Read Books This will provide a list of the books I've read with a brief review. Users are blocked, contact me for access. I welcome discussions, but I'm tired of spam.

November 29, 2011

Story Engineering by Larry Brooks

Filed under: Uncategorized — Randolph @ 7:25 pm

Story Engineering by Larry Bonds

The book, Story Engineering by Larry Brooks, proposes that writing fiction can be broken into six basic skills, dubbed by the author as the SIx Core Competencies. Most of the reviews seemed very favorable, and it seemed like it would be a good read.

The first section, about 30 pages plus introduction, made me feel like the whole thing was a sales pitch. The author dropped the subject of his workshops several times. I was encouraged to continue only by the previous reviews I had read. He mentions the “Six Core Competencies” so often, it felt like he was trying to artificially make it into a catch-phrase associated with his name.

The Six Core Competencies, always capitalized, each had a section of several chapters devoted to it. Several of these sections had no meat to them. He talked around the subject, discussing its importance, but not providing any engineering techniques.

As all of the previous reviews suggested, his section on characterization was strong, and it was the strength of the book. He did provide good information no building characters and weaving them into the story in the proper sequence. However, I don’t think he offered enough that wasn’t available in other books with better information.

I found the sections on structure and scenes also interesting and informative. In my own opinion, the structure was better and more valuable than the character sections. But he did provide good information in all three of these sections.

Overall, I don’t feel the book is bad, but it does feel overblown. It is a good primer into story design, and if it were presented that way, I would rate it better. If you want or need solid information on any of his competencies, I believe you should find them elsewhere. The book, Story Engineering by Larry Brooks, proposes that writing fiction can be broken into six basic skills, dubbed by the author as the SIx Core Competencies. Most of the reviews seemed very favorable, and it seemed like it would be a good read.

The first section, about 30 pages plus introduction, made me feel like the whole thing was a sales pitch. The author dropped the subject of his workshops several times. I was encouraged to continue only by the previous reviews I had read. He mentions the “Six Core Competencies” so often, it felt like he was trying to artificially make it into a catch-phrase associated with his name.

The Six Core Competencies, always capitalized, each had a section of several chapters devoted to it. Several of these sections had no meat to them. He talked around the subject, discussing its importance, but not providing any engineering techniques.

As all of the previous reviews suggested, his section on characterization was strong, and it was the strength of the book. He did provide good information no building characters and weaving them into the story in the proper sequence. However, I don’t think he offered enough that wasn’t available in other books with better information.

I found the sections on structure and scenes also interesting and informative. In my own opinion, the structure was better and more valuable than the character sections. But he did provide good information in all three of these sections.

Overall, I don’t feel the book is bad, but it does feel overblown. It is a good primer into story design, and if it were presented that way, I would rate it better. If you want or need solid information on any of his competencies, I believe you should find them elsewhere.

November 14, 2011

Mr. Monk in Outer Space by Lee Goldberg

Filed under: Humor,Mystery,Series — Randolph @ 8:14 pm

Mr. Monk in Outer Space by Lee Goldberg
In this, book 5 of the series, Monk faces the shooting of a dead man, and Mr. Snork shooting the producer of a popular science fiction series.

Monk has to take his phobias into a science fiction convention for a series, thinly veiled reference to Star Trek with its obsessive version of Trekkies.

Monk’s brother, Ambrose, plays a role in this version, even getting involved in the investigation. We see a bit more of his character which comes out in the solution to the mystery.

The book is true to the series, and feels very much like seeing a tv episode. If you enjoy the series, you’ll enjoy the book.

November 2, 2011

Star Trek and Philosophy: The Wrath of Kant (Popular Culture and… by Kevin S. Decker

Filed under: Uncategorized — Randolph @ 8:40 pm

Star Trek and Philosophy: The Wrath of Kant by Kevin S. Decker

You can recognize a good philosophy book, you know them. They have an 8-point font and every other paragraph runs on for at least 2 pages. Until now.

THe Popular Culture and Philosophy series changes that. With Star Trek and Philosophy, several philosophers use the Star Trek universe to explore different topics in philosophy. They make great use of different facets of the numerous series and movies to discuss philosophical points.

For instance, Professor Harald Thorsrud discusses stoicism comparing it to Vulcan philosophies. He makes good use of the series, with a few dialog excerpts to drive points. Other topics include ethics of bioengineering, aspects of religion, the nature of time, and Lyotard’s theory of the Differend, among many other topics.

The book offers good breadth with narrow depth, but provides enough depth in its choice of topics to give you a good taste of the subject. The book is light, yet full of information that is easy to digest. Any fan of Star Trek with at least a passing interest in philosophy should consider it for reading.

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