Graveyard Book was pretty good. I really do enjoy Gaiman's work.

Currently reading:

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Blackbirds, by Chuck Wendig

I loved it. Thought it was fantastic. Just my level of gritty.

Dan Simmons absolutely subscribes to the politics of Flashback. He posted an anti-Muslim/anti-government blog in 2006. In the Illium sequel, Olympos, the Rubicon virus was unleashed by the Global Islamic Caliphate in order to kill the Jews, a theme he rehashed again in Flashback. Even The Hyperion Cantos touches on a bit of anti-Islamic sentiment (shi'ite = fanatic [WTF?]). Just Google "Dan Simmons islamaphobia."

But pushing that aside, there are still three huge flaws with the novel.

1. Nick Bottom's motivation and methodology were lifted from Strange Days. And if I remember that film correctly even the mystery plot lines up.

2. It ties its dystopian vision to current American politicians. That sacrifices the believability that SF needs and pushes the novel into satire. Flashback read like a Something Awful spoof on socio-politically conservative writers. Which would have been fine if that had been the novel's intention.

3. A good dystopia is complex and organic; anti-intellectualism and illiteracy (Fahrenheit 451), anti-regulation (Neuromancer), anti-deregulation (Brazil), anti-utopia (Brave New World), anti-facism (1984), etc. Dystopias that follow ideological laundry lists don't work because that's not how social change works.

Flashback was garbage. My brother worked with a good friend and roommate of Simmons' from his days at Wabash College and even the friend described the book as "regrettable."

For a laugh, Mazes and Monsters.

So, how accurate is the movie to the book?

I never saw the movie, but the book was laughable, irrational, sensationalistic, and poorly written.

Sounds pretty accurate, then.

Re-started Strain. I'd lost the copy I was reading partway through, and then got on a Pratchett kick. Finished off all our Discworld books, and in the meantime have acquired the full trilogy, so I'm jumping back in.

It's as awesome as I remember.