reading one book and this was it. It drags on and on... It may be good to read if you are teen and think a lot about sex. (which is odd because the main character is not a teen but only thinks about sex).
It was published by Solaris that have published far better books.
Then I read Subterranean by James Rollins (0380792648). After reading the Descent by Jeff Long I really had great hopes for this book but... I didn't enjoyed. Terrible I must say! It sounded good from the synopsis - a hidden world beneath the polar ice caps, and a team put together to go explore when another team goes missing - but the characters were so wooden and annoying that I fervently hoped all of them would die, violently, at the hands (well, teeth) of the T-Rex-Marsupial type creatures who live in the underground world. You had the stereotypical tough-gal single mom who brings her brat with her, the oh-so-hunky military guy she eventually beds, and the evil Arabic archetype who wants to blow everything up. I can't even bother to give more detail than that; it's not worth it. I'm surprised I even finished it. In the end I becaome thinking of the all books that are coming out that the women are the men and the men are women? I've read, he has a woman as "leader," she's the toughie, and the men are wimps who usually do nothing but think with the head that's dangling between their legs. It had too many steorotypes.
If you want to read about hidden caverns and worlds read The Journey to the Center of the World by Jules Verne, Lost World by Arthur C Clarke or the Descent by Jeff Long.
Rebel Winter by Steve Parker published by BL. This was the third book by the Imperial Guard novels. The first Fifteen Hours by M. Scanlon and Deathworld by Steve Lyons. What can I say? It continued the great debut and the second book (my favourite of the series).
The book had a decent Commissar for once... Reading several book you tend to get incompetents, or heroes that completely fail to act like Commissars. He was also interesting, in that he didn't always get on with everyone else. In fact, many of the characters didn't...usually anyone the heroes don't like turns out to be a coward, traitor or deserter at some stage later on. That didn't happened here and that was very good. Anti-Cliche. The soldiers acted like soldiers and de the Medicae in the end of the book instead of the "fight to the death" to save the wounded just give them something to ease them off into death so the orks can't get to them before he goes to fight to his death. In the begining and the end the main character is on trial... I think that there wasn't much point putting the trial in, and no real reason at at sticking Space Marines, the Inquisition and an infil-traitor in. Not all books in 40k need SMs and Inquisitor. But it was not that important and revelant to story. In the end I would recommend this book to anyone who wanted to read a Soldiers point of view book. As I would recommend Fifteen Hours.
I would make more reviews when possible...
After august I've been very busy and read a lot of books but unfortunally haven't make a review in recent months... I am a lazy guy.
Well after Grand Father's Tale of a German Sniper I've read George Orwell - 1984. This was an odd book... It had far more information than the movie and it let us readers understand more of the world he live on... I Like the novel and would advice anyone to read it... Some of the ideas that the Inner Party had were pretty good but others were pretty useless. I can see several of the ideias implemented on our world to function properly but others are almost impossible. The lack of vocabulary is a thing that would never be implemented. The writing of the history is nowadays done so it can be implemented and it works.
The world itself it's in a never ending war involving three superstates. Two allied powers fighiting against the third. The book of Goldstein (the arch enemy of the state) states that each superstate is so strong it cannot be defeated even when faced with the combined forces of the other two powers. The allied states occasionally split with each other and new alliances are formed. Each time this happens, history is rewritten to convince the people that the new alliances were always there, using the principles of doublethink. The war itself never takes place in the territories of the three powers.
There is one part that is very entertaining and shows how powerful is the state against the masses... Midway through the book, the alliance breaks apart and Oceania, newly allied with Eurasia, begins a campaign against Eastasian forces. This happens during "Hate Week" (a week of extreme focus on the evilness of Oceania's enemies, the purpose of which is to stir up patriotic fervour in support of the Party), Oceania and Eastasia are enemies once again. The public is quite abnormally blind to the change, and when a public orator, mid-sentence, changes the name of the enemy from Eurasia to Eastasia (still speaking as if nothing had changed), the people are shocked and soon enraged as they notice all the flags and banners are wrong (they blame Goldstein and the Brotherhood) and tear them down. This is the origin of the idion, "we've always been at war with Eastasia." Orwell's book explains that the war is unwinnable, and that its only purpose is to use up human labour and the fruits of human labour so that each superstate's economy cannot support an equal (and high) standard of living for every citizen.
Goldstein's book hints that, in fact, there may not actually be a war.
Even Eurasia and Eastasia themselves may only be a fabrication by the government of Oceania, with Oceania the sole undisputed dominator of the world. On the other hand, Oceania might as well actually control only a rather small part of the world and still brainwash its citizens into believing that Oceania dominates the whole Earth or - as in the novel - that they are battling/allying with (a fabricated) Eurasia/Eastasia.
Then there is the key word of the book... Doublethink that is explained as followed :
"The keyword here is blackwhite. Like so many Newspeak words, this word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary. This demands a continuous alteration of the past, made possible by the system of thought which really embraces all the rest, and which is known in Newspeak as doublethink. Doublethink is basically the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them."
I would advice this book to anyone... This book relates much more than the totaliarism state but also the power of our mind and the power to change our mind. The main story of the two characters is psychological intense. It made me shiver and think of life and our feelings... they are all fabricated in our mind.
Then I read Splinter by Adam Roberts. I have to say it's a weak book with a weak plot. The main character only thinks of sex and it's a celf-centered and self-obsess character. The other characters are weak minded and don't evolve. It could be a good book but it's very boring... the idea was good but was not so well conceived. I must say that last year I only stop reading one book and this was it. It drags on and on... It may be good to read if you are teen and think a lot about sex. (which is odd because the main character is not a teen but only thinks about sex).
It was published by Solaris that have published far better books.
Then I read Subterranean by James Rollins (0380792648). After reading the Descent by Jeff Long I really had great hopes for this book but... I didn't enjoyed. Terrible I must say! It sounded good from the synopsis - a hidden world beneath the polar ice caps, and a team put together to go explore when another team goes missing - but the characters were so wooden and annoying that I fervently hoped all of them would die, violently, at the hands (well, teeth) of the T-Rex-Marsupial type creatures who live in the underground world. You had the stereotypical tough-gal single mom who brings her brat with her, the oh-so-hunky military guy she eventually beds, and the evil Arabic archetype who wants to blow everything up. I can't even bother to give more detail than that; it's not worth it. I'm surprised I even finished it. In the end I becaome thinking of the all books that are coming out that the women are the men and the men are women? I've read, he has a woman as "leader," she's the toughie, and the men are wimps who usually do nothing but think with the head that's dangling between their legs. It had too many steorotypes.
If you want to read about hidden caverns and worlds read The Journey to the Center of the World by Jules Verne, Lost World by Arthur C Clarke or the Descent by Jeff Long.
Rebel Winter by Steve Parker published by BL. This was the third book by the Imperial Guard novels. The first Fifteen Hours by M. Scanlon and Deathworld by Steve Lyons. What can I say? It continued the great debut and the second book (my favourite of the series).
The book had a decent Commissar for once... Reading several book you tend to get incompetents, or heroes that completely fail to act like Commissars. He was also interesting, in that he didn't always get on with everyone else. In fact, many of the characters didn't...usually anyone the heroes don't like turns out to be a coward, traitor or deserter at some stage later on. That didn't happened here and that was very good. Anti-Cliche. The soldiers acted like soldiers and de the Medicae in the end of the book instead of the "fight to the death" to save the wounded just give them something to ease them off into death so the orks can't get to them before he goes to fight to his death. In the begining and the end the main character is on trial... I think that there wasn't much point putting the trial in, and no real reason at at sticking Space Marines, the Inquisition and an infil-traitor in. Not all books in 40k need SMs and Inquisitor. But it was not that important and revelant to story. In the end I would recommend this book to anyone who wanted to read a Soldiers point of view book. As I would recommend Fifteen Hours.I would make more reviews when possible...
Comments
btw, one of these days i'll get to knock up your sister and make a well tanned southern-brown portuguese baby.
go get cancer, you piece of shit.