The Long Hello

The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you're looking for some light SF reading, you could do much worse than the Long Earth. I find it interesting that people are accusing this of being stealth YA material, because it read to me much more like the classic SF stories I love which are big on ideas and light on complicated prose. I love the exploration here of the Long Earth, and western civilization's tendency to push ever westward into unexplored territory. I love the push and pull between Lobsang and Joshua as two oddballs off to explore the multiverse. I even love the attempt to work old mythology into the premise, which works surprisingly well.

This is a classic adventure story more along the lines of Journey to the Center of the Earth more than anything. The premise here is so big that the potential implications of the discovery on datum Earth and humanity as a whole are only barely touched before it works its way to the big cliff-hanger finale. I like the little touches of Pratchett's humor and I like how weird it gets to towards the end.

While other discerning readers may want to quibble about the ending, or the writing style or what-have-you, all I'll say is it consistently kept me turning pages because I had to see what they discovered next. That's good enough for me to recommend it.

-1 star for the cliffhanger ending, because I hate cliffhangers.

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To Live and Blank in L.A.

Mr. Blank
by Justin Robinson

It's the end of the world.  Again.  Maybe.  In any case, it's quite possibly the end for Mr. Blank, the nameless agent who moonlights as a henchman for every secret group in L.A..  Why?  Because they put ads in the paper and he has to pay the bills.  Which is problematic, when half of them are at war with the other over arcane artifacts, alien technology and ancient grudges.  Somewhere around the time a manchurian candidate tries to smash his brains in with a curious home-made meteor hammer on a routine delivery, it seems the jig is up.  From there, the chase is on as Mr. Blank follows the trail of the one conspiracy aimed at removing his head in a sea of routine and malevolent L.A. conspiracies already in progress.  Have the servants of Shub-internet, V.E.N.U.S., the Masons, the Templars, the Clone Wolves, the russian mafia and, of course, the Little Green Men finally caught on to his game?  Or are they patsies in some larger conspiracy that only he has the perspective to untangle?  Mr. Blank uses all his henching, fast-talking, cryptid-taming and dame-rescuing skills to keep his bosses at cross purposes, off balance and disinclined to kill him while he desperately sorts fact from fiction in order to put it all together.  Who is Mr. Blank?  Which conspiracy wants him dead?  The only thing we know for sure, is it isn't the vampires.  Because, as everyone should already know, vampires are bullshit.

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Mr. Blank was a whole lot of fun.  The conspiracies were clever, both in name and description, and the action relentless.  One of my favorite things about Justin Robinson's writing is his focus on keeping the plot moving, taking time only to snark when appropriate.  And considering this is a story about a sardonic, skeptical henchman on the run from the fantastic, the snark is fast and facetious.  And I loved the end, the who in the "who done it" which I won't spoil.

The dark, secret side of L.A. is considerably stranger, more dangerous and more incompetent than you might imagine.  Buy this book today and find the secrets that only a conspiracy insider would know.  But maybe use cash.  You never know who's watching and the truth can be a dangerous thing.

Dancer in the Dark

Dollmaker

By Justin Robinson

I wasn't sure what to make of this book initially.  All I had heard was it was about a guy who made some life-sized dolls he had a disturbing relationship with.  Having read it, I can affirm it is definitely a disturbing story about some life-size dolls.  In fact, I'm going to go out on a limb and tell you that if you don't have a relatively strong stomach for disturbing concepts and gore, you probably won't make it past the first 10 pages.  Although, if that's the case, I'm not sure why you would come waltzing into the horror aisle looking for some reading.  Your tolerance for disturbing must be THIS high to go on this ride.

It's not all gore though, of course.  The truly disturbing scenes (either in concept or graphic detail) really just exist to punctuate a truly great story about losing oneself to obsession, unrequited love, being different and the dangers of bringing golems to life with perverse Hebrew sex magic.  I'm not sure how to describe my favorite parts of the book without completely spoiling the plot, but I will say I found the dolls enjoyably imaginative, creepy and alien.  And I enjoyed the overall structure and character development of the story.  It starts with an introduction to the protagonist, which will give you the unsettling feeling that it is not likely to work out well for him.  And after the main characters and their flaws are introduced and set in motion you'll be mumbling, "well, that can't be good." as you keep flipping the pages forward, wondering which weak link will be the first to snap.  The finale, when it arrives, is strange, oddly beautiful and terrifying.  There's a peculiar kind of fascination in watching Stephen, the dollmaker, lose bits of himself to The Work out of an unquestioned compulsion to create, even as it spirals out of control all around him.  

Justin, much like Stephen, has carved a body of words for you, splattered it with blood and gore and brought it to life.  Do yourself a favor and dance with it for a while.

Undead on Arrival Delivers the Gory Goods

I posted this on my Goodreads account on August 15.  My friend Justin Robinson wrote this book and honestly it's amazing.  Cross-posting here.

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I picked up this book last night, started in on the second chapter, and didn't stop turning pages until I was finished, if that tells you anything about how much I liked this book.  It's a classic noir murder mystery set in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse, chronicling the tale of Glen Novak attempting to solve his own murder before being devoured by the zombie plague he has been purposely infected with.

I'm not normally into noir or murder mysteries (I enjoy them, but I've never focused on them particularly), but this one was great.  The writing wastes zero time.   It is, in the truest of sense of the phrase, all killer no filler.   The setting is a small coastal town in California that's managed to work out a semi-stable sense of order within it's walls, although one that turns out to be completely illusory.  The tensions in the town are well balanced between the ever-present worry of an undead swarm and the political tension between the town's power players: the wealthy elitists on the hill, the religious tribe in the town, and Novak's smaller contingent of free-thinking, free-loving, free-maiming pragmatists.  And the basic tension that kept me turning the pages, was wondering what was going to destroy Novak first:  his bite, the undead, the bloody political machinations of the town, or the way he kept making bruised, enraged enemies with his fists.

If you're not into bloody depictions of gore and horror, then this may not be the book for you.  Novak isn't really the kind of guy who fucks around, and once his death warrant is signed, less so.  But, if that kind of thing is up your alley, Jesus does this book deliver.  The zombie (or "geeks") mythology is well-designed, the action sequences are frequent and fun, and Glen's desire for bloody revenge eventually snowballs into a blood-soaked, body-stacked finale that left me wanting to smoke a cigarette.  Or to take up smoking 5 years previously so I could close the book, light up, take a long drag and slowly exhale while saying, "Oh yeah, that hit the spot."

If you like zombies, if you like murder mysteries, if you light tight, well-crafted stories that don't waste your time, pick this book up immediately.