Tagged: adam
Immortal by Gene Doucette
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
“I don’t know how old I am.My earliest memory is something along the lines of fire good, ice bad, so I think I predate written history, but I don’t know by how much. I like to brag that I’ve been there from the beginning, and while this may very well be true, I generally just say it to pick up girls.”
–Adam the Immortal
Surviving sixty thousand years takes cunning and more than a little luck. But in the twenty-first century, Adam confronts new dangers—someone has found out what he is, a demon is after him, and he has run out of places to hide.Worst of all, he has had entirely too much to drink.
Immortal is a first person confessional penned by a man who is immortal, but not invincible. In an artful blending of sci-fi, adventure, fantasy, and humor, IMMORTAL introduces us to a world with vampires, demons and other “magical” creatures, yet a world without actual magic.
At the center of the book is Adam.
“I have been in quite a few tight situations in my long life. One of the first things I learned was if there is going to be a mob panic, don’t be standing between the mob and wherever it is they all want to go. The second thing I learned was, don’t try to run through fire.”
–Adam the Immortal
Adam is a sixty thousand year old man. (Approximately.) He doesn’t age or get sick, but is otherwise entirely capable of being killed.His survival has hinged on an innate ability to adapt, his wits, and a fairly large dollop of luck. He makes for an excellent guide through history . . . when he’s sober.
Immortal is a contemporary fantasy for non-fantasy readers and fantasy enthusiasts alike.
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
What I’ve always wondered at is if there really are immortals, how will they live in today’s society where you need an ID to do almost anything? At what point do mortals discover their existence? Well, Gene Doucette certainly deals with that in Immortal.
Adam is probably one of my favourite characters I’ve read about in a long time. Sure he’s a drunken lecher of the first degree, but after sixty thousand years, wouldn’t you be too? He’s clever and street smart, which has kept him alive over the millennia and yet he still holds onto the romantic idea that he’s not the only immortal, that the redheaded beauty he keeps seeing will one day reveal herself to him. If they all don’t get captured by scientists to be poked and prodded and exploited first. I love The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and I have to say that quite honestly, Immortal does have the feel of the classic as Adam tries to sober up to run away from his many would-be captors. I don’t compare classics like Douglas Adams’ book to contemporary works very easily, so you can be certain that I really do enjoy and recommend Immortal.
Even though not all that much is revealed about the origins of Adam’s immortality, I can still say that the world-building in this book was excellent. Why? Because there are very good reasons for his immortality being shrouded in mystery: humans were quite primitive at the time and he himself says that he wasn’t engaging in the kind of complex thought that is present today. “Fire good, ice bad”, indeed. We see flashbacks of his travels across the centuries, sometimes drunken and sometimes not as he encountered everything from demons to famous gangsters. He’s certainly had a pretty cool life, but not in the “I’m immortal so I’ve met every famous figure ever” way. No, sometimes he lived a pretty ordinary life and sometimes not, which makes his current political savvy believable as well as his street smarts.
As for the plot, it was surprisingly fast-paced when you consider that there were occasional interludes into the past. Normally those slow the plot down unbearably, but not so in this case because Gene Doucette is a good writer. I wanted to know more about Adam’s fascinating background not only because it was fascinating but because it was also relevant to where he is today: being hunted so that scientists can figure out how to recreate the conditions for his immortality. Adam’s not too keen on being poked, prodded and possibly dissected so things get very, very interesting toward the end of the novel. Particularly when we see our red-headed friend again.
So all in all, Immortal was a very enjoyable read and I would definitely recommend it to others. Adam is a very memorable character and the world-building is so well done that even with the little knowledge you’re given, you remain fairly satisfied that you know most everything that is relevant to the story itself. Of course I can’t wait to see that expanded in the next book, Hellenic Immortal. I’ll definitely be watching and waiting to read the rest of Adam’s story.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
(Cover picture courtesy of Gayle Forman’s site.)
On a day that started like any other…
Mia had everything: a loving family, a gorgeous, adoring boyfriend, and a bright future full of music and full of choices. Then, in an instant, almost all of that is taken from her. Caught between life and death, between a happy past and an unknowable future, Mia spends one critical day contemplating the one decision she has left—the most important decision she’ll ever make.
Simultaneously tragic and hopeful, this is a romantic, riveting and ultimately uplifting story about memory, music, living, dying, loving.
Here I am once again tackling a book that’s pretty much become a classic of modern literature. I really tried hard not to let the hype influence my opinion of it but as you guys know it’s impossible to be totally oblivious to a novel as popular as this one.
I didn’t like If I Stay. There, I said it. So you can start writing your hate mail now but at least hear me out on my reasons why.
Mia was a horrible main character, to be honest. No, she wasn’t an awful human being but she was boring. Horribly, ordinary and boring with pretty much nothing to set her apart. Sure she’s into music but her personality is about as dull as watching paint dry. The book starts out with her accident and as she’s in a coma we learn more about her life prior to the accident. And you know what? It’s too good to be true.
She has the cool parents that every stereotypical teenager supposedly wishes for. They’re cool, not uptight about anything and basically act like teenagers themselves. She never, ever has any disagreements with them. Ever. That’s just not realistic at all. And her relationship with Adam was so cheesy it almost made me gag. That scene where they’re in Mia’s room and Adam asked her to “play [him] like a cello” (page 59). And she literally played air cello on his body before he reciprocated by playing air guitar on hers. I haven’t rolled my eyes so hard since I was 13 years old and even at that age I could have told you that two teenagers alone in a bedroom together are not going to play air-whatevers on each other.
Basically, If I Stay is a bunch of memories of Mia’s where she boringly examines her perfect life before deciding if she wants to die or not. There’s no great lyricism to the writing, no real emotion in what really should be a heart-wrenching situation and I really didn’t care what happened to Mia by the end of the novel. I just wanted the novel to be over so I could do something productive with my life.
If you want to read If I Stay to see what all the hype is about, go for it. But set your expectations a little lower if you don’t want to be totally disappointed.
I give this book 1/5 stars.