Dear Alien Anthropologists

(Originally posted on August 19, 2010) With a title like The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons and Growing Up Strange, a Memoir, its not a surprise the book appealed to me on the library shelf. But so far, not so good. The author seems to think that he’d have been better off had he not been obsessed with D&D- D&D being the problem. I’m pretty certain he’d have been better off not being obsessed. Maybe the book will get funnier, or maybe I should know better than to try and read a book about D&D that has a quote from the Christian Science Monitor on the cover.

(Originally posted on July 13, 2010) I loved the Amber series, especially the Corwin books, but my favorite Zelazny novel is A Night in the Lonesome October. When the story is being told by Jack the Ripper’s dog, Snuff, what’s not to love? Jack and Snuff are players in a game. All the players begin to congregate into one neighborhood at the start of October. Snuff spends his time meeting other animal companions and trying to figure out who is in the game and who is not. But he doesn’t know what side anyone is on. And come the night of the event, anything can happen.

(Originally posted July 3, 2010) Let me be honest, this is not a good book. As someone who has taken numerous writing classes, there are flaws– many, many flaws. But try telling that to my twelve year old self. I loved The Silver Sun. I loved the characters. I loved the dichotomy of one being the end times king and one being the beginning times king. I had no idea leaving the mainland to go to an island with the elves was derivative. I still love the book because it helps me remember me at the time it was the best thing I’d ever read.

(Originally posted June 23, 2010) Gaiman is an incredibly talented writer, but he made a name for himself by writing about the dark side of a world disturbingly similar to ours. Read American Gods and you will know why. The characters are incredibly well drawn and three dimensional. You care about the main character and root for him throughout, but most writers can pull that off. What sets Gaiman apart is the richness of all the other characters- not just the secondary characters but everyone in the background. His real coupe, though, is to end the book with creepiness tempered by a touch of hope.   (Review after a second…

(Originally posted June 21, 2010) Back when I was an undergrad, I took a combo English/History class that focused on memoir and autobiography. One of the books we read as memoir was The Color of Water by James McBride. I love this book. I have loaned it out and given it as a gift multiple times. The sub-title is “A Black Man’s Tribute to his White Mother” and it is a lovely story of generations and finding a place in a world where you may not belong. The title comes from the answer the mother gives when the children ask her “What color is God?”

(Originally posted on June 10, 2010) Let me start by saying that I loved the movie Stardust. It is a new favorite and ranks close to Princess Bride for a romantic fantasy. DeNiro as Captain Shakespeare was inspired. That said, the book is even better. I understand the concessions that were made to make the book into a movie, but the depth and complications of the book make the story even more poignant. I love that Dunstan crossed the wall, came home and married his human sweetheart. It creates a nice dichotomy with Tristan’s decision to stay on the other side of the wall with Yvaine.

(Originally posted on June 8, 2010) Ranks of Bronze is not from one of Drake’s many different series. It draws on his expertise as one of the best military science fiction writers there is. It is the story of a group of Roman Legionnaires who are kidnapped by aliens to fight in intergalactic wars against other aliens who happen to be of the same technological level as the Romans. Once again, this is the first book I read by this author. It is the book that made me fall in love with David Drake. I rarely read pure science fiction, but if it’s Drake, I’m there.

(Originally posted on May 18, 2010) Snow Crash has a special place in my heart because it is one of the things that brought my husband and I together. He loaned me the book right around the time our friendship was starting to evolve in to something more. Not only does Snow Crash have one of the best openings ever (I LOVE the Deliverator), but the book successfully weaves mythology with a cyberpunk setting. At the same time the story doesn’t suffer for those who can’t bring themselves to read the chapters on Sumerian mythology. Instead, they deepen a dedicated reader’s understanding of the author’s world.

(Originally posted on May 13, 2010) I need someone else to read The Somnambulist. It’s full of lovely lyrical prose that begs to be read aloud. The writing style is so charming that I wanted to love the book. But I didn’t, or, by the end I didn’t. I cared about the characters; I found the story believable even in its purposely unbelievable bits. But the epilogue killed me. I got the feeling that that author was trying to give the reader a deeply satisfying ending, but instead he did a disservice to all that had come before. Have you read it? What did you think?

(Originally posted on May 4, 2010) Cowboy Feng’s is not the best Steven Brust book. It’s not the best non-Vlad Brust book. It may not even be (by the author’s own admission) a good book. But it was the first Brust book I ever read, and I still love it. The book does have some editing problems that can cause confusion, but they aren’t deal breakers. Cowboy Feng’s is a restaurant that is a time machine, only its time travel can only be triggered by a nuclear blast. The characters are real and easy to care about. You want them to survive, to outlive nuclear war.