11/23/13

11/23/13

prelude

many little lords and ladies again. apple pie. and shit if it ain't pdex.
amy: the last werewolf. glen duncan.
1. verdict: +
2. review:
  
  "how much sex is there?" "a little." amy's favorite thing about this
  book was the author cover. it's about the last werewolf. there's a
  couple of factions, one of which is vampires. (jen looks at the author
  photo: "it's an autobiography!" ed.: i'm sure that's what he'd love
  you to think.) anyway something about some virus that is killing lady
  werewolves even though lycanthropy is already basically like a virus
  or whatever. werewolves don't really have doctors or scientists or
  whatever (surprisingly), so it's a problem. dude wouldn't really have
  minded just being killed, but he rallied. anyway, there's another one
  of these books, but amy won't be reading it.
chris: american elsewhere. robert jackson bennett.
1. verdict: meh.
2. review:
  
  seems like the dude has written mostly horror before, but this is more
  sf. woman inherits a house in new mexico from her estranged
  father. the house is in a town that doesn't really exist or whatever,
  so she finds it somehow or whatever, and it turns out it's attached to
  some decommissioned national lab. everyone's scared, nobody goes into
  the woods, namsayn? yeah. it's like that. it turns out many of the
  residents of the town are... "aliens?" "clones?" "fembots?" FROM
  ANOTHER DIMENSION. hijinks ensue. the first two-thirds are really
  good, but once it becomes clear what these beings are, it sort of
  falls apart. adam says it sounds a lot like one of the books in the
  dark tower.
chad: the wild road. gabriel king.
1. verdict: +
2. review:
  
  recommended to all lovers of animal fantasy. "which is all of us a
  little bit, probably." so very true! you know, it's about cats. an
  escapee and some strays. the main cat is tasked with a supernatural
  cat-god to do something so the king and queen of cats can give birth
  to the golden cat. there is tension involving an evil alchemist who
  turns out to be isaac newton, who is so very obviously gargamel. the
  writing is very good. "it's like if you wanted to write a story about
  schizophrenic hobos and their imagined life, but instead you wrote it
  about cats."
chad: the night circus. erin morgenstern.
1. verdict: +
2. review:
  
  a light romantic mystery circus. it's black and white. it's sort of a
  retro art-deco-y fantasy mystery thing. it starts out pretty good,
  it's sort of mysteriousy. it's pretty good. there's the girl in the
  circus and the guy who's running the circus from the outside and then
  they fall in love and her dad is a magicion and he's an orphan and you
  know everyone loves the circus. bunch of victorian steampunk
  ravers. "you know, it's cool, it's cute." they try to do too much
  explaining in the end, but it's fine. there's no good dialogue at all,
  the dialogue is a total low point.
pdex: echo. terry moore.
1. verdict: +
2. review:
  
  a woman who has an encounter with an advanced piece of technology
  which was being developed by another woman who through plot devices
  was blown up. a liquid metal supersuit is involved. anyway an
  unwilling superhero is born, maybe? something. anyway the dead woman,
  the suit has her brainwaves in it. spies and assassins. for science
  slash america, gotta save the world. lady scientists and supersuits,
  it's a fun romp.
chris: the divinity student. michael cisco.
1. verdict: +
2. review:
  
  from the 80s or 90s i think. i think chad would really enjoy it. shit,
  copyright 1999. not 80s at all, is it? this is a reissue with a sweet
  cover. "it feels like el topo as a book. it's that level of
  weirdness." the main character has no name and it starts with him
  dying. he's struck by lightning on a mountaintop, but very luckily is
  later stuffed full of paper and revived. he has to get a job as a word
  finder in san beneficio, it's his mission. more things happen. there's
  a lot of action with formaldehyde. he befriends a butcher. it's very
  short and very dense. "it's not always exactly what i want to read."
  but he'd read other stuff by him.
adam: saga, vols. 1 and 2. brian k vaughan and fiona staples.
1. verdict: ++
2. review:
  
  the last thing was swamp thing, wanted to kinda get into something
  graphic but just couldn't do it. this is the thing he was
  wanting. really really great. super solid. almost tempted to subscribe
  to the monthly.
chad: a clash of kings. george r r martin.
1. verdict: meh.
2. review:
  
  "i prefer the tv show."
that's all, folks!