12/12/14
- prelude:
Lots of discussion about whether the scribe of tonights event is
worthy of taking on the duties.
- Nikko: Staked. J.F. Lewis.
- verdict: ++
- review:
Lots of skepticism going in. No idea why as the covers are about as
awesome as covers get. Set in Gary, IN if Gary, IN had vampires and
shit. "The New Orleans of the north Lord Hellige says." The book is
like pornography. Could not turn away. Lots of sisters some dead, some
alive that like the same dude. The vampire and car dies at the end of
the book.
- Nikko: Revamped. J. F. Lewis.
- verdict: ++
- review:
The vampire is a ghost at the beginning but needs a horacrux which
turns out to be Fang the Stang. New twist on this one is high society
vampires instead of Gary, IN vampires. Lots of vampire politics. Very
similar to True Blood which explains why Nikko is so into it. Would
like to read the next one but doesn't want to actually spend money on
it. At the end of the day these books sound like entire novels kinda
like when Kvothe visited Felorian and the Fairies in "A Wise Man's
Fear."
- Nikko: The Magicians. Lev Grossman.
- verdict: +++
- review:
"Literary fantasy" LOL. Nikko clearly is enjoying this one and the
improvement in writing when compared to the other books she is
reporting on. Only halfway through so cutting this off now and saving
a Rothfuss reference for later.
- Nikko/Adam: The Rithmatist. Brandon Sanderson.
- verdict: nikko: ++++, adam: ++
- review:
Very good. Good magic theory dealing with 2D chalk spells in a 3D
world. YA and set in a magic school. Not so much coming of age but
more of a mystery. Lots of dismissive talk about the quality of
illustrations and Lord Hellige officially hates Sanderson
period. Nikko liked it more than Mistborn, the scribe disagrees and
likes Mistborn more. Your humble scribe had problems with the
bluntness and obviousness of the plot but overall liked it. Kinda like
the part of Name of the Wind when Kvothe went to the University and
had to save the day in the chemistry lab but without any lutes.
- Chris: Words of Radiance. Brandon Sanderson.
- verdict: ++++1/2
- review:
Book II of the Stormlight series. Loved it. His writing has improved
greatly when compared to the first Mistborn book which is currently
being read. Sanderson is really good at doling out little bits of
exposition and keeping the plot going. Lots of magic system
information but very much doled out from a specific POV.
- Chris: Acceptance. Jeff Vandermeer.
- verdict: +
- review:
Read this immediately after reading Stormlight. So literary and
difficult to read after Sanderson but got into it at the end. The
Trilogy is worth finishing but the first is the best but when your
scribe hears descriptions like "self consciously literary" he becomes
skeptical. There is some plot but not a whole lot. (At this point Jen
and Nikko start shopping during the middle of the Southern Reach
discussion which derails everything. They leave to discuss clogs and
we are now back on track.) Cool in that he didn't try to overly tie
everything up, but he still did anyways. Balanced the ending
well. Matt and Chris clearly like these books but for whatever reason
it doesn't appeal to your faithful scribe. But they just described it
as "Kinda like a high-concept Zork" so maybe I'm interested again?
While he was clearly a DnD dude, it sounds very un-Rothfussy to my
ears.
- Chad: The Fourth Domain. M. John Harrison.
- verdict: +++++
- review:
A "Kindle short." A fantasy story set in London about an unemployed
blogger with a small but loyal following for his self-published
book. So basically a Neil Gaiman joint featuring Matt Laffey as the
protagonist. Seances with middle aged dudes watching a lady go
catatonic and hike up her skirt.There are body parts that get dumped
in a river and then it ends and everybody lives happily ever
after. Chad liked this quite a bit unsurprisingly.
- Chad: Vladimir Sorokin. Ice, Bro, 23,000 (The Ice Trilogy).
- verdict: ++++1/2
- review:
Lots of different character arcs some hit with the Ice Hammer, some
not. Whenever I hear "get hammered" I giggle inside. Really good at
separating voices of characters within the novel. Dehumanized cult
voices talking about meat machines contrasted to young kids in Russia
works great. The writing gets more conceptual as the trilogy goes
on. And weirder shit starts happening. Chad loved it. Recommended for
people that love adventurous reading, cults, or slavery. This feels
like it is literaryish like the Southern Reach trilogy but sounds more
appealing.
- Adam: The Slow Regard of Silent Things. Patrick Rothfuss.
- verdict: +
- review:
The Rothfuss lovefest begins. TORN.. He liked it. Josh already cried
over this we hear. It's a week in the life of a fucked up
side-character. There were no answers. Just an elucidation of a very
manic broken pixie dream girl. We spend some time researching
MPDGs. "That bubbly, shallow cinematic creature that exists solely in
the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach
broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite
mysteries and adventures." She's pretty OCD.. no spoilers here to be
sure. Sounds like Rothfuss spent a lot of pages dehumanizing her as
much as he could. Definitely get the feeling that Patty has made soap
a couple times. I get it.. making soap is cool, you've done it a
couple of times. Cool. If it was a short story instead of a novella
he might've liked it better.
- Adam: Ex Machina (Volumes 1-2). Brian Vaughan.
- verdict: eh
- review:
Earlier graphic novel from Brian Vaughan of Saga fame. Superhero mayor
of NYC. Fuck is wrong with this guy. He thinks it's good. Not like
Saga though. He's talking about bubbles and a lot of text or
something. I thought comic books were against the rule in this
club. Jesus Christ we're talking about Sanderson again here.. He says
if he had the third one he would read it. Take that as you
will. Eggers says "Stormlight" again. Whatever.
- coda:
Discussion on how to better improve the Tumblore via random tagging on
posts. It is time to go rave at Smart Bar.
- that's all, folks.