Snippy Snippets: "The Separation" by Christoper Priest

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"The Separation" by CHRISTOPER PRIEST is a prime example of great and mind-boggling alternative history fiction. You get caught up in a story narrated by two identical twins through their journals and a few external publications on the lives of the two. The story is about the lives of Jack (the bomber pilot) and Joe L. Sawyer (the pacifist ambulance driver) during the WWII England. They have a love-hate relationship and they are both in love with the same woman. The war and their personal differences separate them, but as we follow their journal entries and external ("objective") facts are introduced along the way via newspaper articles and other official publications, we realize that a lot of the information we picked up along the way really contradicts itself. Priest does not spoon-feed the reader with the right answers, but leaves you to juggle with your thoughts and come up with a reasonable explanation for what was really going on. The writing is superb as well. A great page-turner even though the book offers limited action. If you want a breezy read full of adventure this probably isn't it, but what it offers is high quality drama, a well-written and highly enjoyable prose (the red herrings and the conflicting facts are masterfully woven into the fable so they don't disrupt the flow of the novel at all), and a sharp mind to connect the dots at the end to come up with an answer for the factual discrepancies. A great, heartily recommended read! Somewhere in between 4/5 and 4.5/5.

- Thrinidir -

Not dead (yet)

Thrinidir linked me this today and while I'm not really thrilled about it, I'm not really surprised either. After all, it's been more than 4 months since our last update here on RoSF.

My plan at the end of 2009 was to take a short break, say, for two to three months. I planned to resurrect the blog sometime in March, maybe early April, and try to update regularly - at least once in every two weeks, preferably more often. Truth is, I still have no more time than I had in December. I have about five or six reviews written and waiting, I just never seem to find the time to type them (or, more often, I simply forget about them). I also have about 7 exams coming up and am juggling my time between college and hobbies.

Thrinidir has been pretty much WoW-oriented for the past year or so, which basically means that regarding this blog, I'm mostly on my own. This makes keeping this blog up much less fun and at the same time that much harder. While I enjoy reviewing, I don't really want to keep a blog that updates once in a month and a half. I want to do this properly, and right now, I need more time for that (or another pair of hands to help me, but that's unlikely).

So, just so you know: RoSF is not dead, just hibernating :) I will begin to regularly update it again once I pass most of my exams for this year, which will be somewhere around end of June/beginning of July.

Until then, have fun :)

Trin