The Martian

Title: The Martian
Author: Andy Weir
Published: 2011
Genre: Science fiction
Pages: 369


Like The Road, I wanted to read The Martian before seeing the movie. So I reserved it from the library, and then waited for some four months to actually get it! The first 20-30 poop-filled pages didn't... I mean, is this gonna be all about poop? Poop on Mars? Is there poop on Maa-aars? But then I finished The Road and stopped being distracted by other books and the pages just flew! And there was considerably less poop.

On a mission to Mars, the crew of Ares 3 has to evacuate due to a strong storm. Unfortunately, astronaut and botanist Mark Watney is left behind, presumed dead but very much not so. No communication, not enough food to last until the next mission arrives, Mark is in deep shit. Luckily someone brought potatoes and Mark is a botanist, not to mention very resourceful, and very sweary. Soon he's got taters growing for food, and then it's time to start trying to get in touch with Earth.

The Martian was pretty much everything I expected it to be, after hearing about it and the movie. Worth the wait, and very enjoyable!


So that's the situation. I'm stranded on Mars. I have no way to communicate with Hermes or Earth. Everyone thinks I'm dead. I'm in a Hab designed to last thirty-one days.
   If the oxygenator breaks down, I'll suffocate. If the water reclaimer breaks down, I'll die of thirst. If the Hab breaches, I'll just kind of explode. If none of those things happen, I'll eventually run out of food and starve to death. 
   So yeah. I'm fucked. 

The Road

Title: The Road
Author: Cormac McCarthy
Published: 2006
Genre: Post-apocalypse
Pages: 287


The Road spent ages on my Kindle, and then I almost half-accidentally started to read it while sitting in the subway. I remember hearing about the movie and wanting to see it, but only after I'd read the book. And then came other books, and other books, and other books. But now! Here we are. All read. I was hooked after the first few pages, even though it has to be one of the darkest, most hopeless books I've ever read.

The Road is the story of a father and his young son traveling towards south, away from winter's grasp, in a world all but destroyed by some unnamed cataclysm. There's hardly any food, little shelter, and the few people left have turned to cannibalism. It's not safe to trust anyone. The world is covered by ash. And onward they walk, trying to make the food last, trying to get to warmer climates. Death is all around, and the road isn't safe,but neither is staying still.

Damn, that was bleak. But brilliant. Now to find the movie.


He walked out into the gray light and stood and he saw for a brief moment the absolute truth of the world. The cold relentless circling of an intestate earth. Darkness implacable. The blind dogs of the sun in their running. The crushing black vacuum of the universe. And somewhere two hunted animals trembling like ground-foxes in their cover. Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it.

Torakat

Nimi: Torakat
Alkuperäinen nimi: Kakerlakkene 
Kirjoittaja: Jo Nesbø
Julkaistu:  1998, suomeksi 2009
Genre: Dekkaripokkari
Sivuluku: 319


Sama kaveri joka lainasi minulle Pahan Ruusun Puutarhan lainasi myös tämän, jotta olisi muuton yhteydessä vähemmän kannettavaa. Tykkäsin kovasti Nesbøn Kukkulan Kuningas -kirjasta, joten ajattelin että kokeillaanpa Harry Holea.

Torakat on järjestyksessä toinen Harry Hole -kirja, mutta näitä on suomennettu taas vähän miten sattuu. Ensimmäistä en ole lukenut, joten oli vähän hukassa että mitä kaikkea on tapahtunut. Ryyppyputki ainakin oli ekan kirjan tapahtumia seurannut, ja Thaimaan komennuksen saanut Harry löytyi baarista.

Norjan Thaimaan suurlähettiläs näes löytyi murhattuna hotellista, jossa miehet yleensä käyvät maksullisten naisten kanssa, ja Harry lähetetään selvittämään asiaa. Ja päätään. Murha pitäisi selvittää mahdollisimman pian ja mahdollisimman hiljaa, mikä on tietenkin helpommin sanottu kuin tehty.

Nesbøn Thaimaan kuvausta kehuttiin kovasti. En ole siellä (vielä) käynyt, mutta tunnelma tosiaan välittyi hienosti. Tuli ihan hiki! Alussa kirja ei ihan kauheasti jaksanut kiinnostaa, mutta juonen syvetessä nalkkiinhan sitä jäi, ja pitänee muitakin Harry Hole -kirjoja lukaista kun vastaan tulevat.


He löysivät hänet Schrøderin kapakasta Waldemar Thranes gatelta, vanhasta ja arvokkaasta juottolasta, joka sijaitsi tienristeyksessä jossa Oslon itä- ja länsipuolet kohtasivat toisensa. Rehellisesti sanottuna Schrøder oli enemmän vanha kuin arvokas. Arvokkuus piili pitkälti siinä, että kaupunki oli katsonut viisaaksi rauhoittaa ruskean, pinttyneelle tupakalle haisevan ravintolasalin. Rauhoitus ei kuitenkaan koskenut asiakaskuntaa, levotonta ja sukupuuttoon kuolevaa ihmislajia, joka koostui vanhoista juopoista, ikuisista maatalousopiskelijoista ja väsähtäneistä hurmureista, joiden parasta ennen -päiväys oli mennyt jo aikaa sitten.  

Filth

Title: Filth
Author: Irvine Welsh
Published: 1998
Genre: 
Pages: 393


Aww man, I really have to get a grip and start updating, preferably after I've finished a book and not after I've finished four books... adopted two young cats, so that has eaten away a lot of computer time. I don't really mind.

It's been near fifteen years since I last read Filth -in Finnish, working in a quiet-as-a-tomb art gallery- and got the urge to read it again a year or so back, after I saw the movie. It's the story of detective sergeant Bruce Robertson, working for the Edinburgh police. And let me tell you, Bruce is a bit of a cunt. Drugs, alcohol, sex, abuse, unhealthy eating habits, misanthropy, racism and mind games all around. There is no one he will not fuck with, mentally or physically, even with the... rash... going on downstairs.

Christmas is coming, and so is Bruce's annual holiday in Amsterdam, when a tourist gets himself brutally killed, and the case is dropped on DS Robertson. Like the good copper he is, Bruce does his best to worm out of it, and to do as little actual work as possible. Whoring, drinking and cocaine are so much more fun!

As  much as I do like a good anti-hero, Bruce did really disgust me several times. Had I not known how the whole story goes and what's going on in that deranged head and body of his, I might have even considered not finishing the book. But just maybe. What a train wreck you are, Bruce.


   The games are the only way you can survive the job. Everybody has their wee vanities, their own little conceits. My one is that nobody plays the games like me, Bruce Robertson. D.S. Robertson, soon to be D.I. Robertson. 
   The games are always, repeat, always, being played. Most times, in any organisation, it's expedient not to acknowledge their existence. But they're always there. Like now. Now I'm sitting with a bad nut and Toal's thriving on this. I've been fucking busy and he's told me to be here, not asked, mind you, told. I got it all from Ray Lennox who was first on the scene with some uniformed spastics. Aye, I got it all from young Ray but Toal of course needs his audience. Behind the times Toalie boy, be-hind the blessed times. 

Cat's Cradle

Title: Cat's Cradle
Author: Kurt Vonnegut
Published: 1963
Genre: Satire
Pages: 304


One of the first books I bought for the Kindle, and finally got around to it! Much like with Slaughterhouse 5, I started reading with the intention of just a few pages, and ended up reading about a fifth of the book at once.

Our narrator has set out to write a book about one of the fathers of the atomic bomb, Felix Hoenikker, and what people were doing the day the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. He travels to the Hoenikker hometown to interview people, and learns of the theoretical, he is assured, substance of ice-nine, Hoenikker's invention that could change how war is fought and even destroy the whole world. Good thing it's not real, right? Just theoretical.

There's also the religious movement Bokononism, of which our narrator quotes often. How he stumbles upon it, you have to read for yourself. The pages and chapters just fly, and Cat's Cradle is just fun even when things start to get weird.


   All of the true things that I am about to tell you are shameless lies.