Review: Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff (2007) [Not Free]
Posted on February 19th, 2008
Beware: this novel is insanely enthralling. You will likely finish it the same day you crack it, so do not wait past early evening to begin reading it if you have to work in the morning.
This is the story of Jane Charlotte, who is being interviewed by a psychiatrist in the Las Vegas lockup after being charged with murder. Charlotte doesn’t dispute that she killed anyone, she just knows the psychiatrist interviewing her will not believe her story: that she is a hitperson for a super-secret organization that knocks off Irredeemable Persons, the "Bad Monkeys" of the title. In her eyes, she works for the good guys.
Charlotte tells how she grew up and how she came to do what she does. Meanwhile, the interviewer tries to pick holes in her story to force her to confront reality. The only problem is, you’re not sure which one is better grounded in reality. Her story not only has more twists and turns than a Grand Prix track, but they come upon you even more suddenly. This novel throws the reader left, right, up, down, and backwards trying to figure out if Charlotte is good, bad, sane, insane, or just a liar.
I don’t even know how to label this: a science fiction thriller, I guess, but you could also go with conspiracy theory, psychological study, interrogation/crime thriller, suspense novel, you name it. It really does cross genres, while still throwing in some satire and humor.
I very highly recommend this book. While it’s not free, you can read the first chapter here. Or you can just go ahead and order it now, because you will not be disappointed:
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Review
Posted on July 22nd, 2007
This is a tough review to write. Because most have not yet read the last installment, I will try to avoid any major spoilers. Another reason this review is difficult is because there are probably not too many people on the fence trying to decide whether they will read this or not. If you’ve gotten this far into the series, chances are you plan to read it to see what happens regardless of any reviews.
Personally, I was on the fence. Watching that sweet Potter kid turn into Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under Fantasy, Rowling, J. K. | No Comments »
Enigma and Cryptonomicon
Posted on July 20th, 2007
In one of those interesting quirks, just a couple days after I had finished reading Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, someone listed a genuine German Enigma cypher machine from WWII on eBay. So if you have a spare $50,000 around, you can snag it with “Buy it now.” Not that I would buy one even if I were filthy rich, but it is pretty interesting to see what one looks like after reading so much about them in Cryptonomicon:
Pretty cool. Now on to Cryptonomicon. I am a latecomer to Neal Stephenson, but he quickly became one of my favorite authors after reading Snow Crash
Cryptonomicon was at first a challenging read for me. There is a pretty large cast of characters, or at least it felt like that at first because they were all set in different times. I generally dislike stories that jump around in different times, so much so that I’ve been known to repeatedly pick up and eventually throw back down Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. Plus Stephenson hits you with some math, which at first I made the effort to follow, but eventually I just surrendered and let my eyes get all glossy as I read through those bits. So to be honest, I was probably almost a third of the way through this large book (the paperback version below clocks in at 1168 pages) before I was hooked.
But once it got me it wouldn’t let go! The plot lines were interesting and creative, but the satire occasionally goes over the top. In broad strokes, the plot covers the WWII exploits of those involved in codebreaking along with the attempts of their modern day descendants to build a data haven on a small sovereign island nation. Historical figures pop in and out or are mentioned in passing (the scene with young Ronald Reagan is hysterical). I cannot do justice to the plot here, though, because so much more is included. Beyond the broad sketches above are battle scenes, bar fights, submarine chases, hacking, FBI raids, treasure seeking, POW camps, lawsuits, family dysfunctions, jungle survival, and everything else under the sun. For me that was all beside the point, though.
For me the real payoff was just in the way this guy writes. Stephenson’s prose is simply incredible and I found myself re-reading passages just to marvel in his use of language. I wish I had highlighted some of my favorite passages to share, but I didn’t and going back and digging up specific passages in this monster would be next to impossible.
If you like cyberpunk, war tales, and just damn good writing, you owe it to yourself to pick this up.
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Neal Asher’s Review of Death’s Head
Posted on June 29th, 2007
NON-FREE
Why are we pushing someone else’s review of a book? Two reasons: 1) we haven’t read it, and 2) the review is pretty amusing. Amazon.com comments place the novel as an over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek space opera with a sense of humor, although some disagree whether the humor is sly or blatant. All agree that it has shoot-em-up in spades. Maybe that will put the following quote from Asher’s review in context:
David Gunn’s Death’s Head started off loaded with violent action and horror and continued in that vein, so I was hooked from about page two, then hooked landed gutted and fried in batter as soon as the talking gun put in an appearance. Yeah! Fuck the literarty-farty crap in the SFF world that has the self-proclaimed arbiters of taste creaming their panties. Take those oh-so-worthy tomes and shove ‘em where the sun don’t shine. This took me right back to the fun I had reading E. C. Tubb’s Dumarest saga, Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter on Mars or the old Robert E Howard Conan books!
Here’s the rest of the review wherein Asher rails against more of the high falutin’ types in the SFF world.
The review is amusing in it’s counter-PC ranting, but there’s no doubt that there are issues in science fiction and fantasy with credible representations of women and minorities. Further, the SFF community certainly doesn’t need to discourage good writing, and some of the best writing has been chock full of insightful political or social commentary (including some of the best shooters). After all, no matter the setting, SFF usually comes back to the people involved and their interactions with others.
On the other hand, sometimes all a reader wants is a story where somebody’s shooting a bunch of shit up. And that’s okay, which I think may be the point Asher is making.
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Filed under Gunn, David, Non-free, Review, Space Opera | No Comments »