Afbeelding auteur

Ben Adams

Auteur van Relativity

35+ Werken 95 Leden 13 Besprekingen

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Werken van Ben Adams

Relativity (2022) 12 exemplaren
The Enigmatologist (2016) 11 exemplaren
Alaska: the big land (1959) 8 exemplaren
Six Months to Get a Life (2015) 7 exemplaren
Porkchop's Summer Book (2000) 2 exemplaren

Gerelateerde werken

Singling Out the Couples (1998) — Fotograaf, sommige edities64 exemplaren
Jimmy Adams Benefit Year 2015 — Medewerker — 1 exemplaar

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Deze bespreking is geschreven voor LibraryThing Vroege Recensenten.
My apologies Mr Adams for the belated review of your novel. I enjoyed this story, the main character portrayed as a person probably on the Autistic disorder spectrum, which in it self creates some funny, sad and awkward moments.
I look forward the the next novel by Mr Adams
 
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TinaC1 | 6 andere besprekingen | Sep 8, 2022 |
Deze bespreking is geschreven voor LibraryThing Vroege Recensenten.
I received a free copy of this book from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program, in exchange for an honest review. If you like quirky, fun and interesting reads, here's a great candidate. Well written and not a cookie-cutter approach to character development. I enjoyed it. But, the characters didn't "feel" real to me. It's okay, because, why do they need to? It was still a diverting read by an author who seems to be having fun with his story.
 
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LisbethE | 6 andere besprekingen | Jul 17, 2022 |
Relativity is a unique and at times fun read! It's the story of three men from Bloomington, Indiana each living separate lives but when circumstances arise and they find themselves needing to go to Chicago a friendship develops. I enjoyed each of the characters. They can be quite eccentric! The story flowed well making it an easy read. There's was some scientific terms that I had no idea what they were but altogether it was interesting to readabdget to know each of these men.

Thank you Let's Talk Books Promo and Ben Adams for sharing this book with me!
… (meer)
 
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jacashjoh | 6 andere besprekingen | Jun 26, 2022 |
Deze bespreking is geschreven voor LibraryThing Vroege Recensenten.
I received a complimentary advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

RELATIVITY by Ben Adams

Published by: BHC Press
Publication date: June 7, 2022
Pages: 236
Genres: Fiction, Humor, Satire (classified by publisher); (and from me: Fiction, Satire, elements of Fantasy and Family Saga, descriptions of Science Fiction)
POV: Multiple: third person, past tense (for Harry, one main protagonist); first person, past tense (for Dennis, another character); occasional omniscient views
Narrator: True yet comedic through an acidic and despondent voice--particularly with Harry, often very close; occasional omniscient parenthetical backstory; sometimes misguided or wrong
Opening setting: Bloomington, Indiana at a burning house;
Other significant locations: Bloomington, around town, present day and decades past; convention
Number of named, identified or described characters: 95+

Publisher's Summary:

Harry Erickson believes he’s disproven Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. Dennis Drysdale is in love with a woman he knew from high school. Timothy Henderson wants to professionally play video games.

When Harry accidentally burns his house down in a freak chicken Kiev accident, it sets events into motion that allow the three friends to pursue their individual dreams.

The trio embark on a road trip to Chicago in pursuit of their destinies and find themselves at the University of Chicago Physics department, a video game tournament, and a lunch date at Panera Bread.

Relativity is a captivating wild romp fueled with the aspirations of three men who are on a quest to dedicate their lives to their ridiculous dreams in this thought-provoking and satirical novel of friendship and finding oneself.

My Review:

If you like this genre (satire), you should read this humorous romp narrated with acerbic wit that follows Harry Erickson from the smoldering embers of his burnt down home as he launches on what might be his final push to disprove Einstein's theory of general relativity.

An amateur scientist college dropout, a hard-working car salesman, and a professor who is a talented online gamer walk into a book: this is the setup for a road drip that turns into a quest.

You'll meet a man (Harry) so focused, so egotistical, so maniacal, so sure of himself that he rewrites physics and math. But it's all wrong. Yet luckily, he's here to explain it to every one of us losers, from kindergarteners to PhDs.

This self-proclaimed satire renames one of the most famous sci-fi TV series in a hilarious way and plays off its fame and uses one of PBS's most famous cardigan-wearing TV friends to children. It mocks a common restaurant chain or two.

The middle of the book bogged down for me a bit as we mired in lengthy backstory of each of the main characters from early childhood through their twenties, thirties and forties. Some tales were interesting if not extreme for Midwesterners, but much of it struck me as unnecessary. Although it does provide a sad, painful look back at all that's wrong with the cliched roles many teens and young adults (and even older adults) play as humans struggle to grow up.

At more than halfway through this book, the trio who were supposed to be going on a quest have not even discussed it, agreed to it, or heaven forbid, launched their journey. For me, much of this meandering prior to the quest could have been cut in favor for launching our heroes' journey sooner and examining the trip.

The point of this book to me seems to be to lay bare the truth that life is hard, and sometimes it sucks. Often we compensate for this emotional deluge by deluding ourselves into thinking we're amazing and awesome. And maybe that's the only way to get through. While all of this might be true, I'm not sure I want to stare down the barrel of such blind delusion, destruction and deceit. Or is that why we read fiction?

Very late in the book, we finally see some high-stakes catastrophes that launch the trio on their unlikely quest, and some of those explosions fit a great fiction rule: make the unlikely seem inevitable. There were some devastating yet funny twists and turns, which is often what you get in this read.

I don't read much satire, so perhaps my ignorance caused me to fail to appreciate the irony, the pessimistic humor, the sarcasm so that I did not love this cast of losers. I can only assume this genre is normally chockfull of cliches and tropes, which I enjoyed for some reason.

Then finally, just prior to wrapping up this book, the quest launched. Is the author purposely withholding this journey to drive me crazy? Perhaps. There were almost no pages left to build a crescendo to climax and resolve this story, but it concluded nicely--or at least completely.

In the end, I appreciated that these misfits changed through the narrative, with each traveler making connections and finding something on their quest. If this is ever made into a movie, it will probably be influenced by Seth Rogan and Jonah Hill and maybe star Martin Lawrence and Dave Chappelle. Was this a modern day Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or one of David Sedaris's books?

You should read about this amateur scientist, a gamer and a car salesman and decide what you think.
… (meer)
 
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SteveBookNerd | 6 andere besprekingen | Jun 2, 2022 |

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Statistieken

Werken
35
Ook door
2
Leden
95
Populariteit
#197,646
Waardering
½ 3.4
Besprekingen
13
ISBNs
24
Talen
5

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