Book Chain, Week 16
Apr. 19th, 2026 12:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pedanther#14: A book with a higher average rating than the previous book
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson. A "narrative non-fiction" account of the final voyage of the trans-Atlantic passenger liner Lusitania, which was sunk by a German U-boat in 1915 with massive loss of life.
The narrative alternates between descriptions of life during the voyage, drawn from official documents and accounts left by surviving passengers and crew, and of the voyage of the U-20, drawn mainly from the U-boat captain's log. Interludes bring in other relevant parties, including the President of the still-neutral United States and various high officials of the British Admiralty, whose lack of preventative action to protect the Lusitania from a known danger was noted at the time and has only become more stark as more has come out about just how closely Naval Intelligence was tracking German activity.
I wouldn't say it's a bad book, but I never quite clicked with it. I don't tend to get on entirely with narrative non-fiction in any case, being dubious about where the line falls between "bringing the moment to life" and "making stuff up". Larson also has a tendency to drop in tangential details just because he thinks they're neat; it's arguably relevant that George von Trapp was a U-boat commander, and quoting from his memoirs does help illuminate life in the U-boat service, but one has to assume that he made the cut at least partly on name recognition -- and I really think the surprise cameo by Adolf Hitler in the section on life in the trenches was pushing it.
#15: A book whose cover is the next colour in the rainbow (or a complementary colour if the previous book's cover isn't a rainbow colour)
Neuromancer by William Gibson. The iconic cyberpunk novel; a washed-up cyberspace cowboy is recruited to an eccentric group of criminals who have been gathered to perform a mysterious heist.
I struggle to imagine what it would have been like to read this novel when it first came out; so many things that would have been new and strange then are now familiar, either through subsequent fiction or occasionally in real life. I read something that would probably have been shocking, and just kind of nod in recognition that this is the kind of thing that happens in this kind of story.
That said, I am enjoying myself, and the story is carrying me along. I've often quoted the saying that the Eight Deadly Words of reader reaction are "I don't care what happens to these people". In this case, when I was about a third of the way in, the thought crossed my mind that I don't particularly care what happens to these people, who are mostly assholes, but I do care what happens, because interesting things keep happening. At the point I'm currently at, about halfway through, we've learned enough about what the protagonists' mysterious backer is up to that I'm curious to find out what it's really up to.
And despite what I said about things seeming familiar, I am impressed by Gibson's imagination, and he comes up with some really striking images. I'll probably try more of his stuff in future.
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson. A "narrative non-fiction" account of the final voyage of the trans-Atlantic passenger liner Lusitania, which was sunk by a German U-boat in 1915 with massive loss of life.
The narrative alternates between descriptions of life during the voyage, drawn from official documents and accounts left by surviving passengers and crew, and of the voyage of the U-20, drawn mainly from the U-boat captain's log. Interludes bring in other relevant parties, including the President of the still-neutral United States and various high officials of the British Admiralty, whose lack of preventative action to protect the Lusitania from a known danger was noted at the time and has only become more stark as more has come out about just how closely Naval Intelligence was tracking German activity.
I wouldn't say it's a bad book, but I never quite clicked with it. I don't tend to get on entirely with narrative non-fiction in any case, being dubious about where the line falls between "bringing the moment to life" and "making stuff up". Larson also has a tendency to drop in tangential details just because he thinks they're neat; it's arguably relevant that George von Trapp was a U-boat commander, and quoting from his memoirs does help illuminate life in the U-boat service, but one has to assume that he made the cut at least partly on name recognition -- and I really think the surprise cameo by Adolf Hitler in the section on life in the trenches was pushing it.
#15: A book whose cover is the next colour in the rainbow (or a complementary colour if the previous book's cover isn't a rainbow colour)
Neuromancer by William Gibson. The iconic cyberpunk novel; a washed-up cyberspace cowboy is recruited to an eccentric group of criminals who have been gathered to perform a mysterious heist.
I struggle to imagine what it would have been like to read this novel when it first came out; so many things that would have been new and strange then are now familiar, either through subsequent fiction or occasionally in real life. I read something that would probably have been shocking, and just kind of nod in recognition that this is the kind of thing that happens in this kind of story.
That said, I am enjoying myself, and the story is carrying me along. I've often quoted the saying that the Eight Deadly Words of reader reaction are "I don't care what happens to these people". In this case, when I was about a third of the way in, the thought crossed my mind that I don't particularly care what happens to these people, who are mostly assholes, but I do care what happens, because interesting things keep happening. At the point I'm currently at, about halfway through, we've learned enough about what the protagonists' mysterious backer is up to that I'm curious to find out what it's really up to.
And despite what I said about things seeming familiar, I am impressed by Gibson's imagination, and he comes up with some really striking images. I'll probably try more of his stuff in future.
