4/24/2009

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. interlude

    discussion about short stores. there is some feeling that we should
    read more short stories. we'll see what happens.

  4. 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?)

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. 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.)

  11. 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.

  12. 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.

  13. that's all, folks.