Shudder-worthy

If you are a fan of Chuck Palahniuk, don't read any further, you've been warned!

Ugh, in a bookstore, I stumbled across a book by Palahniuk and because I saw people sing praises about him, I picked it up to leaf through it and read the summary and all - and now I wish I could scrub my brain clean *shudders* It was a book called "Snuff" about a prostitute who wanted to whore herself to death by having sex with hundreds of men in one night. I felt slimey just by holding the book in my hands. If this is what Palahniuk's books are about than no, thank you, but no.

Wait, what?

I'm reading Wen Spencer's "Endless Blue" and as much as I like the plot, it makes me quite annoyed. There are male and female Reds, humans with cat abilities and super strength. Like super human strength. And it's okay for female Reds to hit the males but the author frowns on male Reds hitting females.

I hate, hate, hate these double standards. Especially in cases like this when the females can be in no way considered the "weak gender" being equal to men in every physical way. So either it's bad for both genders to hit the other or it's allowed for both genders to hit the other. In no way is it okay for a woman to smack the man around, throw him to the ground etc. while the men must behave in a more "considerate" way just because they are men. It's not okay for a man to do so and it should not be okay for a woman to do so. No way, no how! If equal than in every frickin' way!

Wen Spencer's "Endless Blue", #63

I freely admit that I was disappointed by this book. Spencer's "Ukiah Oregon" series was excellent and I think that it just set the bar too high for me. This book had a great idea and it was exactly the kind of scifi that I love: of the exploring kind, not the military kind. And the setting was intriguing too: a place that was set inside of a sphere instead of outside.

But, and there was a big but, the characters - and especially Paige Bailey. The perfect portrayal of a Mary-Sue. She excelled at everything, there was no exchange of information and experience between her and the newcomers from the Svoboda, it was her way or the highway and Turk and Mikhail simply trailed along like lost puppies. She demanded respect but she didn't have any for cultures outside of the Sargasso - the way she treated Turk with his awful experience as a Red proved it: she demanded that he changed his way of viewing the world right now this very second or else... And when someone dared to disagree with her, she yelled or even smacked him around. She definitely wasn't mine kind of a heroine and I think I will be more wary of Spencer's female characters from now on. Turk and Mikhail were interesting characters and it was too bad that Spencer didn't explore their relationship more.

Also, the ending was just too... smooth. I hoped for something bigger, for a greater showdown with Hardin.

Overall, I'm a bit disappointed. I expected much, much more.