Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith
My rating: 
Read in December, 2010
I had a hard time reading P&P a decade ago and failed. Retrying this time with the zombies twist made it a little more bearable but quite frankly I can't stand Austin. The only reason I read as much of it as I did this time was because I was always wondering what was originally written and intrigued with how the zombie segments were woven into the story. That said, it was not enough for me to endure to the end. As far as I can tell Austin is enamoured with "small talk" and writes about it from beginning to end. The language is interesting but the story line is mind numbing. I guess I'm just an uncultured swine.
Review: Player One: What Is to Become of Us
Player One: What Is to Become of Us by Douglas Coupland
My rating:
Read in November, 2010
Overall impression: Meh.
Coupland is good at setting the stage and introducing us to interesting characters, but just like Generation A, he has a hard time finishing the story. In fact, this book mirrors a lot of thoughts from "Generation A" that I would almost call this world a parallelquel.
The story line premis and back of the book description is interesting, but the story lacks any final punch other than to remind us of the precarious dependency that we have on oil. Even that seems to be a lost subplot.
Review: Generation A
Generation A by Douglas Coupland
My rating: 
Read from June 21 to November 22, 2010
I read this book at the same time I was listening to Player One so I think I might have over done it with apocalyptic Coupland stories.
Much like Generation X, the story is about the characters and the stories they tell. The premis is interesting and the five principle characters are even more intriguing.
Alas, the momentum that the first half of the book delivers is squandered in the second half. The bee story line is discarded and ignored half way through like a dejected sub-plot that never existed. The second half of the book is really a collection of short stories from individuals in a post-bee world. However, even these sub-stories became mundane as they all seemed to have the same fatalistic and depressing punchline. Almost as if they were the same story recast with different settings.
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