Book Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Title: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Author: Oscar Wilde
Published: New York: Modern Library, 2004 (1890)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 254
Total Page Count: 170,565
Text Number: 499
Read Because: personal enjoyment, on my bookshelf/on Project Gutenberg
Review: Young, beautiful, promising Dorian Gray has his portrait painted—and makes a wish that the painting will age in his stead. This is as good as it could be and as I expected it would be. Wilde's voice has a tendency to run away with itself, but he gives that tendency purpose and his witticisms become core to the book's themes. The Picture of Dorian Gray is a substantial metaphor, expressed in tones that are interchangeably ornate, haunting, playful, and even cruel; it's a delight to read while maintaining self-aware insight. I expected I'd love this, and I did, which I suppose is all I can add to what's been said about this book.

(So help me, I even like Eugenides's introduction! I never like introductions!)

Book Review: Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh

Title: Downbelow Station (The Company Wars Book 1)
Author: C.J. Cherryh
Published: New York: Daw, 2008 (1981)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 461
Total Page Count: 171,026
Text Number: 500
Read Because: fan of the author, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Pell Stations stands, neutral and vulnerable, in the center of a war brewing between what's left of Earth's forces and what's become of colonist's expansion onto further worlds. Downbelow Station is a slow burn, a space opera setting up an entire fictional universe. But once it warms up, it's unexpectedly compelling—not just for the politics, but for the human element. Cherryh's style is dense, emotionally- and philosophically-laden, and her cast has powerful motivations and flaws. And the plot here is brutal—I wish, without spoiling too much, that the main cast were less exempt from worst-case outcomes, but on the whole this balances its large, awful scale with intense local investment. Though by no means perfect, I found myself enthralled and I recommend it.