(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.