mugren's review
3.0
I really struggled with this, and almost gave up several times.
I loved the idea, and the content of the writing was enjoyable. I think the main problem was how it was written. The writing is disjointed, using fragments of diary entries and possibly letters.
I can understand why some people love it and some hate it.
I loved the idea, and the content of the writing was enjoyable. I think the main problem was how it was written. The writing is disjointed, using fragments of diary entries and possibly letters.
I can understand why some people love it and some hate it.
drewsof's review
5.0
5+ out of 5.
This book was a fucking delight. It's a big shaggy mess, one that starts out fragmented and gains coherence even as the reliability of what's being shown to us moves in the opposite direction. John Tamberlain, universe's most fearsome food critic, first delivers us a sketch of his life and how he got started -- seen largely through fragments of journals and letters. But there's a lot not shown to us and it's only once he finds a photograph of a possibly mythic hotel/restaurant, the most exclusive restaurant in the universe, that a proper story kicks in. (In a way, it's two books in one.)
And then, well, I don't want to spoil it. Not enough people are going to read this book, which is a fucking shame, but for those who will, I won't give much away. Suffice to say: it was a bit of a horror novel, in the way that GIDEON THE NINTH or ANNIHILATION are horror novels. But it was done by way of a Douglas Adams/Kurt Vonnegut sense of humor and with a beautiful disregard for anything other than this story being told in this way. It's also a magnificent sci-fi novel, one that doesn't really ever talk about travel between planets so much as it talks about moving between countries and alliances. I really liked the way he talked about movement between places as though it could also be between cities or countries on a single terrestrial world -- and that sometimes, those two things were interchangeable.
Also, my god, the Hotel. Brilliant. Terrifying.
I loved this book. Please find and read it so we can talk about it.
This book was a fucking delight. It's a big shaggy mess, one that starts out fragmented and gains coherence even as the reliability of what's being shown to us moves in the opposite direction. John Tamberlain, universe's most fearsome food critic, first delivers us a sketch of his life and how he got started -- seen largely through fragments of journals and letters. But there's a lot not shown to us and it's only once he finds a photograph of a possibly mythic hotel/restaurant, the most exclusive restaurant in the universe, that a proper story kicks in. (In a way, it's two books in one.)
And then, well, I don't want to spoil it. Not enough people are going to read this book, which is a fucking shame, but for those who will, I won't give much away. Suffice to say: it was a bit of a horror novel, in the way that GIDEON THE NINTH or ANNIHILATION are horror novels. But it was done by way of a Douglas Adams/Kurt Vonnegut sense of humor and with a beautiful disregard for anything other than this story being told in this way. It's also a magnificent sci-fi novel, one that doesn't really ever talk about travel between planets so much as it talks about moving between countries and alliances. I really liked the way he talked about movement between places as though it could also be between cities or countries on a single terrestrial world -- and that sometimes, those two things were interchangeable.
Also, my god, the Hotel. Brilliant. Terrifying.
I loved this book. Please find and read it so we can talk about it.
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