Book Review: "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy

The Road by Cormac McCarthy
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I'd been looking to read "The Road" for a while. After all, it was talked about so much, and it won a Pulitzer, so I felt compelled to read it. Unfortunately.

I'm beginning to think too many "critics" are impressed if an author drags out all the fancy words he knows and strings them together in a way that normal people don't speak or write.

"The Road" is a story of a father and son wandering a post-apocalyptic landscape (although we're not told exactly what happened, whether a nuclear war or an asteroid impact or what), in search of a better place. The world is covered in ash. All of the trees and plants are dead, and it seems virtually all of the animals are dead, too, except for a handful of humans, most of whom are marauding, murderous gangs. How anything will survive if all the plants are dead is a mystery, so the journey seems pointless. Yes, the father and son find some supplies to sustain them along the way, and those gangs have turned to cannibalism, but if the plants are gone, it's over. Just a matter of how long until everyone else dies.

The story is bleak, and the writing is nothing compelling. It's like Cormac McCarthy wanted to write a dark, hopeless tale that somehow celebrated the idea of a father finding a chance for his son. And for a writing style, "Maybe I should show how I can write like Robert Frost! No, wait, maybe I should write like Stephen King. Hmm, I can't decide. I know, I'll write like both of them!"

Really, this book is over-hyped, and the Pulitzer judges apparently are impressed by this nonsensical drivel. Spare yourself the time. I wish I had!

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A thought-provoking, entertaining book: "Mosaic" by Evan Mandery

Mosaic by Evan Mandery
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A good detective story gets my attention. So does a good science fiction story. "Mosaic" provides both, not in some clumsy mashup but in a smart, thought-provoking way. Without giving away too much, the deterioration of our environment has continued and the damage has compounded. At the same time, a system called Mosaic is developed that, through computer advancement, allows people to disappear into another time--a better time--or so it seems from the perspective of the users.

In this alternate setting, someone dies. And in the real world, too, but did the death in Mosaic cause the death in "the real world." And is the death an accident or a murder? If it's a murder, who is the murderer? Into this steps a police officer with a checkered past and demons with which he's wrestling.

There aren't a lot of really smart, inventive stories, whether crime or sci-fi, out there, but this one was great. Entertaining, thought-provoking and well-written. Grab a copy!

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