4/24/2009

4/24/2009

josh: j f lewis. revamped.
1. verdict: meh
2. review:
  
  sequel to staked, which he read last year. staked was awesome,
  revamped was... "ok". his car becomes a vampire, his power is tied to
  his car, weird stuff happens. his car is called "fang the stang."
  he'll probably still read the third one. he'd highly recommend staked,
  but this one was just not as good.
josh: william schafer (ed). subterranean: tales of dark fantasy
1. verdict: +
2. review:
  
  bought this because it had a patrick rothfuss story. it's good. there
  are a lot of good stories. what makes it dark fantasy? he's not
  sure. but he liked a lot of stories and he wants to read more stuff by
  some of these authors. william browning spencer especially is
  recommended, and seconded by chad.
interlude

discussion about short stores. there is some feeling that we should
read more short stories. we'll see what happens.
josh: matthew hughes. majestrum: a tale of hanghis hapthorn.
1. verdict: -
2. review:
  
  sherlock holmes meets jack vance. this one is "steampunk-ish, i
  guess?" the guy's some kind of investigator. there's some tension
  between logic/rationality and intuition/magic, something like the age
  of reason is ending, making way for something else. anyway, didn't
  especially like this book. slow pacing, not especially forward-moving
  narrative, too much interior monologue about "what's
  happening". anyway, not so great. also, the consensus now is: this is
  not steampunk after all. (ed: who cares?)
josh: cormac mccarthy. the road.
1. verdict: +
2. review:
  
  josh flaunts the club charter!! will there be repercussions?! we'll
  see!! anyway, bought this at the airport. didn't know it was against
  the rules, bought it anyway. read 20 pages, then saw that it was
  against the rules and stopped reading it! good man! anyway, he
  eventually returned to it. he thought it was too long, somewhat
  depressing (only somewhat) at the end. liked the first half, felt like
  he was done at halfway through. he just wanted them to die. the father
  and son hanging out was good, the "scary parts" with the bad guys
  weren't all that good. adam and marko would differ greatly. the both
  think it's excellent. some discussion ensues.
josh : jaye wells. red-headed stepchild .
1. verdict: -
2. review:
  
  chick has vampire highlights. many new vampire details. anyway she
  evidently has various unusual traits among vampires, apparently
  because of her mage blood? she's a badass assassin. no sex, basically
  at all. very disappointing. she has guns with applewood bullets, blah
  blah. anyway i'm eating right now, so i'm done writing about this. and
  josh is done with this series and writer.
rothfuss update!

josh's pre-order of book two has been canceled! the book is no longer
listed on amazon! anyway according to his blog, he's writing again and
he's happy and feeling good.
adam (and nikko): brandon sanderson. mistborn and the well of ascension.
1. verdict: ++
2. review:
  
  had read elantris and didn't care for it. mistborn was pretty
  awesome. for what it was, it's pretty awesome. sraight up fantasy
  novels, no bullshit. the best thing about this is the magic
  mechanics. anyway it's fantasy and it's totally formulaic and he liked
  it.
chris: scott lynch. red seas under red skies.
1. verdict: ++
2. review:
  
  "no change, really," he really likes these books. it's really
  different. it's very nautical, which obviously works for chris. chris
  loves the high seas! anyway it's silly, it's fun, you get the feeling
  it's gonna go and go (for five more books, at least, because he's
  under contract). chad, as we heard last time, agrees with chris. chris
  and chad are both wary of setting expectations, but they both like
  these books and recommend them.
adam: scott lynch. the lies of locke lamorra.
1. verdict: +
2. review:
  
  it was good. the pacing was impeccable, but the writing, even when it
  was absorbing, was still distracting and grating. the writing was too
  "stylistic" or self-conscious. recommended, but he doesn't feel much
  desire to read any more. (chris is in for all seven books, no
  question.)
jen: brian francis slattery. liberation: being the adventures of the slick six after the collapse of the united states of america.
1. verdict: +
2. review:
  
  basically it's near future stuff, there's nothing supernatural or
  alien or whatever. so it's sf, but in a "the road" sense rather than a
  foundation sense. anyway, it's about what happens after the us economy
  collapses and the dollar massively devalues. etc etc. slavery returns,
  shit goes to hell, etc. you meet this dude, sort of logen-like,
  lovable roughneck or whatever. back in the day he had a crew that did
  crimes, heists, whatever. she put down the book for awhile and then
  returned to it and blew through it quickly. she liked it, didn't seem
  to love it exactly. recommended.
chad: lincoln child. deep storm.
1. verdict: -
2. review:
  
  techno-thriller, sent to chad by his dad. this book was pretty
  lame. it's totally just like sphere. i guess lincoln child and another
  dude (douglas preston (esquire?!)) write a ton of books like
  this. anyway it wasn't very good and you should not bother to buy this
  or any of their other books at the airport, which is evidently where
  they're sold.
that's all, folks.