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cbabe

(5,041 posts)
4. Richard Powers/Playground
Sun Feb 23, 2025, 12:25 PM
Feb 2025

Story flips between characters and time. Baffled me until I caught up half way through.

The end was completely ‘whaaat!?’

Powers is a brilliant writer. But I wish he had a better editor.

Plot follows two male friends, poor black poet and rich white techie (cringe). They discover the game Go, also black and white. Becomes their intricate life metaphor.

And then Evie, French Canadian famous best ever oceanographer. And her dives with all the sea creatures. Best poetic parts of the book.

And the South Pacific Island and it’s people trying to stay above water, literally.

And the sentient ai.

Book is one big near future mishmash metaphor.

It could have been a masterpiece but not.

Recommendations

1 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

Critical Mass, by Daniel Suarez roscoeroscoe Feb 2025 #1
Sounds quite interesting hermetic Feb 2025 #3
"Local Woman Missing" by Mary Kubica. sinkingfeeling Feb 2025 #2
"Dark and twisty, hermetic Feb 2025 #5
Richard Powers/Playground cbabe Feb 2025 #4
Powers also wrote hermetic Feb 2025 #6
I have a vague memory of reading The Overstory. Nature writing is cbabe Feb 2025 #7
Oh totally hermetic Feb 2025 #8
Stepping aside, I read a great nonfiction book cbabe Feb 2025 #13
I'm intrigued. "Wall of White" at Lake Tahoe? Or "The Darkest White" at a glacier??? txwhitedove Feb 2025 #17
Maybe. Do they include a lot of snow science? cbabe Feb 2025 #19
I'm just searching non-fiction on snow science, skiing and avalanche. How old was the book? txwhitedove Feb 2025 #20
Dragons in the snow sounds right. Good searching. I'll have to read to make sure. cbabe Feb 2025 #22
Finished, "The Mailman," Bentley Little Bayard Feb 2025 #9
Ooh, haven't read that one hermetic Feb 2025 #11
Thank you for the weekly thread, hermetic. I'm in between books right now. japple Feb 2025 #10
Ain't that the truth? hermetic Feb 2025 #12
The Waiting by Michael Connelly MIButterfly Feb 2025 #14
Good one hermetic Feb 2025 #15
I loved The Wedding People! Just read that Sony bought screen rights. mentalsolstice Feb 2025 #16
Great evening after kid volleyball and family birthday with margaritas and mexican food, yum. txwhitedove Feb 2025 #18
I finally finished "The Power" Berkely Blackfriars volume 2 yellowdogintexas Feb 2025 #21
Murder and the First Lady, by Elliott Roosevelt question everything Feb 2025 #23
Re-reading Stephen King's "IT" dwayneb Feb 2025 #24
Latest Discussions»Culture Forums»Fiction»What Fiction are you read...»Reply #4