Two Books

It took me a long time to finish reading The Malay Dilemma, finally. It’s not that the book was difficult to read at all. Instead, it was quite boring since having grown up in the Mahathir era the book – what’s in it – was everywhere in the public and official spaces. It’s boring to read stuff you already know. In the meantime, people will continue to argue about the book, just as people will continue to argue about the former prime minister’s policies and legacies. I’m just glad that I’ve finally read the book.

On the other hand, it took me only a few short days to finish reading The God Engines. The novella was sold as John Scalzi’s first attempt at fantasy – unlike anything he had written before – and the result was, WOW!

We have a spaceship, a warship by the name Righteous that runs on a god. The god sustains the ship, powering its weapons and takes it across the stars. It is a defeated god, dark and sinister. The gods are at war, and captain the Righteous, Ean Tephe, is given a mission to find a new planet to convert to give his God the edge above the rest.

Though set mostly on a “spaceship”, the book was all about religion, faith, and the ending was mind-blowing! Too bad The God Engines is only a novella.