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Powell's Staff:
Five Book Friday: In Memoriam
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Every year, the booksellers at Powell’s submit their Top Fives: their five favorite books that were released in 2023. It’s a list that, when put together, shows just how varied and interesting the book tastes of Powell’s booksellers are. I highly recommend digging into the recommendations — we would never lead you astray — but today...
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Brontez Purnell:
Powell’s Q&A: Brontez Purnell, author of ‘Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt’
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Rachael P.:
Starter Pack: Where to Begin with Ursula K. Le Guin
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Customer Comments
FNORDinc has commented on (63) products
Already Gone
by
John Rector
FNORDinc
, October 28, 2011
John Rector has brought a very strong novel to the table and put it down in front of you. You should be picking up what he is putting down. Before picking up this novel, grab an industrial fan and place it in front of you facing away. When the novelized shit hits it, you will minimize the blow-back you experience. Within five pages of the opening, the ring finger of Jake Reese has been forcibly removed by a pressure instrument that is not intended to be used for surgery. Bolt cutters, normally tasked to leveraging solid metal into separate pieces, had no trouble going through the bone and flesh of Jake’s finger. Jake goes home to his wife, with his wallet intact, and his pride scuffed, and in a terrible amount of confused pain. What the heck just happened, why was it “Nothing personal” as the attacker stated while walking away. Rector’s “Already Gone” just gets better from there. I will not summarize anything further, in fear I could introduce spoilers. What I can advise is that I was kept rabidly interested, a captive audience from cover to cover. Mystery/Thrillers of this kind have a high risk of coming off as heavy handed; they risk a big opening and poor closing; they risk formulaic story lines. This book has surpassed all the risk and achieved all of the reward that a hard hitting story aspires to. It is solid beginning to end. I doubt that this book will become a best seller immediately, heck, there are so many books on the market that it could never achieve this status. I have high hopes though and I believe this is going to be a sleeper hit. Get in on the ground floor and read it early. Ensure that you are one of the cool people on the cutting edge of excellent fiction. After all, reading is a popularity game, right? You want to be cool… Highly suggested! --FNORDinc This book was provided to me free by the publisher (thank you!)
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Dove Season
by
Johnny Shaw
FNORDinc
, October 22, 2011
In the first of (and hopefully a grip of) the “Jimmy Veeder Fiasco’s”, Jimmy is called back to his home town when his father announces he has terminal cancer and no further options. He travels back to the 100+ degree heat to spend time with “Pop” and help get things in order. Jimmy has been away from the Imperial Valley of California over a decade. He went to college, traveled the world, and planned no further into the future than a week. He was generically content with his life, even if he was not what people would call happy. It doesn’t matter though. Desert folk can move to a city, travel the world , or settle down with a chica up north, but will always have the desert inside them. Jimmy finds out very quickly that nothing has changed since he left El Centro and the Imperial area. The border is still malleable, Mexicali is still someplace that should cause a grown man to stay out of the shadows, and even though he thought he left his life behind, it was waiting or him when he came back. As described on the back of the book, things get a bit upside down when Pop asks Jimmy to locate him a Mexicali prostitute by the name of Yolanda. Respecting his privacy on the issue, Veeder does not ask questions. Instead he enlists the help of long time friend Bobby to head south of the boarder and track down Yolanda.. If a dying man wants a prostitute found, you find her, regardless of the specifics… Regardless of the lengths a person must go to or the consequences of ones actions… Johnny Shaw’s title for this book is fantastically metaphoric. Dove Season is the time of year when small game hunters break out the guns en-masse and kill the universally recognized “bird of peace” by the tens of thousands. Peace is sometimes more like a flying rodent than an innocent (and often naive) ideal. This novel chronicles Veeder’s own “Dove Season” as he re-immerses in desert life and puts the hurt on his inner peace (and a few a**holes) for the betterment of himself and everyone he knows. People who enjoy excellent fight scenes, a reasonable amount of manly introspection, and booze should check this out. It is like being sucker punched in the tentative tequila-queasy stomach while you sit on the back porch having one of those alcohol driven “honest talks” with a best friend. -- FNORDinc dot com (This review was based off a free copy of the book.)
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Rising Storm T2
by
S M Stirling
FNORDinc
, October 02, 2011
The war between man and machine begins, but you don’t need to wait till the apocalypse to rock to your favorite jams. As not-seen-on-tv, Harper Entertainment presents a special 2002 throwback collection: all the greatest hits of the Terminator saga all in one place! T2: Rising Storm features the best in contemporary junk sci-fi with hits from S.M. Stirling, and homage paid back to James Cameron and William Wisher, key-masters of the Terminator universe! Bringing back hits from the 80′s and 90′s, T2: Rising Storm includes classics such as: * No fate but that we make. * You sent your dad from the Future to save your mom and impregnate her before dying so you can be born so you can send your dad back into the past to impregnate your mom….. how does that work again? * Run Run Run Run Run, Locate bigger firepower! Run Run…. * Your face is blown halfway off, and I can see your metal skull * Life is like a dark highway.. Also included are new and improved Terminator universe hits, remastered and returned to the public in high definition: * Your voice sounds like someone I know but I shouldn’t trust you because you might be a robot. * My mother’s in a psych-ward and I’m chillin’ with Conan the Barbarian. * I hang out with my mom a lot not because I want to but because I don’t have any friends. But that’s not all. There’s more! New material is available. New, never before released and right at your finger tips in this collected masterwork: * John Connor gets a girlfriend and Mom doesn’t like her. * Oh NOES! Robot controlled killer seals! * And more! Don’t pass this deal by! Order now while supplies last! The first five hundred orders will include a home Terminator in your choice of three different colors. (Introductory participation plan expires in 2002, Check local laws and statutes regarding ownership of future robotic hunter/killer devices. -- FNORDinc
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Infiltrator T2
by
S M Stirling
FNORDinc
, March 21, 2011
I love when authors are handed either a deal too good to pass up or are needing some extra barbecue cash, and take up the mantle of authorship to write crappy movie adaptation books. Piers Anthony wrote the novelization of ‘Total Recall’ (based on the PK Dick short), Orson Scott Card novelized ‘The Abyss’.. and apparently S.M. Stirling wrote a trilogy of Terminator Universe novels. I picked up T2 Infiltrator for a two dollars at Goodwill. Anyone who knows me is aware that I really think Stirling is a bad writer. I like his plot lines and a lot of characters, but in general, I find that his books piss me off more than they are enjoyed, they drag on and are soooo soooo soooo heavy handed.. In this case, I thought, ‘hey, its Stirling, I should give it a shot. Worst expected scenario is that it would be hum drum and just pass some time’. Turns out that it was a damn good book. Knowing that time is elastic, and apt to revert to it’s original shape, SkyNet’s goal is now to work in the background. It’s primary goal is to bounce the time line back to its original shape. To do this, SkyNet needs a more malleable and versatile tool. In the future, SkyNet is building a new terminator (go figure, right?), this one is grown in a captured slave human’s womb. It is born and immediately surgically implanted with gear, grown in spurts via chemicals, and given constant combat training. A permanent mental connection/lifeline to the SkyNet system to ensure an addiction to the computer “mother’. This new Infiltrator model’s (the I-950) biggest problem is emotions. Drugs, surgery, and training have removed most of these obstacles, but these pesky emotions are actually why the Infiltrator was created. If you cant feel, you cannot successfully infiltrate. Humans have a tendency to be able to notice unfeeling machines. The trouble is making sure that the Infiltrator can be aware of emotion, but still hold true to it’s design. The book starts off very slow, but the background info is needed. Picking up right after the end of the 2nd movie, Cyberdyne has been blown to hell and back and is burning rubble. Dyson’s family is torn up at the loss of their father/husband/brother. The Connor mother/son have disappeared to South America. It speeds up though, and gets difficult to put down within a reasonable period of time. Book 2 and 3 are in the mail to me, I suppose I can say I like Stirling a lot better when he is writing under someone else’s initial premise, as opposed to his own. The book has been crafted in a way that makes none of the existing plot lines incorrect, this helped with my opinion. One annoyance - It is hard to “Suspend disbelief” when things hit so close to reality.. see the below for an example. Based on this book, all it takes to hide a killing machine from the future is to: 1. put it in a pleasantly shaped female body 2. teach it to use sex as a weapon 3. make it manipulative and cold 4. teach it to ignore it’s emotions unless they prove useful 5. make sure that it knows how to convincingly employ ‘small talk’ 6. assume it is always right and that its desires are predestined; I have to wonder.. Is nearly every woman I ever met a robot/cyborg out to kill mankind? -- FNORDinc
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Pink Carbide
by
Wynn, E. S.
FNORDinc
, March 14, 2011
Cyberpunk has traveled a long beautiful road, but most people who have ridden it are too plugged in to even notice the scenery. Normally, when the layman is looking out the window, the cyberpunk enthusiast is either jacked into a device or dreaming of jacking into a device…. of which both perspectives sound very perverted. Informatics has made great leaps, especially in the area of machine/human interaction. Gone are the days of simple calculation enhancement via abacus. The overly complex arithometer is a thing of the past. Our Bandai Tomagotchi digital pets have all died, been buried, and are taking a thousand hours to decompose in the landfill. The Texas Instruments Graphing Calculator that my high school friends most commonly reprogrammed to use as a TV remote has been replaced with complex cellphone Apps.. Skipping ahead to later next generations. Pink Carbide, E.S. Winn’s opening novel to his self titled trilogy, takes place in the twenty-second century (the 2160′s to be more precise). Cylea launches the novel in a dance club, her technologically enhanced flesh is pulsating to the beat the electronic music, tunes that our time is not yet media saturated enough to appreciate. A man walks into the bar, his liver filtration enhancements not functioning properly, as he gets drugged from the chemical enhanced air. He locates Cylea and approaches her. Dancing around him, she interfaces directly with the port on the man’s head, and prepares to transfer the goods. Then she learns he is FBI, and bolts for the door, heading for a safe house. What follows is a strange amalgam of action and sci-fi. The Protagonist, Cylea is caught in a web of situations which cause her to question who and WHAT she actually is. By the end of the novel, you are amped and curious as to what will occur next. Cylea, is overflowing with Badassitude in one moment, a sniveling broken woman the next. To her credit, I would be far worse off if i were physically beat-down as badly as she is throughout. Fans of Cyberpunk fiction will have a high probability of enjoyment here. It is well worth the time invested in reading. Look into adding this to your “Should be read” piles. -- FNORDinc
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Abundance of Katherines
by
John Green
FNORDinc
, January 06, 2011
Review -‘An Abundance of Katherines’, written by John Green (sneak attack!) Surprise! This book was awesome! I bought it on the cheap at a thrift shop, and didn’t read the back of it. I liked the cover, the title, and the fact that it cost a whole glorious dollar… So I bought it. Turns out, I would have paid full price for this book. Mr Green’s novel is distributed as teen fiction, but reads more like an “easy” adult novel with late teen characters. Essentially, Colin the ex-child prodigy main character gets dumped by his girlfriend Katherine. She was the last in nearly 20 girls/women he has dated who all shared this name (not Kate, Kat, or Catherine.. always Katherine with a K). His best friend decides to take him on a Post-Graduation road trip to get his moping ridiculously crushed and infatuated self out of the house. While on the road, Colin decides to write a mathematical equation which will assist him in determining how long a relationship with the next Katherine will last, or better, if the last Katherine will ever take him back. Oh, and I SUPPOSE I should mention he doing it while while avoiding being punched to death by angry jealous redneck boys and interviewing small town old folks who used to work in a tampon string factory… I found myself grinning wide and laughing out loud as I read this book. The characters were well thought out, believable, and people I would high five if they shot past on a summertime slip and slide my the front yard. I found myself especially enjoying the faux-math explanations, the description of equations as art/beauty, the footnotes, and the absolutely constant Norman Mailer references. Suggested for teens and adults. This is no crappy teen angsty vampire novel. It is a well thought out fiction worth ready. -- FNORDinc.com
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Your Republic is Calling You
by
Young Ha Kim
FNORDinc
, January 01, 2011
This book gets my Vote for the 2010 Puddly award
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Unpretty
by
Sharon C Rogers
FNORDinc
, December 29, 2010
I mainly bought this book because of it's cover image. My attention was grabbed and I pulled the book from it's shelf and dusted it off. The novel itself is the second written by Sharon Rogers. It covers a small suburb that is fraught with disappearances, and a seemingly increasing drug problem. An unassuming household in the burbs holds a cult faction who reveres the work of Michelangelo as perfection. The leader of this group is capturing individuals and torturing them to get models for a reproduction of one of Michelangelo's lesser works. It is a non-standard book of good vs evil, with the cultists on one side pitted against secretive urban monks and police on the other. I actually rather enjoyed this book. It is a nice standalone thriller/suspense novel with well fleshed out characters and an interesting premise. Give it a shot. It surprised me and though not best-seller quality, it did not disappoint. --FNORDinc.com
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Let's All Kill Constance
by
Ray Bradbury
FNORDinc
, December 15, 2010
I have never been one who fancied Ray Bradbury’s mystery novels. Reading “Let’s all kill Constance”, third in this particular series, I was kind of lost. Essentially, an unnamed protagonist is pulled to his front door on a dark and stormy night by Constance, a wayward movie star who lives just down the beach. She is distraught, pushed over the edge by two “books of the dead”. The dead and nearly dead in these books are all know by her and seem to be harbingers of her own impending doom. the protagonist, along with a detective pal of his begin an informal investigation to help save her life, leading them to a priest, a psychic, a tomb and the ghosts of hollywood past. all in all it was a decent story. I would suggest it to others and found that it was very enjoyable. The problem was the delay I experienced putting myself in the storyline. The clumsy (yet precise) speech and the conversations the characters had were the problem. The characters are all witty and seem to share constant inside jokes, without the courtesy of letting the reader in. Once I picked up on the groove of their interactions, I was sitting in a much more comfortable position. Unfortunately, even as I neared the end of the book, I found I was reading and rereading passages to pick up the important details. In review, it was a fantastic novel but not very accessible, even to an avid reader such as myself. The tongue in cheek humor, and self serving references to Fahrenheit 451 were enough to make the novel worth reading. Pick it up if you find interest in it. -- FNORDinc.com
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Godmakers
by
Dan Britain
FNORDinc
, December 13, 2010
I really hated enjoying this book. Do not confuse it with the collection of short stories by Frank Herbert. Likewise it is not the religious expose book about the Mormon religion. This is just a lowly 70's sci-fi filled with bizarre ethereal dreams-capes and group sex... Don Pendleton's novel (originally published under the pseudonym Dan Britain) revolves around a government investigator names Patrick Honor. Honor has been roped into driving out to a research lab in the sticks by his boss and a lovely lovely lady (who works in a research lab). The lab is researching the harnessing of PPS (Psychic Power Sources) the ultimate energy. Strangely, the head of the lab has gone a bit loopy and started babbling about the power of nine (9), he has scrawled a series of strange names and dates, each separated by eighty-one (81) days. Looking at the names, they can see that see that the first seven (7) are either dead or incapacitated on the dates associated. The eighth name is the president of the United States, and the ninth is Honor himself. With a strange list of dead folks and only 14 days until the date associated with the president, Honor jumps jumps in his steam powered car (there are gas cars as well, but steam is faster, quieter, etc) and heads out to the research lab. From here the book becomes even more confusing, with topics ranging from: mind powered cars, a killer East Indian, people disassociated with their own minds, melding/traveling to a ninth dimensions where all life began. Apparently everything we know is a dream and we are deluding ourselves. Oh yeah, and the only way the world can be saved is by having long meaningful passionate (but not selfish) sexual relations with everyone around us.. If you like strange dated science fiction with angry chauvinists who become ultimate caring feminists after having intercourse with strange scientists.. this might be the book for you :) This book was interesting, but I am glad I only spent a dollar on it. Justifying more than that would be difficult. It was neither good nor bad, entertaining for the time I put into it, but unlikely to stay on my shelf for a second reading.
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Little Bee
by
Chris Cleave
FNORDinc
, December 12, 2010
The publishers comments, are misleading for this book. (see book description) "[...]The magic is in how the story unfolds." ~~~~~~ This is the text on the inside leaf of the dust cover for Chris Cleave’s book, 'Little Bee'. i would have read this book anyway, the expectations set in the fold were misleading and cruel. you cant read a book like this under false pretenses. —- For everyone else out there, here is what it should read in the leaf fold of the dust cover: " Little bee, a refugee from Nigeria, knows only one man and one woman in London. Her story is sad as are the stories of the man and woman she knows. When she tells her story, you will listen. Not by force, but because the scar tissue from her tale is beautiful, if only you see it in the right light." If anyone tells you there is magic here, slap them, then keep reading. This is one of the saddest books I have ever read, but if you are prepared for this fact, you can certainly enjoy it. Little Bee is well written and grabs you attention from beginning to end. It is not magic.
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Blood Kin
by
Dovey, Ceridwen
FNORDinc
, December 11, 2010
I am unsure where the book takes place. It could be in a South American country, or deep in an unknown country in eastern Europe. However, I did get a very “Cuba” feel from the story. The name of the country was either never mentioned, or I was completely oblivious, both are possible scenarios Dovey’s book is broken into 3 segments. Segment one is a series of chapters focusing around three men, each are personally associated with the president of the country. The president, however is no longer in power. The leader of a revolution has captured and is holding the presidents barber, cook, and portraitist at a remote palatial estate. They are not allowed to move freely and are being held for a variety of reasons. The most potent being that each of them had opportunity to kill the supposed corrupt president and did not. the second being that they may have knowledge that could be useful, the third, that they are all very good at what they do. I was very impressed with this book. not knowing anything about it at the time of reading, I was caught off guard by the solid characters and the depth of the plot line. This seems almost too clinical a way to describe this story. Less clinical: Blood Kin left my jaw agape, my soul a bit angry and chaffed, and my brain.. definitely stunned. I highly recommend this book -- FNORDinc.com
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All Those Moments Stories of Heroes Villains Replicants & Blade Runners
by
Rutger Hauer
FNORDinc
, December 07, 2010
“All Those Moments: Stories of Heroes, Villains, Replicants and Blade Runners”, Rutger Hauer’s autobiography, was a damned enjoyable book. It is no masterwork, but neither will fans be disappointed. Hauer himself has always been a favored actor of mine. I was a big fan of many of his films when I was growing up, LadyHawke and Blade Runner being two on the forefront. Rutger always plays fantastic characters, but off screen, I never heard mention of him. As such, he has always been kind of an elusive celebrity. He never really made “A-list” ranking, but he was never B either. He is that temper-mental in between that the celeb rags and new organizations rarely pay attention to. This book touches on his life, pre-Hollywood. The first few chapters detail his life as a child and teen, his wayward actor-parents, and his indecisive career. The depth of his history is kept minimal, covering most of his early years in a matter of a third of the book. I was left a bit wanting, feeling that i knew him better as a person, but only being allowed to see the private side that he had carefully dictated as “valid”. Later chapters cover individual films he worked on and how he influenced the characters played, making them into the classic persona’s many of us know. Key/memorable elements that drive these movies were often brainstormed between himself and the directors, to a surprising degree this seems to have held true. A fine example would be the title of this book, taken from poetry spoken by Batty in Blade Runner. “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time… like tears in rain… Time to die.” “All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.” Said poetry would never have been included were it not for his input. He added this to the final scene, on the fly as he fleshed out his character on camera the last day of filming. This book is not for everyone. People who have no real interest in Hauer or his filmography will not find some lusty industry secrets here to chit-chat in hushed voices about. It just is not that kind of memoir. On the flip side, fans of his work, will find this very enjoyable time spent. The detailed look into his film history, combined with some background on his past, really shines a light on Hauer’s skill and love for the work. Co-authored by crime-thriller writer Patrick Quinlan, the ebb and flow of this memoir was very comfortable. -- FNORDinc.com
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End of the World Blues
by
Jon Courtenay Grimwood
FNORDinc
, November 23, 2010
interstellar gods managing the leftover refugees of humanity. our world is nothing but a constructed barrier of safety created by them to allow us life. think this book is sci-fi? it is not. this book is a thinly veiled series of structured thoughts showing the smallness of our universe. everything we know is insignificant. interestingly enough, everything outside our understanding is also also insignificant. From the the Hagakure, The Way of the Samurai - “Among the maxims on Lord Naoshige’s wall there was this one: ”Matters of’ great concern should be treated lightly. Matters of small concern should be treated seriously. Among one’s affairs there should not be more than two or three matters of what one could call great concern. If these are deliberated upon during ordinary times, they can be understood.” These are ordinary times and the deliberation of concerns will not be fully qualified and resolved until the end of the tale… This story revolves around, Kit Noveau, an ex-rocker from Ireland. living in Tokyo. he is also ex-military, unable to go home without fear of being arrested for being a deserter, not that he would want to go home. for ten years he has been married and hiding out in Tokyo. his wife is an introverted world respected pottery artist. his best friend is an Australian biker in hiding, unable to return home himself. Yoshi, Kit’s wife, owns a bar called “Pirate Marys” in a rundown part of Tokyo. Enter into the story Lady Neku. Neku carries blades and wears costume. Neku is hiding $15 million dollars in a train station pay per day locker. Kit gives her fresh coffee on cold mornings and she feels she owns him more than owes him. When a homeless man (or an assassin) attacks Kit one morning, Lady Neku leaves a blade in the attacker’s lung, and blood pouring from his body. soon after she rips a hole in time space and steps through. everything else is story… but it is more detective novel than sci-fi fantasy. all the elements of this book meld together into a nice blend of images. it is like reading Murakami lite with a bit of bit of gaiman and joe hill. -- FNORDinc.com
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Nature Girl
by
Carl Hiaasen
FNORDinc
, November 18, 2010
Carl Hiaasen's Nature Girl is set in Florida. I dont mean Miami or Orlando. We are talking gators, poisonous snakes, fire ants and 10,000 islands wildlife refuge. Sammy Tigertail, blue eyed half Seminole has decided to become a hermit. His first day as a boat guide for the tribe, a tourist has a heart attack and dies. Afraid of the consequences (imagined) he dumps the corpse, cleans up the crime (imagined), and goes into hiding (for no reason) from the law. Miles away, Honey Santana's dinner is interrupted by a phone call. It is a telemarketer, Boyd, trying to sell her land in Florida. Unluckily for Boyd, Honey is a bit unbalanced, and happens to have lost her job (that morning). Honey also likes to teach people lessons, especially if they appear to be soulless unethical douche bags who interrupt her mealtime. What ensues is modern Shakespeare-esque comedy of errors. Sarcasm and cheeky humor abound, ultimately culminating in an enjoyable close. -- FNORDinc.com
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Art Of The First Date
by
Hayley Dimarco
FNORDinc
, November 15, 2010
In the first 10 pages of this book, I expect that most people I know would be offended and put it down. I grabbed this book a couple years back after Greta and I were flipping though it and laughing at the ridiculousness of it. It tells you about how women are built to be hunted, not to hunt. Men should call women, but not the other way around, etc. Basically rolls back the Womens’ movement to 1950′s era, and they admit it right up front. When I found this in a box recently, I decided to read it cover to cover for a laugh. I am married after all, no longer needing dating advice. Turns out, if you can get past some of the more silly sections and the undercurrent of christian dogma, it is actually CHOCK FULL OF GOOD ADVICE. It is 90% common sense, but having it written out in a humorous manner all in one location is nice. The print is big, the graphics and pictures are cheesy but fun, and the book is only 120 pages in a small format 7×5 inch book. You shouldn’t get bored with it, but if you do, telling yourself to give it another hour to finish it would not be too difficult. I can think of at least three people that need to read this. -- FNORDinc.com
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Pigtopia
by
Kitty Fitzgerald
FNORDinc
, November 12, 2010
Have your read or watched a movie detailing the plot of the Frankenstein monster? Well, then you already know the plotline of this book. - Replace the little girl with a different little girl. - Replace a resurrected man and stolen brain with a large headed guy who has some mental disabilities, lots of family issues, a collection of pigs in a tunnel under his house and talks like Elmo from Sesame Street. Really.. I had the same "that could have merit" reaction that you are having right now. I can promise you that you are better of reading something else. Nothing against the author or the work, it's just been done before, and this didn't really bring anything new to book world. I feel like I got dumber while reading this. It's not like reading Faulkner's 'Sound and the Fury'. There is no Benjy inside the main character, waiting to pop out in some raging stream of concio-awesomness. It is not like reading the Haddon's 'Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime', with it's clever approach and interesting character development. This book may be right up peoples alley, so if you wanna give it a shot, do it. However, I can firmly state that I found it very very very similar to drowning in wet cement while muppets danced around me mocking my pain. ~~~ You want to read a good swine relevant story? Try a coming of age story that was required reading when I was in high school (likely still is). Paul Zindel's 'The Pigman'. Push those memories, I know you can do it.. Yeah, that to the left of the drug haze, was your reading list, including the Pigman. Remember it? Yeah, it was very good. -- FNORDinc.com
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Fanny Hill
by
John Cleland
FNORDinc
, November 12, 2010
||no rating as it was well written, just not my style of book.|| Ever wanted to read porn from England circa the 1740's? I picked up a copy of this, thinking that anachronistic descriptions of overly prude sexual encounters would be humorous. I was dead wrong here. ~~ Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure was "out there". Imagine the dirtiest filthy disgusting porn available in our culture. Double that and put it into a written format with archaic wording. Needless to say, I was surprised and did not finish this book. Fanny Hill is a country girl who's parents have died. She moved to London in an effort to rise above her status. Day one in her new life, she is swept into a brothel under the premise of good work. Unknowing that she is being pimped, she has her first encounter with a man. Fanny survives this encounter, and slowly grows to look forward to her work. Hill was written by Cleland when he was stuck in a debtors prison. It is nothing more than overly descriptive porn, masked as erotic literature. I originally considered placing some sample text here, but as the novelty of the story wore off and I began to feel dirty, I opted against it. I do not believe in banning books, but can EASILY see why this book had been banned in a number of countries for most of its existence. I was offended at many points in this book, and that is damn hard feat to accomplish. You offend enough people and it is bound to happen. There was no attempt by Cleland to hide his intentions. I would not say that this is something that people should not read. Instead, just be informed. If you are not into graphic erotica already, this is not something that you should pick up. It appears to be something that only a seasoned individual in the genre will enjoy. For anyone still interested who is not already seasoned, I suggest checking out the Wikipedia page. I kinda wish I had. This story has also apparently been remade into a number of movies, spin offs, references in other media. -- FNORDinc.com
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Hobo A Young Mans Thoughts On Trains
by
Eddy Joe Cotton
FNORDinc
, November 10, 2010
Hobo has garnered higher tiered reviews from a number of publications and periodicals. I hate to have to dissent as it was a very GOOD book, but this was by no means a masterpiece of any sort. Subtitled “A Young Man’s thoughts on Trains and Tramping in America”, Hobo does hold one’s attention. Eddy Joe Cotton splays out his thoughts and delivers a number of keen visuals detailing place and people he has seen. He meets a number of interesting travelers while on the road, each sharing insight and knowledge of their journeys. Portions are humorous, others sad. I should point out that Cotton is not a bum. He is not homeless. He is not any of those derogatory or sad names that our society assigns to every person on the road, regardless of condition or intent. Cotton has a great mind for details and introspection. Hobo is a non-fiction account, as he leave his home in the Denver area and decides to hit the road with nothing but what is on his back. He begins keeping notes on his musings on spare napkins, scrap paper, and when available, notebooks. As he goes, descriptions of his experiences unfold instilling a feeling of wanderlust. Anyone who has uprooted themselves on purpose will begin to feel the nag to move on tickling in the back of their mind (i know i did). Those who have always been snug at home will think about being on the road, though i dont know they will ever “get it”. He throws in a lot of the history of hobo-ing, how it started, how it continues, the mind set of folks on the road. I have a problem with this book however, it is barely the tip of his journey. Cotton spent 6 years on the road, wandering and living day to day whim to whim. Hobo covers only the first 30 days on the road. It details travel on the rail lines, hitchhiking, food, safety, etc. he even picks up a girl friend along the way. Auto-magically, he is then whisked away to a crappy motel room where he is transcribing his 23 journals (culminated over the years) into this book. Really? Six years on the road? Why do we need to read about him sitting in a motel room writing? It could have ended with a simple “and then i reintegrated with society, but really only the fringe as i can never again trust a world that hides the beauty of living from the masses”. Otherwise, expanding his story to be more than just the initial month to increase his available material… Just a thought. Perhaps it was just a poor transition from road to writing, but i felt disjointed and unclear as to what was occurring at the end. Though he has a history available for sharing, as a reader, i was left feeling that i had gotten shucked. In a nutshell it felt i got three weeks on the road with someone who regretted it a good deal of the time, some good prose through out, as many chances to crash on a couch as possible, and then a quick escape. It felt false in some ways, how i would expect it to turn out if i were to ride the a carousel, then write a book about equestrianism. Overall a good read, but it’s no Kerouac. Well worth picking up. If you are looking for a more dated but sturdy view of tramping, check out “The Gentle Art of Tramping” by Robert Holden. Published in 1927, it is a bit harder to come across these days, but excellent (if you can read it. at some points the language is completely indecipherable). -- FNORDinc.com
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Exchange
by
Dale R. Cozort
FNORDinc
, November 08, 2010
Dale Cozort's "Exchange" was really very enjoyable. Set to be publicly available for sale in early July 2010, I openly suggest this to sci-fi and alternate history fans. Do not get it in your head that it is either of these genre though... It is more fringe on both counts. Background on the Exchange: Exchange is set in modern standard time. It is neither history nor future. For unknown reasons, large tracts of land are transported to an alternate dimension version of Earth. In this alternate dimension, humans never made it through the evolutionary bottle neck. Evolution in general is completely unhinged. Giant bears, sabre tooths, and green monkeys rule the land. In an ever increasing number of global events, humanity is able to predict an Exchange only three hours before they occur. They know that an event can last for between one and two weeks, but cannot predict the reversal. As a result, they mobilize huge groups of personnel and equipment in the time allowed to stave off complications of contact with this alternate Earth. The story: The core of the story revolves around Sharon, forcibly volunteered into a government work party putting up fences during the exchange. She is the mother of an OCD and autistic daughter with a keen perception of things to come. After her home town is transported to the alternate Earth, she finds that her daughter has been kidnapped by her survivalist nut job ex-husband, bent on staying in the "new" anarchic world. Sharon needs to locate her daughter before the exchange reverses, trapping her and her daughter in a foreign hell with out society to back her. my thoughts: The book is a lot like Burrough's Pellucidar series, but with out Tarzan to kick butt, take names and generally save the day. Instead, it is a single mother, a couple hand guns, a generally unhelpful military, and a big world full of very very bad things. After making it through the whole book, I was really very attached to the concepts and story itself. The characters were lively, I cared how it all turned out, and as the final pages came to fruition, I full expected a sequel to be in process. Instead, I received "the end". There is nothing more disappointing to me than getting to the end of a book I enjoy greatly and finding the concrete statement "the end". I am hopeful that this is something that only existed in the advance reading copy I was sent. This book deserves to have its answers explored and characters expanded on. I will be anxiously watching the authors website for updates on an extension to the series. -- FNORDinc.com
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The Rise Of Endymion: Hyperion Cantos 4
by
Simmons, Dan
FNORDinc
, November 08, 2010
I hate to see good things come to an end. Simultaneously, I feel that a well crafted conclusion to a great series is one of the highlights to reading. There was no disappointment to the Hyperion Cantos. Warning to readers, this book is far more dense than others in the series. You have to expect as much considering that there is so much to discuss. The religious, technological, and philosophical merge in this novel. The far flung planet of Hyperion has been left behind. The palindromic character Aenea and her partner Endymion begin on Old Earth. Rise of Endymion (book 4) picks up a few years after the close of Endymion (book 3). With the death of The Architect, the crew is forced to leave the relative safety of this Magellanic Cloud which hides the stolen planet earth from the Catholic Pax monstrosity. What is the Shrike? What’s the real purpose driving the Techno-Core? What are the lions, tigers, and bears? etc. To avoid spoilers, I will just advise that your questions will be answered. Everything that you have wondered about from the prior 3 novels will be addressed with very few exceptions. Sci-fi aficionados who fail to read this series are doing themselves a horrible injustice. -- FNORDinc.com
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The Evil Shepherd (Dodo Press)
by
E. Phillips Oppenheim
FNORDinc
, November 07, 2010
Ever wonder what it would be like if good met evil and then was invited over for dinner and drinks? If evil were interested in the politics and ethics that good was endeavoring to employ? how about if good fell in love with evil’s daughter after her husband who was also evil commits suicide? Welcome to 1922 and E.P. Oppenheim’s ‘The Evil Shepherd. Francis Ledsam is one of London’s brightest and most successful defense lawyers.After successfully defending and proving the innocence of his latest client, Ledsam learns from his client that he in fact had committed the heinous murders he had been accused of, and others. Feeling pain at the thought that this monster is on the streets still because of him, Ledsam swears off taking clients that he cannot prove factual innocence of. It seems that he may have stumbled into a much larger nest of criminals than he was aware. His murderous client’s father in law hunts down Ledsam in a restaurant and advises him that with in the evening, a crime would be committed, and prompts Ledsam to prove his new found goodness. This is a very interesting book. The premise is fairly simple, man falls in love with the wrong woman, daughter of an enemy. Because of this, good vs evil becomes common topics of discussion over drinks and dinner. Ledsam tries to catch Sir Timothy in criminal action, while Sir Timothy screws with him. There are a number of very wealthy people in this novel, many of which have become bored with life. This boredom is commonly discussed as the possible fascination that is found in breaking the law, lawlessness being a new thrill that they no longer get from a vanilla lifestyle. Characters go from afternoon cocktails, to en-mass cocaine consumption. pretty easily depending on their caste in life. It is strange to read a mystery thriller of this sort. Placed in a time where digital communication does not exist, and it required Scotland Yard detectives sitting in boats on a river to stake out a mansion, there is a quaintness that I found very appealing. It did not hurt that the characters were lively, witty and had enjoyable banter. Ultimately, the story surprised me in the end. Apparently Oppenheim wrote over 100 novels in his lifetime, and I think I will have to pick a few more. His style is undeniably original and expecting great work in alternate novels should be a fair expectation. I am thinking ‘The Great Impersonation’ (1920), ‘A Modern Prometheus’ (1896), or ‘And Still I Cheat The Gallows’ (1939), all of which sound damned amazing. -- FNORDinc
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A Game of Thrones: Song of Ice and Fire 1
by
George R R Martin
FNORDinc
, October 26, 2010
People who want to read the Song of Fire and Ice series by George R.R. Martin a have to be some of the most self-torturing bastards on the planet.. I am proud to say that i will be one of them, waiting (what could be) a decade for the remaining books to become available. I started reading the first book in the Fire/Ice series, about a month ago. It took me a little while to actually get into it. Martin introduced what seemed to be at least fifty characters in the first quarter of the book. For a hundred and fifty pages, I was inundated with back story and history for people I should have had no care for. I set the book down at least 3 times and had to come back to it. The problem was that each time I thought I could handle no more of it, some small character point would suck me in just enough to keep moving forward (or return to reading). After that first hundred and fifty pages, the character introductions dwindled and I was mid stride in one of the greatest series I have had the honor of reading. This book came very well recommended to me, and now I recommend it to you. Great story telling in the Fantasy genre. Foreshadowing of magic in a world manned by steel. Battle on the field and battle in Royal politics. The “War of the Roses” of which this book appears to be loosely based.. If you have interest in any of these things, pick this up and read it.. A Game of Thrones is exactly as the title leans you toward imagining. The story revolves around various families, struggling for power in the Seven Kingdoms. The Starks and Lannisters are the real key families of interest in the novel. A very high overview is difficult. This book cannot be watered down with out becoming drivel, so take the upcoming as generically as possible. Forty years of winter are on the doorstep of Eddard (Ned) Stark, a long time friend and essentially family of the King. King Robert visits and asks Ned to become the “Hand of the King”, the man who will do all the king’s political babysitting and decision making when he himself is unavailable. Ned reluctantly leaves Winterfell in the North and comes to court at Kings Landing, bringing with him some of his children. Ned’s wife, stays behind in Winterfell to manage after he leaves.. To the North of Winterfell, spanning thousands of miles, is a 600 foot wall of stone, aptly called “The Wall”. The Nightwatch, a brotherhood of pardoned criminals and social outcasts, guard the wall and ensure the safety of those in the seven kingdoms. They are never to leave the wall, and they may never participate in a war. They are to guard against the unknown evils of the north. This is a good thing, as The Others have been appearing. Pale with ice blue eyes, they roam the forest silent like death. Ned’s brother and Ned’s bastard son both man the wall as part of the Brotherhood. The Lannisters, family of the Queen, have proven through out the years to be loathsome and self serving. They are untrustworthy and deceitful. Queen Cersie, twin sister to Jamie Lannister, are twisted pair, with secrets that bear need of investigation. Tyrion, the Dwarf son of Lord Lannister, I hope will become a force of power in books to come. Across the sea, the deposed and exiled family of the Dragon King are working to build an army and return to the Seven Kingdoms to regain control of their birthright. Descriptions of the Horse Tribe culture the dragon lords are entrenched in was by far my favorite aspect of the Game of Thrones. Hell breaks loose, and I am now addicted. A note to all readers who decide to embark on this 7 book series. Make it through the first 150 pages and you are set to complete the whole tale. Once you are invested, you will only find some of the greatest fantasy story telling available in the genre. But do not become to attached to any single character. The Game of Thrones knows no mercy and you are bound to find a few corpses along the way that will make you tear up a bit. Sub note, HBO is turning this into a series in 2011 and i expect that it will be truly exceptional. -- FNORDinc.com
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Demolished Man
by
Alfred Bester
FNORDinc
, September 13, 2010
‘The Demolished Man’, set in the 24th century (2301-2400), pre-meditated murder has been abolished. It is not that people do not have murderous thoughts, crimes of passion still occur. Mankind has begun to harvest latent abilities in the human mind. Telepaths, known as Espers, are globally recognized and have formed a society inside our own. It is the existence of these telepathic individuals that deters murder. How can you avoid being “demolished” if the details of the murder you commit are easily read by a man standing next to you? How can you commit the murder in the first place, if someone walking down the street can hear your mind as you plan the details? Ben Reich, owner of Monarch Enterprises, contacts his rival businessman Craye d’Courtney and requests that they merge corporations. It would be of benefit to them both, and makes sense. Unfortunately, after d’Courtney responds, Reich misinterprets the coded positive reply. In a fit of anger, Reich has decided to find a way to kill d’Courtney. The concern is how to do this with out being caught. If he can beat out the telepaths, keep the police off balance, and avoid tainting himself.. it could all work out. There are a number of elements that really stood out for me while reading this- The Existence and organization of Espers: Seemingly an amalgam of various worker’s unions, the Espers (telepaths) have adopted a bastardized Hippocratic Oath to keep their society and selves in line. Nicknamed “Peepers” for their ability to Peep into the brains of others, they walk a fine line of being loathed and revered. They need these structures for safety sake. Peepers work in all branches of life. Class 3 peeps (the lowest ability) work as assistants, secretaries, and a number of other positions where additional clarity and quick response times are appreciated. Level2 Espers find work as researchers, policemen, corporate anti-piracy bagmen, private dicks, etc. Level1 being the more obscure of the three, is highly sought after they are the peepers that other Espers cannot read the minds of (easily). Ear Worms: Ear Worms are what we call songs, and jingles these days that get stuck in your head for long periods of time. Not referred to in this manner in the book, they do serve as an interesting tool. It has to be pretty difficult to filter through all the garbage in people’s minds. How hard would it be for a mind reader who has to combat against addictive loops of structured words and jingles? Typeset and book lay out: This would be a difficult book to read in digital format. At points, the layout and structure of the page is imperative. For example, in one scene, a room of telepaths are having a party. They are excited and having telepathic discussions, but none of them are following a standard protocol for communication. the page show the cluttered way in which words are mashed together if they fail to work together, reading each others minds in tandem After they realize exactly how disorganized they are, they solidify into a more structured thought process, even playing games where thoughts would be drawn out into designs and images. Hugo Award: ‘The Demolished Man’ is the first book to ever receive the Hugo Award for science fiction in 1953. The relevancy of this is pretty awesome as this book was very much ahead of it’s time. -- FNORDinc.com
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Draw the Dark
by
Bick, Ilsa J.
FNORDinc
, September 10, 2010
Shelved as a Young adult novel, I feel it is incorrectly categorized, instead it should just be standard dark fantasy. The only aspects of this that make it YA is the 17 year old protagonist and the heavy handed coming-of-age vein, other wise it is “King/Koontz-lite”. Winter, Wisconsin. Murder. Nazis. Dead Bodies. Ghostly visions. Fatal fires. A boy who can draw people’s nightmares. All of these topics are discussed on the cover liner notes. What is not discussed is how well put together it is. It was surprisingly enjoyable from a number of perspectives. Detailing the events around social outcast Christian Cage. Dark opens with Christian, being investigated for graffiti on a local building, red spray paint with swastikas and eyes. Christian does not remember vandalizing anything. This isn’t the first time that Cage has been in trouble with the law. The suicide of a school teacher brought him into the limelight when much younger. Cage is an obsessive artist, falling into a near hypnotic groove, pulling visions into his art. Christian’s shadowy and often cynical work leads him to investigate a mystery that has been buried in his town since WW2. In ‘Draw the Dark’, Ilsa Bick cobbles together a solid story. Not to be viewed as a negative point, people with half a care about WW2 era history will have key points figured out very fast, main plot points are not as “little-known” as the marketing blurbs will insinuate. As such, some of the plot twists are more like a cinnamon-y churro and less like a tangy knotted pretzel (mmm. soo hungry now). It is really all about the character progression and the deeper details of individuals lives, personal interactions, forgotten history, unheard conversations, and the desire to bury the past. It is the malleable characters and the incredibly solid framework of the tale that make the book. Readers be warned that there is no evidence that this is the first book in a series. There are a large number of loose ends at the end, things you will wish were explained are left unresolved. It is not detrimental to the story, just something that might frustrate some. -- FNORDinc.com
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Little Prince Graphic Novel
by
Antoine de Saint Exupery
FNORDinc
, September 09, 2010
This classic has been translated into just about every language you can think of, from original French to Martian (just venturing a guess). It has now crossed another communication barrier, into the world of comic art. As a graphic novel, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s ‘The Little Prince’ received a really fantastic treatment. It should be noted that the Saint-Exupéry drew the original art,which was pretty amazing. So readers should try NOT to compare against it, lest they may lessen the experience. It is a different beast, treat it as such. When I first mentioned that I would read this, I got a couple bizarre looks from friends. “Wasn’t the Little Prince already basically a graphic novel?” was the most common question asked. These were obviously people who have either no clue (love you guys!) or never read the book. An illustrated novella.. That was the term you folks were looking for. Joann Sfar’s graphic novel redux holds true to the original. The tale of a man lost in the desert, his airplane has broken down and repairs are underway. While working, a mysterious boy arrives and befriends him. The boy claims to be from a small planet, where only he lives. He has three volcanoes and a flower to keep him company. Due to some personal decisions, the boy decides to leave his world and see what else is out there. He visits other planets, each of which is populated only by a single adult. Each adult is stuck in a life that has no beginning or end, and in each case seemingly pointless. Excellent commentary, feel free to read into it. I have always loved this book… Is the boy crazy, is the pilot crazy? Does the boy even exist? Are each of the adults, (and the boy) nothing more than aspects of the pilot’s subconscious? Do the adults ever get dislodged from their ruts? Does the sheep eat the flower? Does the flower forgive the boy? These are some of the questions I have always asked myself.. will leave them all out there, hopefully the universe will answer them for me. Or even better, a little prince can come from the stars an visit me at my humdrum job. I will ask him myself. Fans of the original story should check this out. The art work is complex, but rough. The story arc covers all the aspects of the original, solidly enough that it took a physical comparison of the two books for me to find any minor differences. -- FNORDinc.com based on a free copy I got from the publisher. thanks HMH!
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When Blood Calls Shadow Keepers 01
by
JK Beck
FNORDinc
, August 25, 2010
When Blood Calls, JK Beck (AKA Julie Kenner for you paranormal romance junkies out there) – Vampires, Were creatures, and Litigation? How in the world does this even happen? People often refer to Lawyers as vampires (and blood suckers, etc) but rarely if ever have the two plot elements actually met. Luke is old as hell. He is a vampiric assassin for the shadow underworld just beneath the surface of our own. He is also incarcerated and going to court, being tried for the murder of another shadow dwelling individual. This will not be the first time he has had throw down fights with the law. Over the centuries, he has been involved in a number of conflicts, investigated and exonerated. Everyone knows he is guilty but evidence is always lacking. The difference this time is that the murder was of an underworld Judge… and enough evidence to damn him is practically white glove served to the cops. Sara is an “up and coming” prosecutor in the real world. After pushing a difficult mass murder case through the courts and winning, she is offered a new job in the “Division”. Division, located multiple floors (and various security precautions) below the city, is the local underworld cop-shop. Dealing only with shadow crimes, they elect to bring Sara in as their newest Human law protege. Sara’s first case is making sure that Luke sees his day in court and is found guilty. Overall, this book was enjoyable. I look forward to the remaining two books in the series. The series idea was fairly original. It was well written and kept me interested through out. I was fascinated by some of the strict restrictions authored in for law breakers who are able to turn to mist (eg, handcuffs are useless). I was also very pleased that I did not guess the plot. With only one or two “I saw that coming” moments, it was nice to make it to the end with little more than an inkling of what was going to happen. As such, I look forward to reading the final two books in this trilogy. I need to know what happens in the steamy vampire love fest of politics, law, murder, redemption, and the grey area between every line that society draws.. This is also a pretty decent standalone novel. Not to give away plot, but the end is wrapped up neatly enough that should you decide not to continue the series, you do not feel as if you are obligated to in order to get plot closure, nicely done Beck! ================= Now that I am done with the good, lets move on to the bad. There were a couple negative items which really threw me off: ================= - This is not a slight against the author, but I am not a big fan of soft-core erotica and the ways in which it’s authors refer to body parts and sexual activities. An example would be [when he closed his] “Mouth so intimately on her”.. Just say it, He went down on her.. It is much easier to understand than thinking he gave her an intimate (mouth) kiss, and three sentences later find him standing up from a previously unknown crouched or prone position… - The liberal use of the term Nosferatu. This is most commonly (in the horror genre) associated with vampires that are damaged, deformed, or have otherwise “not a sexy vampire” traits. The root of Nosferatu is often relegated to the Greek for “disease-bearing”. As such, reading hard bodied charismatic sex-pots down playing themselves was a bit hard to get behind. All I could imagine was the buck-toothed (buck-fanged?) Klaus Kinski from West Germany’s ‘Nosferatu the Vampyre’ (1979). Very very not sexy… Very… - For the first rough 50 pages, the men in the book were all posturing, sycophantic, and dotty, regardless of their intended place in the character pool. They seemed more like stereotypical closeted gay men, with rough and tough pseudo-macho injected conversation and descriptions.. For some reason, starting on page 51, they came into their own and encompassed the strong masculine banter that was needed. There is no question going forward how they will be perceived, but it was hard to swallow in the beginning that they were the hardened police and criminals that they were described as. It is also difficult to imagine a woman getting the “hot beef injection” from someone who is looking over her shoulder at the cover of the romance novels on her night stand… Again though, this is a moot point after 50 pages. - Too many of the characters names in the beginning reminded me of Harry Potter characters. It was like a class reunion. Lucius (Luke) Dragos, Agent Ryan Doyle, Agent Severin Tucker… Anyway, it wasn’t any real leap to see a similarity. I got over it quickly as the characters fleshed out into their own entities. A quick recap, though I have a few gripe points, I was over all very pleased with the book. -- FNORDinc.com This review was based on an advance release copy I received.
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1632 Book 1
by
Eric Flint
FNORDinc
, August 18, 2010
1632 is part of the “Alternative History” genre of Fantasy/Science Fiction. A flash of light kicks off the plot in this novel. In what is initially interpreted by everyone as a nuclear blast, light blinds the residents of Grantsville, West Virginia. When they realize they have not all been reduced to ash, they step outside and determine that something very wrong has happened, their town is no longer on the east coast of North America. Grantsville is now in the year 1632, residing in the Black Forest (what will later become Germany). They are smack dab in the middle of the 30 years war. As readers, we all have the same paradox questions. The characters also recognized these potential issues, and they are addressed very quickly (first or second chapter). They came to the conclusion early on that there are only two real theories to work with. - Time travel Paradox =”The world ends” - Time Travel Paradox = “Multiple time streams make paradox irrelevant” As they are all still breathing, they logically conclude that they are in a tangential stream. They have limited supplies, and no guarantee that they will ever return to normal, they could be screwed if they do not act fast. They have an unknown belief/system for the region/era. They do not know the local languages. If they are going to survive, they need to get moving asap. If they are not going to destroy the future and they will only affect their new time stream, there is no reason they should not fight for survival and the American way of life… Early in the book, it is decided with a vote that the best way to survive is to recreate something that has worked in the the past (the future). They will start the American Revolution early, in Europe instead of the Americas. Flint does not spoon feed you with information. There is some theory and some wavy inundation of “how are we going to survive” conversation, but overall, Flint recognizes that the reader doesn’t need everything spelled out for them. The exception is when it comes to history. Most people are not fluent in the methodologies or details of key battles in the 30 years war. Neither are they familiar with the political flow and relationships of those in power. These are laid out fairly well for the layman. Most of the key characters are part of the West Virginian coal miners union, so theory and plans are things are broken down as they would be explained for the common man. Essentially, you do not get too little info, leaving you upset, but neither are you treated like a 5 year old. -- FNORDinc.com
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Magicians
by
Lev Grossman
FNORDinc
, August 08, 2010
“BURN THIS” wrote Lev Grossman on the inside cover of my book. Lev was surprised to see a copy of his first novel ‘WARP’ showing up a book reading for ‘The Magicians’. He stated that most of the remaining copies are being used to hold up his broken couch at home. A humorous idea and I wonder how many new authors end up with excess copies of their first printings lying about. Unfortunately, I think I threw him off his game a bit, and feeling bad, I did not stick around to ask him any questions. Instead, I will ask them psychically, or maybe via email :) ‘The Magicians’ will not end up holding a couch off the hardwood floor of his living room. It was a phenomenal book. In Magicians, magic exists. Schools for magic exist. Students go to these schools and learn a very large amount of very dull information. There is no evil villain ala Rowlings/HP universe.. Only a life assisted by magic, or a life in a cubicle with the rest of us non-magic schmucks. Quentin Coldwater lives in one fo the boroughs of NYC. He is a geek, top of his class, not used to brilliance that outshines his own. He is no virgin, but likely this could be due to technicalities. Quentin is focusing on getting into an Ivy League college… Little else matters, including the fact that he has absolutely no idea what to do with his life. He is very easy to relate to, angsty, but relate-able. This novel is perfect for anyone who loved reading CS Lewis as a child. It is perfect for those who wish HP and friends would grow a backbone and drop an F-bomb when they get angry or forget some homework. Drinking, drugs, praying to the porcelain god, sex, mind numbing classrooms, confused normal humans, even a throwback scene near the end that reminded me of the ridiculousness of the movie ‘The Craft’ (floating windblown witches)… This book has just about everything in it. It shares just a bit of the same essence as Peter Jackson’s ‘Meet the Feebles’ had for muppets. Just a bit… The Magicians touches quite boldly on the pulse of the magic community. People may be able to snap their fingers and light a cigarette from a finger tip flame, or accidentally call a black hole into existence, but in the end, self-esteem cannot be given to a person. Though I have to admit a bit of money, success, sex and a lot of luck could set someones self esteem in a spot where growth will be hands off to a certain degree. Ultimately though, it has to come from with in. -- FNORDinc.com
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Me Write Book It Bigfoot Memoir
by
Roumieu, Graham
FNORDinc
, August 04, 2010
Writing a review like Big Foot (from Roumieu’s book) is similar to playing scrabble drunk and simultaneously channeling the spirit of Frank Zappa, circa “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow” (apostrophe, 1974 ). I hope to never to do this again, it was that painful. Great book though. Me Write book write by Graham Roumieu. Very funny! Not children book, not classic literature. Somewhere in between is book, made for adult and is violent bloody. Book was write from the perspective of Big Foot. Big Foot not stupid, he just bad with language. Actually very smart fellow, use ten dollar words with ease.. very good grasp on theory, very bad in practice. Big Foot, man, myth, legend, he famous once. Use lots of cocaine and drink alcohol with friends like Emilio Estevez. When cash runs out, richy-rich friends go away. Now Big Foot write book to make people know he still around. He concerned that people are forget him from the big 70′s and 80′s notoriety he claimed. He want set record straight with stories and Big Foots needs. Book filled with much artwork by BF as he artist. include sketches and water colors. Watch out for page where he invite neighbor over for a back-rub. He not know own strength. Book also teach you watch out for meeting your hero. He may think you competition and bash fist size rock on you repeatedly… No one like competition. Book very good. Introduction by Mr. Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot childhood friend. -- FNORDinc.com
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Dead Politician Society: A Clare Vengel Undercover Novel
by
Robin Spano
FNORDinc
, July 22, 2010
Robin Spano’s “Dead Politician Society”.. How to put this.. I was happy but not surprised. Let me explain. Dead Politician Society (DPS) is an undercover detective novel. The Mayor is poisoned and dies on stage during a speech. A cryptic untraceable email from the killer is received by the Toronto star, it is signed by a rumored Utopian secret society on the local college campus. The police send in Clare under cover to see if she can fish for more details. they have no other leads. Clare really leads the novel. She is very likable. Working her first undercover job, she is prone to some understandable mistakes. Clare drinks, smokes, rides a motorbike. She juggles guys and overall does when need to be done to get the job in the can. I really enjoyed her as a character and am glad this is geared to be a series. With detective novels, in many cases they are designed to give you all the same clues the investigators receive. If you work it a bit, you can come up with the conclusion to the book in advance. Whodunit mysteries at their best. DPS did not disappoint in this regard. The culprit was with in my reach from the very beginning, mulligans and red herrings abound, and the reader picks through them to determine truth. The story is not told from a single perspective, instead, from the point of view of 5-7 folks. Chapters are short, 1-2 pages per. This makes for a very fast book, quick details, not overly described but neither is it lacking description. Ultimately, this is not a sleeper hit or New York Times best seller novel. For fans of the genre, I believe that this and future Clare Vengel novels will be important to keep an eye out for. I look forward to the second installment. -- FNORDinc.com
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Our Tragic Universe
by
Scarlett Thomas
FNORDinc
, July 19, 2010
Review: Our Tragic Universe, Scarlett Thomas Forewarning, this is a positive review though I can see where it might not appear that way. It was just a very hard book to write about! Our Tragic Universe (originally to be titled ‘Death of the Author’) is a nonstandard plot. Part time writer Meg is living in a small town England. She is living unhappily with her long term boyfriend and her dog, barely scraping by. Meg is continually trying to write her “Real Novel”, editing and paring down her words, never able to solidify where she wants to take it. In the meantime, she takes on the grunt work of the literary world, reviews of trash novels for a newspaper, and ghost writing teen fiction using formulaic methods. Meg is caught in an interesting kludge of personal issues. Her best friend is having an affair that is messy. long time friends have stopped speaking to her. Her boyfriend is spiraling into depression and taking her on a manic roller coaster as he falls. She feels trapped and unaccomplished. Her only real bonus is a love interest in a man nearly twice her age, married, who she doesn’t dare see anymore since they accidentally kissed. Early in the book, Meg inadvertently takes on a review for some kind of new age “how the afterlife works by bob-know-it-all” book and the flavor of the story really begins to ripen. Oh yeah, and I should mention there is a mysterious beast prowling the neighboring townships scaring the hell out of the residents… The story is vibrant but many readers may be confused by the cluttered nature of the novel. it is cluttered just as life itself is, so it is fitting, though as a result, difficult to read. At some points, OTU read like a reality TV show for a person who has absolutely nothing interesting going on in their life, detailing minutia like knitting. At other points, it is a technical reading manual for obsessive compulsive literature majors. This could have been toned down and approached less lecture like, but in the end, was an important part of the novel’s structure. . Previously mentioned, the plot of Tragic Universe is nonstandard in the fact that it really doesn’t have a core/central plot. Items that you think are key plot points are proven to be red-herrings, no more important to life than the number of concurrent green lights you drove through on the way to work today. Interestingly though, it highlights how many things we notice daily which have no importance, but to which we add false importance. Regardless, all of the characters are interesting and well thought out. it was these that kept me coming back for more. I nearly stopped reading this book 7-8 times. Each time I prepped to give up on it, some small detail would catch my attention again and I was drawn back in for another 30-40 pages. Ultimately, I believe this waxing/waning of interest may have been part of Scarlett’s intent as she wrote this “storyless-story”. Really, it is nothing more than a sign of the abilities of the author, in that she wrote something so realistic/painful, that giving up and utter enthrallment are with in breaths of each other. Reading OTU was like a broken ceiling fan on a very hot day, I kept fiddling with it- trying to make it work. Frustrated, at times felt like a pointless endeavor, but in the end, when the gears moved and the air flowed over my sweat beaded forehead, the effort was worth it, a welcome cool breeze to mellow the experience. I would not suggest this book for people who are easily frustrated, trust me here. Also, if you prefer your books garnished, placed on a plate, and then fed to you in bite size portions, you may not enjoy this and should perhaps look toward other reading material. To quote the novel (referencing everyday life having less “story”), “You just have to let go of the plot when it gets too much. Do something else”. Though there were many times I wanted to stop reading, I instead just took breaks from it and am glad I completed it. Our Tragic Universe was a literary vacation, a trip away from the normal methodologies employed by authors, memorable in both it’s genius, complexity, and bearable frustration. -- FNORDinc.com
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Gogo Monster
by
Taiyo Matsumoto
FNORDinc
, July 15, 2010
Yuki is in third grade. He has no friends, other kids think he is bizarre and rarely talk to him. This is not surprising as he talks to “imaginary” beings like Superstar. Superstar is a being who lives on the third floor of his school, off limits to students due to some unspoken danger. Occasionally he (or other beings) coming down to create havoc, steal things, and generally stir up trouble. the closer that Yuki gets to the world that Superstar rules, the hard it is for him to differentiate our reality from this other one. I really enjoyed this graphic novel. It is presented fully translated, but in classic manga format ( read from right to left). It comes with a corrugated cardboard sleeve protecting the book itself. The art work is very European with multiple interpretations to the meanings of various panels. text is sparse throughout the story, relying on various obscure and dark story elements presented in the images. The Graphic Novel is presented by VIZ Media, almost entirely in black and white, and totals 464 pages. I do not know that this graphic novel is really geared to most readers. if you avoid art house films, dislike subtitles, and prefer a story that is hand fed to you, avoid this. This is more for those who like dark introspective genres, multiple possible interpretations, beautiful artwork. For anyone looking for a more technical review, just drop gogo monster in google and you will find a ton of info. I will leave the discussion of allegory and societal comparisons to those who are more fluent in manga. I am just a tourist in the genre… -- FNORDinc.com
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Your Republic is Calling You
by
Young Ha Kim
FNORDinc
, July 02, 2010
I imagine being a sleeper agent is a lot like crashing a drunken party. You walk in the door, pretending to be invited. You eat a couple chips and drink a beer. You join conversations and chat with people, avoiding specific conversation topics but not really holding back. ultimately the consequence of your actions may be discovery and ejection from the party. Depending on the climate of the group, you could be offered to stay, or you could be painfully beat to the ground, you could simply be ignored going forward. I have trouble thinking about being a spy, let alone a sleeper agent. Coming to a country, melding myself with the culture, people, and policies but knowing full well that I did not belong. building relationships, having a family, working a job that ultimately may need to be shed like a second skin and left behind. Young-Ha Kim’s “Your Republic Is Calling You” was an incredibly fascinating read. Ki-Yong imports movies from other countries. He is moderately successful South Korean businessman and enjoys life for the most part. He met his wife in college where they were both political dissidents. They have a teenage daughter who is well liked. They have their share of family concerns, but overall, things are going well. The novel covers the full scope of a single day from the perspective of Ki-Yong’s family. Ki-Yong heads to work with a throbbing headache, and receives a coded message via email. He is a sleeper agent for the North Korean government. He came south as a spy during his college years, but lost contact with the north after a regime change. Ki-Yong has been given 24 hours to close out any open business he has, cover his tracks and disappear. A mini-sub will take him back north in the morning. I have to wonder how I would react in a situation like this? The love for my wife and child would be legitimate, even if my name and history would be false. If I were to stay, the North could send down an assassin to clean me. If I leave, I lose the life i built and the world i have grown accustomed to… I do not think I could make the choice.. This book was very visually and emotional ambiguous. Portions were self destructive/hopeful, calm yet disconcerting. In the end, it was an excellent view into the New South Korean culture, very different in the last 20 years from how it was when the UN was assisting during the Korean War. -- FNORDinc.com (based on an advance copy)
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Living Hell
by
Catherine Jinks
FNORDinc
, June 17, 2010
Catherine Jinks put together quite an enjoyable tale here. Imagine that you are 17 years old on a pioneering space ship, traversing the stars in search of a new home world. Your ship is a living entity of delicately balanced alloys and bacteria, self cleaning and self repairing. You are at the birthday bash of another crew member, when alarms are tripped. Within 24 hours, you have to watch as the people you love die. This is very much a coming of age story, but in fast forward. Moving quickly from a strategic and heavily monitored existence to self reliance in order to survive. A couple plot holes found but nothing that can not be easily disregarded. In the end, this was not a challenging read, taking me the equivalent of one and a half days transit to and from work to make it through (2-3 hours). The concepts were clear and concise. The conversational manner and tone of characters was believable. I did not feel as if Jinks was talking down to me as a reader, instead attempting to coax to the reading level she needed. Very smooth in that manner. nice work Jinks! Living Hell has excellent flow and character development. This is so much the case that it was not until i had read about a third of the book in that I realized it was technically a young adult novel. It was fast, fun, and in the end, I did not find that I had the ending figured out in advance. This is a huge bonus when it comes to YA fiction as much of it is fairly formulaic and predictable :) Jinks originally published this in 2007, but the copy I read was published 4/12/2010, this is likely the difference between an Aussie release vs US edition. Note to the cover illustrator, Cameron Davis: bad ass cover art! nice work there :) ~~ Catherine Jinks is an Australian born author of over 30 books. She is not genre focused or dependent on a specific blend to get it tight and feel right. Check out her site for a full bio and list of both Teen and adult book availability. – catherinejinks.com - --FNORDinc.com
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Frost Moon
by
Anthony Francis
FNORDinc
, June 13, 2010
Magical tattoos, christian vampires, were-creatures, and men in black. magicians, lesbians, men in dog suits, blood, gore, blind witches, karate and unanswered questions. when i first got this as an e-book advance release from the publisher, i dipped into it and was not impressed. a month later i came back to it and had a completely different reaction. second chance was much better. the characters became tangible and the story more fluid. it is a single serving book, awesome and definitely one i would refer others too, but i would never read it again. this is not a slight against the book as it is directly in line with a lot of books i read. i can state that i am anxious to read the next book in the series as it is released. The plot of the skindancer trilogy revolves around dakota frost, estranged daughter of a police officer. she works in a tattoo parlor and inks 3 dimensional mana infused tats on people. dragons that squirm and writhe, butterflies that can leave the body and flit about a room. a friend of her father brings her into the police station one morning and requests her assistance on a case. he has the lid of a wooden box covered with human skin inked with magical imagery. he also has a string of murders unanswered for. Dakota traverses the dark underground of an alternate atlanta georgia, putting her fist in the personal space of a number of people. her wit is quick and sharp. the cast of characters was interesting and varied, the text was interesting, and story fast paced. the only real drawback was that there wasnt much substance to the book. it was like watching an action film. you get a kick, you are on the edge of your seat to see what happens, but in the end, it is not much more than genre-candy. i can see the trilogy gaining more substance as it progresses, but the author will be walking a very fine line if he can manage it. even if it stays candy, i like candy, so who cares. fast efficient and enjoyable fiction is always welcome in my home. worth reading, but dont analyze it, just enjoy it.
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I Have the Right to Destroy Myself
by
Young-ha Kim
FNORDinc
, June 10, 2010
i have read books about serial killers, mass murderers, sexual sadists, and freaks. I have never run across a book about someone who assists others commit suicide. Kim Young-Ha’s ‘I have the right to destroy myself’ was a twisted new diversion in my reading. hooray for south korean fiction! every person has at least one moment in their lifetime when the think to themselves that they would be better off dead. it is not a matter of depression, hopelessness, nor rejection; instead, suicide is the logical option for many who have found themselves at the end of their journey. they are complete. the main character has no name. he is not a perversion, he provides a service. he helps handpicked individuals come to terms with their desire to die. he sees what is best for them and assists them to be successful. he does not force their hand, connive, or trick. if they are not ready, he asks them to come back later. he never participates in their death, only administrates.. equal parts introspection and story telling, Young-Ha creates a wonderful story. for those concerned, this is not a gory book. it focuses more on the intricacies of decision making and the differences of perception when it comes to beauty and priorities. there is a fair amount of people “bumping uglies” in the first half as well. -- FNORDinc.com
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Devils Children Changes 03
by
Peter Dickinson
FNORDinc
, June 03, 2010
This was written for a trilogy/omnibus version of this series but still applies in most aspects to this single novel: not sci-fi, more like anti-sci-fi sci- fi? wait.. sci-fantasy? kinda, but still standard sci-fi, but with every day objects? i really do not know what category this would fall into. it is definitely a young adult trilogy. it was also very good. Peter Dickinson’s ‘The Changes’ trilogy follows the the experiences of three groups in the UK over a period of about a decade. This is basically a post apocalyptic tale with out the apocalypse. one afternoon everybody just goes a little bit crazy and it sticks. They fear all things technological. Engines drive them mad and they fly into a fury of destruction. electricity is like witch craft, guns are completely out of the question. even simple machines like a bicycle could cause a mob scene. in a matter of minutes, even seeing a unmoving vehicle or a telephone sitting idle makes people uncomfortable to the point of walking away.Only people in the UK are affected, the rest of the world fears the spread of their irrational fears. unlike other turn society on it’s ear novels, these were a bit different because technology still works. people just refuse to use it, effectively placing themselves in a neo-dark age. Written in the late 1960’s / early 70’s, The Changes trilogy covers three short books (about 200 pgs each). * Book one is ‘The Devils Children’ followed by * The Heartease * The Weathermonger interestingly, they were published backwards. The Weathermonger was the first published in 1968. it is by far the most Fantasy of the trilogy, it deals with a boy who can concentrate and call storms, fog, end rain, etc. He and his sister are seemingly immune to the effects of ‘the changes’ and are on a tech filled journey to wales, rumored to be where this ailment began. this is the conclusion to the series. Heartease and the Devils Children were published in the two following years. As standalone novels, i think that these would be enjoyable, but i believe they are best presented in the trilogy omnibus format. There are some simple introductions included which i am assuming wdid not exist for the standalones. as an example, in the preface, we are translucently introduced to a man ho is excavating in a pit, when he locates a stone slab covering a tomb. when he moves the slab, a bright green light shines out of his pit and the UK changes. you then start immediately into the story of a girl stuck at home awaiting her family. it has been 28 days since the change. these interludes are informative and the individual books would be difficult to link together with out these. i think one of the huge benefits to this series is its flexibility to fit into modern eras. computers are not mentioned because they were not common household items. there are no lame fall back plots pertaining to cell phone use.. the internet does not exist. the tales do not come across as anything but antiquated. i highly suggest this for any your adult reader as well as any adult sci-fantasy fan who wants some light but enjoyable reading. apparently, there is also a 70’s british mini-series i may have to hunt down :) -- FNORDinc.com
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Heartsease
by
Peter Dickinson
FNORDinc
, June 03, 2010
This was written for a trilogy/omnibus version of this series but still applies in most aspects to this single novel: not sci-fi, more like anti-sci-fi sci- fi? wait.. sci-fantasy? kinda, but still standard sci-fi, but with every day objects? i really do not know what category this would fall into. it is definitely a young adult trilogy. it was also very good. Peter Dickinson’s ‘The Changes’ trilogy follows the the experiences of three groups in the UK over a period of about a decade. This is basically a post apocalyptic tale with out the apocalypse. one afternoon everybody just goes a little bit crazy and it sticks. They fear all things technological. Engines drive them mad and they fly into a fury of destruction. electricity is like witch craft, guns are completely out of the question. even simple machines like a bicycle could cause a mob scene. in a matter of minutes, even seeing a unmoving vehicle or a telephone sitting idle makes people uncomfortable to the point of walking away.Only people in the UK are affected, the rest of the world fears the spread of their irrational fears. unlike other turn society on it’s ear novels, these were a bit different because technology still works. people just refuse to use it, effectively placing themselves in a neo-dark age. Written in the late 1960’s / early 70’s, The Changes trilogy covers three short books (about 200 pgs each). * Book one is ‘The Devils Children’ followed by * The Heartease * The Weathermonger interestingly, they were published backwards. The Weathermonger was the first published in 1968. it is by far the most Fantasy of the trilogy, it deals with a boy who can concentrate and call storms, fog, end rain, etc. He and his sister are seemingly immune to the effects of ‘the changes’ and are on a tech filled journey to wales, rumored to be where this ailment began. this is the conclusion to the series. Heartease and the Devils Children were published in the two following years. As standalone novels, i think that these would be enjoyable, but i believe they are best presented in the trilogy omnibus format. There are some simple introductions included which i am assuming wdid not exist for the standalones. as an example, in the preface, we are translucently introduced to a man ho is excavating in a pit, when he locates a stone slab covering a tomb. when he moves the slab, a bright green light shines out of his pit and the UK changes. you then start immediately into the story of a girl stuck at home awaiting her family. it has been 28 days since the change. these interludes are informative and the individual books would be difficult to link together with out these. i think one of the huge benefits to this series is its flexibility to fit into modern eras. computers are not mentioned because they were not common household items. there are no lame fall back plots pertaining to cell phone use.. the internet does not exist. the tales do not come across as anything but antiquated. i highly suggest this for any your adult reader as well as any adult sci-fantasy fan who wants some light but enjoyable reading. apparently, there is also a 70’s british mini-series i may have to hunt down :) -- FNORDinc.com
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Hobo
by
Eddy Joe Cotton
FNORDinc
, June 01, 2010
Hobo has garnered higher tiered reviews from a number of publications and periodicals. I hate to have to dissent as it was a very GOOD book, but this was by no means a masterpiece of any sort. Subtitled “A Young Man’s thoughts on Trains and Tramping in America”, Hobo does holds one’s attention. Eddy Joe Cotton splays out his thoughts and delivers a number of keen visuals detailing place and people he has seen. He meets a number of interesting travelers while on the road, each sharing insight and knowledge of their journeys. Portions are humorous, others sad. I should point out that Cotton is not a bum. He is not homeless. He is not any of those derogatory or sad names that our society assigns to every person on the road, regardless of condition or intent. Cotton has a great mind for details and introspection. Hobo is a non-fiction account, as he leave his home in the Denver area and decides to hit the road with nothing but what is on his back. He begins keeping notes on his musings on spare napkins, scrap paper, and when available, notebooks. As he goes, descriptions of his experiences unfold instilling a feeling of wanderlust. Anyone who has uprooted themselves on purpose will begin to feel the nag to move on tickling in the back of their mind (i know i did). Those who have always been snug at home will think about being on the road, though i dont know they will ever “get it”. He throws in a lot of the history of hobo-ing, how it started, how it continues, the mind set of folks on the road. I have a problem with this book however, it is barely the tip of his journey. Cotton spent 6 years on the road, wandering and living day to day whim to whim. Hobo covers only the first 30 days on the road. It details travel on the rail lines, hitchhiking, food, safety, etc. he even picks up a girl friend along the way. Auto-magically, he is then whisked away to a crappy motel room where he is transcribing his 23 journals (culminated over the years) into this book. Really? Six years on the road? Why do we need to read about him sitting in a motel room writing? It could have ended with a simple “and then i reintegrated with society, but really only the fringe as i can never again trust a world that hides the beauty of living from the masses”. Otherwise, expanding his story to be more than just the initial month to increase his available material… Just a thought. Perhaps it was just a poor transition from road to writing, but i felt disjointed and unclear as to what was occurring at the end. Though he has a history available for sharing, as a reader, i was left feeling that i had gotten shucked. In a nutshell it felt i got three weeks on the road with someone who regretted it a good deal of the time, some good prose through out, as many chances to crash on a couch as possible, and then a quick escape. It felt false in some ways, how i would expect it to turn out if i were to ride the a carousel, then write a book about equestrianism. Overall a good read, but it’s no Kerouac. Well worth picking up. If you are looking for a more dated but sturdy view of tramping, check out “The Gentle Art of Tramping” by Robert Holden. Published in 1927, it is a bit harder to come across these days, but excellent (if you can read it. at some points the language is completely indecipherable). -- FNORDinc.com
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I Am Not a Serial Killer
by
Dan Wells
FNORDinc
, May 24, 2010
Background: I think my wife is a serial killer waiting to be unleashed on the world. I had not heard of this novel but ran across a Powell’s Books author reading late last month by Dan Wells. I read a summary of his recent book and then scheduled appropriately to go and listen to him. Jenn went with me and whispered creepy serial killer/mass murderer stats in my ear.. it was disturbing how much she knew.. When Dan asked people to name 5 killers in order to win a t-shirt, she stayed quiet and named 14 under her breath. no one but the Author could compete with her, naming less than five, 2 of which Wells had used as examples…… please send the police after her FIRST if i ever drop off the radar (after she reads this, my stats will weigh against me.).. DO NOT enter our home, make sure to arrive with witnesses, and be careful if she offers you refreshments, it is a distraction tactic. Bring gelato if you plan on surviving.. so, the long –> short of it is that i bought a copy of I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER. Dan Wells scribbled his John Hancock into the cover and i went home.. I had some must reads already waiting that needed to be pushed through my brain machine before i could get to this.. How i waited nearly a month, i really do not know….. it was very, very good… Review: John Wayne Cleaver is a 15 year old boy in a small town. Overall he is a nice kid who just can’t find any connection to the people around him. he has only one friend and is a freak among his peers. He grew up in a family of morticians. He helps out around the house and business. John is an outcast because he firmly believes he will grow up to be a serial killer. John does not WANT to be a serial killer, but he thinks that the universe has stacked the deck against him, starting with his name. His namesake is an actor who shares a name with a killer (c’mon pilgrim..). His father is Sam Cleaver, making him the Son of Sam. His last name is a tool for cutting meat. Interestingly enough, the town John lives in has a new killer hanging around, killing people and leaving their bodies lying about with parts missing. John obsessively investigates the killer, attempting to determine his motives and methodologies. This is in part because of his interest in the subject matter, and in part because of his fear of joining the ranks.. the more he knows, the better prepared he will be. This really was a great book. IANASK is a mild thriller, and a must read for anyone who has found themselves spending an afternoon reading through the Internet Crime Library or whiling away nights watching true crime shows on TV. Wells did a great job breaking down the mind of a killer and really leaves you mentally cheering for the 15 year old sociopath that is the main character. You know he could turn out to be a horrible person in a couple years, but hope for the best because really, his is just a great kid. classically misunderstood. The book is portioned well, focusing on John’s internal struggle as much as his obsessions with finding and stopping the local killer. It is a little gory in some spots, but not overly so.. of course, i could also be desensitized :).. ok, well, just assume that i am desensitized.. One of my favorite aspects of John Cleaver is that he has already identified character traits of his that make him fear for his future. He has created a series of rules that will help himself suppress these character traits. These rules are mandatory to keep himself from crossing over, they keep his darker side in check.. ignoring these rules and he threatens to unleash his darkness, self named “Mr. Monster” Examples of his rules: - To keep stalker qualities subdued, he avoids people for a full week if he finds he is taking too much interest in them. too many conversations and he cuts off contact. if he finds himself following them home, they get back burner’d. - If he feels like doing bodily harm on someone, he should distract himself by being overly nice and saying nice things about them. Thinking and saying nice tings tends to push back the bad… you know the classic “Think Positive” motivational posters? He should have one tattooed on the back of his hand. - He must hand out with Max, another outcast in his grade. having max as a friend makes him more normal. after all, sociopaths do not have friends, so having a friend combats his sociopathy. The book is humorous and intense in all the right places. If you pick this book up, let me know what you thought of the Halloween Dance chapter. It cracked me up enough that i read sections aloud to people who were uncomfortable with a large insistent bearded man enthusiastically reading aloud a book titled ‘I am not a serial killer’… don’t get why that would make people feel “off” but it apparently does :) surprised that i still have a job considering the number of people who gave me uncomfortable looks on the elevator or in the break room. This was book one in a trilogy, i am very interested to see how the characters in this series turn out. Mr Wells, Get to releasing the books.. NOW! if you need someone to read them in advance, i would gladly volunteer :) (hint hint) -- FNORDinc.com
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Amberville
by
Tim Davys
FNORDinc
, May 19, 2010
Referred on other pages as a part of the "Nursery Crime" sub-genre... Which was a new one for me to run across... Crime/detective novel, man#1 is going to die, and he decides that the best way to live is to force man#2 to save him. Should he fail to do so, man#1 will have his thugs kill man#2's wife. Easy enough decision for a man to make, provided he does not utterly despise his wife, he should see what he can do about saving man#1.. Right? Well, that is the core plot of Amberville, but it has a twist... Man#1 and man#2 are not men.. Sure, they are MALE, but they are not MEN. Amberville and all of its surrounding burgs are wholly populated by stuffed animals. Eric Bear grew up in a decent family, in a decent part of town.. his father, Boxer Bloom, is head of the local schools. His mother, Rhino Edda, is head of the environmental government branch. despite upbrining, Eric always found himself in a bit of trouble. As a young cub, he found himself working side jobs at the Casino Monokowki. His twin brother 'Teddy" (go figure) was a whole other mess. 20 years later, he is a successfully reformed bear, living with his wife, Emma Rabbit, working as an advertising guru at a local firm. it should be noted that in Amberville, young stuffed animals are not born. they are brought to families who are on the "cub list". the factory sends out green pick up trucks driven by uniformed deliverymen, to drop the youngsters at their new homes. Amberville also has a dark side. The cub list has a rumored counterpart , the death list. For hundreds of years stuffed animals have whispered about it, likewise about the chauffeurs, driving red pickup trucks through darkened night streets to take the dead off to their end. On waking with a particularly bad hangover one morning, Eric is accosted by his old boss, Nicholas Dove, gangster and proprietor of the Casino he used to be employed at. Dove has found that the death list is real and that he is on it. Dove wants off the list and will have Emma Rabbit tortured and destroyed if his name is not scratched from the list. Older, more threadbare, and no longer the delinquent he used to be, Eric goes off to locate said mythical object in order to save his wife. He is unwillingly helped by his old gang: a self serving snake, an drug addicted sexually ambiguous antelope with a broken horn, and a mentally screwed up Crow named Tom-Tom with a history of extreme violence and memory loss during times of stress. ~~ All in all, this was a great book. i enjoyed it a lot and will gladly point people in its direction. as book one in a series pertaining to each of the 4 burgs in the Mollisan Town area. Only one concern when it came to reading this book. fore-warning to those who follow: Some sections of the book have some bizarre verbiage in use which is confusing. this mainly pertains to descriptions of the twins Eric and Teddy. unlike myself who reread certain sections 2-3 times, dont waste the effort. you will glean no extra insight. your questions will be answered later. About the Author: Tim Davys is not a real name. Instead of spouting off nonsense of my own regarding the awesomeness of pseudonyms, go check out The Man Your Husband Is Worried About's review on this book at hardcorelit.blogspot.com -- FNORDinc.com
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Bitter Is the New Black Confessions of a Condescending Egomaniacal Self Centered Smartass Or Why You Should Never Carry a Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office
by
Jen Lancaster
FNORDinc
, May 11, 2010
First, i should mention that discussing two Jenn's (Jenn and Jen) in one post is really rough.. excuse me if i come across a bit more grammar-retarded than normal. Lets begin with the title: Bitter is the new black: Confessions of a condescending, ego-maniacal, self-centered smart ass or Why you should never carry a Prada bag to the Unemployment Office how could you NOT want to read this book? before we get started, to the male readers out there, no worries, you will likely enjoy this. Jen Lancaster is like the sarcastic best friend you had in high-school that loved her fashion but doesn't make you feel like a fool for not knowing the difference between Prada, Coach, and Juicy Couture handbags, she would just roll her eyes then school you with something heavy, and likely blunt ended.. she would be the friend that drank you under the table, mocked you, stole the bacon from your burger, and in the end, you were pleased to let her do it all. that said, this is NOT a chick book, it is a golden humorous godsend. I was turned onto Jen Lancaster's brand of kickassery by my wife (also a Jenn) just over a year ago. I thought now would be the appropriate time to finally put up my review, it languished in my drafts folder for a long time. i kep t meaning to finish it, but life gets in the way sometimes.. oh yeah, and i am lazy, that should be mentioned for sure... Why post it now you ask? Because Lancaster just released a new book titled "My Fair Lazy" and though i have only read the first of her five books, i know based on the laughter coming from Jenn's person and my enjoyment of book 1 that i need to get off my ass and get caught up :). the reading list just gets so long that sometimes knowing it is already in the house is enough to make it a lower priority.. it will still bet there when i get to it after all, right? well, enough excuses, time to get to reading the rest of them. Bitter is a series of memoirs in pseudo-essay format. They detail Lancaster's demise in the corporate world as she loses her job when the dot-com "bubble" bursts. she is left with a crap ton of bills and not a whole lot to do with herself. Lancaster wallows in her own panic for a while and then starts looking for a job... which doesn't go very well as she has very high expectations of what is appropriate for her. The book follows her as she over spends, panics, sells all things of worth in her home, moves to a smaller place, panics, pesters her husband Fletch (yes, just like the Chevy Chase character), panics, gets a dog, panics, remodels her new house, panics, and eventually gets a new job. she does this all while wearing a string of pearls, because real women ALWAYS wear pearls. ~~ To Jen Lancaster: my wife, forgives you for being a Republican and really wants to be your BFF. you should give her a call :) To the publisher, New American Library: fantastic work all the way around. love the cover art (on all her books), format is spot on. keep up the good job and give the person who finalized the layout a big fat raise. * Paperback: 416 pages * Publisher: NAL Trade (March 7, 2006) * Language: English * ISBN-10: 0451217608 Check out Jen's blog on her website - http://www.jennsylvania.com it is a great place to go for some daily (or near daily) humor :) Her RSS feed is absent from her site for some reason, but no fear! i will post it here for all to enjoy.. no no, seriously, you are welcome. no need for further praising.. http://www.jennsylvania.com /jennsylvania/rss.xml -- FNORDinc.com
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Expiration Date
by
Duane Swierczynski
FNORDinc
, May 06, 2010
I don’t know why, but about every few times i go to Powell’s Books, i end up checking out the shelf that holds Duane’s work. i am never expecting anything new, i don’t know what i am expecting to be different, but it looks like repetition does eventually breed results. When i was there over the weekend, look what was waiting for me.. Expiration date, a book i didn’t even know was ready for release… So, what the h*ll is this book about? self discover and that exact moment when your life ends and becomes seemingly unrelated to everything you know. okaaay, can you be a bit more cryptic Jason? fine- Its about a man dying on the floor of page one, breaking it down to you why he has 3 bullets in him. its about fucking with things just because you can. then, just because you want to… and later… because you d*mn well know you shouldn’t, but do anyway.. Quick synopsis: Mickey Wade is an out of work Journalist with no real drive. he has virtually no money, no girlfriend, no job, and moves into his grandfathers apt in order to save money on rent. grandfather is in a coma and not using it. His first night in the apartment, with a horrible headache, he cracks into a bottle of Tylenol in the medicine cabinet. something is not quite right with these expired pills, as Mickey finds himself spending the next couple hours reliving his birthday… his actual birthday.. in 1972.. Expiration Date is a Science fiction novel minus the science fiction, a Detective novel with out a detective. it is a nice crossover between Hard-Boiled and Noir fiction, in the classic vein of the Maltese Falcon, but with a sprinkling of Quantum Leap.. All around, Expiration Date was a fantastic read. die hard fans may b*tch that it lacked the crazed drive that The Blond/Severance Package carried, but don’t listen to those fools. This is definitely a genre novel and is not a negative in the slightest. just buy it and give it a shot, if you are not hooked by page 3, i will be surprised. oh, and it should be noted, there is some awesome artwork through out the book. :) Author’s website: secretdead.blogspot.com ~~ Note to publisher.. What were you thinking when you made the cover for this book? NO NO.. the image is fine, i like the art. What i am talking about is the fact that you used a glossy cover with a modern feel to it.. What happened to the rough pulp cover that made severance package really feel tangible? the rough cover added to the experience, making the book seem even more like the pulp that likely inspired them all. This would have been a noticed and appreciated touch on Expiration Date as well. you did something really right with SP, you should have carried it over instead of following the standard publishing paradigm. Shiny does not always = sales! -- FNORDinc.com
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All You Need Is Kill
by
Hiroshi Sakurazaka
FNORDinc
, May 02, 2010
Released as part of VIZ-Media’s recent fiction line, Haikasoru, All you need is Kill was a very fast but great read. Though technically considered a light novel, you do not find any of the watered down elements a LN would normally bear. The characters are clear and enjoyable. the story is descriptive and vibrant. The novel could very easily be triple the length, but it would not make it any better. Instead, you would risk watering down its power, like small punches to your gut turning to love taps. Though originally written in Japanese (2004), it was recently translated by Alex Smith and pushed out to the English market. if you read AYNIK, you will definitely be reminded of Robotech, Groundhogs day, and general anime/manga. This book is much more than any of those things however, so you will see no further references to them. FNORDinc’s overview- The planet earth is in the mids of a ground war. We fight alien machines sent to our planet to reform the atmosphere and land to the needs of their creators. Their blood is sand, electrically charged and poisonous to all earth life. Nanites mixed about inside them make them mobile bio-hazards, eating dirt and emitting toxic waste. These machines, called Mimics (not to be confused with giant mutant cockroaches) fire 1600 meter per second spikes into their enemies and destroy all they come in contact with. There is more to them, but i will let those who want more info read the book. These secrets are not mine to disclose. Protagonist Keiji Kiyira is prepping for his first battle. As a virgin in the bed of war, he is clumsy and nervous. he knows his training but has no idea what he is REALLY doing. This becomes evident two pages into the book as he is bleeding out. Torn nearly in two by enemy fire, he is in shock. Enter Rita, the “Full Metal Bitch”. Clad in red armor, wielding an axe, she is a vision of hope and absolute bad-assery. Sh is like the battlefield messiah, brute force putting the enemy into an the mood to absolve their sins through death. Her just being near Keiji is enough to get him back on his feet fighting. with out these two character, this story would be a waste of paper, detailing our own demise. Everything it stops an instant after he meets Rita. Keiji wakes up 30 hours earlier, in his bunk at the barracks. He is stuck in a loop, repeating the same battle every day. Talk about the perfect way to lose your mind. perpetually fighting a never ending battle, honing your skills and carrying them forward into the next day. I highly suggest this book. - FNORDinc.com
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Endymion: Hyperion Cantos 3
by
Dan Simmons
FNORDinc
, April 28, 2010
For anyone who has NOT read the first two books of the Hyperion “Cantos”, self referencing Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion, STOP HERE. It’s not that i will give spoilers here, instead that you are doing yourself an injustice by continuing. Go pick up the first book and read it. This is one of those thought changing sci-fi series. you will start thinking about its congruence with reality: start seeing the tech it describes in modern life (albeit in nearly unrecognizable forms). you will scan the news and see articles that will remind you of the story. Some people start spreading the viral thought of tattoos… thanks a lot Mongo.. For the genre, it has a lack of balance, spanning horror, sci-fi, fantasy, tech, erotica, and religious theory. This lack of balance makes it ACCESSIBLE, something nearly all sci-fi authors wish for. They want the ability to reach more than the core crowd of fan boys/girls and aficionados. Simmons does this with a silver tongue. The remainder of this will not make sense to the n00b reader. Endymion takes place nearly 300 years after The Fall. The Shrike pilgrims of the first two novels are the stuff of legends, the legacy they left behind equally so. The newly formed PAX, a militaristic extension of the rekindled Catholic church, has taken up the reins of the galaxy. The Ousters are fighting for ground (or space as it were). The Farcaster network is dead, remnants of the highest pinnacle of human existence. As with the original half of the series, this story is also told in a retrospective form. While circling a planet in a egg shaped prison cell, Endymion is logging his tale into a journal. No room for movement, any moment death could take him as his own breathing may be misconstrued as an “escape attempt” filling his 6 meter by 3 meter prison with cyanide. Endymion, named after the Hyperion city of his ancestors, is given a list of achievements he must complete. Beginning with the nigh impossible collection of Brawn Lamia’s (as of yet unknown to us readers) daughter. Her 14 year old (yes, i did say 300 years later) daughter is referenced in The Fall by the second Keats cybrid as the “One who Teaches”. Endymion must endgame this (long and not written out here) laundry list of tasks with the saving of humanity by assisting this child, half human,the other half human with an essence of AI soul (do Artificial Intelligences have souls?). Like anything in a Dan Simmons book is ever that easy :) - FNORDinc.com
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Interstellar Pig 02 Parasite Pig
by
William Sleator
FNORDinc
, April 07, 2010
In 1984 William Sleator released Interstellar Pig, a Young Adult science fiction novel. Barney, a fair skinned geeky kid spends his summer vacation at the beach with his parents. some good looking folks move into the rental next door and drag him into a real life game of intergalactic war. Book one Barney learns that the game is real, the neighbors are aliens, and for hundreds of years, interstellar races have been in a battle for survival. 18 years later Sleator released Parasite Pig, a sequel. Book two takes Barney off world. It picks up 6-10 months after the last page of book one. Barney is working in the stacks of a library to earn money. He is playing the abandoned Interstellar Pig board game on the side with friends. Kidnapped and dragged to the planet J'koot, Barney and his would-be girlfriend Katie must fight to get back home. Ultimately, this would be best accomplished with out losing a limb or having their flesh flayed off by giant Crabs who feel human flesh is a delicacy. I gotta say i really enjoyed this book. Perfect reading for 8-10 year olds who are into sci-fi. Though a solid standalone book, the original sets the sequel up nicely - FNORDinc.com
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Horns
by
Joe Hill
FNORDinc
, April 06, 2010
it is the day after the 1st anniversary of your girlfriends rape and murder, both of which you have been blamed for. you wake up with a horrible headache, the hangover tied to your previous nights drinking binge. you look in the mirror and find your forehead has sprouted two devilish horns. you find that every person who sees your horns want to tell you all of their worst thoughts, compelled to seek your advice about acting on them. and this is just the beginning. Horns is all about Ignatius (Ig), his dead girlfriend Merrin, and the horns growing out of his head which give him a semi-sexual tingle on their tips when he helps lead people astray. anyone who read Locke & Key or Heart Shaped Box will enjoy this. It is worth the time you are going to put into it - FNORDinc.com
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Baking For Your Dog Tasty Treats for Your Four Legged Friend
by
Ingeborg Pils
FNORDinc
, March 22, 2010
Ingeborg Pils did a fantastic job when putting together her book ‘Baking For Your Dog: Tasty Treats For Your Four-Legged Friends’. essentially no more than a glorified cookbook for the niche market of loving dog owners, it was still an enjoyable read. hr introduction reminds not to cook anything with toxic properties for dogs, which a surprising number of people have no idea about even if they have owned a dog for decades. no grapes or raisings, onions or chocolate. The book is broken into sections for the vegetarian owners, for dogs who prefer super treats, healthy biscuits. most of the recipes are pretty yummy sounding even for humans, which is very okay as everything in this book uses human grade food. examples of things i would eat from this cookbook: * Crunchy Pumpkin Crescents * Bonnie’s Banana Cookies * Crispy Bacon Rolls * Mimi’s Muesli Muffins * Apple and Carrot Dumplings Recipes i would NOT eat: * Polenta Cookies with Liver Sausage * Scamps Ground Beef Cookies * Pippa’s Tripe Cookies i think one of the best aspects of this book is the subtle care given to every recipe. if a cookie recipe can easily cook loner, giving longer enjoyment to younger dogs and helping clean teeth, this is pointed out. followed up by simple suggestions of cooking for older dogs who may have a tough time compared to pups. each recipe also gives an estimated time frame for how long the snacks will last, which is important to note as no preservatives are used. -- FNORDinc.com
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Makers
by
Cory Doctorow
FNORDinc
, March 21, 2010
Doctorow, co-editor of Boing Boing and Copyright activist, released The Makers back in 2009, and i have been itching to read it. I never had the 25 bucks to go buy the hardback book though. i mean, i HAD the money, but getting 3 books for 25 bucks is always a hard thing to beat, so it just never came to fruition. I had never read a Doctorow novel before this, and am glad that i made this my first. When i finally got my Kindle2 (yes, i broke down and bought one) i was searching out some free (non-pirated) books to put on the device and came across The Makers. The novel was published simultaneously through Tor Books as well as Creative Commons for e-distribution. Cory’s only request is that if you enjoy the book, dont send him cash, buy a copy of the book and donate it to an organization or library in need. Prior to sale, Doctorow also published a Serialized version directly on the Tor Blog, with thrice weekly updates. Unfortunately, i dont really care much for reading expansive text on computer screens. Doctorow quotes a friend of his, Tim OReilly in the foreword of the ebook, “[his] problem isn’t piracy, it’s obscurity”. Well, keep writing books like this and harnessing off-norm publishing and you have zero change of that. ~~ The Makers is chronicled by ex-San Jose reporter Suzanne Church, watching and describing the story of the “new Work” movement. New Work being a generation of people (1 out of 5 americans) who decide to up and participate in a way of thinking that revolutionizes then destroys the world as we know it. Read as consumerism eats and recreates consumerism with a new form of the same old same old. rebirth via duplication. its the fall of the roman empire all over again, but with technology that would make xerox pee their pants a little bit. newly bought out and merged KodaCell (Kodak and Duracell). Taking two companies that are basically dinosaurs of the pre-digital age and reallocating their resources, KodaCell hires ingenuous people and gives them the start up money needed to make forward progress, Lester and Perry are two such people. The Makers covers the lives of Perry and Lester, avant-garde tech artists in florida. They are hanging out in a Florida junk yard creating art out reclaimed garbage. Whether it be synchronized dancing elmo dolls voice controlled and driving junk electric cars in a never ending race, or giant toasters covered in mechanized seashells, they are pleasantly ensconced in tech joy. (i never would have guessed how much advanced tech was inside a simple garbage elmo doll) Perry and Lester are picked up by the Side note: I have never been a fan of the Disney Corporation, and this book did not help. It did however help me reinstate ol’ Walt as the engineer and visionary that all of us big-corp haters often forget. I recommend this book to anyone who reads the below quote (by rapper/poet Aesop Rock) and has any portion resonate with their core. I assume this will be greater than 90% of you. I tend to underestimate my average Just another bastard savage Someday you’ll all eat out of my cold hand Cuz every dog has its day At which point, I’ll pull it away Now we the American working population Hate the fact that eight hours a day Is wasted on chasing the dream of someone that isn’t us And we may not hate our jobs But we hate jobs in general That don’t have to do with fighting our own causes We the American working population Hate the nine-to-five day-in day-out When we’d rather be supporting ourselves By being paid to perfect the pasttimes That we have harbored based solely on the fact That it makes us smile if it sounds dope –Aesop Rock, 9 to 5er’s Anthem this novel epitomizes succulence for the word and idea starved. -- FNORDinc.com
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Dragon Factory
by
Jonathan Maberry
FNORDinc
, March 11, 2010
A couple months back, i read Patient Zero, book one of Jonathan Maberry’s “Joe Ledger” novels. Because Patient Zero was so stinking good, The Dragon Factory arrived with a taint of wariness to it. I was fearful that book 2 of the Ledger series was going to disappoint.. i mean, how can a semi-secret military science team battle terrorists and genetically modified “zombies” in book one and still have enough spunk for a second book? my fear was that the Ledger series blew its load after a 2 hour marathon, leaving nothing for round two. I was dead wrong… my oh my, how could i ever think such things? Joe Ledger has some stamina to him. enough to f-with folks all night every night till the job is done. In Dragon Factory, you will run across mass conspiracy, genetic mods, nazi fringe groups, assassinations. The plotlineis twisted enough to leave MC Escher impressed but looking over his shoulder into the shadows. If you were to combine the best DNA aspects from Clancy’s Jack Ryan, 24’s Jack Bauer, and Evil Dead’s Ash Williams… The Chimera you would end up with is the fast moving, brilliant, fearless and witty Joe Ledger. If you were to combine the plots from all of the same DNA sourced character, you would have the Joe Ledger Novels. Keep up the great work Mr Maberry! I am sincerely hoping for a third installment ASAP Di Di mau and get to it my good man! – Dragon Factory went on sale in the US, March 2nd, go grab a copy. – UK Readers, grab it early.. ship it from the US so that you can get the good cover as opposed to the really retarded UK version coming in July -- FNORDinc.com
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Ethical Assassin
by
David Liss
FNORDinc
, March 11, 2010
Long car rides.. one of my favorite things in the whole world. an extravagant excuse to burn gasoline, smoke too many cigs, drink excessive gas station coffee, pee on roadside trees, and eat copious amounts of jerky. also a great time for the AudioBook, something i rarely have time for in daily life due to standard books, music, and other daily things. on our recent trip to California, we planned ahead. Hitting up the Public Library, we gathered 3 Audiobooks. enough that we would not run out while on the road (and if lucky, would be able to finish at least two in out allotted road time). we made it through 1 and a half. i will have to find time somehow to finish the second. ~~ The Ethical Assassin has been a bit of a desired read. At goodwill, on multiple occasions, both Jenn and I have picked this book up and perused it, waffling as to whether it is one we should invest 3 bucks in. Turns out, we should have as it was quite fantastic. if not available at goodwill, we will end up purchasing it at powells or someplace full price. David Liss spins a tale of Traveling Encyclopedia salesman Lem. He is just out of high school, working to get tuition money for his upcoming deferred stay at Columbia University (New York). He is a virgin in the ways of love. he is a damn fine salesman, working all the angles and soaking up the cash he needs. the story seems to wander back and forth for a couple chapters, culminating in a solid knowledge of lems fears and mental workings. then two of his customers get shot in the head while he is about to receive their book purchase check. the assassin enters the room, seems like a fairly nice guy on the whole, even whilst ensuring that if Lem talks to anyone, he will become the primary suspect, with evidence against him. 1985 is the time setting, and there are no cell phones, no internet, no modern simplicities or plot crutches. It is is Florida, Hot, sweaty Florida… Katrina and the Waves on the radio, melting peoples brains as much as the sun is. The core of the tale rests on the word “Ideologies” and how our whole existence is based around the comfort zone that all of society requires. it is well thought out and gets the brain juices flowing at some of the simplified concepts described. some aspects of the book felt like a commercial for PETA. at points i wished i was a vegetarian, and others an ass kicking ball breaking vigilante. in the end though, i am neither of the above. i ate a double bacon double cheese cheesy double burger (with bacon) last night and i would rather screw than fight. i would recommend this book highly. it will stick out in my mind whenever i see bacon… or encyclopedias. mm… bacon… - FNORDinc.com
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Lamb The Gospel According to Biff Christs Childhood Pal
by
Christopher Moore
FNORDinc
, February 26, 2010
What with moving out of my apt, i have not had a whole ton of time for reading. in fact, it took me over a week to read Lamb, which was a real shame.. it should have been one i could never put down. it deserved that kind of attention. Christopher Moore is a phenomenal writer. he put out a couple fairly hilarious books i have head in the past (thanks Jenn) and so when this was handed to me, i was anxious to crack it open and start the absorption process. Lamb: The Gospel according to Biff, Christ's childhood pal: this book is a work of fiction, compiled from a number of sources and the authors brain. it has sex murder resurrections spontaneous healing. Lamb basically covers from year 10 of Jesus's life to the crucifixion, primarily focusing on the years that are undocumented and not part of the typical gospel coverage. Jesus, known in the book by his Greek name Joshua is seen in the first chapter resurrecting lizards, he is a kid. it is fun. he doesn't fully get it, but hey it passes the time. Levi, who is called "Biff' after the sound made when someone gets beat on the head, meets Joshua and they become fast friends. As Josh tries to learn how to become the messiah, it is Biff who helps keep him from getting stoned to death during the opening years. the book covers their travels to the far east in search of the original three wise men, hoping they can help josh learn to save humanity. Along the way Josh learns how he want s the world to be, in contrast to how the Jewish world expects their savior to make it. damn. this book was hilarious. I read a reprint of the book. it was a special edition that came in a soft faux leather cover with parchment paper and a ribbon book mark. reading it on public transit almost guaranteed me a seat by myself as no one want to sit by the guy reading the bible on his way to work.. little did they know. There are two printings with this cover. one is thicker it is using a semi gloss parchment paper that though nice, makes it feel less authentic. the other is skinnier due to the use of regular parchment paper. it feels like a real bible, looks like a real bible, but is far far funnier. I highly suggest this book for any and all religious people with a sense of humor and an open mind. it is not meant to be a new gospel, just a comedic look at what could have been. for those who would say it is blasphemy, i say, shoosh. pick it up and read it. it does nothing to diminish the christian viewpoint. in fact, you may find that it is eye opening on many levels. Thank you mr moore. this book is one i am proud to have on my book shelves. FNORDinc.com
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Life As I Know It
by
Melanie Rose
FNORDinc
, February 24, 2010
A strange twist on the “freaky friday” body swapping idea, Life as I know it takes the standard bodyswap and turns it on it’s ear. Jessica Taylor is walking her dog in a park when a storm rolls in. she is unlucky enough to be struck by lightning, awakening in another womans body. Lauren, her host, is a married mother of four, very contrasted against Jessica who is single, has a dog, and works long hours. The twist is what makes this book so above par for the commonly Disneyfied plot process. When Jessica falls asleep, Lauren wakes up, reversing when Lauren passes out. While slipping between locations/host bodies, Jessica is forced to play the mother role she is unprepared for, the wife role to a complete stranger, and balance it all with her original life. Released in the US by Bantam Books (Random House), Melanie Rose’s Life as I know it turned out to be a very refreshing read. The novel was engrossing and as the last few chapters come closer, you will begin to wonder how the author will be able to close things out. She managed to do so with out rushing the plot, leaving you at the end with a torn feeling of both disbelief and happiness. The ambiguity suits the story well. It falls firmly into the standard fiction genre with a smattering of romance and scifi/fantasy mixed in. In the UK, this book was originally released under the title Being Lauren in 2005 (Matador). Canadian TV fans will automatically think of “Being Erica” after reading the name, but make no comparison, there is a wit and charm to this that has a similar feel, but they are completely unrelated. Later, prior to US release, the UK book was picked up by Harper Collins UK under the title Do you believe in Magic?. The US cover is very housewife friendly, though will detract from the book by limiting interest of male readers… This could have partially been circumvented by using the ISIS “Audio Download” cover image. Maybe after it moves from Trade Paperback to Mass Market PB. Authors website: http://www.melanierose.co.uk/ - FNORDinc.com
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Death Troopers Star Wars
by
Joe Schreiber
FNORDinc
, February 20, 2010
like an unconcerned lover, meeting you for a “nooner”, Death Troopers is quick and dirty. it doesnt ask you how you are doing or if you are getting close. when it is finished, it rolls out of bed and leaves you staring, asking “what exactly just happened”. you feel a little dirty, then you shower and get back to work. a little background info to explain the above.. as a kid, i was an avid book reader. you put it in front of me, and it would be consumed. scifi, conspiracy, historical fiction.. even the babysitters club. i was a blank template for the DnD dice rolling dork who, at 40, woulds till be living in the basement. a virgin, who had +60 defense against magic. i was a sucker for sci-fi movies. i watched starwars, star trek, battle star (original), buck rogers.. my dad ended up recording over our copy of The Beastmaster because my brother and i watched it far far too often. as i got older, conspiracy’s became more of a focus, zombies and the occult.. i began theorizing how i would reinforce structures in case of a zombie apocalypse. i became the dice rolling dork, and escaped with only minimal scarring. although i have been considered a geek for most of my life, i have been able to keep myself out of the uber geek, fanboy, socially scary category. Joe Schreiber screwed that all up for me. by combining Starwars and Zombies into a novel, Joe forced me to pick up a Starwars universe book. this is the first that i have ever read, and as we all know, addictions always start with a single experience…. so.. damn you Joe.. and thank you joe…, . but ultimately.. damn you Joe. i am one step closer to becoming the “starwars kid”. someone keep video cameras away from me for a while. when i bought this, i found that the dust cover on the book was reversible, a poster for the book. the cover itself, instead of being blank as many hard covers, sported the books image.. inside, a timeline for where this book exists in the universe (between 1-5 years before “A New Hope”). The plot is pretty basic, Prison barge breaks down in the abyss of space. a Star Destroyer is sound, which has only 10 life forms aboard. prison guard enters the Star Destroyer to scavenge parts, then all hell breaks loose. For those who say “i dont like star wars, so i wont read this” get over it. this is a horror/zombie novel. Starwars is almost cursory in most places. with the exception of references to familiar starwars species and verbiage, there is not much here that is out of the ordinary for a space/sci-fi storyline. no magic microbes that let you levitate stuff, no “laser swords” or cryptic green man doling out advice from a swamp. for the avid starwars fan, you wont be disappointed by some of the surprises either. some references just cant be made in a review, doing so would just be bad form on my part. in the end, i would suggest this book for any sci-fi or horror fan. at 230 pages, it was fast and fun. i look forward to reading it a second time, and loaning it out. ~~ To ballantine/del-rey books: Great job on the design of Death troopers. there is one aspect that kinda pissed me off though. What is the point in putting an excerpt in the end of the book for marketing purposes when you choose to put in chapters 3-5? do you realize that with out chapters 1 and 2, we are less likely to read it? that it makes little sense and therefore has a negative impact on the choice to buy the book you have excerpted? in the book you chose, the characters exist nearly 40 years (thank you timeline!!) after a new hope. the book looks good, but it took far too long to get to the point where i understood what was happening. to be honest, if i were to buy the book, i would not read the first two chapters, as i am already far past their usability. i have never run into a teaser excerpt that was mid book, and i hope i never do again. what were you thinking..? very annoying - FNORDinc.com
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Fall Of Hyperion Hyperion Cantos 02
by
Dan Simmons
FNORDinc
, February 17, 2010
I cannot tell you how much this book will continue to affect my brain going forward. Other scifi book series, movies, and even music i love seems to have some direct influence stemming from the Hyperion "Cantos". As a simple and poor example, The Matrix in many ways, almost seems like an homage to the Hyperion series, with significant portions of plotline directly influenced. The shrike (agent smith), a machine boogeyman whos intents are sometimes inline with those of the web, other times seemingly contrary. Thousands of Shrike (Smiths) working toward a common goal. Squid like creatures, Artificial Deities, the convergence of mankind and machine. i dont want to give too many examples as every reference i make could be seen as a spoiler, and i dont want to be the person who ruins well earned surprises. the fictional references located while reading the first two books in this series astounded me. it is like a holy grail of geekdom. i fail to even mention that the plot is beyond incredible... but again, lets not get too much into that. it is after all a sequel. if you dont know where this is headed, you obviously need to read book 1 still. Reality has a strong mirror of the story as well. with recent announcements that "teleportation" is on its way, farcaster devices and other kick ass technology seems to be around the corner. developments in the last decade have proven that we can cause particles to recreate properties of other particles, end point to end point. we have passed atoms, photons, information, and now raw energy. for a quick recap of the decade and links, read: Popular Science Feb 2010 (article: physicists prove teleportation energy theoretically possible) not saying simmons was some kind of oracle, just that he had his finger on the right pulse, checking the timing of all the right heartbeats in theory and thought. then built this master work around what was absorbed. Dan Simmons successfully blends the poetry of John Keats into a multi world existence, replicating poetry, creating new poetry, and detailing a spiderweb of mental imagery that can only be referred to as scholar deification at its pinnacle. based on the pure impact of info in these stories, along side mirrors in our existing world (and possible unconfirmed referenced in popular media..), i would have to say this is one of the greatest/most influential series i have ever read. only two more to complete the whole series, but i am not sure how it could get better. hope you keep surprising me simmons! - FNORDinc.com
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Truly Madly
by
Heather Webber
FNORDinc
, February 11, 2010
Truly Madly arrived in my mailbox about a month ago. I had a few other books that were priority, so it took its place in line for reading. Last week, I picked it up and ran though it cover to cover in my free time. it is a fast but enjoyable read.. The basis for the story is a family whose business it is to match-make. they locate people to fill that empty hole in the hearts of their clientele. The Author is a little bit heavy handed by giving the fam a sur-name of "Valentine". Lucy Valentine, after receiving an electrical shock at the age of 14, loses the ability to see people's auras. auras are the bread and butter of the family business, it runs in the bloodline and is the root of a generations long legacy of great matches. Lucy's power is now geared around touch. she can shake someones hand and find something they have lost. Lucy bombs from job to job, becoming a jack of all trades. in the first couple pages, she gets suckered into the match-making world as a favor to her father. on her first day, as a particularly complex client prepares to leave, she shakes his hand and sees a corpse. ~~ my thoughts on the book are a bit conflicted. the characters were awesome. i will gladly pick up the next one in the series when it comes out. it does seem however, as if the author was rushed to finish. the book never really 'peaks". the story builds nicely through the first half of the book, then it levels off till 10 pages to the end, then it resolves itself. i get the feeling that this will be like many other good series where the first book is not a dud, but not stellar. later, as the author settles into the characters and plot, the depth will arrive. at least this is how i will hope it turns out. if not, oh well, the book is fun. fun to read, and fun to tell others about. Truly, Madly was a pretty decent book. I think that the book would have been better represented in a trade paperback format. with nicer paper and better print, a 200 page trade paperback with glossy cover and less pulp would really shine. Check Heather Webber's website for more info on the author. http://www.heatherwebber.com/ - FNORDinc.com
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Hyperion: Hyperion Cantos 1
by
Dan Simmons
FNORDinc
, January 31, 2010
mongo loaned me this book, claiming that this series is a personal favorite. he described the series as “a combination of sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and the single best description of Artificial Intelligence” he had ever read. i was glad to push it to the top of the unread pile. i do not know yet that i have gotten to the AI references he described yet, as i still feel fredrik pohl’s gateway series nailed it, but the other claims are pretty accurate :) i suppose i will see when i get to #2. Hyperion, a planet on the ass end of the universe, has not yet been incorporated into the Hegemony. Old Earth was abandoned after the “big mistake of 38″. The Hegemony being the new ruling factor of our species, spread out across the universe, seeding planets with colonies. Hyperion wanders through the stories of seven pilgrims, pulled by the Shrike Cult to the planets surface, on a final trip to the mysterious time tombs. the tombs were discovered centuries back and have a bizarre ebb and flow of backwards flowing time surrounding them. the source of the tombs (besides the future of course) is unknown, as is the Shrike itself. Referred to by the Cult as the “Lord of Pain” it slaughters at will. all seven pilgrims are bound to die. why they have come to the planet Hyperion willingly is the whole reason to read this book. this book visually accosted me. phrases and styling burned into my brain. “[..] she was homesick there: the sunsets were abrupt, the much-vaunted mountains slicing off the sunlight like a ragged scyth, and she longed for the hours-long sunsets of home where Barnard’s Star hung on the horizon like a great, tethered, red balloon while the sky congealed to evening. She missed the perfect flatness where –peering from her third-floor room under the steeple gables –a little girl could look fifty kilometers across tasseled fields to watch a storm approach like a bruise-black curtain lit within by lightning bolts.” good, god,damn Mongo was kind enough to loan me book two as well. He advised that when i was done with the first, i would immediately want to move to the second. Why did Mongo have to be right.. and why did i forget book two on my work desk…… - FNORDinc.com
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Confessions of a Teen Sleuth
by
Chelsea Cain
FNORDinc
, January 24, 2010
Confessions was a short but pleasant read. it is the memoirs of nancy drew, as an old woman, bitter.. feel free to judge this book by it’s cover. posed and partly clothed, nancy is innocent yet hot. she pauses after a seemingly auto-erotic moment. this fairly sums up the book, though nancy would never admit to having feelings like this. in fact, there are times that she appears to be lacking the words to even describe such a situation. she is naive beyond belief, and a bit of a skank. anyone who was a fan of the nancy drew or hardy boys books should read this. nancy lives in a world where everything she does is tied into a mystery. her belief in conspiracy is so strong that she makes stuff up as she goes and finds issues where none exist. oh yeah, and there are nazis.. - FNORDinc.com
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Mathematicians In Love
by
Rudy Rucker
FNORDinc
, January 05, 2010
A decade ago, i knew a man who went by the moniker “The Professor” (Fess). we all called him that because he was our leather clad, pc geek, rivet head savant. Dustin, as his parents called him, was a real gem of a human. fond memories of fess prior to his demise include drunken ramblings regarding “abstract mathematics”. the professor did not hold the same view on abstraction as core mathematicians. core math removes the ties to physical objects thus breaking out into pure theory and crossing standard mathematical boundaries. Fess firmly believed that standard abstraction was wrong and the ties to physicality are ultimately more important. in the professors perspective: couch + toilet paper (wristwatch/french fries) = lower half of a broken gi joe. likewise (pressed flower/4th of july fireworks) * (glow worms/butter knife) / baton rouge area code = mink coat Mathematicians in Love was like having the professor back. he would have truly enjoyed this book Characters Paul and Bela are mathematicians, they have minimal in common. they became friends while in school, as room mates. they are very competitive and nervous about intellectual theft. both are close to being done with their final thesis work, and both are missing key concepts to complete. they also have alma. alma approaches bela with the intent of interviewing him for a local rag e-paper. he falls for her almost instantly. when bela brings her home, so does paul. 3, 2, 1… FIGHT strangely enough, though Alma is the key to the whole story, she is not the story in itself. This would actually be washer drop, the Gobrane paracomputer, and the morphic classification theorem. Washer drop is Bela’s band, the band that did not exist before he destroys the washing machine while filming a live feed to rabid non-fans (intentionally vague). washer drops creation and the mayhem involved is fundamental to the plot. bela is a rockstar in a geeks body. but in this dimension (similar to our Berkley) math geeks are pretty much rockstars anyway. The Gobrane paracomputer is a nu-technology available in this incarnation of earth. it is a simple binary computer system that is functionally more like a crystal ball and the i-ching smashed together with a hammer and them spit shined. they do not resemble a standard windows pc in our world, though some functions could be the same. its form can be a simple box or a shining membrane. it is essentially a codec, with proper usage, it can decode life itself. and the morphic classification theorem. this is the thesis that paul and bela are working on for school. this is what causes all the trouble as a gobrane cant exist with out it. with out the theorem, there would be no washer drop or rabid now-fanbase. as stated in the book - “five basic morphons. Fish, dish, rake, birthday cake, teapot. They’re like the cross-cap and the torus in algebraic topology [...:] [...:] Each morphon had a characteristic activity– the fish swam; the dish shattered; the teapot poured; the rake dragged,; and the birthday cake blazed with candles. implicit in these behaviors were five fundamental processes: rhythm, fracture, flow, aggregation, transformation. [...:] [...:] The dish morphon goes under the birthday cake, with the teapot sitting on the cake inside the circle of candles. The fish is inside the teapot peeking out. [...:]“ ultimately, when all the pieces are together, you can program anything you would like, toss in a fractal, or perhaps some car keys and you get the root of everything. wish you could have read this one Fess. would be a good read with wumpscut playing in the background. - FNORDinc.com
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Patient Zero
by
Jonathan Maberry
FNORDinc
, January 05, 2010
its been about a month since i read this book. since i finished, i have stew over it and passed it on to at least two other people. i guess this means i need to write about it too, as i obviously enjoyed it. ZOMBIES, but not your typical variety. There was no alien flyby or radiation leak that caused these undead to rise and eat flesh. At no point did hell fill up and the souls of the damned rise to retake the earth. Patient Zero is pure science. science and violent horrific terrorism bent on destroying americans and all who stand beside them. terrorists have begun activating cells testing out a new bio weapon that kills and reanimates. Joe Ledger is brought into the mix to head up a team of black-ops that will attempt to save us all. Book 1 in Jonathan Maberry’s new series is f'in awesome. You dont pick it up expecting Hemingway, there is no desire to be reminded of The Great Gatsby or the Hours. you know what you are getting into from the first page. this is not to say that he is not a fine writer. just that he is alone the same lines as Duane Swierczynski (Author of The Blond and Severance Package) or Warren Ellis (author of Crooked Little Vein). The book is fast paced and brutal. From the book’s summary: When you have to kill the same terrorist twice in one week there’s either something wrong with your world or something wrong with your skills… and there’s nothing wrong with Joe Ledger’s skills. Joe Ledger, the heartbeat of the book, is a total bad-*ss and i hope to see him in a great number of future books. - FNORDinc.com
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Interstellar Pig 01
by
William Sleator
FNORDinc
, January 05, 2010
When i was a kid, i spent a lot of time at the library. every week or so, we would head to the local branch and walk out with armloads and tote bags full of books. i remember my parents forced us impose a personal book limit on what we could check out. this maximum limit was a real pain in the ass, but it did force us to expand our horizons and read outside the comfort bubble we were in. this expansion was the only way we could ensure that we would not run out of stuff to read. i remember that one week, i had already reached my maximum. my dad walked over and handed me a copy of William Sleator’s Interstellar Pig. it pushed me over my limit for the week but no one gave me any crap over it. my dad had never read the book before, but he had a good feel for the bizarre nature of his kid and it was a good call. i ahve never forgotten the name of this book, nor it’s plotline. at one point, i was even found sleep walking and describing of of the characters as having been in the house. after reading interstellar pig, i became a bit obsessed with sleator. another book of his, house of stairs (about mind control experiments on children), also has stayed with me and influenced many of my thought processes over the years. Interstellar Pig, covers a 3-4 day period in the life of Barney. Barney is an average kid who is dragged to the beach with his parents for vacation. he has ultra sensitive skin and has to stay out of the sun for the most part. his plans for the vacation can be summarized as books book books and waiting for the day they are leaving. things get a bit more interesting when the neighbors in the next rental house over arrive. they are goodlooking, very tan, and excitable. they are also obsessed with the house barney is staying in, attempting to gain access in a variety of ways. this is not their only obsession. they also are enamored with a board game, interstellar pig. the board game covers a short span of time in which races from different planets must track down and keep a galactic artifact. whichever has it when time runs out wins. all others die, meanwhile, the planets they come from are simultaneously blown up. after playing the game and learning that the bedroom he sleeps in was once the cell of a lunatic keelhauled murdering sailor, barney becomes obsessed himself. his only goal is to find out the truth about his neighbors and beat them at whatever ploy they are keeping under wraps. ~~ i had to pick up a copy of this book recently. whilst perusing powells books i found that THERE IS A SEQUEL. before i can buy the sequel, i needed to reread the original in order to determine if i would even still enjoy it. you never can tell with kids books right? the sequel is titled “Parasite Pig” and is supposed to pick up with Barney only a couple years after book 1. Interstellar Pig was still an excellent book. it was fairly shallow and the plot line is spoon fed to the reader, but for a kids book, it was enjoyable and hits the mark. - FNORDinc.com
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Swans and Pistols
by
Leon Bing
FNORDinc
, January 05, 2010
Swans and Pistols: Modeling, Motherhood, and making it in the Me Generation……… this was NOT my kind of book. i have read a number of Autobiographies and i can typically find something enjoyable in each of them. Bing’s book was difficult at best, like slogging through a swimming pool of oatmeal at worst. she led an interesting life for sure. the book takes you through key moments in her life from being a kid to having a kid, doing drugs to dating a coke dealer, modeling to writing. ultimately, i dont want to disrespect someones life story, so i will minimize the nitpicking. instead, i will state that i do not feel she is a good story teller. she approached her life story with a lack of zeal. her stories seemed cold. i didnt feel like i was reading a book about her as much as a textbook that tried to tell jokes. the sections that were interesting, such as her acquaintance with gangster Mickey Cohen. sadly, these interesting sections were kept short shallow. Bing spends more time writing about catwalk moves and the designs of various clothing patterns she modeled for Rudy Gernreich. The book comes with a center section of photos, half of which were taken by Dennis Hopper. Where was Hopper in the book? he was mentioned 3 times at most as part of an outer perimeter of people she knew. I would enjoy reading about Leon’s life, but i think that she needs to learn when to write clinically (as with her interview and research pieces) and when to let some emotion out. - FNORDinc.com
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