The Way - Book Review

[@rodgilley-writer]

A solid review can send a story racing to a TBR, or it can help a reader dodge a bullet. Either way, a solid review is very, very worthwhile. You never disappoint!!!

[@OrbitingTheShelf]

This was a solid review. I think admittedly I enjoyed it much more than everyone else seems to have. I was stuck between wondering if Will’s relationship with his animal companions was him going a little crazy from solitude or if he actually spoke with them. Either way I thought it was a solid 8.5/10 in the review I did. Granted I know nothing about Buddhism and I don’t often venture outside of sci-fi and fantasy so my perspective on this may be lacking.

[@SoundFuryBookReviews]

@@OrbitingTheShelf I think that's a totally fair assessment! I know a few people who probably would love it.

[@arockinsamsara]

I read this book and had a similar opinion... maybe even a little less enthusiastic than you, I decided not to make a video because of my lack of enthusiasm... I agree the spiritual/philosophical aspects were way too on the nose and didactic to be pleasureable. And they weren't really Buddhist, but more like an eager student's interpretation of Buddhism... which would have been fine, if they were the subtext and not the _text_ text...(Also, for context, I am a Tibetan Buddhist monk...)

[@SoundFuryBookReviews]

Thank you for checking out my review! I bet as a monk yourself it was more frustrating than anything, given, I would assume, based on what you said, the tenets or ideas probably weren't the most accurate?

[@arockinsamsara]

@@SoundFuryBookReviews To be honest none of the ideas were _wrong_ wrong, they were just the most surface-level way you would interpret some of them. If they weren't presented so explicitly and bluntly, but had been subtext, had motivated his actions without us needing to be told about them, they would have been a lovely set of philosophical preoccupations and a happy way to live your life (or as happy as possible given the whole apocalypse situation😅). They actually were a lot of elements of the story I enjoyed, and I thought you highlighted many of them well, which I appreciate. I felt like any full length review I made would be filled with enough caveats to make it unconvincing. I forgot to mention, I appreciated your breakdown of post-apocalyptic fiction into the three categories. I read a collection earlier this year, _After: Nineteen Stories of Apocalypse and Dystopia_ edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, and while I read a decent amount of post-apocalyptic/dystopian books I don't usually read that many back-to-back, and it was definitely fun to see where each author fell on the scale between bleak and hopeful.