Showing posts with label author Hendrix. Show all posts
Showing posts with label author Hendrix. Show all posts

Friday, May 3, 2013

From Bad to Worse

So, one of the reasons I began writing book reviews and eventually started this blog was so that I could let folks know about those Sturgeon's Law rejects before they invested either time or money in poorly written books. Unfortunately, I fell into the trap, myself, when I failed to consult this blog about an author whom I'd previously panned, before picking up another book he'd written. I could pretend that I was just giving the guy a second chance, but...that would be a lie. For some reason I remembered enjoying his work; must have confused him with someone else.

See my previous review of Lightpaths for all you really need to know about Hendrix, but I'll elaborate slightly here on his more recent disappointment, Better Angels. Hendrix' story is filled with the sort of things you'd find uttered in the dorm lounge of any generic college campus in America, fueled by the consumption of mind-altering substances, and passing for great discovered wisdom for its giggling sycophants. The premise seems to be that some ancient starfaring or galaxyfaring ark once seeded our planet with hallucinogenic mushrooms which would eventually bring on the singularity (a la Kurzweil) and reunite us with the truly enlightened center of the Universe. It is filled with caricatures of the Left's demons, such as big business, the shadow government and organized religion, rather than fully developed real heroes or villains. I kept hoping for the best, but had to give up at the end...of my patience, not the book.

Dang, three out of four books from my library trip, wasted time!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Lightpaths by Howard V. Hendrix

Lightpaths
The blurb on the back cover says "if Heinlein had grown up reading William Gibson, this is the sort of thing he would have written..." I beg your humble pardon, but Heinlein was a master of his craft, not to be dragged down by comparison with a newly emerged garnet-in-the-rough author who took seven years to complete his first novel. Hendrix begins philosophical maunderings and political digressions within the first twenty pages, long before we've gotten a chance to empathize or identify with his characters, much less have a clue where this senseless display of vain erudition is going.


Finally gave up, only slightly confused and demoralized.