CBR4 Book 76: "Leviathan Wakes" by James S.A. Corey

Page count: 504 pages
Rating: 3 stars
Date begun: August 2nd, 2012
Date finished: August 11th, 2012

Summary from Goodreads, because I'm feeling lazy, and I really need to get these reviews done:

Humanity has colonized the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond - but the stars are still out of our reach. 

Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations in the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, The Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for - and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why. 

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to The Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that the girl might be the key to everything. 

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations - and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe. 

I don't read a whole lot of sci-fi, but I don't want to find myself stuck in a rut either, limiting myself to only one of two genres of literature. So I try new things occasionally. I read sci-fi a few months back, when Felicia Day's Vaginal Fantasy Hangout featured two books I hadn't read before. They were more to my taste than this, which turned out to be a bit to spacey for me. I didn't hate it, by all means, but the story didn't really grip me either, and I kept making myself go back to the book to get through it. I don't like it when reading becomes a chore.

There's some very cool world building in this book, and the characters are nicely multi-faceted, it's not quite clear who's right and wrong. The story is told mainly from Holden and Miller's alternating POVs, and for the first part of the story, they're in very different places. There were some very cool concepts in the book, and certain sections are rather horrible, but creatively speaking very well done. While this book just doesn't seem to have it done it for me, I can see why it's popular, and why it was selected as a monthly pick in the Sword and Laser book club.

CBR4 Book 36: "The Magicians" by Lev Grossman

Page count: 496 pages
Rating: 2.5 stars
Date begun: April 4th, 2012
Date finished: April 8th, 2012

Quentin Coldwater is used to being smarter than everyone he knows. Like many other clever, precocious teenagers, he's convinced that there must be something more out there than the dreary existence he faces every day. On his way to a college interview, he discovers that there is, in fact. He ends up at a secret and very exclusive college in upstate New York, where he discovers that magic is not only real, but he can perform it. Magic is not necessarily easy and fun, however, it takes years of gruelling training, study and practise.

Quentin finds himself surrounded by students just as brilliant as he, and for the first time, has to face up to the fact that there may be others out there smarter and better at things than he is. By working very hard, he gets through his four years at Brakebills Academy (with a semester abroad in Antarctica). Yet even learning magic, making like minded friends and getting a girlfriend doesn't bring Quentin happiness. He stays insecure, discontent, self-centred and sceptical, always searching for more.

After graduation, he and several of his friends go on to live a life of indulgence, decadence and genial boredom in New York, until a fellow Brakebills graduate shows up on their doorstep to announce that Fillory, the Narnia-esque fantasy world they all read about as kids (and which Quentin has always dreamt of) is real, and he has a way to take them there? Will going for a quest in Fillory finally bring Quentin the fulfilment and adventure he's always sought?

The Magicians seems to be most often described as "Harry Potter for adults". It's not a bad description. In many ways, Grossman's description of what would happen if a load of highly clever, discontented teenagers discovered that they were indeed not only smarter than everyone else, but had magical powers, is very plausible. They'd be unbearable. As most of the characters in this book are. Quentin is a self-centred, miserable, depressive and self indulgent little twit, who despite being taught to do magic, accepted to a highly exclusive school, getting an awesome girlfriend and generally being damn lucky, never, even for a second, counts his lucky stars and snaps out of it. Most of his friends are just as spoiled, self indulgent and douchy as him.

I really liked Grossman's world building, and kept reading mainly to find out what would happen next. Both the spin on the Hogwarts-like Brakebills Academy, and the clearly riffing on Narnia-esque Fillory were very well done, and I especially liked the very real and scary dangers facing the young magicians once they start exploring Fillory. Unfortunately, Quentin really did annoy the heck out of me, and as most of his other companions were just as loathsome, it was hard to really like the book. I have, however, from the many reviews I've read, seen that The Magician King focuses a lot more on Quentin's friend Julia, who he ditches when he gets accepted to Brakebills, and will therefore give it a chance.