Review: 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.




View all my reviews

Review: 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.



View all my reviews

Review: 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.




View all my reviews

Review: The Gathering Storm

The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



OOOOOOOH! So THAT's what's been going on for the past 7000 pages.

That was my first impression upon finishing this book. And I gotta say, beyond the big reveal that has the nice touch of being simultaneously completely believable and TOTALLY unexpected, I really liked it quite a lot.

Brandon Sanderson was an inspired choice to finish the Wheel of Time. His prose style has a lot of similarities with Robert Jordan, which made the transition from the last book seem natural, and Sanderson has a nice way* of making things happen in a way that feels appropriate. True, I, like everyone else on the internet, found the too-modern sounding phrases annoying, but the vast majority of the time, I don't think I could tell whether a particular scene was written by either author.

The best part of the book by far is the Egwene story line. I mean, we've been waiting for this to happen for years, and it's pretty great. Egwene has always been one of my favorite characters and her dramatic moment defending the White Tower is both one of the best action sequences the series has had plus a nice showcase of her cleverness, determination, and leadership.**

Rand's story line is also very good. He get's a lot of "screen" time, which is nice since he's been absent for a while, his character undergoes some stark and significant changes which Sanderson handles deftly in my opinion. This is the first book in a while that felt like it had a complete story line for Rand, and it really worked well.*** Just as one example, the devastating scene with Tam is the most emotionally resonating thing in the series since...actually maybe ever.

Not that all story lines are winners.
Maybe it's just rose colored glasses, but I don't remember Gawyn being so annoying under Robert Jordan. And not even Brandon Sanderson can save Siuan's chapters.****

On the other hand, unlike the rest of the internet, I actually thought Mat's story line was pretty good. It was kind of silly, but then Mat has always been the joker so I think it's OK that his plot line is kind of silly.

Before I conclude, let's pause to reflect on how dreadful the cover art is of the print version, (and how awesome it is on the ebook.)

Seriously, it's a picture of Egwene blasting a To'raken out of a
destroyed wall in the White Tower. (source tor.com)

I mean, even if you insist on drawing for your cover Rand basically standing there doing nothing, you could have had the decency to choose the scene where Rand stands and does basically nothing ON TOP OF A FUCKING VOLCANO!!!!!

* Maybe even better than Robert Jordan who in many of these books got stuck in a "things and the same; things are the same; things are the same; SUDDENLY
DIFFERENT!; things are the same;..." rut.
** Plus, (minor spoiler), the absolutely awesome moment where everyone in the white tower realizes, "Wait, why are you even here?! You could have Traveled out of the white tower at any time..."
*** With some minor complaints. (Spoiler alert and technical wheel of time nerdery follows:) Like the part where, Rand is wondering how is possibly going to defeat The Dark One since using Saidin to seal his prison allowed him to taint it and then in the very next scene suddenly he can use the True Source! I kinda had it already figured out, thanks Brandon.
**** Blood and bloody ashes, woman, just bed the man already.




View all my reviews

Review: Heart-Shaped Box

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



So, when I checked this book out from the library, I found a 9 of Clubs serving as a bookmark about 90 pages in. As it turns out, this is a fabulous way to make a horror novel way scarier. I mean, it raises some creepy questions: if you use a playing card as a bookmark, you must mean to do so temporarily--so why was the book returned, apparently unfinished, with the card in place? What happened to the reader? And what of the deck of cards, now ruined due to the misfortune of the reader? Is there eve anyone left to play with the broken deck?*

But this is a digression from the actual book.** The actual book is pretty good. For one thing, playing card or no, it's actually pretty scary. One sleepless night in and the book was tossed on the the DO NOT READ AT BEDTIME pile, so that tells you something.

Joe Hill does a nice job of making the supernatural threat feel genuinely threatening, while also having weaknesses that the heroes could plausible exploit.

The best part of the book, though, is that the characterization is very good. Jude, in particular, is nicely balanced. He is interesting and appealing--one has no trouble rooting for him, but he is also flawed, and not completely good. He feels like a real person, even if his existence is kind of implausible.***

* When I returned the book to the library I put the 9 of clubs back where I found it, obviously.
** But keep in mind that my opinion is influenced by the creepy playing card bookmark.
*** Seriously, how many heavy metal frontmen are actually still millionaires into their fifties. I'm guessing not too many.



View all my reviews

Review: Libriomancer

Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The thing that makes Libriomancer really sing is the magic system. In this book, magicians (or Libriomancers) can reach into books and pull out items described therein. It's a really clever device and Jim C. Hines uses it extremely well, coming up with lots clever ways this magic can be used and creating a downright adorable urban fantasy world.*

To me, Jim C. Hines is best known for his blog and his writing about feminism and other diversity issues in Science Fiction and Fantasy.**
Not surprisingly, he does a decent job of diversifying the characters in this book***, and he even takes on women's sexuality and the problems with how that is portrayed in much of genre fiction. And honestly, I think he does a pretty decent job with these subjects.

So, yeah, cool magic system. Decent treatment of Issues of Importance to the Genre. Oh, and some fine action scenes and set pieces. I recommend this and am looking forward to the sequel.

* As a sample, the libriomancers are dismayed at the success of the Twilight books because it caused a new breed of sparkly vampires to come into existence.

** OK fine. To me, Jim C. Hines is best known for taking pictures of himself attempting the poses from trashy novel covers. For a middle aged guy, he's surprisingly flexible.

*** His principal female lead is a not-slender woman of color. But to be completely fair (and this is a mild spoiler) since her race is pleasure nymph, her color really doesn't affect her characterization. (I'm not saying that this is a bad thing or that skin color should have any bearing on behavior. On the other hand, this particular bit of diversity is purely cosmetic. Most of the characters (yes, except for the pleasure nymph) just kind of act like midwesterners. )



View all my reviews

Review: Foundation

Foundation by Isaac Asimov

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I was talking to a friend about science fiction recently; he was waxing poetic about the good old days when a science fiction novel was 150 pages jam packed with ideas, and with none of the bloat of recent offerings in the genre.*

I am quite certain that my friend adored The Foundation novels because honestly there's hardly a character or other description to be found.

I'm not really complaining; I liked Foundation quite a lot, but it's kind of like reading the bible. It's not really a traditional narrative so much as an opportunity for Asimov to lay out his opinions about religion, science, economics, and technology and he's going to construct and ubermensch to cleverly tell you all about it and suddenly everything is right with the world again.

It's fun, it really is. It has some delightfully pithy** quotes like "For it is the chief characteristic of the religion of science that it works..." (That whole chapter is great, actually.) But everything is so easy. Near the end, I was really hoping for some Lannisters to show up*** and get in the way with their selfish ambition and politicking.

Don't get me wrong, I would be happy to live in the world that Asimov describes, but I think maybe those fatter science fiction titles with their nuanced characters and intricate relationships are a bit more real.

* And no, he's not that much older than me, but yes, I am trying to make his rant sound like "*sigh* the kids these days with their well defined characters and a complicated interpersonal relationships."
** And dishearteningly relevant
*** Or, you know, a SINGLE FEMALE CHARACTER****!!!!!
**** Yes, I know the Commdor's wife makes an appearance near the end, but she really doesn't count. At some point, I got so sick of this particularly brutal imbalance that I just started imagining some of the characters as female.



View all my reviews