Saturday, April 27, 2013

Review: Pandemonium


Pandemonium
Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



You can get away with your novel being as weird as you like as long as you make it readable.

Pandemonium is pretty weird. It features a number of bizarre characters including demons who make their possessed hosts act out elaborate superhero fantasies, a lake monster, Sinead O'Connor re-imagined as a priest of an obscure catholic sect,, a paramilitary force on the watch for (effectively) the aliens from They Live*, and a demon who has taken over the persona of Philip K. Dick.

And it all mostly works because everything is delivered in a straight-up , thoroughly readable fashion.

Honestly, I'm not sure I got as much out of this novel as I could have because I'm not as familiar as I could be with the collected works of Philip K. Dick and A.E. van Vogt. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it thoroughly.

* Actually Slans, but really the parallels are uncanny.




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Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Review: Savages


Savages
Savages by Don Winslow

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I read this book, because I thought the movie was interesting (but not, particularly good) and I wanted to see how it was handled in text.*

The good news is that in terms of just the reader (or watchers) experience the book just works better. The manic, free floating text of the book works much better than the weird after-thought voice-over narration.**

On the other hand, I actually liked the story of the movie better. Showing the relationship between O and Elena was a nice touch, and the twist at the end was very cute.***

In the end, I think that neither of them are very good. Savages the book was an awful lot of fun to read, though.

*As a result this is kind of a simultaneous review of the book and the movie. Sorry.
** And when said voiceover uses the text directly it's much more awkward without the context of the rapid fire, all knowing adhd voice of the book.
*** Although it would have been better if I'd read the book first. Oh well. And while we're on the subject, I even think the movie got the ending wrong. It should have ended with Chon and Ben going to Indonesia without O, because that was what was set up from Elena telling her that they loved each other more. Of course, that couldn't have been the ending to the book, because none of that happened in the book.



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Review: Gun Machine


Gun Machine
Gun Machine by Warren Ellis

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Going into gun machine I wondered how warren ellis was going to insert his trademark tidbits of all that is horrible in humanity into what, from the jacket copy appeared to be a straight up police procedural.

The answer is genius in its simplicity: The characters listen to a police scanner. There you have it, all the depravity you could ever hope for. The other answer is that this is so much more than a "straight up police procedural."

Because, really, what this book is is a sterling example of what warren ellis does best: he presents highly competent, severely damaged characters, performing exceptionally, and through them says something about the world we live in for better or for worse.




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