The Watchmen, by Alan Moore

I don't normally read comic books, but The Watchmen was supposed to have a great plot so I took a chance on it.  Having finished it, now I'm thinking I missed the qualifier:  a great plot for a comic book.  The book started with an interesting mystery--who killed a former super hero--but then went on and on about other former super heroes and their lives.  There was a lot of filler in the middle and I didn't even know what the story was about until almost the end.  The conclusion did have a master plan with a villain, but it wasn't set up with the plot building up to it in steps.

Even with a lot of back-story, I never cared much about any of the characters.  Perhaps it's because I didn't really know what they were fighting for.

If this is the best that comic books can deliver, I'll stick with regular fiction.

Deliberate Typos in Atlas Shrugged, Kindle Version?

Here is a letter I sent to Plume, the publisher of Atlas Shrugged (Centennial Edition):

Dear Plume Publishing,

I have purchased Atlas Shrugged (Centennial Edition) for my Kindle and there are a lot of suspicious typos.

Every time it should say Wayne-Falkland, the kindle version says "WAy ne-Falkland" (loc 1804, 2283, 2286, 2590, etc). Also, whenever one word ending in "ay" is in front of another word staring with "n," the "a" is incorrectly capitalized, such as "sAy nothing" (loc 2051, 2799, 3855, etc). Both of these mistakes involve the letters of the author's first name and appear to be deliberate. These errors make the publisher, Plume and Penguin, appear to be sabotaging the author while making money off of her work.

Please fix these typos as soon as possible.

Sincerely,
Sean Murphy

I also forwarded my letter to the Ayn Rand Institute and Peikoff.com.

A Catskill Eagle, by Robert B. Parker

This book is classic Parker with his hero Spenser joining Hawk to save Susan Silverman from the bad guy.  Parker keeps things moving, always putting obstacles in the way and having the heroes use both smarts and strength to overcome them.

I don't think Parker uses the normal four-part structure in his books.  The goal was set early one--rescue Susan--and after that the plot was a steady progression of events to achieve that goal--rescue Hawk, look for Susan, flee from the authorities, infiltrate training base, rescue Susan, kill boss.

Perhaps one reason I don't put Parker in the category of great literature is that he doesn't use a mid-point plot event which changes things dramatically and forces the main character to make a choice.  The result is that the suspense isn't escalated during the book.

This book was no different than Parker's other books--an enjoyable read, good but not great.

The Fall of Hyperion, by Dan Simmons

(Notes while reading, 30%)

This book got off to a slow start.  It's really just the continuation of Hyperion which essentially was just a giant set-up for this book.  However, since they are separate books published a year apart the second one needs to review a lot of material from the first, and this takes up most of the first quarter of the book.

It's not until after about the 25% mark that we learn that CEO Gladstone has engineered the war with the Ousters which she hopes will both destroy most of the human race and lead to its eventual survival.  Now I'm finally interested!  But in a normal book, this hook should come early on around five or ten percent.  There's a reason most stories aren't told over the course of two books--it really messes with structure.

(Book finished)

I can sum up this book in one word:  tedious.  Stuff happens, but most of the time the reader doesn't know why so it's tough to care.  And then when a key part of the plot is revealed--the rationale for all the stuff that happened earlier--the point is introduced but then quickly dismissed and more random stuff happens.

Simmons had some good plot events in this book and some cool ideas, but his decision to split the book into two long novels killed any suspense and made it a chore to finish.

11/22/63, by Stephen King

Stephen King's novel about time travel, 11/22/63, has brought me back as a fan.  After reading Under the Dome, I wasn't sure I'd ever read a new King novel.  That one rambled in the middle and had a terrible ending.  This one, on the other hand, was much more focused and the ending was easier to pull off.

The book is told first-person from the perspective of a school teacher who goes back in time in an attempt to stop the Kennedy assassination.  Fortunately, for dramatic purposes, the past doesn't want to be changed--the past is obdurate becomes a recurring theme--so the main character has many struggles along the way.  He also gets involved in the past and falls in love, further complicating the story.

King's writing ability is in top form in this novel and he does a wonderful job of describing the late 50's and early 60's, both the good and the bad.  And we really get to know the main character and what drives his actions.  I think this is the big difference between 11/22/63 and Under the Dome; we care about the main characters in the former, but not in the latter.

The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games is an impressive novel--it has all the elements of a good novel and executes on them well.  In terms of structure, I believe it actually has two complimentary dramatic structures which reach different audiences--one about survival and the other about love.  The two converge at the resolution and lead to a satisfying finish.

The four parts of structure are:  set-up, response, attack & resolution.  Here is my analysis of the two structures:

Survival Story

1. Set-up:  Katniss volunteers for the games in her sister's place.  She thinks she is just fodder for the games and has no chance until she loses her temper in training which earns her the highest score of all the tributes.  After that happens, she now knows she has a chance and changes her outlook on the games.

2. Response:  Now that she believes she has a chance, all of her actions are aimed at improving her odds:  she plays along in the interview, she runs from the cornucopia as instructed, she hides and bides her time.  But during this portion of the book, she is only responding to events.  That changes when she is cornered in a tree seemingly with no escape.  Then a fellow tribute, Rue, gives her the idea of unleashing a nest of killer hornets on the tributes who have her trapped.  She does this and thus begins the attack phase.

3. Attack:  Katniss is literally on the attack in this portion, looking to kill other tributes or hurt their chances of survival by destroying their supplies.  She forms an alliance with Rue.  She also forms an alliance with Peeta when the Games announce that tributes from the same district can both win.  Here the two structures begin to come together because Peeta is hurt and she must help nurse him back to health.  The resolution is set up when the leaders of the Games promise to provide something each of the remaining tributes need desperately at the cornucopia.  Katniss goes to the cornucopia to get medicine for Peeta and for the final showdown with the other tributes.

4. Resolution:  Katniss gets the supplies for Peeta but is then trapped with some of the other tributes at the cornucopia by intelligent wolves.  She battles both the wolves and other tributes and is ultimately victorious.  Now that it is just her and Peeta, they believe they have won.  But then the leaders of the Games change the rules yet again and announce there can be only one winner.  Rather than fight one another, they decide to both commit suicide.  Before they can kill themselves, the leaders of the games relent and allow them both to win.

Love Story

1. Set-up:  The set up on the love story is slow because we don't know up front that this will be an important element.  However, the background provided is necessary for the reveal later on.  Peeta helps Katmiss when she and her family is starving by giving her a loaf of bread even though he is punished by his parents for it.  Peeta is nice to her during the training, but she thinks it is part of a deception to make it easier to kill her during the games.  The set-up ends when Peeta professes his love for Katniss during the interviews.  Now Katniss needs to decide if she believes him, and how she feels about him

2. Response:  For the love story, most of the response is in Katniss thinking back on what she knows about Peeta and wondering if perhaps he really does love her.  The response ends when Peeta deliberately helps her survive after the hornet attack in a moment when he could have easily killed her.  Now Katniss knows he is trying to help her and realizes he really does love her, even though she doesn't want to admit it to herself.


3. Attack:  The love story begins in earnest when Katniss finds Peeta injured and starts to nurse him back to health.  They act romantically, even kissing, but Katniss is still mostly just playing the part to get help from Haymitch, her sponsor.  She does begin to care more deeply about Peeta in this section, although it comes across more nurturing than romantic for most of the time.

4. Resolution:  Katniss goes to the cornucopia to get medicine for Peeta to save his life and the two stories converge.

For me, the survival story was what kept me reading.  But I can see some readers focusing more on the love story, especially if they're rooting for Peeta to get the girl.  However, for me, the love story never took off because Katniss never really fell for Peeta.  Nonetheless, the decision to have two separate story structures which overlap and come together in the end is a great technique and one I hope to use some day in my own stories.

Hyperion, Dan Simmons

After finishing this book, I was very disappointed in the non-ending, in complete agreement with the Grub Street reviewer who wanted to throw it in the lake.

Hyperion is well written with varying styles for each story.  I got the sense that Simmons was showing off, but it didn't bother me because it was so well done.  Simmons also excels at concept, and most of the stories have an intriguing idea at their core.

On the other hand, Hyperion fails at structure--not having an ending is a big problem.  Apparently, this entire book is just a set-up for Fall of Hyperion which I have not yet read.  Perhaps I will have to revise my evaluation of this book after I've finished the second installment.