Customer Reviews

An Exaltation of Larks

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Reed has produced a brilliantly written piece of work in An Exaltation of Larks. His characters are alive and three dimensional. His portrayal of a small college campus is flawless. His writing is crisp and to the point. And his imagination is wonderful. I would give it five stars but there are just so many great books out there. This one, however, is a must read for those who appreciate good writing with a touch of whimsy and mystery thrown it.

I'm only in junior high, so adults who read this might not count my opinion, but I thought this book was so good! I couldn't put it down and I definitely can't say that for a lot of books. I agree its not the best I've EVER read, but Reed creates such an interesting and thought provoking synopsis that I was blowen away! This was actually fun to analyse! I've never read a book twice but I'm thinking of making an exception for this one, there's just so much I could of missed. I understand that older people have to sound more distinguished than authors, acting like this novel just lacked plot, flow or whatever and acting like they could write better, but sometimes your wrong. This was a good book, stop kidding yourself! For all of the rest of you out there...read this one!

Reed's novel spans the entire history of the universe in broad strokes exploring the nature of life and existence. Paradoxically much of the story focuses on a late 1970s college campus, so beautifully captured the writing makes your heart ache. All this and a cosmic mystery well done.

Perhaps for readers of "hard science fiction" or whatever genre this book belongs to, this story makes some sort of sense but to me it did not.
It starts like a fairly conventional campus story set in the winter on some liberal arts campus possibly in New England. We meet our protagonist, who edits the student newspaper and is apparently irristible to co-eds. His paper has uncovered a financial scandal involving the college president.
So far so good. Then everything changes. Apparently the world is being taken over by mutant ninja turtles seeking to turn back creation and bring into existence a new universe in which we all have eternal life. Or something like that.
To tell the truth, I couldn't make head or tale of the plot from that point on and quickly lost interest. Who are these turtles? Who cares. I felt like the army officer who used to appear in Monty Python sketches saying "too silly, too silly."
Oh and the book has some pretty nasty sex as well.

The plot is a gloss on a silly time travel/transcendence of Universe theme; a half-smart quasi-Buddhist shtick that leaves one feeling empty and cheated when the story finally unfolds. Along the way we get some generic and purposeless sex, and a story that is supposed to be mysterious and edgy. I give the book a second star because the author writes well, and phrases his silly plot in good style. Perhaps a good rule for science fiction that dips into quasi-crystal channeling mysticism might be to embrace some final meaning, either dark or light. This book leaves one muddled and unhappy, not thoughtful or uplifted. I cannot reccomend the book, but the author writes well enough to deserve more chances.

I read all genres of science fiction and fantasy and like a beautiful moment, this book will forever remain in my memories. I read this book in a couple sittings and although the end failed to fulfil my wishes for the characters it did not completely disappoint. As in life, you don't always get what you want. Instead, you may end up with something immensely more satisfying. Yes, the last part is very strange and dream-like, but keep reading. The meaning of the title is in there, somewhere!

This book has great character development and scene setting which goes on for the first 2/3 of the book. I give it the highest rating for this. However, the rating comes down in the last chapter, which gets weird with strange dream like sequences that I don't care for much. This is the type of book you read in college where you have to try to analyze everything the author is trying to say. I'm not sure what it was. For example, I'm not sure what the title is referring too. I'm also not sure what the power struggle was all about. The author seems to try to convey great significance to an event that seemed trivial to me. The back cover credits compare this author to Phillip K. Dick, but except for the weird dream sequences, Reed's writing is much better. This book reminded me a lot of Vonnegut's Slaughter House Five. The same sort of time travel weirdness and symbolism with great writing. So an average rating for great characterization and scene but a general weirdness that I don't care for.

College boy girl chaser enters the Twilight Zone. Some very interesting things, some bedroom exploits that could have been skipped. This book will stay with you. The material seems like science fiction, but different from most sf.