Hardboiled Archives - DaneCobain.com

Title: End of Watch

Author: Stephen King

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 372

Rating: 3.75*/5

Stephen King – End of Watch

This book is the third and final book in the Bill Hodges trilogy, and it came as something of a relief. I loved Mr. Mercedes, the first book, but Finders Keepers (the second one) wasn’t up to the same standard. This one isn’t as good as Mr. Mercedes either, but it’s still pretty good, and I did like how you get to learn more about some of the characters. The whole gang is here, from notorious domestic terrorist Brady Hartsfield to Bill Hodges, Holly Gibney and Jerome Robinson.

It’s also interesting to see how Hartsfield’s ostensibly psychic powers develop and how he successfully uses suicide as a weapon. On the downside, it just didn’t feel quite right having all of these psychic powers and astral projection when the first book was basically a hardboiled crime thriller. Adding all of these other elements may be more King, but it just doesn’t seem to ring true to what the first book attempted to do. But maybe I’m only saying that because I think it kind of devalues Mr. Mercedes, which I gave 5/5 to.

There’s also the fact that I already knew how the entire trilogy was going to end from the very first book, purely because of the title of this one. When it finally happened, it felt like something of an anticlimax. The same is true with the final confrontation between Hodges and Hartsfield, which almost felt rushed after how much the reader has gone through to get there. Unless you’re a hardcore King fan who wants to read every single one of his releases, I’d suggest just reading Mr. Mercedes and then calling it quits.

I also had a few problems with King’s representations of tech, and he even says in his afterword that he’s changed some of the details to suit the story. I kept unsuspending my disbelief because stuff was happening that just isn’t possible. There was also a character who went to visit Hartsfield when I don’t think that she, as a person, would have done it. But if she didn’t, the entire book wouldn’t have happened. Bummer.

Stephen King Quote

Click here to buy End of Watch.

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William Gibson – Neuromancer | Review

Title: Neuromancer

Author: William Gibson

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 320

Rating: 3*/5

William Gibson – Neuromancer

I was given this book by a friend who wanted me to read it, and so I had high hopes to begin with – they’ve read a few books that I’ve written, and they have a good idea of my taste in literature. So I was a little disappointed when I got into it.

The main problem here is that the futuristic dystopia that Gibson depicts is so alien to our own that it’s often hard to understand what he’s talking about. I was able to understand what was happening in the overall plot, but the little intricacies were lost on me and I kept finding myself either drifting off or getting confused when a plot twist happened. I kept not realising it was a twist because I didn’t know what was happening to begin with.

The story follows a character called Case, who’s injected with tiny sacks of mycotoxin that bond to his artery walls and threaten to eventually disintegrate, killing him. The only way for him to avoid death is to take on a mission for a man who says he has the antidote. Case’s skills lie in weird sci-fi obscurity, involving the ability to connect to a weird Matrix thing and see events through other people’s eyes.

William GIbson

I usually like science fiction, but this was such hardboiled sci-fi that I’d say it’s only for die-hard fans of the genre. That’d be why it won Hugo and Nebula Awards. At some points, it reminded me of William Burroughs, which can be equally difficult to read. But this wasn’t William Burroughs and for me, it just wasn’t much fun to read, and I was glad when I finally finished it.

Overall, then, this is the book for you if you’re into classic sci-fi. If you’re not, don’t bother. It’s pretty much that simple.